The following study is the first Swedish study on Halal tourism in Sweden. The purpose of this exploratory research is to get insight into the perception of Halal tourism in Sweden among representatives of tourism stakeholders. The overall methodology approach in this research is qualitative, consisting of 25 qualitative questionnaires, 21 short letters, four follow-up interviews, and a web observation, and content analysis was employed. The results indicate that there is a low knowledge of Halal tourism in Sweden including Swedish tourism industry. The concept is very challenging, and profits are low. It might result in problem scenarios such as detrimental effects on non-Halal tourism, cultural difficulties and increased risk of xenophobia, anti-Islamism, and tension in the society. There is low interest for Sweden among Muslim tourists as the interest and priority for Halal tourism is rather low from Swedish tourism industry. Despite Halal tourism’s importance internationally, these representatives are rather cautious and doubtful about promotion of Sweden towards this niche. Still, a majority seems to be positive to a lighter version of Muslim-friendly tourism with secular/moderate Muslims as a target group.

Cross-industry knowledge sharing is a dynamic phenomenon that can thrive at the intersection of academia and industry. Through a qualitative case study of research-centric and network-focused university-industry collaboration (UIC), this study delves into the intricate interplay of structural social capital within UIC and its role in enabling cross-industry knowledge sharing. Data collection was done through interviews and observations over a period of 24 months. Our findings underscore the multifaceted nature of cross-industry knowledge sharing, revealing that it is influenced by the specific focus of UIC structures. In UIC with a research-centric orientation, formal and structured coordination activities prevail. Here, academia leads the way, cultivating shared norms based on academic logic. Cognitive social capital, built through knowledge abstraction, is coopted to facilitate cross-industry knowledge sharing. These collaborations are driven by the imperative for publishable results and align with academia's research agenda. Conversely, UICs emphasizing networking and relationships foster informal structural social capital. Academic involvement is less pronounced, and knowledge sharing occurs through unstructured, informal interactions. Cross-industry knowledge sharing in these settings is more context-specific, potentially requiring less effort for application but following a less structured knowledge transfer process. Research-oriented UIC face challenges regarding long-term relationships due to the finite nature of public funding, while networking-focused UIC grapple with academic disengagement tied to research funding. Nonetheless, they find innovative ways to endure, such as realizing the importance to engage industrial representatives. This study advances our understanding of cross-industry knowledge sharing by elucidating how the structural social capital within UICs shapes the dynamics of knowledge transfer. It highlights the importance of considering the orientation and focus of UICs when harnessing their potential for cross-industry knowledge sharing, offering valuable insights for policymakers and strategists in the public-private interface.

The article provides insights into how a Private Sector Partnership (PSP) between government and local firms in Lagos, Nigeria, became enmeshed in local politics. Drawing largely on primary data, it reports that aided by a discourse which positioned the PSP as the embodiment of local interests, the partnership was deployed by politicians to generate political capital. Furthermore, Mega Infrastructure Projects (MIP s) paved the way for the government to intervene in the partnership. The hiring of a foreign firm by the government was seen by local firms as an attempt to marginalise them and by politicians as a challenge to entrenched local powers. Local firms fought back by creating strategic alliances and networks with politicians. Hence, the PSP was turned into a site of resistance politics. Ultimately, the saga led to the unravelling of the partnership. At the broadest level, the article highlights how globally circulating neoliberal urban visions are grounded within specific cities.

Using data for the period from 1855 to 1947 and the two sub-periods, 1855-1902 and 1903-47, the article examines whether the organic growth rates of 38 Swedish life insurance firms are independent of size, as predicted by Gibrat's (1931) Law of Proportionate Effects. Using panel unit root tests and panel Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) regression, the article finds a significant difference between the growth rates of small and large Swedish life insurance firms (with smaller firms tending to grow faster than larger firms), a result that clearly contradicts Gibrat's Law as a long-run tendency in the Swedish life insurance sector. significant influences were also found on firm growth from profitability, organisational form, reinsurance, the real rate of interest and the Swedish regulatory environment.

This paper constructs a theoretical framework that explains how exposure to entrepreneurial activities impacts start-ups’ survival. First, this study examines the effects of entrepreneurial capital (EC)–inherited entrepreneurial practices from parents as a result of the exposure to entrepreneurial activities, on the survival of start-ups. Second, it examines the effects of EC across firm types (family and non-family firm) and regions (smaller and larger region). Using a sample of start-ups in 2002 in Sweden, we found first that EC influences the survival of start-ups, especially start-ups in smaller regions. Further, we found that EC conditions the survival of family start-ups. This paper adds to the literature by opening the discussions on the survival of start-ups and EC. We provide policy implications thereafter.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of immigration on the labour market outcomes of low-educated natives (i.e. residents without a university diploma). Using the labour market competition theory, which argues that the labour market effects of natives depend on the skill set of immigrants, the paper addresses whether immigrants are complementary to or substitutes for native workers.

Design/methodology/approach: Longitudinal matched employer–employee data on Sweden are used to estimate how low-educated natives, in regions experiencing the greatest influx of refugees from the Balkan wars, responded to this supply shock with regard to real wages, employment and job mobility between 1990 and 2003.

Findings: First, the analysis shows that low-educated native workers respond to the arrival of immigrants with an increase in real wages. Second, although employment prospects in general worsened for low-skilled workers in most regions, this is not attributable to the regions experiencing the largest supply shock. Third, there are indications that low-skilled natives in immigration-rich regions are more likely to change workplace, particularly in combination with moving upwards in the wage distribution.

Originality/value: Rather than seeing an emergence of the commonly perceived displacement mechanism when an economy is subject to a supply shock, the regional findings suggest that high inflows of immigrants tend to induce a mechanism that pulls native workers upwards in the wage distribution. This is important, as the proportion of immigrants is seldom evenly distributed within a nation.

