| 1. |
- Andersen, Bengt, et al.
(författare)
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NOU 2020:16 : Levekår i byer. Gode lokalsamfunn for alle.
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - Oslo : Universitetsforlaget. - 2703-8866. ; 1:1, s. 78-90
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban issues such as poverty or marginality and disadvantage, unrest, crime, housing, segregation and social cohesion are on the political and academic agenda in Europe and in the US (Andersen, 2002; Atkinson, 2019; Galster, 1990; Gerell & Kronkvist, 2017; Mayer, Thörn, & Thörn, 2016; Uslaner, 2012; Wacquant, 2008). As indicated, policymakers devise strategies to address such problems (Andersson, Wimark, & Malmberg, 2020; Damm, Nielsen, Mattana, & Rouland, 2020; Davis, 2019; George & Patrick, 2017; van Gent et al., 2018; van Gent & Musterd, 2013). This also holds true for Norway (e.g. Andersen & Brattbakk, 2020).In Norway, the Government or a specific ministry may appoint a committee to report on an issue of relevance. The results are published as an Official Norwegian Report – Norges offentlige utredninger (NOU) in Norwegian. While it can be argued that urban issues are not a political priority in Norway, the current conservative Government – led by prime minister Erna Solberg – did appoint a committee to examine living conditions in Norwegian cities. The Norwegian Commission for City and Living Conditions presented its NOU on 16 December 2020 (NOU 2020:16). The report is important as it summarizes the latest knowledge on the topic and provides recommendations for future Norwegian urban policies. Hence, it is worth a thorough and critical review.
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| 2. |
- Westin, Martin, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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"Let us be led by the residents": Swedish dialogue experts' stories about power, justification and ambivalence
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 2703-8866. ; 1, s. 113-130
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper focuses on the practices of an emerging group of practitioners in Swedish urban governance: dialogue experts. As dialogical ideals have been mainstreamed in planning policies, civil servants and governance consultants have been increasingly commissioned to engage in dialogue with citizens within public deliberation, planning consultations or citizens budgeting. Even though these practitioners influence the whys, whats and hows of urban development, their practices remain curiously under-explored in Nordic urban studies. Dialogue experts experience the practical dilemma of being experts in a practice that has developed as a reaction to expert-rule and top-down power. We inquire into this dilemma together with a group of dialogue experts who work within an urban development scheme in the district of Gottsunda in Uppsala, Sweden. We ask: how do dialogue experts make sense of their use of power in dialogues with citizens? We explore whether analysing dialogue practice through the concepts of power and justification might explain the practical dilemmas confronted by dialogue experts. By engaging in joint inquiry with the practitioners in a series of focus groups, we learn that the practitioners are inclined to critique power relations that exclude marginalised voices from urban planning but find it more difficult to justify their own use of power in pursuit of a more inclusive governance system. The dialogue experts employ two types of justification for their use of power: an advocative justification, which revolves around aspirations to change the planning system to include marginalised voices, and a more conventional bureaucratic justification, by which they merely execute the will of elected politicians and follow established planning procedures. Even so, the practitioners remain ambivalent about their use of power. Hence, we demonstrate how power theory and joint inquiry between practitioners and researchers can shed new light on the practical dilemmas in dialogue practice.
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| 3. |
- Berglund-Snodgrass, Lina
(författare)
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Urban planning for car-free housing and ideas of future desired states
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 2703-8866. ; 2, s. 63-81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Planning for car-free housing has emerged as a solution for accomplishing sustainable urban development. Therehas been a tendency among researchers and policy makers to understand car-free housing in terms of “lifestyle poli-tics”, where change is advanced by fostering morally or socially inspired lifestyle choices. The aim of this article isto situate lifestyle politics in a context of broader urban development by analysing ideas of future desired states thatunderpin planning for car-free housing, so as to allow for a critical discussion around what long-term urban futuresurban planning wants to accomplish through such housing. By drawing from Mukhtar-Landgren’s conceptual pairof planning object and subject, and examining documents and formal correspondence relating to four examples ofplanning car-free housing in Sweden, the study shows three different ideas of the future that underpin the planningwhich includes different assumptions of sustainable mobility, individuals and urban planning: Planning for (1) “anoptimized system”, which includes assumptions of rational objects which travel efficiently; (2) “individual freedom”,which includes assumptions of independent consumers which travel rightly; and (3) “community and togetherness”,which includes assumptions of individuals being part of a community which travels less.
