Repairing political trust for practical sustainability

High levels of trust in government are important in addressing complex issues, including the realization of the mainstream sustainability agenda. However, trust in government has been declining for decades across the western world, undermining legitimacy and hampering policy implementation and planning for long-term sustainability. We hypothesize that an important factor in this decline is citizen disappointment with the current types of public participation in governance and that this could be reversed through a change from informing/consulting to a relationship of partnership. Using case studies from Western Australia, the paper investigates whether an intervention targeted at establishing a partnership relationship through mini-public, deliberative, participatory budgeting would improve trust and help the implementation of sustainability. These results show evidence of improvements in trust and provide conceptual and practical tools for government administrations wishing to close the detrimental trust gap that may hamper the implementation of a sustainability agenda

Housing Design and Mobility Convenience—The Case of Sweden

A parking space is the beginning and the end of every car journey. Policies aimed at parking spaces are, thus, an effective way of affecting car travel. Policies regarding parking typically mean setting minimum parking requirements to meet the peak demand for parking. However, in several Swedish cities, as well as around Europe, attempts are made to lower the number of parking places. One way is to build homes without parking places for cars and pilot projects with zero-parking have started to materialize. This paper looks into the academic literature in the field of design and architecture to see how parking issues are dealt with. It also looks into ongoing practice by studying three pilot projects in Sweden that challenge the dominant parking norm by planning and building for a new normal—mobility convenience and zero parking. Both the literature and the cases point to little knowledge in the field. However, high demands on “creative mobility solutions” are placed on housing projects without parking places for cars. Even if the effects of sustainability are still unknown, zero parking pilot projects can narrate the possibility of another future—a future with mobility convenience instead of parking convenience

Gender in futures : A study of gender and feminist papers published in Futures, 1969-2009

This paper reviews and discusses papers related to women's studies, gender or feminist perspectives, published in the scientific journal Futures. The aim is to provide new understandings and remapping of futures studies by capturing how gender is created and understood in this field. The gender/feminist criticism of futures studies mainly relates to the field being male-dominated and male biased, which means that the future is seen as already colonised by men. When synthesising the insights from all 78 papers focusing on futures studies and feminism, gender or women, four conclusions are especially striking: (1) Women and non-Westerners are generally excluded from professional futures studies activities and so are feminist issues or issues of particular relevance for women. (2) Futures studies usually make no attempts to reveal underlying assumptions, i.e. often lack a critical and reflexive perspective, which is needed in order to add a critical feminist perspective and envision feminist futures. (3) Feminist futures are needed as a contrast to hegemonic male and Western technology-orientated futures. Feminist futures are diverse, but focus the well-being of all humans. (4) Futures studies often view women as victims, rather than as drivers for change, which means that their alternative futures are often ignored.NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in PUBLICATION, VOL 43, ISSUE 9, 19 July 2011, DOI:10.1016/j.futures.2011.07.002QC 20120117FramKo

Just Sustainable Futures : Gender and Environmental Justice Considerations in Planning

