Protracted economic crises, accelerating inequalities, and increased resource scarcity present significant challenges for the majority of Africa's urban population. Limited state capacity and widespread infrastructure deficiencies common in cities across the continent often require residents to draw on their own resources, knowledge, and expertise to resolve these life and livelihood dilemmas.

DIY Urbanism in Africa investigates these practices. It develops a theoretical framework through which to analyze them, and it presents a series of case studies to demonstrate how residents invent new DIY tactics and strategies in response to security, place-making, or economic problems.

This book offers a timely critical intervention into literatures on urban development and politics in Africa. It is valuable to students, policymakers, and urban practitioners keen to understand the mechanisms and political implications of widespread dynamics now shaping Africa's expanding urban environments.

Cities are important sites for societal transitions towards sustainability, which is increasingly recognised around the issue of biodiversity conservation and protection. However, cities are often characterised by the need to develop and grow. Furthermore, efforts to promote sustainable development have been criticised as failing to address the fundamental causes of environmental destruction. In this article, based on interviews with bureaucrats and documentary analysis, I explore urban planning and biodiversity protection at four Swedish municipalities. Biodiversity protection has been an official goal in Sweden for 30 years. As such, my research aim is to explore how Swedish bureaucrats represent efforts to balance imperatives to develop cities and protect biodiversity. Taking an institutional approach, I identify what information is included and excluded. In assessing municipal discourse, I utilise the theory of sociocultural viability, which provides an analytical typology of four worldviews. I identify that within respondents' discourse, biodiversity primarily emerges as a product of a hierarchical view of reality, as a measurable object; an indicator; a characteristic; and as a provider that is both engineerable and replaceable. This was despite numerous respondents articulating an egalitarian desire for more holistic interpretations of biodiversity in urban planning, appreciative of its inherent worth. This suggests that biodiversity has largely been integrated into extant hierarchical conceptualisations of public administration. According to cultural theory, addressing wicked policy problems effectively requires insight from several of the typology's worldviews. As such, current practice may reiterate dominant contemporary views on nature rather than innovation towards a radically different society.

A fair distribution of accessibility to key activities is a central concern for distributive justice in transport planning. This implies that disparities in accessibility and the negative effects associated with a lack of accessibility should be mitigated. However, even though accessibility is not purely spatial or static, it is conventionally treated as if it were. Several studies have significantly advanced the spatio-temporal representation of accessibility. However, there is still a lack of focus on how these dynamics affect different groups of people with differing socio-economic and demographic characteristics and how these dynamics might influence their travel mode choice. The aim of this paper is to analyse how differences in accessibility to the workplace by public transport during multiple times of the day are associated with the time period in which different groups of people commute to work, and how the flexibility of individuals' time constraints might influence whether they can and do commute using public transport. Using a transport justice-focused time geography perspective, this study draws on the spatio-temporal aspects of people's real activities based on travel survey data for the Stockholm Region. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the differences in accessibility to the workplace by public transport across multiple departure time periods; showing how these results compare with mode choice (if there is a choice); and revealing which socio-economic, demographic and geographical factors characterise these differences. This study also illustrates how a transport justice-focused time geography approach could help researchers have a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the relationship between accessibility and sustainable travel behaviour, and how this relationship might change at different times of the day.

Public spaces, parks, walking, cycling, and transit paths in Malmö are designed to create an accessible and integrated city. In this study, three groups of first-year students were asked to draw their mental maps of Malmö to investigate how they perceive Malmö as a legible, conceivable, and connected city. The results reveal that these young residents have a clear picture of most public places and the predominant landmarks’ positions. Still, the links between many public places were unclear, not legible enough, or even negligible according to their drawings.

This article analyses actor relationships in Transit Oriented Development (TOD) planning in order to better understand the preconditions necessary for planning processes to result in TOD in lower density contexts, in suburbs, or small cities. Empirically, the analysis builds on a comparative case study of TOD planning projects. The focus in the analytical work is on understanding how market conditions in lower density contexts influence the conditions for TOD planning projects, and how this feeds through to planning processes. The overall conclusion is that we should not expect that planning processes in small cities with low to medium densities of populations and activities differ much from those in more ‘classic’ highly urban TOD locations. Market conditions had an impact on planning processes, but once in the planning stage conditions for implementation depended more on the ability to handle competing interests and less on market conditions. In terms of policy recommendations, it is important for actors to develop a joint vision of the built environment of the site in question that channels organizations’ individual actions in a joint direction. The ability to achieve such a joint vision for the design of the site in question may be more important in small towns than in more ‘typical’ TOD contexts in denser urban areas. This is because all enablers need to work together in a positive way in such location – which may be marginal from a market point of view – for the development to be able to go ahead.

In recent years, the need for affordable sustainable housing has increased. At the same time, there has been a gradual rising interest in compact living. With the mounting impacts of climate change, a new way of thinking is needed to develop more resilient and climate responsive ways of living that are compact, affordable, and climate-conscious. In response to this need, the idea of a ‘Z-Free Home’ was born. The ‘Z-Free Home’ is a tiny mobile house equipped with essential passive and eco-cycle systems that achieves nine zero targets. The main design and construction concept is based on circular design and a return to nature life cycle principles. In this paper, the architectural design concept, building energy modelling, and simulation for the Z-Free Home design proposal is discussed. This paper describes the concept design and design development phases together with building modelling and simulation. A focus was made on the use of virtual reality in design development assessment as a new method for evaluating passive and eco-cycle systems. The results show that it’s possible to achieve nine different zero goals while the analysis illustrates the challenges in achieving them. The paper also described the next steps planned for the proof of concept, i.e., the 1:1 house model. The project is ongoing, and it aims at a full-scale physical prototype as a proof of concept for the zero targets. The ‘Z-Free Home’ is designed for the cold Swedish climate but could be more widely applicable in other mild climates as well as hot climates.

