| 1. |
- Bohman, Samuel, 1975-
(författare)
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Web Applications for Large-Scale Decision Support : Preference Elicitation, Modeling and Visualization
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis addresses the lack of effective and efficient technology design in current e-participation research by investigating two approaches that yet have not been explored to any great extent in the literature: decision science and data visualization. It is concerned with the problem of how to combine techniques from these two fields to achieve decision support in the context of e-participation; from preference elicitation and modeling to data analysis, visualization and final recommendations, such that it can provide value to practitioners. The work was carried out in two separate research projects, but which shared a common research strategy: to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate e-participation technologies in real-life settings. The first project was a pilot designed to provide European universities with a web-based e-participation platform to empower students in the Bologna Process. Thirteen universities in Europe participated as end-users of the platform. Using a mixed methods research design, the results showed that ICT is poorly conceptualized in e-participation research and practice, typically conceived informally and simply as tools, independent of the political and social context within which they are developed and used. With regard to sociotechnical challenges in e-participation, the results confirm much of previous research that has underlined the prevalence of technological determinism, institutional resistance, privacy and trust issues, among many other factors. In the second project we developed a decision analytic framework for structuring, evaluating, and analyzing stakeholder conflicts in land-use planning. The Municipality of Upplands Väsby in Stockholm, Sweden, participated as a trial. Using agile design principles and methods we implemented the framework as a prototype spatial decision support system using the R programming language. Our prototype shows that a combination of decision science and data visualization has the potential to become a powerful tool in the hands of governments to enable members of society to identify where their differences really matter and where they are unimportant, thus providing structure and new insight to democratic debate. Furthermore, we believe it has the potential to alleviate some of the barriers and limitations associated with traditional methods of community engagement, including distance and time constraints, issues of scale, and high costs.
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| 2. |
- Hammami, Feras, 1978-
(författare)
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Heritage in Authority-Making : Appropriating Interventions inThree Socio-Political Contexts
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The perpetual evolution of the value of heritage in urban development is producing newsocio-spatial realities, shaped by different relationships of power at multiple scales.Heritage has always played an important role in the construction of individual andgroup identities, but is now increasingly seen as a capital for the making of cityidentity. Although professional heritage practices have attempted to embrace a similaror parallel vision, they are likely to overlook how interventions in heritage challengeidentity, meaning and sense of place. This thesis employs methods of discursiveanalysis to investigate the evolution and the appropriation of heritage in three sociopoliticalcontexts: Botswana, a post-colonial society; Palestine, an occupied society;and Sweden, a developed Western society. It also uncovers the ways authority is put towork through the discursive field of heritage in historic environments.Heritage in Palestine under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate, and theIsraeli Occupation has been engulfed by both armed and discursive struggles overhistory, identity, and superiority. Narratives of the ‘Holy Land’ in addition to thepressures of the occupation forces and international interventions have shaped currentheritage practices in the Historic City of Nablus. In Botswana, Western planning ideashave been promoted in both the colonial and post-colonial eras, with little attention tolocal culture. The socio-spatial realities this produces have divorced the Batswana fromthe familiar and played an authoritarian role in defining valuable heritage in thedevelopment of Shoshong village and Sowa town. Heritage in the town of Ystad,Sweden, has since the late nineteenth century been regulated and legitimized through aconsistent inscription of a medieval identity on the town landscape, overlooking socialand spatial consequences.These findings are presented in four papers that each addresses a specific aspect ofheritage in urban development. An introductory monograph links the articles,developing theoretical analyses on how heritage-authority relations. This discussiongoes beyond direct practices of authority in management of physical heritage. Instead,it uncovers how heritage is utilised to gain and reinforce authority over identity politicsin historic environments. It also sheds light on how discursive struggles over meaningin the three cases are influenced by a ‘universalized heritage discourse’. In thisdiscourse, heritage is perceived as physical things representing a specific version of thepast, framed by European values and controlled by professional expertise andconventional knowledge. This discourse is rooted in the ‘authorized heritage discourse’that emerged in Europe in the nineteenth century and disseminated globally throughinternational treaties on heritage. Situating site-specific interventions in their social,cultural, and political contexts would allow for productive dissonance, rather thannarrow mediations of competing views. The virtue of working with heritage in the faceof authority at different spatial scales is stressed as one way to build sufficient capacityin heritage practices, capacity that would allow individuals and social groups to freelynegotiate their identity against any intervention in their spaces of heritage.
