Curating practices appear in various fields as a common practice of immaterial labour today. To ‘curate’ is an active verb that suggests ‘doing’ something. Seldom if ever are the implications of curating critically discussed outside the arts, and this provides a reason for this thesis to investigate. What does ‘to curate’ mean, imply or suggest in the urban context? How are urban curatorial practices legitimized and where can they contribute to urban planning? Embedded in contemporary urban challenges and the “state of crisis” often referred to, this paper introduces curating as an emerging cultural practice into this field. A vital part of the discussion this thesis opens up, is where art can become part of urban planning. Noting that the relationship between arts and urban environments is ambivalent, since the arts’ symbolic power is recognized within international competition of cities, it is about the margin between the field of arts and urban development. By laying a groundwork of contemporary curatorial understandings in the arts, the paper gives an overview on the existing notions and practices of ‘urban curation’ and highlights that there are strong positions but no existing definition as such. A look into urban planning theory pinpoints the crucial role of economic growth and its implications for the organization of urban developments under the term neoliberalism, a condition in which festivals replace urban development policies and culture becomes a structuring element. The occurrence of projects as organizational structure dominates and challenges long term developments. This constitutes the framework in which the paper discusses three very different project examples from Hamburg, Liverpool and Vienna for closer analysis. Between preservation and management, arranging and staging curating can alternatively be understood as an epistemology producing new knowledge. By cross-referencing between the arts, where the critical discussion on curating is held, and urban planning and architecture, where curatorial practice is applied, the paper suggests strengthening the critical discourse on the relevance and use of cultural practices in urban studies.

This thesis is about the making of a power plant. It sheds light on how neoliberal ideas shape large public investments in sustainable energy infrastructure. It tells the story of how the City of Copenhagen decided to build what was claimed to be the greenest waste-fired power plant in the world: Copenhill. The plant was to have a ski slope at the rooftop and a chimney puffing smoke-rings. However, conflicting urban visions and rationalities led to a year-long crisis in the project’s planning phase. In the end, Copenhill was built over capacity, which today makes it difficult to match budget and costs. I combined information from internal municipal documents, interviews with decision makers and informal corridor talk to identify the driving forces behind the outcome of the crisis, and the contradictions and complexities of the case. I found that the crisis had roots in the way the public energy company ARC began to act like a private firm, with an entrepreneurial vision. ARC adopted an expansionist growth plan to build a large power plant with iconic architecture. The Copenhill project attracted local politicians wishing to brand Copenhagen as a green world city. However, the city’s Technical and Environmental Administration (TEA) was guided by a managerial vision with a strong sustainability focus. TEA’s analysis showed that there would not be enough garbage in the city to power the over-sized plant. Consequences for economy and environment were seen as potentially disastrous. Supported by city council and government, TEA tried to stop Copenhill. The clash between the two different urban visions led to the formation of two opposing coalitions with each their own rationality. The contradictions between growth rationality and green rationality caused the Copenhill Crisis. The direct intervention of the power élite in support of a growth solution short-circuited the norms of transparent public decision-making. Bowing to political pressure, TEA produced new documents saying that Copenhill would be great for economy and climate. Dark planning practices led to an outcome that was falsely presented as a compromise between green and growth strategies. It was in fact a growth solution, wrapped in green arguments that were not rational. The case study supports a key proposition in theory on the dark side of planning: that rationality is context-dependent and that the context of rationality is power. The case study adds insights to theory by showing the ways neoliberal thought merges with existing socio-economic conditions in space and time, specifically within a Nordic welfare-state context. It shows how public energy companies can face challenges, not only from neoliberal-driven privatization attempts, but also from ideas of iconicity and city marketing. The case study reaffirms the strength of a Flyvbjergian approach to understand the effects of hidden power mechanisms on planning of public energy infrastructure.

