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Rural spatial development policy increasingly aims to improve quality of life and meet broad sustainable development goals. The New Rural Paradigm marked a shift towards supporting place-based, participatory local projects. In Denmark, this coincided with the 2007 structural reform whereby 273 municipalities were merged into 98 while giving municipalities full planning sovereignty over their territory, including the open countryside. Hundreds of place-based, participatory local spatial projects have since been carried out. This chapter examines the potential of such interventions in the built environment to enhance rural quality of life in peripheral areas affected by population loss. An inventory of projects receiving public or philanthropic funding in the 2010–2016 period was assembled to identify projects that (1) involved built interventions (buildings, open spaces, landscape projects), (2) were carried out to enhance quality of life, (3) were publicly accessible or open to a larger public, and (4) community-driven or participatory. Of 734 such projects that were found, 13 were selected for in-depth study using spatial and functional analysis, document studies, and site visits and interviews with key actors. The chapter finds that quality of life is pursued by (a) creating spaces shared by locals and non-locals alike, (b) reinventing cultural heritage, (c) creating green meeting places, and (d) forging new spatial connections, all with a focus on sustained community well-being. Importantly, the project communities often outlast the projects themselves, sometimes with long-term placemaking effects.

Publication of the HERA-funded research Project PuSH Public Space in European Social Housing. Exhibition catalogue with all data. The final exhibition of the PuSH project brought together our collected findings in the five European cases across the four analytical categories: heritage, informality, democracy, and policies/practices. While the previous exhibitions focused on one of the analytical categories and stimulated focused thematic discussions, this exhibition reorganised all material by case to open new perspectives on publicness in social housing spaces across all categories and all cases. Instead of presenting final results, we wanted to offer a public space once more to question and discuss our research results together with a wider audience.

Post-war social housing estates are commonly problematised as socially and spatially segregated places in European cities. Physical transformations – often framed as ‘upgrading’ – are considered to stimulate better social and spatial integration: many estates are being ‘opened up’ by converting open spaces into public spaces, other estates are being densified to achieve a better social mix. In these transformations, social housing’s designed landscapes play a central role, but often with no awareness of their inherited socio-material qualities. This paper makes a case for reappraising the heritage of open spaces in post-war social housing as welfare landscapes to inform current debates, policies and practices regarding social housing and future heritage making in its renewal. We look back at the development processes of three paradigmatic Danish estates which literally materialised the emerging welfare state by concrete, asphalt, plantings and earthworks. Guided by actor-network theory we recount how their welfare landscapes materialised as socio-material assemblages. We show that non-human things played a crucial role in the development of welfare landscapes which focused on child welfare and community development, offered architectural and ecological diversity, and co-shaped the urban landscape beyond the individual estates. Understanding welfare landscapes as socio-material assemblages does not only acknowledge the role of non-human things in their historical production. Ultimately it also calls for the inclusion of the welfare of non-human species and may offer inspiration for developing future welfare landscapes for more than humans.

This article presents the interdisciplinary research project Reconfiguring Welfare Landscapes. We explore new ways to revisit the open spaces of social housing estates in their own right, with their own histories and as part of a larger urban landscape. By doing so, we aim to understand what ideas about well-being and welfare these welfare landscapes materialise, and how they change over time together with changing conceptions, ideas and uses. We assume that the answers to these questions can guide social housing estates’ development and their capacity to be welfare landscapes in the future, providing meaningful and sustainable landscapes for living.

