Planning for Flourishing Neighborhoods; Promoting Holistic Well-Being Through a Systemic Approach to Adapting Daily Environments; Tested in Kvillestaden

Abstract

The multitude of global crises, such as environmental degradation, growing social inequalities, and geopolitical instability, threatens human lives and demands drastic changes to lived environments. Further, health experts emphasize the need for spatial planning to become key actors in preventative health as urban environments significantly restrict human health and well-being. Addressing these challenges, however, confronts planners with a wicked problem. Contemporary development often fails to address the systemic nature of these challenges — labeled “green and healthy” transformations risk perpetuating exclusionary patterns, rather than achieving equitable and meaningful improvements to the lived experience of urban inhabitants. Drawing from a holistic understanding of well-being in the form of “flourishing,” this thesis aims to generate new insights into how planners can actively shape neighborhoods that promote healthier, happier, and more fulfilling ways of living, while enhancing social and ecological justice, using Kvillestaden as a case study. The thesis’s theoretical work formulates flourishing as the central target for the sustainable development of lived environments and proposes a corresponding planning framework by drawing from planning concepts and references in health promotion. The practical work explores how to translate the concept of flourishing into holistic, equitable, and meaningful health impacts within a local context through a community-sensitive approach, using methods such as participatory design and prototyping. This thesis contributes to the discourse on sustainable development and preventative health by showing that external and permanent spatial changes alone fall short in holistically promoting well-being, as well as reaching the audiences whose conditions for well-being are most inhibited. Instead, it highlights that planning must provide approaches and processes that support ongoing, citizen-led environmental adaptation. Finally, the work also reveals the limits of spatial planning in fostering flourishing neighborhoods if not supported by political and legislative efforts.