The politics of new urban professions: the case of urban development engineers

Abstract

This chapter provides evidence of a new urban profession of development engineers within public bureaucracies whose position is increasingly detached from the sphere of public policy in which they operate. It reveals that the rise of the professional category of development engineer has led to the institutionalisation of a narrowly conceived and short-termist economic optimisation rationality. This rationality, which is institutionally solidified in legally binding agreements between the city and property developers, comes to set a very rigid frame for any additional considerations regarding, for example, social justice or balanced urban development. To a large extent, this rationality has come to steer urban development considerations in the city of Stockholm. The chapter concludes that while it might be expected that public land ownership would allow public authorities to promote a more ‘progressive’ and mindful urban development, the development engineers who are presently in the proverbial driving seat of the management of public land do not see the pursuit of such goals to be part of their professional responsibility.