I denne Ph.d. afhandling undersøges begrebet urbant interventionsrum i forhold til polariseret territorial udvikling i Danmark. Projektets omdrejningspunkt er en designbaseret undersøgelse som afprøver en stedsbaseret tilgang i to studieområder i hhv. Øst- og Nordjylland. Samtidig med - og direkte relateret til den designbaserede undersøgelse - undersøges teoretiske og metodiske forudsætninger for nutidig urban designpraksis. Fænomenet polarisering er et oplagt udgangspunkt for at identificere udfordringer og potentialer af nutidig urban design. Polariseret territorial udvikling afspejler en radikal urbaniseringsproces som udfordrer interventionsrummet og fremgangsmåden for urban design. Nøgleord er regionalisering, opløsning af by/land dikotomien, og regional, national og transnational netværksdannelse. Samtidig markerer den aktuelle diskurs om polarisering et skifte fra et ideal af territorial lighed til et ideal af balanceret territorial udvikling i Danmark. Dette skifte opstod tilbage til 1980erne, men det har fået ny aktualitet i lyset af øget territorial ulighed. Aktuel dansk planpolitik udpeger de to storbyregioner omkring København og i Østjylland som nationale økonomiske vækstmotorer. På samme tid fordres det at udvikle forskellige lokale kvaliteter. Kort sagt peger aktuel dansk planpolitik på en strategisk stedsbaseret tilgang til den fysiske planlægning. I denne kontekst kunne designbaserede fremgangsmåder komme til at spille en vigtig rolle. Mit argument er, at design kan generere situationelt og handlingsorienteret viden. Dette kræver imidlertid at vi opgiver ideale modeller for by og land. I stedet for skal by- og landskabsarkitekter arbejde eksplorativt og udvikle hvert givent sted som et dynamisk netværk af fysiske, sociale og kulturelle relationer. Dette forskningsprojekt fremstiller urban design som en praksis af kontinuerlig transformation, der fordrer og genererer transdisciplinært viden. I denne sammenhæng fremhæves stedsundersøgelsen som nøgle til udviklingen af urbane designstrategier. Yderligere understreges formidlingsevnen og tilslutningsdygtigheden af fremgangsmåder indenfor urban design både i forhold til en akademisk forskningskontekst og i forhold til byudviklingspraksis. Med udgangspunkt i aktør-netværk-teorien (ANT) skitseres hvordan designerens viden om steder som interventionsrum og selve konstruktionen af denne viden kan forstås og artikuleres yderligere med henblik på et transdisciplinært arbejdsfelt. I sin helhed peger dette projekt på det jeg vil kalde en ›sammenfletningens urbanisme‹. En sådan urbanisme samler byen kontinuerligt på ny. En by som ved nærmere betragtning udgøres af skiftende forbindelser mellem mangfoldige heterogene aktører - mennesker, ting, ideer, osv. Kort sagt, et mulighedernes rum hvis udvikling hverken til fulde kan forudberegnes eller kontrolleres igennem design. I denne kontekst er urban design fundamentalt nykonciperet som en relationel praksis der medierer fortløbende transformationsprocesser. Urban design arbejder således med sammenfletningen af eksisterende fysiske forhold, diskursive og rumlige praksisser. Til dette formål må urban design bestandig væve frem og tilbage imellem iagttagelse og design, aflæsning og skrivning af urbane steder og situationer. Dette betyder, at urban design samtidig er en praksisform og en form for videnproduktion. Dertil kommer, at urban design er et transdisciplinært felt som forbinder mange praksis- og vidensformer frem for at være et autonomt arbejdsfelt. Endelig frembringer en sammenfletningens urbanisme designinterventioner som betoner performativitet og muligheder for at indgå nye forbindelser. En sammenfletningens urbanisme foreslår nye perspektiver på polariseret territorial udvikling i Danmark. Med udgangspunkt i et dynamisk, relationelt bybegreb kan vi betragte Øst- og Nordjylland som forskellige regionale situationer i en potentielt ubegrænset netværksby, eller rettere sagt, et netværksbaseret urbant landskab. Samtidig kommer forbedringen af aktive stedsrelationer i fokus. Dette åbner blandt andet op for nye perspektiver for at arbejde på tværs af by- og land zoner uden nødvendigvis at opgive forskellig planlovgivning. Med udgangspunkt i et dynamisk relationelt bybegreb opgives ikke blot by/land dikotomien. En sammenfletningens urbanisme tilsidesætter en hel række dikotomier såsom lokal/global, subjektiv/objektiv, kultur/natur som værende irrelevant i forhold til opgaven. I et relationelt perspektiv fremstår ethvert sted som en indramning og en opsummering af mangfoldige stedsrelationer som definerer interaktionsrum af forskellig udstrækning. På denne måde bliver det muligt at studere og udvikle et givent sted på tværs af forskellige skalaer. Dette forekommer særlig relevant i betragtning af at polariseret territorial udvikling ikke er et fænomen som kan lokaliseres på en bestemt skala. I ekstensive netværksbaserede urbane landskaber kan centralitet og periferalitet ikke begribes ved hjælp af hierarkiske urbane systemer som baserer sig på en stabil opfattelse af den urbane geografi. En sammenfletningens urbanisme fokuserer på lokale mulighederog problemer i et relationelt perspektiv. Som sådan tilbyder det en fremgangsmåde for at gribe og udfolde æstetiske kvaliteter og for løbende at forbedre samspillet i dynamiske urbane situationer. Designerens relationelle konstruktion af urbane interventionsrum afstedkommer situationelt, handlingsorienteret viden som kan igangsætte eller bidrage