Sustainability here and now : The governance of urban transformation in Oslo and Addis Ababa

For at det skal være mulig å handle opp mot klimaendringer, må problemet ses som relevant for beslutningene som tas her og nå. Tradisjonelt sett har klimaendringer blitt rammet in som et globalt problem i fjern fremtid. I samfunnsgeografien har den relasjonelle tenkingen artikulert klimapolitikken på lokalt og regionalt nivå og slik løftet frem og kontekstualisert politiske praksiser som lokalt og organisatorisk situerte. Når det gjelder tidsaspektet, derimot, er klimaendringer fremdeles rammet inn som et abstrakt spørsmål i en fjern fremtid. Videre har toneangivende retninger innen forskningen på bærekraftsomstilling generelt ansett sosiale systemer som avgrensede og sammenhengende, noe som utvisker betydningen av geografiske relasjoner og lokalt handlingsrom. Denne avhandlingen tar for seg forskningsspørsmålet: «Hvordan gjør lokale aktører det mulig å agere opp mot klimaendringer her og nå?» Den utvikler et analytisk rammeverk for å analysere lokale aktørers praktiske arbeid med å handle lokalt og i nåtid. Gjennom flerlokalisert, kvalitativt feltarbeid som undersøker bærekraftig mobilitet og klimaplanlegging i Oslo, Norge og Addis Abeba, Etiopia, viser avhandlingen at vellykket klimapolitikk avhenger av (a) aktørenes evne til å oversette ideer og ressurser som er fjerne i tid og rom til umiddelbart relevante handlingspunkter, og (b) lokale aktørers kapasitet til å koordinere initiativ, institusjoner, og ressurser og dermed skape sammenheng og kontinuitet i omstillingsinitiativer. I avhandlingen konseptualiseres dette arbeidet som relasjonell mobilisering av omstilling. Fremfor å implementere globale løsninger og avtaler ovenfra og ned, fremhever dette perspektivet lokalt forankrede praksiser som mobiliserer og oversetter endring mellom og innenfor steder og skalaer ved å artikulere, skape sammenheng mellom, og forhandle omstillingsveier og holde dem ved like over tid. Slik setter avhandlingen analytisk fokus på praksisene som kan gjøre bærekraft relevant her og nå. Avhandlingen består av fem artikler. Den første artikkelen tar for seg relasjonelle perspektiver på urbanisering i lys av Parisavtalen og identifiserer muligheter for raske endringer i styresett, infrastruktur, og hverdagsliv. De neste fire artiklene utvikler perspektivet på endring som relasjonell mobilisering i fire dimensjoner, med fokus på relasjonelle forhold mellom steder (artikkel 2), innenfor geografiske kontekster (artikkel 3), mellom tidshorisonter (artikkel 4) og innenfor den tilblivende nåtid (artikkel 5). Et viktig forskningsbidrag i denne avhandlingen er således å systematisk knytte sammen romlige og tidsmessige dimensjoner i analysen av bærekraftsomstillingens geografi. Avhandlingen når følgende konklusjoner: For det første at artikulering av lokalt ansvar krever aktivt arbeid for å oversette fjerntliggende ideer og ressurser i både tid og rom. For det andre at aktører lykkes med bærekraftsendring gjennom aktivt arbeid for å skape sammenhenger mellom tiltak innenfor og mellom fragmenterte bylandskap. For det tredje at relasjonalitet i tid og rom skapes aktivt gjennom lokalt arbeid forankret i bestemte steder og materielle kontekster. Ved å analysere omstillingens relasjonelle fotarbeid – nemlig praksisene som aktualiserer det fremtidige i nåtiden og skaper sammenheng i bærekraftsløsninger – viser avhandlingen at bærekraftsinitiativer alltid vil være kontekstuelle og pragmatiske. Når bærekraftsinitiativer utvikles med en økende forståelse av at det haster, kan dette perspektivet både åpne opp nye handlingsrom og muliggjøre kritisk analyse av foreslåtte løsninger og politikk.To act on climate, we need to establish its relevance for decisions here and now. Climate change has traditionally been constructed as a global problem concerning the long-term future. Relational thinking in geography has articulated the local and regional levels of climate governance, hence foregrounding the practices through which the climate is situated in concrete local and organisational contexts. However, in time climate change has largely remained an abstract issue concerning the far future. Moreover, dominant approaches to sustainability transition and transformation generally treat societal systems as bounded and coherent, which blurs the role of geographical interconnectivity and local agency. Examining the main research question “How do local actors make climate change actionable here and now?”, this thesis develops an analytical framework to assess the practices of local actors to make climate change actionable locally and in the present. Based on multi-sited qualitative fieldwork examining sustainable mobility projects and strategic climate governance in Oslo, Norway, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it shows that succeeding with climate governance depends on (a) the ability of situated actors to translate spatially and temporally distant ideas and resources to make them immediately relevant, and (b) the capacity of local actors to align and coordinate initiatives, institutions and resources, thereby cohering and routinising transformation. In this thesis, this work is conceptualised as the relational mobilisation of transformation. Rather than the top-down implementation of global agreements and solutions, this perspective highlights the locally situated but spatially interconnected work involved in mobilising and translating transformation across and within contexts and scales: both in articulating, aligning, and negotiating pathways and in sustaining them over time. As such, the perspective of relational mobilisation brings analytical attention to the practices through which sustainability might be made relevant here and now. This thesis consists of five papers. The first paper reviews relational perspectives on urbanisation in light of the Paris Agreement, identifying opportunities for rapid transformation in the spheres of governance, infrastructure, and everyday life. The next four papers develop the perspective of transformation as relational mobilisation in four dimensions, respectively focusing on the role of relations across places (Paper 2), within geographical contexts (Paper 3), across time horizons (Paper 4) and within the emerging present (Paper 5). Therefore, a core contribution of this thesis is to systematically bring together spatial and temporal dimensions in the analysis of the geographies of sustainability transformation. This thesis provides the following conclusions: First, that articulating local responsibility requires active efforts of translation of distant ideas and resources in space as well as in time. Second, that situated actors accomplish sustainability transformations through active efforts of cohering in and across fragmented urban domains. Third, that spatial and temporal relationality is actively produced through local work which is grounded in particular places and material settings. By examining the relational footwork of transformation – namely the practices through which the distant is made present and sustainability pathways are cohered – this thesis shows that sustainability interventions will always be contextual and pragmatic. As pathways to sustainability are developed with increasing urgency, this perspective may both open up new spaces for agency and intervention and allow for critical assessment of proposed policies and solutions.Doktorgradsavhandlin

