Contested energy spaces. Disassembling energyscapes of the Canadian North

For decades, extractive industry developments have had direct and indirect impacts on indigenous communities in Wood Buffalo, Alberta, Canada. Yet, in a seemingly paradoxical manner and despite massive negative attention, there are several indigenous communities in favour of industrial developments on their traditional lands. To investigate this paradox, I embarked on an exploration of the contested energy space of the Canadian oil sands—investigating and analysing the characteristics, governance and power plays therein. In this PhD research project, I investigated how to conceptualize the socio-material complexity of contested energy spaces in the Canadian north, to identify instability and potential for change within them, and to understand the power relations between industry, state and indigenous communities. Hence, the overall effort of this PhD transcends the apparently narrow issue of indigenous responses to industrial impact, touching upon larger, more complex and generic problematics of energy and society relations. Employing qualitative, Grounded Theory Methods (GTM) on a variety of scales, I present the research in two theoretically focused papers and two more empirically grounded ones. In paper #1, I discuss how to conceptualize the sociomaterial complexity of contested energy spaces. In this paper, by employing assemblage theory, I identify contested energy spaces as complex places or situations. I argue that to analyse and understand these complex situations, we need to equip assemblage theory with acknowledged geographical concepts of place (and materiality), scale (and networks) and power (as the mobilization of resources), providing analytical categories and tools for geographers investigating contested energy spaces specifically, and hopefully also contributing to the ongoing scholarly discourse on place. Furthermore, in paper #2, I investigate how to identify instability and potential for change in contested energy spaces. Building on my initial reflections in paper #1, I elaborate on the instabilities of contested energy spaces, underscoring that instead of talking about techno-institutional complexes, regimes or a coherent systemic “fossil capitalism” held together by co-articulation of institutions, infrastructures and practices, we can talk about a looser association of different social and material elements drawn together and pulled apart by a range of different forces. I argue that this is liberating because it frees us from the assumption that changes need to have an impact on the fundamentals of larger socio-technical regimes to be significant. For me, the important point is to illustrate that contested energy spaces are fragmented, contested and converted at particular sites. Therefore, contradicting those who suggest that assemblage thinking blunts critical sensibilities, I find in paper #2 that it is helpful in opening spaces for negotiation and contestation. I argue that there is a normative rationale for shifting researchers’ attention towards instability and change. Destabilizing the permanence of contested energy spaces may be productive in its own right. The emphasis on structural constraints runs the risk of reproducing the oil industry’s carefully scripted narrative of its own inevitability. It is critical that the specific lens that spatiality affords geographers is also used to identify the cracks in the wall and the leverage points for transformation. Papers #3 and #4 discuss how to understand the power play between industry, the state and indigenous communities in the contested energy spaces of the Canadian north, but from two perspectives, or on different scales. On a macro scale (paper #3), I show that industrial activities have had great impacts on the social, cultural and environmental realities of the contested energy spaces. The burden has been substantial for local communities and has added to the prolonged historical conflict between the Crown and indigenous communities over rights and entitlements. This complex relationship has led to substantial challenges for all stakeholders. In response to these challenges, the federal duty to consult, along with provincial environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and locally negotiated impact benefits agreements (IBAs), has been delegated to industry, where corporate social responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder management form important centrepieces. This delegation has been legitimized on pragmatic grounds, to underscore the better positioning of industry to consult indigenous communities, to assess its own impact and to negotiate compensation and benefits agreements. I have identified an interrelated, nested and multiscalar governance structure emerging from these four distinct governance features (Consultations, EIAs, IBAs, and CSR) that can be viewed as a joint mobilization effort by government, extractive industry proponents and indigenous communities to realize a workable, win–win regulatory environment in the contested energy space of Wood Buffalo. On a micro scale (paper #4), the indigenous communities calibrate their participation in the emerging governance processes in the contested energy space of Wood Buffalo to strengthen their negotiating power. In this paper, I take assemblage theory as the basis of an analytical framework to examine indigenous Métis communities in Wood Buffalo. I reveal that indigenous engagement with extractive industry development is neither static nor (only) responsive in character. Rather, indigenous communities are strategic pragmatists that creatively and proactively engage in the development of extractive industries in their traditional territories. Viewing the interactions between the component parts of the contested energy space of Wood Buffalo as the workings of an unstable and changeable assemblage reconfigures our interpretation of indigenous engagement; we no longer see the people as passive victims or as only responsive to external pressure; we now see indigenous communities as proactive, pragmatic component parts of the Wood Buffalo carbonscape. I show that through strategic pragmatism, their traditional ways of life are imbued with substantial transformative capabilities. In paper #4, I show that these capabilities have moved the Métis communities of Wood Buffalo into formalized alliances with other stakeholders striving to evolve and change, to harvest strategic resources to their benefit. Hence, by approaching my main research question through these four papers, I have eventually reached some conclusions: the indigenous communities of this study favour high-impact industrial activities in their traditional territories for several specific reasons. First, the complexity exposed in contested energy spaces does not offer simplistic or conventional understandings of indigenous agency. Second, the governance innovations of the contested energy space of Wood Buffalo entail different and untraditional approaches by which different stakeholders seek benefits from a highly lucrative industrial adventure. Third, by underscoring the instability of contested energy spaces and their constituent parts, I show that indigenous communities are no less adaptable or pragmatic than other stakeholders, and they strive to evolve and change to harvest strategic resources for their betterment

