| dc.description.abstract | This thesis takes an exploratory approach to investigate the role of aesthetics in the case of NEB-STAR, one of the newly appointed New European Bauhaus lighthouse projects based in the city of Stavanger in Norway. The New European Bauhaus initiative from the European Union represents a shift in policy thinking where aesthetics and beauty never before have been placed so high on the policy agenda for sustainable transformations. Through analysis of policy documents and interviews with key informants of the NEB-STAR project in Stavanger, the study shows that the challenging nature of the concept of aesthetics requires attention to be paid to the processes around its operationalisation. Using a relationality/territoriality conceptualisation of urban policy including the imaginary term as presented by Shelton, Zook, and Wiig, I argue that the role of aesthetics in the context of New European Bauhaus can be understood as an imagination process which either opens up for reconfiguration or reproduction of meaning and power that affect the shaping of a city. | |
