6.2. Relevance of Study and future scope of work

brought about by commute and transportation. It can be affirmatively said that it promotes proximity-oriented planning to address the needs of people and putting amenities in proximity of people.

6.2. Relevance of Study and future scope of work:

The exploratory study of the ‘New Time-based Agenda’ of ‘Fifteen Minute city’ can be said to have, in hindsight, consolidated the scattered literature in the form of Moreno’s proposition, its related discussions, debates and opinions offered by different experts through an exhaustive data collection process of grey literature in the form of media articles, seminars, white papers and reports. The scientific literature thus generated adds to the urban planning scholarship which can be further utilised to create new discussions and explorations based on the topic. By adopting a critical perspective to comprehend and analyse the subject of FMC, this study presents a plurality of complex themes related to creation of (15-minute) Cities. It puts forward different perspectives from which (15-minute) cities can and should be analysed. By doing so, the study undertook a controlled investigation of the empirical investigation to focus on spatial perspective to the complex socio-economic issue of accessibility. The findings can be said to have brought further clarity to the issue of FMC and the proposition of Moreno. By investigating the three cross-continental case studies, it clarifies the spatial organization of ‘cities’ to create proximate environments and emphasises the issue of ‘governance of proximity services’ to reduce time poverty and create equitable cities. It presents an ‘action-policy framework’ which shall inform future research under this study of ‘Time based agenda’. Few directions can already be set in this regard.

1. Further Development of the framework for ‘Strategy of Enabling Service Localization in Proximity’

The study undertook empirical investigation of three cities based on certain criteria like OECD countries and relative maturity of the FMC policy reflected through Pilot projects. To create a better understanding of the ‘strategies of proximity services’ the scope of investigation can be expanded to include other contexts like Singapore (20-minute town, 40-minute city) and China (15-minute community life-cycle policy). These case studies, apart from adding nuances to the understanding developed regarding strategies for service provision, may also aid in further confirmation of spatial characteristics of FMC synthesised in this study.

2. Exploring the ‘Alternate means of service provision’

The case study of Paris and Portland led to discovery of ‘alternate means of service provision’. As stated before, these cities are providing alternate service provision in areas where Density cannot be established either immediately or due to environmental concerns, and to areas with vulnerable demographic profile. Various components can be observed regarding this, for example use of tactical urbanism and pop-up economy, like weekly farmer’s market on streets or mobile libraries, kids play areas and pop-up restaurants. Although these ideas have been a common practice in European context, they have been primarily seen as tools to social cohesion in the neighbourhoods, street calming measures and supporting local retailers. Through the study, a new perspective is added to the cobenefit of these tools in the form of providing access to services. Further research can be undertaken to explore the usage of these tools in providing different forms of amenities and services beyond access to fresh food, library services and recreational activities. Due to their low-budget and modular nature, these tools may also hold potential which can be exploited in rural contexts where the issue of extremely lowdensity environments forces commuters to undertake car commute to ‘big box’ commercial centres that are shared between various small towns.

3. FMC as a ‘Strategic communication tool’ and quantification of its impacts

The major finding of the study can be contributed to the discovery that the origin of FMC rhetoric is related to Portland Plan- 2012 (in the form of 20-minute city). This finding goes in contrast to the general belief about the origin of idea in 2019 Electoral campaign of Paris’ Mayoral candidate and the international debate that has ensued since. The rhetoric was developed and supported by city managers Portland (and Melbourne), instead of a being just a political campaign. Based on these findings, in this study, chapter 5 discusses its possible impact to align stakeholders. Developing a better understanding the topic of FMC as a ‘strategic communicative tool’ shall require addressing the limitations of the study, i.e., undertaking extensive interviews with city officials of respective case-studies to further triangulate the hypothesises developed about the FMC rhetoric. This exercise may then also open another research direction to quantify the impact of FMC rhetoric in these cities.

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