Policy, agency and scale in local adaptation to socio-environmental change in the Panchkhal Valley, Nepal

This case study explores climate change coping and adaptation strategies in an agriculture- dependent community in the Panchkhal Valley in Nepal that suffered from five years of drought between 2004 and 2009. Based on fieldwork and interviews in Panchkhal 2011–2012, it explores how drought, combined with an ongoing process of agricultural commercialization and intensification, lead to a situation of ‘double exposure’ for Panchkhal farmers. As a consequence, current development policies based on the intensification and commercialization of agriculture may both support and undermine climate change adaptation in important ways. For instance, access to markets and a monetary income facilitated coping and adaptation, while dependence on agrochemicals led to increased vulnerability and environmental deterioration at the local level. Furthermore, none of the reported coping and adaptation strategies were able to provide the agricultural system in Panchkhal with sufficient amounts of water during the drought. While community organizations and NGOs were reported to play important roles in facilitating adaptation and mediating support at the time of the drought, government support was regarded to be insufficient. Coping and adaptation projects were often launched by local level actors, but these projects were dependent on resources from other administrative scales for their realization. 'Scale brokers', organizations or individuals that are able to mobilize support from other scales, hence appear to be a critical part for realizing adaptation projects

Policy, agency and scale in local adaptation to socio-environmental change in the Panchkhal Valley, Nepal