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| 4. |
- Bergsten, Lisa, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Intermediary housing tenures in Sweden : Developers’ response to inaccessible housingmarkets and its implications for tenant-buyers
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 2703-8866. ; 3:1, s. 4-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, long queues to rental housing and high purchase prices on the ownership market increasingly exclude alsomid-income households without larger savings. This has prompted some housing developers to introduce intermediary tenures that have the potential to open up the housing market to a wider layer of the population. Among thesemodels, there are intermediary tenures of a longer standing which are deemed to have potential for up-scaling. Theaim of this paper is to analyse two shared ownership and two cooperative rental models from legal and economicperspectives to see to what extent, and subject to what risks, these models add to housing opportunities of the targetgroups. In doing so, we connect to the European literature on intermediary housing tenures and theories on institutions and property rights The study implies that the concepts have the potential to scale up and reach larger targetgroups but that access to buildable land, stable financial solutions, and continued institutionalization of the conceptsare essential. The concepts are largely based on existing tenures with existing legislation, potentially providing a saferand more predictable setting. However, financial literacy among buyers is limited, which is calls for attention andcontinued intense information work by developers.
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| 5. |
- Dunn, Harriet
(författare)
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Governing by Quid Pro Quo : Negotiating the Development of Sustainable New Towns in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 2703-8866. ; 3:2, s. 38-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Negotiated Development Agreements (NDvAs) are a tool of public-sector deal-making in Sweden where land-use and transport initiatives are integrated via contracts between national, regional and local actors. Negotiations involve the direct quid pro quo trading of public transport financing in direct exchange for local housing commitments. The article contributes to ongoing conversations regarding public-sector deal-making by demonstrating how contractualism plays out in contexts where land-use planning is strongly decentralised and infrastructure planning highly centralised. The article sheds light on the core rationales underpinning deal-based governance, as well as demonstrating how negotiations play out in practise. The aims are addressed through a case study of the most recent batch of agreements: the New Towns inquiry. NDvAs are conceptualized as a mechanism by which the central state attempts to both affect local land-use decisions and metagovern the complex actor networks characterizing integrated planning. Rapid quid pro quo deals, made behind closed doors, allow for the maximisation of municipal housing commitments and minimisation of critique, bypassing existing statutory decision-making processes. This has consequences for the relations between central-local planning actors and for the democratic legitimacy of decisions made, and thus the potential actualisation of housing commitments. The findings elucidate the role of nation states in setting the conditions for integrated transport and land-use governance, as well as the tensions that arise when this is orchestrated through informal, deal-based instruments.
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| 6. |
- Gerell, Manne, et al.
(författare)
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Swedish conditions? Characteristics of locations the Swedish Police label as vulnerable
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - : Scandinavian University Press / Universitetsforlaget AS. - 2703-8866. ; 2:1, s. 40-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deprived neighborhoods in Sweden in which criminal networks have a negative impact on local residents are labeled as “vulnerable neighborhoods” by the police. The method used by the police to classify such neighborhoods is largely based on perceptions, which raises issues of subjectivity and potential biases. The present study explores the characteristics of such neighborhoods based on registry data on socio-demographics and crime. The study employs data in the form of a grid of 250 x 250 meter vector grids (N=116,660) with data on population, foreign background, employment, age characteristics, household type, and eight types of crime. Generalized mixed-effects models of vector grids nested in municipalities were fitted to analyze the characteristics of vector grids classified as vulnerable (N=1678). Several variables are significantly associated with a vector grid being classified as vulnerable, with the proportion of the population that is foreign born, and the proportion with foreign-born parents, being the strongest predictors. In addition, we consider whether there are systematic differences between municipalities and develop a model based on regression coefficients to predict whether a vector grid is vulnerable. The model reclassifies 39.8 percent of the vector grids, identifying locations that statistically resemble vulnerable neighborhoods but are not classified as such, and vice versa.
