| 1. |
- Beland Lindahl, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Clash or concert in European forests? Integration and coherence of forest ecosystem service–related national policies
- 2023
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Ingår i: Land use policy. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper compares how forest ecosystem service–related policies are integrated in different national European forest governance contexts. Efforts to achieve policy integration at the EU and national levels are often described in terms of limited success. Our analysis of forest, energy/bioeconomy, climate, and conservation policies suggests that notions of progress or failure merit careful assessment. Combining theories of policy integration (PI), environmental policy integration (EPI), and policy coherence, we argue that integration outcomes depend on the combined effects of the degree and nature of PI, EPI, and multilevel coherence in the context of the prevailing forest governance system. The nature of the interdependencies, specifically anticipated synergies, and the scope of FES-related climate objectives, are crucial. Realizing the range of FES-related objectives entails safeguarding objectives not synergistically aligned with economic aims. Failures to safeguard biodiversity and regulating and cultural ecosystem services in the process of integration may have far-reaching consequences.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Beland Lindahl, Karin
(författare)
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The Legacy of Sweden’s Social Democratic State for Extractive Bargains with Indigenous Sámi Reindeer Herding Communities
- 2023. - 1
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Ingår i: Extractive Bargains. - : Springer Nature. ; , s. 75-96
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter explores how the Swedish state justifies its extractive bargains with Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding communities (RHCs). The conflict over the Kallak/Gállok mine project in northern Sweden serves as an example. The chapter explores the logic underlying the Swedish state’s contemporary extractive bargaining strategies in light of a policy style moulded by historical social democratic politics. A corporatist and consensus-oriented policy style and a productivist approach assuming win-wins between social rights, equality and economic growth permeated historical Swedish bargains. Currently, Sweden justifies its bargains with climate benefits, but the former social democratic legacy created path dependencies which continue to shape extractive bargains today. While this approach has served the needs of the industry, the state and the working class, it severely compromises the needs of Indigenous Sámi RHCs. Applied in a pro-extractivist political economy with little concern for Indigenous rights, it maintains and reinforces social injustices.
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| 5. |
- Beland Lindahl, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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To Approve or not to Approve? A Comparative Analysis of State-Company-Indigenous Community Interactions in Mining in Canada and Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental Management. - : Springer Nature. - 0364-152X .- 1432-1009. ; 73:5, s. 946-961
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This Special Section explores the interplay between Indigenous peoples, industry, and the state in five proposed and active mining projects in Canada and Sweden. The overall aim is to identify factors shaping the quality of Indigenous community-industry-state interactions in mining and mine development. An ambition underlying the research is to develop knowledge to help manage mining related land-use conflicts in Sweden by drawing on Canadian comparisons and experience. This paper synthesizes the comparative research that has been conducted across jurisdictions in three Canadian provinces and Sweden. It focuses on the interplay between the properties of the governance system, the quality of interaction and governance outcomes. We combine institutional and interactive governance theory and use the concept of governability to assess how and why specific outcomes, such as mutually beneficial interaction, collaboration, or opposition, occurred. The analysis suggests there are measures that can be taken by the Swedish Government to improve the governability of mining related issues, by developing alternative, and more effective, avenues to recognize, and protect, Sámi rights and culture, to broaden the scope and increase the legitimacy and transparency of the EIAs, to raise the quality of interaction and consultation, and to develop tools to actively stimulate and support collaboration and partnerships on equal terms. Generally, we argue that Indigenous community responses to mining must be understood within a larger framework of Indigenous self-determination, in particular the communities’ own assessments of their opportunities to achieve their long-term objectives using alternative governing modes and types of interactions.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Fjellborg, Daniel, 1988-
(författare)
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Strategies and Actions in Swedish Mining Resistance : Mapping Anti-Extraction Movements and Exploring How Their Interpretations of Socio-Political Context Shape Mobilization Against Mining Projects
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Across the world, the demand for minerals is steadily increasing. In Europe, the push for mining coincides with rising public mobilization against extraction projects, and mining-related conflicts will likely be a feature of Europe’s foreseeable future. To understand the trajectories of mining conflicts, and to find just ways of handling them, it is important to understand the strategies and actions of the networks of actors that oppose extraction projects, that is, anti-extraction movements. While previous research has primarily explored mining resistance in the Global South, our knowledge about mining resistance in Europe is lacking. I contribute to filling this gap by investigating anti-extraction movements in Sweden, a long-term producer of minerals. The aim of the thesis is thus to explore what strategies and actions anti-extraction movements in Sweden use and how and why they choose them. I use social movement theory and emphasize how choices of strategies and actions are shaped by the socio-political context in which movements are embedded. With the help of frame analysis and an interpretive research approach, I explore how movement actors’ interpretations of contextual opportunities and constraints shape their actions, thus contributing to the ongoing research debate about how surrounding societal actors and institutions influence movement agency. In four papers, building on an extensive document analysis and interviews with movement actors, I systematically map and analyse anti-extraction movements in Sweden and provide in-depth studies of selected cases. I ask two research questions: 1. What anti-extraction movements are there in Sweden, in what socio-political contexts are they embedded, and what actions have they taken? 2. How do anti-extraction movements’ goals and interpretations of contextual opportunities and constraints shape their strategies and actions?The thesis presents the first comprehensive mapping of anti-extraction movements in Sweden and shows that mining resistance has increased across Sweden during the last two decades. My results reveal that movements use a wide range of actions, from civil disobedience and public demonstrations to litigation and political lobbying, and are composed of heterogeneous mixes of actors, including newly formed activist networks, organizations for farmers and Indigenous Sámi, and environmental organizations. Movements promote several visions for societal development, including environmental protection and sustainability, Sámi Indigenous rights and culture, and landowners’ rights and agriculture. In international comparison, the Swedish anti-extraction movements to a larger extent aim to influence political and legal actors and place less emphasis on project owners and corporate investors. Regarding how socio-political context shapes strategies and actions, my results indicate that movement actors’ interpretations of contextual opportunities do not always align with researchers’ understandings of what an opportunity is, thus producing unexpected actions. Movement actors’ interpretations of opportunities and constraints are found to be influenced by their goals, their comparisons of available options, their previous experiences, and their role in relation to other actors in the movement. My research shows that socio-political context often influences movement actors’ strategies and actions via their interpretations of opportunities and constraints for achieving goals. My results also suggest that socio-political context shapes movement actors’ strategies and actions by presenting them with appropriate ways to act in society. Lastly, my studies indicate that additional factors, including movement actors’ action traditions and identities, resources, and the diffusion of strategies, can influence movement actors’ interpretations of contextual opportunities and strategies and actions.
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| 8. |
- Fjellborg, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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What to do when the mining company comes to town? Mapping actions of anti-extraction movements in Sweden, 2009–2019
- 2022
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Ingår i: Resources policy. - : Elsevier. - 0301-4207 .- 1873-7641. ; 75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research on the actions of anti-extraction movements has primarily comprised single-case studies in developing countries. Despite increasing mobilization and policy objectives to increase mineral extraction in the EU, we have little systematic knowledge of forms of resistance in a European setting. This paper exhaustively and comparatively maps anti-extraction movements in Sweden and investigates how movements' actions relate to their socio-political contexts. Sixteen place-specific movements are identified and studied using frame analysis and political process theory. The results suggest that anti-extraction movements occur across Sweden and that their socio-political contexts differ in access to indigenous rights institutions, project owner engagement, and support/opposition from host municipalities and national interest groups. The frame analysis indicates that movements share several goals, sometimes interpret similar contexts differently, and that differences in actions reflect differences in interpretations of contextual opportunities. Our results show that anti-extraction movements in Sweden involve diverse actors, including environmental interest groups, new networks mobilizing against extraction projects, indigenous Sami organizations, farmers' organizations, and landowners. Broad repertoires of actions, including civil disobedience, are used to influence the public, permitting processes, political actors at various scales, and project owners. Differences in socio-political contexts often align with movements’ interpretations of opportunities and relate with differences in action choices.
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Andreas
(författare)
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Deliberating Intractability : Exploring Prospects of Deliberative Democracy in Intractable Natural Resource Management Conflicts
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The increasing prevalence of intractable conflicts over natural resources, which defy technocratic solutions, highlights an urgent need for states, managers, and practitioners to find democratic methods for addressing them. In the normative debate over the optimal approach to managing these conflicts, deliberative democracy has emerged as a leading theoretical framework, sparking a deliberative turn in both political theory and natural resource governance. While the normative value of deliberative democracy—where the public collaboratively shapes collective decisions through reasoned discourse under conditions of equality and fairness—is widely acknowledged, its practical effectiveness in addressing intractable natural resource conflicts, particularly its capacity to foster productive reframing outcomes conducive to legitimate decisions or agreements, remains uncertain. In response to these uncertainties, this thesis explores the potential of deliberative democracy in intractable natural resource conflicts, using Swedish mining governance and its associated intractable conflicts as the empirical setting. It employs a qualitative case study design rooted in an interpretive analytical paradigm to investigate the possibility of achieving deliberation and associated reframing outcomes among disputing actors, examine the extent to which and how the ideal of deliberative democracy has manifested within the governance system entwined with the conflicts, and explore the interplay between contextual factors, deliberation, and associated reframing outcomes.The thesis concludes that while achieving consensus or mutually accepted agreement through deliberation in intractable conflicts may be unlikely, it is possible, given strict adherence to deliberative design principles and significant contextual knowledge, to realize ideal deliberation and the outcome of meta-consensus. This outcome holds substantial value as it can transform intractable conflicts into structured and respectful disagreements, thereby clarifying the conflicts and their dividing lines. Consequently, it makes intractable situations more manageable, facilitating efforts to reach compromises when feasible and make trade-offs when they are not. Furthermore, the thesis shows that meta-consensus can endure amid ongoing conflict and heightened polarization. However, the thesis also concludes that ideal deliberation and meta-consensus may not be attainable in all conflict scenarios due to contextual barriers. Factors, including strained pre-conflict community relations rooted in historical state decisions, a lack of prior foundation for inter-group engagement, entrenched affiliations among participants, and obstacles within the institutional design of the governance system, were identified as impediments to the realization of ideal deliberation and its associated outcomes. The thesis also reaffirms the challenges of extending deliberative democracy beyond isolated forums to pre-existing governance systems. Notably, while the investigated governance system has demonstrated an increasing commitment to deliberative norms and practices, a discernible gap exists between the system's current state and the principles of deliberative democracy, suggesting a "business as usual" scenario rather than a transition toward a deliberative democratic governance system.In light of these findings, this thesis provides several suggestions for aligning the system and other comparable governance systems with the deliberative democratic norms they aspire to achieve. It also proposes several directions for future research. These include exploring how deliberative processes can be optimally tailored to meet the unique demands of different contexts, continuing efforts to identify and address institutional and other contextual enablers and barriers to deliberation at both the micro and system levels. Addressing system-level barriers is particularly important if deliberation is to flourish beyond isolated forums. Furthermore, recognizing that meta-consensus does not provide a direct resolution to conflicts and cannot be enabled under all conditions, it is essential to identify mechanisms for trade-offs or outcomes that are deemed fair and acceptable even by those who do not get their preferences realized. Additionally, acknowledging the possibility of harnessing long-term democratization effects of conflicts, more research to determine when and under what conditions conflicts and various non-democratic actions yield positive effects is crucial.
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| 10. |
- Johansson, Andreas, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring prospects of deliberation in intractable natural resource management conflicts
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Elsevier. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 315
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deliberative processes are increasingly advocated as means to handle intractable natural resource management (NRM) conflicts. Research shows that disputing actors can deliberate and achieve higher degrees of mutual understanding and working agreements under ideal conditions, but the transferability of these findings to real-world intractable NRM conflicts can be questioned. This paper explores the possibilities of designing and realizing deliberation and its expected outcomes in real-world NRM conflicts. We used recommended design principles to set up deliberative processes in two intractable mining conflicts involving indigenous peoples in Northern Sweden and assessed the actors’ communication and outcomes using frame analysis.The results show that the recommended design principles are hard, but not impossible, to fully implement in intractable NRM conflicts. Both conflicts proved difficult to deliberate and resolve in the sense of reaching agreements. However, the findings suggest that deliberation, as well as meta-consensus, or structured disagreement, is possible to achieve in settings with favorable conditions, e.g. good and established inter-group relations prior to the conflict. In the absence of these conditions, where relations were hostile and shaped by historical and institutional injustices, deliberation was not achieved. In both cases, polarization among the participants remained, or increased, in spite of the deliberative activities. The study highlights the importance of understanding deliberation as embedded in place specific historical and institutional contexts which shape both process and outcomes in powerful ways. More efforts should focus on alternative, or complementary, ways to handle intractable NRM conflicts, including how contested experiences of history, institutions and Indigenous rights can be addressed.