Realizing the environmental and social benefits of cycling requires effective policies that deliver increased and inclusive cycling. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of such policies by providing insights into what could make cycling achievable for more diverse social groups through engaging with theoretical perspectives from transport geography, the mobilities paradigm and social justice. In doing so the thesis examines the various elements that constitute an individual’s potential to use a bicycle and the connected inequalities.

The thesis employs conceptions of accessibility and motility in combination with measures of inequality to examine the socio-spatial inequalities in cycling potentials. The first paper designs a new composite indicator based on Theil’s index of inequality and accessibility measures to study inequalities in bike-and-ride opportunities in Malmö. The second paper develops a quantitative operationalization of cycling motility by applying GIS-based and statistical analyses to empirical data collected using a survey study. Specifically, cycling motility is operationalized along three dimensions of access, competence, and appropriation. This is done by measuring cycling-related material and nonmaterial, as well as objective and subjective factors related to individuals and their social, cultural, and geographical environment.

The subsequent papers put the concept of cycling motility in practice. The third paper builds on the approach developed in the second paper and examines inequalities in the cycling motility across different social groups from the three-dimensional justice lens of Nancy Fraser. Finally, the fourth paper provides insights into the relationships between individuals’ cycling motility and their realized mobility. The empirical findings highlight that such relationships vary across three urban contexts of Malmö, Gothenburg, and Beijing. Overall, the findings support that the operationalization of cycling motility is useful for studying individuals’ cycling potentials and capturing the connected between-individual differences, thereby helpful for development of policies that could realize the social and environmental potentials of cycling.

In this chapter, we analyze a number of challenges concerning the possibilities of seaweed reaching a larger Swedish retail market. Consumers seem to be quite open and flexible regarding the positioning of seaweed products in stores. As previous research has shown, certain consumer groups feel like taking responsibility when it comes to consuming more sustainably. These consumer groups could function as early adopters for new seaweed products and be targeted accordingly. Retailers and practitioners could help consumers to understand these new products by educating them about sustainability and providing sustainability services. Vegetarian or vegan alternatives for already-established products could be placed next to these familiar foods in order to make it easy for the consumer to understand how the new product is intended to be used, and how it fits into current cooking and eating practices. The results reveal a disparity and ambivalence in consumers’ attitudes and approaches to seaweed, paving the way for new consumer insights, retail guiding, and in-store services. We emphasize the responsibility of the retail sector in being one of the main actors introducing alternative and new food products. We also raise issues relating to communication, organization, and to how to facilitate sustainable food.

Taking as our point of departure a prevention initiative involving Arabic-speaking mothers and local emergency services in a designated ‘vulnerable area’ in Sweden, the chapter aims to show how shifting notions of vulnerability and corresponding ideas of learning and responsibility work to entrench ethnic and gender divides and stereotypes, even as they promote an ethics of attentiveness and awareness. While a conventional understanding of vulnerability, in accordance with established in/equality metrics, conceives of minority-ethnic populations in deprived areas as amongst those most in need of empowerment and capacity building, a more affirming approach views vulnerability as a precondition for mutual learning, not limited to deprived or minoritized people, groups or spaces. As the term vulnerability has dispersed through contemporary prevention discourses, the ‘classical’ us/them or friend/enemy distinction is being increasingly displaced, amounting to a ‘flattening’ and ‘whitewashing’ of differentiations. The disavowal of the structural conditions of those involved in prevention measures is not simply a decoupling of vulnerability from power relations, but is itself a political strategy.

Studies on rental housing financialisation have blossomed over the last decade. Studies are often concerned with issues around affordability and displacement, while less focus has been on how financialisation reconfigures the materials of housing, home, and the residential environment by subordinating maintenance to aggressive and unsustainable renovation strategies. We look at the case of Sweden and zoom in on a working-class Stockholm suburb where part of the housing stock is owned by the German, publicly listed real estate company Vonovia. We discuss how national and international regulations remain insufficient in ensuring that every day and structural maintenance is conducted properly by financialised landlords, leaving tenants stuck with delayed and poor-quality repair and replacement work as well as insufficient communication, severely affecting their quality of life. We propose to discuss the concepts of “housing as infrastructure” to account for these complex consequences. 

So called ‘smart’ built environments operate in a peculiar temporal nexus: they are simultaneously just around the corner, already here, and yesterday’s news. This is usually put down to hype and hyperbole, but it may well be argued that smart built environments do indeed exist across temporal dimensions – only not in the way we imagine them to.

Instead of speaking of a digital turn in housing, we would be better served by employing the plural: digital turns. In fact, once we begin to unravel the history of how the idea of what we today call smart technology has been implemented in multi-household rental dwellings since the early 1980s, a pattern emerges.

