Abstract

What are the unintended outcomes produced by Finland’s planning system? This analysis of present-day planning in Finland addresses how positive aims and promised designs and plans are diluted by the planning process. It shows how changes in the legislation governing planning are empowering the role of institutional needs rather than fostering the desired outcomes. Three levels are analysed: the development and crucial boundary conditions of planning-related legislation; the structure of urban development within the region; and a case study of the 30-year development of an orbital light-rail project. In contrast to claims in the planning literature, the communicative turn has not led to clear positive changes in the process and implementation. This research shows how institutional stakeholders are empowered in current planning practice. The attempt to make planning more inclusive and participatory has paradoxically led into the empowerment of institutional players. The actual outcomes of the planning process are side-tracked, and the evaluation is outsourced in the process, which calls into question the legitimacy of planning actions. There is a need for planning-related studies to address the legislative boundaries and the concrete outputs of the planning process. Practice relevance The implementation of the participatory planning ideal in Finland’s planning administration is examined for practical outcomes. By analysing the changes in the legislative framework of planning in its historical context, it is shown that the resulting planning apparatus is no less mechanistic or more open than its earlier forms. Instead, its new comprehensiveness renders it more complicated. Based on the analysis of the development of the legislation, combined with case studies, it is clear that the progress and direction of systemic change has not fulfilled its stated aims. This study shows that the major focus in the development of the planning system is at the level of input legitimacy. Apparent changes are the increased number of stakeholders and unintended complexity of the planning process. All this has been fostered by the changes in the planning law. Regardless of goodwill, the planning outcome is even less predictable and more dominated by power relations than before.

Highlights

  • Buildings and CitiesCollective actions to achieve desired future goals are called planning

  • This paper considers the development of current planning theories, focusing on participation, communicative action and the empowerment of stakeholders (Innes 1995; Healey 1997), by concentrating on how changes in planning legislation have a key role in the implementation and success of planning

  • The so-called participatory turn in Finnish planning and the redefinition of the planning system with new stakeholder roles have not succeeded in achieving the initial objectives

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Collective actions to achieve desired future goals are called planning. This includes setting. This paper considers the development of current planning theories, focusing on participation, communicative action and the empowerment of stakeholders (Innes 1995; Healey 1997), by concentrating on how changes in planning legislation have a key role in the implementation and success of planning. Based on this analysis, this paper shows how power relations and established institutions will replace shared objectives with their own reasoning (see Flyvbjerg 1998). The declared aims for classical urbanism and the renaissance of the tram resulted in a bargaining game between individual stakeholder interests, where the dual initial aims of the planning law appear in a rather strange light

PLANNING THEORY IN THEORY AND IN PRACTICE
DATA AND ANALYSIS
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLANNING LEGISLATION IN FINLAND
CASE I
CASE II
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Findings
12 Section 2—Democracy and the rule of law states
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