Drawing on interviews with selected UK planning academics and survey results from current planning practitioners, this article provides valuable and timely perspectives on how internationalisation is experienced by those within and beyond the immediate institutional context. Although internationally focused planning education helps planners tackle the manifold urban challenges in the global South, the article goes on to argue that relational approaches hold much promise for planners working in so-called developed countries, including the UK, to understand the diverse needs of different diasporic communities. Such knowledge is crucial to develop sustainable planning solutions in the face of uneven processes of urban development.

Developing and building cities in a sustainable way is essential in modern day planning. A huge factor that influences this is the transport sector. The growing discourse of sustainable mobility is transport researchers answer to this but the lack of a social sustainability  perspective motivates research in relation to transport equality. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of transport equality in Scania and contribute with insights primarily of how planning measures can be developed and consequences managed. To investigate the phenomenon, we look at how the sustainable mobility discourse affects transport equality with a focus on Scanias rural areas. We mainly examine cycling and public transport as two sustainable means of transport and how various priorities between and within these modes affect equality. Through interviews with both planners and travellers we establish an understanding of the phenomenon from two different perspectives. The study shows that general goals for increased share of travels by bicycle and public transport are governing traffic planning in Scania. Based on this, we argue that sustainable mobility is considerably more influential than the transport equality perspective. One strategy that clearly shows this is the dominance of the ridership goal in public transport planning. Geographical coverage has a lower priority compared to increasing the share of travels. The study concludes that there is a car dependency in rural Scania. The car is considered the obvious mode of transport due to flexibility, dangerous cycling conditions and the limited range of public transport. The poor public transport service can be seen as a direct result of the ridership goal. Resources from routes with less demand are reallocated to stronger routes and rural traffic is negatively affected as a result. There is also an understanding among travellers that service along rural routes are expensive and therefore not as justified by planners. However, this understanding among travellers is not accepted in the same way when it comes to the limited bicycle infrastructure. There is a strong wish for improved bicycle connections between small towns and cities, however the study reveals legal and organisational obstacles to the construction of bicycle infrastructure outside urban areas. 

As a country of high migration, Sweden presents an interesting case for the study of belongingness. For the children of migrants, ethnic and national identification, as well as ascriptive identity, can pose challenges to feelings of belongingness, which is an essential element for positive mental health. In this article, survey data were collected from 626 Swedes whose parents were born in the following countries: Somalia, Poland, Vietnam, and Turkey. The results show that Poles significantly felt they received more reflective appraisals of ascription than any other group. However, despite not feeling as if they were being ascribed as Swedish, most group members (regardless of ethnic origin) had high feelings of belongingness to Sweden. Overall, individuals who felt that being Swedish was important for their identity indicated the highest feelings of belongingness. Further, individuals across groups showed a positive correlation between their national identification and ethnic identification, indicating a feeling of membership to both. These results mirror previous research in Sweden where individuals' ethnic and national identities were positively correlated. The ability to inhabit multiple identities as a member of different groups is the choice of an individual within a pluralistic society. Multiple memberships between groups need not be contradictory but rather an expression of different spheres of inhabitance.

Bikes and cycling infrastructure have a relationship with social justice. As a transportation mode they are often viewed as democratic due to their relatively low cost and barrier of entry. However, other factors such as family size, socio-economic disparities, and cultural barriers also exist. These often-overlooked social factors disproportionately affect immigrants. In Sweden there is no official responsibility placed on governing bodies or schools to provide cycling lessons which leaves it up to individuals themselves or the civil sector to do so. In the rational planning ideal ‘soft’ interventions have been deprioritised by Malmö municipality (Malmö stad) even though they previously excelled at such social measures.

This thesis has triangulated multiple sources of information/data using several methods: a document study, a semi-structured interview study, a GIS study, and a field study. From the gathered data and reference literature we analysed our findings through a social justice perspective. Though many definitions of social justice exist, we operated from a geographic lens, placing an emphasis on who has access to what and where, while also focusing on the removal of obstacles for people to reach their full potential (Mayhew, 2015).

Our findings show that the rational planning ideal in its goal to avoid racism by a ‘colour blind’ approach instead manages to render certain disadvantaged groups invisible, namely foreign-born residents of low socio-economic status.

This chapter investigates how night-time light images acquired from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System provide spatial and temporal insight into the economic impact of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. First, the chapter provides an overview of the economic development in Yugoslavia using conventional statistics, and second, it presents an analysis of the disintegration of the federation by comparing official statistics with night-time light data. Evaluating the impact of the disintegration of Yugoslavia as a federation and the conflicts arising in the wake of the break up is challenging since reliable data is missing. Therefore, satellite images, as one of the few sources of objective information, are potentially of great importance. We used yearly Operational Linescan System composites covering the period 1992–2013. The analysis is divided into small geographical units (districts) based on the republics in the former Yugoslavia.

This chapter explores the role, success and failures of spatial planning in shaping African cities and its influence on livelihoods. To date, planning in Africa has largely failed to address the needs and livelihoods of the poor and struggled to address wider issues such as spatial and economic inclusion, health inequalities, future pandemics and climate change. Planning for sustainable livelihoods across Africa must consider the distinction between universal or more generic approaches to planning and the experience of particular places and people, specifically, accounting for the needs and practices of informal entrepreneurs. This chapter first explores how the legacy of colonial planning has impacted the segregation of spaces and hence of livelihoods, particularly those of the poorer communities. It then discusses the barriers faced by planning to address the informal nature of the livelihoods of lower-income communities. Finally, it sketches out the challenges that need to be overcome and how planning for sustainable livelihoods should thus be tackled in Africa in the future. 

Environmental sustainability in sport is an increasingly important issue. In this paper, we want to highlight a specific phenomenon, namely artificially constructed landscapes and the outdoor sport activities that take place therein. More specifically, we are interested in the logics that govern peoples’ practice of sport in such artificial landscapes and what challenges with regards to environmental sustainability that follow from these logics. The purpose of this paper is to identify what individual athletes perceive as meaningful logics when practicing sport in artificial landscapes and to analyse and discuss potential environmental consequences of these logics. The sports we focus on are cross-country skiing and canoe slalom, two sports that historically have been dependent on specific geographies and contexts. We build on two research questions: What logics of practice govern individual athletes’ practice of sport in artificial landscapes? And what environmental challenges are potential consequences of the logics that are expressed by the athletes? Our findings indicate that the logic of performance is dominant for the sport practitioners who train in artificial landscapes, at the expense of perspectives such as nature experience and environmental sustainability. If performance is key, then the role of the training landscape is also first and foremost to present the best possible conditions for performance. But if the athlete/exerciser see their training as a means of experiencing nature, then other values than performance and comparability can become more important. When the environmental impact of individual athletes and of the artificial landscapes in which they do their training come under increased scrutiny, the role of logics of practice in the sport and movement culture needs further attention. Being aware of nature and the environment is also a logic that could be found meaningful in the process of making sports more sustainable.

Drawing on evidence from the city of Brussels, it will be argued that much of today's urban governance discourses and practices contributes to anti-urban ‘clichés of urban doom’ and betrays middle-class, ethnocentric, sexist and racist prejudices about urban societies. Mainstream conceptions of urban problems and policies are modernist, white, patriarchal, heterosexual, nuclear family-minded, middle-class and suburban. Mainstream urban planning metaphors contribute to, instead of help to eliminate, sexist and racist urban politics. The uncritical use of concepts such as ‘polarization’, ‘exclusion’ or ‘poverty’ accords with the quest for urban purification by dominant groups in society, who seek to minimalize the urban experience of heterogeneity, otherness, diversity and urban unpredictability. The main contribution of this paper will be in trying to make clear how some key metaphors in contemporary urban planning disempower the already disempowered and in fact contribute to conservative urban politics, even when they are not intended to.

This book examines reasons, processes and consequences of housing displacement in different geographical contexts. It explores displacement as a prime act of housing injustice – a central issue in urban injustices.

