A technocratic road to spatial justice? The standard as planning knowledge and the making of postwar Sweden’s welfare landscapes

This article analyses the politics of spatial justice in knowledge-making practices planning expertise postwar Sweden. The paper traces genealogy ‘standards’ modern Swedish planning, arguing that this was a fundamental form knowledge which came to articulate ‘universalist’ justice. Standards were constructed as way measure and make complex calculations about range ‘needs’, making overarching goal address universal human needs measured by standards. technocratic articulation had limitations. often proved difficult for grassroots groups contest expertise, but mode well-suited corporate interests looking influence planners space their standardized consumer products. These tensions fore Sweden's green outdoor spaces, where standards car users played crucial role shaping landscape hesitated define national areas such parks provision. Expert might, then, be powerful tool systematically shape according particular justice, yet Sweden’s road also exemplifies dangers approach.