til kritisk debat mellem planlæggere, eksperter og borgere og således kvalificere en lokal handlemåde. This PhD thesis examines the concept of the urban site in relation to polarised spatial development in Denmark. At the core of this research project is a design based investigation that tests site based approaches in two study areas in East and North Jutland. Together with - and directly related to the design study - an investigation of the theoretical and methodological foundations of contemporary urban design practice is undertaken. The phenomenon of polarisation is a pertinent starting point to identify challenges and potentials of contemporary urban design. Polarised spatial development reflects a radical urbanisation process that challenges the domain and the procedures of urban design. Key words are regionalisation, dissolution of the city/countryside dichotomy, and regional, national and transnational networks. At the same time, the discourse on polarisation marks a shift from an ideal of spatial equality throughout Denmark to an ideal of balanced development. This shift dates back to the 1980s but has gained new topicality in light of increased spatial inequality. Current Danish spatial policy targets the two large city regions around Copenhagen and in East Jutland as the engines of national economic growth. At the same time, the development of different local qualities is claimed. In short, current Danish spatial policy focuses on strategic site based approaches to spatial development. In this context, design based procedures could come to play an important role. My argument is that design can generate situational, action-oriented knowledge. This, however, requires that we leave behind ideal models of the city and the countryside. Instead, urban designers have to proceed in explorative ways and develop each individual site as a dynamic network of physical, social, and cultural relationships. This research project frames urban design as a practice of continuous transformation that requires and generates transdisciplinary knowledge. In this connection, site survey is emphasized as the key to design strategies. Furthermore, the communicability and connectivity of urban design procedures both with regard to an academic research context and with regard to the context of urban development practice is stressed. Based on actor-network-theory (ANT), it is outlined how site knowledge and site knowledge production can be understood and further articulated with regard to a transdisciplinary sphere of action. The research points towards what I will call an urbanism of entanglement‹. An urbanism of entanglement continuously reassembles the city. A city which on closer inspection is constituted by shifting alliances of multiple heterogeneous actors - people, things, ideas, etc. In short, a space of potential in which development can neither be fully predicted nor controlled by design. In this context, urban design is fundamentally reconceived as a relational practice that mediates processes of continuous transformation. Urban design works thus through entanglement of existing material conditions, discursive and spatial practices. To this end urban design must constantly weave back and forth between observation and design, reading and writing of urban sites and situations. This means that urban design is simultaneously a practice form and a form of knowledge production. And further, rather than being an autonomous field of work urban design is a transdisciplinary field that connects multiple practice and knowledge forms. Finally, an urbanism of entanglement brings about design interventions which stress performativity and connectivity. An urbanism of entanglement proposes new perspectives on polarised urban development in Denmark. Starting from a dynamic relational concept of the city, East and North Jutland can be perceived as different regional situations within a potentially unlimited networked urban landscape. At the same time, the enhancement of active site relationships comes into focus. This offers among others new vistas to work comprehensively across urban and rural zones without necessarily abandoning different planning frameworks. Starting from a dynamic relational concept of the city not only the city/countryside dichotomy is abandoned. A whole set of dichotomies such as local/global; subjective/objective; culture/nature are simply set aside as irrelevant to the task. In a relational perspective each locus is understood as framing and summing up of multiple site relationships that define different margins of interaction. It thus becomes possible to study and develop a given urban site across multiple scales. This seems particularly relevant when considering that polarised development is not a phenomenon that can be allocated on a certain scale. In extensive networked urban landscapes centrality and peripherality cannot be grasped in terms of hierarchic urban systems based on a stable notion of the urban geography. An urbanism of entanglement focuses on local potentials and problems in a relational perspective. As such, it provides approaches to grasp and unfold aesthetic qualities and to continuously adapt the performance of dynamic urban situations. By means of relational site construction urban designers bring about situational, action-oriented knowledge that can enable or contribute to critical debate between planners, experts and citizens and thus qualify a local course of action.

The chapter investigates differences in subjective well-being between urban and rural areas in Denmark. The analyses are undertaken on survey data from thirty-eight municipalities merged with individual-level panel register data. The main hypothesis is that in a small universal welfare state such as Denmark, there will be only minor differences in subjective well-being between urban and rural areas. If any overall significant difference exists, the expectation is that, in line with other results from empirical analyses in Western countries, subjective well-being will be higher in rural areas. This hypothesis is supported by the data. Multilevel regression analyses show only minor differences. However, for nearly all aspects of subjective well-being, the differences are statistically significant and with rural areas in the lead. Much of the higher overall level of subjective well-being in rural areas was explained by a lower level of experienced stress and a higher level of feeling meaning in life in these areas on average.

In this chapter the purpose, rationale and organisation of the book are explained, along with an introduction to the key questions which are at stake. It begins by introducing the rural–urban happiness paradox as the impetus for assembling the volume, focusing on how the spatial differentiation between urban and rural places in measurements of well-being in the global North has puzzled researchers. From this point of departure, the chapter goes on to question the viability of retaining a binary view, where places and the people who inhabit them are designated either as urban or as rural. Instead, a different road forward is offered, wherein the messy realities of contemporary everyday life are liberated from such simplistic distinction in favour of an approach that retains the complexities that matter for human well-being. Following a brief account of more than a century of research on quality of life, the remainder of the chapter introduces the organisation of the volume by posing the key questions that animate each part. The chapter ends by returning to the key concern of the book: the (im)possibility of attaining rural well-being for all and the many difficult questions that this entails.

se vedhæftede dokument This article presents analyses of the ‘Nørrebro Bike Route’ as an ‘urban bikescape’ consisting of a mixture of lanes and coupled urban places and small parks. It is a place to sit, to play and to relax, but at the same time it also a place for mobility. It is a social-technical assemblage (Urry 2007, Latour 1996), or a zone for social interaction, where commuters meet local everyday life. In this respect the research relates to theories of ‘the mobility turn’ (Urry 2000, Vannini 2012, Lassen 2011, Jensen 2013, 2014, Olesen 2014). It is the thesis that ‘urban bikescapes’ such as Nørrebro Bike Route can play an important role in the future welfare city, not just as infrastructure bringing citizens from A to B in a sustainable way, but also as an new urban typology providing citizens with diverse urban cultural experiences. The aim of the research is, through analyses of cases, to investigate how to design bike lanes in dense cities in such a way that they open up the city and function as new zones for social and cultural interaction, or as new public domains (Haajer & Reijndorph 2001). The article presents the theoretical approaches and results of the mapping in relation to following research questions: What role does the layout & the connections play in this regard (Lynch 1960; 1995, Cullen 1971/1996, Hvattum 2010)? What effect do the programs have for urban life (Waltzer 1995, Sennett 1995, Haajer & Reijndorph 2001)? And last but not least, to what extent are urban architecture (scale, rhythm, content) & aesthetics developed? (Thies- Evensen 1992, Venturi 1972, Rasmussen 2003, Thrift 2004, Merleau-Ponty 2009, Pallismaa 2005, Pink 2009)? Finally the article addresses the travelling ideas of ‘new urban bikescapes’ and Nordic urban space design.