Knowledge Production and Polluted Soil in Urban Planning: The Case of Helsinki

Abstract

Knowledge production concerning local environmental problems could be more transparent. Polluted soil as an environmental problem is examined in cases from three different decades in Helsinki. The research material comprises official and public documents, such as planning documents, records of the City Board and interviews with the city's authorities. The themes of the interviews were decided after a preliminary analysis of the document data. The analysis focuses on changes in problem classification, knowledge production, risk management and the dynamics between these. Risk management and knowledge production are argued to have been conducted in a way that masks environmental problems, their historical roots and their causes from citizens and decision-makers. Furthermore, the risk management strategy transformed ecological risks into financial risks.

Key Words:

• Local environmental problem
• decision-making
• risk management
• polluted soil

Acknowledgments

The research for this paper was financially supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The researcher thanks two anonymous reviewers for their feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Southern Environment Centre used to be part of the Finnish Environment Institute. The Institute forms part of Finland's national environmental administration and mainly operates under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment.