Our contribution discusses two phenomena - shrinkage and multilocality - in relation to the big picture of urbanisation and to the prevailing regional policy discourse that is very growth oriented in ...nature. Empirical material from Puolanka is used to illustrate the key tensions of this constellation. We ask: Does the concept of 'smart shrinkage' resonate in the context of a shrinking municipality? Is it possible to operationalise shrinkage at the local level? A group of artists has been experimenting with a very peculiar approach by branding their local pessimism (!) and thereby sympathetically ridiculing the growth orientation of a locality that shrinks fast by numbers. What about 'multilocality'? Is it a true opportunity to increase the quality of life in depopulating regions? Like many rural municipalities, Puolanka hopes that the holiday homes and e-work will contribute to local vitality. We propose that other somewhat surprising forms of multilocality may be even more significant. Those include the global multilocalities of the entrepreneurs with immigration background that keep the last restaurant business up and running, as well as the seasonal workers in agriculture and tourism. Also, the pessimistic artists can be seen as multilocals. The peculiar connectedness that these young people have with Puolanka is of high symbolic value.
In Helsinki, the current number of immigrants is quickly rising. Ethnic retail has emerged as a new, but visible, part of the city landscape. Compared to other European countries, becoming an ...entrepreneur is typically not very popular in Finland. Therefore, in this paper, we seek to comprehend this phenomenon and more specifically discover: what motivates immigrants to become entrepreneurs; what is the impact of their background and culture on the phenomenon; and finally, is the help provided by the city useful for them? Based on interviews and observations, we conclude that immigrant entrepreneurship facilitates in fluid ways the maintenance of cultural practices, while simultaneously enhancing meaningful encounters between immigrants and mainstream society. In our sample, we identify three types of entrepreneurs: growth-oriented, investors and status builders, as well as freedom and stability seekers. Although the groups are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive, they display differences in certain aspects, which include their ways of entering into entrepreneurship, how their business is run, who their main clientele is, as well as in the future prospects for their businesses. We further infer that immigrant entrepreneurs, via their practices, also participate in making immigrant needs visible to politicians and policy-makers, thus also adding a layer to the local context within which they operate. However, we surmise that more effort is needed in addressing the freedom and stability seeker entrepreneurs if the aim of the city is to anchor immigrant retail in the city.
ABSTRACTRegional land use, housing, and transport (MAL) agreements between the Finnish state and municipalities in growth regions guide urban policy in the Helsinki metropolitan area towards regional ...cooperation and densification. Alongside economic growth and connectivity goals, segregation prevention is a visible but ill-defined social sustainability goal in these agreements, and anti-segregation measures lean heavily on providing new social housing in accessible locations. This tool, in turn, leans on a combination of social mixing, a traditional preventive tool in fighting segregation, and a new tool, maximising spatial justice through transit-oriented development. We argue that there is a discrepancy between these goals: while on an individual level, public transport accessibility is meant to reduce transport poverty and provide equal opportunities for employment and services, accessible areas fare lower than others in socioeconomic status. Therefore, increasing social rental housing in areas with lower socioeconomic status may unintentionally amplify segregation. This article asks how actors of different governance levels view concentrating social housing in accessible locations as a risk to segregation. Interviews show a concern of social challenges not being sufficiently addressed.
Contrasting the mass out-migration of the younger populace following the economic crisis in Greece and the simultaneous large inflow of refugees, the city of Athens has lately become an attractive ...place for tourists and lifestyle migrants. This article provides a better understanding of the marginal, yet unexplored in-migration of relatively affluent Europeans moving to Athens to work in the growing offshore service sector. Athens is an attractive place for offshore service work companies, as low salaries can be compensated for by “the sun,” “Greek culture,” and “low cost and high standard of living” (Bellos, 2019). Based on interviews with Finnish offshore workers, this article argues that the local context might not render all lifestyle migrants from wealthier countries similarly privileged. Due to their low salaries and recent changes in the local housing market fuelled by touristification, offshore service workers face a lack of affordable housing. The article further argues that affluent transnational migration is a multidimensional phenomenon, which needs to be contextualized, and which has nuanced, widespread effects on local housing markets and neighbourhood life.
