‘Holding Properties Vacant Is Resource Stupidity’: Towards a Typology of Roles in the (Inter)mediation of Urban ‘Temporary Use’

ABSTRACT

‘Mediators’ are becoming recognized as necessary actors in managing complex socio-political dynamics in the ‘temporary use’ of vacant spaces. However, ‘mediation’ remains understudied and undertheorized in temporary use scholarship. To better articulate mediator roles in temporary use, I review literature on related ‘intermediary’ roles in ‘urban transitions’ literature vis-à-vis temporary use practice. Thereby, I propose a typology of roles in (inter)mediation and elucidate selected roles in practice. By articulating how mediators align interests, build networks and negotiate the conditions in planning and development, this article draws attention to changing professional roles in planning and sets a basis for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Temporary use
• urban planning
• urban transitions
• mediation
• intermediation

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my advisor Ramia Mazé for support and comments throughout the process and my supervisor Mikko Jalas for comments. I also thank my colleagues Elif Erdoğan Öztekin and Satu Lähteenoja for comments. I particularly thank the anonymous reviewers for their thorough and constructive feedback and Felicity Kjisik for language editing. Moreover, I thank the commissioner of the Temporary Kera project and all the participants for agreeing to participate in this research. All quotations from the case are translated from Finnish by the author.

Disclosure Statement

Part of this research was conducted as a practice-based study, in which I investigated my work as a mediator commissioned in the project Temporary Kera. I am reporting that I received a fee covering my project work from the city of Espoo (the project commissioner). The research work, including data collection, analysis, literature review and writing, was funded separately, as mentioned below. In agreement with the project commissioner, I carried out the research work independently, guided by separate research objectives. I have disclosed these interests fully to Taylor & Francis, and have an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from this involvement.

Notes

1. This article forms part of my doctoral research, in which I study mediation through the ‘practice-based research’ of my own work as an architect mediating temporary use in Finland and through qualitative interviews with other professional mediators.

2. The term ‘transitions research’ refers here to the field of scholarship studying long-term socio-technical transitions (e.g. Geels & Schot, 2010). The field borrows insights from various disciplines, including science and technology studies, evolutionary economics, sociology and institutional theory. Recently, transitions thinking has been applied in a broad range of disciplines. ‘Urban sustainability transitions’ draws on both socio-technical and socio-ecological system studies (e.g. Berkes et al., 2002).

3. Quotation from a participant at a meeting in the case Kera.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Kone Foundation under Grant number 201608679 and by Aalto University.