Organisational practices shaping the role of spatial planners in a Swedish municipality

This paper aims to extend our understanding of how the role of public spatial planners is produced and reproduced within a municipal organisation. Drawing on structuration theory and a five-year ethnographic case study including individual interviews and focus groups, the paper analyses how planners’ role in addressing a complex issue, such as urban segregation, is rolled out in a medium‑sized Swedish municipality. The findings show how organisational changes and self-censorship favour a task‑administrative planning approach over an integrated and holistic one among planners. This is maintained through two key practices: responsibility redistribution and diminishing practices.