Our book chapter examines the effects of family co-occurrence (i.e. the presence of familial relationships inside a firm, including between co-workers and between employees and the owner) on firm productivity. Analysing a set of Swedish firms over the 1995–2012 period, we find a positive and significant relationship between family co-occurrence and firm productivity. This positive relationship is particularly evident in smaller regions characterized by a more specialized industry mix. When looking at the specific case of family co-occurrence involving familial relationships with firm owners, we find that the positive productivity effect of familial relationships with firm owners varies depending on the type of family tie. While familial co-occurrence involving partners or spouses is positive and abates the negative effects of employees having very similar or very diverse skills (e.g. based on education), family co-occurrence involving siblings is pretty much non-existent. In sum, our findings suggest that family co-occurrence in workplaces does influence productivity and that the positive or negative impact of familial relationships on productivity is contingent on the type of family tie, the family members’ skills, and the regional context.

This study empirically assesses the role of social proximity, defined as the concentration of family members (FM) in firms, on firm performance. Based on longitudinal micro-data for the period 1995–2010 connecting information on workers and their workplaces in the Swedish labour market, the effects of FM (parents, children, siblings and grandparents) on per capita productivity in 15,359 firms were analysed. The results indicate that FM positively affect firm performance. In particular, the results suggest that in specialized regions (mainly small regions) FM have a positive influence on performance and can thus compensate for relative shortage of regional agglomeration economies.

A previous publication advocated for integrating decolonial perspectives as a transversal principle to the practice and progress of economic geography (Morales, 2024). In this paper, we propose tools to achieve this goal, highlighting the opportunities that the expansion and diversification of the subdiscipline presents for doing so, anecdotally, we observe increased representation of women and individuals from diverse backgrounds at major conferences, in graduate schools, and as early career researchers (we are yet to witness such diversification at more advanced career stages). This presents a great opportunity to expand our theorisations, engage with different expertise and backgrounds, and learn from different geographies. However, diversifying the pool of economic geographers is not enough, we need to challenge, revise, and transform the structures, practices, and ideologies that have perpetuated colonial legacies in the areas of theory, curriculum and pedagogy, methodology, and the dissemination of research, in both education and practice. This may be an uncomfortable and lengthy, but necessary task. Here we propose some ideas on how to start.

Med utgångspunkt i perspektivet att ekonomisk utveckling i grund och botten är betingat på de kompetenser som används i produktionen av varor och tjänster, har denna rapport analyserat skogsnäringarnas utveckling i Västernorrland 2002-2015 med avseende på sysselsättning, antal arbetsgivare och arbetsinkomster. Särskilt fokus ligger på hur Västernorrlands skogsindustri är kopplad till övriga delar av näringslivet i form av det humankapital som de delar med varandra. Detta görs empiriskt genom analyser av regionens skill-relatedness, det vill säga flöden av arbetskraft mellan sektorer i regionen, för att grafiskt visa i vilken grad olika sektorer är relaterade till varandra. Utifrån argumentet att humankapital är en central resurs för regional utveckling låter vi data visa hur regionens skogsnäringar är kopplade till övriga näringslivet, och därigenom belysa branschöverskridande relationer bortom gängse föreställningar om kopplingar drivna av det officiella industriklassificeringssystemet. 

Även om inkomstutvecklingen och andelen kvinnor i Västernorrland följer riksgenomsnittet har både antalet företag och sysselsatta utvecklats betydligt sämre i Västernorrland. Generella utbildningsnivån har ökat både i riket och i regionen, men Västernorrland har generellt en lägre utbildningsnivå. Skogsnäringarna i Västernorrland bryter delvis mot detta generella regionala mönster. Både antalet sysselsatta och antalet arbetsställen inom skogsnäringarna har kraftigt minskat i antal och tvärtemot regionens generella utveckling har också andelen högutbildade (med minst treårig universitetsexamen) minskat liksom andelen kvinnor. Trots dessa kraftiga rationaliseringar på personalsidan är utvecklingen för skogsnäringarna inom Västernorrland betydligt mindre negativ än för riket i övrigt. Det gäller framförallt inkomstnivåerna bland de anställda. Inkomstnivåerna i Sveriges skogsnäring har sjunkit i relativa termer men ökat med drygt 20% i Västernorrland och ligger 2015 på en något högre nivå än övriga näringar i regionen. Det kan i sin tur tyda på en positiv omvandling mot mer kvalificerade arbetstillfällen, även om det också inneburit kraftiga rationaliseringar. 

För att belysa hur skogsnäringarna är inbäddade i regionens struktur av kompetenser har vi kartlagt graden av specialisering (hur representerad en industri är i regionen relativ i riket), graden av relatedness(hur väl en industri är kopplad till andra industrier genom personalflöden), och graden av inbäddning (förekomsten av andra industrier i regionen som delar liknande kompetensresurser). När det gäller den relativa närvaron av skogsnäringar i regionen utifrån antalet sysselsatta finner vi att ingen av skogsnäringarna har en betydande relativ specialisering i Västernorrland. Det är endast tillverkning av wellpapp och pappers- och pappförpackningar som har en specialiseringsgrad över 1 (dvs högre än riksgenomsnittet). Det innebär med andra ord att trots ett relativt högt bidrag till regionalt förädlingsvärde och skatter är näringarna underrepresenterade på regionens arbetsmarknad. Det återspeglas bland annat i den relativt kraftiga minskningen av sysselsatta och arbetsställen vi identifierat (och som pågått långt innan den period denna rapport analyserar) men också den relativt kraftiga ökningen av inkomster (högre än riksgenomsnittet för skogsnäringarna och i paritet med regionen i övrigt). Skogsnäringarna har med andra ord genomfört produktivitetshöjande rationaliseringar vilket i sig kan gynna regionen.