With international case studies from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, India, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Hungary, this book explores how housing displacement processes are more diverse and mutate into more new forms than have been acknowledged in the literature. It emphasizes a need to look beyond the existing rich gentrification literature to give primacy to researching processes of displacement to understand the socio-spatial change in the city. Although it is empirically and methodologically demanding for several reasons, studying displacement highlights gentrification’s unjust nature as well as the unjust housing policies in cities and neighborhoods that are simply not undergoing gentrification. The book also demonstrates how expulsion, though under-researched, has become a vital component of contemporary advanced capitalism, and how a focus on gentrification has hindered a potential focus on its flipside of ‘displacement’, as well as the study of the occurrence of poor cleansing from a long-term historical perspective.

This book offers interdisciplinary perspectives on housing displacement to academics and researchers in the fields of urban studies, housing, citizenship and migration studies interested in housing policies and governance practices at the urban scale.

The role of informality in African citizens’ everyday survival reflects the strategies and attitudes of citizens towards state plans and policies. This chapter dissociates the discussion of temporary urbanism from its typical Global North perspective to explore how this concept plays out in a Southern context, namely Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We look at the relationships between temporary urban settlements, citizens’ resilience to socio-economic deprivation, loss of trust in government, and resistance to neoliberal policies in such a context. The chapter begins with a historical account of informality in SSA in order to explain its socio-political construction in the present. We then explore how informality is addressed in its ‘temporariness’ as a state strategy to evade the realities of African cities or to avoid providing adequate housing. The overall argument of this chapter is that there is a need for attitudinal change in the political disposition to informality, which could help to recognise the value and permanence of informality in SSA.

The following thesis aims to investigate how the pneumatic waste collection system caninfluence its users' relationship with waste. To achieve this, the theoretical frameworks ofsociotechnical systems theory (STS) and theory of social practice have been combined tocreate a holistic understanding of how systems like pneumatic waste collection systemsimpact both society and its individuals. Users of the system in Bo01 and Brunnshög havebeen interviewed to examine their experiences with the system. The purpose has been tounderstand how waste becomes invisible after being discarded.In summary, the thesis concludes that residents are affected by the vacuum waste system butare unaware or unconcerned about its impact. The study shows that the pneumatic wastecollection system is a discreet and rarely noticed system in the studied residential areas.Additionally, the study has shown that today's lack of a relationship between residents andtheir individual waste can result in society's waste problems not being perceived. It can beargued that individuals in society renounce their responsibility for their waste after discardingit, due to a trust in the current system. This is not necessarily limited to the pneumatic wastecollection system as a waste management system, but is suspected to be overarching for thewaste management sector. 

Transports currently account for a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions, which has a negative impact on the environment and climate. Simultaneously, an increasing number of people are choosing to move to cities, which presents challenges for accessibility and mobility. Car usage is a major contributor to these problems, which creates a need for tools to encourage more people to choose sustainable modes of transportation over driving. This study examines mobility management (MM), which includes strategies and methods that aim to encourage people towards usage of sustainable modes of transport by influencing attitudes and behaviours.

This study investigates how the municipalities of Lund and Växjö are implementing mobility management to reduce car usage and promote sustainable transportation. Furthermore, the study aims to explore the challenges and opportunities associated with MM efforts, as well as to identify the lessons learned by the officials working with MM. The research questions are addressed by analysing documents that provide guidelines for the municipalities work and through interviews with municipal officials. The Urban Fabrics Theory is used as a theoretical framework for the research, focusing on walking, cycling, public transportation, and car usage separately.

The result of the study reveals that Lund has a strong tradition of working with MM compared to Växjö, where it is not as well established. The interviews indicate that both municipalities mainly focus on promoting cycling, which contradicts the strategic documents emphasizing the importance of increasing walking. The biggest challenges in MM work are gaining support from political decision-makers, as it is often difficult when measures aim to reduce car usage. Additionally, it is challenging to persuade people to reduce car usage due to the freedom, security, and status associated with cars. Successful MM requires continuity and long-term measures, as it takes time to build a culture where sustainable transportation is the obvious choice. Finally, the study identifies a lack and complexity in evaluating MM work, making it difficult to see the effects of MM measures. 

