| 1. |
- Falck, Simon, 1976-
(författare)
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Essays on the Interplay between Multinational Enterprises and Spatial Economies
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis concerns the interplay between multinational enterprises (MNE) and spatial economies, with an orientation towards the location and spillover effects of inward foreign direct investments (FDI). The thesis consists of four essays that are self-contained studies. The first essay relates to the shift away from FDI in manufacturing to services and examines whether service FDI locates differently from manufacturing FDI. The second essay concerns the relationship between FDI and public incentives and whether investment promotion schemes are useful to attract FDI. The third essay examines the link between human capital and FDI and how different types of skilled workers influence FDI location. Taken together, these three essays examine conditions and factors that determine the location decision of foreign MNEs in the contemporary era of globalisation. The forth essay examines whether labour mobility is a potential source for spillovers from FDI in a spatial context. Although the latter essay does not provide any final answer to whether spillovers actually arise through this channel, it shows that the potentials for an effect to arise are larger in some regions than others because there are very few or no such knowledge spillover agents in many parts of the country. The thesis concludes by discussing the link between FDI and the policy work on regional development, and some avenues for future studies.
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| 2. |
- Farrell, Kyle
(författare)
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Rapid Urbanization : An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Urban Transition in Developing Countries
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is concerned with the challenges posed by the contemporary urban narrative in developing countries. It is premised on the notion of the urban transition, which posits that as a country develops it undergoes a transformation from a predominantly rural society to a predominantly urban one. Throughout most of history, the urban transition was largely a phenomenon confined to what are considered todays developed countries; however, sometime around the middle of the 20th century, this began to change and the urban transition began to takeoff in developing countries. The contemporary urban narrative differentiates itself from historical accounts in that it is unfolding at an unprecedented pace and scale, placing significant pressure on urban areas. With the pressures of rapid urbanization and rapid urban growth already outstripping the capacities of local governments, planning and managing the urban transition is arguably one of the most important topics of the 21st century. In an attempt to identify approaches for managing the unprecedented pace and scale of the contemporary urban narrative, this thesis sets out to investigate the forces underpinning it. It has been organized into two parts: the first part comprises a comprehensive cover essay setting out the overarching research agenda and the second part comprises a series of five articles that make up the empirical analysis. Both sections can be read independently or constitute a single entity.The main contribution of this thesis is the introduction of a multidisciplinary framework for conceptualizing the urban transition in developing countries and its application to several case studies. The so-called ‘Rapid Urban Growth Triad’ situates the components of urban growth (rural to urban migration, urban natural population increase and reclassification of rural areas as urban) within their dominant theoretical discourses. As such, it views urban natural population increase as a demographic factor effected by changes in fertility and mortality patterns, rural to urban migration as an economic factor resulting from rural push and urban pull dynamics, and reclassification of rural areas as urban as a political/ administrative factor which occurs through the annexation of neighboring settlements, rural areas upgraded as urban, settlements crossing defined population thresholds and changes in urban definition. The framework offers explanatory power to the previously neglected components of urban growth and serves as a diagnostic for examining the urban transition under a range of circumstances.Utilizing the new conceptual framework as the primary mode of analysis, this thesis employs several demographic accounting techniques to disaggregate urbanization into its individual components of urban growth and computes their individual contributions to the overall urban increment. China, Nigeria and India have been selected as notable case studies, as these three countries are expected to account for the largest increase in urban population over the coming decades. The findings indicate that rural to urban migration has been the dominant component of urban growth in China, while urban natural population increase has been the dominant component in Nigeria and India; furthermore, in all three case studies, reclassification has made a more sizable contribution than initially understood. Moreover, it was found that in some instances the policies being prescribed to manage the urban transition did not match the identified sources of growth, suggesting a potential policy mismatch. This thesis also reveals several dynamics pertaining to the unprecedented pace and scale of the urban transition and the relationship between urbanization and economic growth. Collectively, these findings offer a more nuanced account of the urban transition in developing countries.Despite the urban transition being a universal event that unfolds in nearly all countries of the world, this thesis finds that it does not necessarily unfold in a uniform manner, suggesting the notion of multiple urbanization trajectories. These findings have implications for existing policies, which tend to be based on a rather outmoded understanding of the urban transition. Ultimately, this thesis calls for more informed (evidenced-based) approaches for understanding and managing the urban transition in developing countries.