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| 3. |
- Hasselgren, Björn, 1962-
(författare)
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Government's Role for Transport Infrastructure : Theoretical Approaches and Historical Development
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyzes and discusses the development of the Swedish government’s role as owner and financier of roads and railroads from the 1930s until the 2010s. The influence on the development of the government’s role from two main theoretical paradigms is discussed and analyzed. These are:a) neoclassical and welfare economics; andb) new institutional economic theory with an organizational focus.The thesis shows that there has been a shift from an institutional view on the organization and financing of the road and railroad systems following the nationalization in the 1930-40s, to a view more based on welfare economics from the 1970s.Technology, economics and politics are three important factors influencing the development of the transport systems and of the government’s role. In the thesis these factors are covered in a co-evolutionary approach applied for analysis of the historical development. This approach connects to a dynamic view on organizations and firms in institutional theory.Over time there have been shifts in the strength of the factors (technology, economics and politics) influencing the development. There have also been controversies around financing principles and contradictions between different elements in the policies actually pursued over time. One such controversy has been whether to aim for full cost coverage or for marginal cost coverage.The thesis discusses how planning and coordination in the transport infrastructure sector can come about. A centralized public sector planner mode is contrasted towards a private sector spontaneous ordering mode. It is argued that it is difficult for a centralized planner to collect the necessary information and transform it into deepened knowledge in order to coordinate. A decentralized spontaneous ordering mode might though allow for including the necessary knowledge.The thesis illustrates a number of trade-offs that must be taken into consideration when discussing a possible future development for transport infrastructure and the government’s role. The following aspects are discussed:- the balance between public and private as the basic organizing principle;- the balance between government and regions/local governments when it comes to- the geographical division of responsibility; and- the balance between the national and EU levels for strategic transport infrastructure planning and coordination, also in relation to spontaneous coordination and centralized planning.The government has acted reluctantly and pragmatically and gradually developed its ownership role and the general policies in the sector. The government’s emphasis on market failure as its basic assumption has become stronger over time.The thesis brings a deepened understanding of the long-term development of the government’s ownership and policy formation in the transport infrastructure sector in relation to the two theoretical paradigms. This combination of a historical view with the theoretical economic background gives new insights into the past and future of the government’s role for transport infrastructure.
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| 4. |
- Högström, Ebba, 1961-
(författare)
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Kalejdoskopiska rum : Diskurs, materialitet och praktik i den decentraliserade psykiatriska vården
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the period 1967-1995, Swedish mental healthcare underwent a complete re-organisation, starting with county councils taking over responsibility for mental healthcare from the state. Asylums were then phased out and mental health care moved closer to patients. The Mental Health Reform of 1995 completed this decentralisation and put the emphasis on an independent and integrated life as a citizen in society and the idea of a dwelling of one’s own. This thesis describes and analyses spatial aspects of decentralised mental healthcare in Sweden, focusing on the decentralisation discourse regarding organisation, localisation, patient care and working methods behind decentralisation and its spatial performance. A case study of decentralised mental healthcare in Nacka, a Stockholm suburb, between 1958-1999 examines in particular the emerging decentralisation discourse 1958-1973, The Nacka Project 1974-1980 (one of the first examples of community care in Sweden), psychiatry in Nacka 1980-1994 and the official report Welfare and Freedom of Choice from 1995. The methods used include studies of documents, interviews, visual and architectural drawing analysis. The theoretical point of departure for the analysis is a post-structural heterogeneous concept of space where spatial materiality and discursiveness are looked upon as intertwined. The result shows that the re-organisation of mental healthcare brought about a substantial spatial transformation. Normalisation of patients’ lives involved integration into society and support for independent living. The local environment was the main trope for the early stage of decentralised mental healthcare, but the notion of a dwelling of one’s own became the important trajectory to an independent life after 1995. The idea of the patient is challenged by the independence discourse, which could be said to contain an idea of the ‘non-patient’. Overall, it can be concluded that spatial organisations of the built environment are never value-free or neutral. They reflect, enable and constrain power relations in a society and material space can contribute to the power of one group at the expense of another. Furthermore, the results of the spatialities, or the meanings, cannot be predicted. It is therefore crucial to distinguish power in all its configurations and scales and to keep negotiations alive, especially within the field of mental healthcare, but also in the care sector as a whole and in other societal institutions where policies buildings and built environment interact with user practices. This kaleidoscopic perspective can be used for examining complexities in the past and present and for encouraging future potentialities in the process of making/enacting spatial relations.
