At Nordregio Forum 2015 ”Nordic City Regions in a Global Environment” all the international speakers emphasized unique qualities of Nordic cities’ in terms of human scale and sustainable solutions from a social and environmental perspective. The world’s leading expert on the so-called mega-projects, Professor Bent Flyvbjerg of Oxford University, stated that instead of investing in costly prestige projects we should continue to put people first in Nordic urban planning.

This final issue of Nordregio News in 2016 looks closer at some projects and concepts where people are part of the planning process. Involving citizens early in the planning processes opens up for new ideas and approaches and including art when discussing architecture and urban planning might be the way forward when planning and building sustainable cities.