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Urban Responses to The Economic Crisis: Confirmation of Urban Policies as Crisis Management in M almö
Author(s) -
Holgersen Ståle
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of urban and regional research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1468-2427
pISSN - 0309-1317
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2427.12029
Subject(s) - vision , crisis management , real estate , state (computer science) , urban planning , political science , intervention (counseling) , financial crisis , economic growth , political economy , sociology , economy , economic system , economics , psychology , ecology , algorithm , psychiatry , anthropology , computer science , law , biology , macroeconomics
It is common knowledge that crisis also signifies opportunity and opens spaces for change. When responding to the current economic crisis, is urban planning seizing this opportunity? This article investigates the case of the S wedish city of M almö and explores its responses to the crisis by looking dialectically at the crisis, municipal planning policy and real‐estate capital. In this article, the local state and urban planning are regarded as social relations, with the aim of going beyond traditional formulations that oppose market (neoliberal) and state intervention ( K eynesianism) as the main focus for crisis management. Against this background, the article shows that the 2008 crisis was met in M almö by an active municipality that confirmed the existing visions and tendencies, rather than exploiting the crisis as a moment for changes and transformation. The article seeks to explain this by looking at the social relations that have constituted the urban policies in M almö for the past two decades.