Urban social sustainability policies in the Nordic region

Abstract

This chapter discusses urban policy and its contribution to social sustainability in Nordic cities while simultaneously recognising two difficulties in this endeavour. It introduces the fuzzy concept of ‘social sustainability’: first as it is defined and used in research and policy, and in the specific Nordic policy context. The chapter presents different conceptualisations of social sustainability in the Nordics. Social sustainability in the urban context often covers a category of planning and development initiatives with labels such as ‘integration’, ‘neighbourhood development’ or ‘local democracy’, depending on the specific case. Contemporary social sustainability discourse in the Nordics must be understood through its relationship to the Nordic welfare state. Civil society has an important role, historically, in the implementation of the welfare state model. The power of social sustainability as a concept and policy complex is that it can unite several different objectives of contemporary urban development in the areas of planning process and governance, urban design and social initiatives.

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