| 1. |
- Baard, Patrik, et al.
(author)
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Scenarios and sustainability : tools for alleviating the gap between municipal means and responsibilities in adaptation planning
- 2012
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In: Local Environment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 17:6-7, s. 641-662
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Adaptation to climate change often involves long-time frames and uncertainties over the consequences of chosen adaptation measures. In this study, two tools designed for assisting local decision-makers in adaptation planning were tested: socio-economic scenarios and sustainability analysis. The objective was to study whether these tools could be of practical relevance to Swedish municipalities and facilitate local-level climate change adaptation. We found that the municipal planners who participated in the testing generally considered the tools useful and of high relevance, but that more time was needed to use the tools than was provided during the test process.
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| 2. |
- Dymén, Christian, et al.
(author)
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Gendered dimensions of climate change response in Swedish municipalities
- 2013
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In: Local Environment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 18:9, s. 1066-1078
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article elaborates on and discusses gendered dimensions of climate change response in Swedish municipalities. There are indications that attitudes and behaviour to the environment and climate change are gendered. This evidence together with our own work further indicates that gender awareness is most probably an important influence on how municipalities respond to climate change. The aim of this study was to investigate if and how gendered aspects of climate change response are integrated in the Swedish response to climate change. The potential causal relationships between a high level of awareness of the gendered aspects of climate change and the levels of climate change response were investigated. We asked whether there is a positive relationship between gender awareness and the quality of the communities’ climate change policies and practice. Indications of such a relationship prompt a change in research priorities – paying more attention to gender – and in subsequent policy developments.
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| 3. |
- Edvardsson Björnberg, Karin, et al.
(author)
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Gendering local climate adaptation
- 2013
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In: Local Environment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 18:2, s. 217-232
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Empirical evidence suggests that climate change will hit women disproportionately hard. Lack of political power, small economic resources, gender-bound patterns in the division of labour, entrenched cultural patterns and possibly biological differences in heat sensitivity combine to make women and girls particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and other climate-related events. Adaptation responses will likely reduce some of these vulnerabilities. However, just as climate change is likely to impact more severely on women than men, the costs and benefits of adaptation could be unevenly distributed between the sexes. Unless adaptation measures are carefully designed from a gender perspective, they may contribute to preserving prevailing gender inequalities and reinforce women's vulnerability to climate change. Institutions and decision-making processes need to be remodelled so as to guarantee that gender issues are adequately targeted within adaptation. This article identifies a number of methodologies and decision tools that could be used to mainstream gender in local adaptation planning.
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| 4. |
- Freytag, Tim, et al.
(author)
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Living the green city : Freiburg’s Solarsiedlung between narratives and practices of urban sustainable development
- 2014
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In: Local Environment. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 19:6, s. 644-659
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The solar settlement (Solarsiedlung) in Freiburg, Germany, has been widely hailed as an eco-city or green city neighbourhood and a blueprint for sustainable urban development. However, as there is a noticeable lack of critical analysis of what constitutes Solarsiedlung as an “eco-city”, this paper studies narratives and practices of sustainable urban development. First, we look at Solarsiedlung as a best-practice model – a narrative that was produced and perpetuated by architects, urban planners, investors and academics celebrating this neighbourhood as a technologically leapfrogging, economically sound and socially integrated project. Second, we explore the everyday practices and lived experience of the residents in Solarsiedlung. Bringing together these two perspectives, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding and critical reading of the interplay between the ecological, economic and social dimensions of sustainable development as seen from different viewpoints. Findings indicate that Solarsiedlung as a best-practice model is embedded in growth-oriented neoliberal strategies that are in conflict with the everyday practices and lived experience of the residents. Our findings put into question the widely assumed transferability of best-practice models in sustainable urban development.
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| 5. |
- Glaas, Erik, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Managing climate change vulnerabilities: formal institutions and knowledge use as determinants of adaptive capacity at the local level in Sweden
- 2010
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In: Local Environment. - London : Routledge. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 15:6, s. 525-539
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Though managing vulnerabilities posed by climate change calls for effective strategies and measures, its challenges have hitherto not been fully understood. In Sweden, municipalities have recently started incorporating vulnerability management into their political and administrative agendas. This study discusses such experiences and explores how institutional determinants may influence adaptive capacity within a local case study area, to illustrate emerging challenges and opportunities for Swedish municipalities in managing climate vulnerabilities. Specifically, formal institutional structure and the use of knowledge are analysed, concluding that vulnerability management often is focused on technical and reactive fixes, due to limited cooperation between local sector organisations, lack of local co-ordination, and an absence of methods and traditions to build institutional knowledge. Even so, opportunities, such as a high capacity to examine risks to technical systems and important establishments which in turn facilitates protection of technical infrastructure exposed to climate variability and change, also exist.
