Regiimiteoriaa testaamassa

Lahden keskustan kehittämisen tapaus

Abstract

How is urban space produced? Planners, politicians, building companies, real estate owners, investors,
entrepreneurs and citizens are all involved, but the challenge is how to describe this complex, multi-actor
process. There are several, dissonant actors cooperating on emerging agendas. The construction of power
between them depends on the agenda, the composition of actors and their relations. First, this article
examines the relationships and coalition building amongst city officials, local politicians and business actors
in the urban renewal process of Lahti during 2012–2014. Second, the analytical explanatory power of
the urban regime theory will be re-evaluated in the context of contemporary Finland. The article argues
that the urban regime theory, which originates from the North-American urban context in the 1980s, is
a useful analytical tool to study European cities, if one takes into account the legal, economic and political
differences between countries.