The flagship concept of the ‘4th urban environment’. Branding and visioning in Malmö, Sweden

Abstract

In the process of turning the post-industrial city of Malmö, Sweden, into a knowledge-based, creative city, new urban planning strategies and visions are being developed. An important component of developing the “knowledge city” is the spatial conceptualization for renewal of urban life. One such concept introduced in Malmö is “the 4th urban environment” (det 4.e stadsrummet). In this article, based on critical urban studies, the development, branding, and practice of the 4th urban environment as a strategy to generate a creative economy and knowledge city is critically analyzed as part of a neoliberal planning discourse. The article raises the question, what kind of vision is “the 4th urban environment”? What is it an expression of; what does it mean for planning practice and to urban development? Contextualizing and investigating trends of neoliberal planning ideas are important to an understanding of the social and economic consequences of unequal power relations. The 4th urban environment and its application in Malmö is illustrative of existing neoliberal planning practices in a Nordic context, and in other similar economies with legacies of redistribution policies and long-standing leadership of the Social Democratic Party. This article focuses on what is articulated within discourses that re-present particular notions of space and place, to gain a better understanding of what neoliberal planning does to space.

Keywords:

• Neoliberal planning
• 4th urban environment
• visioning
• city branding

Notes

1. This concept could also be translated as the “4th urban space.” The “4th urban environment” is the translation suggested by the City of Malmö in their English report summary (City of Malmö, 2009).

2. See for example the discussion in the USA in the Daily Beast (Kotkin, 2013).

3. Interviews were conducted together with Karin Grundström. Interviewee not included in this article were not clearly involved in the development of the visioning.

4. Compare with the three “T”s of Florida: Technology, Talent, Tolerance (Florida, 2002) and Glaeser´s comment on Florida, the three “S”s: skills, sun, sprawl (Glaeser & Kahn, 2004).

5. In 1987 the civilian ship production was closed down. In 2003, the Kockums crane – the world’s largest of its kind – was exported to Korea.

6. Quoted in Ivarsson & Persson, 2015.

7. Quotes are translated by the author from Danish to English.

8. This should not be conflated with the ideas of third space developed by Homi Bhaba and Edward Soja.

9. The idea of “soft edges” (Gehl, Kaefer, & Reigstad, 2006) describes an urban situation where there is interaction between pedestrians and the buildings.

10. These two influential authors can be seen as a part of a trend that has been growing ever since to stress the need for a more dense urban design (see also Cullen, 1961; Hillier & Hanson, 1984; Whyte, 1980).

11. www.mediaevolutioncity.se/en/.

12. By Lundgaard and Tranberg Arkitekter A/S; completed in 2015.

13. The City of Malmö, (Alesmark, 2014), illustrates these initiatives.

14. See www.nordiccitynetwork.com.

15. For the invitation to the 24 September 2014 conference about The Line see http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/malmo/documents/the-line-inbjudan-39124 .