The article charts how landlords and others have placed smart devices that monitor, encourage or discipline tenants to behave in certain ways. This is a parallel story to the dream of a leisure-centred technology-enabled house of the future. This parallel story is darker and centres on the transformation of the dwelling through its digitalisation.

Den här rapporten tar upp en central aspekt kring allmännyttans roll på den svenska bostadsmarknaden, nämligen vilka krav och regler som påverkar vilka som får tillträde till dessa bostäder. Allmännyt­tans särställning som en garant för en generell tillgång till bra bostäder för alla avgörs i praktiken av lokala regler hos de kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsbolagen.

Rapporten presenterar en systematisk uppföljning år 2022 av en tidigare rikstäckande undersökning från 2013 kring lokala tillträdeskrav och syftar till att följa upp tillträdeskraven i den svenska allmännyttiga bostadssektorn med fokus på förändringar i kraven mellan åren 2013–2022 samt möjliga orsaker till sådana förändringar. Undersökningen har genomförts inom ramen för det Formas-finansierade projektet “Allmännyttan och blandningspolitikens praktik” (2018–2023), som har syftat till att skapa en fördjupad kunskap om allmännyttans roll på svensk bostadsmarknad, särskilt när det gäller dess funktion att medverka till en allsidig sammansättning av hushåll i kommunerna.

Flera intres­santa skillnader i kraven framträder i jämförel­sen. En första slutsats är att kravet på inkomst har sänkts och förändrat karaktär i många av de kommunala bostadsföretagen. En andra slutsats är att andra typer av krav, som kan sammanfattas som skötsamhetskrav, har blivit vanligare. Utifrån denna iakttagelse går det att resone­ra om huruvida det är samma krav som ställs men i en annorlunda utformning. Mycket ty­der på att det är samma grupper som stängs ute från de kommunala hyresmarknaden 2022 som 2013. Sammantaget ger denna studie vid handen att trösklarna fortsatt är höga in på den allmännyttiga hyresmarknaden, vilket i sin tur begränsar möjligheterna för vissa grupper av hushåll på den svenska bostadsmarknaden i allmänhet. Det finns fortfarande finns en ”omvänd selektivitet” i svensk allmännytta, det vill säga att allmännyttan i många kommuner vänder sig främst till de hushåll som har goda ekonomiska och sociala resurser, snarare än de som har det sämst ställt.

The aim of this paper is to improve the knowledge of collaborative challenges when planning and implementing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Collaborative challenges are here understood as the barriers that may arise in BRT planning and implementation as a consequence of several formally independent actors, occasionally with different interests, participating in the planning. The results are based on an analysis of actor interactions in Swedish BRT projects. These projects are analysed in relation to the state of the art in the research field of collaborative approaches. The results show two main and interrelated collaborative challenges. The first category of challenges concerns difficulties for actors in creating a common understanding of what a BRT system is, the second category concerns details of bus priority measures, e.g. busways, priority at intersections, and how to handle and deal with conflicting interests when removing speed bumps or pedestrian and cycle crossings. In terms of policy is in the early stages of the planning processes. This can be generated by working practices and tools that facilitate agreements on how to handle different interests and trade-offs. BRT guidelines adapted to national transport policy, legal and organisational conditions could function as tools in assisting actor dialogue.

Den här doktorsavhandlingen berättar om marknadspraktiker, flyktingplaceringspolitik och bostadsprekaritet i bostadsojämlikhetens Sverige. Huvudpersonerna i berättelserna är människor som sökte asyl och beviljades uppehållstillstånd i Sverige åren runt den så kallade flyktingkrisen 2015 och i fokus är deras boendevägar – deras vindlande vägar – under de första åren i landet. De flesta av forskningsdeltagarna är inkomstfattiga, vilket gör att de har erfarit betydande svårigheter att hitta någonstans att bo – erfarenheter som de delar med ett ökande antal inkomstfattiga hushåll i en tid präglad av bostadsbrist och tilltagande bostadsojämlikhet. Men genom att kategoriseras som asylsökande eller nyanlända omfattas forskningsdeltagarna därtill av särlagstiftning, som genom selektiva åtgärder som både villkorar, underlättar och kringskär deras bostadsmarknadspositioner men också skiljer ut dem från andra hushåll inom ramen för en förment generell bostadspolitisk modell. I syfte att nyansera och fördjupa förståelsen av bostadsojämlikhetens konsekvenser i en svensk kontext studeras i avhandlingen denna partikulära position.

Utifrån en etnografisk ansats och med utgångspunkt i intervjuer, samtal, deltagande observationer och policyanalys utforskas hur forskningsdeltagarnas boendevägar formas och hur det går att förstå dessa i relation till å ena sidan de praktiker som forskningsdeltagarna utvecklar på svenska bostadsmarknader och å andra sidan den politiska styrningen av boende och bosättning för kategorierna asylsökande och nyanlända.

Avhandlingen visar att boendevägarna kan beskrivas som kaotiska; med återkommande flyttar, in och ut ur olika, ofta trångbodda hushållsformationer och påfallande ofta med osäkra kontraktsförhållanden. Dock framgår att de formas genom beslut som fattas efter noga överväganden, utifrån skiftande behov och med hänsyn till relationer över tid och rum. Vidare framgår att olika marknadspraktiker har betydelse för deras möjligheter att få tillgång till bostad. Framför allt hyr de bostad inom ramen för en marknad för olovlig bostadsuthyrning, där bostäderna förmedlas genom arabiskspråkiga sociala nätverk. I avhandlingen förstås denna marknad i termer av assemblage och visar på hur den samskapas i konstellationer och i interaktioner mellan bland annat bostadssökande, kontraktsinnehavare och informella mäklare; kommunikationsverktyg; hyreskontrakt; lagar och regler samt tilldelningssystem såsom bostadsköer.

