Polycentricity as spatial imaginary: the case of Helsinki City Plan

Kaisa Granqvist · Sauli Sarjamo · Raine Mäntysalo

67 citations0/0 files storedEuropean Planning Studies

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Urban Planning and Governance Local Governance and Planning Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis

Abstract

The paper analyses with a case study the use of a widely applied normative concept of polycentricity as spatial imaginary. The case study of Helsinki City Plan and the conflict over its city-boulevard scheme draws on qualitative content analysis of planning documents and expert interviews. It demonstrates the instrumental role of multiple interpretations of polycentricity in tension-ridden metropolitan and city-regional spatial planning. The conflict reveals how the conceptual ambiguity of polycentricity and the institutional vagueness of city-regional planning have together enabled advancing contradictory political aims under their guise. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the persuasive performativity and fluidity of polycentricity as a spatial imaginary in multi-scalar planning settings.

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References

1985Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism 1994Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism 2004Modern Social Imaginaries 1987The Imaginary Institution of Society 2012“Orientalism - Western Conceptions of the Orient”2002Splintering Urbanism 2008Theorizing Sociospatial Relations 2003Policy without polity? Policy analysis and the institutional void

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