Ordinary Small City. An examination on Reykjavik's current and realizable urbanism

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Urban and Regional Planning, grade: Distinction, London School of Economics, course: Urban and Regional Planning, language: English, abstract: Small cities (less than 500,000 inhabitants) host fifty-two percent of the world urban population, yet they are profoundly neglected in the urban studies field. This research focuses on the small city of Reykjavík (118,326 inhabitants), and investigates how the planning system is trying to build a new urban strategy away from the world city model which was adopted until the banking collapse of 2008. The results reveal that the city is going through a cultural renaissance animated by a multitude of small events, enhancements of the public realm, grassroots initiatives and a more fruitful collaboration between planning authorities and citizens. At the same time the new Reykjavík master plan currently under discussion is prioritising growth scenarios affiliated with big-iconic developments. This dissertation concludes that the planning system needs to support a more responsive, integrated and holistic urbanism at a regional and governance level. It should support a politics of small things, protecting the human scale, the sense of place, and diversity, by enhancing the endogenous resources and developing processes of participation in the city making which are the bases of the reconstruction of trust, self-confidence and citizenship.