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| 3. |
- Karlsson, Sandra, 1981-
(författare)
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Områdesbaserad politik – möjligheter till strukturell förändring : Lokalt utvecklingsarbete i marginaliserade bostadsområden i Malmö
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 1995 the Swedish government launched the first area-based initiative Special initiatives in immigrant-dense neighbourhoods as a response to the current debate concerning the failings of the integration policy. The area-based policy and projects undertake the mission to reverse the trend in marginalized neighbourhoods in Sweden’s major cities from 1995 to 2014. The empirical material is from the projects Area-programs for a socially sustainable Malmö (2010-2015) and Lindängen towards the future (2012-2014), Malmö municipality. Adopting a social constructionist approach the study’s aim is to examine the projects’ assumptions concerning what – and who – should be changed and how. Based on the policy´s claim to achieve structural change the study also examines if, and if so what, possibilities the projects have to create opportunities for structural change. The study shows that the area-based projects cannot create opportunities for structural change but rather work to reduce the social consequences of structural deficiencies that are made visible through the reproduction of marginalised neighbourhoods. In the projects the social problem is constructed as consisting of four interrelated factors: long-term unemployment, foreign background, segregation and lack of social responsibility. The strategy is to mobilise public, private and civil sector actors so that they – despite society’s exclusion of people of foreign background in situations of long-term unemployment – take their social responsibility and make available resources to individual residents in order to prepare them for becoming active citizens. As they are not able to reduce poverty, promote inclusive political and economic processes or legitimate relationships between those in power and representatives of civil society with demands for changing conditions, their ability to create opportunities for structural change is found to be limited.
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| 4. |
- 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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| 5. |
- 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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| 6. |
- Lundgren, Anna, 1968-
(författare)
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The Openness Buzz : A Study of Openness in Planning, Politics and Political Decision-Making in Sweden from an Institutional Perspective
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In today’s society of increased globalization and digitalization openness has become a buzzword. This raises questions about what we mean by openness and how it is interpreted in various contexts. This thesis has two aims; to explore how openness is interpreted in planning, politics and political decision-making, and to develop an analytical tool to assess openness in different contexts. A new institutional theory framework that centers on the interplay between institutions and actors has been used, and three empirical case studies in a Swedish context were conducted to analyze how openness is interpreted in planning in metropolitan regions, in politics through the political parties and in political decision-making in the Stockholm region. The research concludes that openness in planning, politics and political decision-making is interpreted along two inter-linked narrative lines: ’openness to people’ and ’openness to knowledge, information and ideas’. It was more common to talk about peoples’ accessibility to public services and participation in different parts of society (’openness to people’) than to talk about issues of transparency and ’openness to knowledge, information and ideas’. The institutional framework shows how openness is interpreted at different institutional levels. To what degree openness is expressed at different institutional levels vary by context. In planning for instance, openness is mainly interpreted in terms of governance, whereas in politics and political decision-making, openness is interpreted in an inter-play between culture and norms, institutions, governance and practice. The institutional framework complementary context-specific theories and elaborated into an analytical model, was found useful to explain what mechanisms are at play when dealing with openness in planning, politics and political decision-making, and can be applicable in future research of openness in other geographical or organizational contexts.
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| 7. |
- Odhage, John, 1975-
(författare)
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Otraditionella lösningar med traditionella medel : Åtgärdsvalstudien som planeringsfenomen
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to understand the method of strategic choice (MSC, Sw. metodik för åtgärdsvalsstudier) in Swedish transport planning as a planning phenomenon. Based on a normative interpretative approach and critical theory, underlying ideas and thinking that surround the context of MSC and how they are expressed in practice, in the guidelines and in concrete planning situations were investigated. The starting point was that changing conditions in society have necessitated reform of the transport sector and a new method has been introduced. It aims to enable a broader grip on transport issues by opening them up together with other actors, thus increasing scope and spreading responsibility for more sectors and activities, enabling new and unconventional solutions to transport problems for a sustainable future. MSC is described and interpreted here as a manifold phenomenon that reveals a tension between different perspectives and mindsets, but also leads to certain aspects being more often expressed which complicates wider and deeper perspectives on complex societal problems. More concretely, it was found that the collaboration in MSC is limited prematurely and is often limited at an early stage of the process, and that this leads to a more narrow understanding of the problem to be solved than would otherwise be the case. Furthermore, one specific perspective, namely the transport system perspective, is proposed explicitly as the basis for assessments. The study has also identified challenges related to the consideration of conflicting and contradictory knowledge claims in the process. Assessments of the effects of actions are assumed to be based upon logical premises, and not on judgments in dialogue and argumentation. However, the analysis suggested that the functional instrumental reasoning of success-oriented action does not seem to take normative and political issues into consideration in order to better address sustainable development issues in the complex, democratic and pluralist society. In conclusion, the analysis identifies the need for these processes in addressing a sustainable future to be kept open in a more inclusive and diverse way, drawing on more and different possible futures.