Utifrån vårt analytiska ramverk är det dock aningen mer problematiskt att de relativt få arbetsgivarna inom skogsnäringarna också är relativt isolerade i regionen utifrån ett kompetensresursperspektiv. Det är endast tillverkning av andra byggnads- och inredningssnickerier, skogsförvaltning, drivning och pappers- och papptillverkning som har en genomsnittlig koppling till andra näringar i regionen över gränsvärdet för en kompetensrelaterad verksamhet. Detta återspeglas också i hur inbäddad skogsnäringen är utifrån den relativa koncentrationen av kompetensrelaterade verksamheter. Det är endast ovan nämnda fyra näringar som är tydligt inbäddade i regionens näringslivsstruktur, och endast två (pappers- och papptillverkning och tillverkning av byggnads- och inredningssnickerier) som har ett inbäddningsindex över regionens medelvärde. Det innebär att skogsnäringarna generellt är relativt perifera när vi pratar om vilka kompetensresurser skogsnäringen delar med övriga regionen. Dock är teknisk konsultverksamhet direkt eller indirekt relaterat till flertalet skogsnäringar, vilket kan peka på ökade tekniknivåer och ökat behov av tekniska specialistkunskaper. Även om företag kan kompensera för en svag regional inbäddning genom utomregionala nätverk, innebär framförallt en svag inbäddning att det kan vara svårare för arbetskraften att finna nya produktiva uttryck för sina kompetenser i regionen vid framtida rationaliseringar. Det i sin tur kan driva på utflyttning till andra regioner.

Utifrån en smart specialiseringsagenda drar vi slutsatsen att policyinsatser bör verka för att öka graden av inbäddning för regionens nyckelindustrier då det kan underlätta en framgångsrik omvandling som bygger på regionens redan existerande kompetensresurser. 

Research on Schumpeterian entrepreneurship identifies new high-growth startup companies as key factors in technological innovation and economic growth. While economists have tended to focus on high-growth, high-tech startup firms as the unit of analysis, economic geographers and urbanists have examined the geographic dimensions of entrepreneurship, particularly the rise of entrepreneurial clusters and eco systems. We focus here on a particular type of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship associated with high-tech startup companies, or what we refer to as “tech-startup entrepreneurship.” We contend that the organization of such Schumpeterian entrepreneurship occurs at two spatial scales. At the macro-geographic level, it is highly clustered and concentrated in a relatively small number of global cities or metro areas. At the micro-geographic level, it is highly concentrated in distinct districts or micro-clusters within these leading cities and metro areas. To examine the geographic dimensions of tech-startup entrepreneurship across these spatial scales, we use previously unused data on venture capital-financed startups at the metropolitan and district levels. Our findings support the hypothesis that tech-startup entrepreneurship is organized across two distinct but related spatial scales, which act on entrepreneurial activity through different mechanisms. These findings suggest that local diversity and local specialization can simultaneously potentiate innovation, and that a multi-scalar approach to the geography of entrepreneurship is prudent.

The purpose of this paper is description and understanding of the individual career development (as entrepreneur or employee) as a dynamical process. I have studied the interaction and cooperation between different formal (politics) and informal (culture) institutions and their impacts on the individual's carrier development process (as entrepreneur as well as employee) during three different stages, i.e. socialization processes, opportunity identification processes, and finally career formation and development processes. Research methodology is qualitative i.e. case study, and consists of several cases. Study is based on twenty interviews at the two municipalities (10 from each one – four unemployed, three employed and three businessmen/entrepreneurs) and observation of municipalities at the west Sweden so called "Västra götalands Regionen". Individual's career development from two municipalities are compared with each other. Different categories (employed, unemployed and businessmen)are compared and differences in influences of institutions on different categories in two municipalities are identified and described. Study shows that both formal and informal institutions affect individual's career development process during three stages, i.e. socialization processes, career identification/creation processes, and finally career formation's development process. In other words, survey shows that, Politics and culture affects individual's career development and thereby regional development. Theoretical contributions are: results of this study can contribute to different understanding of entrepreneurship, employment and unemployment. It widens theoretical views of the subject, by understanding the role institutions can play at the individual's career development processes. 230 Practical contributions are: results can be used in individual career development by job centers and for planning and avoiding or facing future unemployment. It can also be used in companies and other workplaces planning and construction or formation of employee´s career development.

In this short commentary, I propose to read the book as a student of “state capitalism” and “international financial subordination”. The former refers to a set of scholarly debates concerning the changing role of the state in contemporary capitalism. It asks: what are the (geo)political economic determinants and implications of the current aggregate expansion of the state’s role as promoter, supervisor, and owner of capital across the world economy? The latter designates a research agenda dedicated to scrutinizing the sources, manifestations, and implications of developing countries’ per- sistent subordinate positionality in the geographical organization of financial and monetary relations on a planetary scale (Alami et al. 2022). Respatialising Finance is remarkable in its ability to develop a sustained and generative conversation between these two interdisciplinary fields of inquiry. 

Global capitalism is currently experiencing a turbulent and polymorphous (geo)political reordering, encompassing multiple transformations in the landscapes of state intervention, and a drastic reconfiguration of the state's role as promoter, supervisor and owner of capital across the world economy. Can the concept of state capitalism aid us in grasping these transformations conceptually? My answer is yes, with the proviso that state capitalism is neither conceptualised as a national (or regional) variety of capitalism, nor as a new regime of accumulation, but as a flexible means of problematising this historic arc in the trajectories of state intervention. Based on this approach, I offer in this essay ten theses on the new state capitalism, its roots in the dynamics of capital accumulation, its relations to broader material conflicts and its potential futures.

