| 21. |
- Solberg Søilen, Klaus, 1968-
(författare)
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The shift from Geopolitics to Geoeconomics and the failure of our modern Social Sciences
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Geoeconomics is gradually replacing the importance of Geopolitics. The transition is marked by the start of the process we call Globalization , about two decades old now, but still in its infancy, when government and government institutions discovered that they no longer were self-evident key actors and watchmen of world events . The process is an effect of the end of the Cold War and marks a strategic shift from political ideologies to economic realities.For decades fellow economists have praised the value of public and private borrowing, the production of services at the expense of the production of goods and they have underestimated the importance of trade surpluses for the Competitive Advantage of Nations. They have done so because they have failed to see what makes a nation, a region or a city wealthy in the long run. We have developed a social science paradigm at our universities which have undermined our own development. At the same time we have disregarded much of the tradition for critical thinking, as implied in Critical Theory but more fundamentally as understood for centuriesThe study of all living organisms is now studied with the use of Evolutionary Theory; except for the study of Man. We must start to ask ourselves why. Why should the Social Sciences be any different than Zoology in this respect, unless we say that Man stands outside of biology?
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
- Fredman, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Economic values in the Swedish nature-based recreation sector : a synthesis
- 2012
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Ingår i: Tourism Economics. - London : IP Publishing. - 1354-8166 .- 2044-0375. ; 18:4, s. 903-910
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- This research synthesis reports the main findings from a review of economic values associated with nature-based recreation in Sweden. The purpose of the work was to support policy and to identify areas for future research. Data came from over 150 scientific publications and other public sources. The authors find inter alia a lack of systematic data for several recreation activities (including naturebased tourism), a significant growth in the outdoor equipment industry and a relatively modest economic involvement by the public sector. The information is structured under different categories to illustrate the significance and range of different economic values. The authors conclude that there is a need for more comprehensive and systematically collected data, methodological development and interdisciplinary research.
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| 24. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek, et al.
(författare)
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Nutrition, health and climate: What have we learned so far?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Conference on Food Science and Nutrition: “Forum for food science and nutrition for a better tomorrow”, 25–26 February 2019, Rome, Italy.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Food and meals are central elements in our lives: a source of pleasure, a social activity and a bearer of culture. Our eating habits are also very important to health, which implies that the organization and content of meals is a prerequisite for well-being and learning. Schools, in particular, have unique opportunities to promote healthy lifestyles, help develop good eating habits and raise environmental and climate awareness among children and youths by embedding food in a wider context. Unsurprisingly, there is also an increasing interest in school meals and food-related education among researchers, many of whom agree that the quality of school meals can be seen as one of the most accurate indicators of the cities’ sustainability potential. Systematic quality work, however, requires shared targets and ambitions, regular quality checks and discussions on development and improvement. In that vein, the City of Gothenburg has launched the project Urban Rural Gothenburg, which assembles, develops, tests and implements new solutions for the city’s public kitchens. This involves climate-smart and environmentally sound perspectives and programs regarding meal planning, food procurement, food preparation and food-related teaching and learning. One important approach deals with the normalization of increased vegetarian consumption and greater awareness of food’s origins and travel from farm to table. Another approach deals with conscious choices of raw materials that are beneficial for both the environment and health. A third notable approach focuses on new ways of handling food waste to reduce climate impact. In line with the third Sustainable Development Goal, this presentation captures and reaffirms the fundamental assumptions and methods involved in Gothenburg’s work with food sustainability in public kitchens, with an emphasis on health and climate as cross-cutting issues that matter to us all.
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| 25. |
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Degraded and restituted towns in Poland: Origins, development, problems : Miasta zdegradowane i restytuowane w Polsce. Geneza, rozwój, problemy
- 2015
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- One of the less known problems in settlement geography is the issue of so-called degraded and restituted towns. This lack of reconnaissance, however, is perhaps less the result of the towns’ scarcity than their specificity of being ‘awarded’ or ‘deprived of’ an urban label by means of strictly socio-political actions. Degraded and restituted towns, hence, are spatial units made ‘urban’ or ‘rural’ instantaneously, irrespective of their de facto state along what is widely considered a gradual path of (de)urbanization. Instead, they become compartmentalized into two constructed spatial categories that have survived the onslaught of material transformations and philosophical repositioning through different whims of time. While ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ are conceptual binaries that certainly need to be treated with caution, their cultural salience may cause tangible consequences within national administrative systems that abide by a formalized rural-urban distinction. This issue becomes particularly important for settlements that clearly transcend any imagined rural-urban divide, i.e. those, whose material and immaterial characteristics seem counterfactual to their assigned category. It is also crucial in formal practices designed to avert such counterfactualities, but whose ran-domness of approach more creates confusion than helps straighten out a historical concoction. Both processes, nonetheless, lend ‘urbanity’ and ‘rurality’ a resonance of objectivity, justifying their use as guides for a host of developmental endeavors, despite subverting a much more intricate reality. Degraded and restituted towns are direct derivatives of this. Drawing on the above-mentioned irreconcilabilities, the aim of this book is to present and scrutinize degraded and restituted towns through the example of Poland, where these towns occupy a special niche. For one, Poland, due to its chequered and variegated history, is home to a conspicuously large number of degraded (831) and restituted (236) towns; for another, Poland’s relentlessness of formalizing ‘urbanity’ as a category of statistical, political and cultural guidance has a direct bearing on the lives of the towns’ residents. Realizing the intricacy of degraded and restituted towns in the face of commonplace ru-ral-urban ideations, the editors and the 17 contributing Authors of this book have made an effort to capture the towns’ complexity with special foci on their shrouded origins, developmental specificity and incurred problems. Owing to the involvement of researchers from different scientific disciplines and subdisciplines, the undertaken project has helped elucidate the problem from multiple perspectives: spatial, social, demographic, economic, environmental, historical, architectural, cultural, legal and philosophical. Allocated into 17 chapters, not only have the presented interpretations allowed for a first interdisciplinary synthesis on the topic, but they also helped outline some prospective directions for future research. Moreover, collecting materials of such diversity into an amalgamated whole has helped identify specific discourses that enwrap the concept of “urbanity” when seen through its oscillations within formal contexts, and to which degraded and restituted towns serve as expendable game pieces. By combining knowledge arrived at through ontologically and epistemologically different approaches, the incremental contribution of this book as a whole could be summarized in two attainments: a) extending theoretical frameworks used to study degraded and restituted towns in terms of definition, conceptualization and assessing predispositions for future de-velopment on account of their spatial, legal, socio-economic and historical charac-teristics; b) initiating an anticipated discussion on a number of important and current topics re-lated to the practices of degradation and restitution that have not received adequate attention, e.g., the urbanity-vs.-rurality paradox, the changeability of human settlement forms vs. the consequences of rigid spatial categorizations; the role of various actors in shaping the socio-economic reality under the guise of an ossified binary; or identifying spatio-conceptual conflicts as future challenges for local, regional and national policy.
