Studies of neighbourhood effects typically measure the neighbourhood context at one specific spatial scale. It is increasingly acknowledged, however, that the mechanisms through which the residential context affects individual outcomes may operate at different spatial scales, ranging from the very immediate environment to the metropolitan region. We take a multi-scale approach to investigate the extent to which concentrated poverty in adolescence is related to obtained education level and income later in life, by measuring the residential context as bespoke neighbourhoods at five geographical scales that range from areas encompassing the 200 nearest neighbours to areas that include the 200k+ nearest neighbours. We use individual-level geocoded longitudinal register data from Sweden and the Netherlands to follow 15/16-year-olds until they are 30 years old. The findings show that the contextual effects on education are very similar in both countries. Living in a poor area as a teenager is related to a lower obtained educational level when people are in their late 20s. This relationship, however, is stronger for lower spatial scales. We also find effects of contextual poverty on income in both countries. Overall, this effect is stronger in the Netherlands than in Sweden. Partly, this is related to differences in spatial structure. If only individuals in densely populated areas in Sweden are considered, effects on income are similar across the two countries and income effects are more stable across spatial scales. Overall, we find important evidence that the scalar properties of neighbourhood effects differ across life-course outcomes.

Interest in neighbourhood effects has been increasing. This article is a contribution to the field, directed towards the entire areas of three municipalities in Sweden, not only their distressed areas, and to their total population with data from the Statistics Sweden register. The aim of the study is to analyse the significance of surroundings to an individual's socioeconomic career in the form of education, occupational status and income. Guided by a theoretical framework of social justice, the study proposes places of good fortune and places of few opportunities. The survey cohort is individuals born in 1970, who lived at least 5 years in the same area during their adolescence. Their careers are analysed 10 years later, in 1995. The most important finding is that the socio-demographic and physical context of the residential area of adolescence affects the subsequent socioeconomic career.

This study applies a housing market perspective to hot spots in rural Northern Sweden. Here, the concept of a hot spot is defined as a place with rising house prices and in-migration of households with higher than average education and income. Perceptions and performances in these particular housing markets are studied using interviews. Three locations are explored through interviews with footloose households. The aim is to explore factors that shape rural housing market hot spots, using narratives from footloose in-migrants. There is a need for greater understanding of the spread and maintenance of hot spots and rural housing markets in regional planning. Also, housing markets in the countryside are more scantily investigated than in urban areas. In an unbalanced housing market, with higher prices and limited supply in the urban areas, hot spots in rural areas are anomalies that do not follow traditional housing market theories. Results show that hot spots are locations with natural beauty to which households moved upon finding employment. Footloose in-migrants are thus discovered to indicate a hot spot development. The hot spot areas have the extra natural beauty, cheap housing in combination with a high status, as well as it is a location suitable for commuting. Hot spots have a rare combination of factors sought after by footloose in-migrants.

This study applies a housing market perspective on hotspots in northern, rural Sweden. It uses the concept ‘hotspot’ defined as places with rising house prices and in-migration of households with higher than average education and income. The focus rests on three places having the ideal characteristics of being a rural hotspot, located in three Swedish northern municipalities. These places are explored through ten interviews with ‘footloose’ households. The aim is to explore factors that shape rural housing market hotspots using stories from hotspot population households. The first reason for this study is that regional planning requests understanding to develop different regions and places for the future. Here the origins of hotspots are explored to understand the spread and sustainability of such developments. Second, housing markets in the countryside are more scantily investigated than in urban areas. In the unbalanced housing market with higher prices and limited supply in the urban areas hotspots in rural areas are not following traditional housing market theories, they are rather anomalies. Interviews with a specific footloose group of recent hotspot in-migrants are used in combination with knowledge about the housing market. Results show that although hotspots are locations with beautiful nature most households moved there because of finding jobs. The three areas have the ‘extra’ nature values and high status required for being a hotspot and a location for commuting to larger labor markets. The ‘footloose’ non-return migrants did find nice, cheaper housing that made them chose the area despite being strangers to the place. I suggest hotspots are the rare combination of footloose migrants and special places which make them difficult to develop elsewhere.

