Urban Inequality in Finland : Land, Housing and the Nordic Welfare State

Abstract

Taking on Finland as its main case study, <i>Urban Inequality in a Nordic Welfare State</i> investigates urban governance, land and housing policies and the uneven development of the built environment. It analyses city strategies, policy documents and interviews with urban authorities to show how decentralisation, growing inter-city competition and the adopting of economic policies informed by an ideology of efficiency and entrepreneurialism in governance, have prompted the state and cities in Finland to sell public, urban land to get money for public treasuries. It demonstrates how recent transformations in the policies of a Nordic welfare state that have traditionally worked to curb urban inequalities, now allow for them to become exacerbated.