Helena Leino
Biographic Data
| ID | 4408798 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helena Leino |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helena |
| FAMILY NAME | Leino |
| SIGNATURE | LEINO H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tampere University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3089-7739 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Saving the “lungs of the city”: Emerging civic action in urban environmental policy: case studies from Tampere, Finland and Worcester, Massachusetts
We have long witnessed conservation movements emerging in tandem with industrial expansion and urbanisation, but such impetus took a new turn in the 1960s and 1970s with the global birth of a new kind of urban environmental policy. In this comparative case study, we provide a close examination of two urban movements at the forefront of a new era of environmentalism, movements that bore lasting environmental policy agendas in their respective citi…
Selective Precision: Managing the Performativity of Urban Planning Visualisations in View of a Case from Finland
Publisher Copyright: © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Eco-gentrification in a Welfare State: How Sustainable City Development Gradually Reduces Social Equity
In Nordic welfare states, progressive planning and housing policies have prevented the most severe forms of gentrification-led displacement. In this paper, we argue that eco-gentrification as a phenomenon is entering the Nordic countries. We illustrate this with a case study of the fast-growing, medium-sized Finnish city of Tampere, where the transformation of a former welfare city into a “sustainable city” is creating unintended gentrification. …
From big apple to home of hockey: How scalar narratives and performative practices work in urban planning
Drawing from a case study in Finland, the paper analyses the performative practice of urban development projects in order to win public support for the desired future. The role of famous architects as agents of urban change is pivotal. This raises the concern of how the performative trend in planning cuts down the public discussion of possible alternative futures. The analysis uses the concept techniques of futuring and follows the repetition of …
Heterotopic diversity of coworking spaces: Providing adaptive capacity for cities
Heterotopias are other spaces that play a crucial role in the adaptive capacity of cities. They balance the city by hosting the abnormal, nurture alternative cultures and allow novel practices that act as seeds of change. In this paper, we study the life cycle and regenerative nature of heterotopias by analysing the expansion of 400 self-organising coworking spaces (CWSs) in Helsinki from 2010 to 2018. This brings a new understanding of how CWSs …
Heating up the sauna: Analogue model unraveling the creativity of public participation
One of the main criticisms of participatory planning is its tendency to produce mediocre outcomes due to the compromises made in the search for consensus. As a remedy, there have been recent proposals to enrich participatory processes with stronger visionary leadership. We want to broaden this debate by highlighting the relationship between successful leaderless self-organisation and more conventional forms of participation. We argue that althoug…
‘A great [Nordic] city is full of stories!’ Persuasive techniques in urban development videos
Literature on planning as storytelling says little about the techniques of this persuasive practice. An analysis of six urban development videos in three Nordic cities clarifies how futures are envisioned and audiences seduced in the visual digital era. Variables related to space, time, and power demonstrate how meaning is created, the positive is accentuated, and hierarchies are established between places and groups of people. The discussion add…
The politics of making Finland an experimenting nation
As atop-level national policy agenda, the Experimental Finland initiative (2015-2019) opens up an opportunity to investigate the politics of the nationally promoted experimental turn. We examine how the state launched agovernmental-level project aiming for the whole nation to become experimental. The Experimental Finland initiative was Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s governmental Spearhead Programmes 2015-2019. This paper explores the underlying pol…
What can co-creation do for the citizens? Applying co-creation for the promotion of participation in cities
Co-creation has become a globally popular concept in different sectors of the society. Its promise lies in breaking down hierarchies between local government, business life, universities, citizens and other stakeholders. Instead of being a top-down or bottom-up process, co-creation involves a multi-directional approach to problem solving. In this article, we scrutinize the capacity of co-creation to transform the practices of public sector in the…
Building Citizens’ Trust in Urban Infill: A Dynamic Approach
Urban infill is a topical issue for the growing cities in the Nordic countries. In Finland, many suitable infill sites are owned by resident-owned housing companies, and thus a successful infill process requires reconfiguration of the planning and participation practices. In this paper, we forward a dynamic approach to trust as a fruitful conceptualization of actor relationships. Building on Malcolm Tait’s typology of trust and drawing on Bourdie…
Bypassing Publicity for Getting Things Done: Between Informal and Formal Planning Practices in Finland
This article contributes to the discussion concerning the ways in which network governance and classical-modernist government practices juxtapose and redefine the idea of publicity in planning practices. Through Finnish urban planning cases we ask what kind of publicity is being promoted. We argue that new modes of governing build and employ institutional ambiguity for ‘getting things done’. This provides possibilities to ‘skim the cream’ of the …
It’s all about the birds! Non-human actors’ situational power in creating conditions for human engagement