This article opens a conversation between uneven and combined development (U&CD) and state capitalism studies. It reflects on the potential of U&CD to answer the following questions: why has there been an aggregate expansion of the state’s role as promoter, supervisor and owner of capital across the world capitalist economy since the turn of the millennium, and why has this taken an uneven and combined form? I argue that U&CD as an evolving research programme holds great potential in creatively expanding the study of state capitalism and its multi-scalar geographies. It is particularly well positioned to help us elucidate the multilinear and interactive character of present-day state capitalism. U&CD’s heuristics of ‘societal multiplicity’, ‘combination’ and ‘hybridisation’ can help us trace the combinatorial dynamics which result in the cumulative expansion of state prerogatives and their cascading impacts across policy realms and geographic space. Yet the causal mechanisms identified by U&CD (the ‘whip of external necessity’, ‘the privilege of historic backwardness’ and ‘the simultaneity of the non-simultaneous’) are unable to grasp contemporary state capitalist transformations in their historical and geographical fullness, notably due to a tendency to misread spatial unevenness as temporal dislocation. Theorising state capitalism requires that we examine the role of multiple and interacting capitalist states in politically mediating historically determinate transformations in the capitalist labour process, and their ramifications in terms of the temporal and geographical dynamics of value production and circulation. Thus, looking at U&CD from the perspective of the new state capitalism reveals both its analytical strengths and limitations for GPE.

State enterprises, sovereign funds, and other state–capital hybrids have become major engines of global capitalism. How can we explain their global rise and organizational transformation into increasingly sophisticated and globally competitive forms? Why do they increasingly emulate the practices and organizational goals of comparable private-sector entities, adopt the techniques of modern finance, resort to mixed ownership, and extend their operations across geographic space? After critically engaging with arguments that emphasize the role of firm strategies, developmentalist logics, financialized norms, and Polanyian double movements, we develop an explanatory model of organizational change grounded in historic–geographic materialism and economic geographies of the firm. We locate the expansion of state ownership (the role of states as owners) in the historic development and geographic remaking of global capitalism and, in particular, the emergence of a new constellation of international divisions of labor. This created the conditions for a massive round of centralization of capital as state property (the mass of capital controlled by states) since the early 2000s. The modern, marketized, globally spread state–capital hybrid emerged as an organizational fix to mediate the geographic contradictions and imperatives associated with this process. Purposive organizational adaption consisted in developing new skills, operational capabilities, and mixed-ownership structures in order to leverage the financial system, allow for the development of liquid forms of state property, and facilitate the expansion of the latter into global circuits of capital. As such, the article contributes to debates on the role of the state in global value chains, the firm-state nexus, and state capitalism.

This article takes up recent calls to further problematize race in international political economy by focusing on money at the frontier of global finance. We draw upon the Black radical tradition’s theoretical formulations of racial capitalism, which we bring into dialogue with conceptualizations of money and finance as developed within the critique of political economy. Money is the most supreme and abstract incarnation of wealth and class power, yet it is also suffused with racial and colonial logics of differentiation. To explore this tension, we offer a relational-comparison of two sites of frontier finance, namely cross-border investment and digital financial inclusion in developing countries. We trace the mechanisms through which race affects the operations of money and finance across these two sites. We argue that racialized difference is mobilized and reproduced at three key moments in the construction of investibility at the financial frontier: (1) the re/making of a development ‘problem’; (2) the construction of racialized ideal-typical financial subjects; and (3) processes of risk valuation and the legitimation of surveillance, discipline, and extraction. This allows us to characterize the color of money at the financial frontier as a particularly potent and violent combination of the abstractive powers of race and money.

The theme issue ‘Making Space for the New State Capitalism’ brings together insights from critical economic geography and heterodox political economy through a series of papers published in three installments, each accompanied by an introductory essay written by the guest editors. In this, the second of these introductory commentaries, we explore the consequences of embracing relationality, spatiotemporality and uneven development, together with the second group of papers. Introducing a final group of papers, the third installment will address the challenges and opportunities of thinking conjuncturally.

Can transparency interventions improve WASH service provision? We use a randomized experiment to evaluate the impacts of a transparency intervention, a deliberative multi-stakeholder workshop initiated with a community scorecard exercise, in schools in rural Bangladesh. To measure impacts, we combine survey data, direct observations, and administrative data. The intervention leads to moderate but consistent improvements in knowledge of WASH standards and practices, and institutions for WASH service management, but does not improve school WASH service provision or change WASH facility use patterns. Drawing on rich descriptive data, we suggest several reasons why the intervention we evaluate did not improve WASH service outcomes and propose ways to improve the design of future interventions.

If we critically look at the evolution of the Tourism Industry (TI), we can note that, in the past decade, nothing has changed as much as ICTs and the Internet which caused an extensive transformation of the TI. Both demand and supply of ICT, together with innovation in transportation and international trade agreements, have evolved the tourism sector in operational workflows, management and marketing of new of tourism experiences. The massive use of new technologies has facilitated the rise of new flat organizational models where traditional brokers have disappeared, replaced by direct connections between local providers and tourists, or they have been reconfigured into new forms of dynamic and web-based tourism package providers. The depicted industry evolution shows potential, unthinkable just a few years ago, for local service providers usually marginalized from main tourism flows, due to their small sizes, and who are unable to compete in the globalized market. In many regions characterized by a niche tourism vocation, local tourism operators have started organizing themselves spontaneously in Collaborative Networks in order to create aggregate tourism offers that are able to compete with big tourism operators thus transforming regions with potential and vocation in real tourism destinations. The main socialeffect of instantiating these tourism partnerships, is the stimulus towards Tourism Business Ecosystems (TBEs) giving local tourism service providers a means for economic growth. The aim of this paper is to describe how the organizational paradigm of CNs, applied to the TBEs knowledge management and supported by ICTs, can be the key means for the growth of emerging TBEs. Such models are able to reengineer the tourism destination management model in order to gain much more flexibility in service provision and provide tourists the possibility to live an augmented tourism experience. In this paper we point out that tourism destinations, in an effort to give services able to actively support each phase of the 2.0 tourist lifecycle, can benefit from collaborative network models.