Earlier research on residential mobility has demonstrated a tendency for the young old of the 55+-population to prefer peripheral locations, whereas older age groups choose central locations. Here, we present survey results indicating that such late-adulthood differences in preferences are supported by age–related shifts corresponding to differences in housing preferences expressed by individuals in peripheral as well as central locations in Sweden. A sample of 2,400 individuals aged 55 years and over was asked to select the seven most important characteristics of a dwelling from a list of 21 alternatives (SHIELD survey 2013). The preferences expressed were used as dependent variables in logistic regressions to determine to what extent the housing preferences of older people are linked to age, gender, socio-economic status and type of geographical area. The results demonstrated a close link between neighbourhood characteristics and housing preferences. Owning the dwelling, having a garden, and access to nature were stressed as important by individuals living in non-metropolitan middle-class areas and in suburban elite areas. The youngest cohort expressed similar preferences. Older age groups instead stressed the importance of an elevator, single-storey housing, and a good design for independent living; preferences that have similarities to those expressed by individuals living in large cities and smaller urban centres where such housing is more readily available.

The aim of the article is to use survey evidence of school choice and educational attitudes in Sweden to explore how spatial polarization and liberal school reforms have affected the way parents, pupils, and school management think about education. The authors identify a possible polarization of attitudes in Sweden towards the importance of education in general and schools in particular, against the background of a highly liberalized school market, including school choice and rural-urban regional differences in the population’s education level. The basis for the analysis is TIMSS 2015 data for pupils in Grade 4 (age group 10–11 years). The results showed that localization of the school was a very important factor in school choice and that localization was more important than parental education and social class. Additionally, the authors tested the association between maths results and the variables attitudes, location, school, and household, and found that a household with a lower proportion of tertiary-educated parents in less central locations could make it difficult for pupils to perform well in mathematics. The authors conclude that in Sweden neoliberalization has been a geographically uneven process with a concentration in the metropolitan areas.

It can be argued that a society is never better than how Individuals on its social and spatial fringes are faring. This motivates the purpose of this paper, which is to study how vulnerable groups can be identified, defined and explored in a spatial perspective using latent class analysis (LCA) on the whole Swedish population. We use space to refine meanings of vulnerability in individuals and groups, by contextualizing their vulnerability. This knowledge is fundamental for creating equal living conditions and for promoting the social cohesion needed for socially sustainable societies. Thus, equality and spatial integration are basic ideas in welfare policy but in recent years, the idea of integration has met various challenges with new population groups, rural–urban polarization, and disadvantaged housing areas. Using register data, we here identified life course trajectories associated with vulnerability, applying LCA to the total Swedish population aged 25 to 59 years. We identified latent classes of life courses, and detected and explored some classes with more vulnerability than others. The spatial patterns of vulnerable individuals were analysed using individualized neighbourhoods including the proportion of closest neighbours belonging to a latent class. A second LCA of vulnerable individuals refined the findings into different types of distress; extra distressed life courses were found in the metropolitan areas in Million program areas in urban outskirts, and other distressed life courses were more often found in unattractive (low housing price) rural areas, rural fringes. 

Against the background of a liberalization of Swedish compulsory education, this paper analyses post-1991 shifts in the way compulsory education performance in Sweden has been shaped by parental background, residential context and school context. We can document increasing school and residential segregation of foreign background students and, after 2008, increasing segregation by income, employment status and social allowance reception. Over time, educational performance has become increasingly linked to family, neighbourhood and school context. The greatest change has been for parental background, but the importance of school context and neighbourhood context has also increased. A noteworthy finding is that residential context consistently has a stronger effect on student performance than school context. Student grades were found to be most strongly influenced by the closest (12 or 25) residential peers of the school leavers as compared to larger peer groups. The increase in the influence of family, neighbourhood and residential context has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the between-school variation (intra-class correlation) in student performance, but it was not until after 2005 that this increased variability became clearly linked to the social composition of the schools. This study's results suggest that the restructuring of Swedish compulsory education has had consequences for equality, possibly because disadvantaged social groups have not been as able as advantaged groups to navigate and benefit from the educational landscape created by the school reforms.

This paper analyses whether a multi-scale representation of geographical context based on statistical aggregates computed for individualised neighbourhoods can lead to improved estimates of neighbourhood effect. Our study group consists of individuals born in 1980 that have lived in Sweden since 1995 and we analyse the effect of neighbourhood context at age 15 on educational outcome at age 30 controlling for parental background. A new piece of software, Equipop, was used to compute the socio-economic composition of neighbourhoods centred on individual residential locations and ranging in scale from including the nearest 12 to the nearest 25,600 neighbours. Our results indicate that context measures based on fixed geographical sub-divisions can lead to an underestimation of neighbourhood effects. A multi-scalar representation of geographical context also makes it easier to estimate how neighbourhood effects vary across different demographic groups. This indicates that scale-sensitive measures of geographical context could help to re-invigorate the neighbourhood effects literature.

Will the consequences of residential segregation, that is, spatial concentration of marginalized populations on the one hand, and spatial concentration of affluent populations on the other hand, generate a situation where individual life trajectories are influenced by where individuals grow up? Our aim is to analyze how poverty risks and early income career at adult age are influenced by different neighborhood contexts in early youth. We use Swedish longitudinal register data, and follow individuals born in 1980 until 2012. Residential context is measured in 1995 at age 15 by expanding a buffer around the residential locations of each individual and, by computing statistical aggregates of different socio-demographic variables for that population. The results show that poverty risks increase for individuals growing up in areas characterized by high numbers of social allowance recipients living nearby, whereas elite geographical context is favorable for both women’s and men’s future income.

This paper finds convincing evidence of upward progress out of poor Swedish neighbourhoods for individuals with a Swedish background, individuals with a European background, and those with a non-European background. We use the 1986 cohort of the Swedish population and follow them from age 15 when they are living at home to age 30. We find that by age 30, they live in a neighbourhood that in terms of the poverty level is relatively distant from the initial neighbourhood where they grew up. Mobility into less poor neighbourhoods is clearly linked to higher income, but interestingly, initial context is even more important. Mobility to less poor neighbourhoods is found for those starting in high-poverty neighbourhoods and vice versa for those starting in low-poverty neighbourhoods. Moreover, large-scale context and regional context strongly influence neighbourhood mobility along the poverty gradient. The analysis shows that a large proportion of individuals with a non-European background improve their neighbourhood status from where they were living as teenagers, to where they live after leaving home. Individuals who stay in the poorest neighbourhoods come from less favourable backgrounds, from large-scale poverty contexts, have low school grades, tend to have children early, and have low incomes and lower educational attainment. Individuals with a non-European background are overrepresented in this group. Thus, despite the overall gains in neighbourhood quality, the process of spatial sorting still contributes to an increased spatial concentration of vulnerable populations.

In this paper, we use geo-coded, individual-level register data on four European countries to compute comparative measures of segregation that are independent of existing geographical sub-divisions. The focus is on non-European migrants, for whom aggregates of egocentric neighbourhoods (with different population counts) are used to assess small-scale, medium-scale, and large-scale segregation patterns. At the smallest scale level, corresponding to neighbourhoods with 200 persons, patterns of over- and under-representation are strikingly similar. At larger-scale levels, Belgium stands out as having relatively strong over- and under-representation. More than 55% of the Belgian population lives in large-scale neighbourhoods with moderate under- or over-representation of non-European migrants. In the other countries, the corresponding figures are between 30 and 40%. Possible explanations for the variation across countries are differences in housing policies and refugee placement policies. Sweden has the largest and Denmark the smallest non-European migrant population, in relative terms. Thus, in both migrant-dense and native-born-dense areas, Swedish neighbourhoods have a higher concentration and Denmark a lower concentration of non-European migrants than the other countries. For large-scale, migrant-dense neighbourhoods, however, levels of concentration are similar in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Thus, to the extent that such concentrations contribute to spatial inequalities, these countries are facing similar policy challenges.

This paper addresses the meaning of housing and the perception of socio-economic security of different forms of tenure in Sweden and Finland. Household interviews reveal that, in stark contrast to Finland, Swedish respondents think that home ownership is not safer than renting. Few ‘absolutists’ can be found in Sweden who believe that one tenure is superior to the other, while home ownership is still favoured in Finland despite a major housing crash in the 1990s. However, some similarities were also present: for example, even though renting has a much more positive image in Sweden than in Finland, home ownership nonetheless was the number one housing preference. There are prima facie reasons to assume that attitudes in the two countries would tend towards convergence given the marked similarities in culture and society due to common history and cultural diffusion (usually from Sweden to Finland) and similar welfare state models producing relatively low income inequality. The paper hypothesizes that differences in attitudes are due to different institutional arrangements in connection with different cultural values attached to housing and tenure.

Sweden is today an immigrant country with more than 14% foreign born. An increasing share of the immigrants comes from non-European countries. This implies that Sweden has been transformed from an ethnically homogenous country into a country with a large visible minority. In this paper we survey the effect of this change on school segregation. Building on Schelling's model for residential segregation, we argue that establishment of a visible minority has triggered a process of school segregation that in some respects can be compared with the developments in the United States. In order to test the validity of a Schelling-type process in Swedish schools we compare segregation levels in regions with different shares of visible minority students. We use data from the PISA 2003 survey in combination with register data on the ethnic composition of student population in different parts of Sweden. We find that school segregation is higher in regions with a large visible-minority population. We also find that, controlling for student background, there are smaller differences in performance across schools in regions with low shares of minority students.

The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of neighbourhoods on educational outcome for adolescents in Sweden. Using a multilevel statistical approach and the PLACE database that consists of a census of individuals in 1990-2000 in Sweden, the paper explores different domains of neighbourhood characteristics that predict educational outcomes in adolescents. Educational achievement in year 2000 was measured for three cohorts, geocoded to their neighbourhood environments. It was found that neighbourhood characteristics related to socioeconomic resources and demographic stability are predictors of individual educational outcomes. A strong association between neighbourhood socio-cultural capital variables and education were also observed. Despite national policies on availability and access to education in Sweden, there are substantial inequalities in educational outcomes that are not simply a result of differences in individual characteristics.

We examine the 'overlap' or to which degree tenure form patterns are similar to socio-economic segregation patterns. The issue has been discussed concerning mixing policies; does mixing of tenure hinder socio-economic segregation? If mixing tenure is to be an effective policy against segregation, the overlap has to be understood. Using Swedish register data, we cross tenure-type landscapes with patterns of high/mixed/low-income and with European/non-European/Swedish-born. To what degree is there overlap among tenure, income and country of birth? Is the overlap related to geographical scale and polarization? Is the overlap of tenure forms with socio-economic characteristics consistent across regions? We find strong overlap of large-scale cooperative tenure landscapes with very high incomes as well as with Swedish-born. Small-scale tenure-landscapes provide mixing opportunities for incomes wherever they are located; however, these landscapes have a small non-Swedish-born population nearby. Some tenure-type landscapes vary in characteristics depending on location; e.g. public rental concentrated areas are high-income in urban cores but low-income in urban peripheries.

In this paper we use geo-coded, individual level register data on four European countries to compute comparative measures of segregation that are independent of existing geographical sub- divisions. The focus is on non-European migrants, and using aggregates for egocentric neighbourhoods with different population counts, small-scale, medium-scale, and large-scale segregation patterns are assessed. At the smallest scale level, corresponding to neighbourhoods with 200 persons, patterns of over- and under-representation are strikingly similar. At larger scale levels, Belgium stands out as having relatively strong over- and under-representation. More than 55% of the Belgian population lives in large-scale neighbourhoods with moderate under- or over- representation of non-European migrants. In the other countries, the corresponding figures are between 30 % and 40%. Possible explanations for this pattern are differences in housing policies and refugee placement policies. Sweden has the largest and Denmark the smallest non-European migrant population, in relative terms. Thus, in both migrant-dense and native-born dense areas, Swedish neighbourhoods have a higher concentration, and Denmark a lower concentration of non- European migrants than the other countries. For large-scale, migrant-dense neighbourhoods, however, levels of concentration are similar in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Thus, if this pattern is linked to a high concentration of disadvantaged population groups, it shows that these countries are facing similar policy challenges with respect to neighbourhood contexts. Contexts that can have negative effects on outcomes such as employment, income and education. 

Twenty years ago the Swedish school system underwent serious change in that students were given the right to choose their school, though those living near each school had priority. Since then, there has been a new geographical debate concerning where students live and go to school and possible implications of this on student educational achievement and educational equality, as well as on students’ daily lives. In studies of changes in the school system, traveldistances to school have so far been less studied in the Swedish context. In this paper we will analyze the changes in distance to school for 15-year-olds, from 2000 to 2006, in order to identify who, and in which context, is traveling shorter/longer distances, and thus performing a school choice. We use register data from the database PLACE, Uppsala University. The focus is not on effects on achievement, nor school composition, but instead on the difference in ability/possibility of using school choice as measured by distance. A time-geography approach concerning variation in constraints between students is used. School choice may be a matter of preference for certain schools, but importantly, it might also be a matter of time and space restrictions for families with fewer resources; that is, with less spatial capital and a limited opportunity structure. Results show that travel to schooldistances have increased since the year 2000. Foreign-born students are traveling shorter distances, except for those with highly educated parents. Shorter distances are also travelled by students from families with social assistance and for visible minorities in areas where such minorities exist.

Städer som Stockholm får en större betydelse i och med att många redan bor i urbana miljöer, och ännu fler i framtiden kommer att flytta till en urban miljö. Som en del av Stockholm stads plan att anpassa staden efter denna stora och snabba tillväxt så pågår ett bygge av nya bostäder i både redan existerande stadsdelar samt i stadsdelar som utvecklats under senare år. I och med den kraftiga urbaniseringen så har hållbarhet har blivit viktigare och viktigare att ta i hänsyn till vid planering av städer, mer specifikt hur städer kan byggas hållbart, både miljömässigt och socialt. Detta arbete motiveras för att Stockholm ska nå upp till flera av de hållbarhetsmål som ingår i Agenda 2030. Vid urban bebyggelse sätts den tätortsnära naturen på press då det blir en större mängd människor som ska kunna använda sig av och besöka samma grönområden. Samtidigt råder det också en ökande segregation i Sverige, där klyftan mellan låginkomsttagare och höginkomsttagare bara blir större och större. Det är inte endast de socioekonomiska förutsättningarna som påverkas av segregation, utan också tillgängligheten till urban grönska och förutsättningarna att leva bättre och mer hållbart för att klara av klimatförändringarna som dessa grönområden medför. De tre teoretiska fokusen i uppsatsen är grön infrastruktur, grönplanering och miljörättvisa. Med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys har två detaljplaner från två platser med olika socioekonomisk status lästs och analyserats: en för Tenstaterrassen och en för terrasskvarteren i Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Resultatet tyder på att grönplanering används på ett mer ambitiöst och utvecklat sätt i områden med högre socioekonomisk status jämfört med områden med lägre socioekonomisk status. Framtida forskning behövs för att undersöka om detta är ett strukturellt problem som existerar på en större skala.

Is it possible to survive on a deserted farm: Manors, tenants and farming systems during the Middle Ages in the Lägerbo area, Östergötland. 

This study approaches the late medieval farm desertion from a landscape perspective. It focuses on the area of a former medieval estate in southern Östergötland, Sweden. Based on a retrogressive analysis of cadastral maps and historical records the medieval settlement is reconstructed. In this process three formerly unknown deserted farms were identified, with abandoned field systems and building remains.  The volume provides the archaeological documentation of field systems and settlements at these sites. These data provide the background for investigating the shifting social and ecological circumstances that once made it possible for tenant families to survive on these farms. During the height of the manorial system the small farms were specialised units in a redistributive system. In the late 14^th century the estate and all tenant farms were donated to the convents of Vadstena and Vreta.  Rents were no longer paid in labour but in butter.  In the fifteenth century several farms were abandoned and turned into meadows under the surviving farms. The new tenurial relations prevented the recolonization of the farms. The study is the result of an interdisciplinary project involving medieval archaeology, historical geography, palynology and medieval history.

Flagship buildings are promoted as a good strategy to stimulate economic development. Pushed by a range of actors, “best practice” examples are being copied from place to place around the globe. Flagship buildings are accompanied by a discourse of place branding that stresses a need for cities to improve their attractiveness. Drawing on this discourse and ongoing discussions on deterritorialization and reterritorialization in urban and economic geography, the author argues that there is an overly deterritorialized approach to flagship buildings in the place-branding literature. Using a conceptual framework inspired by the reterritorialization debate, she introduces the concept of “flagship space,” emphasizing a dualism in place branding encompassing both deterritorialized and territorial processes that in interplay create best-practice examples. The empirical analysis examines the development of five flagship hotels in Sweden. The author concludes that the five hotels have both created and are constantly reproducing their statuses as flagship developments. However, the creation and reproduction of status is not only upheld by the operators of the hotels but is also a joint effort of actors in the local community. Through these processes and practices the understanding of the hotels is broadened from merely being flagship buildings to creators of flagship space.

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.

Policymobilitet är temat för 2018 års Ymer. Det är ett forskningsområde som vuxit kraftigt under de senaste två decennierna. Som praktik har dock policymobilitet förekommit betydligt längre än så, inte minst inom samhällsplanering och politik. Här har intresset för att hämta inspiration från andra platser och att lära sig av andras erfarenheter varit etablerat sedan länge. I den här boken presenteras en lång rad olika perspektiv på policy, och på dess sociala och rumsliga mobilitet och påverkan. Kapitlen diskuterar nutida och historiska exempel från Sverige i huvudsak, men även från Norge, Danmark, Ghana, Kenya och Sudan. Kapitlen diskuterar policy med olika perspektiv på skala - från det lokala och regionala till det nationella och internationella. Tillsammans bidrar dessa med en fördjupad kunskap om såväl policy som policymobilitet, och om hur makt, traditioner och strukturer påverkar hur policy utformas och sprids till olika platser. 

A growing number of cities around the world have taken advantage of their green image of the purpose of place branding. In the research literature, it is suggested that these practices are motivated by place-based competition over financial and social capital, combined with more holistic motives of sustainable urban development. However, although an increasing number of green cities are engaged in place branding, few studies have researched the impact of place branding on environmental policy-making in a city, building up to the question: how is local environmental policy-making affected by green place branding? Addressing this issue, this paper critically investigates how the continuity of local environmental policy-making is affected by place-branding practices. To tackle this task, the paper firstly develops an analytical framework aiming to understand how green cities emerge and become famous based on their policy-making. Secondly, using that framework, this paper present an in-depth case study of a city branding itself as the 'Greenest City in Europe'. Drawing on the growing body of work on green cities, this paper investigates the 'understudied' practice of using policy for the purpose of place branding as well as the impact of place branding 'on the environment'.

A growing number of cities around the world have taken advantage of their green image of the purpose of place branding. In the research literature, it is suggested that these practices are motivated by place-based competition over financial and social capital, combined with more holistic motives of sustainable urban development. However, although an increasing number of green cities are engaged in place branding, few studies have researched the impact of place branding on environmental policy-making in a city. What happens to local environmental policy-making when a framework of place branding embraces it? Addressing this issue, this paper discusses how the continuity of local environmental policy-making is affected by place-branding practices. To tackle this task, the paper first introduces an analytical framework of the elements in environmental policy-making that have been identified as generating a green status for cities. Secondly, using that framework, this paper present an in-depth case study of a city branding itself as the “Greenest city in Europe”. Drawing on the growing body of work on green cities, this paper investigates the “understudied” practice of using policy for the purpose of place branding as well as the impact of place branding “on the environment”.

A growing trend among policy-makers is to regard place branding as a crucial component of regional development strategies. Alongside this shift in policy, research on place branding has increased drastically throughout the social sciences, building on concepts and ideas from corporate branding. This research has been given a number of critical testimonies claiming that place branding lacks coherent theoretical frameworks based on research findings, that it promotes simplified perspectives of places and that little empirical evidence is found to support positive effects of place branding. Branding is at the same time argued to be inherently geographical, since it is situated in and associated with spaces and places. Based on these claims and with the aim to contribute to the understanding of this emerging literature, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of the conceptual development of place branding research in human geography making three claims: Firstly, the theoretical understandings of place branding have moved beyond a conceptual framework stemming from corporate branding. Secondly, these theoretical developments are mainly derived from empirically based research. Thirdly, geographers, by studying place branding using various conceptions of place as defined in human geography, are making distinctive conceptual contributions to the multi-disciplinary research field of place branding.

This paper makes the case that conferences and award ceremonies are important means throughwhich best practices are presented as being successful, transferable and transformative. To dothis, it draws on the expanding literature on policy mobilities and a case study of the EuropeanWeek of Regions and Cities conference and one of the centrepieces at the conference, theRegioStars awards ceremony. Organised by public bodies within the European Union andEuropean Commission, these events take place annually in Brussels, and focus on best practicein regional and urban policy. The paper elaborates on its main argument in three ways. The first isthat award ceremonies and conferences shape and are shaped by institutional, spatial and scalardynamics. The second being that learning and educating are central to the performance ofconferences, award ceremonies and the associated mobilisation of policies. The third argumentis that such events have important consequences for those hosting the events.

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. 

 The purpose of this thesis is to study the intersectional impact of the arsenic crisis and the access to safe water in rural Bangladesh. Particular focus is set on the gender-related differences in the impact of arsenicosis. In order to also understand how different groups of women are affected by the arsenic crisis an intersectional analysis is utilized. The empirical data was collected during a qualitative case study in six arsenic acute villages in southwest Bangladesh. The study has applied a feminist geographical conceptual framework and utilized semi structured interviews and focus groups as primary methods: 49 semi structured interviews and 16 focus groups. Additional information has been gathered through observations and secondary sources. The results of the study indicate that the arsenic crisis and the access to safe water are aggravating gender inequalities as well as gender roles and responsibilities. The gender inequalities related to arsenicosis are particularly manifested in the access to health care and in the degree of social stigmatization: women are the biggest victims, and unmarried women in particular. The study also concludes that multiple axes of oppression such as class, disability, age and race should additionally be considered along with gender when studying the impact of the arsenic crisis on women. Along with gender oppression these additional groups of oppression are the most important ones in determining the magnitude of the negative impact of the arsenic crisis on women.

Denna uppsats använder blandade metoder för att studera planeringen för hållbara transporter utanför stadskärnan i Stockholms stad. Syftet är att med hjälp av en regressionsanalys undersöka sambandet mellan täthet och val av transportmedel på stadsdelsnivå, och att utifrån semistrukturerade intervjuer undersöka hur planerare på lokal nivå förhåller sig till förtätning och andra planeringsprinciper för att öka andelen hållbara transporter samt vilka hinder och möjligheter som finns i detta arbete. Resultatenantyder att det finns ett samband mellan täthet och hållbara transportmedel, men att detta samband är relativt svagt. Detta gör att planerare använder sig av kompletterande åtgärder. Integreringen av transport- och bebyggelseplanering är välfungerande, men kan förhindras av förekomsten av olika sektorsspecifika och politiska mål, inte minst i förhållande till planeringsinstitutioner utanför staden. Många andra hinder, exempelvis bilnormen och stadens ekonomi, bidrar också till att försvåra för hållbara transporter. Studiens resultat är i allmänhet i linje med tidigare forskning på området, exempelvis bekräftas frågans komplexitet.

Studien undersöker samhällsplaneringens roll för utövande av friluftsliv, utifrån teorier om hållbar mobilitet. Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys undersöks hur kommunerna Botkyrka, Haninge och Huddinge beskriver friluftslivet i sina översiktsplaner samt hur samhällsplaneringen anses skapa förutsättningar för friluftsliv. Analyserna visar att samtidigt som friluftslivet beskrivs vara viktigt, tenderar naturområden att minska vid exploatering. Dock anses samhällsplaneringen kunna tillgängliggöra friluftsområden, vilket kan motivera intrång i naturmiljön. GIS-baserade metoder har använts för att undersöka rumsliga mönster i avståndet till friluftsområden och kommunernas utbud av kollektivtrafik, gång- och cykelvägar. Detta för att vidare analysera vad mönstren kan innebära för tillgängligheten till friluftsområden. Resultaten visar att avståndet till friluftsområden minskar ju mer friliggande bostaden är, vilket innebär att boende i friliggande småhus har bättre möjlighet att utöva friluftsliv än boende i flerfamiljshus. Dock finns ett större utbud av kollektivtrafik samt gång- och cykelvägar i tätbebyggda områden, vilket understryker den rumsliga uppdelningen av bebyggelse och natur.

I denna essä undersöker jag hur olika idéer kring att skapa flexibla stadsmiljöer kan kopplas till målen om social hållbarhet. Argumenten och efterfrågan av flexibilitet diskuteras i förhållande till en förändrad syn på samhället och begreppet rum samt en strävan efter att skapa plats för det ”annorlunda”.  I arbetet förs en diskussion om hur olika teorier använder sig av flexibilitet och vilken form av flexibilitet man syftar på. Den konceptuella diskussionen kompletteras med två exempel från Stockholms stad, en urban trädgård och en normkritisk bar/galleri/scen. Den flexibilitet som argumenteras för i de idéer som jag sett närmare på fokuserar på gränser, fysiska och mentala som verkar för ramar i stadsmiljöer. Man förespråkar att se processerna som skapar och formar rummen och gränserna som skapas som plurala. Genom att arbeta med flexibla gränser så kan man skapa mångtydiga stadsmiljöer som är öppna även för det ”annorlunda”.

