Re-visiting NIMBY as Conflict of Valuations and Interests

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Urban Decline and Development

Abstract

This paper re-visits the concept of Not In my Backyard (NIMBY) from the perspective of democracy. Instead of understanding the concept exclusively from the planning perspective, this paper takes the viewpoint of the citizens participating in such conflicts. NIMBY conflicts are shown to be as much about different modes of valuation as they are of conflicting interests. Empirically, two planning changes in Helsinki, Finland are used to show the variety of argumentation used by residents acting against planning changes. NIMBY discussion is related to the key concepts of French pragmatist theory, justification and counter-democracy. NIMBY movements work in parallel of official planning processes. Their opposition is sometimes based on liberal notion of private interest, but nearly as often on some notion of common good. The competition of these different modes of valuing plans and common goods is shown to be of central importance to these movements.

Author

• Veikko Eranti, University of Helsinki