Organizational and managerial challenges for public actors working towards becoming a smart city - A case study of the City of Stockholm

Cities are becoming smart to cope with the challenges associated with urban development. One of the cities trying to become smart is the City of Stockholm, which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation requires a new organizational approach and innovation in management, which the City of Stockholm must address to make the transformation successful. The master’s thesis was conducted through a case study of the City of Stockholm to investigate the organizational and managerial challenges of becoming a smart city, and the important critical success factors for a public actor, like the City of Stockholm, in managing towards a smart city. Ten interviews and four observations were carried out through a cross-section of the City of Stockholm to understand the work towards becoming smart from different perspectives. The empirical data was combined with theoretical frameworks regarding smart city and innovation management to analyze the City of Stockholm’s attempt to become a smart city. The master’s thesis identified twelve organizational and managerial challenges; multiple and conflicting smart city definitions, lack of knowledge about the smart city strategy, lack of management support, unclear vision of the smart city strategy, insufficient involvement of employees, lack of alignment between the overall smart city goals and the initiated smart city projects, lack of structure for exchanging knowledge, lack of structure and routines for involving the citizens, high presence of functional silos and hierarchy, poor receptiveness of new ideas and resistance to change, lack of structure for liberating time and resources for new ideas and not embracing calculated risk. Finally, the identified important critical success factors were; management and organization, people and community and governance. The City of Stockholm and similar public actors should take the findings into consideration to accelerate the smart city transformation.Globalization, digitization and urbanization are three worldwide megatrends radically altering the world. On one hand, these megatrends come with many challenges for cities such as coping with excessive energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, traffic congestions,scarcity of resources and human health concerns. On the other hand, urban development presents various opportunities to exploit. To manage the emerging problems cities are trying to become smart. One of the cities trying to transform into a smart city is the City of Stockholm, which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation poses new organizational challenges for public actors. The organizational challenges are many, from finding new ways to collaborate across borders to improved information sharing and integration, which public actors need to address by employing new organizational approaches. The master’s thesis identified twelve organizational and managerial challenges

Ecology + Design?

How can design be used to minimize negative environmental impact? I strongly believe that we, human beings, are facing an unavoidable paradigm shift. The world we have created for ourselves is a ticking bomb and we need to rethink the fundamental system in order to have a future at all. In this project the goal was to understand what role design can play in the process of reaching a more sustainable society, and to see how the design of an object affects the global production system and our earth. I decided to focus on the ecological aspect of sustainability and investigate how it can be included in the design process. In nature there is no such thing as waste. The ecosystem is optimized in a closed loop where leftovers from one process are a resource in another. All parts are closely related in a complex symbiotic system. Inspired by natural systems, this project has been an attempt to find a more holistic and sustainable approach to design by applying cyclical thinking to the design process. The first part of the project was very theoretical, including a lot of research and reading to collect all necessary knowledge. The research consisted of learning about Eco design methods, recycling processes and manufacturing techniques, as well as by practicing system thinking. A deeper understanding of consumer behaviours was also an important part in identifying what designers can do to change existing patterns. The theoretical phase was followed by a reflective part where important conclusions, that became cornerstones for the project, where made. These conclusions where then applied and tested during the practical phase. During the whole project the aspect of zooming in and zooming out has been important to understand how the system at macro scale affects the microscopic parts in it, and vice versa. I think designers have a great opportunity to influence the global system and change living patterns into a future balance between ecology, economy and social aspects. With a unique overview and possibility to affect different parts of the system, such as users and producers, we need to act responsibly. To visualise my research and conclusions, I chose to work with the toothbrush. It is an everyday product with a short life cycle, and therefore important to recycle after usage. The necessity of the product it self is justified from a sustainable point of view, as people need to maintain basic mouth hygiene. The biggest problem with the toothbrush today is the complex combinations of different materials, which makes recycling impossible. The final concept, “My precious toothbrush”, is based on European waste regulations and strives to minimize waste by providing a reusable toothbrush handle and a recyclable toothbrush head. Because of the complexity in choosing the right material for the handle, two different concepts were developed. Both handles are designed to achieve a longer life cycle with proper care. One handle is produced from recycled aluminium, and the other from birch branches and other leftover pieces. The toothbrush heads are made from 100 % polyamide and can be recycled up to ten times. After usage, the heads are sent back to the factory for reprocessing. The material is then used in processes where the demand on material quality is lower, such as in the construction sector. In addition to the toothbrushes a distribution system based on the "take back" strategy was designed, to facilitate recycling of the used heads. The cyclic system works with two reusable metal cases; one to store the toothbrush, and one as a refill case for distributing used and unused heads. This project has been a starting point for me and a motivation for my future career as an industrial designer. I consider myself to be in the beginning of a process of practicing a new way of thinking

