‘Just right’ urbanism? Beyond communitarian ideals in Stockholm’s compact neighbourhoods

Abstract

This article investigates the widely implemented compact neighbourhood type and aims to stimulate fresh thinking in Anglo-American urban enquiry by building on the work of Massey and others to illuminate relational complexities between sociality and space. The authors present findings from research in Stockholm, which reveal spatial porosity and novel social meanings existing between polarised notions of connectedness and separateness. Such insights may be overlooked without adequate recognition of agency in relational investigations. Thus, renewed emphasis on agential capacity in both people and built form would benefit planning efforts. The neighbourhoods investigated foster patterns of “just right” (lagom) urbanity in which individuals find temporary reprieve and sociospatial mediation amidst wider metropolitan challenges. Future research could determine if neighbourhoods situated elsewhere foster similar interrelations, and–if so–what impacts on human well-being result. The authors urge theorists to undertake more-than-relational research in other contexts and with other neighbourhood types.