Utifrån en kritisk ansats analyseras förarbetena till två flyktingplaceringspolitiska lagändringar: ”Bosättningslagen” samt inskränkningen av ”EBO-lagen”. Avhandlingen visar hur kategorierna asylsökande och nyanländas bosättningsmönster problematiseras och hur en ökad styrning av desamma syftar till att inte bara lösa problem direkt kopplade till målgruppernas boende utan också samhällsproblem som segregation, socioekonomiskt ”utsatta områden” och kommunernas kapacitet att erbjuda välfärdstjänster. Analysen visar vidare att skulden för dessa problem förläggs hos individerna (på gruppnivå, som kategori), samtidigt som fokus förflyttas bort från strukturella problem kopplade till byggande och fördelning av bostäder, liksom från kommunernas bostadsförsörjningsansvar för alla dess invånare.

En av avhandlingens bärande idéer är att “flyktingkrisen”, genom att sätta press på det svenska bostadspolitiska systemet, fick dess oförmåga att tillgodose inkomstfattiga hushålls behov av bostad att skarpt framträda. Denna oförmåga försätter dessa hushåll i bostadsprekära situationer där de, med utgångspunkt i forskningsdeltagarnas berättelser, i stor utsträckning får förlita sig på informella eller olovliga marknadspraktiker.

The sub-Saharan cities are growing and changing due to immigration and modernization.One of the consequences of the current urbanization is that an increasingnumber of families residing in peri-urban areas of small rural towns lack access tobasic municipal and ecosystem services. The purpose of the paper is to demonstratethe impacts of peri-urban expansion on municipal services provided by the governmentsand on ecosystems services through a case study of a small rural town calledMakhado Biaba in Limpopo Province of South Africa. Makhado Biaba has beenexperiencing incessant rapid physical expansion over the years. Such spatial expansioninto the peri-urban zone impacts the provision of municipal services such aswater, electricity, sewerage, and refuse collection. In 2020, an exploratory mixedmethodsstudy of some anthropocentric and ecosystem changes in Makhado BiabaLocal Municipality in northeast South Africa was executed. Land use was mappedfor the time period of 1990–2020, data were gathered through a household questionnairein six villages, and interviews were held with municipal officials. Among others,the study showed that several municipal services are available in the peri-urbanvillages of Makhado Biaba Town despite the distant locations outside the urbancore. However, services are not uniformly distributed due to that new peri-urbandevelopments that are leapfrogging into vacant land without supporting infrastructure.The pace of the municipality in providing the necessary municipal servicessuch as water and energy supply, as well as sanitation and refuse removal, is laggingbehind the development of new and unplanned housing areas. The findings bringabout information about the suburban livelihoods and how the administration of theperi-urban areas can respond to the needs of the inhabitants as well as to future challenges.For instance, to facilitate local development, recurrent and well-structuredcitizen dialogs with local groups to identify delivery failures are strongly recommended.In addition, the impact on ecosystem services by the city development andland use change stresses the need for guided urban development and expansion and also settlement upgrading programs in peri-urban zones to limit the bad effect onecosystem services.

Sweden has seen a rise in homelessness alongside its strained housing market. References are increasingly being made to structural problems with housing provision, rather than individual issues. Housing has been organized through the local social services, which are responsible for supporting homeless people. With a foundation in housing studies, this article analyzes the Swedish social services’ challenges and actions in a time in which affordable housing is in shortage, and housing inequality a reality, through the lens of social services. The focus is on the intersection between the regular housing market and housing provision (primary welfare system), the social services needs‐tested support (secondary welfare system), and the non‐profit and for‐profit organizations (tertiary welfare system), with emphasis on the first two. The article is based on interviews with people working for the City of Malmö and illustrates how the housing shortage problem is moved around within the welfare system whilst also showing that social services’ support for homeless individuals appears insufficient. Social services act as a “first line” gatekeeper for those who have been excluded from the regular housing market. Moreover, recently implemented restrictions aim to make sure that the social services do not act as a “housing agency,” resulting in further exclusion from the housing market. The article highlights how the policies of the two welfare systems interact with and counteract each other and finally illustrates how homeless individuals fall between them. It highlights the need to link housing and homelessness in both research and practice to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of housing markets and how homelessness is sustained.

Urban labs are arenas for fostering urban sustainable transitions, where different actors experiment and learn together how to create inclusive and sustainable cities. A key aspect of these processes is social learning, which is the collaborative learning process through which new understandings and practices emerge from the activities of urban labs. Social learning also includes the process through which these understandings and practices are further anchored and can transform the organizations participating in urban labs. Social learning is seen as key to tackling polarization and creating transformational capacity at different levels. This article explores how social learning can strengthen urban labs’ democratic ambitions. Building on the insights emerging from a collaborative learning process with civil servants within an urban lab, it highlights the need for ensuring plurality and challenging privilege in social learning. It also emphasizes the importance of nurturing a listening capacity within urban labs and municipal organizations.