An energy transition is unfolding in Canada and across the world. During this transition, countries are facing increasing demands for their energy systems to address economic, social, and environmental considerations, including providing affordable and reliable energy, reducing inequality, and producing fewer environmental impacts. First, we identify key themes from the academic literature related to energy transitions: the systems perspective; economic, social, and environmental considerations; collaboration and dialogue; and social innovation. Second, we focus on a case study of a critical actor in Canada’s energy transition, the Energy Futures Lab (EFL), a social innovation lab that is actively working on the energy transition in Canada. We interviewed members of the EFL design team to investigate and deepen our understanding of the key themes identified in the academic literature. Third, we discuss how our research results relate to innovation and governance in the energy transition in Canada, and we offer an Integrated Model of Sustainable Development (SD) to help manage the common affairs of the energy transition. Fourth, we offer a theoretical contribution, arguing that both the ends and the means should be considered in an energy transition. It is important to keep in mind the overarching objective, or end, of the energy transition (e.g., alignment with the sustainability principles) to create the energy system that the future requires of us. Finally, we offer a practical contribution to show that SD can help inform a collaborative approach, that promotes innovation and increases knowledge, in an effort to address complex sustainability challenges.

As the USSR fell apart and independent countries took its place, minorities across Eurasia found themselves stranded in nationalizing states. This article focuses on one of these “beached diasporas”: Georgia’s Armenians. Through a mixed-methods approach, consisting of interviews with activists and a sociolinguistic experiment administered to adolescents (N = 529), we uncover differences among Armenians in their reactions to Georgia’s nationalization policies. Armenians from the borderland of Javakheti mobilized in defence of the in-group but their co-ethnics from the capital of Tbilisi opted for acculturation. These intragroup differences demonstrate that members of the same ethnic group can react to the same nationalization policies along disparate lines, thus adding nuance to the literature on beached diasporas in the post-Soviet space.

Due to their efficiency, revitalized traditional techniques for irrigation management of scarce water resources have been suggested as a way to at least partially cope with the present water crises in the Middle East. A better irrigation management includes re-using treated wastewater in agriculture. Treated wastewater should also be used in industrial processes, thus contributing to a more efficient overall water management. However, the most important change leading to better water management is improving water efficiency in agricultural irrigation. Traditional water management techniques have an important role in many Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Besides bringing more water to a thirsty population, they can also contribute to the societal awareness, and recognition of the great diversity of cultural and social values water has to human civilization.

In this paper the viability of housing commons as an alternative to commercial and public housing provision is examined. With rising financial burdens for renters in German cities over the past ten years, and state and market failing to provide affordable and accessible housing, claims to (re)communalize and decommodify housing are on the rise. The study is contextualized through tracing changing housing policies post-1945, and historic accounts of housing commons in the German context. Arguing for the advantages of conceptualizing housing as a common good, the applicability, limitations, and contradictions of this approach are explored. Founded in the “new commons” literature, the paper highlights the specific characteristics and challenges of urban housing commons and considers them regarding the complex in(ter)dependencies with market and state.

Seven semi-structured interviews with residents of alternative housing projects (based on the principles of decommodification and self-management) and people from supporting organizations were conducted to gain insights into the community. It shows that internal group dynamics, interaction with outside actors on different levels, and the high prerequisites for creating and maintaining housing commons create multiple stress factors, currently preventing the housing commons to unfold their full potential. Mainly the high real estate prices and the consequent need to contribute equity capital prevent the housing commons from becoming a large-scale alternative to other housing providers.

The paper stipulates that despite the threat of more rigid regulation, cooperation with the state is a promising way forward for the housing commons to overcome market pressures and provide a much-needed relief to overburdened renters in the German housing market, while simultaneously opening the possibility to “commonalise” the state.

Abstract

With increased urbanization and a larger number of people choosing to move into cities, the importance of a good urban environment also increases. Along with this, the use of public space for social purposes has achieved an increased relevance. This essay is a study that deals with and analyses how the physical urban design of public places and perceived space affect social interactions and how these are applied to two different public places. This study is focused on the urban design of the physical environment for public usage and the perceived space by the users. Previous studies suggest that the perception of space will affect social interactions and use of the space.

The study has been carried out in two different public places in the newly built residential area Vallastaden in the municipality of Linköping. The two public spaces that were selected for the study was; (1) the square named Nobeltorget, and (2) the green area Paradiset.