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| 5. |
- Li, Yuheng, 1983-
(författare)
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Urban-Rural Relations in China : A Study of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Over three decades of rapid economic growth in China, beginning in 1978, has been accompanied by ever-enlarging urban-rural inequalities in terms of the various aspects of income, welfare, infrastructure, medical treatment, and education (amongst others). These two parts – the urban and the rural - have long been treated separately, without much consideration being given to their mutual linkages (relations). Urban and rural development can, essentially, be interpreted as the deployment of key factors (terms of trade for agricultural products, land requisition, and labor transfer), and the supply of public goods and services (infrastructure, education, insurance, and medical care). Thus, the urban-rural inequalities experienced by China at present can be understood as the consequence of the factor flows (labor, capital, goods, information, and technology, etc.) and agglomeration between these two parts. This thesis aims to investigate urban-rural relations in China in the post-reform era, and their influences on the economic, social, and environmental development in both the urban and the rural areas. The thesis consists of five papers and the cover essay. The first two papers provide a detailed picture of urban-rural relations in China, while the other papers examine the impact of urban-rural relations in terms of population mobility, arable and built land use change, and regional economic inequality in the study area. The findings of the thesis reveal that urban-rural relations in China became gradually intensified in the post-reform era, especially when the central government initiated a shift from a situation of urban bias to comprehensive support for the rural areas. However, the mutual resource flows in the study area still tend to agglomerate in the urban districts, while only reaching the rural peripheries to a limited extent. This is demonstrated in the way in which the urban districts experienced fast and large scale demographic growth and land use change, while slow and small-scale demographic and land use change took place in the peripheries. The urban-rural interface, which is situated between the urban and rural areas, evidences medium-level resource agglomeration. This thesis, through the discussion which it sets out, emphasizes the necessity of exercising both political and market forces in order to achieve balanced urban-rural resource flows in China. Another implication for policy making is to develop more sub-centers at the peri-urban or periphery, making these areas the interface for urban-rural resource linkages.
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| 6. |
- Littke, Helene, 1985-
(författare)
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Planning Practices of Greening : Challenges for Public Urban Green Space
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Public urban green spaces are crucial parts of cities due to the many connections existing between urban greenery and well-being. Additionally, public urban green space represents a wide range of spatial concepts, such as parks, urban forests, commons, in-between-spaces, and gardens. This study explores challenges for contemporary public urban green space in an increasingly urban world, with high demands on urban growth, and simultaneously the need for more sustainable societies and cities. The aim is to problematize the complex reality for contemporary public urban green space from an urban planning perspective in times of urban densification strategies, global competitiveness between cities and trends of ‘re-naturing’. The scope of this thesis is based on four high profile case studies. The Green Walkable City in Stockholm and The Green Living Spaces in Birmingham constitute planning strategies with a holistic approach to urban green space, including a strong focus on well-being. The High Line in New York and Parklets in San Francisco represent urban green space concepts, influential both at the local level and in the larger urban planning debate. The results point to a need to acknowledge the complexity inherent to urban green space provision, design, and management. This study contributes with insights of direct connections between narratives of nature, materialized urban greenery projects and conceptualizations of functionality of nature in urban planning projects. From the post-industrial, pristine flirting, crafted wilderness of the High Line; a symbolic but cosmetic scrambling with planters and narratives of parks of parklets; dualistic argumentations of natural values connected to quality over quantity of nature in a densifying and growing Stockholm; to pragmatic yet emotional and ambitious conceptualizations of human nature in biohilic urbanism and green space planning in Birmingham. Gentrification, publicness and production of public space and densification strategies are central themes in urban studies – and public urban green space can play an active role in these processes.
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| 7. |
- Ljunggren, Maria
(författare)
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Collaborations effect on undergraduate education : a study of two policyprograms.
