Från bomull till kunskapsindustri: En lokalitets- och restruktureringsundersökning av stadsdelen Brändö, Vasa

This locality- and restructuration study analyses urban development mainly on a town district level. Palosaari (Brändö) is a traditional industrial working class district that has gone through a remarkable restructuration during the last decades and is now a district widely acknowledged as a postindustrial knowledge district. This study focuses on the long-term development of Palosaari, from its foundation as the outer harbour of Vaasa in 1789. When considering Marshall's (1987) models of long waves of regional development the so called "replacement" pattern (with a succession of leading carrier-type sectors) is considered the most suitable model in the Palosaari case. I differentiate between three carrier waves: Harbour Society, Industrial Society and Knowledge Society. The characteristics of each dominant carrier wave, as well as the transitional period between the two latter waves, are presented in tabular form as eight variables: Landmark Buildings, Defining economic model, Mythologized group of inhabitants, Socioeconomically dominant group, Type of Living, Internal identity/external opinion, Political profilation and Signification. We also study whether the same processes that have occurred in metropolitan areas and major cities are noticeable in towns and town districts further down the urban scale. In the Palosaari case a triangulation study of perceived and experienced change (interview analysis), analysis of socioeconomic statistics and political statistics (electionresults) was conducted. The triangulation study showed some evidence of gentrififaction, but the results were not unequivocal. The conclusion was therefore that Palosaari has experienced a mild form of gentrification. A new concept, Metamorphosis, is introduced for the long-term development process over one or more leading carrier-type economic and societal waves and it is argued that "positive restructuration" is possible over time even without a gentrification phase, but that a gentrification phase may, and usually does, speed up the long-term metamorphosis process. Thus, a typology was constructed according to which localities may complete a metamorphosis process with (mild, strict or super) gentrification or without gentrification. Metamorphosis without or with supergentrification only occurrs under quite extreme conditions. The four ideal types of metamorphosis were presented in tabular forms where the variables Time, Place, Connection between new and old population, Social agents and Types of housing were considered.