In this article, we aim to understand how planning theory and practice should approach new urban entities and their transforming meanings. We argue that planning practice has difficulties in identifying and recognising developmental processes where the human attachment to the local environment gradually changes the identity and use of an area. Instead, these processes are interpreted as disruptions in the planned course of action. We illustrate o…
Situated knowledge–situated legitimacy: Consequences of citizen participation in local environmental governance
This article examines how situated knowledge produced by citizens affects the construction and understanding of legitimacy in local environmental governance. By scrutinising a case from Finland where local citizens decided to take lake restoration in their own hands, we demonstrate how legitimacy is constructed in a specific local context. The main concepts used to interpret this dynamic are situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988; Lang, 2011) and situ…
Do matters of concern matter? Bringing issues back to participation
The objective of our article is twofold. First, we claim that the theoretical planning discussion dealing with public participation has forgotten one basic principle, namely that the people are taking part in the planning process because they are interested in a particular issue. There is a need for new conceptual approaches in participatory research which carry the discussion first towards the issues, then to the structures of participation. For…
Do matters of concern matter? Bringing issues back to participation
The objective of our article is twofold. First, we claim that the theoretical planning discussion dealing with public participation has forgotten one basic principle, namely that the people are taking part in the planning process because they are interested in a particular issue. There is a need for new conceptual approaches in participatory research which carry the discussion first towards the issues, then to the structures of participation. For…
What can co-creation do for the citizens? Applying co-creation for the promotion of participation in cities
Co-creation has become a globally popular concept in different sectors of the society. Its promise lies in breaking down hierarchies between local government, business life, universities, citizens and other stakeholders. Instead of being a top-down or bottom-up process, co-creation involves a multi-directional approach to problem solving. In this article, we scrutinize the capacity of co-creation to transform the practices of public sector in the…
Situated knowledge–situated legitimacy: Consequences of citizen participation in local environmental governance
This article examines how situated knowledge produced by citizens affects the construction and understanding of legitimacy in local environmental governance. By scrutinising a case from Finland where local citizens decided to take lake restoration in their own hands, we demonstrate how legitimacy is constructed in a specific local context. The main concepts used to interpret this dynamic are situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988; Lang, 2011) and situ…
Eco-gentrification in a Welfare State: How Sustainable City Development Gradually Reduces Social Equity
In Nordic welfare states, progressive planning and housing policies have prevented the most severe forms of gentrification-led displacement. In this paper, we argue that eco-gentrification as a phenomenon is entering the Nordic countries. We illustrate this with a case study of the fast-growing, medium-sized Finnish city of Tampere, where the transformation of a former welfare city into a “sustainable city” is creating unintended gentrification. …
It’s all about the birds! Non-human actors’ situational power in creating conditions for human engagement
In this article, we aim to understand how planning theory and practice should approach new urban entities and their transforming meanings. We argue that planning practice has difficulties in identifying and recognising developmental processes where the human attachment to the local environment gradually changes the identity and use of an area. Instead, these processes are interpreted as disruptions in the planned course of action. We illustrate o…
Heterotopic diversity of coworking spaces: Providing adaptive capacity for cities
Heterotopias are other spaces that play a crucial role in the adaptive capacity of cities. They balance the city by hosting the abnormal, nurture alternative cultures and allow novel practices that act as seeds of change. In this paper, we study the life cycle and regenerative nature of heterotopias by analysing the expansion of 400 self-organising coworking spaces (CWSs) in Helsinki from 2010 to 2018. This brings a new understanding of how CWSs …
Building Citizens’ Trust in Urban Infill: A Dynamic Approach
Urban infill is a topical issue for the growing cities in the Nordic countries. In Finland, many suitable infill sites are owned by resident-owned housing companies, and thus a successful infill process requires reconfiguration of the planning and participation practices. In this paper, we forward a dynamic approach to trust as a fruitful conceptualization of actor relationships. Building on Malcolm Tait’s typology of trust and drawing on Bourdie…
Do matters of concern matter? Bringing issues back to participation
The objective of our article is twofold. First, we claim that the theoretical planning discussion dealing with public participation has forgotten one basic principle, namely that the people are taking part in the planning process because they are interested in a particular issue. There is a need for new conceptual approaches in participatory research which carry the discussion first towards the issues, then to the structures of participation. For…
Situated knowledge–situated legitimacy: Consequences of citizen participation in local environmental governance
This article examines how situated knowledge produced by citizens affects the construction and understanding of legitimacy in local environmental governance. By scrutinising a case from Finland where local citizens decided to take lake restoration in their own hands, we demonstrate how legitimacy is constructed in a specific local context. The main concepts used to interpret this dynamic are situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988; Lang, 2011) and situ…
