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- Larsson, Stefan
(författare)
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Law and Spatial Planning. Socio-legal Perspectives on the Development of Wind Power and 3G Mobile Infrastructures in Sweden
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This PhD thesis in Spatial Planning argues for the importance of understanding the approaches to knowledge and rationalities embedded in spatially relevant decision-making. It emphasises the significance of seeing law as an empirical object of study for planning and environmental management. The Swedish development of wind power and 3G mobile infrastructures are used as cases to study these issues of principal interest. It is a compilation thesis consisting of a comprehensive introductory framework and five articles or chapters that have also been published elsewhere. The study is based on three main perspectives: Level of decision-making, legitimacy of different forms of knowledge involved in the process, and the sociolegal tension between formal law and its practical consequences. The thesis deals with problems stemming from the multi-level tensions in the planning and implementation that exist between the national, the regional and the local authorities. The legal context is analysed from the sociolegal perspective, in particular how the juridification of siting and permit conflicts determines what type of knowledge that can legitimately affect the decision-making and thereby set conditions for public participation. Finally, the thesis elaborates on the largely counterproductive results of the strong emphasis on “efficiency” in the revision of planning and permit processes for wind power and 3G-infrastructure, and what can be learnt from the experiences of the attempts at increasing efficiency. A combination of methods has been employed in the studies, and the data comes from a range of sources such as a large set of mast building permits, a sample of wind permit cases, as well as appealed permit cases. In addition, interviews have been conducted with judges from relevant courts, including regional handling officers who assess wind turbine applications. Legal documents such as preparatory work and licence conditions have also been analysed. The results show that there is a legal-rhetorical adaptation to the expert-based decision-making in court when permits are appealed. Further, the administrative levels interact poorly in the overall implementation. The national decisions, irrespective of the normative viewpoint of who should control the landscape planning, could be better informed of the preconditions at a local level that factually define the outcome of the implementation. The author, Stefan Larsson, holds a PhD in Sociology of Law, an LLM and is a sociolegal researcher who generally studies issues in the intersection of conceptual, sociolegal and technological change. The thesis has been supervised by Professor Lars Emmelin, The Swedish School of Planning, BTH, and co-supervised by Professor Karsten Åström, the Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University. The thesis is the result of research within the programme Tools for environmental assessment in strategic decision-making, MiSt, funded by The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Centre for Work, Technology and Social Change at Lund University.
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| 2. |
- Larsson, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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On Legal Complexity: Between Law in Books and Planning in Practice
- 2013
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Ingår i: Social and Legal Norms: towards a socio-legal understanding of normativity. - Farnham, England : Ashgate Publishing. - 9781409453437 ; , s. 285-307
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter addresses the difference between the intentions of the law and its application by using mobile telephony infrastructure development in Sweden as a case. Three possible pitfalls for policy management in general are concluded and analyzed. The first pitfall deals with legal complexity, which may be a result of piecemeal changes to the governing legal bodies over a longer time and is here argued to be of relevance for issues of public participation and access to justice. Another problematic pitfall concerns when law is internally contradictory without any clear hierarchy, which is exemplified below. The third possible pitfall, which often is a point of focus in sociology of law, concerns when extra-legal factors interfere in the legal decision-making without this being pronounced or acknowledged. This means that economy and politics can affect the application of law to the extent that legal security and predictability is jeopardized. These three possible pitfalls in policy represent issues of general character in the legal government of land use and spatial planning, and are here analysed from a socio-legal perspective.
