From Creep to Co-op: Research(er) Paying the Cost of Displacement

Journal article, 2013

As discussed by planning researchers Jalakas & Larsson (2008) , in Sweden, soci-etal issues such as social sustainability, urban life and gender fails to travel from comprehensive documents in the urban planning system to the legislative ones (i.e. the “detailed development plans”). This might, as this essay argues, have to do with the absence of “cultural brokers”, i.e a kind of translator of the narratives told in a particular society. Can researchers act as such translators – increasing the precence of cultural and everyday-life experiences in legislative planning docu-ments? This essay discusses problems and possibilities with an ethnograpghy en-gageing with/in society.