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| 2. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Competition and desire: : regional development, citizenship and the struggle for attention
- 2013
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the discourse of regional competitiveness through the lens of citizenship and what can be understood as desired regional inhabitants. The concept of citizenship will be used as an analytical tool for studying power structures that is connected to processes of forming regional spaces and subjectivities. We investigate the notions of citizenship present in the highly influential theories concerning the ‘creative class’ first introduced by Richard Florida. Departing from a general framework of governmentaliy we understand the regional development as a regime practice with particular rationalities and technologies. We argue that the general rationality of globalization and regional competition produces certain representations of citizenship and that regions deploy different techniques in order to attract what they perceive as desired citizens.We then proceed by illustrating how the rationalities present in the theories of the creative class are manifested within regional development plans in the Nordic countries and how they get concrete effects in terms of citizenship. In a concluding section we turn to discussing the implications in terms of inclusion/exclusion, equality and democracy
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| 3. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Det urbana rummets in- och utsidor : Teoretiska utmaningar för forskning om urban politik
- 2017
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In: Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift. - Lund. - 0039-0747. ; 119:3, s. 389-412
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to contribute to new thinking regarding research on urban politics in, and beyond, Sweden. We do this by arguing for a multi-disciplinary conversation on space, politics and governance, building on theoretical developments in disciplines such as geography, sociology and political theory. By developing a conceptual understanding of space as relational, the political in terms of contingency, and governance as governmentality we suggest that the concept of ‘the urban’ could be theorized and analyzed as a governmental assemblage. This approach opens up for new questions regarding where urban politics takes place, how it govern us and with what efects. One important implication of this proposed approach is that the urban produce both insides and outsides relationally and hence that the urban also can be studied out side cities and city regions.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Peace and Quiet : Domestic Science and the Rise of New Precarious Subjects
- 2016
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While peace remains a concept that is primarily invoked and utilized in relation to armed conflict this paper explores how contemporary regimes of government also calls for a specific form of domestic peace. Throughout Europe and beyond the last decades of market oriented reforms and austerity measures have called for nations and regions to rally behind processes and policies of innovation in order to be competitive. This race for competitiveness is often described in war-like metaphors which emphasizes the need to ‘develop spearheads’, ‘mobilize forces’, ‘foster commanders’, ‘build alliances’ and create ‘united frontiers’. As in moments of armed conflict, success in this war of competitiveness requires a kind of conformity or ‘peace and quiet’ within the own ranks. In short, the room for politics is severely constrained. Therefore, in this paper we explore what we identify as a global policy discourse concerning innovation as competitiveness as it unfolds in specific localized contexts. When doing so we investigate the modes of domestic silence that functions as a necessary requirement for regions and nations and theorize how this form of depoliticization becomes complicit in the production and stratification of precariousness for the subjects of rule (Lorey, 2015).
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| 7. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Tiden, makten, rummet
- 2013
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In: Det regionala samhällsbyggandets praktiker. - Göteborg : Daidalos. - 9789171734228 ; , s. 240-252
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 8. |
- Öjehag-Pettersson, Andreas, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Traveling Expertise and Regional Development
- 2020
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Book (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This book analyses an increasingly important phenomenon in contemporary regional development, namely ‘traveling expertise' and policy ideas.Drawing on the fields of urban and regional development, and informed by the emerging school of governmentality studies, it offers a theoretically and empirically original exploration of this subject, and of the linkages between local and global contexts and their interplay more broadly. Symbolically denoting the traveling expertise as ‘hired guns’, the book explores different segments of the political sphere, from policy consultants and the creative class, to the polity apparatuses in which policies are recalibrated. The book presents a unique assessment of how this external expertise impacts on regional development in terms of power, politics and governance.Traveling Expertise and Regional Development will be a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers and advanced students interested in regional development, public management and public policy.
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| 9. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-
(author)
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Den hopplösa regionfrågan?
- 2016
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In: Värmländska utmaningar. - Karlstad : Karlstad University Press. - 9789189673366 ; , s. 49-60
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 10. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-
(author)
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Regio ex machina : Om det regionala medborgarskapets villkor
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Departing from the ongoing regionalization processes in Europe and other parts of the world, this thesis aims to study the premises and conditions of regional citizenship in contemporary state restructuring. As globalization is viewed to challenge the sovereignty and capacity of nation states, subnational regions have gained authority and interest as key actors to compete on globalized markets of capital in order to ensure future development. This alteration in the balance between the regional and the national raises questions on how aspects of citizenship become negotiated in relation to regions as emphasized political communities. The study therefore develops and applies a productive analysis of regional citizenship based on citizenship theory and poststructuralist discourse theory.The attempts to reform the administrative region of Värmland, Sweden, between the years 2007 and 2011 functions as a case study in the dissertation. In relation to this process a variety of materials has been collected in order to shed light on articulatory practices related to the reform: media material, public documents and assessment reports, observations of public dialog meetings and focus groups. Through a discourse analysis of the material the study focuses on the discursive production of regional communities and regional citizens in relation to regional reform. Three different but related articulations of the region emerge in the analysis: the region as a cultural landscape, as a welfare system and as a growth machine. The study shows how the understanding of the region as a growth machine holds a hegemonic position in relation to the other articulations. The growth machine is based on a neoliberal notion of development, where competiveness and commodification function as premises to the intrinsic understanding of regional citizens – as well as welfare and culture - as capital that can, and should, be used to facilitate economic growth.