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| 3. |
- Larsson, Stefan
(författare)
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Problematisering av vindkraftens regelverk : en pilotstudie
- 2009
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Detta är en pilotstudie som problematiserar vindkraftens regelverk i Sverige utifrån ett rättssociologiskt och planeringsjuridiskt perspektiv. Under hösten 2008 kom ett betänkande från miljöprocessutredningen gällande en effektivisering av prövning av vindkraft (SOU 2008:86). Bakgrunden var att krav på att en snabbare och enklare process från projektering till uppförande av vindkraftverk hade rests i takt med en ökad nationell satsning på utbyggnaden av vindkraft. I betänkandet ges förslag utifrån ett lagteknisk perspektiv. Pilotstudien visar emellertid att det finns brister i den empiri på vilken förslaget grundas gällande dess systematiskhet och representativitet. För vissa frågor, exempelvis gällande rättspraxis i lägre instanser, finns ingen klar kunskapsbild. Utan en god empiriskt förankrad kunskapsgrund att stå på blir det rimligen också svårt att föreslå förändringar som med säkerhet kommer att leda till en bättre prövning, eller ens en snabbare prövning. Miljöutredningens betänkande utgör en positionering åt ett mer kalkylerande och centraliserat beslutsfattande på bekostnad av det mer lokala och deliberativa. Betänkandet visar på hur de lokala värderingarna ses som ett problem i skenet av den nationella utbyggnadspolicyn. Detta gör att utbyggnaden av vindkraften är principiellt intressant i jämförelse med utbyggnaden av infrastruktur för 3G med tanke på hur en nationell policy hanteras och är beroende av den lokala implementeringen och det spänningsförhållande som råder mellan de två nivåerna. Detta leder till vad pilotstudien kommer fram till som en kärnfråga, nämligen om vem som skall bestämma över landskapets planering och vilken kunskap som skall ligga till grund för sådana beslut. Betänkandet hävdar att kommunerna inte förlorar inflytande över markanvändningen samtidigt som detta påstående inte tydligt underbyggs, det finns tvärtom fog för att just så är fallet. Pilotstudien pekar därmed på att frågan är av en större principiell politisk karaktär som inte enbart bör lösas genom lagtekniska förändringar i effektivitetens namn. Pilotstudien bygger på intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom svensk vindkraft samt en analys av lagstiftning, med förarbeten och praxis med fokus på miljöprocessutredningens betänkande SOU 2008:86. Pilotstudien ger förslag på vidare studier, exempelvis gällande att ta fram ett systematiskt kunskapsunderlag om prövningssystemet, bl. a. för användning vid tecknandet av en hindertypologi gällande vad som tar tid, för att skilja på det som bör ta tid från det som inte bör ta tid i prövningen. På en mer generell nivå borde man även undersöka vad det innebär att det görs särlösningar och små oberoende revideringar av delarna i ett planeringssystem som i sig är beroende av att dess delar kan fungera väl ihop. Pilotstudien är gjord på uppdrag av Blekinge Tekniska Högskola genom Lars Emmelin, professor vid enheten för fysisk planering, och utförd av Stefan Larsson, teknologie licentiat i fysisk planering, jurist och rättssociolog.
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| 4. |
- Larsson, Stefan
(författare)
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Between Daring and Deliberating : 3G as a Sustainability Issue in Swedish Spatial Planning
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis shows how different aspects of sustainable development have been handled or not handled in the third generation infrastructure development in Sweden. The difference between the design of the 3G development – emphazising competition, growth and regional access, based on a strong technological optimism - and the implementation, as the roll out struck the landscape, including the non-handled radiation issue and the legal changes in order to facilitate the roll out, is discussed and analyzed. The roll out formally started in late 2000 as the licence allocation process, the so called beauty contest, was finished. Four operators were to build partly competing systems within three years, each covering 8 860 000 persons, more than 99,98 percent of the populated areas. The Post and Telecommunications Agency can sanction operators not fulfilling licence conditions by a considerable fine. The coverage by the end of the period was between 66 and 74 percent of the promised 8 860 000, with only three remaining operators still participating. Not until 1 December 2006 did the first operator report the required coverage, followed by the two remaining operators by 1 June 2007. The municipal permit handling was blamed for the delay, a reason that “could not have been foreseen”, which helped the operators avoid sanctions from the PTA. The thesis shows that a slow municipal permit process can not explain the lack of coverage in some areas of Sweden. Environmental aspects were not handled at national level but assessed locally in the building permit handling, as well as the regional 12:6 consultations at the County Administrations. This is why the municipal permit process holds many of the keys regarding environmental management and planning. Therefore the permit processes regarding 3G masts has been charted as they developed in time and screened for main issues and conflicts. Public participation can be found in the local context tied to the legal concept of being a concerned party in the permit process, or the 12:6 consultation. In spite of this, the much debated radiation issue is lifted from the participative aspects and legally defined as not relevant. The theoretical basis of the analysis combines spatial planning and sociology of law, applying the sociological concept of norms as entities controlling action on the discussion of two different paradigms of governance derived from planning theory. The thesis project has been a part of a study within the MiSt programme, an interdisciplinary research programme on tools for environmental assessment in strategic decision making funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Supervisors: professor Lars Emmelin, School of Planning, Blekinge Institute of Technology Karsten Åström, professor in sociology of law, Lund University
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