Wenwen Sun
Postdoctoral Researcher
Environment
The project I am currently involved, Conflicted Streets, is part of the European programme Driving Urban Transitions (DUT). To realize the 15mC concept to bring about change, there are many potential conflicts between stakeholders representing different interests and perspectives.
Essentially, the 15mC concept highlights conflicts between spaces of mobility, enabling local and regional mobility, and spaces of place, emphasising urban qualities that make people want to live in such places. Therefore, conflict over the use of space is a key issue that must be addressed in planning for the 15mC.
In many cases, such conflicts cannot be solved in consensus-oriented approaches to planning and decision making. A key goal for this project is to learn and build knowledge on planning practices and processes acknowledging the political and contested nature of such processes of change. This research is an important step in building knowledge about what generates conflicts in plans for the 15mC and developing guidance on how to deal with such conflicts.
The key questions are:
What kind of conflicts over spaces of mobility and spaces of place in the transition to the 15mC exist and respectively can be expected? And how do other aspects of the 15mC such as workplace models, provision of services and shared use of semi-public spaces add to this?
In what ways does the reallocation of roadspace away from moving and parked motor vehicles that is implied by the 15mC lead to specific conflict between different users (and potential users) of that space?
How can conflicts over spaces of flows and spaces of place in the transition to the 15mC be handled?