The supply of social housing has been marked by erosion and decline in most Western Europe countries since the 1990s, albeit with considerable variation in timing, speed and degree. Recently, it has ...been suggested that the sector has kept a more prominent position at the local level, at least in some cities. This paper scrutinizes this claim by comparing the development of social housing in two cities in two distinct national housing systems that have traditionally had a strong commitment to social housing: Vienna and Helsinki. To do so, we build a multi-dimensional framework that encompasses sector size, stock privatization, new housing production, and residualization. We empirically demonstrate a remarkable stability along these dimensions in both cases, albeit with some differences in degree. A number of factors need to be considered to explain this stability. They relate to aspects of institutional design of the social housing systems, as well as to continuity in policies at national and local levels.
This paper addresses the phenomenon of families returning to inner cities. With evidence from the first qualitative study done on families residing in inner-city Helsinki, it demonstrates that urban ...living reduces the sharp divide between life before having children and family life. Urban parents stay in the city much for the same reasons they first moved there: because they are attracted to population density, good amenities and good public transport. Living in the city enables a lifestyle where different life stages blend into each other. The paper, however, reveals that there is a lack of understanding among city planners and politicians about family needs in the inner city. By adopting a framework of the reviewed literature, the paper draws on the argument that modernist ideals on proper family living still prevail. The paper suggests that planning must acknowledge that exclusionary life stages are eroding and creating a need to facilitate multiple forms of lifestyles.
This paper explores the concept of urbanity in a specific context, namely Helsinki, Finland. In a European context, Finland urbanized late. This lies at the heart of the common interpretation that ...Finland lacks an urban culture and urban lifestyles. Today, however, with the new comprehensive Urban Plan, city planners in Helsinki emphasize a paradigm shift towards urbanity. This paper seeks to understand this changing emphasis in planning by exploring how planners frame and understand urbanity. The paper concludes that within the Nordic welfare context more emphasis is needed to rethink whom urbanity serves and how it resonates with the prevention of segregation that the city also aims at.
Currently, hypermarkets represent most of the Finnish retail property stock leading to the dwindling of small mainstream retail. Accordingly, many retail premises have been left vacant at the old ...shopping centres in suburbia. Ethnic retailing has remarkably impacted the urban landscape of the city of Helsinki and spontaneously converted such abundant premises into livable agglomerations, which has contributed to placemaking. The aim of this paper is to study ethnic retailing through two case studies in Helsinki, with an explicit focus on its role in placemaking and the response of urban planning to the phenomenon. The case studies do not report success in planning for diversity. On the contrary, urban renewal policy threatens the existence of two successful agglomerations. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it demonstrates that ethnic retailing has a structured capacity to deal with market impacts, and the clustering of intercultural entrepreneurship supports its success. Second, the empirical work showed that factors related to space and its usage are already discussed in the theoretical work on placemaking. Third, it argues that the rigid boundaries of planning have prevented the city from perceiving the potential of ethnic retailing and placemaking remains in a blind spot.
Chain stores have changed the retail landscape leading to the decline of small independent retail. Consequently, public street life on shopping streets is fading, and many premises have been left ...vacant during the past decade. However, in Finland, such transformation in the retail landscape coincides with the rapid growth of ethnic retail in some Helsinki neighbourhoods, such as Malmi, an area undergoing major urban renewal. The aim of this research is to study the current condition of Malmi public life and to investigate the capacity of ethnic retail to enhance it. Another aim is to examine how ethnic retail has been reflected in deploying scenario planning. The paper argues that ethnic retail has an evident role in improving vitality. The city of Helsinki showed willingness to integrate ethnic retail in its vision for developing the area, but with some shortcomings. The study recommends that ethnic retailers in Malmi, and similar areas, should be recognized for their role in formulating ethnic identities and reinforcing public street life. As such, the paper contributes to literature on urban renewal and space identity with a focus on future uncertainties facing small retailers.
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