Decoding the 15-Minute City Debate: Conspiracies, Backlash, and Dissent in Planning for Proximity

2024/06/05 by Oriol Marquet, Isabelle Anguelovski, Samuel Nello-Deakin +3 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Media Studies and Communication #Urban Planning and Governance

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/01944363.2024.2346596

openalex publication_date 2024/06/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

Science skeptics have spent years attacking climate science, but it has only been recently that post-COVID-19 conspiracy theorists have directed their attention to local city planning, with misinformation campaigns throwing vitriol at the idea of the 15-minute city and denouncing planning best practices as a global form of social engineering with hidden agendas to restrict private freedoms. In this context, urban planners and practitioners need to understand the nature of conspiracy claims and distinguish legitimate concerns about the 15-minute city model. As science skeptics and conspiracy theories gain ground in all sectors of our societies, researchers and city planners need to communicate evidence-based decision making and address science-driven concerns.

Citations

• No Permanent Friends, No Permanent Enemies: Agonistic Ethos, Tactical Coalitions, and Sustainable Infrastructure
• Rhetorical Framing in Planning: An Empirical Investigation of How Planners Discuss Density
• The political economy of car dependence: A systems of provision approach
• Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities
• Political Partisanship and Transportation Reform
• Hippies Next to Right-Wing Extremists?

Cited by

• The fourth wave of climate urbanism: a research agenda for urban climate justice amid right-wing populism
• Anxiety status: Foundational thinking about the ‘fallen below’

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