Leaving Rurality Behind. Re-orientation of spatial policies in Sweden.

The paper will address the changing status of rural regions in policy formation in Sweden. Two basic processes are at work. First, decades of out-migration have given many rural regions a demographic structure, which is causing a self-propelling de-population. Secondly, the internationalisation of the economy and of politics has drawn the attention from the idea of nationwide welfare towards efforts to increase economic growth on a national basis. Regional policy is gradually shifting focus towards concepts and measures that are aiming at supporting dynamic growth regions. The new economic geography forms the basis for an "urbanised" regional policy: economies of scale, regional specialisation and the enlargement of labour market regions are key concepts in the spatial policies. Hence, the problems of marginalisation and decline in the periphery as well as the specific opportunities of vital rural areas are vanishing in politics and planning as the "rural development system" and the "rural dimension" is being phased-out from the conception of space.rural regions; regional policy

Modes of re-territorialisation. Spatial implications of regional competition politics in Sweden.

Traditional welfare states have gradually become more involved in competition politics. In order to sustain economic growth in a globalising economy these states get increasingly supply oriented and act to promote technological change, innovations and entrepreneurship. In Sweden, efforts to develop knowledge based niches have become key elements in an increasingly growth oriented regional/industrial policy. This paper will address the spatial implications of these changes. Two territorial approaches can be fruitfully identified. First, the growth policy is based on an economic geography in which the promotion of regional specialisation and industrial clusters are vital parts. Thus, focus is turning from the periphery towards the centre as aims and means are directed towards international competitiveness. Second, the decentralisation of regional policy and the orientation towards partnerships, networks and cross sector co-operations is driving towards a spatial fragmentation where time and space specific regions are created on a project basis. The contours of a development system of regions partly over-lapping each others can be identified.re-territorialisation

Understanding rural change - demography as a key to the future

The last decades have seen a rapidly growing interest in foresight methodology. Methods have been developed in corporate and governmental communication exercises often labelled technology foresight. In reality, these foresights have often drifted into processes of social change, since technological change is hard to foresee beyond what is already in the pipe-line. Forecasting of social change, however, must be based on solid knowledge about the mechanisms of continuity and change. Virtually nothing can be said about the future without relating to the past; foresights and futures studies are about revealing the hidden pulse of history. Hence, the answer to forecasting the future is empirical research within the social sciences. Demographic change has been recognised as a key determinant for explaining social change. Population changes are fairly predictable and the age transition can explain a wide range of socio-economic changes. For rural futures, demographic change is a key issue, since age structure in rural areas is often uneven and also unstable due to migration patterns. A number of policy related questions as well as research challenges are raised as a consequence.demographic change; rural futures

Kunskap om landsbygden. Dags för en ny agenda!

The working paper presents a new research agenda for Swedish rural research. Starting from a theoretical discussion on rurality as a research field and the motives for a specific rural research, we move to issues of definition and research perspectives. In the end, the specific rural environment has two basic features. Sparse structures affecting all aspects of human activity including social relations, demography, economy etc. and the rural physical environment which is different from the urban. The paper suggests six research fields altogether creating the core of Swedish rural research: natural resources in production and governance, demographic challenges, the rural economy, local development, rural policies and finally ”the new rurality”. This last field is an attempt to look forward and address issues following on today’s major trends. The new rurality also point at a the paradigmatic shift for rural areas in Sweden that may follow from climate change and increasing energy and food prices as well as an increase in the demand for forest products.Rural; research

När lanthandeln stänger. En studie av lanthandelns betydelse för flyttning in och ut och för människorna i byn.

In Sweden the number of rural food shops has decreased for more than 50 years. Often the closing of a village shop is supposed to affect the migration patterns in the area it has been serving. However, according to this study, neither in- nor out-migration in the area affected by the closing is affected. The deficits of migration usual in those areas are established at least 10-12 years before the closing year. Thus, the typical closing takes place subsequent to a long term population decline. On the other hand, localities hosting a shop that survived during the study period 1990-2004 have a bigger total population and show tendencies towards decreasing deficit of migration at any potential closing year. These statistical results are supported by interviews carried out in three villages where the last shop has closed. They indicate that the shop has already lost its importance as supplier when it closes. By then the village shop is primarily used as complement to nearby towns or shopping centres. Each of the two studies accounted for here point at a relative un-importance of the village shop as a service point at the closing time. However, as it often offer the last public space in the village the village shop serves a key function as a meeting point for some households. When the shop has closed, the village holds private homes only. That is a situation increasing loneliness to some inhabitants.rural food shops; migration; population decline

Tradition as asset or burden for transitions from forests as cropping systems to multifunctional forest landscapes: Sweden as a case study