I denna rapport närstuderas den svenska kommunala allmännyttiga bostadssektorn genom att fokusera på fyra samtida motsägelser som allmännyttan står inför. Rapporten föreslår också konturer för en utveckling av allmännyttan och svensk social bostadsförsörjning.

I rapporten lägger författaren fram följande fyra motsägeler för allmännyttan: 1) hög nyproduktion men minskat bestånd, 2) en “dubbel selektivitet” som illustreras genom å ena sidan strikta tillträdeskrav och å andra sidan ökad residualisering, 3) en lokal variation som står i kontrast mot en idé om en sammanhållen nationell bostadsförsörjning och 4) motstridiga tendenser kring att samtidigt motverka och bidra till socioekonomisk segregation.

För att komma tillrätta med de utmaningar som utkristalliseras från dessa utmaningar föreslår författaren en förstärkning av såväl generella som selektiva inslag i svensk bostadsförsörjning, bland annat ett reformerat bostadsbidrag, ett återuppfunnet investeringsstöd och förändringar i fördelningssystemet av hyresrätter.

Segregationen, dess orsaker och dess effetker, är ett vanligt förekommande tema i dagens politiska debatt. Fokus ligger i princip uteslutande på de människor som befinner sig på segregationens förlorarsida. Martin Grander, biträdande lektor i urbana studier och Mikael Stigendal, professor i sociologi – båda vid Malmö universitet – vänder istället blicken mot grupper med högre inkomst.

The neighbourhood of Sofielund in Malm. is marked by diversity in terms of its population and its varying architecture and types of housing. It is also marked by social divisions, including poverty, housing exploitations and criminality. Over time, a large number of interventions have been implemented to better the situation. The interventions are, among other things, inspired by the Business Improvement District (BID) model and include efforts to enhance social cohesion through a strategy of “opening up Sofielund” through creating “meeting-places.” The article provides an analysis of the lived experiences of residents in Sofielund, and shows how policy efforts on “social cohesion” and the creation of meeting-places are perceived by residents. The presentation argues that while meeting-places aim to even out tensions and strengthen social cohesion, they may also reproduce existent power relations and increase tensions. Consequently, the article shows that strategies of opening up places can have the unintended consequences of closing down for buildings, people, and social relations. The article focuses on how inequality and exclusion unfold in inclusive spaces, and entail different forms of polarisation based on “us” and “them”.

Drawing on (earlier) feminist urban critique, this chapter discuss what smart city strategies can tell us about the contemporary urban conditions and social relations. Through analyzing underlying (gendered) assumptions and understandings of everyday life the chapter aims to expose which power relations that are being produced, or reproduced, when tech-companies enter planning and manifest digital technology in the city. By bringing in feminist theory, the aim is to shed light on questions around urban knowledge production, representation and actual outcomes; who is invited to the discourse and who is talking to whom? Whose reality is being manifested through the smart city? 

In the housing literature, Sweden is often portrayed as a so-called “cost-rental” society associated with tenure neutrality, where rental housing should be an attractive alternative – and not just a step in the way – to homeownership. A large and well-developed rental sector has traditionally made it possible for young adults to leave their family home at a relatively young age. However, this logic has been clearly disrupted as rental housing has become harder to access and homeownership has been favoured by incremental ideological political shifts and fiscal policy encouraging homeownership. As more households – also young ones – are steered into homeownership, Sweden has become one of the most mortgage-indebted nations in the OECD. 

This working paper on homeownership and mortgagization takes on the question of mortgaged indebtedness in discourse and practice. The working paper is the joint product of two different studies written as part of the research internship in the project “Financialisation of everyday life. Intersectional perspectives on housing and labor precarity” at Malmö university, led by Chiara Valli. 

In the first section, Neil Dunne presents a discourse analysis on how homeownership has been discussed in the largest newspapers in Sweden over the last decades, while Greta Cattabriga and Nathan O’Néill in the second section discuss perceptions and lived experiences of mortgaged homeownership on the basis of interviews with young adults. 

Put together, the two studies contribute with significant additions to the discussion about whether Sweden is moving towards a homeownership society and what the potential consequences are for young adults. 

Rehabiliteringskoordinator (reko) har tillkommit som en ny, lagstadgad funktion i linje med att göra arbetsåtergång för sjukskrivna ett prioriterat område inom vården. Reko har som uppgift att stödja patienten, samordna den interna organiseringen i sjukskrivningsprocessen samt samverka med externa aktörer; såsom arbetsgivare och Försäkringskassans handläggare. Den förgivettagna metaforen är att rehabkoordinatorn agerar som ”spindeln-i-nätet” för att åstadkomma detta.

Avhandlingen syftar till att studera rehabkoordinatorn i sjukskrivningsprocessen inom ramen för organisations- och professionsstudier. Utifrån syftet har två huvudsakliga frågeställningar formulerats; hur rehabkoordinatorns roll och funktion synliggörs i en vårdprofessionskontext, samt hur rehabkoordinatorn framstår som organisatorisk subjektivitet i förhållande till funktionens uppdrag. Avhandlingens teoretiska referensramar utgår från Michel Foucaults politiska filosofi med governmentality i förgrunden.