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
- Röös, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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Diagnostic, regenerative or fossil-free - exploring stakeholder perceptions of Swedish food system sustainability
- 2023
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Ingår i: Ecological Economics. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 0921-8009 .- 1873-6106. ; 203
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In an analysis of food system sustainability challenges and solutions among Swedish food system actors using Q-methodology, five perspectives were identified. One of the main three perspectives placed the highest priority on reduced meat consumption, food waste, and climate impact in agriculture, but downplayed strategies highlighted in the national food strategy and social aspects, and can be interpreted as a diagnostic climate mitigation-oriented perspective that does not reflect current negotiated policy processes or ‘softer’ values of food. In an alternative regenerative perspective, industrialized large-scale farming and lack of internalization of external costs were regarded as the main problems, and diversity, soil health, and organic farming as the main solutions. Proponents of a third perspective regarded phasing out fossil fuels, increased profitability of companies, increased meat production, and self-sufficiency as high priorities. These contrasting views can be a major barrier to transforming the Swedish food system. However, a number of entry points for change (i.e. aspects highly important for some and neutral for others) were identified, including focusing on healthy diets and increased production of fruit and vegetables. Focusing on these can build trust among stakeholders before moving to discussions about the larger and more sensitive systemic changes needed. © 2022 The Authors
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| 28. |
- Isemo, Sanna, et al.
(författare)
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Urban food revisited: Green business development through co-creation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Thinkfood, Thinkpoint Innovation Arena, 15–16 September 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ongoing urbanization and globalization of food products is challenging food and nutrition security for urban and rural areas. Dependence on the global food supply chain also increases vulnerability and implies risks for cities and their wider regions. An important way to address these challenges is by examining the relationship between cities and their surroundings through a focus on food. Embracing theses insights, Urban Rural Gothenburg is an EU-sponsored project that tests low-carbon approaches and links them to food production, logistics, tourism, and new business models. Through promoting cooperation between the city, the business sector, residents, civil society and academia, Urban Rural Gothenburg aims to contribute to the fulfilment of the city’s wider sustainability goals, as set in 2017. These span the holistic frame of sustainability to involve, for example, combining innovations for social improvement with reduction of the city’s environmental and climate impact, promoting a sustainable Gothenburg with global and locally equitable emissions. Research Forum Urban Rural Gothenburg (RFURG) constitutes the academic component of the ‘Urban Rural Gothenburg’. Departing from co-creative methodology (the so-called penta-helix model), RFURG provides the research community with advice, support, consultancy, networks and a communication platform with the purpose to initiate and implement research endeavours related to the project’s objectives. Another important task is to ascertain that the activities within the project are scientifically sound through constant monitoring of national and international calls that may be of interest for the project. Compilation and dissemination of results through recurring conferences, seminars, workshops and special issues in scientific journals form indispensable steps towards that goal. And while Urban Rural Gothenburg is only one amongst a flurry of intrepid projects globally trying to think outside the box, it manages to capture and epitomise the character of several recurring problems haunting our society today and, arguably, progress within it.
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| 29. |
- Baresel, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Uncertainty-Accounting Environmental Policy and Management of Water Systems
- 2007
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Ingår i: Environmental Science & Technology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 41:10, s. 3653–3659-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental policies for water quality and ecosystemmanagement do not commonly require explicit stochasticaccounts of uncertainty and risk associated with thequantification and prediction of waterborne pollutant loadsand abatement effects. In this study, we formulate andinvestigate a possible environmental policy that does requirean explicit stochastic uncertainty account. We compareboth the environmental and economic resource allocationperformance of such an uncertainty-accounting environmentalpolicy with that of deterministic, risk-prone and riskaverseenvironmental policies under a range of differenthypothetical, yet still possible, scenarios. The comparisonindicates that a stochastic uncertainty-accountingpolicy may perform better than deterministic policies overa range of different scenarios. Even in the absence ofreliable site-specific data, reported literature values appearto be useful for such a stochastic account of uncertainty.
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| 30. |
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