Whose visions for what land? Planning, power and property in a ‘new inner city’, Malmö 2004–2023

Abstract

Based in interviews as well as analysis of planning documents and media coverage, this article scrutinizes the role of property in urban morphology by tracing two decades of attempts to redevelop Norra Sorgenfri, a partly deindustrialized area almost at the topographic centre of Malmö, Sweden. In this city, urban redevelopment projects are centrally placed within a hegemonic story of Malmö as shedding its industrial past to become a sustainability forerunner. This was the story that Norra Sorgenfri was inserted into, with initial visions underlining its potential as an exciting extension of the inner city. But in targeting this 45 ha piece of land, Malmö also planned to transform a landscape subdivided into a complex pattern of mostly private properties alongside some scattered lots of municipally owned land. Scrutinizing property in Norra Sorgenfri and how particular property owners have reacted to redevelopment efforts, we centre on the significance of this lack of municipal land. Rather than merely asserting that property matters, we thus strive to trace how property matters, to planners striving to realize visions for a future Malmö, to different land-owners in the area, to the unhoused seeking refuge on post-industrial land, and to the authorities tasked with removing them.

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