This thesis contributes and deepens knowledge on long-term planning for sustain­able development through exploring environ­mental justice and gender discourses in planning and futures studies. It also suggests ways of working with those issues. Environmental justice is explored through discussions with planners in Stockholm, Sweden, and through looking at images of future Stockholm and the environmental justice implications of these. These studies show how environ­mental justice issues can be manifested in a Swedish urban context and discuss how sustainable development and environmental justice can be in­creased, operationalised and politicised in planning. One key contri­bution of the thesis is in identifying the need to address proce­dural and outcomes values in both planning and futures studies. Gender discourses are explored through analysing papers published in the journal Futures and through an examination of Swedish Regional Growth Programmes. The feminist criticism of futures studies mainly relates to the field being male-dominated and male-biased, which means that the future is seen as already colonised by men, that futures studies generally do not work with feminist issues or issues of particular relevance for women, and that they often lack a critical and reflexive perspective. There is therefore a call for feminist futures as a contrast to hegemonic male and Western technology-orientated futures. The case of the Swedish Regional Growth Programmes shows that gender inequality is often viewed as a problem of unequal rights and possibilities. This liberal view on gender equality has made it rather easy for gender equality advocates to voice demands, e.g. for the inclusion of both women and men in decision-making processes, but the traditional male norm is not challenged. If a different response is required, other ways of describing the problem of gender inequalities must be facilitated. One way to open up different ways of describing the problem and to describe desirable futures could be the use of scenarios. Planning for just, sustainable futures means acknowledging process values, but also content (giving nature a voice!). It also means politicising planning. There are a number of desirable futures, and when this is clarified the political content of planning is revealed. These different images of the future can be evaluated in terms of environmental justice, gender perspective or any specific environmental aspect, e.g. biodiversity, which indicates that different futures are differently good for nature and/or different societal groups.Den här avhandlingen bidrar till och fördjupar kunskapen om långsiktig planering för hållbar utveckling. Den gör det genom att belysa miljörättvise- och genus­diskurser i planering och framtidsstudier. Den föreslår också sätt att arbeta med dessa frågor. Miljörättvisa belyses genom diskussioner med planerare i Stockholm och även genom att undersöka framtidsbilder av Stockholms och deras miljö­rätt­vise­konse­kvenser. De här studierna visar både hur miljörättvisefrågor kan mani­festeras i en svensk urban kontext och diskuterar hur hållbar utveckling och miljö­rättvisa kan få ökad betydelse, operationaliseras och politiseras i planeringen. Ett viktigt bidrag med den här avhandlingen är att påpeka behovet av att adressera både process­uella värden och resultat av planering och fram­tids­studier. Genusdiskurser utforskas genom att analysera artiklar som publicerats i tidskriften Futures och genom en undersökning av de svenska regionala till­växt­programmen. Den feministiska kritiken av framtidsstudier handlar framför­allt om att fältet är mansdominerat och fokuserar traditionellt manliga frågor, fram­tiden ses därför som redan koloniserad av män. Dessutom påpekas att fram­tids­studier i allmänhet inte jobbar med feministiska frågor eller frågor av sär­skild betydelse för kvinnor, att framtidsstudier ofta saknar ett kritiskt och reflexivt perspektiv och att det finns en efterfrågan av feministiska framtider som en kontrast till hegemoniskt manliga, västerländskt och teknologiskt in­riktade framtider. Fallet med de svenska regionala tillväxtprogrammen visar att ojämställdhet ofta ses som ett problem av ojämlika rättigheter och möjlig­heter. Denna liberala syn på jämställdhet har gjort det ganska lätt för jäm­ställd­hets­förespråkare att kräva och ge röst för krav som att både kvinnor och män ska inkluderas i beslutsprocesser, men den traditionella manliga normen ifråga­sätts sällan. Om andra lösningar önskas, måste andra sätt att beskriva problemet med bristande jämställdhet underlättas. Ett sätt att öppna upp för olika sätt att beskriva problemet och även sätt att beskriva önskvärda framtider skulle kunna vara användning av scenarier. Planering för en rättvis hållbar framtid innebär ett erkännande processuella värden, men även av själva resultatet (ge naturen en röst!). Det innebär också att politisera planeringen. Genom att tydliggöra att det finns flera olika önsk­värda framtider kan planeringens politiska innehåll synliggöras. Dessa olika fram­tidsbilder kan utvärderas i termer av miljörättvisa, deras jäm­ställdhets­perspektiv eller någon specifik miljöaspekt som biologisk mångfald. Detta skulle tydliggöra att olika framtider är olika bra för naturen och/eller olika sam­hälls­grupper.QC 2011052

Sustainable development goals for cities

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Climate change scenarios and citizen-participation : Mitigation and adaptation perspectives in constructing sustainable futures