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| 6. |
- Gustafsson, Karin, 1983-
(author)
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Made in conflict : local residents' construction of a local environmental problem
- 2011
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In: Local Environment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 16:7, s. 655-670
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to understand how local residents participate in the construction of local environmental problems and to evaluate a particular analytical approach in environmental sociology to study this phenomenon. The paper is based on an interview study with a sample of local residents. The analysis demonstrates how the local residents attempt to construct a local environmental problem. In particular, the study focuses on how involved actors are positioned, how different sorts of knowledge claims are used, and how the neglect the residents perceive from the authorities affects the attempt to construct a local environmental problem. The study shows that the local residents play a central role in the construction of the situation and that the evaluated model could be very helpful as an analytical tool in the investigation of local residents' participation in the construction of environmental problems.
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| 7. |
- Gustavsson, Eva, 1956-, et al.
(author)
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Cocky and climate smart? : Climate change mitigation and place-branding in three Swedish towns
- 2012
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In: Local Environment. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 17:8, s. 769-782
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sustainable development has emerged as a distinctive marker of place identity in addition to traditional markers such as buildings and spectacles. Climate change mitigation as a potential place brand, indicating sustainable development, is in focus of this article, comparing such efforts in three Swedish towns. Based on documentary studies and interviews, it demonstrates how one town has been successful in branding itself as “the Greenest City in Europe”, whereas mitigation efforts in two other towns are barely known outside the town halls. In the first case, a combination of material, symbolic, and institutional components has been decisive in establishing a brand with internal and external legitimacy. This case highlights the importance of a dedicated network of influential actors and a potent governance structure visualising the will of a town to make its climate mitigation efforts known. Despite similar material conditions, the two others come short on the symbolic and the institutional dimensions, although they may still have a potential for future success in terms of mitigation both in practice and as a marker of identity.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Johanna, 1983-
(author)
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Towards democratic and effective forest governance? : The discursive legitimation of forest certification in northern Sweden
- 2014
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In: Local Environment. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 19:7, s. 803-819
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Forest certification, particularly that of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), is frequently claimed to constitute an effective and democratic private governance arrangement for responsible forestry. It has, however, recently been questioned whether this view holds true for the northernmost countries, which have traditionally been presented as successful examples of forest certification. Yet there is little research on the perceived legitimacy of forest certification at the local level, which is where the standard implementation takes place. This paper examines how the perceived legitimacy of forest certification is created as well as challenged at the local level in Sweden, drawing on Steffek's [2009. Discursive legitimation in environmental governance. Forest Policy and Economics, 11, 313–318] conceptualisation of discursive legitimation and Bernstein's [2011. Legitimacy in intergovernmental and non-state global governance. Review of International Political Economy, 18 (1), 17–51] definition of legitimacy as well as semi-structured interviews with forest companies, reindeer husbandry (indigenous Sámi) and environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs). The results reveal that local ENGOs question the FSC's decision-making process and results, while both the ENGOs and reindeer husbandry see few opportunities to influence long-term forest management. These findings highlight the difficulties of managing power asymmetries in certification and the challenges involved when certification standards are translated from policy to practice.
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| 10. |
- Jonsson, Anna, et al.
(author)
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Cities’ capacity to manage climate vulnerability : experiences from participatory vulnerability assessments in the lower Göta Älv Catchment, Sweden
- 2012
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In: Local Environment. - : Routledge. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 17:6-7, s. 735-750
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Within the scope of this project, tools for conducting systematic and integrated climate vulnerability and sustainability assessments have been developed. Two municipalities in the lower Göta Älv catchment were selected as study cases. Together with representatives from key municipal departments and national government agencies, the interdisciplinary research team designed and conducted a co-production process. Results obtained using the developed tools demonstrate that conducting such a systematic assessment of the current situation and potential impacts of climate change adaptation measures would contribute to synergies between adaptation strategies and other policy arenas. Our recommendation for enhancing the capacity of local vulnerability management in Sweden is to shift foci in four fields: from static analysis of climate vulnerability to a dynamic approach to social vulnerability, from a sectorwise fragmented approach to integrated management, from a focus on technical fixes and physical measures to institutional adaptation measures, and, finally, from sustainability-blind adaptation investments to long-term sustainable climate adaptation measures. The processes and mechanisms for succeeding in this requires that knowledge be produced, shared, and managed in partly new ways, allowing stakeholders both inside and outside local government administration to voice and synergise their concerns and solutions.
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