Fokus på mötesplatser : en diskursanalys av begreppet mötesplats i översiktsplanen för Nyhamnen, Malmö

Sammanfattning: This bachelor’s thesis in urban planning aims to investigate the ongoing discourse of the need for urban encounters. Through a discourse analysis of the urban renewal project Nyhamnen, Malmö, the research aspires to understand the role of meeting places in providing the opportunity for strangers to meet. A meeting which results in intercultural respect and furthered social sustainability. Using three theoretical perspectives, this thesis examines how Malmö stad understands the purpose of the concept of meeting places. The first perspective discusses the city as an entrepreneurial city, using tolerance and meeting places as a way of marketing the city as attractive and creating economic growth. The second perspective investigates the meeting place as a means to creating convivial encounters, safety and solidarity and the last perspective discusses critique of the former, in regard to its ability to create social sustainability and therefor emphasizes the need for meaningful contact by the concepts of micro- publics and social infrastructure. By applying a post-structural, social constructionist perspective I critically reflect on how Malmö stad understand meeting places as a means to create social sustainability. I reach the conclusion that there is a lack of clarity in the communication of who the meeting place is for and why. I argue that there is a need to determine the purpose of meeting places and to recognise the limitations urban planning presents in creating social sustainability through the concept of encounters. Finally, I stress that equality lies in the social structures and not in the way the city is built and that we therefore need to understand the concept of encounters before creating meeting places.