Facilitating climate transition: co-designing future scenarios and pathways to build social capacity for change among citizens and policy makers

This master’s thesis investigates the use of collaborative design as a facilitation approach for public and policy interaction in climate change mitigation, with the purpose of building social capacity that supports urban climate transition. A collective envisioning process, where young adults and politicians’ co-created future scenarios and pathways related to the climate targets in Gothenburg, Sweden, is used to investigate the topic. Climate change mitigation requires radical structural and lifestyle changes due to the fact that human activity is the main source of impact. Furthermore, it is a highly complex issue, which consists of a system of emerging and interlinked problems. For these reasons, climate change mitigation requires systemic and inclusive management, where diverse societal actors are involved in a collective transition process. In such transition process, citizen participation, through informed debate and action, is argued an important element for building capacity for change. To facilitate such collective change processes, systemic and collaborative design are suitable approaches, due to their ability to enable multidisciplinary collaboration and opportunity seeking. In such processes, co-design activities can build social capacity for change by enabling collective creativity, co-creation and collective envisioning. The city of Gothenburg, Sweden, aims to be a forerunner in mitigating the problems of climate change, and has formulated a climate program to manage this transition. The climate programme calls for broad engagement in the work towards the vision of reaching fair and sustainable levels of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. In response to this, a co-design process was conducted, with envisioning and backcasting workshops for decision makers and young citizens. The purpose of the project, called “Framtida Göteborg” (FG), was to build social capacity by forming attitudes, knowledge and tools that could support climate transition. Case study was used as a research method to explore the impact of the co-design activities, in the FG project, regarding their possibility to build rational, emotional and operational capacity for climate transition. The conclusion is that co-design processes between public and policy level, can contribute in climate transition by building social capacity that supports change. This suggests that, first; co-design can build rational capacity among citizens and politicians, by enabling an understanding of the problem and possible solutions for climate mitigation. Second, co-design can build emotional capacity among citizens and politicians, by enabling empathy for different understandings, positive attitudes, and engagement for these solutions. Finally, co-design can build operational capacity among citizens and politicians, by formulating tools for change, which can support the development and implementation of the solutions. However, to successfully build this rational, emotional and operational capacity for change in climate transition, co-design needs to manage the practical challenges with such processes, such as, broad stakeholder involvement, diverse opinions, and envisioning of new futures

Framtida småhus - en jämförelse av tekniska lösningar för att uppnå låg energianvändning

This Bachelor thesis is intended to deduce how future single family homes in Sweden will be constructed in the near future as well as an analysis of today’s market. The EU has the goal that by the year 2020 all newly constructed buildings should be ”near zero energy houses”. This is the primary reason for the choice of topic as well as the uncertainty that surronds what a near zero energy house implies. An introduction is given to explain and underline the implications of the relevant EU directive as well as a presentation of independent opinions on whether the directive is achievable or not. Our problem statements are as follows: • In which direction is the market headed? • Are there any obvious trends/methods that are used? • Do any gaps in today’s technology exist that need to be remedied before the directive is implemented? • What are the potential problems with energy efficient buildings? The method we will be using is quantitative as well as qualitative. As a theoretical reference frame existing laws and requirements are presented. Results and discussions form the main body of the thesis, where results from interviews based on 13 companies are presented and analysed. Finally our conclusions are presented which aim to answer our problem statements: We have found that today’s small housing market adhere to today’s building regulations with a noticable margin, ca 70 % in terms of energy usage, however energy efficient solutions are a balance between investment and running costs. The problems with energy efficient housing are technical and cost orientated, where an insufficient amount of practical knowledge has been identified. The potential to build energy efficient housing exists today, we believe that an energy consumption that is 50 % of today’s regulatory standard is possible in the near future; however, for this to become reality it must first become economically viable for the customer and incentives must be created

Att gilla eller inte gilla

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur konsumenter ur Generation Y resonerar kring att “gilla” ett varumärkes Facebook-sida och därmed bidra med en djupare förståelse kring hur dessa konsumenter använder “gilla”-knappen för att visa identitet. Den teoretiska referensramen utgörs av begreppen Generation Y och Sociala Medier, som definieras för att avgränsa sammanhanget studien avser belysa. Vidare används CCT som synsätt för att tolka och förstå hur teorierna kring varumärken och självbild genom eWoM kopplas ihop som centrala delar

L’objectivation de la femme : Une étude comparative de La femme rompue et Moment d’un couple

