Hilda Wenander

In Sweden, the planning of new neighbourhoods with sustainability ambitions are considered particularly important to meet sustainability targets as well as the need for housing. In neighbourhoods with a sustainability profile, a sustainable transformation of urban structure and sociotechnical systems, such as energy systems, are central in accelerating planning for sustainability. However, these neighbourhoods have not yet fully managed to live up to the high ambitions and visions for sustainability.

There are both issues related to missing goal fulfilment as well as lacking participation and democracy in the planning of sustainability profiled neighbourhoods and the respective energy systems. This leads to questions about the openness of the planning system in relation to citizen involvement of urban residents in sustainable urban development and transformations of energy systems.

In my research I seek to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between politics and planning in transformations for sustainability in urban areas in Sweden, and what this relationship means for urban residents. I am engaging with post-political theory to specifically look at how a potential depoliticisation, as well as repoliticisation, of urban planning for sustainability in Sweden takes place and what the consequences are for urban residents.

My empirical work is focused on the three neighbourhoods Brunnshög in Lund, Kvillebäcken in Gothenburg and Vallastaden in Linköping.