Forebygging av rusmisbruk blant narkomane : vitenskapelig essay

Bachelor i politiutdannin

Populism, Instability, and Rupture in Sustainability Transformations

The recent surge in populist politics in Europe and North America has challenged many of the policies aimed at advancing sustainable shifts. In this article we argue that this surge necessitates a rethinking of transition and transformation. The mainstream perspective on transitions understands it largely as the proliferation and upscaling of innovative technologies and policy frameworks. We recast sustainability transitions and transformations as continuous processes of assembly and disassembly, driven by rupture and instability. Rather than seeing populist resurgence as a “barrier” to change toward sustainability, we argue that these ruptures and instabilities should be considered inherent to the transformation process itself. The recent local election in Bergen, Norway, witnessed the surge of a new “anti-elite” political party dedicated to protesting road tolls that finance public transport. We hold that although such movements certainly pose challenges to sustainable transitions, they also provide opportunities for revitalizing democratic politics—moving beyond postpolitical managerial governance and inviting new concerns into local and urban transformation processes.publishedVersio

Climate targets as more than rhetoric: Accounting for Norway's Zero Growth Objective

Climate-related targets for cities abound, but it is unclear how important they are in driving actual transformations. Scholars have often taken a skeptical view of official climate discourses, including their ambitious targets, and instead turned their attention to experimentation, innovation and civic action – colloquially termed 'real action.' In this article we try on the opposite view. Contributing to 'speculative political ecology', we argue that climate-related targets, even those without hard policies directly attached to them, can render climate change more governable and actionable. In a fragmented, polycentric and dispersed governance landscape, the immutability of a 'hard' number can create coherence, direction and measurability to policy action. We examine a particular target, and its associated governance instruments, which has arguably had a transformative effect on urban policy. Our empirical focus is Norway's Zero Growth Objective in urban transport policy. We follow the target from its first formulation as a soft goal around 2006 and until 2019, by when it had materialized as a hard target shaping funding streams and concrete policy interventions, and most likely, emission levels. Arguably, it has been a highly effective frame for policy

Motorcycle safety after-dark : the factors associated with greater risk of road-traffic collisions

