The Narrative Turn in Urban Planning: Plotting the Helsinki Waterfront

Narratives, in the context of urban planning, matter profoundly. Planning theory and practice have taken an increasing interest in the role and power of narrative, and yet there is no comprehensive study of how narrative, and concepts from narrative and literary theory more broadly, can enrich planning and policy.

The Narrative Turn in Urban Planning addresses this gap by defining key concepts such as story, narrative, and plot against a planning backdrop, and by drawing up a functional typology of different planning narratives. In two extended case studies from the planning of the Helsinki waterfront, it applies the narrative concepts and theories to a broad range of texts and practices, considering ways toward a more conscious and contextualized future urban planning. Questioning what is meant when we speak of narratives in urban planning, and what typologies we can draw up, it presents a threefold taxonomy of narratives within a planning framework.

This book will serve as an important reference text for upper-level students and researchers interested in urban planning.

Lieven Ameel is a university lecturer in comparative literature at Tampere University, Finland. He holds a PhD in Finnish literature and comparative literature from the University of Helsinki and the JLU Giessen and is docent in urban studies and planning methods. He has published widely on literary experiences of the city, narrative planning, and urban futures. His other books include Helsinki in Early Twentieth-Century Literature (2014) and the co-edited volumes Literature and the Peripheral City (2015), Literary Second Cities (2017), and The Materiality of Literary Narratives in Urban History (2019).