New Nordicities for Northern communities: exploring synergies between spatial planning and place branding in Edmonton, Alberta

We analyse the construction of new Nordicities, as in new and guiding discourses for urban development which engage with a Northern location. Spatial planning and place branding are proposed as mutually reinforcing instruments to support the strategic positioning of cities located in northern climes. Planning in such an environment must take on board urban and landscape design, not merely for esthetics but as necessary tools to integrate scales of spatial organization, and to relate discursive Nordicities to spaces and spatial interventions which embody that discourse. Empirically, we draw on the city of Edmonton, Alberta, notable for its cold climate, increased planning ambitions, as well as recent initiatives towards embracing both the North and the winter. Different qualitative methods allow us to reconstruct changes in the understanding of the winter, the North, as well as changes in ideas on the role of planning and design. We argue that the deliberate construction of strategy around new Nordicities, adapted to local conditions and aspirations, and selectively incorporating foreign examples and external expertise, is a worthwhile pursuit for any northern community rethinking its relation to a northern context, and hoping to go beyond adaptation to the less pleasant features of climate and geography.