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| 13. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-
(author)
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Regionfrågan i Värmland
- 2012
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In: Värmländska landskap. - Karlstad : Karlstad University Press. - 9789186637040 ; , s. 101-118
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
- Mitander, Tomas, 1979-
(author)
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Undoing the Regional Demos? : Gender Equality and Economic Growth in Regional Development
- 2024
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In: NORA. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0803-8740 .- 1502-394X. ; 32:1, s. 49-61
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussions about the relationship between feminism and neoliberalism and the status of feminist emancipatory claims in marketized policy fields. My approach has been to analyse gender equality work within the highly marketized field of regional development in Sweden with a specific interest for how the convergence of the policy goals of gender equality and economic growth is represented by gender equality workers and to discuss the status of feminist emancipatory claims in this policy field. The analysis consists of articulating three representations of the relationship between gender equality and economic growth, characterized by various degrees of conflict: reciprocity, co-optation and Trojan horses. However, none of the representations articulate open emancipatory claims as legitimate within the field of regional development. Thus, the study shows gender equality in its relationship to economic growths renders emancipatory claims illegitimate unless beneficial for economic growth or hidden trough marketized language or logics.
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Scott, David, 1986-
(author)
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(Dis)assembling Development : Organizing Swedish Development Aid through Projectification
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The rolling out of governing arrangements related to marketization and managerialization has characterized contemporary societies over the last decades, signaling a radical change in how governance is organized. A particular form of governing that has been given impetus during this transformation is the project. In an era of “projectification”, politics is transformed into measurable and controllable activities that should be implemented during limited periods of time. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the project as an organizational form shapes Swedish development aid and makes it governable.By mobilizing the concept of assemblage, this thesis investigates how the project is constructed in order to govern development aid efforts and how it attains stability in contexts of tension. By studying how state funders, civil society organizations, and private consultants organize development aid through the project, the thesis shows that multiple components need to be assembled in order to form and sustain it. Thus, the work of brokers with the capacity to align the interests of different stakeholders, the mobilization of standardized work practices, the use of scientific approaches to control and evaluation, the construction of markets for project financing, and the mobilization of a particular form of project time are pivotal for the construction of the project.The assembling of these components transforms the project into a depoliticized form of governing in which marketization, expertise, and administrative procedures displace political and transformational ambitions. This depoliticization hampers the politicization of the colonial notions of rationality, logic, and linearity upon which the project rests. The thesis concludes that discourses of marketization, managerialization, and standardization constitute raw material from which an advanced neoliberal-modern project can be constructed. This form of governing arrangement requires attention and critique.
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| 18. |
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Skogen som resurs i en gränsregion
- 2020
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Skogen har många värden och är en resurs för såväl skogsbruk, rekreation, friluftsliv och turism, som fäbodbruk och naturvård. Skogen kan vara en arena för ekonomisk utveckling, företagande och nya innovationer inom såväl skogs- och trävaruproduktion som inom tjänste- och upplevelsesektorn. Skogens ekosystem är hemvist för en mängd olika arter och har stora naturvärden som påverkar förutsättningarna för liv, på både global och lokal nivå. Skogen och skogslandskapet är också ett hem för många människor som lever och verkar på landsbygden och är en uppskattad plats för jakt, fiske och bärplockning. Många tillresta besökare uppskattar dessutom skogen som en plats för återhämtning och naturnära upplevelser och ser skogen som något exotiskt och attraktivt. För att belysa skogens olika värden och de olika synsätt som olika aktörer har på skogen som resurs, presenteras här ett antal forskningsbaserade texter från forskare inom olika ämnen inom både naturvetenskap och samhällsvetenskap. Skogen som resurs i en gränsregion är en antologi med bidrag från författare som medverkat i projektet Ingoskog - Innovation för grön omställning i skogen.
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| 19. |
- Tangnäs, Johanna
(author)
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Utveckling, konkurrens och möjliga framtider : En studie om görandet av hållbarhet i regional utvecklingspolitik
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Regional development policy has been devoted to tackling global competition for decades. This governmental rationality puts growth objectives at the heart of development and Swedish regions have channelled their efforts into building attractiveness and supporting market differentiation. This competitive orientation has been accompanied by a collaborative approach, rather than by political debate over competing ideological positions. Since the early 2020s, a new direction for regional development has begun to evolve as the Swedish government is changing its regional policy from regional growth to sustainable regional development. By using Carol Bacchi’s critical policy approach (WPR), this thesis explores how sustainability is represented in recent regional development policy and whether these problem representations create room for other conceptualisations of development or open up space for what Chantal Mouffe describes as the political to re-enter the policy field. The study draws on fieldwork comprising interviews, policy documents and observations. The thesis shows that regional development is changing into a broader and more societal-oriented field as a result of the sustainability efforts, but the major problem representations identified in the policy proposals produce sustainability as a problem of outdated methods, silo-based organisation and a lack of innovative tools. Aspects such as climate change, inequality or loss of biodiversity are seldom addressed in the proposals. Together, this constitutes sustainability in regional development as a matter of form, rather than content. As a consequence of the effects of how sustainability is currently represented, the thesis concludes that there are openings for re-vitalisation due to colliding aims and approaches, but the challenge they pose to the established rationality has not yet induced a (re)politicisation of development in regional policy.
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