SUBDENSE

There is a shortage of housing in many cities. New construction through the  densification of the suburban realm of cities could provide a remedy. However,  different logics of action of landowners and other actors often stand in the way. In the SUBDENSE project, we are looking at this challenge of sustainable urban development. The interdisciplinary team unites researchers from four research institutions in Germany, France and the UK and it is led by four principal investigators: Mathias Jehling from the IOER, Thomas Hartmann from TU Dortmund, Sebastian Dembski from University of Liverpool and Bénédicte Bucher from Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN) in Paris.

Within the SUBDENSE research project we examine the dynamics of suburban densification and its effects on suburbia under different planning regimes in relation to interests and agency of local stakeholders and landowners. We seek to understand these effects through the concept of polyrationality of space, actors, and policies. This concept acknowledges that not all actors act according to the same logic, for example according to a classic economic behavioural model. Our approach integrates geodata analysis for spatial dynamics and social and policy science and planning for actors’. With a strong focus on landowners’ and local stakeholders’ plural interests and agencies, SUBDENSE addresses a knowledge gap in an often rather technical-administrative academic debate on land policies.

The SUBDENSE project is funded by the ORA7 collaboration of international research agencies. In addition to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), these are the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) and the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).