Maroš Krivý, “Don’t Plan! The Use of the Notion of ‘Culture’ in Transforming Obsolete Industrial Space,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, 37, 5 (2013), 1724–1746.

How do planners understand “culture” and what do they do when they employ “culture” as a tool of revitalizing abandoned industrial space? This article studies the case of Suvilahti case in Helsinki, and introduces the concept of cultural governmentality. Planning is carrried out by deliberately minimizing planning interventions, and promoting ostensibly spontaneous practices of cultural producers. The future Suvilahti is imagined as a “living organism”. Planners are at pains to avoid interfering with the “non-planned” character of culture, yet they also value it as intrinsically beneficial to the city.