The effect of ambient light level on road traffic collisions (RTCs) involving a motorcycle was investigated. Data were drawn from the STATS19 database of UK reported RTCs for the period 2005–2015. To isolate the effect of ambient light (daylight vs darkness) an odds ratio was used to compare RTCs at specific times of day in the weeks either side of the Spring and Autumn clock changes. This work extended previous studies by using a more precise method for distinguishing between RTCs in daylight and after dark, thus avoiding the ambiguity of twilight. Data for four-wheel motor vehicle (FWMV) RTCs were also investigated to provide a datum. As expected, the risk of an RTC occurring was significantly higher after dark compared to daylight for both motorcycles and FWMVs. Investigation of contextual factors suggests that risk after dark is significantly higher for motorcycles compared to FWMVs for RTCs with two-vehicles, on roads with low speed limits (≤30 mph), at T-junctions, and junctions controlled by a give way sign. These are the situations where visual aids for increasing conspicuity after dark have the greater potential for reducing motorcycle RTCs

THE EFFECTS OF CROSS BORDER TRADE IN THE NORWEGIAN ECONOMY

The analysis emphasizes on the importance of market competition, as seen when Covid-19 struck eliminating the competition over the borders of Sweden, displaying the effects this has on the Norwegian economy. The analysis shows, Covid-19 has caused an increase in 17.7% of tobacco alone and an increase of almost 9% in the price development of the sensitive products in total. Therefore, questioning if the CBT is bad for the consumers or rather if it is a good thing, the analysis shows that elimination of competition causes an increase in prices for the sensitive goods, which supports that competition is clearly in favor of the consumers. Thus, should be taken into account in the ongoing policy debate on CBT between Norway and it neighbors

Machine learning for identification of features in ocean model and remote sensing data

Å forutsi havdynamikk ved bruk av numeriske modeller er utfordrende på grunn av uforutsigbare ikke-lineariteter og begrenset tilgang til fysiske observasjoner. Havvirvler utgjør konseptuelle og praktiske utfordringer for teori og modeller. Å vite posisjonen og dimensjonene til mesoskala-virvler kan brukes som en del av observasjonene i assimilasjonsprosessen til modellen, noe som forbedrer dens robusthet og nøyaktighet. På grunn av fordelene av å vite karakteristikker som virvelens dimensjon og posisjon, var det av interesse å forske på nye maskinlæringsmetoder for å tolke data produsert av modeller (f.eks. SINMOD) eller observert gjennom fjernmålinger, for å gjenkjenne havfunksjoner som havverdier. Fordi det ikke eksisterer en “passer-til-alt" maskinlæringsalgoritme, ble tre av de vanligste veiledet læringsalgoritmene evaluert: Støttevektormaskiner (SVM), beslutningstrær og Konvolusjonelt nevralt nettverk (CNN). På grunn av at modellene trenger en tilstrekkelig mengde treningsdata, ble det opprettet en annoteringsverktøy for å produsere en tilstrekkelig mengde data som inneholder gjenkjennbare trekk som gjenkjenner en virvel. Det endelige treningssettet inkluderte 2045 treningseksempler som inneholder variablene havoverflatehøyde, -temperatur og -havstrømmer. Etter en mindre undersøkelse av hvilke variabler som har sterkest sammenheng med utfallene av interesse, ble det funnet ut at havstrømsvektorene ga mye bedre ytelse, med eller uten bruk av havoverflatehøyde og temperatur. I en første test av maskinlæringsalgoritmer ble CNN funnet å være den som presterte best. En videre test av CNN arkitekturer undersøkte tre modifiserte versjoner av de originale CNN-arkitekturene: VGG, ResNet og Inception. Modellen som presterte best, ble funnet å være en enkel modifisering av en VGG-nettverksstruktur. Den endelige modellen kan brukes til å detektere et ensemble av såkalte glidende-vinduer (“sliding windows” på engelsk) på et større utvalgt område av havoverflatestrømmer. De endelige predikterte vinduene blir deretter slått sammen ved hjelp av grupperingsteknikker, som deretter etter-prosesseres ved hjelp av veletablerte flyt-felt-ligninger som Okubo-Weiss-parameteren (OW) og vortisitet for å gi mer presise grenser som innkapsler prediksjonene. CNN-modellen fungerte bra da den ble testet på et sett som ikke ble brukt for trening, og nådde nøyaktighetsverdier over 96 \%. Det aggregerte systemet med prediksjon og etterprosessering ga tilfredsstillende resultater når de ble testet på både SINMOD og andre modell- og observasjonsdatasett. Etter å ha analysert systemets ytelse på tvers av datasettene, var det ubetydelige likheter mellom den assimilerte og observerte havdynamikken, selv om en lengre 15-måneders sammenligning så ut til å vise tilsynelatende sammenlignbare trender i virvelaktivitet på grunn av batymetri og sesongen

