Urban Planning as a Strategy to Implement Social Sustainability Policy Goals? The Case of Temporary Housing for Immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden

Olga Stepanova,Magdalena Romanov

doi:10.3390/su13041720

Abstract

Planning is one of the envisioned strategies for reaching policy goals of urban social sustainability. However, the practical realization of this vision faces a number of challenges not least due to conflicts of interests and goals that arise in the planning process. There also seems to be a lack of understanding of the relationship between formal planning and social sustainability goals that are often normative and visionary. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, this paper investigates how urban social sustainability can be implemented in urban planning in the context of conflicts of interests and goals. In particular, we explore two questions: (i) whether and how planning procedures are interconnected with local policy goals for social sustainability; (ii) whether and how conflict affects the implementation of these goals through planning. The paper presents a qualitative case study of planning of temporary housing for immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden, where a conflict of interests developed in conjunction with the planning. The local social sustainability goals are operationalized through the specific sub-goals of accessible and more equal living conditions, distribution of and equal access to housing for all groups in the community, and reduced social and ethnic segregation and discrimination in regard to housing. We identify shortcomings in the integration of local urban social sustainability goals into planning procedures and find that conflicts of interests as well as conflicts of priorities within and between the policy goals complicate their integration into formal planning procedures. More attention needs to be given to improved operationalization of the questions of priority and conflict resolution, both in planning and in urban social sustainability policy, if planning is to be considered a viable strategy for implementation of social sustainability goals.

Highlights

Planning is one of the envisioned strategies for reaching policy goals of urban social sustainability [1]
The planning of temporary housing seems to some extent to be driven and motivated by the social sustainability goals formulated in the local policy program [49]
Even though the conflict was formally resolved for the majority of sites in favor of the local residents who opposed the construction of temporary housing, the social sustainability goals that catered to the interests of the prospective immigrants, originally present in the municipality’s rhetoric, were not achieved at the majority of sites, as the construction plans were canceled in all locations but one

Summary

Introduction

Planning is one of the envisioned strategies for reaching policy goals of urban social sustainability [1]. This seems especially true when it comes to the implementation of social sustainability goals in the context of planning, as there seems to be a lack of understanding of the relationship between planning and social sustainability goals that are often normative and visionary This is not least in terms of practical implementation of urban social sustainability goals and programs on a local community/city level [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. The concept of urban social sustainability is a tricky one It is quite diffuse, with multiple existing definitions, interpretations and characteristics in theory, policy and practice [19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. This aspiration is formulated in the policy document through the notions of equity, equality and social cohesion, with the latter being described as a feeling of belonging and shared identity [49] (p. 22)

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