This case study explores climate change coping and adaptation strategies in an agriculture- dependent community in the Panchkhal Valley in Nepal that suffered from five years of drought between 2004 and 2009. Based on fieldwork and interviews in Panchkhal 2011–2012, it explores how drought, combined with an ongoing process of agricultural commercialization and intensification, lead to a situation of ‘double exposure’ for Panchkhal farmers. As a consequence, current development policies based on the intensification and commercialization of agriculture may both support and undermine climate change adaptation in important ways. For instance, access to markets and a monetary income facilitated coping and adaptation, while dependence on agrochemicals led to increased vulnerability and environmental deterioration at the local level. Furthermore, none of the reported coping and adaptation strategies were able to provide the agricultural system in Panchkhal with sufficient amounts of water during the drought. While community organizations and NGOs were reported to play important roles in facilitating adaptation and mediating support at the time of the drought, government support was regarded to be insufficient. Coping and adaptation projects were often launched by local level actors, but these projects were dependent on resources from other administrative scales for their realization. 'Scale brokers', organizations or individuals that are able to mobilize support from other scales, hence appear to be a critical part for realizing adaptation projects

Transformation as relational mobilisation: The networked geography of Addis Ababa’s sustainable transport interventions

Literatures on sustainability transition and transformation increasingly emphasise the role of spatiality and local agency. This paper argues that relational thinking has much more to offer this debate than presently acknowledged, particularly in revealing the geographical interconnections between dispersed nodes of action and innovation. We use relationality to show the interconnections at work in exchanging and negotiating sustainability interventions between cities and across scales. Using the mass transit planning process in Addis Ababa as a point of entry, we trace how the city’s transformation is negotiated at the intersection of local agency, the Ethiopian national political setting and international networks. A host of actors from different scales come together as transformation is assembled by aligning extensive local experience with elements mobilised from elsewhere. This relational mobilisation perspective arguably infuses hope into the debate, because it opens new ways of identifying seemingly insignificant actions and actors elsewhere and recognising them as potential drivers of change

What sticks? Ephemerality, permanence and local transition pathways

Climate change is increasingly governed through local configurations that are characterised by voluntary action, weak institutions and uncoordinated efforts. The impermanent and iterative nature of such initiatives makes it difficult to determine their enduring and potentially transformative impact. This review systematises how the sustainability transitions field has approached temporary initiatives. It finds broad agreement on the difficulty of sustaining local transitions, but little analytical engagement with how temporary initiatives shape transition pathways over time. The review therefore proposes a typology of temporal dimensions to help assess the dynamics between ephemerality and permanence in local transitions. By mapping the recent empirical sustainability transitions literature along these dimensions, ephemerality is found to be ubiquitous in local initiatives–there is a lot happening that does not endure but serves other functions. Actors deploy a range of local strategies directed at either formalising initiatives or retaining relevance by reinventing themselves, thus routinising sustainability transitions

Approaches to sensory marketing strategies within the beauty retail stores in Sweden : A qualitative insight concerning sensory interplay and sensory overload

As sensory marketing is becoming a more widely used strategy in the world, the need to distinguish oneself is more important than ever. The general knowledge of sensory cues, their interplay and sensory overload among Swedish retail beauty companies is researched in this thesis. We set out to identify the baseline knowledge of the store personnel and the implications thereof in Sweden on the subjects formerly mentioned.       This investigative study aims to provide an insight into the workings and knowledge gap of retail store design from the perspective of store personnel with sensory- marketing, interplay and congruency in mind with focus on the senses vision, audio and scent. The knowledge of these are assumed to influence a stores’ ability to cater to and adapt to everyday and sensory-sensitive consumers. The study also aims to provide an insight into the subject of sensory overload, what causes it and the effects that might be had from the experience.    To achieve this, we formed the research questions: “How do beauty retail stores in Sweden keep sensorial interplay in mind when designing their retail setting?” and “How do beauty retail stores in Sweden take sensory overload into consideration?”. We performed qualitative interviews with Swedish retail beauty stores’ employees. A foundational knowledge was established in the form of a literature review followed by empirical findings, to be discussed in the analysis.   The conclusions drawn from our research, were that there is awareness among managers on sensory marketing. However, sensory cues are commonly broken down and compartmentalized into singular events. While we found that there are congruence considerations taken as to how the cues relate to the stores’ brand, there seemed to be little to none taken to how the cues interplay with each other. We could also conclude that sensory overload is not a consideration. However, that there are various reasons to this, one major being that Swedish retailers are careful about the implementation of sensory experiences and therefore consider themselves safe from the possibility