Reduction of trawl impact loads on pipelines resting exposed on the seabed

I dag finnes havbunnsinstallasjoner rundt omkring i Nordsjøen og Barentshavet med rørledninger som strekker seg totalt over 8800 kilometer på norsk sokkel. Rørledninger eksisterer rundt offshore-anlegget og er koblet til landbaserte terminaler via lange eksportrørledninger. Mellom offshore installasjoner og landbaserte terminaler blir rørledninger utsatt for støtlaster fra trålingutstyr. På grunn av en økende mengde interaksjoner mellom trålutstyr og rørledninger har DNVGL publisert en anbefalt praksis (DNVGL, 2014), som har blitt revidert flere ganger, senest i 2014. Denne praksisen dekker flere aspekter rundt interaksjonen mellom tråleutstyr og rørledninger på havbunnen og søker å opprettholde integriteten til rørledninger. Dette prosjektet handler om å undersøke muligheter rundt korrigering av havbunnsgeometrien under rørledningen for å sikre rørledningens integritet på en kostnadseffektiv måte. En global analysemodell i SIMLA er etablert for sensitivitetsstudier relatert til havbunnsgeometri, sjøbunnsdata, rørledningsdimensjoner og trålhastighet. Kontaktkrefter i horisontal og vertikal retning er sammenlignet med tilsvarende tilfeller for en flat havbunn. Initielle tester med oppdaterte interaksjonskurver for den foreslatte steindumpingen har blitt gjennomført. Resultat fra en hardere havbunn indikerer at kontaktkreftene er større for stivere sjøbunnsegenskaper. Ved å øke stivheten på steindumpen med opptil ti ganger så mye som den opprinnelige stivheten blir det omtrent en fordobling i størrelsen på kontaktkreftene. Observasjoner fra resultatfilene indikerer at klumpvektens adferd blir overdreven og urealistisk ettersom den treffer den oppdaterte steindumpen, og den opprinnelige interaksjonskurven beholdes derfor for videre simuleringer. Det overliggende fokuset har vært en sensitivitetsstudie med hensyn på korrigere havbunnstopografien under rørledningsseksjoner og sammenligne kontaktkrefter mellom trål og rørledning i alle tilfellene. Simuleringer med steindumping indikerer at de største kontaktkreftene kommer fra kollisjon mellom klumpvektens rulle og rørledningen, og er verst for steindumper med store bredder. For små bredder på steindumpene er store kontaktkrefter mest fremtredende for lave høyder, mens for større bredder er de fremtredende for sjøbunns-korreksjoner med de bratteste bakkene. Effekten av økende rørdimensjoner ble undersøkt for et utvalg av steindump-geometrier. Sammenligning av kontaktkrefter fra simuleringer med 16-tommers rør indikerer ingen positiv effekt fra steindumper med liten bredde sammenlignet med en flat havbunn. Kontaktkreftene reduseres imidlertid med ca. 50 % for tilfeller hvor bredden er stor. For en 24-tommers rørledning er det ikke observert noen tydelig endring i kontakreftene, men overtrekksvarigheten er både økt og redusert. Kontaktkrefter har ogsa blitt undersøkt på 12.75-tommers og 16-tommers rørledninger der tråleren er simulert med redusert hastighet. Det samme trålutstyret har blitt brukt for alle simuleringer. Kontaktkreftene blir delvis redusert med steindumping. For et 16-tommers rør er oppbygningen av kontaktkraften i tverrgående retning betydelig i tilfeller med flat havbunn mens den avbrytes på et tidligere tidspunkt hvis steindumping innføres

Road Lighting and Traffic Safety: Do we need Road Lighting?

