‘Mentally, we’re rather country people’ – planssplaining the quest for urbanity in Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of urbanity in a specific context, namely Helsinki, Finland. In a European context, Finland urbanized late. This lies at the heart of the common interpretation that Finland lacks an urban culture and urban lifestyles. Today, however, with the new comprehensive Urban Plan, city planners in Helsinki emphasize a paradigm shift towards urbanity. This paper seeks to understand this changing emphasis in planning by exploring how planners frame and understand urbanity. The paper concludes that within the Nordic welfare context more emphasis is needed to rethink whom urbanity serves and how it resonates with the prevention of segregation that the city also aims at.

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