It’s all about the birds! Non-human actors’ situational power in creating conditions for human engagement
In this article, we aim to understand how planning theory and practice should approach new urban entities and their transforming meanings. We argue that planning practice has difficulties in identifying and recognising developmental processes where the human attachment to the local environment gradually changes the identity and use of an area. Instead, these processes are interpreted as disruptions in the planned course of action. We illustrate o…
Bypassing Publicity for Getting Things Done: Between Informal and Formal Planning Practices in Finland
This article contributes to the discussion concerning the ways in which network governance and classical-modernist government practices juxtapose and redefine the idea of publicity in planning practices. Through Finnish urban planning cases we ask what kind of publicity is being promoted. We argue that new modes of governing build and employ institutional ambiguity for ‘getting things done’. This provides possibilities to ‘skim the cream’ of the …
Building Citizens’ Trust in Urban Infill: A Dynamic Approach
Urban infill is a topical issue for the growing cities in the Nordic countries. In Finland, many suitable infill sites are owned by resident-owned housing companies, and thus a successful infill process requires reconfiguration of the planning and participation practices. In this paper, we forward a dynamic approach to trust as a fruitful conceptualization of actor relationships. Building on Malcolm Tait’s typology of trust and drawing on Bourdie…
What can co-creation do for the citizens? Applying co-creation for the promotion of participation in cities
Co-creation has become a globally popular concept in different sectors of the society. Its promise lies in breaking down hierarchies between local government, business life, universities, citizens and other stakeholders. Instead of being a top-down or bottom-up process, co-creation involves a multi-directional approach to problem solving. In this article, we scrutinize the capacity of co-creation to transform the practices of public sector in the…
‘A great [Nordic] city is full of stories!’ Persuasive techniques in urban development videos
Literature on planning as storytelling says little about the techniques of this persuasive practice. An analysis of six urban development videos in three Nordic cities clarifies how futures are envisioned and audiences seduced in the visual digital era. Variables related to space, time, and power demonstrate how meaning is created, the positive is accentuated, and hierarchies are established between places and groups of people. The discussion add…
The politics of making Finland an experimenting nation
As atop-level national policy agenda, the Experimental Finland initiative (2015-2019) opens up an opportunity to investigate the politics of the nationally promoted experimental turn. We examine how the state launched agovernmental-level project aiming for the whole nation to become experimental. The Experimental Finland initiative was Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s governmental Spearhead Programmes 2015-2019. This paper explores the underlying pol…
Heating up the sauna: Analogue model unraveling the creativity of public participation
One of the main criticisms of participatory planning is its tendency to produce mediocre outcomes due to the compromises made in the search for consensus. As a remedy, there have been recent proposals to enrich participatory processes with stronger visionary leadership. We want to broaden this debate by highlighting the relationship between successful leaderless self-organisation and more conventional forms of participation. We argue that althoug…
From big apple to home of hockey: How scalar narratives and performative practices work in urban planning
Drawing from a case study in Finland, the paper analyses the performative practice of urban development projects in order to win public support for the desired future. The role of famous architects as agents of urban change is pivotal. This raises the concern of how the performative trend in planning cuts down the public discussion of possible alternative futures. The analysis uses the concept techniques of futuring and follows the repetition of …
Heterotopic diversity of coworking spaces: Providing adaptive capacity for cities
Heterotopias are other spaces that play a crucial role in the adaptive capacity of cities. They balance the city by hosting the abnormal, nurture alternative cultures and allow novel practices that act as seeds of change. In this paper, we study the life cycle and regenerative nature of heterotopias by analysing the expansion of 400 self-organising coworking spaces (CWSs) in Helsinki from 2010 to 2018. This brings a new understanding of how CWSs …
Eco-gentrification in a Welfare State: How Sustainable City Development Gradually Reduces Social Equity
In Nordic welfare states, progressive planning and housing policies have prevented the most severe forms of gentrification-led displacement. In this paper, we argue that eco-gentrification as a phenomenon is entering the Nordic countries. We illustrate this with a case study of the fast-growing, medium-sized Finnish city of Tampere, where the transformation of a former welfare city into a “sustainable city” is creating unintended gentrification. …
Saving the “lungs of the city”: Emerging civic action in urban environmental policy: case studies from Tampere, Finland and Worcester, Massachusetts
We have long witnessed conservation movements emerging in tandem with industrial expansion and urbanisation, but such impetus took a new turn in the 1960s and 1970s with the global birth of a new kind of urban environmental policy. In this comparative case study, we provide a close examination of two urban movements at the forefront of a new era of environmentalism, movements that bore lasting environmental policy agendas in their respective citi…
Selective Precision: Managing the Performativity of Urban Planning Visualisations in View of a Case from Finland
Publisher Copyright: © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Sociology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Urban planning (5 works)