Conflicts over sustainable landscape and spatial development in the context of current urban expansion projects within growing urban regions in Germany. A discourse-theoretical, praxeological analysis

Suburban landscapes are subject to rapid change and have been controversially evaluated in spatial discourses, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, as an expression of or instrument for social change. Against the background of the continuing high demand for living space and the increasing scarcity of space in city centres, suburban landscapes are currently coming back into focus. There is even talk of a ‘new suburbanity’ with regard to the major urban expansion projects in the surrounding areas of many major German cities. These projects are planned with high demands on innovative concepts in terms of sustainability, climate adaptation and open space. In this respect, they are highly politically contested. Nevertheless, landscape-related aspects are emphasised in the planning of conflicts in growing urban regions. This suggests that the articulation of transformation conflicts is currently particularly visible in the ‘refiguration’ (Löw/Knoblauch 2021) of suburban landscapes.

This PhD project aims to shed light on the development of urban landscapes in the context of growth-oriented urban planning, with a particular focus on the discursive framing of these developments. By applying poststructuralist discourse theories (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985; Nonhoff, 2019) and governmentality (Foucault, 1979; Leibenath, 2024), this PhD project expands the framework of discourse analysis in open space planning and shifts the focus from hegemonic discourses to a more differentiated understanding of counter-hegemonic discourses. The central questions are: a) the conceptualisation of landscapes in urban planning for urban growth, b) the problematisations that arise in this context and the resulting landscape-related rationalities, and c) conflicts over sustainable spatial development. The PhD project also attempts to identify the processes of re- and depoliticisation of landscape in the context of urban growth and to contribute insights into the (non-)treatment of housing and climate crises in urban growth regimes.

To this end, multi-stage case studies will be developed for Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Munich. In the first work package, which represents an exploratory study and discourse analysis, political and planning documents and media reports - supplemented by individual and group interviews, site visits and initial observations - will be used to analyse urban-regional landscape and participation discourses with regard to hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses and practices. Building on this, the second work package will select planning episodes occurring at the time and examine them from a praxeological perspective. Here, primarily ethnographic, participatory methods are used. The third work package consists of theorising and analysis, whereas the fourth work package is dedicated to the self-reflection of the researchers.

Affiliated research project: Stadtregionale, beteiligungsorientierte Landschaftspolitik ‚in the making‘: eine diskurstheoretische, praxeologische Perspektive (DFG-project number 466529662)

Since 2024

Research assistant at the Department of Landscape Planning and Communication, University of Kassel, in the research project "City-regional, participation-oriented landscape policy 'in the making': a discourse-theoretical, praxeological perspective" (DFG-funded)

2023

Research assistant at the Institute for Urban Research, Planning and Communication, Erfurt University of Applied Sciences, in the research project "XR-Participation spaces for extended social participation in urban transformation processes" (BMBF-funded)

2020 - 2023

Urbanistik (Urban Studies) (M.Sc.) Bauhaus University Weimar

2022 - 2023

Scientific assistant at Complan Kommunalberatung GmbH, Potsdam, in the research project "Participation in multifunctional inner-city development" (on behalf of the BBSR)

2021 - 2023

Student research assistant for housing research, Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Weimar

2020

Internship specialized journalism architecture and urban planning DETAIL Business Information GmbH, Munich

2019 - 2020

Study programme Spatial Planning (M.Sc.) University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna

2016 - 2020

Stadt- und Regionalplanung (Urban and Regional Planning) (B.Sc.) University of Kassel

2018 - 2020

Student Assistant, Department of Urban and Regional Sociology, University of Kassel

2018 - 2019

Internship urban planning, bgsm architekten stadtplaner, Munich

2016

Internship in regional development, H&S GbR, Freising

2015 - 2016

Federal Volunteer Service for Monument Research, Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, Munich

Zerche, Ina; Fuchs, Jana; Rhede-Bauers, Christiane; Hoelzmann, Janine; Kratzer, Yasmin; Bochinski, Svenja et al. (2024): Multifunktionale Innenstadtentwicklung und Partizipationskultur. Hg. v. Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (BBSR). Bonn (BBSR-Online-Publikation, 102/2024). https://www.bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/DE/veroeffentlichungen/bbsr-online/2024/bbsr-online-102-2024.html.

Bochinski, Svenja / Drilling, Jonas / Till, Mayer (2023): Mehr Teilhabe in der Stadtentwicklung durch Koproduktion? In: Anton Brokow-Loga (Hg.). Corona und die Stadt. Bielefeld: transcript. 51-70. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6548-2/corona-und-die-stadt/?number=978-3-8376-6548-2 DOI: 10.14361/9783839465486-004

Bochinski, Svenja / Drilling, Jonas / Till, Mayer (2022): Zwischen Zivilgesellschaft und öffentlicher Verwaltung. Perspektiven koproduktiver Stadtentwicklung abseits der Großstadt. RaumPlanung 217, 2021/3-4: 95 – 98

Bochinski, Svenja / Müller, Theresa / Rietzler, Hannah / Speidel, Felix / Sprute, Marie (2021): Durch Nachbarschaften Wohnraum schaffen – Projekt „RaumTeiler:innen”. Planerin, 2021/05: 53 - 54

Bochinski, Svenja (2020): Inwiefern wird das durch Macht strukturierte Wirkungsgefüge von Raum und Gender bereits in der Kindheit inkorporiert? Kassel: University Press Kassel. Bachelorthesis. doi:10.17170/kobra-202010201977