A technocratic road to spatial justice? : The standard as planning knowledge and the making of postwar Sweden’s welfare landscapes
(2022) In Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography 104(3). p.285-305- Abstract
- This article analyses the politics of spatial justice in the knowledge-making practices of planning expertise in postwar Sweden. The paper traces the genealogy of ‘standards’ in modern Swedish planning, arguing that this was a fundamental form of planning knowledge which came to articulate a ‘universalist’ politics of justice. Standards were constructed as a way to measure and make complex calculations about a range of ‘needs’, making the overarching goal of planning to address the universal human needs measured by standards. This technocratic articulation of justice had limitations. Standards often proved difficult for grassroots groups to contest this expertise, but were a mode of knowledge well-suited to corporate interests looking to... (More)
- This article analyses the politics of spatial justice in the knowledge-making practices of planning expertise in postwar Sweden. The paper traces the genealogy of ‘standards’ in modern Swedish planning, arguing that this was a fundamental form of planning knowledge which came to articulate a ‘universalist’ politics of justice. Standards were constructed as a way to measure and make complex calculations about a range of ‘needs’, making the overarching goal of planning to address the universal human needs measured by standards. This technocratic articulation of justice had limitations. Standards often proved difficult for grassroots groups to contest this expertise, but were a mode of knowledge well-suited to corporate interests looking to influence planners to make space for their standardized consumer products. These tensions came to the fore in the planning of postwar Sweden's green outdoor spaces, where the standards for car users played a crucial role in shaping the landscape and planners hesitated to define national standards for areas such as parks and green space provision. Expert knowledge such as standards might, then, be a powerful tool to systematically shape space according to a particular articulation of justice, yet Sweden’s technocratic road to spatial justice also exemplifies the dangers of this approach.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/e6d57d50-2923-4dc3-92a7-6c8a7d0c90e3
- author
- Pries, Johan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-04-17
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- spatial planning, urban planning, Welfare State, spatial justice, Epistemology, stakeholders, spatial planning, spatial justice, expert knowledge, public space, welfare state, urban planning
- in
- Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography
- volume
- 104
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 285 - 305
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85129313585
- ISSN
- 1468-0467
- DOI
- 10.1080/04353684.2022.2044883
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- e6d57d50-2923-4dc3-92a7-6c8a7d0c90e3
- date added to LUP
- 2022-04-19 15:34:50
- date last changed
- 2023-02-06 11:37:20
@article{e6d57d50-2923-4dc3-92a7-6c8a7d0c90e3,
abstract = {{This article analyses the politics of spatial justice in the knowledge-making practices of planning expertise in postwar Sweden. The paper traces the genealogy of ‘standards’ in modern Swedish planning, arguing that this was a fundamental form of planning knowledge which came to articulate a ‘universalist’ politics of justice. Standards were constructed as a way to measure and make complex calculations about a range of ‘needs’, making the overarching goal of planning to address the universal human needs measured by standards. This technocratic articulation of justice had limitations. Standards often proved difficult for grassroots groups to contest this expertise, but were a mode of knowledge well-suited to corporate interests looking to influence planners to make space for their standardized consumer products. These tensions came to the fore in the planning of postwar Sweden's green outdoor spaces, where the standards for car users played a crucial role in shaping the landscape and planners hesitated to define national standards for areas such as parks and green space provision. Expert knowledge such as standards might, then, be a powerful tool to systematically shape space according to a particular articulation of justice, yet Sweden’s technocratic road to spatial justice also exemplifies the dangers of this approach.<br/>}},
author = {{Pries, Johan}},
issn = {{1468-0467}},
keywords = {{spatial planning; urban planning; Welfare State; spatial justice; Epistemology; stakeholders; spatial planning; spatial justice; expert knowledge; public space; welfare state; urban planning}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{285--305}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography}},
title = {{A technocratic road to spatial justice? : The standard as planning knowledge and the making of postwar Sweden’s welfare landscapes}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2022.2044883}},
doi = {{10.1080/04353684.2022.2044883}},
volume = {{104}},
year = {{2022}},
}