Collective but not connective or vice versa? The emergence of social infrastructure in neighbourhood planning and (re)development
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Keywords: urban planning and development, assembling, social infrastructure, neighbourhood
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Lina Berglund-Snodgrass, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Ebba Högström, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Mathilda Alfengård, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
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Abstract
In Western countries, there is a renewed policy interest in the development of the 15 or 20-minute city (cf. Chau et al., 2022), which stresses the importance of networked essential services, public transport and open spaces in the vicinity of the home in the development of socially cohesive and liveable cities. Similar to urban planning movements at the turn of the 20th century (cf. Ebenzer Howard), these policies situate the neighbourhood at the centre of the urban planning agenda. Social infrastructure (SI), here understood as “the networks of spaces, facilities, institutions, and groups that create affordances for social connection” (Latham & Layton, 2019), is a useful analytical concept for examining the bundle of spaces that create opportunity for social lives in neighbourhoods. SI can be seen as collective entities – in the sense that they concern everyone in a community, as well as connective – i.e., spaces are intrinsically interconnected and part of a distributed network. In the Swedish context, the planning and development of SI is subject to different sectoral policies and priorities, making the outcomes potentially fragmented and unevenly distributed. By drawing from theories of assemblage (Anderson et al, 2012; Jacobs, 2012), we aim to provide a framework for analysing the assembling of SI, i.e., the ways in which SI unfolds and emerges, in Swedish neighbourhood (re)development and planning. Our tentative assumption is that SI emerges as collective entities but with little connectivity, or as connective but with limited collectivity.
Collective but not connective or vice versa? The emergence of social infrastructure in neighbourhood planning and (re)development
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Paper Abstract