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A shift has occurred in the traditional type of centralised government control to a more multilevel type of governing referred to as governance. The change from government to governance can be illustrated with an emphasis on networks and social capital enhancement. In higher education this is enveloped through a larger emphasis on institutionalisation of collaboration between the higher education institutions (HEI) and the surrounding environment. In lieu of large block grants come financial incentives through semi-governmental agencies embracing collaboration projects between industry and HEI as well as municipalities.` This licentiate thesis objective is to study the collaboration task’s practical implication on undergraduate education in terms of social capital enhancement and research and teaching links. This is reported in two articles that elaborate on social capital establishment through a policy program and whether policy programs focusing on research collaborations also have an effect on undergraduate education by improving research and teaching links. In general, the findings of this thesis indicate that semi-governmental policy programs have a positive effect on establishing new social capital between regional HEI, industry and municipalities, and that semi-governmentally financed research profiles also have a positive effect on undergraduate education by introducing a link to research outside and within the HEI.
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| 8. |
- Nahiduzzaman, Kh. Md. 1980-
(författare)
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HOUSING THE URBAN POOR: AN INTEGRATED GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE : The Case of Dhaka, Bangladesh
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is claimed that low-income people in Dhaka city do not have the financial ability to enjoy adecent housing environment. There is a clear lack of knowledge on how low-income people,drawing upon both their available income together and support from formal financial institutions,would be able to afford housing. It is commonly considered a fact that their access to formalfinancial means is largely hindered by their poor financial status, along with the absence of anyform of land tenure security. The case of this study demonstrates, on the contrary, the adequatefinancial ability of the urban poor when it comes to meeting rent and payments for other necessaryservices. This study therefore primarily responds to the critical issue of whether the government isunaware of informal housing practices, or is simply ignorant of low-income housing provision.In this study, perspectives on change are analyzed in order to comprehend the obstacles andchallenges embedded within the housing organizations of Dhaka city. Within the local governanceparadigm, the concepts of deliberative dialogue and partnership are explored with the aim toreveal both the resources rooted in ‘informal’ low-income housing practices, and the resources atstake for the ‘formal’ housing gatekeepers. Different land tenure security options are explored inorder to understand their compatibility with the informal nature of low-income housing. Thetheory of social business is critically reviewed, and used to examine whether low-incomeaffordable housing could be seen as a product resulting from partnerships between vested actors,for whom the low-income community could be considered to be both a beneficiary and a partner.This study suggests that outside the boundary of ‘formal’ housing, there is an unexplored andfunctional ‘informal’ housing market where de facto owners purchase ‘business tenure security’from the slum lords, while de facto tenants buy ‘house rental tenure security’ in exchange forregular rental payments. Within this informality, an innovative financial organization (the JhilparCooperative) has emerged as a creative platform for business investment. This study reveals thatJhilpar’s inhabitants pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income for housing. As anabsolute value, this is more than what is being paid by middle-class – and even many high-income– people. The slum inhabitants also pay more for a limited supply of basic services, such aselectricity.This study concludes that the formal housing gatekeepers lack a complete knowledge of‘informality’ – a notion reflected in, for example, the actual financial ability of the urban poor; thestrength and potentials of systematic community-based cooperative business; and housing relocationdecisions (employment-housing nexus). This fundamental lack of knowledge precludesthe housing gatekeepers from taking the right decisions to achieve affordable low-incomehousing. These deficiencies have led to low-income housing projects that have barely benefitedthe urban poor, benefiting other income groups instead. Low-income housing projects utilizingland title provision, sites and services schemes, and relocation to other places (amongst otherstrategies) disregard the nature, strength, and potentials of housing ‘informality’ in the slums inthe most pronounced manner. This identified knowledge gap also rules out private and publichousing gatekeepers employing their resources as enablers or providers. To improve this impassewith regard to affordable low-income housing, this study advocates a ‘social business model forlow-income housing’ as the most effective option for the Jhilpar community, wherebypartnerships would be built on an ‘investment’ mindset, through a shift away from conventional‘give away’ practices.
