Mapping neighbourhood typologies for social-ecological urbanism : A spatial experiential analysis of Stockholm

Abstract: Studies on urban environments often display contradictory evidence regarding social and ecological outcomes, asserting conflicting development trajectories. In this thesis, affordance theory is applied with the aim of developing a method for relating high-precision mapping of urban structural characteristics to inhabitants’ experiences. I analyse neighbourhood scale trade-offs and synergies between residential populations (RP), working populations (WP) and the ecosystem service temperature regulation (TR) in Stockholm municipality. Neighbourhood typology is introduced as an empirical classification of neighbourhoods based on these structural characteristics. I further analyse experiential outcome in different typologies by applying inhabitant experience data (N = 1828) from an online public participatory geographic information system survey. Analyses reveal strong trade-off patterns between populations and TR capacity. No typologies feature a large RP, a large WP and high TR capacity. Positive experiences are more likely in neighbourhoods with high TR capacity and negative experiences are more likely in neighbourhoods with a large WP, while most neighbourhoods are equally well experienced despite differences in services. The thesis concludes that affordance theory provides methodological tools that when combined can close the gap between structural characteristics of the environment and experiential outcome, in turn leading to a better understanding of what constitutes social-ecological urbanism.