Today (18.9.), the Finnish major daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, featured a large article, including interview, about my research in Narratives in Urban Planning.

The article (in Finnish) can be found here. Link to another, free version of the article can be found here: http://www.hs.fi/ihmiset/a1442459770179

(source: Sirpa Räihä / HS)

More on my research here.

Bottom line of the interview: narratives in planning do matter, and they are more than just branding, or an imaginative smokescreen. They guide not only images and experienced associate with a specific planning project – narrative structures also guide and inform the actual developments on the ground, in the built environment.

To quote a recent article by Noah Isserman and Ann Markusen: “Will planning finally pay attention to its own rhetoric?”

Isserman, Noah, & Markusen, Ann. (2013). “Shaping the Future through Narrative The Third Sector, Arts and Culture.” International Regional Science Review, 36(1), 115-136.