The purpose of the study was to study people's interaction with urban design and how the design can contribute to the residents' social life. The purpose of this study was also to analyze which qualities are important to increase and promote the use of public places.Theoretically, the study is based on three theories that describe in different ways the importance of public places and how public places are created so that people want to stay there. This study is based on theories by, eg Matthew Carmona ́s theory about the physical environments role on social life, David Madden ́s thinking about social exclusion and Ali Madanipour ́s theory about public spaces availability. The study departs from the perspective of an urban planner, therefore, the relationship between the user and the city structure plays a key role. In order to try to discern in what way public places contribute to social meetings and interactions and which qualities can be assumed to be important for the planning of a public place. To answer the essay's purpose, different methods have been used. These are a document study, a literature study, observations and interviews.

The essay shows that the public places in a city district have great importance for social life and that different public places have different functions in the city. This is a prerequisite for people to meet, which is a necessity for a community and a social life in the city.

The way we frame a given problem structures the content that is brought into focus and thus the kinds of practical steps seen as necessary to alleviate it. This article interrogates two competing partial framings implicated in ongoing controversy over mangrove destruction in Vikhroli East, Mumbai, which have precluded integrated conservation and development. The article analyses the content of each particular framing, identifies their respective “blind spots”, and evaluates the validity of various frame components. It concludes with an exemplary alternative reframing arguably more conducive to social justice and sustainability in Vikhroli East and beyond. 

In this article, I outline the foundations of a consistent and systematic approach to conceptualizing communities in action-oriented sustainability research. More specifically, I develop a conceptual heuristic based on key questions related to ontology, epistemology, methodology and motivation that should be useful for researchers regarding the process of initiating, clarifying and reporting on research with communities. While the use of the community concept in sustainability research is particularly prominent, variability in the possible types of social groupings combined with the concept’s long and complicated etymology in the English language means the community concept lends itself easily to ambiguous and unspecified use. This can lead to problems of both conceptual vagueness and concept-object mismatch in scientific research, which in turn can influence the applicability and efficacy of research outcomes. While problems with community conceptualization are generally recognized, the heuristic developed here contributes by providing researchers with a framework and procedure for addressing these persistent challenges. The heuristic supports the rational and systematic development of a community concept that is sensitive to concrete contextual characteristics, while maintaining roots in a consistent philosophy of scientific knowledge production.

Local communities around the world are directly exposed to impacts of climate change. It is also clear that many local governments are politically and economically constrained in their capacity to implement needed adaptations. These constraints can restrict adaptation options to incremental, or even maladaptive, practices. At the same time, necessary transformational actions may remain out of reach for local actors. Building on five years of collaborative research with the city of Flagler Beach (FL, USA), we draw on political process theories to describe how incremental adaptation activities that are possible within current constraints can serve to build local capacity for instigating reforms at higher scales of social organization. We use the concept of a collective action strategy to conceptualize how context-specific barriers to adaptation can be overcome. From our analysis, an idealized multi-step process for designing collective action strategies is presented. The study advances scholarship on limits to adaptation beyond the diagnosis of barriers to action by taking steps towards developing context-specific strategies for overcoming these barriers.

Sustainability science is fundamentally a problem-driven and solutions-oriented science which necessitates engagement with questions of interdisciplinarity and normativity. Nagatsu et al. (2020) recently investigated the significance of these peculiar characteristics and produce a useful and timely overview of the problems facing sustainability science, as a science. Perhaps the most crucial and crosscutting challenge they identify regards the need for researchers to justify the particular values guiding sustainability research. In the spirit of advancing Nagatsu et al.’s agenda for further developing the role of values in sustainability science, I argue two things. First, that there are in practice several active and competing approaches to dealing with the problem of normativity in sustainablity science that provide options to researchers. Second, that this unresolved tension at the core of sustainability science points to a more overarching problem, namely the need to more explicitly identify coherent, competing research paradigms within the field.