Avhandlingens 19 semi-strukturerade intervjuer med rehabkoordinatorer har tillsammans med observationer samt offentliga dokument där rehabkoordinatorns arbetsuppgifter beskrivs, analyserats med tematisk nätverksanalys. I analysen har ett abduktivt förhållningssätt med utgångspunkt i en dispositiv analytisk strategi använts. 

Analysen visar att funktionen är otydlig i den dagliga verksamheten. Rehabkoordinatorn upplever oklarheter i hur uppdraget ska utformas, vilket även uttrycks i förhållande till hur lokal verksamhetsledning och kollegor uppfattar uppdraget. Otydligheten till trots uttalas en vilja att hjälpa och stödja patienten. Därmed skapar otydligheten och den goda viljans produktiva makt i förhållande till hur rehabkoordinatorn väljer att agera i rollen, två röda trådar som går hand i hand och interagerar med varandra.

I styrande dokument framställs att vårdprofessionslogiken med dess intuitiva individcentrering och biopolitisk logik som övergripande legal styrning, enkelt kan sammanföras i en och samma roll vilket ger sken av ett rehabkoordineringens janusansikte som är oproblematiskt. Janusansiktets dubbelnatur kräver emellertid ett tydliggörande. Tydliggörande kommer till stånd genom att rehabkoordinatorn använder olika strategier, t ex genom klädsel och att använda rumslighet på ett sätt som koordinatorn finner lämpligt med utgångspunkt i den personliga tolkningen av hur rollen ska iscensättas. Att utarbeta strategier avseende hur rollen ska agera i förhållande till övriga vårdprofessioner, företrädesvis läkaren, är andra sätt att skapa tydlighet. 

Med utgångspunkt i offentliga dokument emotses ett görande från rehabkoordinatorns sida som överför en förväntad normering till patienten och övriga inom vårdorganisationen på ett sätt som gör att patienten förstår sitt eget bästa och agerar därefter. Rehabkoordinatorn formar i rollen som subjekt hur funktionen kommer att ta sitt uttryck genom följsamhet eller motstånd mot den förväntade normering som råder i styrande dokument. I subjektiveringsprocessen väljer rehabkoordinator som individ med vilket vetande i förgrunden som agerandet utövas och genom detta, hur subjektivitet formas. Andra metaforer än den förgivettagna spindeln-i-nätet ger här en bild av hur rollen formas; till exempel att agera detektiv, ventil, lots, brygga.

Avhandlingen bidrar till förståelse hur statlig övergripande styrning konstituerar självstyrning och formering av organisatoriska subjektiviteter. I det här fallet det formande som rehabkoordinatorn uttrycker genom den subjektivitet som iscensätts för att klargöra otydligheten som kan ses ur två perspektiv, som möjliggörande och som hindrande. För att otydligheten inte ska leda till rolloklarhet behöver en dubbelriktad kommunikation komma till stånd inom vårdorganisationen – med chefer och med kollegor – med utgångspunkt i att tala klarspråk om det kontroversiella i rehabkoordinatoruppdraget där agerandet förväntas styras av det försäkringsmedicinska paradigmet.

In Denmark, appropriate architecture for aging is an engaging topic, often explored through the use of architectural competitions. Since 2013, national guidelines for homelike architecture for eldercare have been in place, open for use in contemporaneous competitions. This study is focused on architectural competitions prior to 2013 and the development of modern architecture for aging. Based on reports on competitions in professional publications for architects, this study covers the period of 1899–2012. Inspired by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s view of architecture as a spatial practice that ‘does not invoke what no longer is there but what has become through what is no longer present’, the present study revisits competitions on architecture for aging in search of inspirational input and links to the national socio-political discussion. This study uses case study methodology with a mixed method approach. A total of 76 competitions are identified, mainly organized by Danish municipalities, and are linked to four paradigms in social legislations. It is concluded that early competitions defined spatial prototypes, both for the homelike setting and the institutional environment, which have been continuously revisited. Since 2008, homelikeness has become the main design criterion for architecture for the frail aging population with an increasing dependency on caregiving.

Bo Bengtsson och Martin Grander kombinerar i denna bok en analys av svensk bostadspolitik i dag och över tid med diskussioner kring olika teoretiska perspektiv av relevans för förståelsen av detta område. Bokens utgångspunkt är att bostadsfrågan inte bara handlar om offentlig policy och politik utan också formas av intressekamp mellan olika aktörer.

Den svenska ”bostadspolitiska regimen” vilar på fem institutionella pelare vilkas framväxt och utveckling ingående behandlas i boken. Till sina huvuddrag har dessa varit anmärkningsvärt oförändrade sedan de formades efter andra världskrigets slut, vilket kan förklaras med bostadspolitikens starka stigberoende. Samtidigt har pelarna successivt urholkats framför allt sedan 1990-talet. 

I boken analyseras det partipolitiska spelet om bostadspolitiken,men också de stora intresseorganisationernas roll där det framträder ett tydligt växelspel mellan särskilt hyrespolitikens innehåll och organisationernas inflytande.

Författarna visar att bostadspolitikens utfall har blivit allt mindre generellt inriktat under de senaste decennierna, vilket exemplifieras med allmännyttans utveckling. De diskuterar även i vilken utsträckning bostaden alltjämt kan ses som en social rättighet i Sverige. Boken avrundas med en diskussion om jämlikhet i boendet som en normativ måttstock för bostadsförsörjningen.

