Socially sustainable housing renovations through co-creative dialogues - A critical case study of tenant dialogues during the DrottningH project, Helsingborg

Abstract: In Sweden processes concerning physical planning have changed and developed in a direction where dialogue has become increasingly important in planning policy and practice (Khakee, 2000). The co-creative dialogue (Adler, 2015) is a way to achieve ambitions to include groups with few resources, counteract political inclusion and actively work towards everyone’s right to participate and have influence (Westin and Hellquist, 2015). Furthermore, the co-creative dialogue is important in overcoming the increasing complexity that today’s society is faced with and especially in terms of social sustainability (Abrahamsson, 2015b). There is however a growing criticism towards this development, where it has been argued that people who are participating have no real influence (Thörn and Holgersson, 2014). Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper has been to critically examine potential limitations of already framed renovation projects and how co-creative processes can be conducive in improving their practical implementation. A critical qualitative case study has been carried out based on semi-structured interviews with actors involved in the dialogue processes. Documents from the municipality of Helsingborg, the DrotttningH project and Helsingborghem are also part of the material. This paper highlights that although steps have been taken by the housing company Helsingborghem to include tenants through dialog, there is still a lot to be done in terms of achieving co-creative dialogue with tenants during renovations, especially when it comes to the extent of renovations. While a number of tenants argues that they have been able to influence plans to some extent, many of them at the same time argue that they have not had the chance to affect the outcome of the plans. It is concluded that in order to meet the demand for socially sustainable renovation processes, incorporating and handling conflicts through co- creative dialogue should be integrated as an essential part of such processes.