The ambition of this two-part article is to argue for immanent critique as a research strategy in sustainability studies. We do this by picking up and developing two central, cross-cutting themes in sustainability research, namely interdisciplinarity and normativity. It is widely suggested that the problem-driven and solution-focused orientation in sustainability studies necessitates interdisciplinarity and an engagement with questions of normativity, each creating problems regarding how science is conducted. For interdisciplinarity, questions remain regarding by what scientific procedure rational (i.e., non-arbitrary) interdisciplinarity can be accomplished. For normativity, it is unclear whether normativity can be addressed scientifically, or only politically; in other words, can normativity be objectively incorporated in sustainability research, and if so, how? Ultimately, the paper asks and answers the following questions: when should a researcher move from one discipline to another in sustainability research and, how do we judge the validity of the normative values that are deemed necessary for sustainability? In Part I, we show the silences, gaps, vagueness and inadequacies of how these themes are currently addressed in sustainability science literature, and from this move to propose immanent critique as a potential strategy for dealing with them in a scientific manner. In Part II, we exemplify our strategy by applying it to re-construct the debate over sustainable development, by far the most prominent topical focus in sustainability science research, producing a novel systematized typology of sustainable development approaches in the process. We conclude with reflections on how this paper amounts to an initial contribution to the construction of a Lakatosian research programme in sustainability studies.

Loss and damage from climate change, recognized as a unique research and policy domain through the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) in 2013, has drawn increasing attention among climate scientists and policy makers. Labelled by some as the “third pillar” of the international climate regime—along with mitigation and adaptation—it has been suggested that loss and damage has the potential to catalyze important synergies with other international agendas, particularly sustainable development. However, the specific approaches to sustainable development that inform loss and damage research and how these approaches influence research outcomes and policy recommendations remain largely unexplored. We offer a systematic analysis of the assumptions of sustainable development that underpins loss and damage scholarship through a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed research on loss and damage. We demonstrate that the use of specific metrics, decision criteria, and policy prescriptions by loss and damage researchers and practitioners implies an unwitting adherence to different underlying theories of sustainable development, which in turn impact how loss and damage is conceptualized and applied. In addition to research and policy implications, our review suggests that assumptions about the aims of sustainable development determine how loss and damage is conceptualized, measured, and governed, and the human development approach currently represents the most advanced perspective on sustainable development and thus loss and damage. This review supports sustainable development as a coherent, comprehensive, and integrative framework for guiding further conceptual and empirical development of loss and damage scholarship.

Sustainability science (SS) is diverse field of problem-driven and solution-oriented research that is still developing. The further maturation of the field relies on its practitioners formulating alternative paradigms to use-inspired knowledge production to facilitate comparison and reasoned judgment on what constitutes scientific best practices. In this short article, we flag several blind spots that can arise in attempts to articulate potential paradigms in SS. We identify and discuss three crucial components that should be included when constructing and presenting potential paradigms in the field, namely the necessity of 1) comparing suggested alternatives with available competitors, 2) preserving scientific integrity in scientific knowledge production, and 3) clarifying the particular contribution of scientific knowledge to social change. Keeping sight of these three important issues will allow the still developing field of SS to mature in a way that builds on scientific comparison and reasoned judgment among the field’s practitioners, with implications for advancing its research agenda. The issues we outline here should not only concern authors, but reviewers and editors of SS journals as well. 

It has become quite common in environmental sustainability research to promote the influencing of so-called inner dimensions of individuals as means to address pressing environmental problems such as climate change, what we refer to as the Inward Turn. We argue that the conceptual foundations of the Inward Turn, an extreme form of methodological individualism, limit it significantly as a strategy for addressing climate change and other socially relevant environmental problems. After briefly reviewing major shortcomings with the way the Inward Turn conceptualizes the relationship between individuals and social change, including its neglect of causal structures and propensity to abstract its analysis away from problems that are specific to place and time, we sketch the basic tenets of an alternative methodological approach capable of overcoming these limitations. Our approach, however, does not go to the other extreme and neglect the role of individuals; rather, our recognition of the structural drivers of particular environmental problems points to the necessity of specific collective actions by individuals, for example, in the practice of social movements. This recognition demands a rethinking of the role of individual factors, like emotion and empathy, in addressing environmental sustainability problems, namely as they relate to collective action/social movement emergence, development, and outcomes.

