Diversifying the understandings of the compact city

The compact city model has become part of the policy and planning orthodoxy in dealing with climate change and other sustainability challenges, and scholars from a diverse set of disciplines have informed this policy through empirical research. In this talk it is argued that there is a need to ‘diversify’ the understandings of compact urbanism in ways that advance social and ecological justice. Research has revealed that the compact city has been conceived primarily through the lens of territorially bounded physical urban form, and thereby many of its social, political, and ecological implications are overlooked. Based on this critique, a renewed agenda for compact urbanism is suggested, rearticulating it as a strategy for sustainable transformation by bridging socio-material and relational approaches. The agenda is organized around three themes: commoning the compact city, metabolism of compact cities, and antagonism in the compact city.

Per Gunnar Røe is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Department of Sociology and Human Geography. His current research focuses on the social implications of urban sustainability and planning, and how to develop equitable and socially inclusive strategies. He is leading a research group focusing on Energy Flows and Spaces within Include, a research centre for socially inclusive energy transition.

The talk is based on research presented in the following recent publications:

Haarstad, H.; Kjærås, K. E. A.; Røe, P. G. & Tveiten, K. (2022). Diversifying the compact city: A renewed agenda for geographical research. Dialogues in Human Geography, doi: 10.1177/20438206221102949.

Røe, P. G.; Kjærås, K. E. A. & Haarstad, H. (2022). The Spatialities of the Nordic Compact City. In Jakobsen, Peter; Jönsson, Erik & Gutzon Larsen, Henrik (eds.), Socio-spatial theory in Nordic geography : Intellectual histories and critical interventions. Springer Nature. p. 191–206. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-04234-8_11.

Haarstad, H.; Kjærås, K. E. A.; Røe, P. G. & Tveiten, K. (2023). Grounding the compact city. Dialogues in Human Geography, doi: 10.1177/20438206231151743

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