After spending five years working on Helsinki in literature for my doctoral dissertation, I felt the need for something quite different. I wanted to take some distance from the city of the imagination, and move into the direction of today’s real and tangible built, urban environment. Instead of looking for the city in literature, I wanted to look for literature in the city: for narrative structures in planning new city districts.

In my current research, I am exploring the structure and use of narratives in the planning of Helsinki long urban waterfront. I am looking, in particular, at two districts in Helsinki that are currently being developed: Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari. My aim is to examine planning and policy documents using methods and concepts from literary and narrative studies. Can a planning document be read as an example of the bildungsroman? How important are rhetorical devices (the use of metaphor, for example) in the argumentation of particular change in the urban environment? And how are planning visions framed in a larger narrative framework that involves marketing, social media, and citizens’ participation?