A promise of urban gardening (UG) is allowing individuals to shape and engage with the built environment, bringing people together in public space. Municipalities may promote UG in public space for a wide variety of reasons such as enabling integration, reducing crime, or promoting area attractivity. While there is a general sense that UG can contribute to inclusive public space in these efforts, previous research provides ambiguous findings. UG in public space requires balancing inclusive and exclusive practices to create common values, as a select group of engaged members inherently shape space in their interest. UG initiatives vary considerably with respect to their aims, organisational forms, and spatial contexts - affecting inclusion in public space in different manners. The article seeks to unpack how urban settings, organisational forms, and municipal enabling affect UG practices towards inclusion in public space. To do so, the article draws on the theory of urban commons and intertwines it with research on inclusion in public space. This provides an understanding of multi-faceted UG governance and its exclusionary aspects. A framework is not only developed and applied to critically, but also constructively, to review how municipalities enable UG. A comparative analysis of UG initiatives in three Northern European municipalities explores both municipal enabling and the co-production of inclusive public space. The research abductively refines the framework for understanding the co-production of inclusive public space in UG. We argue that the findings and resulting framework have implications for research and for municipal enabling of UG towards inclusive public space.

This paper analyzes strategies that can be successfully pursued to implement measures to reduce car traffic in what has traditionally been a very car-centric planning praxis. Analytically, the paper use path dependency theory to provide an understanding of why certain types of measure are not implemented in cities on as widespread a basis as policy objectives may require, and to understand how transport planning path dependence in urban authorities might be changed. Empirically, the analysis builds on a comparative case study of transport and land use planning in Swedish cities. The most effective strategies do not appear to be radical policies leading to fast implementation of goals about sustainable transport, for example by implementing very car restrictive measures, even in the face of resistance from the public and from within the city administration. The results support an approach that from a strategy making perspective can be understood as an institutionalizing process by which internal organizational and external public support for car restrictive and potentially controversial measures are built. Implementation may be achieved by building new institutions within city administrations, where routines and norms gradually change so that car restraint measures gradually become part of the normal way of doing transport planning. This then starts to lock-in certain patterns of travel and make further car restraint measures more feasible and institutionalized as part of a standard menu of measures that cities use, and not something out of the order.

This article offers an overview of neighbourhood-based BIDs (NBIDs) in Sweden. Swedish NBIDs tend to appear in stigmatized residential areas engaging with pressing sets of urban issues that have been longstanding concern of social policy. Their overarching goal is raising property values in neighborhoods on the edge between urban decline and (re)development potential. Emerging in a neoliberalizing institutional context, NBIDs present themselves as correctives to public-policy failures by promoting property-oriented solutions. The adaptation of the BID model in the Swedish ‘post-welfare’ landscape, however, exhibits, and arguably exacerbates, the shortcomings found in BID elsewhere. Their opaque institutional structure and lack of accountability contribute to curbing democratic influence over local development, thus reinforcing spatial inequalities. We argue that the growing political advocacy for the institutionalization of the BID model in Sweden presents a new milestone in the neoliberalization of urban governance, as private actors are promoted to legitimate co-creators of urban policy.

Precarious housing research has become increasingly relevant to previous welfare housing contexts, such as Sweden. In the 1990s, Swedish housing became gradually market-oriented, which induced a shortage of affordable rental housing and increased housing costs in all major cities. This article presents the results from interviews with individuals about their experiences of the unequal housing market in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The article furthers knowledge of the lived experience of housing precariousness in the Global North. The narratives from the housing precariat are analysed through the lens of housing inequalities, and the analysis theoretically adds to ‘research on critical geography of precarity. The article aims to illustrate the consequences of the shift from a general welfare approach of housing to an individualized and neoliberal housing market. In particular, this article adds insights on the gendered and racialized aspects that affect housing precariousness. 

Throughout Europe, reports of problematic housing situations for young adults have increasingly emerged during the last decades. This paper explores housing experiences among young adults living in a disadvantaged area of Malmö, Sweden, taking the concept of housing inequality as its point of departure. The results suggest how young adults become stuck in between a number of parallel housing markets, leaving them no choice other than the illegal rental market – characterized by steep rents, insecure conditions and precarious quality. The paper advances a multidimensional understanding of housing inequality, as the limited access and poor quality of housing that young adults experience reproduces inequality in a broader sense: It influences potential wealth accumulation, the possibility to lead independent lives, the access to work and education, and thereby, the young adults’ health and well-being.

This report summarises the Spring 2021 sessions of the PHED Commission on the Future of Healthcare Post Covid-19, which invited testimony from healthcare practitioners, civil servants, thinktanks, researchers, civil society, and other interested parties based on their experiences learnt during the pandemic. The evidence presented came from multiple geographies and levels, making it relevant both to Sweden and globally. It identifes several key recommendations for protecting and improving public health. These recommendations supplement and greatly expand upon those identifed in the report (‘Societal inequity makes us vulnerable to pandemics’) based on testimony from Fall/Autumn 2020, which can be accessed via: https://phed.uni.mau.se/. The wealth of experience summarized here goes well beyond the pandemic period, providing ideas and practical guidance for protecting and strengthening human health to be more resilient in the face of future crises.