The paper articulates a model of urban governance, developed through emergent analysis of the rulers, methods, rules and logics evident in the practices of security governance in Hout Bay, Cape Town. Informed by the concept of hybrid governance, this grounded theorising draws on extensive fieldwork on security governance practices in a complex urban neighbourhood to present a model of multiple and sometimes contending forms of governance that include, but are not limited to, bureaucratic, market, developmental, network and informal governance. Our model emerges from a critique of top-down approaches to understanding governance that starts with the state, institutions and law, or approaches that primarily focus on formal partnerships between the state and business or other social partners. The view from above can miss important aspects of how residents are governed ‘from below’ and informally. Hence it is impossible to understand from the formal, and in advance of grounded research, exactly how many places in urban Africa are governed. Exposing the particular and local forms of governance in urban Africa can support improved forms of service delivery and citizen’s experiences of living in their city. In addition, while our model may be relevant in other places, more important is the methodology of identifying the rulers and methods, but especially the rules and logics of practice, to surface the specific, and complex, forms of governance in an urban place.

The great hopes in Brussels that a circular bioeconomy will help bridge the growing divide between urban and rural areas and allow the hinterlands to prosper from ‘green growth’ are addressed in this article, which reflects on insights from three Nordic case studies of brown, green and blue biomass use at different levels of technology readiness. A closer examination of the forward, backward, fiscal and final demand linkages at regional level from increased biomass utilization, from eastern Finland and northern Sweden to Jutland and North Atlantic islands, suggests that linkages are and will remain relatively weak, predominantly dashing the expectations. As suppliers and exporters of natural resources, disadvantaged regions may all too easily get locked into a ‘staples trap’, where the value creation evaporates, due in part to the steep start-up costs and the associated boom-and-bust cycles, which place them in a weak position vis-à-vis the resource manufacturers and consumers. To make the prospects of development, employment and prosperity in the hinterlands materialize, measures are needed to strengthen the regional level economic linkages. Regional-level revolving funds based on benefit-sharing instruments related to natural resources can be used to bolster economic development as reflected in such schemes present in both China and Canada. We call for further research into whether and how such approaches can be replicated successfully by channeling revenues from biomass cultivation to regional-scale revolving funds, with mandates to strengthen long-term economic linkages and prosperity within the hinterlands.

Emissions of greenhouse gases in many European countries are declining, and the European Union (EU) believes it is on track in achieving emission reductions as agreed upon in the Kyoto Agreement and the EU's more ambitious post-Kyoto climate policy. However, a number of recent publications indicate that emission reductions may also have been achieved because production has been shifted to other countries, and in particular China. If a consumption perspective is applied, emissions in industrialized countries are substantially higher, and may not have declined at all. Significantly, emissions from transports are omitted in consumption-based calculations. As all trade involves transport, mostly by cargo ship, but also by air, transports add considerably to overall emissions growth incurred in production shifts. Consequently, this article studies the role of transports in creating emissions of CO₂, based on the example of exports from China. Results are discussed with regard to their implications for global emission reductions and post-Kyoto negotiations.

Surveys of artists' location choices show that they disproportionately reside in large cities. This paper introduces a model that attempts to explain this urban preference. The model includes four factors: access to other artists; access to consumer demand; access to service jobs; and housing affordability. These four factors are combined in a spatial equilibrium model. An equilibrium spatial distribution of artists is derived from the model and is correlated with the actual distribution among Swedish municipalities. Subsequently, the model is used for an econometric estimation of factor effects. The results show that access to other artists and local access to service jobs are important localization factors. Educated labor used as a proxy for consumer demand has a significant effect on artists' location choices.

The circular economy has emerged as a tool for addressing the current linear economic system, producing massive amounts waste and exacerbating climate change. During the recent crises and instabilities, the potential of the circular economy has been further highlighted.However, the concept remains undefined, and little is known of its implementation inpractice. This thesis explores the circular economy and its implementation among six Swedish commercial real estate actors, through interviews and an investigation of their official documents, with the aim of discovering signs of the circular economy, how those signs have emerged and the knowledge and capabilities necessary to capitalize on them. The External Enablers Framework by Davidsson et al. (2020) is used to find the external enablers thatfacilitate a shift towards more circular business practices. The thesis discovers multiple signs of circularity in the empirical material, in targets, strategies and activities. It also identifies several external enablers potentially impacting the implementation of circular activities in existing real estate ventures, such as collaboration networks, climate change awareness andthe recent crises and instabilities. The real estate actors themselves also potentially influence the industry around them towards circularity, in an ecosystem of enablement.

Europe has a long history as a global center of scientific research, but not all European regions are alike. Regions such as Île de France and the corridor that stretches from Cambridge to Oxford via London produce a disproportionate share of Europe’s science output. An econometric analysis sheds light on the factors that explain the spatial distribution of European science. One result is that the regional volume of Web of Science publications depends on the regional number of researchers in higher education institutions. This is however not the only cause of high output. Universities and their surrounding regions are slowly evolving institutional structures. Some regions host universities that are more than 500 years old. A second key result is that an increase in the age of a region’s oldest university is associated with greater output, other things being equal. Third, interregional accessibility via road, rail, and air networks is important for small regions, but not for large ones. Conversely, regional high-tech R&D employment is important for large but not for small regions.

The two latest IPCC assessment reports have concluded that knowledge is not sufficient for inducing action on climate change. This study problematizes the issue of going beyond business-as-usual through a study of the forestry sector in Sweden, which is a large economic sector and could be expected to be an early adapter, given that newly planted forest may stand some 70-90 years into the future. Therefore resources, economic motivation in the longer term and environmental foundations for early adaptation action could be expected to exist. This study draws upon the Foucauldian conceptualization of governmentality to explain the particular institutional logics that nevertheless lead to business-as-usual arguments dominating discussion on adaptation in the case of Swedish forestry. The study emphasizes that adaptation must be seen as steered and limited by existing institutional, social system logics, rather than by externally defined "rational" motivations. Efforts on adaptation to climate change must thus be considered in relation to, and seek to change, existing institutionally based motivational and incentive structures, and must thus be conceived through social rather than environmental logics. In fact, social logics may even define the types of actions that may be regarded as adaptations.