A central challenge for sustainable development is how societies are to avoid, minimize or address impacts from anthropogenic climate change. However, competing perspectives on “what should be sustained” lead to widely different understandings of what mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage entail and how best to approach them. We provide a novel conceptual and empirical comparison of two contrasting sustainable development-based approaches to the study of impacts from climate-related extreme events: Capital Theory and capability-based Human Development. We use our analysis of immediate residential property value and housing capacity impacts caused by Hurricane Michael in Gulf County, Florida, to demonstrate how the sustainable development theory used to assess and interpret impacts greatly affects the identification of whom and where is objectively “most impacted.” Through a comparison of the two approaches, we identify relative advantages and disadvantages, emphasizing that while both provide coherent, comprehensive, and integrative approaches to climate-related impact assessment, the capability approach is much less likely to lead researchers and practitioners to overlook the most disadvantaged communities when compared to Capital Theory.

Geographical mobility is often considered fundamental to a well-functioning labour market, and thus to the economy as a whole. Typically, geographical mobility can be achieved either through commuting or through migration. Commuting can be considered important for households to have access to job market opportunities and for business to access labour, skills and competencies. Previous research has found commuting patterns to differ between men and women, for example, in the sense that women travel shorter distances and rely more on public transport. However, we also know that factors such as higher education can influence an individual’s decision to commute, possibly because of specialization and a higher salary. As women’s education level approaches, or surpasses, that of men’s, one would expect to see more similarities between the travel behaviour of the two genders. In this study, we analyse gender patterns of commuting in Norway, Serbia and Sweden. We specifically address the issue of gender gap in commuting. Findings show that though there are signs of convergence, there are large regional variations. The gender gap is decreasing primarily in the more urban regions, while it is decreasing less, and even increasing, given the various levels of aggregation, in the more rural areas.

The intense competition between places means that new and more differentiated marketing strategies are becoming increasingly important in order to attract visitors and other target groups. In order to be seen, gain positive media attention and put the place on the map many cities try to develop marketing concepts based on experiences, among other things. One such strategy used by many places is to focus on sports, including big events and arenas as well as different kinds of sports activities. Another present-day strategy is to highlight and commercialize 'the different', for instance homosexuals. An interesting phenomenon in this context is the merging of sports and homosexuals and the use of this as an economic development strategy. In this essay we analyse the homo sports event World Outgames as an outcome in the intersection between city marketing, the commercialization of sports and the commercialization of homo culture.

Urban development politics are being challenged in various ways today, which becomes obvious when analysing strategies for sustainability versus competitiveness. In parallel to this, alternative ways of financing, planning and organizing urban development and transport projects are becoming more common. However, although the use of publicly owned enterprises in urban development is becoming more common it is still a fairly new phenomenon and differs considerably from development led by a traditional government agency. The question analysed in this article is how well equipped these new governing arrangements are to handle goals of both sustainability and economic competitiveness. As a case study we use a special financial and planning model used in the development of public transport (the metro) and a new urban area (Orestad) in Copenhagen, here called the Orestad model. Special focus is given on the creation of the Orestad Development Corporation, a new hybrid development organization, which was given the mandate to develop both Orestad and the metro. The study shows that there is a lot to gain from both a sustainability and an efficiency perspective by integrating land use development and public transport infrastructure in the same hybrid project organization. While there is definitely a tension between the goals of sustainability and competitive image building, the two do not have to be mutually exclusive. Even though the role of the state is transformed in this new governance arrangement, our case clearly shows how the state remains a crucial actor in sustainability governance. However, there is an obvious risk of a lack of strategic thinking and accountability when a hybrid project-oriented organization is responsible for planning.