Road lighting is widely recognised as an efficient traffic safety measure. However, we know too little about the effect of road lighting on accidents in a given situation and we do not know what kind of lighting that is optimal for the situation. Society today has a demand for energy savings, locally and globally, and we should not use more energy for road lighting than is necessary. In the field of road lighting the demand for energy savings is accompanied by a fast development of techniques and equipment that give great opportunities for energy savings. The opportunity already exists to adapt the lighting to the actual road, traffic and weather situation. It is a problem, however, that we do not know what lighting quantity and quality which gives the best benefit – cost ratio. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to more knowledge about the relationship between road lighting and traffic safety and thus make a basis for benefit – cost calculations (including environmental costs). The thesis is based on four studies about the safety effect of road lighting, reported in four papers. The first is a literature study, the second is a Norwegian before-and-after study, the third is a cross-section study of Dutch accidents and the fourth is a study of Dutch motorway accidents. The thesis also contains three appendices presenting some more details from the studies than were shown in the papers. The content of the four papers are presented and discussed as a whole in a (fairly comprehensive) introductory part consisting of 10 chapters, where conclusions about the safety effect are discussed and summarised. The thesis in addition discusses the benefit – cost ratio of road lighting, but it is not treated in any of the papers. It has been useful to discuss this matter in advance of the discussion of the future role of road lighting. In the literature study (Paper I), the mean effect of road lighting on injury accidents during darkness was found to be -30 %. The mean effect on fatal accidents was -60 %. The mean effect on pedestrian injury accidents was -45 %, and on motorways the mean effect on injury accidents was -50 %. In the Norwegian before-and-after study (Paper II), the estimated effect of road lighting on injury accidents during darkness was -28 %. The estimated effect was larger at high speed limits than at low speed limits. The estimated effect was smaller on roads with AADT (average daily traffic volume) > 8000 vehicles than on roads with AADT < 8000 vehicles. In the cross-section study of accidents on all Dutch roads (Paper III), the mean effect of road lighting on injury accidents during darkness was found to be -50 %, while it was -54 % when only rural roads were considered. The effect on pedestrian, bicycle and moped accidents was larger than the effect on automobile and motorcycle accidents, and the differences were statistically significant. There was no significant difference between the safety effects for different accident types (Rear end collisions, Frontal collisions etc.) and no significant difference between the driver age groups 60 – 74 years and 30 – 39 years. The effect on fatal accidents was found to be slightly larger than the effect on injury accidents. The mean effect on twilight accidents was 2/3 of the effect during darkness. In the study of motorway accidents (Paper IV), the effect on injury accidents during darkness was found to be -49 % on Dutch motorways, while the effect seemed to be much smaller on British and Swedish motorways. On Dutch rural roads and Dutch motorways, the estimated effect of road lighting on accidents during darkness was smaller during adverse weather and road surface conditions than in fine weather and dry surface conditions. The differences were statistically significant. In fog, there was found no effect of road lighting during darkness. However, there were indications on a daylight safety effect during fog, possibly due to guidance from light poles. The results from the studies described in this thesis give a basis for increasing the application of road lighting as a traffic safety measure worldwide. Cost – benefit calculations indicate that road lighting is one of the most efficient road safety measures available. However, the energy consumption related to road lighting is a problem that must be considered. The great challenge is to reduce the energy consumption as much as possible without reducing the safety benefit too much. Future road lighting will probably be of the adaptive type, and it will be essential to know how the safety effect varies according to traffic and weather conditions and how it varies with the road lighting level and the quality of the lighting. The thesis answers some question about the safety effect during different weather conditions. There is, however, too little information about safety effect related to varying road and traffic conditions. A more serious lack of knowledge is that we do not know how the safety effect varies according to the lighting level. It is not possible to balance the energy consumption and the safety effect as long as this relationship is not known