Expectations of what forests and woodlands should provide vary among locations, stakeholder groups, and over time. Developing multifunctional forests requires understanding of the dynamic roles of traditions and cultural legacies in social-ecological systems at multiple levels and scales. Implementing policies about multifunctional forests requires a landscape and social-ecological perspective, and recognition of both spatial and temporal features at multiple scales. This study explores the dissemination of even-aged silviculture in central, eastern and northern Europe, and the consequences of choosing different vantage points in social-ecological systems for mapping of barriers, and to identify levers, towards multifunctional forest landscapes. Using a narrative approach, we first summarise the development of even-aged silviculture in four European regions. Next, we focus on Sweden as a keen adopter of even-aged silviculture, and identify levers at three groups of vantage points. They were (1) biosphere with biodiversity as short-hand for composition, structure and function of ecosystems, which support human well-being at multiple scales; (2) society in terms of different levels of stakeholder interactions from local to global, and (3) economy represented by value chain hierarchies and currencies. The emergence of even-aged silviculture >200 years ago formed an expanding frontier from central to northern Europe. Sustained yield wood production and biodiversity conservation encompass different portfolios of ecosystem aspects and spatio-temporal scales. Ignorance and lack of knowledge about these differences enforce their mutual rivalry. An exploratory review of six groups of stakeholders at multiple levels in the traditional industrial forest value chain highlights inequalities in terms of distribution of income and power across different levels of governance. This effectively marginalises other than powerful industrial actors. The distribution of financial results along the value chain is dynamic in space and time, and not all benefits of forest ecosystems can be measured using monetary valuation. There are also other currencies and incentives. A discussion of cultural trajectories in central and eastern European, Russian and Swedish forest management illustrates that forest history patterns repeat themselves. Longitudinal case studies of countries and regions can help foster holistic multi-dimensional and multilevel systems thinking. Application of deep levers of change is likely to require external drivers. A key challenge is to handle the manufacturing of doubt and decay of truth, i.e., the appearance of alternative facts, and the diminishing role of evidence and systems analyses in political and civic discourses. This transition is fuelled by new and rapidly evolving digital arenas

Correlating Gene Expression Variation with cis-Regulatory Polymorphism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Identifying the nucleotides that cause gene expression variation is a critical step in dissecting the genetic basis of complex traits. Here, we focus on polymorphisms that are predicted to alter transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We assembled a confident set of transcription factor motifs using recent protein binding microarray and ChIP-chip data and used our collection of motifs to predict a comprehensive set of TFBSs across the S. cerevisiae genome. We used a population genomics analysis to show that our predictions are accurate and significantly improve on our previous annotation. Although predicting gene expression from sequence is thought to be difficult in general, we identified a subset of genes for which changes in predicted TFBSs correlate well with expression divergence between yeast strains. Our analysis thus demonstrates both the accuracy of our new TFBS predictions and the feasibility of using simple models of gene regulation to causally link differences in gene expression to variation at individual nucleotides

An integrated expression atlas of miRNAs and their promoters in human and mouse

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs with key roles in cellular regulation. As part of the fifth edition of the Functional Annotation of Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project, we created an integrated expression atlas of miRNAs and their promoters by deep-sequencing 492 short RNA (sRNA) libraries, with matching Cap Analysis Gene Expression (CAGE) data, from 396 human and 47 mouse RNA samples. Promoters were identified for 1,357 human and 804 mouse miRNAs and showed strong sequence conservation between species. We also found that primary and mature miRNA expression levels were correlated, allowing us to use the primary miRNA measurements as a proxy for mature miRNA levels in a total of 1,829 human and 1,029 mouse CAGE libraries. We thus provide a broad atlas of miRNA expression and promoters in primary mammalian cells, establishing a foundation for detailed analysis of miRNA expression patterns and transcriptional control regions

The Nordic welfare model providing energy transition? A political geography approach to the EU RES directive

The EU Renewable Energy Strategy (RES) Directive requires that each member state obtain 20% of its energy supply from renewable sources by 2020. If fully implemented, this implies major changes in institutions, infrastructure, land use, and natural resource flows. This study applies a political geography perspective to explore the transition to renewable energy use in the heating and cooling segment of the Swedish energy system, 1980–2010. The Nordic welfare model, which developed mainly after the Second World War, required relatively uniform, standardized local and regional authorities functioning as implementation agents for national politics. Since 1980, the welfare orientation has gradually been complemented by competition politics promoting technological change, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This combination of welfare state organization and competition politics provided the dynamics necessary for energy transition, which occurred in a semi-public sphere of actors at various geographical scales. However, our analysis, suggest that this was partly an unintended policy outcome, since it was based on a welfare model with no significant energy aims. Our case study suggests that state organization plays a significant role, and that the EU RES Directive implementation will be uneven across Europe, reflecting various welfare models with different institutional pre-requisites for energy transition

A Simulator Tool for Human Activity Recognition

The goal of this project was to create a simulator that was to produce data for research in the field of activity recognition. The simulator was to simulate a human entity moving around in, and interacting with, a PEIS environment. This simulator ended up being based on The Sims 3, and how this was done is described. The reader is expected to have some experience with programming