Re-Building the Alpine Rhine Valley - An Exploratory Case-Study of Sustainability Fixes and Densification Regimes
Project Description
Urban densification as a heterogenous planning principle covering diverse concepts such as "the re-use of brownfield land, more intensive use of urban buildings, sub-divisions and conversions of existing development" (Burton, 2000, p. 1969) emerged in the last three decades as an answer to spatial challenges such as soil consumption, traffic jams, ecological downgrading and social segregation. Therefore, urban densification is conceived as an important part of sustainable planning. Expanding such a narrow conception and using a critical perspective on sustainable development, urban densification can be seen as part of a "sustainability fix" (While et al., 2004) that selectively incorporates ecological sustainability in growth-oriented development paths of spatial development. This study specifically wants to address actor coalitions that govern urban densification projects in the Austrian Alpine Rhine Valley by taking up the "densification regimes" concept. The focus of my cumulative dissertation hence lies on how urban densification as a process driven by actor interests restructures the Alpine Rhine Valley and how the "sustainability fix" is used as a discursive device by different actors within urban densification projects.
