Station district planning for sustainable spatial and transportation development: Actors’ responses to asymmetric power dynamics

Abstract

Station districts are focal points to integrate spatial and transportation development in the urban fabric and help prevent unsustainable trends, such as urban sprawl and declined transit. Planning station districts is complex due to two reasons. First, a station district has an expanded development perimeter, including potential projects in the transit station, station area, adjacent neighborhoods, and spaces connecting mass transit with inner-city transportation modes. Consequently, a multitude of actors can collaborate in planning processes. Second, integrating spatial and transportation development necessitates intersectoral collaboration between actors operating at multiple planning levels, such as national and regional public transport providers and local settlement and property developers. These challenges manifest in a clash of different planning cultures comprising contrasting formal frameworks and ambiguous informal attitudes and conventions. Formal and informal institutions guide actors’ communication and interactions and thus reflect power relations. However, the literature has not yet clarified how changing institutional landscapes could alter power relations. To approach this research gap, I conducted qualitative comparative case studies of two station districts in Switzerland, using document and content analyses of interview transcripts, observation protocols, and field notes. My research was part of a larger transdisciplinary research project with Swiss Federal Railways. The findings demonstrate that power dynamics in station district planning follow asymmetric structures favoring actors operating at multiple planning levels, such as national and regional public transport providers. These power structures include resources based on financial and technological assets, expert knowledge, and rule-setting and regulatory powers. Meanwhile, structurally less powerful actors rely on behavioral resources to balance asymmetric power dynamics, including procedural knowledge and alliance-forming capacities based on informal social conventions and collective attitudes. As a result, municipalities can distinguish themselves by establishing discourse platforms to align national and regional public transport planning with local settlement structures and integrate the appropriate actors.