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| 11. |
- Lindahl, Karin Beland, et al.
(författare)
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Factors affecting local attitudes to mineral exploration: What's within the company's control?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Resources policy. - : Elsevier. - 0301-4207 .- 1873-7641. ; 84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores factors affecting local actors' and citizens’ attitudes to mineral exploration, and how attitudes to exploration relates to those of mining. The concept Social License to Explore (SLE), originating from Social License to Operate (SLO), is used to address the relationship between exploration companies and affected local communities. The study focuses on attitudes in three municipalities in northern Sweden and Finland and combines qualitative and quantitative methods. The results show that local attitudes to mineral exploration and mining correlate strongly and are intimately linked. Perceptions of impacts, the permit process, and trust in government and company affect local attitudes, but company performance seems to be most important where trust was not established. We argue that values about nature, economy, and value-based development preferences, are central as they shape local attitudes and perceptions of impacts and process. While company conduct and community engagement are within the control of companies, local values and development preferences are largely outside of their control. However, insights about contextual conditions shaping attitudes and values can be generalized and help companies make more informed decisions. Responsible target selection is a strategy within the control of the company which can help avoid intractable and costly conflicts.
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| 12. |
- Logmani-Aßmann, J., et al.
(författare)
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Forest Set-Aside Policy for International Biodiversity Targets? : Obstructive Bureaucratic Territoriality in Germany and Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: International forestry review. - : Commonwealth Forestry Association. - 1465-5489 .- 2053-7778. ; 23:4, s. 448-461
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 requires setting aside vast currently managed areas for conservation purposes. Following bureaucratic politics theory, forestry and environmental domestic bureaucracies use these international targets in their struggle for power and territoriality over forested areas. Against this background, this study aims to analyze the resulting politics on setting aside forest areas from active forest management in Germany and Sweden. Employing a qualitative case study design and empirical data from policy documents and key informant interviews, our results indicate that bureaucracies prioritize instruments that are well aligned with their formal objectives, the interests of their informal constituencies, and their territorial interests. Such struggles dominate the development of policy instruments in both countries obstructing political compromise which results in a logjam in the development of substantial forest set-aside policy. We conclude that unless domestic politics and key bureaucracies provide conducive political conditions international commitments will be very difficult to achieve, even if they are formulated into clearly measurable international targets.
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| 13. |
- MacPhail, Fiona, et al.
(författare)
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Why do Mines Fail to Obtain a Social License to Operate?: Insights from the Proposed Kallak Iron Mine (Sweden) and the Prosperity/New Prosperity Gold–Copper Mine (Canada)
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Management. - : Springer. - 0364-152X .- 1432-1009. ; 72:1, s. 19-36
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Opposition to mines endures even in countries with relatively strong environmental assessment processes and regulations. Why proposed mines fail to obtain a social license to operate is analyzed by developing a framework comprised of three concepts—process legitimacy, distributional outcomes, and values compatibility—drawing from the social license to operate, interactive governance, and environmental justice literatures. The framework is applied to understand opposition from local Indigenous people to two mine projects, one in Sweden and the other in British Columbia, Canada. Evidence from interviews with Sami legal experts and Reindeer Herding Community representatives and an advisor with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, as well as from secondary sources is used to analyze the contestation. Despite the proposed mines being situated in different governance contexts, the reasons for the opposition are markedly similar - environmental assessment processes are illegitimate, distributional outcomes unfair, and values incompatible. The comparative empirical analysis leads to refining the framework as a scaffold with values compatibility as the foundational plank, rather than three independent planks contributing to a social license to operate. The analysis offers insights into company commitments to Indigenous engagement, enhancements to process legitimacy, and evolving and paradigmatic shifts in governance processes, as articulated by Indigenous peoples and international governance mechanisms such as the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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| 14. |
- Poelzer, Gregory, et al.
