Landscapes out of order: studying the inner urban fringe beyond the rural – urban divide

Abstract

.Contemporary accounts of the inner urban fringe tend to focus on the transition from rural to urban land use and rural–urban conflicts, rather than highlighting the landscape at the city edge in its own right. It is argued in this paper that such dichotomous accounts neglect the complexity, values and conflicts of fringe landscapes. The study illustrates that an investigation into the relationship between attempts within spatial planning to design orderly places for urban expansion and the evolvement of places out of order offers a way to analyse landscape transformations at the fringe beyond the rural–urban divide. This approach will offer a multifaceted analysis of the landscape, which in turn will facilitate a more open discussion on land use and values within planning. A theoretical discussion on the interplay between ordered and disordered places is followed by a case study of the interactions between a disordered place and the ambitions within spatial planning to create order. The study has been conducted at the fringe of Burlöv (in southernmost Sweden). By way of conclusion, the findings of the case study are summarized, along with arguments that underline the need for further case studies of fringe landscapes.