Rationalizing production more effectively, technological developments and innovations also have effects on, for example, skills, knowledge and social relations, that connect the specific technique to large processes and rationalities. In the conflict between user rights and ownership rights in northern Sweden, the introduction of new techniques within reindeer husbandry is studied on a local and embodied level. Through observations and interviews, the tension between empowerment and control in their implementation is further explored by utilizing a labor process theoretical framework. The results illustrate a shift in the definition of skills and knowledge, in relation to the use of GPS and GIS, that reshape, reorganize, restructure and embody the labor process of reindeer husbandry and spatial, temporal and ecological relations. Through its production of subjective conditions and dependence, the disciplinary logic of these techniques contributes to shape and enact governable spaces and subjects within the context. Operating as technologies of government, the techniques emphasize the responsibilities of the reindeer herding community and shape their participation, by reinforcing the demand for certain kind of subjectivities and accountability – governmental rationales that contribute to a technologicalization and depoliticizing of policy and conflict managing.

Adaptation to climate change has often been discussed from the perspectives of social vulnerability and community vulnerability, recognising that characteristics at local level will influence the particular adaptations undertaken. However, the extent to which national-level systemic factors influence and shape measures defined as adaptations has seldom been recognised. Focusing on adaptation to climate change in forestry, this study uses the example of two countries in the northern hemisphere with different forest ownership structures, forestry industry and traditions: Sweden, with strong private, non-industrial ownership, dominant forest industry and long forestry traditions; and Scotland, with forest ownership dominated by large estates and investment forestry based on plantations of exotic conifer species. The study shows how adaptation to climate change is structurally embedded and conditioned, which has resulted in specific challenges and constraints for different groups of forest owners within these two different contexts. This produces a specific set of political spaces and policy tools by rendering climate change in relation to forestry manageable, negotiable and practical/logical in specific ways. It is recommended that the focus of future work on climate-related issues and development of adaptation measures and policy should not be primarily on climate-related factors, but on institutional analysis of structural factors and logics in target sectors, in order to critically explore concepts of agency and power within these processes.

Ideas about green cities, good architecture and planning are often shared among professionals working in the field of urban planning and design during conferences, workshops, and meetings. But how is what is considered ‘good’ or ‘best’ in planning and policy decided? And where do we learn about good ideas, places to visit, and projects to be inspired by? Are there any potential risks or challenges inherent to following in the wake of the same ‘inspiring’ reference objects as everyone else—regardless of whether it is a city, a neighbourhood, or a building? This article makes the case for a policy mobilities perspective for understandinghow ideas about the green city are conceptualized, formulated, and mobilized in urban policy. Drawing on a growing body of literature in geography and urban studies, the article argues for the usefulness of adopting a policy mobilities perspective when working with(in) green city policy, also for scholars outside the field of geography. Using the case of multistorey housing in wood in Sweden, the article presents three different perspectives on how ideas about green cities are formulated and mobilized.

Place branding is commonly conceptualized with a focus on big cities, such as London, New York and Singapore, building from concepts and models from mainstream branding theory. In contrast to such conceptualizations, this thesis focuses on place branding in small and medium-sized cities. The present thesis aims to study place branding from a geographical perspective. It starts with debates theoretical and empirical understandings of place branding; what it is and how it is affecting the places where it is introduced. The thesis develops and argues for a perspective of territoriality and relationality to place branding discussing concepts, methods and empirical approaches to carry out place branding research using geographical perspectives. Empirically, this thesis focuses on in-depth studies of place branding in small and medium-sized cities in Sweden. By analyzing the development of place branding over the course of time, nuances and aspects of both territorial and relational origin emerge, situating place branding practices within a wider spatial contextualization. Four individual papers are presented, which taken together contribute to the aim of the thesis. Paper 1 introduces the place branding research field in geography and how it has developed; Paper 2 investigates the phenomena of flagship buildings located in small cities and towns; Paper 3 discusses the relationship between policy tourism and place branding; and Paper 4 analyzes how local environmental policies are affected by green place branding. The thesis demonstrates the complex and continuously interchangeable spatial structures and place contexts that create and re-produce the geographies of place branding. Here, research models and methodological examples are presented to illustrate how place branding can be studied from a geographical perspective and thus improve theoretical understandings of place branding.

Place branding is commonly conceptualized with a focus on big cities, such as London, New York and Singapore, building from concepts and models from mainstream branding theory. In contrast to such conceptualizations, this thesis focuses on place branding in small and medium-sized cities. The present thesis aims to study place branding from a geographical perspective. It starts with debates theoretical and empirical understandings of place branding; what it is and how it is affecting the places where it is introduced. The thesis develops and argues for a perspective of territoriality and relationality to place branding discussing concepts, methods and empirical approaches to carry out place branding research using geographical perspectives. Empirically, this thesis focuses on in-depth studies of place branding in small and medium-sized cities in Sweden. By analyzing the development of place branding over the course of time, nuances and aspects of both territorial and relational origin emerge, situating place branding practices within a wider spatial contextualization. Four individual papers are presented, which taken together contribute to the aim of the thesis. Paper 1 introduces the place branding research field in geography and how it has developed; Paper 2 investigates the phenomena of flagship buildings located in small cities and towns; Paper 3 discusses the relationship between policy tourism and place branding; and Paper 4 analyzes how local environmental policies are affected by green place branding. The thesis demonstrates the complex and continuously interchangeable spatial structures and place contexts that create and re-produce the geographies of place branding. Here, research models and methodological examples are presented to illustrate how place branding can be studied from a geographical perspective and thus improve theoretical understandings of place branding.

