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Coloniality and Decolonisation in the Nordic region
- 2023
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This book advances critical discussions about what coloniality, decoloniality and decolonization mean and imply in the Nordic region. It brings together analysis of complex realities from the perspectives of the Nordic peoples, a region that are often overlooked in current research, and explores the processes of decolonization that are taking place in this region. The book offers a variety of perspectives that engage with issues such as Islamic feminism and the progressive left; racialization and agency among Muslim youths; indigenizing distance language education for Sami; extractivism and resistance among the Sami; the Nordic international development endeavour through education; Swedish TV-reporting on Venezuela; creolizing subjectivities across Roma and non-Roma worlds and hierarchies; and the whitewashing and sanitization of decoloniality in the Nordic region. As such, this book extends much of the productive dialogue that has recently occurred internationally in decolonial thinking but also in the areas of critical race theory, whiteness studies, and postcolonial studies to concrete and critical problems in the Nordic region. This should make the book of considerable interest to scholars of history of ideas, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, international development studies, legal sociology and (intercultural) philosophy with an interest in coloniality and decolonial social change.
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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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Heritage, Gentrification and Resistance in the Neoliberal City
- 2022
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- What happens when versions of the past become silenced, suppressed, or privileged due to urban restructuring? In what ways are the interpretations and performances of ‘the past’ linked to urban gentrification, marginalization, displacement, and social responses? Authors explore a variety of attempts to interrupt and interrogate urban restructuring, and to imagine alternative forms of urban organization, produced by diverse coalitions of resisting groups and individuals. Armed with historical narratives, oral histories, objects, physical built environment, memorials, and intangible aspects of heritage that include traditions, local knowledge and experiences, memories, authors challenge the ‘devaluation’ of their neighborhoods in official heritage and development narratives.
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Anatomy of a 21st-century sustainability project: The untold stories
- 2020
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- What does a sustainability project look like in the 21st century? Not the glossy version, but the naked truth? Tired of manicured, over-theorised accounts of the ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’ of sustainability transitions, we got to the bottom of things; actually, to the very bottom of the project hierarchy: the individual. Our point of departure is that projects are nothing but temporarily interconnected people. This means that if we don’t know what people do and what they think about their work, we will never be able to create a deeper understanding of the project, its rationale and future impact. Making use of the autoethnographic method, this book provides critical insights into what it’s like being part of a 21st-century project. Building on unfiltered first-hand contributions from 73 authors representing the five organs of a project’s anatomy – the brain (theoreticians), the skeleton (leaders), the limbs (strategists), the heart (local stakeholders) and the lungs (researchers) – the book covers all the important aspects of contemporary project-making: (1) projectification as a societal phenomenon; (2) sustainability as the main project buzzword; (3) transdisciplinarity as a hot working method; (4) economy as the invisible project propeller; (5) space as the contextual project qualifier; (6) gender and integration as the obstinate orphans of project-making; (7) trends as the villains of thoughtless project mimicry; (8) politics as the “necessary evil” of projects; and (9) knowledge production as the cornerstone of all project work. The book ends with an extensive critical analysis of what makes a project tick and how to avoid project failure. We infer that talking about project outcomes and impacts is just that… talking. What makes a difference is what can be done to the project in itself. Three important virtues – the ABC of project-making – emanate from this book’s 40 chapters: building good relationships (Affinity), having the guts to make a change (Bravery), and showing willingness to learn (Curiosity). These are the basis for the successful execution of future sustainability projects, where complexity, unpredictability and desperation will become a staple force to recon with. The original contribution of this book is to shed light on the silent triumphs and hidden pathologies of everyday project-making in an effort to elevate individual knowledge to a level of authority for solving the wicked – yet project-infused – problems of our time.
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Geographies of growth : innovations, networks and collaborations
- 2017
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today we can observe an increasing spatial divide as some large urban regions and many more medium-sized and small regions face growing problems such as decreasing labour demand, increasing unemployment and an ageing population. In view of these trends, this book offers a better understanding of the general characteristics and specific drivers of the geographies of growth. It shows how these may vary in different spatial contexts, how hurdles and barriers to growth in different types of regions can be dealt with, how and to what extent resources in different areas can develop and how the potential of these resources to stimulate growth can be realized. This book presents a collection of chapters, divided into four main parts, that together deal with these issues. The expert contributions provide numerous different perspectives on a new regional divide as well as exploring the inter-regional accessibility to human capital and its effects on productivity on both sides of the border. The book also investigates the speed of convergence and the fact that, when incorporating structural change, it is often quicker at the regional level compared to both the country and industry level. Other topics covered include institutional foundations and their influence on local social acceptance of entrepreneurship, the role of global value chains on bilateral trade and the determinants of cross-border innovation cooperation focusing on partner selection and location. Students, researchers and scholars will find this an important resource that fills numerous knowledge gaps and opens new avenues for research. It will also appeal to consultants, practitioners and planners at the international, regional and local level. Today we can observe an increasing spatial divide as some large urban regions and many more medium-sized and small regions face growing problems such as decreasing labour demand, increasing unemployment and an ageing population. In view of these trends, this book offers a better understanding of the general characteristics and specific drivers of the geographies of growth. It shows how these may vary in different spatial contexts, how hurdles and barriers to growth in different types of regions can be dealt with, how and to what extent resources in different areas can develop and how the potential of these resources to stimulate growth can be realized. This book presents a collection of chapters, divided into four main parts, that together deal with these issues. The expert contributions provide numerous different perspectives on a new regional divide as well as exploring the inter-regional accessibility to human capital and its effects on productivity on both sides of the border. The book also investigates the speed of convergence and the fact that, when incorporating structural change, it is often quicker at the regional level compared to both the country and industry level. Other topics covered include institutional foundations and their influence on local social acceptance of entrepreneurship, the role of global value chains on bilateral trade and the determinants of cross-border innovation cooperation focusing on partner selection and location. Students, researchers and scholars will find this an important resource that fills numerous knowledge gaps and opens new avenues for research. It will also appeal to consultants, practitioners and planners at the international, regional and local level.
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Environmental stresses and resource use in coastal urban and peri-urban regions – DPSIR approach to SECOA’s 17 case studies.
- 2014
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This book is one of the outputs from the EU FP7 research project SECOA, Solutions for Environmental Contrasts in Coastal Areas, working in the period December 20019 – 1 December 2013. In the project participated five countries from EU and three countries from outside Europe. The main goals of the project were to analyze conflicts on resource use in urban, coastal areas with special emphasis on urbanization and mobility and in the context of global environmental changes. One of the work packages in the project was dedicated to work on Environmental stresses on the natural resources in the urban coastal context. Specific studies on this theme were performed by the partners as 17 case studies, two (one country had three) per country, which yielded a large data set presented in this volume. DPSIR-analysis was applied on the different cases. The case studies were all first written as national reports and were also compiled in a project deliverable, D2.2.
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