| 1. |
- Koivisto, Jenni, 1980-
(författare)
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Navigating in the Midst of Uncertainties : Challenges in Disaster Risk Governance in Mozambique
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Disasters cause heavy losses for societies and may quickly erode any development efforts. Consequently, disaster risk reduction (DRR) is an integral part of development work that should be addressed at multiple levels. Global DRR frameworks, scholars and practitioners all advocate disaster risk governance (DRG) strategies that are multi-stakeholder, polycentric and multisectoral. While various substantive knowledge gaps and questions arising from multiple risks and the crosscutting nature of DRR have been relatively well addressed, uncertainties relating to multiple DRR actors operating and collaborating at different scales have gained less attention in previous studies.This thesis investigates the uncertainties in DRG in Mozambique, a low-income country that regularly faces natural hazards. These hazards often cause heavy loss of life and livelihoods and economic damage. The four articles that together constitute this thesis focus on different sets of uncertainties and factors that have constrained or allowed Mozambique to take major steps in this policy area. By exploring strategic and institutional uncertainties related to stakeholder involvement, coordination and policy disputes, this thesis reveals different challenges and opportunities that affect DRR policymaking in Mozambique.This thesis concludes that Mozambique has managed to take important steps in DRR. However, as a consequence of the different challenges to DRR practice in Mozambique, policymaking can be short-sighted and makes slow progress, thus increasing the disconnect between theory, policies and practice. This thesis thus argues that DRG research and practice need to better take into account power-relations; coordination and capacity issues; and responsibilities and transparency across scales, both in Mozambique and elsewhere.
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| 2. |
- Persson Pavlović, Erik, 1985-
(författare)
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The weakest link : Governing the risk of floods and dam failure in Sweden
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The effects of climate change are already being felt today, and future effects, which will be determined by the readiness and resolve of today’s world leaders, are fraught with high levels of complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and transboundary effects – characteristics of systemic risk. Since climate change is seen as a threat multiplier, the risks that might be impacted by climate change, such as floods and dam failure, will be affected by systemic risk characteristics as well. Recent literature on risk governance calls for a more inclusive approach to address the challenges of systemic risks. Sweden has adopted the Sendai Framework, which aims to reduce disaster risk and strengthen societal resilience through a more people-centered approach. Sweden can be expected to have the resources and institutional structures needed to be able to implement the framework at a high level. However, evaluations of recent crises have shown a discrepancy between what can be expected and actual performance. This thesis aims to increase the understanding of contextual barriers to and drivers of inclusive risk governance, with a focus on responsibilities, (mandated) collaboration, and stakeholder participation, as an approach to increase societal resilience against disaster and systemic risk. The aim is reached by studying flood-related systemic risks and their governance. Three distinct, qualitative case studies focusing on different aspects of the Swedish disaster risk reduction and risk governance systems in relation to the risk of floods and dam failure are the empirical foundation for the four papers that are appended in the thesis. The thesis concludes that there is a need for a change in how resilience is framed, as part of a paradigm shift to a discourse that views resilience as a measure of adaptive capacity, and a change in how systemic risks should be understood and governed, as part of a paradigm shift to an inclusive risk governance framework.
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| 3. |
- Granberg, Mikael, 1962-
(författare)
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Från lokal välfärdsstat till stadspolitik : politiska processer mellan demokrati och effektivitet: vision Mälarstaden och Östra hamnen i Västerås
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main aim of the thesis is to analyse the preconditions of contemporary Swedish city politics. The aim is reached through the answering of three questions; 1), what characterises contemporary Swedish city politics? 2), what contributes to the shaping and organisation of urban political processes in Sweden? 3), what problems and challenges are central to Swedish city politics? Based on interviews, documents and articles an empirical study of a Swedish city (Västerås) in its historical, national and international context is taken as a point of departure for reflections and conclusions with regard to the development of city politics and planning in Sweden. City politics in the studied city is analysed within the wider context of Swedish welfare state development and the international and global processes that have potential effects on national and city politics. The relationship between the historical development and urban politics is conceptualised by an approach where local actors act within structures that both constrain and enable action. Crucial concepts guiding the analysis are agenda, interests, representation, actors, democracy, planning, networks and legitimation. In conclusion the study shows how a specific urban process is influenced by courses of events at different societal levels, events that contribute to the formation of a contextual setting where the concrete actions are staged and played out. Global and international phenomena influence politics at the national level with consequences for the configuration of central-local relations and other preconditions of urban political processes. Urban politics occur within a framework that is favourable to the interests of some actors and negative to others. Thus, urban politics is deeply affected by extra-local determinants with substantial effects upon the urban environment. To survive and develop in a world ridden by such strong forces city politics faces the dual challenge of acting efficiently, i.e. being sensitive to the needs and demands of local elites, while keeping its democratic legitimacy, i.e. being sensitive to the needs and demands of all citizens.
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| 4. |
- Olsson, David
(författare)
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Conditions of ‘Sustainability’ : The Case of Climate Change Adaptation in Sweden
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- By describing climate change as one of the greatest challenges of our time, the Swedish government has expressed a commitment to climate change adaptation as an integral part of the country’s sustainable development efforts. Sweden has also been portrayed as a frontrunner of climate policy and sustainable development. However, research and rankings describe even the ‘good example’ of Sweden as unsustainable, including its responses to climate change. Transformation is needed.Based on the ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach, this thesis describes and problematizes conditions of ‘sustainability’ constituted through problem representations of governing climate change adaptation in Sweden. In addition, the study provides a discussion of alternative problem representations constituting conditions with new possibilities for transformation.The empirical material for the analysis of current conditions in Sweden consists of policy documents as well as interviews with municipal and regional experts involved in promoting and implementing adaptation. I also analyze conditions constituted through problem representations in research. These are used as points of comparison for the problematization of conditions in Sweden.My conclusions are that the current conditions of ‘sustainability’, constituted through the problem representations in Sweden, create a focus on advancing functional governance of adaptation as well as a focus on reducing marginalization of neglected sustainability concerns by integrating them with the current order of things. Problematizations of domination are largely absent. I argue that possibilities for transformation could be advanced by problematizing domination. Through problematizations of the current decentralization of responsibility, the integration imperative, and the primacy of economic growth over environmental and social dimensions of sustainability, I suggest ways in which this type of problematization could be facilitated.
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