Sustainable Urban Form: Framing and Selectivity
Issues in Eco–city Projects in Stockholm, Sweden
Simon Elias Bibri
Abstract
In this article, I investigate framing and discursive and material selectivity as important issues that need to be addressed in the planning of eco–city as a model of sustainable urban form. Focusing on the Stockholm region in Sweden, I discuss issues of the contribution of eco–city model to sustainability as well as some key themes in the discourse on eco–city projects, namely the integration of environmental, economic and social sustainability and design and technology as solution in urban projects documents pertaining specifically to Hammarby Sjöstad and Stockholm Royal Seaport. The article is divided into four sections. First, I elucidate the concept and problem of framing and discursive and material selectivity. Second, I briefly discuss the discourse of sustainability, sustainable urban forms and eco–city, pointing out some key issues that need to be addressed in sustainable urban planning. In the third and main section of the article, I investigate plans and projects for sustainable urban development, focusing and elaborating on framing and discursive and material selectivity issues in the construction of the discourse on eco–city projects in Stockholm and discussing the findings in terms of the integration of sustainability dimensions, the economic benefits of and the negative environmental effects of energy efficiency and green technology, the shaping influence of cultural frames, the links of eco–city to macro–processes of regulation, the technological orientation of eco– city projects and the associated selectivity aspects. The article concludes with a call for further research for the possibilities of a more environmentally sound and holistic approach to sustainable urban forms.
Key words: Framing, selectivity, sustainability, eco–city, sustainable urban form, design and technology, energy
References: Entman, RM, 1993, ‘Framing: toward clarification of a fractured paradigm’, Journal of Communication, vol Joss, S. 2010, ‘Eco–cities: a global survey 2009’, WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, vol