Modernising the city through transport infrastructure

Aktivitet: Foredrag og mundtlige bidragKonferenceoplæg

Beskrivelse

This paper engages with the trend of many European medium-sized cities to ‘modernise’ the city by investing in transport infrastructures, such as light rail systems. Conceptualising light rail as a ‘travelling idea’, the paper explores how light rail as a policy concept is ‘translated’ into local contexts in Denmark, whilst at the same time contributing to transforming local urban development agendas. The paper explores how the ‘light rail idea’ has been inscribed into local spatial visions of the city, which alliances and networks have formed advocating these particular inscriptions, and how these spatial visions act as important persuasive devices in rationalising and legitimising the need for particular investments in transport infrastructure. The paper argues that contemporary ‘claimsmaking’ in spatial strategies is governed by desires to modernise and boost the city in the context of inter-urban competition. Whilst light rail projects have been associated with progressive planning agendas of sustainable mobility and urban liveability, the paper demonstrates how the translation of light rail into a Danish context has been governed by strong economic (real)rationalities of attracting investments and boosting real estate values, promoted by specific (powerful) actor-networks of the city. The paper calls for critical attention to how the persuasive storytelling of spatial strategies contribute to rationalise and legitimise particular (pre-defined) investments in the city, targeting particular sites in the city for the benefits of certain actors.
Periode15 aug. 201719 aug. 2017
BegivenhedstitelPlannord 2017 - Planning Redefined
BegivenhedstypeKonference
PlaceringHelsinki, FinlandVis på kort