Features and Consequences of Flat Ontology in Expanded Urban Planning

Abstract

Sirkku Wallin, PhD in Science (Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering), is a visiting scholar at the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland. She is also a planning practitioner at the City of Espoo. The focus of her research is self-organised urban development and e-planning.Karolina Jarenko, M.Sc. in Political Philosophy, is a PhD student at the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland. She studies and helps develop self-organising and self-governing organisations, both in an urban and business context.Liisa Horelli, PhD in Environmental Psychology, is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland. She has carried out action research for decades and published several articles on participatory urban planning and evaluation, especially from a gender perspective. Currently, she is interested in mainstreaming the blue and green infrastructure in expanded urban planning.

The Renewal of the Finnish Planning Legislation as a Strategy of Urban Planning and Development

“…Therefore, 'pluralist realism without borders' is a suitable starting point for expanded urban planning, as it increases the extent and scope of urban planning. This was corroborated by the Nordic case studies in Wallin et al [6], as they showed a variety of foci-from spatial planning to community development and hybrid governance, including different phases and varieties of self-organising-depending on the purpose and context.…”

“…Thus, ontological engagement affects premises, which have consequences for one's aspirations regarding urban planning and development. In a recent article, we examined [6] the core features of flat ontology for expanded urban planning. We concluded that flat ontology should be called fat, as it makes the conceptualisation of planning manifold and deliberative instead of linear and hierarchical [6].…”

“…In a recent article, we examined [6] the core features of flat ontology for expanded urban planning. We concluded that flat ontology should be called fat, as it makes the conceptualisation of planning manifold and deliberative instead of linear and hierarchical [6]. Thus, flat ontology, which rejects transcendence that privileges any sort of reasons above others, provides opportunities to reconceptualise both urban planning and development, not from prefixed ideas, but from outside-in; i.e., from the context [4].…”

“…The renewal process began in 2019. The first part of the planning legislation, the Building Act, was passed in Parliament in February 2022 6 . The Building Act introduced new mandatory contents to the planning system, such as carbon neutrality and resource wisdom.…”

“…For example, Boelens [4] has named this turn as flat ontology, in which the planning system is detached from hierarchies. Based on empirical case studies on self-organising urban development, we have acknowledged the same necessity for a critical pluralist realism that expands urban planning from statutory processes and public participation into more inclusive approaches to the design and development of urban space [5,6]. We have suggested an approach that is called expanded urban planning (EP), as it increases the extent and scope of urban planning by introducing a spatial planning process that also covers community development and hybrid governance, including self-organisation [7] 1 .…”