(författare)
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Licensing acceptance in a mineral-rich welfare state: Critical reflections on the social license to operate in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: The Extractive Industries and Society. - : Elsevier. - 2214-790X .- 2214-7918. ; 7:3, s. 1096-1107
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Social License to Operate (SLO) continues to influence industry, government, and academia on issues of resource development, particularly mining. But it risks becoming a term that includes all types of company activity aimed at gaining public support. To delimit the term, we look at the malleability of the SLO in a highly-regulated context: Sweden. Comparing the academic literature on the SLO at the global level and in the Swedish context, we assess the usefulness of the term across three themes: institutions, corporate-community engagement, and sustainability. Through this review, we argue that the SLO is best understood as a tool and an indicator. A tool to address significant problems and issues and an indicator of deficiencies in the existing institutional framework
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Suopajärvi, Leena, et al.
(författare)
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Social aspects of business risk in the mineral industry—political, reputational, and local acceptability risks facing mineral exploration and mining
- 2023
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Ingår i: Mineral Economics. - : Springer. - 2191-2203 .- 2191-2211. ; 36:2, s. 321-331
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mineral exploration is an industry of uncertainties. Only 0,1% of exploration projects become mines, as the volume, content, and quality of a deposit all must be economically justifiable to find funding in the global financial market. However, the business risk of mineral exploration is not limited to geotechnical and financial risks, as social aspects are now considered the biggest risk facing the industry. Here, we identify three social aspects of business risk that may challenge the industry: political, reputational, and local acceptability. Political risk arises when sectoral authorities and the related legislation come into conflict, such as mineral versus environmental legislation. Reputational risk lies in the relationship between a company’s past and current operations in combination with the legitimacy of the entire industry. Local acceptability risk parallels the social license to operate, with poor corporate conduct, competition with other livelihoods, intrusion into culturally sensitive areas, and local values critical of mining all potentially evoking resistance. Companies must be aware not only of the nuances of each social aspect but also of the interplay between them to understand the full scale and scope of the business risks associated with exploration.
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| 17. |
- Zachrisson, Anna, Docent, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Extractive governance and mining conflicts: Challenging scalar hierarchies through ‘opening up’ to local sustainability pathways
- 2023
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Ingår i: Political Geography. - : Elsevier. - 0962-6298 .- 1873-5096. ; 105
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of new mines forefronts the contested nature of sustainable development. Various competing pathways of sustainability underlie mining-related conflicts, often reaching beyond the local scale of contested locations. While powerful actors tend to ‘close down’ around particular pathways, ‘opening-up’ through the consideration of multiple pathways might be necessary for addressing complex situations and conflicts. Whether closing-down or opening-up occurs depends on governance structures and actors' interventions, but little is known of the dynamics involved. This paper develops understudied spatial dimensions of protest by clarifying how political opportunity structures may play out differently at different scales and in consequence impact scalar strategies of both social movements and state actors. The study comparatively analyses three mine development processes in Arctic, peripheral Sweden facing socioeconomic challenges and where mining threatens indigenous reindeer husbandry. Formal interactions are mapped by data from administrative records, while informal strategies and underlying frames are assessed through interviews and focus groups. The study shows that when there is a multiplicity of government authorities and influential mining-sceptical allies at different scales, some subnational units ‘open-up’ in response to mining-sceptical actions. Such ‘opening-up’ may influence policy decisions at higher scales, even the international. Local participation therefore constitutes a way to challenge the scalar hierarchy of the state and promote a broader and more nuanced range of pathways to sustainability. As ‘opening-up’ is not legally required, the results between the different cases differed, and where the opportunity structures were ‘closed’ mining-sceptics turned to confrontation and litigation.
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