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| 8. |
- Wahlström, Marie, 1970-
(författare)
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Livable and Sustainable Cities : Explorations of the City Soul and Energy-Efficient Housing based on Swedish Data on Citizens’ Preferences
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Contemporary cities face many challenges, none the least from an urban planning perspective. Global climate change and urbanization is putting pressures on planning for combatting and adapting to, e.g., a warmer climate and an increased need for housing in already dense environments.The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of residents’ opinions and preferences regarding various aspects of city livability and sustainability. Two of the papers discuss energy-efficient housing and two the identity/soul of the city and its neighborhoods. The papers are empirically oriented and rest on relatively large quantitative materials of Swedish data. The database used in the first two articles contains around 77,000 observations of single-family homes. The residential survey used in the two final papers was sent to a random sample of 6,600 residents in four cities, resulting in 2,573 respondents.Regression is the primary analytical method and the results indicate a preference for sustainable housing, in terms of a price premium on heat pumps (attributes that both reduce the energy consumption and are easily observed in the house). It is further suggested that the perception of a strong city/neighborhood soul is linked to positive relations to the city and to positive perceptions of its physical characteristics. In particular, feelings of attachment, belonging, and pride as well as perceptions of aesthetics, arts, and symbols, seem to be linked to a strong city/neighborhood soul.The presented research contributes to related literature through providing insight to Swedish residents’ preferences and opinions concerning energy-efficient housing and the city/neighborhood soul. It is shown that a citizen perspective based on carefully designed databases and appropriate analytical tools can be used by planners to gain new insights supporting urban livability and sustainability efforts.
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| 9. |
- Aguiar Borges, Luciane, 1969-
(författare)
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Stories of Pasts and Futures in Planning
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Societies are constantly changing, facing new challenges and possibilities generated by innovative technologies, sociospatial re-structuring and mobilities. This research approaches these challenges by exploring the role that stories about pasts, presents and futures play in planning. It sees stories as interlinked spaces of struggle over meanings, legitimacies and powers through which “our” valuable pasts and “our” desirable futures become re-constructed, framed and projected. It argues that powerful stories might consciously or unconsciously become institutionalised in policy discourses and documents, foregrounding our spatial realities and affecting our living spaces. These arguments and assumptions are investigated in relation to three cases: Regional-Pasts, SeGI-Futures and ICT-Futures. The stories about pasts, presents and futures surrounding these cases are investigated with the aim of initiating critical discussions on how stories about pasts and futures can inform, but also be sustained by, planning processes. While studies of these cases are presented in separate papers, these studies are brought together in an introductory essay and reconstructed in response to the research questions: How do regional futures become informed by the pasts? How do particular stories about the pasts become selected, framed and projected as envisioned futures? What messages are conveyed to the pasts and the presents through envisioned futures? How can stories of the past be referred and re-employed in planning to build more inclusive futures? To engage with the multidisciplinarity of these questions, they are investigated through dialogues between three main fields: heritage studies, futures studies and planning. The discussions have challenged the conventional divides between pasts, presents and futures, emphasised their plural nature and uncovered how the discursive power of stories play a significant role when interpreting pasts and envision futures in planning practices.
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| 10. |
- Bernhard, Irene, 1953-
(författare)
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E-government and E-governance : Local Implementation of E-government Polices in Sweden
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is recognized in international research that the public sector has been transformed into a networked, open and more flexible, informal and interactive governance structure. This is described as a transition from “government to governance”. Sweden is one of the international leaders with regards to e-government development. The objective of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of how e-government policies are implemented in an e-governance context, through empirical case studies in Sweden. The focus is on the local level. The overall research question is: How is e-government policy put into practice when focusing on the local level? This is reported in four articles.Case study methodology is used as research method, including interviews, focus group interviews, document studies, and some participatory observations. The analysis is partly based on an inductive methodological approach, since this is a new, emerging field of innovative policy and practice.The analysis arrives at three overarching conclusions: (1) In practice, when e-government policy is implemented and translated at the local level, it tends to happen in an e-governance setting conducted by policy entrepreneurs or promoted by entrepreneurial behaviour in public administration. E-government policies are implemented in relation to local cultures, norms and economic structures. (2) Implementation of e-government and e-governance initiatives requires trust in the service provision among public administrators as well as among citizens. Efficiency and citizen-centred approaches in the redesign of information relationships between public administration and citizens to create some sort of added value are crucial. (3) The thesis indicates that there are two main implications of municipal contact centres (CCs): they localize public services and they combine different services into a one-stop practice striving to provide “holistic” services to the individual citizen. However, although the use of ICT is essential for the organisational transformation, the results indicate that the organisational settings and internal anchoring are greater constraints than new technology for implementation of local e-government and e-governance initiatives in the form of contact centres. One example for potential added value is the source of information of citizens’ issues through the implementation of municipal contact centres, which may have a positive impact on the conditions for local planning.
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