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| 9. |
- Dymén, Christian, 1980-
(författare)
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Engendering Spatial Planning : A Gender Perspective on Municipal Climate Change Response
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While climate change mitigation has been on the agenda of spatial planning practitioners for over two decades, adaptation has only become influential in spatial planning practice in recent years. This trend is evident not only at the municipal levelbut also at the regional and national levels. The revised planning and building law from 2011 states that municipalities must consider climate change. In parallel, a body of research focusing on the relationship between gender and concern for environmental and climate change and arguing that women are more concerned and proactive with respect to environmental issues has emerged. However, this research has been criticized for being essentialist and for stigmatizing women and men. The long-term aim of the present dissertation is to contribute to knowledge on how a gender perspective on municipal spatial planning can contribute to efficient and well-informed climate change response, as well as on how a gender perspective, as an analytical framework, can be developed to analyze, on the one hand, spatial planning related to climate change and, on the other, spatial planning more generally. One of the main contributions of my dissertation is to demonstrate that, by including a gender perspective in municipal climate change response, aspects that may be important for achieving efficient and well-informed spatial planning related to climate change response that are not typically prioritized can be afforded prominent places on the agenda. In this dissertation, I refer to these aspects as feminine values and perspectives—or attributes. I also contribute to the development of an analytical framework that can be used by policy makers and scientists to assess how a gender perspective is and can be integrated within municipal spatial planning processes related to climate change response, as well as spatial planning more generally. Furthermore, in addition to the development of efficient and well-informed responses, a dimension of gender equality must be considered. My dissertation contributes to the understanding that planners who adopt a gender perspective must consider the general level of gender equality in a country. Although the primary objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of efficient and well-informed policy, issues of equality and democracy cannot be overlooked. As I argue in my dissertation, participatory approaches to spatial planning are imperative for municipal efforts related to climate change. Nonetheless, participatory approaches require spatial planners to ensure that democracy and equality, on the one hand, and efficient and well-informed policy delivery, on the other, do not conflict.
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| 10. |
- Fredriksson, Charlotta, 1978-
(författare)
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Planning in the 'New Reality' : Strategic Elements and Approaches in Swedish Municipalities
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Central to this dissertation is a discourse in contemporary Swedish planning practice referred to as the ‘new reality’. The name of this discourse reflects the notion that planning practice interprets the conditions of today as differing from those which occurred previously. The urban landscape is perceived as increasingly complex, dynamic, and competitive, where strategic alliances must be built between municipalities and private and public actors at different levels. Both the influence of private actors and such factors as climate effects contribute to that much of what may happen in the future being experienced as uncertain and unpredictable. In this context of complexity, uncertainty, and governance, municipalities must find a way to manage planning tasks connected to the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability, tasks that may be at the same time interdependent and contradictory. The social and environmental dimensions of sustainability provide the municipality with a spectrum of tasks that range from local welfare tasks to national and global environmental and climate concerns, the time span ranges between short-term and long-term, and the degree of concreteness ranges from the specific to the vague. Furthermore, tasks connected to the wellbeing and safety concern not only the own citizens but also humankind in general, and both today and in the future. Tasks of economic sustainability are, in the ‘new reality’ discourse, closely connected to growth. As growth is regarded as desirable, the assumed situation of competition between cities, municipalities, regions and nations means that it is considered important to find ways to be attractive to both the market and to new potential citizens. That notwithstanding, municipalities must also handle the effects from growth. The starting point of the dissertation is that it is easier to make good decisions (short-term, emergent) based on previous decisions (long-term, structure), in order to make gains in terms of social, environmental and economic sustainability, but also to bring efficiency gains in development decisions. Legislation assumes that the comprehensive plan serves such a function – it should both constitute political decisions for future development, and a planning data that allows holistic assessments. However, today, in many municipalities, it does not function as such. With reference to recently revised planning legislation’s intention to strengthen the strategic role of the comprehensive plan, this dissertation elaborates upon a development of the comprehensive plan based on a strategic perspective. The dissertation contributes to knowledge by outlining a way in which comprehensive planning could be developed based on a strategic perspective, that could provide municipalities with a possibility for an active role in development within the conditions of the ‘new reality’ discourse. It does so by visualising the use of strategic elements and approaches in Swedish municipalities’ work with planning and development; the application of elements such as strategic contextual awareness, strategic selectiveness, strategic responsiveness, and strategic governance. Furthermore, as the design of the comprehensive planning process is discussed from the perspective of forums-arenas-courts (Healey, 1997; Bryson 2004), the view of what in fact is planning is expanded, thereby including formal as well as informal, visible as well as invisible, processes and decisions on different levels and with difference degrees of concreteness, that influence development. Comprehensive planning concerns a variety of processes that take place not in the planning game, but in the development game.
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