Interest has grown over recent years in policy programs targeting a green, bio-based economy. In the European Union, the European Commission promotes the development of bioeconomy policy and encourages the use of biomass and waste for industrial purposes. Alongside these technical dimensions, European bioeconomy policy also promotes knowledge sharing, learning from others, and so-called ‘best practice’. Consequently, many European places and policymakers that have committed to developing a bio-based economy are now sharing their positive policy experiences. However, sharing ‘best practice’ for green economy policy programs has sometimes been described as producing oversimplified views of complex climate issues. Despite such criticisms, policymakers continue to search for and share bioeconomy policy ‘best practice’. This paper explores the development of bioeconomy policy with a focus on shareability and dissemination of ‘best practice’ in two Swedish regions, Värmland and Västerbotten. Herein, we adopt the conceptual underpinnings of urban policy mobilities to explain green policymaking, and more specifically bioeconomy policy development on a regional scale. So far, policy mobilities research has had a primarily urban focus, whereas this paper provides valuable insights into how these processes take place within regional and more peripheral settings. Thus, we seek to understand the role of ‘best practice’ in the development of regional bioeconomy policies and which elements of these policies are promoted as transferable elsewhere.

Interest has grown over recent years in policy programs targeting a green, bio-based economy. In the European Union, the European Commission promotes the development of bioeconomy policy and encourages the use of biomass and waste for industrial purposes. Alongside these technical dimensions, European bioeconomy policy also promotes knowledge sharing, learning from others, and so-called ‘best practice’. Consequently, many European places and policymakers that have committed to developing a bio-based economy are now sharing their positive policy experiences. However, sharing ‘best practice’ for green economy policy programs has sometimes been described as producing oversimplified views of complex climate issues. Despite such criticisms, policymakers continue to search for and share bioeconomy policy ‘best practice’. This paper explores the development of bioeconomy policy with a focus on shareability and dissemination of ‘best practice’ in two Swedish regions, Värmland and Västerbotten. Herein, we adopt the conceptual underpinnings of urban policy mobilities to explain green policymaking, and more specifically bioeconomy policy development on a regional scale. So far, policy mobilities research has had a primarily urban focus, whereas this paper provides valuable insights into how these processes take place within regional and more peripheral settings. Thus, we seek to understand the role of ‘best practice’ in the development of regional bioeconomy policies and which elements of these policies are promoted as transferable elsewhere.

Sambandet mellan persontransporter och de globala utsläppen av växthusgaser är väldokumenterat (IEA, 2014; Sims et al, 2014). I Sverige bidrar transportsektorn, och här framförallt personbilstrafik, till en tredjedel av den totala mängden utsläpp av växthusgaser (Naturvårdsverket, 2017). På samma gång anses transportsektorn, och här särskilt kollektivtrafiken, ha stor potential att bidra till att minska den totala mängden utsläpp av växthusgaser (Banister, 2011b; Hultén et al, 2018; Paulsson et al, 2017; Paulsson, 2018). Detta har motiverat att internationella och nationella politiskt uppsatta mål riktar sig mot att begränsa transportsektorns klimateffekter. På den globala nivån är Parisavtalets målsättning om minskade utsläpp för att begränsa klimatförändringens effekter av stor vikt. Genom de så kallade stadmiljöavtalen, som är ett nationellt program i Sverige sedan 2015, kan kommuner och regioner söka medel för att införa åtgärder som ska leda till "energieffektiva lösningar med låga utsläpp av växthusgaser" (Statens författningssamling, 2015). Här är åtgärder för kollektivtrafik ett betonat område. I det här kapitlet är utmaningen om miljömässigt hållbar utveckling för och genom kollektivtrafik den centrala utgångspunkten, samtidigt som detta behöver diskuteras som en del av hållbar utveckling i ett bredare perspektiv. En integrerad syn på hållbar utveckling är en av grundstenarna för de Globala målen antagna av FNs medlemsländer 2015. Mål om hållbara transporter omfattas av de Globala målen, som exempelvis mål 11 i Agenda 2030 vilket handlar om hållbara städer och samhällen (Globala målen och Agenda 2030). Här betonas att kollektivtrafiken är ett viktigt medel för att uppnå social hållbarhet och att utveckla ett "transportsystem för alla" (delmål 11.2). Det övergripande ansvaret för att planera för kollektivtrafik i Sverige ligger på de regionala kollektivtrafikmyndigheterna (RKM). Dessa är dock beroende av att samverka med en rad olika aktörer för att kollektivtrafikplaneringen ska kunna utföras, vilket omfattar kommuner, trafikföretag, resenärsgrupper, handelsföreningar (Paulsson et al, 2018), branschorganisationer, olika myndigheter och angränsande regioner. Den statliga regleringen för regional kollektivtrafikplanering tilldelar RKM en roll som kan liknas vid "processledare" för kollektivtrafiken och som omfattar att organisera för samverkan. Flertalet RKM har som mål att öka kollektivtrafikens andel av de persontransporter som sker. Detta är en utmanande uppgift utifrån den kraftiga tillväxten av den totala mängden personresor. Sett till utvecklingen sedan 1950 har denna ökning i mycket hög grad skett genom ökning av resor på väg varav personbilsresor dominerar. Från 1990-talet kan man dock se en viss andelsökning av personresor med järnväg (Andersson & Eriksson 2017). Ökad pendling till arbetet eller för utbildning är en viktig faktor som driver ökningen av personresor. Det sker över allt längre avstånd (Lindkvist Scholten, 2019) och ofta över kommungränser och regiongränser, något som ställer krav på samordning mellan kommuner och regioner. Detta är bakgrunden till att vi i det här kapitlet riktar ett intresse mot hur samverkan sker mellan dessa olika geografiska nivåer.

