Discourses of growth in megaproject-based urban development: a comparative study of Poland and Finland

Abstract

The paper aims to add to the debate on the varieties of neoliberalism and the homogenizing effects of megaproject-based urban development. It examines the acculturation of the growth imperative as the master discourse that supports the development and implementation of two projects aimed at transforming the centers of Tampere, Finland, and Łódź, Poland. The selected cities shared similar traits as industrial centers in the past, but their current socioeconomic situation is entirely different. Tampere holds the title of “Finland’s most likeable city,” while rapidly depopulating Łódź was labeled the “Polish Detroit.” Nevertheless, both municipalities became attracted by the idea of boosting their development through implementing large-scale infrastructural investments to reshape their centers. Inspired by discursive institutionalism, which defines discourse as a set of policy ideas and values, and interactive policy communication and formulation processes, the paper reconstructs and compares the strategic visions of Tampere’s “Five Star City Centre” and “The New Centre of Łódź.” It demonstrates how the proponents of the projects discursively forced consent around proposed ideas. Namely, it shows how the issues of complexity, risk, and potential conflict of the two megaprojects have been addressed. On a conceptual level, the paper shows how policy convergence can be discursively facilitated in different socioeconomic, cultural, and political circumstances.

Space Efficiency in Finnish Mid-Rise Timber Apartment Buildings

“…As in many countries of the world [1][2][3], Finland has been substantially affected by the increase in global urbanization and the consequent urbanization trend [4,5]. In Finland, where more than 80% of the population lives in cities, this rate is estimated to reach 90% by 2050 [6].…”

The Panopticon reloaded: A critical analysis of performance management systems in the trans-European transport network policy

“…Recent scholarship has indeed argued that megaproject planning and implementation often resemble a battle of divergent wills, where promoters work to impose their will on protesters through different power strategies. Power has been explored in the form of narratives which can be used as strategic tools to influence policy development (Crow and Jones, 2018; Rek-Woźniak, 2023; Terlizzi, 2021). For example, promoters may publicly depict a megaproject as a form of sustainable, technological progress to be accomplished in the name of the collective interest—no matter what the resistance of concerned local communities (Esposito et al, 2022; Ninan and Sergeeva, 2021, 2022a, 2022b).…”