The objective of our article is twofold. First, we claim that the theoretical planning discussion dealing with public participation has forgotten one basic principle, namely that the people are taking part in the planning process because they are interested in a particular issue. There is a need for new conceptual approaches in participatory research which carry the discussion first towards the issues, then to the structures of participation. For this reason, we have combined practiceoriented policy analysis with the recent discussion of issue politics. Second, we implement the key propositions of the theoretical debate in an empirical case. The aim is to indicate how the trajectory of the issue, as well as its continuities and discontinuities, develop in diverse ways in different civic forums. We claim that this perspective provides more information for researchers, civil servants and citizens about the logic of participatory practice.

The need for more dweller-oriented approaches to the development of residential environments is widely agreed upon. In the theoretical discussion, the concept of affordances has been seen as promising in grasping the desirable dwelling features and how they become meaningful in everyday uses. However, the concept has been used surprisingly little in empirical housing studies. This article introduces an inventive method to study affordances and contributes to the understanding of the concept by reflecting its usefulness in the context of housing research. The method consists of focus group interviews guided by participant-produced photographs, which allows the participants more freedom to define what they consider meaningful in their dwellings. The results reveal some desirable dwelling features largely uncovered by the public or scholarly discussions yet. From residents' perspective, developing higher quality housing means paying greater attention to the mundane "secondary spaces", the sensory experiences and the related atmospheric qualities, as well as the continuums between interior and exterior spaces. The results also emphasize an active role of the resident in discovering and shaping the affordances.

The aim of this article is to shed light on how ongoing structural change towards the global digital economy condition urban economic development. Discussion starts with a brief reference to the growth machine thesis and its emphasis on the interests of local land and real estate owners. This theory serves as a contrasting point for the second element of our framework, the platform economy, which brings digital platforms and the transnational capitalist class into the picture. The transition from the urban growth machines of the industrial age to the digital growth platforms of the information age imply a radical change in the context of urban economic development. On this basis, we discuss cities’ need to adjust their growth strategies to the conditions of the emerging platform economy. Our illustrative case is the capital region of Finland. We interviewed officials and experts who hold key positions in the design of economic development policy in the three largest cities of this area. The empirical results show that the platform economy is rather vaguely conceptualized, and its challenges are ambiguously addressed. Cities have, however, started to adopt platform and ecosystem thinking in their strategies and established urban innovation platforms, talent and start-up attraction programs, and open data initiatives that reflect the gradual adoption of platform logic in urban economic development.

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Developing the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of urban environments is challenging due to the complex and interconnected nature of the context and objectives. In order to be successful in this challenging environment, professionals working in the urban development arena should have a holistic understanding of the different pillars of sustainable development, as well as various competencies and skills. This paper looks at sustainable urban development (SUD) from the perspective of the skills and competencies required and identifies effective pedagogic practices that could help educate future professionals. In particular, we explore interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning, reflective thinking, and experiential learning, which are needed for understanding various aspects of a complex phenomenon, collaborating with professionals from different fields and coming up with novel and constructive ways of solving complex problems. We first examine these through reviewing and analyzing relevant literature on education for sustainable development, with a focus on SUD. Then, we explore the application of these approaches in practice by describing and analyzing a newly introduced degree program at Tampere University, Finland.