I miljonprogramsförorten Husby har boende höjt sina röster angående situationen här. Engagemanget har resulterat i rörelser som blivit aktörer på platsen. Utifrån Manuells Castells teorier om urbana gräsrotsrörelser är syftet att undersöka hur boende får inflytande i utvecklingsprocessen genom urbana rörelser. Jag genomför intervjuer med boende och aktiva inom rörelser i Husby för att besvara frågorna (1) Vilken roll har urbana rörelser spelat i Husbys utveckling?(2) Hur ser relation mellan urbana rörelser ut och offentliga och privata aktörer som verkar inom Husby. Har relationen utvecklats och hur har rörelsen lyckats påverka och få inflytande över de förändringarna som görs i området?(3) Hur ser engagemanget hos de boende och de urbana rörelserna ut? Vad som visas är att konflikter har tvingat bostadsbolag och kommun till handling men endast rörelser som är villiga att arbeta inom dessa aktörers ramar accepteras och får fortsätta att delta i arbetet på den institutionaliserade arenan.

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur Nyköpings kommun arbetar med barn och ungas deltagande i den kommunala planeringen samt hur barnperspektivet implementeras. Studien belyser de tillvägagångssätt som planerarna använt samt vilka utmaningar och möjligheter som finns med detta. För att besvara syftet bygger uppsatsen på litteraturstudier och semi-strukturerade intervjuer med kommunala tjänstepersoner. Empirin har analyserats med hjälp av Roger Harts delaktighetsstege och Henri Lefebvres enhetsteori. Resultaten visar att det finns en positiv inställning till barn och ungas inkludering och genom olika projekt har de fått vara med och påverka planeringen i kommunen. Dock framkom även att inkluderingen inte är tillräcklig. Tidsbristen är den största orsaken till detta och det saknas också kunskap kring hur man ska gå tillväga. För att barn och ungas deltagande ska öka och bli en självklarhet i planeringen krävs en satsning av resurser och prioritering på den politiska nivån samt en vilja bland fler aktörer. 

Involvement of communities in forest conservation and other forms of environmental governance isproliferating. Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) is one mechanism,designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by reversing deforestation trends in low-incomecountries. The benefits of involving communities in conservation projects have been recognized,but one aspect of environmental governance that so far has received less attention is how theinterests and attitudes of people towards the environment are altering over time and with newinstitutional arrangements. Based on interviews and group discussions during fieldwork in theKhasi Hills REDD+ project, Meghalaya, India, profound changes in environmental subjectivitieswere found among the people in the area. New regulations, changes in the environment, raisedawareness, and changed practices have turned forests into an entity seen as important for protection.Using a governmentality framework, the objectives and rationalities of forest protection have beeninternalized among the population. Further, the material characteristics of nature was found to be anaspect in subject formation. This thesis argues that local attitudes towards conservation correspondto changes beyond governance structures that ought to be taken under consideration for why peoplecome to perceive the environment as they do.

In January 2012 a broad spectrum of popular groups staged an unprecedented protest against the removal of what has been termed a “subsidy” on fuel prices by the Nigerian government. The participation of tailors in this national political event suggests that self-employed artisans were prepared to transcend their narrow nonpolitical agenda to promote their interests and demands for decent social and economic conditions. Interviews with participating organization representatives in Lagos indicate the supportive role of alliances with labor unions and organized informal workers at large. We see current global developments in the textile industry as conducive to this outcome.

The power of trade unions is under threat. Membership dwindles and labour rights are subverted. Trade unions in Nigeria attempt to boost their power and numbers by linking up with the vast majority in the informal economy. Nigeria’s textile industry is in steep decline. Can the once powerful textile union recover its strength by linking up with the tailors? Can they jointly challenge the neoliberal order? This article discusses the scope for advancing broader national goals, including democratization and making the state more responsive to economic and political needs. In conclusion, it raises issues of wider alliances. It sees organising in the informal economy and alliances across the formal-informal divide as critical to the reorientation of the national economy.