For well over a decade, there has been a drive towards sustainability in planning throughout the Nordic countries. But are these countries experiencing a paradigm shift in planning research and practice with regards to sustainability? Or is the sustainability discourse leading them into an impasse in planning? This book includes overviews of the planning systems in the five Nordic countries, drawing attention to their increasing focus on sustainability. A leading team of scholars from the fields of planning, urban design, architecture, landscape, economics, real estate and tourism explore how the notion of sustainability has shaped planning research in the Nordic countries. Case studies from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark shed light on what lessons can be learned and some possible future developments. By focusing on the actual settings and practices of local and regional planning activities, it enables a discussion on the current state of planning for a more sustainable future. This book will be valuable reading for students and academics interested in planning policy, environmental policy, architecture and urban design work.

Ecosystem services in the Nordic countries entail a high potential with regard to regional growth and job creation. The report Unlocking regional potentials describes recent policy actions taken by the Nordic countries regarding natural and cultural heritage as a valuable resource in sustainable regional development. In addition, the report introduces examples of European and Nordic research and development activities concerning valuation of natural and cultural heritage. Nordic experiences underline the need to apply a broad view on regional development including the importance of natural and cultural heritage to human health, well-being, social inclusion and local identity. There is also a need to develop regional platforms for interaction between different interest groups, and to carry out further analyses of regional assets with regard to natural and cultural heritage.

The challenges of the global climate crisis are heightened in large part by a pervasive uncertainty regarding how architects and de-signers can address this challenge most effectively. In a situation where action is needed, but the correct strategies remain un-known, it is essential for architects to share their experiences and knowledge as broadly as possible. They must seek out perspectives that can help them overcome these impasses. When climate change was put at the top of the international environmental agenda more than a decade ago, Scandinavian countries were ready and able to respond quickly and methodically. Today, Scandinavia is still on the forefront of sustainable development, reorienting cultural engagement and economic growth to face climate change. The experience and knowledge accumulated by architects from Denmark, Norway and Sweden have the potential to enrich the exchange of ideas that is vital to a shift towards holistic thinking and sustainable architectural practice. In this book, essential aspects of sustainability in architecture and planning are approached from many diverse perspectives. They exemplify the breadth and depth of explorations underway. The collection of writings is based on six years of visits made to the three Scandinavian countries, and sustained engagements with the schools of architecture in the capital cities of Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. The book aims to illuminate lessons being learned by architects in Scandinavia, that are also relevant in a global perspective. The main drivers of sustainability are highlighted through case studies that cover all scales from planning and infrastructure to buildings and components. The cases illustrate central themes such as energy, lifecycles, industrialization, durability, transformation, and history. More acutely architectural topics such as adaptability, integrated design, and architectural education/tradition further permeate the cases. At the same time, the projects exempli-fy the best practices of sustainable architecture in Scandinavia in-cluding housing, offices, cultural buildings, and urban development.

Available online: https://pub.norden.org/nord2022-018/ This policy brief is issued by the Nordic Working Group for Sustainable Cities, under the umbrella of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The overall objective and purpose of the efforts of this working group, which ended its work at the end of 2021 and was subsequently integrated into the Nordic Working Group on Biodiversity, was to contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030 with an emphasis on strengthening the exchange of experiences and co-operating on Nordic solutions for sustainable urban development. The importance of urban green spaces in achieving this has been a key focus of the group’s work. The text was prepared by Cecil C. Konijnendijk under assignment from the Working Group.

Planning and Urban Growth in Nordic Countries examines urban development and planning in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Emphasis is on the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, and the authors of each 'country-study' look at their own national developments against the background of those in other Nordic countries well as the rest of Europe and the USA.

The 2030 Agenda, adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, outlines an ambitious and universal plan of action for people, planet and prosperity as it seeks to strengthen universal peace and freedom. This report presents national and Nordic action on Agenda 2030 with the aim to inform and support the Nordic Council of Ministers in formulating a new Nordic Sustainable Development Programme. All Nordic countries are engaged and strongly committed to implementing Agenda 2030 and there is a broad societal interest in joint Nordic action. The existing Nordic Strategy for Sustainable Development and several other key initiatives within Nordic cooperation already contribute to the goals of Agenda 2030. A new Nordic Sustainable Development Programme can build upon a strong foundation and add further value to the national and international work done by the Nordic countries.

Politics and Conflict in Governance and Planning offers a critical evaluation of manifold ways in which the political dimension is reflected in contemporary planning and governance. While the theoretical debates on post-politics and the wider frame of post-foundational political theory provide substantive explanations for the crisis in planning and governance, still there is a need for a better understanding of how the political is manifested in the planning contents, shaped by institutional arrangements and played out in the planning processes. This book undertakes a reassessment of the changing role of the political in contemporary planning and governance. Employing a wide range of empirical research conducted in several regions of the world, it draws a more complex and heterogeneous picture of the context-specific depoliticisation and repoliticisation processes taking place in local and regional planning and governance. It shows not only the domination of market forces and the consequent suppression of the political but also how political conflicts and struggles are defined, tackled and transformed in view of the multifaceted rules and constraints recently imposed to local and regional planning. Switching the focus to how strategies and forms of depoliticised governance can be repoliticised through renewed planning mechanisms and socio-political mobilisation, Politics and Conflict in Governance and Planning is a critical and much needed contribution to the planning literature and its incorporation of the post-politics and post-democracy debate.