This paper discusses adaptation and mitigation strategies as outlined in climate change scenarios. The adaptive perspective is closely connected to the concept of resilience understood as different views on nature's capacity to absorb shocks, renewal and re-organization. In constructing normative scenarios images of the future are generated illustrating potential ways of living, travelling and consuming products and services where certain goals such as a reduced climate impact are fulfilled. This paper argues that tension arising from climate strategies relying on either adaptation or mitigation strategies, or combining the two strategies, warrant further examination. In this paper the inter-relationships between adaptation and mitigation are discussed by examining processes of citizen-participation in constructing scenarios and applying the concepts of resilience, vulnerability and adaptive capacity. We discuss this using the concept of deliberative planning processes as a means to achieve legitimate, effective and sustainable futures. As a part of this approach, we argue that methods for citizen-participation applied in exploring different science and technology options also provide useful insight for this type of planning processes. The theoretical arguments are combined with examples from environmental scenario construction in practice. The paper brings attention to tensions between sustainability content values, such as reduced climate impact, and more process-oriented values such as legitimacy, learning and participatory scenario construction. Moreover, the concept of open innovation processes is introduced to the context of participatory scenario construction comparing shared ground in terms of user-involvement in search of novel solutions and also increasing robustness of action plans implemented to reduce climate change.NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Habitat International. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in PUBLICATION, VOL 33, ISSUE 3, 26 November 2008, DOI:10.1016/j.habitatint.2008.10.007QC 2010052

Climate change scenarios and behavioural change : Navigating between heuristics of deliberative planning processes and astroturfing

In constructing normative scenarios images of the future are generated illustrating potential ways of living, travelling and consuming products and services where certain goals such as a reduced climate impact are fulfilled (Börjeson et al, 2006; Myers and Kitsuse, 2000). This paper analyses the sustainability framing of behavioural changes in such normative scenarios (Larsen and Höjer, 2007) and how it relates to the participatory processes used to generate the scenarios. We discuss this building on concepts of deliberative planning processes as a means to achieve legitimate, effective and sustainable futures (Connelly and Richardson, forthcoming; Hendriks et al., 2007). The theoretical arguments are combined with examples from environmental scenario construction in practice (Carlsson-Kanyama et al., 2003, Dreborg et al., forthcoming). This illustrates fields of tension arising when either sustainability or process values are veneering goals of a scenario making process. When focus is on content values such as reduced climate impact, the process values might be depreciated. On the other hand, when focus is on process values such as legitimacy, content sustainability and possibilities for actual change might be downgraded.QC 2012011

Factors Affecting the Students’ Informative Environment

Pētījums „Studentu informācijas vidi ietekmējošie faktori” tika izstrādāts ar mērķi noskaidrot studentu kā sociālas grupas informācijas meklēšanas īpatnības, lai apzinātu galvenās priekšrocības un trūkumus, kas veicina un kavē studentus efektīvi apmierināt informācijas vajadzības. Novērojumi rāda, ka vidusskolā apgūtās datora izmantošanas prasmes nav pietiekamas, lai, turpinot studijas, students bez grūtībām prastu izmantot informācijas tehnoloģijas zināšanu ieguvei. Pētījuma ietvaros tika aptaujāti 170 Latvijas 2 lielāko augstskolu - LU un RTU - studenti. Pētījuma gaitā apstiprinājās izvirzītā hipotēze, ka studentu kā sociālas grupas informācijas meklēšanas uzvedību ietekmē izvēlētā studiju nozare, pasniedzēju prasības, studiju ilgums un personiskās intereses. Būtiska nozīme ir studentu informāciju tehnoloģiju izmantošanas prasmēm, svešvalodu zināšanām. Studentu aktuālākās informāciju vajadzībām saistītas ar studijām un informācijas ieguvei viņi visbiežāk izmanto internetu. Pētījuma atslēgas vārdi: studenti, informācijas meklēšanas uzvedība, informācijas vide.The research “ Factors that influence students’ information environment” was worked out with the aim to find out the features of information seeking of students as a social group to make out the main advantages and disadvantages that encourage and prevent students to satisfy efficiently their information needs. Knowledge of usage computer obtained in secondary school isn’t enough to be able to use different information sources and get necessary information without difficulties in further studies. According to the research there was carried out questinnairing among 170 students of two biggest universities in Latvia - LU and RTU - students. The results obtained during the research let affirm the hypothesis introduced in the beginning of the research that information searching behaviour of students influence chosen study faculty, demands of teaching staff, length of studies and personal interests. Important is skills of students usage of information technologies, level of knowledge of foreign languages. As the main circumstance that separates students as information seekers from other groups of society could be considered studies in universities connected with the most actual information needs of students. The most popular information source for students is the internet. Main research terms: students, student’s information search behaviour, information environment

Framtiden för Naturvårdsverket : tre workshoppar med Naturvårdsverkets personal

QC 20180613</p