Periodic Reporting for period 1 - POLICITY (The Politics of Citizen Opposition to Urban Development)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-08-01 bis 2026-01-31
Urban politics is shaped by a deep tension: some citizens welcome ambitious new projects, while others seek to protect the physical qualities that make their neighbourhoods distinctive. These conflicts affect housing affordability, environmental sustainability, and cities’ capacity to adapt to climate challenges. Because decisions about land use are largely made in local democratic arenas, public sentiment plays a central role. Yet, despite extensive knowledge about support or opposition to individual proposals, we still lack a general theory of why citizens resist urban development within their own city.
POLICITY fills this gap by advancing a new theoretical model—local preservationism—which explains opposition to new projects as rooted in a sincere attachment to the look, feel, and character of local urban environments. This perspective moves beyond strategic explanations to highlight how everyday emotional and aesthetic commitments shape political behaviour.
The project develops innovative approaches to measure opposition to development. It combines large-scale surveys with survey and quasi-experimental designs, as well as coordinated cross-city studies in Western Europe and the United States. Empirically, POLICITY will generate an treasure trove of data on citizen opposition to urban development, documenting how a desire to preserve local environments forms, how it evolves over time, and how it varies across cities. All data will be made publicly available at the end of the project.
Finally, POLICITY will offer practical insights for policymakers, community organisations, and developers. It will clarify why citizens resist specific projects, identify ways to design proposals that reduce conflict, and explain why some cities find it easier than others to accommodate urban growth.
POLICITY fills this gap by advancing a new theoretical model—local preservationism—which explains opposition to new projects as rooted in a sincere attachment to the look, feel, and character of local urban environments. This perspective moves beyond strategic explanations to highlight how everyday emotional and aesthetic commitments shape political behaviour.
The project develops innovative approaches to measure opposition to development. It combines large-scale surveys with survey and quasi-experimental designs, as well as coordinated cross-city studies in Western Europe and the United States. Empirically, POLICITY will generate an treasure trove of data on citizen opposition to urban development, documenting how a desire to preserve local environments forms, how it evolves over time, and how it varies across cities. All data will be made publicly available at the end of the project.
Finally, POLICITY will offer practical insights for policymakers, community organisations, and developers. It will clarify why citizens resist specific projects, identify ways to design proposals that reduce conflict, and explain why some cities find it easier than others to accommodate urban growth.
During the reporting period, POLICITY made strong progress toward understanding why citizens oppose new urban development and how this shapes the future of European cities.
A major achievement has been the development of a new explanation for why people resist change in their neighbourhoods. Instead of focusing only on personal costs or strategic objections, the project shows that many citizens simply care deeply about the look and feel of the places where they live. This idea—what we call local preservationism—is now guiding much of the project’s ongoing work.
To study these questions in a realistic way, the project has created a new type of survey tool that allows people to react to potential development projects shown on a map of their own neighbourhood. This approach makes it possible to understand how support or opposition changes depending on where a project is placed and how well it fits into the surrounding environment. This tool is currently being refined and will be used in several upcoming cross-city studies.
The project has also begun building large comparative datasets to examine how housing prices, neighbourhood characteristics, and built form relate to citizen opposition across different cities and countries. Early work in Denmark has helped shape new survey and experimental instruments that will soon be deployed more widely across Europe and the United States.
POLICITY has also actively engaged with policymakers and practitioners. Preliminary insights have been shared with local authorities and European-level actors working on housing affordability and urban change. These conversations ensure that the project’s results can inform real-world challenges as they emerge.
A major achievement has been the development of a new explanation for why people resist change in their neighbourhoods. Instead of focusing only on personal costs or strategic objections, the project shows that many citizens simply care deeply about the look and feel of the places where they live. This idea—what we call local preservationism—is now guiding much of the project’s ongoing work.
To study these questions in a realistic way, the project has created a new type of survey tool that allows people to react to potential development projects shown on a map of their own neighbourhood. This approach makes it possible to understand how support or opposition changes depending on where a project is placed and how well it fits into the surrounding environment. This tool is currently being refined and will be used in several upcoming cross-city studies.
The project has also begun building large comparative datasets to examine how housing prices, neighbourhood characteristics, and built form relate to citizen opposition across different cities and countries. Early work in Denmark has helped shape new survey and experimental instruments that will soon be deployed more widely across Europe and the United States.
POLICITY has also actively engaged with policymakers and practitioners. Preliminary insights have been shared with local authorities and European-level actors working on housing affordability and urban change. These conversations ensure that the project’s results can inform real-world challenges as they emerge.
POLICITY has already produced several results that push research on urban development beyond the state of the art.
First, the project introduces the idea of local preservationism as a central driver of citizen opposition. This shifts attention away from narrow economic explanations and toward people’s emotional and aesthetic attachments to their surroundings—an area that previous research has largely overlooked.
Second, the new map-based survey tool represents a major methodological step forward. It allows researchers to study reactions to development in a realistic setting by placing hypothetical projects directly into respondents’ own neighbourhoods. This improves our ability to understand how location, proximity, and neighbourhood character shape opposition—something that could not be measured reliably before.
Third, the project is pioneering the use of real-world visual data to measure how the appearance of buildings influences public acceptance of new development. This work will make it possible to test how architectural design affects support for housing, offering practical insights for planners and developers.
These advances open new possibilities for both research and policy, helping cities better anticipate citizen reactions and manage urban growth in a more democratically sustainable way.
First, the project introduces the idea of local preservationism as a central driver of citizen opposition. This shifts attention away from narrow economic explanations and toward people’s emotional and aesthetic attachments to their surroundings—an area that previous research has largely overlooked.
Second, the new map-based survey tool represents a major methodological step forward. It allows researchers to study reactions to development in a realistic setting by placing hypothetical projects directly into respondents’ own neighbourhoods. This improves our ability to understand how location, proximity, and neighbourhood character shape opposition—something that could not be measured reliably before.
Third, the project is pioneering the use of real-world visual data to measure how the appearance of buildings influences public acceptance of new development. This work will make it possible to test how architectural design affects support for housing, offering practical insights for planners and developers.
These advances open new possibilities for both research and policy, helping cities better anticipate citizen reactions and manage urban growth in a more democratically sustainable way.