Towards a Narrative Turn in Planning?

Posted on 10.2.2015 by Lieven Ameel

The latest edition of the Finnish Journal for Urban Studies, a theme issue on culture, design and planning, contains my first article on narrative planning, a short overview of the quite recent “narrative turn” in urban planning. The article was online for a moment, but has apparently been taken offline – the journal policy is to publish online after one year in paper. If you’re interested, contact me for a pdf.

reference:

Ameel, Lieven 2014: ”Kohti kerronnallista käännettä yhdyskuntasuunnittelussa.” (”Towards a Narrative Turn in Urban Planning.” Yhdyskuntasuunnittelu (”Finnish Journal for Urban Studies”) 2014 (2), 62-27.

Talk in Copenhagen 17 April 2015

Posted on 4.2.2015 by Lieven Ameel

Looking forward to give a talk at the University of Copenhagen, department of Nordic Research, 17 April 2015. The talk will be at the Institute of Name Research. Abstract below.

The talk is part of my research project on the narration of waterfront development in Helsinki.

See also the department’s website for more information: http://nfi.ku.dk/konferencer-og-seminarer/ameel17042015/

Abstract

In urban studies and urban planning, the last decades have witnessed something of a “narrative turn”: an increasing interest in the potential of narratives. In the case of Helsinki’s ongoing and large-scale urban projects, city narratives have been explicitly foregrounded by the City Planning Department.

The developments at Jätkäsaari and Kalasatama, two waterfront sites in central Helsinki, provide particularly complex case studies. The most conspicuous use of cultural narratives is the recent move of the Helsinki City to hire 8 artists to help the Planning Department to develop the city, the mediatized use of landscape art to help create spatial identities, and the commissioning of a literary novel in Jätkäsaari. It is possible to also identify several examples of less obvious, but at least as pervasive narratives, from official websites with historical information, to the fostering of narrative treads in social community websites, and the mini-narratives provided by street names and 3D-projections of how this neighborhood will look like in the future.

My presentation explores how methods from literary and narrative studies can bring new insights to the many – often very diverse – narratives that are used consciously and unconsciously in the development of new urban areas. How are such narratives structured? Are they used merely as vehicles to brand new neighborhoods, or as means to legitimize specific – perhaps controversial? – solutions? Or are they used to create more tangible experiences of belonging, and to strengthen a sense of personally experienced place? I will apply methodologies from narrative studies, such as genre, plot and metaphor, and conduct a close reading of the relevant planning documents. I will conclude with an examination of the toponyms of the streets, quarters and squares in Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari, and with an analysis of how these place names complement the planning narratives.

Cities of Affluence and Anger

Posted on 7.10.2014 by Lieven Ameel

Re-reading Cities of Affluence and Anger. A Literary Geography of Modern Englishness (2006), by Peter J. Kalliney. Not only very convincing readings of a number of still highly relevant novels, but also convincing links between literary expressions of the city, and prevalent discourse in urban planning and development.

Source: University of Virginia Press

The 4th chapter, on the Angry Young Men, for example, ‘’reads the Angry reliance on domesticity in the context of England’s postwar reconstruction and alongside contemporary accounts of home” and draws on “vernacular architecture of the period and the welfare state’s urban planning initiatives to sketch the parameters of class and masculinity in literary accounts of family life.” (Kalliney 116)

Kalliney presents here an eloquent illustration of what literary studies can bring to our understanding of city development (and vice verse).

Narrative approaches to the city

Posted on 24.9.2014 by Lieven Ameel

Reading through an interesting contribution to the theory of narrativity and the study of city & city planning: Bond & Thompson-Fawcett’s article “Multiplicities, interwoven threads, holistic paths: The phronetic long-haul approach” in the volume Qualitative Urban Analysis – several other articles in the volume offer insights in the use of narrative approaches for multidisciplinary research.

“The tiny details, often reduced and overlooked in analysis, can reveal the depth of the meaning people have for places and spaces with which they identify. Narratives provide a means to make sense of and understand social phenomena and individual experience (Flyvberg, 2004a). Narratives carry a degree of explanation because they are recalled from memories of events and reconstructed in the telling (Czarniawska, 2004; Eckstein, 2003; Sandercok, 2003). The retelling of stories involves a process of framing, whereby events are characterised, segmented, categorised and ordered through a reconstruction (Bruner, 1990). A narrative approach is co-terminous with a requirement for thick qualitative data, through which the researched speak in their voices to tell their stories.

Via a polyphony of voices, narratives provide a lens through which realities, processes and events can be gleaned.” (Bond & Thompson-Fawcett, 2008, pp. 56-57)

As planning is increasingly conducted by using narrative strategies, the development of a narrative theory becomes crucial for an examination of how our cities function, and Bond & Thompson-Fawcett make an important contribution in this direction. What could be taken further: the development of concrete tools for an analysis. Narrative & literary studies offer promising avenues of research for such an integrated narrative analysis of planning. Something I hope to develop further in my research on narrating urban redevelopment. More about that here.

Source:

Bond, Sophie, & Thompson-Fawcett, Michelle. (2008). Multiplicities, interwoven threads, holistic paths: The phronetic long-haul approach. In P. J. Maginn, S. M. Thompson & M. Tonts (Eds.), Qualitative Urban Analysis: An International Perspective (pp. 51-78). Oxford: JAI Press.

What makes a city remarkable? An Urban Planner’s Guide to Hki

Posted on 18.9.2014 by Lieven Ameel

Mikko Aho, director of City Planning for Helsinki, and also a member of the jury for the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition, writes about 7 things that make Helsinki remarkable here.

[Helsinki, seen from the sea. Photo: courtesy City of Helsinki Media Bank. Photographer: Mika Lappalainen]

Great that people from City Planning are actively engaging and reaching out to the (international) public. Aho’s text celebrates Helsinki’s link with the sea, and the multi-layered character of this city (that is much more rooted in a long and complex history than is often acknowledged). But could more be made of the complex cultural meanings of the waterfront? And would it be possible to engage more actively with such cultural narratives in ongoing planning projects?

See, also, in this respect, my contribution in the Finnish Kritiikin uutiset of 3/2012 concerning plans for the South Harbour development.

Urban Narratives

Category Archives: Urban Planning