Den här rapporten ger en sammanfattning av de seminarier som organiserades under våren 2021 av PHEDKommissionen för framtiden för hälso- och sjukvården efter covid-19, som bjöd in till vittnesmål från hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal, tjänstemän, tankesmedjor, forskare, civilsamhället och andra intresserade parter baserat på de erfarenheter de fått och lärt sig av under pandemin. De vittnesmål som framfördes kom från många olika geografska platser och många olika nivåer, vilket gjorde dem relevanta både för Sverige och globalt. De fastställer fera centrala rekommendationer för att skydda och förbättra folkhälsan. Dessa rekommendationer både kompletterar och i hög grad utökar de rekommendationer som togs fram i den första rapporten, som var mer fokuserad på Sverige (”Ojämlikhet i samhället gör oss sårbara för pandemier”) och baserad på vittnesmål från hösten 2020, och som kan nås via: https://phed.uni.mau.se/. Den stora mängd erfarenheter som sammanfattas här går långt utöver pandemiperioden och tillhandahåller idéer och praktisk vägledning för att skydda och stärka människors hälsa så att den blir mer motståndskraftig inför framtida kriser. 

Den här avhandlingen analyserar hyresmarknaden i Rosengård och Malmö. Den visar hur lägenhetsrenoveringar i Herrgården leder till högre hyror. Studien finner också att försäljning av kommunens bostäder och stadsutveckling i Törnrosen och Örtagården motiveras av att kommunen anser att ”marknaden” behöver vitaliseras där. Avhandlingen visar hur hyresgäster upplever oro och brist på information i samband med renovering, privatisering och stadsförnyelse. Sammantaget menar avhandlingen att marknadslogiker har försvagat Sveriges bostadssystem, vilket har lett till en ökad ojämlikhet.

Tillgänglighet och användbarhet i arkitektur och byggd miljö är avgörande för jämlik stadsplanering. Jonas E. Andersson, arkitekt och docent i arkitektonisk gestaltning tittar på olika sätt som planerar kan skapa en mer användarvänlig miljö och visar på några historiska misslyckande som lett till mer otillgängliga byggnader och städer. Kan legato, en italiensk musikterm för en slät övergång, hjälpa framtidens planerare att tänka holistiskt i sitt planerande för tillgängliga och användbara byggda miljöer?

In hot dry regions, the building envelope receives abundant solar radiation, which contributes to heat stress and indoor thermal discomfort. To mitigate overheating inside spaces, cooling is the main basic requirement during most of the year. However, due to the harsh climatic conditions, buildings fail to provide passively the required comfort conditions. Consequently, they are fully dependent on-air conditioning systems, which are huge energy consumers. As roofs are exposed to the sun throughout the daytime, they are estimated to be the main source of heat stress. In return, they can contribute significantly to achieve optimum comfort and energy savings when efficient design strategies are used in an early design stage. To examine the potential for cooling load reduction and thermal comfort enhancement by using cooling roof techniques in residential buildings, a study was performed in the city of Biskra (southern Algeria). Accordingly, an in-field measurement campaign was carried out on test-cells during five days in summer. Three different cooling roof techniques were addressed: (a) cool reflective white paint (CR), (b) white ceramic tiles (CT) and (c) a cool-ventilated roof (C-VR). These roofing alternatives were investigated by monitoring both roof surface temperatures and indoor temperatures. Comparative analysis showed that a cool-ventilated roof is the most efficient solution, reducing the average indoor temperature by 4.95 °C. A dynamic simulation study was also performed based on TRNSYS software to determine the best roofing system alternatives in terms of thermal comfort and energy consumption, considering the hottest month of the year. Simulation tests were run on a base-case model representing the common individual residential buildings in Biskra. Results showed that a double-skin roof combined with cool-reflective paint is the most efficient roofing solution. By comparison to a conventional flat roof, meaningful improvements have been achieved, including reducing thermal discomfort hours by 45.29% and lowering cooling loads from 1121.91 kWh to 741.09 kWh.

För att få fler människor att välja kollektivtrafiken behöver ny bebyggelse lokaliseras till platser med god kollektivtrafik, till exempel, till stationsnära lägen och genom att förtäta och blanda bostäder, service och grönområden för att ge invånarna närhet till olika aktiviteter. En kollektivtrafikorienterad bebyggelseplanering (KOB) – innebär att man skapar en tätare och mer stadsmässig bebyggelse kring kollektivtrafikens noder och stråk. I mindre tätorter och på landsbygden är förutsättningarna för det annorlunda än i större städer, och KOB måste därför anpassas till dessa förutsättningar. Planeringen av KOBpåverkas därtill av flera offentliga och privata organisationer, och deras samverkan är av central betydelse för att KOB ska kunna förverkligas i mindre tätorter och på landsbygden. I denna rapport beskrivs hur man kan främja KOB i mindre tätorter och på landsbygden i Sverige. Följande fem övergripande rekommendationer syftar till att stimulera KOB på platser med lägre täthet men möjligheter till god kollektivtrafikförsörjning:

a) Utveckla en regional KOB-strategi och en regionalt anpassad KOB-typologi

b) Ta fram strategier för kollektivtrafikorienterad fastighetsutveckling i samarbetemellan myndigheter och marknadsaktörer

c) Utveckla kommunala förtätningsstrategier för kollektivtrafikorienteradbebyggelsed) Utveckla kommunala kollektivtrafikstrategier

e) Utveckla en väl fungerande samverkan kring KOB