Recently, the ‘Smart City’ label has emerged as a popular umbrella term for numerous projects around the world that claim to offer an enhanced urban experience, often provided in collaboration with international companies through private-public partnerships. As smart cities pledge to create long-term economic sustainability and progressive form of urban entrepreneurialism, it is getting important to highlight risks such as the reduced role of the public sector, technological dominance and data privacy.In contrast to more a conventional, long-term, holistic master planning, a technologically pre-determined form of Smart City endangers the emancipator usage of public spaces as spaces of diversity, creativity, inclusive citizen participation and urban sustainability.This research approaches the concept of Smart Cities as a future category and, thus, targets to develop a comprehensive visual analysis based on architectural representations in the form of computer-generated images (CGI’s). The Quayside project, a notable and widely criticized urban development project, by Sidewalk Toronto, a cooperation between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs which is a sister subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has been selected as Smart City case study as. Visual analysis was conducted by using the theoretical frame advocating ‘Coordinating Smart Cities’ in contrast to ‘Prescriptive Smart Cities’ by Richard Sennett. In addition to Sennett’s concept of ‘Incomplete Form’, Jan Gehl’s ‘Twelve Quality Criteria’ was used as coding categories to elaborate the content analysis which was followed by semiological and compositional interpretations. Visuals have been investigated in three sequential sets and analyzed focusing on time-based comparative frequency counts for sets of visuals. Concentrating on how future public spaces are illustrated, the study aims to uncover and to discuss how Smart Cities are being imagined and advertised.

The city is characterised by unequal living conditions and inequities. Residential segregation – in the sense that people with different socio-economic resources and of various ethnicities live separately from one another – is a major cause of urban inequities. Urban planning has contributed to segregation but also provides the potential for change by facilitating a more just and non-segregated city. Social sustainability and social justice objectives, however, usually conflict with a neoliberal planning mindset, one that shapes both the planning conditions and approach and benefits economic growth. The aim of this thesis is to examine how and for whom Stockholm is being planned in order to thus clarify whether the planning reduces segregation and contributes to creating a more just city. This is done by looking at Stockholm’s overall planning approach, based on the ambitious objective of ‘a world-class Stockholm’, and the present planning of two areas – Järva and Stockholm Royal Seaport. Vision Järva 2030 is a strategy to develop segregated neighbourhoods, while Stockholm Royal Seaport is a new urban development project. The analysis highlights that Stockholm’s planning is in a dialectical state between a socially sustainable approach – with the goal of reducing inequities and segregation – and a neoliberal development logic focusing on competing with other cities to attract investment. The latter, however, predominates, for instance resulting in social strategies taking place on neoliberal terms and so losing their true meaning. The planning focuses primarily on developing the city for a neoliberal subject associated with economic growth. In accordance with this, a lifestyle philosophy based on the city centre’s urban city ideals and middle-class consumption and activity patterns is in evidence in the planning. The overall conclusion is that the planning cannot be deemed to reduce segregation or contribute to the creation of a just city as a result of how and for whom the city is being planned.

This thesis examines the proposed Österskans development in Halmstad, Sweden from the approach of critical urbanism. With a steady increase of population growth for the past decades and despite the income level of the municipality's population being above the national average - the socio-economic segregation in Halmstad is prevalent. The planned development of the Österskans area, a former node of public transport located in the city centre, would see the space refitted to house a large-scale skyscraper complex containing a hotel, an urban market, a restaurant and a rooftop bar. The development and imposed semi-privatisation of the current public place have sparked debate, and a referendum on the matter will take place at the time of the national elections in september of 2022. This study employs the method of critical discourse analysis to investigate how aspects of convivial urbanism embeds the discourse on public space in Halmstad, how the development of public places can be understood through the discourse on shared spatial qualities in the case of Österskans and what implications such qualities could have on segregation. The theoretical framework consists of theory of space and place, critical urban theory on the right to the city, uneven geographical development, the human body as accumulation strategy as well as theory on conviviality. By the examination of 13 texts as qualitatively selected representatives of the discourse, the analysis centered around on how narratives, intertextual relations and structures can be understood. In the analysis, matters of how the narratives on conviviality is positioned, how social sustainability is addressed and avoided, assumptions of who constitutes the public, market value and attractiveness, the portrayal of diversity and inclusion versus the reality of it, the feasibility of achieving togetherness and the potential harmful implications of the development are all discussed. The study concludes that while claims of conviviality clearly do feature, the narratives of the discourse overlooks crucial factors of social sustainability and leaves blind spots of how to tangibly achieve inclusivity - along with the understanding of the inside experience of the consumer being prioritized and that it could negatively impact segregation by imposing an even further further socio-spatial divide.