Nyliberal stadsplanering : oxymoron eller symbios? En litteraturstudie och ideologianalys av Älvstadenprojektet i Göteborg

Sammanfattning: This paper attempts to describe the relationship between urban planning and neoliberalism from a landscape (architect’s) perspective. It is split into two major parts. The first one contains a literary review concerning the way in which contemporary planning theory views, discusses and criticizes neoliberal tendencies within the field. In the second part I account for examples of two urban development projects, Kvillebäcken and Frihamnen, which are both part of an even larger urban development project situated in the very center of Gothenburg, coined “RiverCity”. The conclusions that can be drawn from this paper includes (i) numerous examples of how neoliberalism has affected urban planning, neoliberalizing it, (ii) what implications this in turn has had, has and possibly will continue to have on the planning practice i.e. what is being prioritized within the planning that is actually being realized and also (iii) how the neoliberal ideology is being “rolled out” within a Swedish public planning context using the works of Sager (2011) and Baeten (2012a; 2012b) as the two main frames of reference. Although contested neoliberalism has thus far managed to adapt and survive through crises and criticism on local, national and even international levels continuously reshaping and rebuilding societies and cities by spreading marketization and privatization to and within whatever context it encounters. This has been allowed to happen on the expense of the public spaces in the city landscape – the domain usually associated with the landscape architect. There are possibilities for planners/landscape architects to influence the outcome of urban planning but to understand the conditions within which one is working calls for a combination of curiosity and knowledge from both students and professionals, within the academy as well as the working life. KEYWORDS: