New neighbourhoods with a sustainability profile are for many cities the solution to the need for new housing. These neighbourhoods are also an attempt to advance sustainable transformations of urban areas and energy systems. Sustainability profiled neighbourhoods are developed with the intention of breaking new ground for transformative planning, with high ambitions for addressing issues ranging from the climate crisis to housing segregation. However, the envisioned sustainability ambitions often prove difficult to realise. This is due to factors such as the institutional conditions of planners, lack of citizen participation, and the market-focused Swedish planning system. The development of new sustainability-profiled neighbourhoods also incites questions of who the new housing is for, and how interests of citizens are tended to. These neighbourhoods are, thus, relevant for inquiring the distribution of responsibilities, influence and choice of different actors in sustainable urban transformations.
The aim of my thesis is to deepen the understanding of different forms of politics in urban planning for sustainable urban transformation, in the arenas of municipal planning, local government and everyday life. My thesis taps into debates on how planning of sustainability-profiled neighbourhoods intervenes in, or even disrupts, governing regimes and market principles, in order to advance sustainable urban transformations. As I seek to understand the relationship between politics and urban planning, I especially pay attention to the possibilities, practices and privileges that these urban transformations bring, both in the planning processes, and in the everyday life of residents.
My empirical work is focused on two Swedish neighbourhoods: Brunnshög in Lund and Vallastaden in Linköping. I empirically investigate the everyday life of residents, as well as inquire relationships between municipal planners, housing developers and local politicians.