Den här rapporten handlar om förutsättningar för att organisera, planera och utveckla ändamålsenliga och hållbara kollektivtrafiksystem i Sverige. Rapporten tar sin utgångspunkt i den lagändring som gjordes 2012 som innebar att 21 nyinrättade regionala kollektivtrafikmyndigheter (RKM) tog över ansvaret för kollektivtrafiken från landets 290 kommuner. Ett centralt begrepp i rapporten är samverkan, och författarna försöker förstå hur just samverkan inom kollektivtrafik sker mellan kommuner och regioner. I en tidigare pilotstudie där företrädare för sex olika RKM intervjuades kunde två slutsatser dras: 1) RKM och kommunerna är de viktigaste samverkansparterna i kollektivtrafiken. 2) Det kvarstår utmaningar som försvårar en tillfredsställande ändamålsenlighet av planering för kollektivtrafik (se Andersson & Hermelin, 2019 för översikt). För att komplettera det regionala perspektivet för den tidigare studien har vi nu genomfört tio intervjuer med representanter från kommuner i Östergötland och Örebro län. Dessa intervjuer utgör det huvudsakliga underlaget för denna rapport.  Resultatet från intervjuerna kan delas in i tre teman:  1) Samverkan för kollektivtrafik; 2) Kommunernas och regionernas planeringsmandat; 3) Relationer mellan land och stad för planering av kollektivtrafik. Slutsatserna utifrån dessa teman har i första hand formulerats utifrån kommunernas perspektiv, vilket har varit syftet att fånga genom denna rapport. För arbetet som presenteras här har inte regionerna intervjuats, vilket är viktig att beakta i relation till rapportens resultat.  För det första temat om samverkan för kollektivtrafik visar studien att det tar tid att skapa ändamålsenliga relationer och strukturer för samverkan inom kollektivtrafikplanering mellan kommuner och regioner. Formerna för samverkan varierar mellan olika RKM och mellan olika kommuner i samma region. Rapporten visar att samverkan mellan RKM och kommunerna inte är en standardiserad organiseringsform och att den ändras över tid.  För det andra temat om planeringsmandat framgår det genom studien att samverkansstrukturerna mellan RKM och kommunerna upplevts som ”suddiga” och svåra att förstå. En viktig bakgrund till detta är att RKM på olika sätt har delegerat en del av ansvaret för kollektivtrafiken till regionala trafikbolag. Från kommunernas perspektiv blir det då oklart hur ansvaret fördelas mellan RKM och respektive bolag. Många mindre kommuner upplever dessutom att samverkan snarare handlar om anpassning till RKMs planer än vad som kan liknas vid mer öppna samråd mellan RKM och kommunen.  För det tredje temat om relationerna mellan land och stad för planering av kollektivtrafik visar vårt intervjumaterial på skillnader mellan hur behovet av kollektivtrafik upplevs mellan befolkningsmässigt stora och små kommuner. Flera mindre kommuner känner sig inte riktigt omfattade av RKMs målsättningar med kollektivtrafiken. Intervjuerna med respondenter för kommunerna ger grund för att lyfta frågan om det delvis råder olika synsätt mellan kommunerna och RKM om vilka samhällsvärden som kollektivtrafiken ska bidra till. Detta kan ha sin grund i hur planeringsinriktningar för kollektivtrafik, som i hög grad är beroende av nationella riktlinjer, har olika relevans för täta respektive glesa geografier och därmed för stad och land.

More and more cities around the world are adopting green-city labels and are making use of their urban environmental policymaking for the purpose of place branding. However, the nature of the relationship between the branding of green cities and urban environmental policymaking is contested. Some researchers have highlighted so-called ‘greenwashing’ and the cherry-picking of easily attained goals. Others argue that green branding is driven by altruism, rather than intra-urban competition and entrepreneurialism. Drawing on literatures on policy tourism and green place branding, this article presents a longitudinal study of green branding in Växjö, Sweden. It contributes to the debate on green place branding by showing how two sets of contradictory impulses – entrepreneurialism/competition versus altruism/cooperation, and cherry-picking/greenwashing versus comprehensive environmental policymaking – affect the relationship between green place branding and environmental policy. In particular, the analysis illuminates the changing role played by policy tourism in shaping both the development of environmental policies and branding practices.

More and more cities around the world are adopting green-city labels and are making use of their urban environmental policymaking for the purpose of place branding. However, the nature of the relationship between the branding of green cities and urban environmental policymaking is contested. Some researchers have highlighted so-called ‘greenwashing’ and the cherry-picking of easily attained goals. Others argue that green branding is driven by altruism, rather than intra-urban competition and entrepreneurialism. Drawing on literatures on policy tourism and green place branding, this article presents a longitudinal study of green branding in Växjö, Sweden. It contributes to the debate on green place branding by showing how two sets of contradictory impulses – entrepreneurialism/competition versus altruism/cooperation, and cherry-picking/greenwashing versus comprehensive environmental policymaking – affect the relationship between green place branding and environmental policy. In particular, the analysis illuminates the changing role played by policy tourism in shaping both the development of environmental policies and branding practices.

This paper examines the motivations and practices of cities engaging in policy boosterism, ‘a subset of traditional branding and marketing activities that involves the active promotion of locally developed and/or locally successful policies, programs, or practices across wider geographical fields as well as to broader communities of interested peers' (McCann, 2013: 5). The paper draws together literatures on policy boosterism, policy tourism, and place branding to explore the motivations of cities sharing policies in a competitive policy environment through policy tourism.  Using the case of environmental and urban sustainability policies in Växjö, Sweden, we examine how the rationale for sharing policy has changed over time, and how this both reflects and shapes the organization of policy tourism through technical visits and the branding of Växjö as ‘the greenest city in Europe’. Our study suggests that policy tourism and urban policymaking co-evolve in the context of policy boosterism. In Växjö what began as opportunistic branding now drives local environmental policymaking as the city strives to remain at the cutting edge. We suggest that detailed, longitudinal case studies are required to build a picture of the relationship between policy boosterism, policy tourism and urban policymaking in a variety of contexts.