Urban forests for a welfare society: running and the forest ideal in Swedish recreational planning

In this presentation Mattias Qviström discusses the role of urban forests for recreational planning in Sweden in the 1960s until today, focusing especially on the welfare planning in the 1970s. Planning for recreational running is used as a lens to uncover the nexus of ideals of recreation and the forest, and how this materialised in the urban landscape. Finally, the presentation discusses the shift from welfare planning (and a decline of recreational planning) in the 1980s – and ways to reassemble a recreational planning today.