Abstract
In striving for sustainability, urban policy and planning increasingly emphasize proximity ideals in order to go beyond established mobility- and speed-oriented accessibility strategies. Yet proximity is a fluid concept with many contextualized meanings, cutting across most sectors of urban planning. When proximity is realized in actual planning, clarity and communicability are therefore required. Here we explored how urban planners in different fields of expertise understand and apply the proximity concept. Furthermore, we tested a collaborative tool enabling transparent discussion and fostering a joint basis for further application. Qualitative data were collected via six semi-structured, focus-group workshops with 35 planners of various competencies working in three western Swedish municipalities. The results indicated that planning goals of proximity were negotiated according to three understandings: One derived from the established understanding of transportation and land-use integration, relying on planners’ expert views; a second emphasizing the local community understanding, highlighting the social context of neighborhoods; and a third comprising the personal environment understanding of the individual’s closest physical space at a detailed scale level. Collaborative exercises resulted in the development of a communicative tool for negotiating perceived understandings of proximity, as well as planning goals.
Highlights
Proximity is an influential concept and a buzzword in current urban planning
We concentrated on two interrelated research questions: 1. What understandings of proximity exist in current urban planning practice? We explored planners’ perceived meanings and challenges regarding how spatial nearness is recognized and managed in different sectors of urban planning and administration
In this article we examined urban planners’ experiences and understandings of proximity-oriented policies to foster urban sustainability
Summary
Proximity (or geographic nearness, propinquity) is an influential concept and a buzzword in current urban planning. The concept is central to discourse on how to reduce energy-consuming and polluting travel [1,2], foster local social ties, trust, and capital [3,4], and promote economic activity and innovation [5,6]. Ideas of nearness lie at the heart of visions to revitalize and make cities vibrant and attractive via greater densification, land-use mixing and filling, and the co-location of various activities and facilities. This proximity turn essentially represents an ongoing—or anticipated—shift in urban planning away from transport-dominated urban development [7,8]. It must be remembered that mobility-based approaches de facto still dominate transportation planning in most countries [16,17,18]
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