Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place

Abstract

The village of Duved in northern Sweden faces rapid transformation related to the tourism industry, including new housing and recreational facilities in the mountains. Existing places with inherent social values that play a key role in supporting local identity are threatened as they are not sufficiently recognised or protected by the planning process. This study focuses on how significant places with social values, and the system of such places that form a social infrastructure, may be identified and recognised through a multi-perspective approach including a creative mapping process. Information from different stakeholders about places with social values is documented and analysed. The approach includes three different perspectives on places affording social values: planning documents, the officials’ perspective and the citizens’ perspective. The mapping method makes intangible knowledge visible and reveals the multifunctionality of places, and the map constitutes the medium for such a process. It can contribute to developing democratic planning processes that support the empowerment of the population and help professionals to integrate knowledge about social value into plans, thus preserving fragile but essential qualities through future development. Practice relevance Centring on the ongoing rapid transformation of Duved village in northern Sweden, this study focuses on how significant places with social values may be identified, recognised and preserved. Places affording social value, important for sustaining local communities and wellbeing, are often insufficiently acknowledged in times of forceful urban development. These oversights can have devastating consequences for the existing social qualities. The creative mapping approach captures three perspectives to identify significant places affording social values. In this way, maps translate intangible knowledge into analytic methods of planning. The result may support the integration of fragile but essential qualities into plans and policies and is a way forward to acknowledge and preserve key places in future urban development.