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| 7. |
- Grundström, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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What we share: covert commoning in Swedish coliving?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - 2703-8866. ; 3:1, s. 44-59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sharing housing with non-family members has increasingly become a way to reduce costs while pursuing an autonomous yet communal living throughout the life course. During the past decade, a new form of shared housing has entered the Swedish real estate market: coliving. Like shared housing generally, some of the aims of coliving are to help address the housing shortage, decrease loneliness, increase the sustainability of housing and provide flexible housing for an increasingly mobile population. Based on the design of sixteen coliving hubs and interviews with thirteen coliving developers and operators as well as fourteen colivers, we show how the visions and experiences of developers and residents are mutually constitutive, but also at odds with each other. We argue first that even though coliving is set in a discourse of commoning as an alternative form of exchange, production and living, developers decrease the size of shared spaces and reduce options for residents to manage their homes and participate in choosing whom to live with. As a consequence, colivers feel the need to develop strategies to manage privacy and practice self-care, since having emotional balance becomes a prerequisite for an intensely shared life. Furthermore, the emotional labour of colivers revolves primarily around socializing with others similar to themselves while services, such as cleaning and maintenance, are provided by staff. In conclusion, we define commoning practices in coliving as a form of covert commoning built on contradictions between discourse and lived experience.
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| 8. |
- Oldbury, Kelsey, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Strategic Planning Capacities in a Time of Platformisation
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - 2703-8866. ; 3:2, s. 4-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influx of digital platforms into the mobility sector has created a myriad of new forms of mobility services in urban transport. The proliferation of digital platforms raises questions regarding public actors’ strategic planning capacities in times of platformisation. In this paper, focus is directed towards Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) as an example of platformisation taking place in a setting where public actors have (in theory) had an opportunity to influence platform developments in relation to urban and mobility planning. Based on qualitative research into a pilot project for MaaS in the Stockholm region, the aim of this paper is to provide insights into the relationship between platformisation and strategic planning. More specifically, we discuss how local and regional organisations with responsibilities for urban transport and land-use planning navigate and respond to the ongoing platformisation of urban mobility, from a strategic planning perspective.
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| 9. |
- Witzell, Jacob, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Embedding Research-led Urban Experiments? : Institutional Capacities and Challenges in Mundane Planning Settings
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 2703-8866. ; 3:2, s. 21-37
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Literature on urban experiments and the role of experimental governance is increasingly focusing on the relationship between experimental processes and existing urban governance and planning configurations. This article aims to develop knowledge about institutional capacity and conditions for embedding experiments in mundane, everyday planning contexts. Based on qualitative interviews and document studies, we draw upon a research-led experiment which introduces digitally supported mobility interventions in a suburban neighborhood south of Stockholm, Sweden. We ask two questions: 1) which case-specific institutional capacities influence the embedding of urban experimentation? And based on this, 2) which general implications follow from the challenges of embedding experimental activities in mundane urban development contexts? Our results illustrate that mundane settings are challenging sites for embedding urban experimentation within broader strategic urban planning and development. In the case studied, limited strategic planning resources and the absence of an up-to-date strategic framing for the neighborhood’s development makes it challenging to integrate, and learn from, the experiment within its broader planning context. Broader implications from this case suggest that limited institutional capacity to embed experimentation in mundane planning settings implies an extended role for researchers to support conditions for embedding. We also identify a need for both researchers and public planning agencies to continuously safeguard democratic legitimacy and prioritization of scarce strategic planning resources. Embedding can be a demanding learning strategy. Involved actors ought to closely assess available capacity for embedding and identify activities which might support embedding in order to establish favorable conditions.
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