This study investigates the barriers faced by cities in their efforts to increase the number of urban cyclists and aims to identify best practices to fulfil cities' ambitions. The research explores the multi-dimensional nature of the obstacles and highlights the significance of understanding and addressing them effectively. By examining bike policies, sustainable mobility programs, existing literature, and conducting interviews with experts, this study provides insights into the common themes that prevent cities from achieving their goals. The findings contribute to the development of best practices that can support cities in their ambition to increase urban cycling.This study is a multi-case study, where the study compares the city Malmö and The Hague. The Hague is a leading example for bicycle use, while Malmö strives to become a bicycle-friendly city. The methodology employed in this research includes several components: a literature review to explore barriers and enablers of urban cycling, a theoretical analysis, a comprehensive review of bike policies and sustainable mobility documents in both cities and interviews to delve deeper into recurring themes identified in the document analysis. The discussion section integrates the literature review, theory, and results, highlighting the best practices for promoting urban cycling.In this study, the theory of path dependency is employed, which refers to a process where initial moves lead to further moves in the same direction, limiting future choices. It involves three phases: Preformation, Formation, and Lock-in. Additionally, the theoretical framework incorporates the three factors of path dependence identified by Low et al. (2005). These factors are relevant to the study because they relate to urban planning and active transport. The three factors are: technical, institutional, and discursive. Overall, understanding path dependency and its factors (technical, institutional, and discursive) enables more effective strategies in urban planning and active transportation to overcome barriers and promote sustainable cities.Through an analysis of previous research, theory, and results it becomes evident that the establishment of a support base and the implementation of a combination of hard and soft measures play a crucial role in fulfilling cities' bike ambitions. The support base requires diverse stakeholders to understand and support bike policies. Effective communication help engage stakeholders and expand support. Overplanning with various options enhances policy resilience. Striking a balance between hard and soft measures is crucial for increasing urban cyclists. Hard measures like infrastructure development are initially important, but a balanced approach ensures an effective strategy.By adopting these best practices, cities can successfully increase the number of urban cyclists. However, it is important to emphasize that achieving this ambition goes beyond formulating a policy; it requires the establishment of a support base and a balanced approach that incorporates both hard and soft measures. This study provides cities with insights into potential barriers and enablers, offering guidance for examining their specific urban contexts and working towards their cycling goals.

In this thesis, the public green space provision in Hamburg, Germany is critically examined and put into context by social indicators relating to social class and ethnic background. 

Urban green spaces offer a variety of benefits for citizens, ranging from recreation, improving physical and mental health, contribution to urban cooling and climate adaptation as well as providing spaces for biodiversity. Yet, provision and access to public green space is not always equal. This is reflected in the concept of urban environmental justice, which acknowledges that not all societal groups equally benefit from environmental services nor are equally affected by the burdens of environmental pollution. Urban environmental justice is used in this thesis to holistically assess public green space provision, from a distributive, procedural and corrective justice dimension. These dimensions relate to how public green space is distributed in the city, how policies surrounding green space incorporate urban environmental justice concerns, and lastly what measures are in place for correcting potential injustices. The thesis employs a mixed method approach. Critical mapping through QGIS was applied to showcase the distribution and proximity to public green space in the various neighbourhoods in Hamburg. Following this, a policy analysis was performed to investigate the procedural justice dimension. Lastly, semi-structured interviews with five planners and two activists were conducted to illuminate measures for correcting urban environmental injustices related to green space provision. The findings suggest that public green space is not evenly distributed, and issues of access exist in Hamburg. Procedural justice is not fully achieved as a legal framework for urban environmental justice is lacking and the existing policies do not consider the concept adequately. Simultaneously, both supporting and hindering measures for correcting urban environmental injustices exist and corrective justice is not fully achieved either. Overall, the discourse surrounding urban environmental justice should be advanced in Germany and more awareness needs to be raised.

Through an overview of the decade 2008 to 2017, and looking comparatively across four northern European cities, this paper reflects on the changing nature of public space during these austerity years and on the processes of shaping public spaces. The paper draws from the experiences of London, Copenhagen, Malmo and Oslo to explore processes of the design, development, use and management of public spaces during this period. The evidence suggests that we have witnessed a period of significant innovation, side by side with major challenges to the collective approach to public spaces. This has led to distinct forms of public spaces that for good or ill have multiplied as a result of the trends discussed in the paper, spaces of; expectation; the private/public sphere; spectacle; respite; infrastructure; diversion; income generation; security; the ephemeral city; community control; occupation; disadvantage; and decline. Episodes of changing practice are set out in the paper and cumulatively reveal distinct and significant changes during the austerity era, although not necessarily in the manner that might have been expected. Instead, in these four cities, the impact of austerity seems to have been eclipsed by other evolving and competing public policy goals, and by the evolving range of public space types.