The Entangled City – from Urban Nature Conflicts Towards Care in More-than-human World
Master’s thesis, Aalto university, with distinction, 2023
Advisors: Jenni Reuter and Maiju Suomi
The 2016 Helsinki Master Plan aims to densify the entire urban fabric, which threatens urban forests that are important both for residents and for the city’s biodiversity. Awareness of the impacts of climate change and habitat loss has increased in recent years - urban forests are home to a wide range of life. Environmental crises have further highlighted the importance of forests in ensuring urban vitality, diversity and comfort. In its latest urban strategy, Helsinki has set out to actively protect and nurture its diverse nature and strengthen its forest network, ensuring that its residents have access to local nature. The densification of the urban fabric at the expense of forests is at odds not only with the objectives of the urban strategy, but also with the views of many residents who value their local nature. Since the Master Plan came into force, numerous conflicts between residents and the city have arisen in different parts of Helsinki.
The thesis aims to illustrate the decision-making process concerning urban forests and to consider ways in which the valuation of forests and the views of residents can be better taken into account in planning. The first part of the thesis analyses the root causes of the conflicts over the urban forests that prevent the goals of urban biodiversity and resident orientation of the Helsinki City Strategy from being achieved: the conflicting ways in which the city’s actors value urban forests, the high growth targets of the 2016 Master Plan, and the challenges of resident democracy in decision-making on urban forests. Through the concept of care, the thesis aims to shed light on the values and meanings associated with forests that are not yet present in the planning process. The thesis is a proposal on how to dismantle human exceptionalism in planning theory and at the same time strengthen the experience of inclusion of the inhabitants by placing the concept of care-in-more-than-human-worlds at the centre of urban planning.