This comparative analysis is based on Nelly Alards novel Moment d’un couple from 2013 and its source of inspiration being La femme rompue of Simone de Beauvoir. These novels do both demonstrate marriage as a constitution and what happens to it when an infidelity takes place. This is thus a feminist analysis of the reaction and presentation of the betrayed woman and her way of coping with this new found situation she founds herself in. Alards narrative voice makes continuous reference to beauvoirian feminism. Beauvoir’s féminist theory is hence essential for this study as well as our source for theoretical framework as we aim to conduct an analysis using her elaborated terminology as a pivotal factor. Her conception of « The Other » is central for feminist theory as it focuses on the given female role in a patriarchal society. It is hence of relevance that Beauvoir published a novel by which that of Alard is said to be inspired. Whereas Beauvoir presents a character who herself normalises infidelity, and finds herself in second place, Alard presents a modern and more independent character. The crucial contrast is presented through Beauvoir’s normalisation of infidelity and Alard’s normalisation of violence against women.

Pactum turpe : Agreements in conflict with law or good morals

Möjligheten att få en tvist prövad i domstol är en rättighet många ser som självklar. Vissa typer av tvister anses emellertid så främmande för rättsordningen att de inte förtjänar dess skydd. Hit hör fall av pactum turpe, det vill säga ett avtal vars innehåll står i strid med lag eller goda seder. Huruvida en talan grundad på ett sådant avtal skall avvisas av en domstol eller ej har varit denna uppsats syfte att utreda. I utländsk lagstiftning förekommer lagbestämmelser, enligt vilka avtal i strid med lag eller goda seder är ogiltiga. I Sverige har emellertid lagstiftaren inte ansett en sådan bestämmelse lämplig. Avtal i strid med lag eller goda seder anses däremot ogiltiga enligt allmänna rättsgrundsatser. Det är inte möjligt att ge ett generellt svar på frågan huruvida en avvisning i fall av pactum turpe skall ske. Det enda fall där en avvisning säkert bör ske är när en talan grundar sig på ett avtal med ett uppenbart brottsligt syfte och innehåll, exempelvis ett avtal om att begå ett mord. Av praxis har framkommit att en avvisning däremot inte är det självklara tillvägagångssättet när det är fråga om en talangrundad på ett avtal vars huvudsyfte är fullt legitimt, exempelvis avtal om köp av städtjänster, men där vissa moment i avtalsinnehållet är brottsliga, exempelvis att ersättningen består av"svart"betalning. Vad gäller avtal i strid med goda seder gäller först och främst att utröna vilka dessa seder är. Det kan konstateras att goda seder är ett föränderligt begrepp och avgörs efter ett samhälles moraluppfattning. Begreppet är inte bara föränderligt över tiden, utan även mellan olika kulturer. I Sverige är avtal om prostitution ett klassiskt exempel på avtal i strid med goda seder. Även avtal om spel och vad anges i doktrinen som exempel. Att döma av praxis skall allmänna domstolar vara än mer restriktiva med avvisningar av talan grundade på avtal i strid med goda seder. En avvisning av en talan grundad på ett pactum turpe innebär att avtalet inte får några som helst rättsverkningar. Det kan varken bli fråga om påföljder för kontraktsbrott eller om fullgörelse av avtalet. Därför är det nödvändigt med en ytterst restriktiv tillämning av regeln om pactum turpe. En generell regel huruvida en talan grundad på ett avtal i strid med lag eller goda seder skall avvisas eller ej kan emellertid inte uppställas, utan en bedömning måste ske i varje enskilt fall

A systems approach to biogasplanning in Stockholm, Sweden

The Swedish capital Stockholm is at the forefront of biogas gas use, especially when it comesto biogas used for vehicle gas. This technology has the potential of being a fuel with veryhigh environmental performance, but in order to realize the full potential publicenvironmental management must be optimized. Environmental objectives are anenvironmental management is one tool that is used to strive for the desired development. Theaim of this study is to explain the dynamics within the biogas system in Stockholm, with aparticular emphasis on which factors that affects the amount of biogas available for vehiclegas upgrading on the market in Stockholm. The study has been conducted using modelingsessions with key stakeholders involved in the biogas system. The study concludes that theformulation of environmental objectives has a profound impact on how the variousstakeholders act, and thus how the system behaves. The trade off of how much fossil naturalgas that can be mixed into the renewable biogas based vehicle gas is at the very pinnacle ofcomplex matter. A conclusion that is of vital importance for the local planning process andwhen the experiences of Stockholm’s environmental planning are communicated out to therest of the world