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.

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.

Huvudsyftet med denna studie är att få kunskaper om varför man flyttar till Östbergahöjden och Dalen samt vilka kvaliteter och eventuella problem de nyinflyttade upplever i respektive område.

Metoden för att erhålla svar på frågorna är skriftliga enkäter där inbjudan att delta i en webbaserad enkät sändes ut via brev till personer som flyttat in till Östbergahöjden respektive Dalen under år 2014. Data på inflyttade personer 2014 erhölls från SPAR. Såväl brevet med inbjudan som enkäten var på både svenska och engelska.

Antalet inflyttade år 2014 var 341 personer i Östbergahöjden och 320 personer i Dalen. Svarsfrekvensen efter två påminnelser blev totalt ca 12% i båda områdena, en mycket låg siffra.

En analys av delgrupper av svarande indikerar att de som svarat kan anses vara representativa för de som har köpt en bostadsrätt eller fått en hyresrätt i respektive område.

Priserna på bostäderna i Dalen och Östbergahöjden uppfattas som billiga och prisvärda. Det är den mest omnämnda orsaken för flytt till båda områdena. Man har kunnat köpa sin bostad eller köpa en större bostad. Man har i båda områdena i viss utsträckning flyttat från hyresrätt till bostadsrätt vilket talar för att områdena till del har fungerat som ett insteg på bostadsrättsmarknaden för de inflyttande.

De svarande i båda områdena tillsammans bedömer att bostadsområdet de bodde i tidigare var tryggare, hade bättre rykte, att man hade bättre förtroende för grannar, att man tog mer hänsyn till varandra och att man höll mer rent och snyggt. Svaren per område visar att man i Östbergahöjden upplever att trygghet och områdets rykte är de faktorer där skillnaderna är störst och negativa jämfört med det bostadsområde där man bodde innan flytten.

Att läget är centralt med goda kommunikationer och bra service är det näst mest omnämnda orsaken till varför man flyttat in, både för Dalen och Östbergahöjden. Andra ofta omnämnda orsaker till att flytta till Dalen är: ”nära natur, grönt”; ”trevligt område, fin arkitektur”; ”barnvänligt, bra skola, dagis ”samt att ”vänner, släkt har rekommenderat området”. Andra ofta nämnda orsaker att flytta till Östbergahöjden är att man ”flyttar ihop eller isär”; ”flyttat med släkt och familj” samt ”fick möjligheten; var tvungen”.

Det bästa med att bo i både Dalen och Östberga är att områdena ligger nära Stockholms centrum. För Dalen omnämns också ”nära natur”; ”trevliga grannar, bra gemenskap”; ”trevligt område, ”fina innergårdar” samt ”bra lägenhet, stor lägenhet, billigt att bo”.

Det mest omnämnda problemet med att bo i Östbergahöjden är ”anlagd brand”. Därefter kommer ”ungdomsgäng, knark, störande beteende, otryggt”, vilket också är de problem som omnämns mest i Dalen. I Dalen kommer därefter ”nedskräpning, dålig sophantering” samt ”dålig bostadskvalitet, planlösning, ljudisolering”.

I Dalen upplever man att tex ungdomskriminaliteten minskat och att befolkningen håller på att gentrifieras. I Östbergahöjden fortsätter problemen med kriminalitet och bränder vilket oroar de boende. Östbergahöjden ser ut att lida större brist på socialt förtroende, gemenskap och samarbete än Dalen.

In the UK, the unprecedented cuts to local budgets, implemented by the national governments from 2010 to the present day, have pushed local authorities to reconsider their scope, their role and their action. The ever decreasing budgets have de facto transformed local councils from service providers to territorial entrepreneurs, as the pressing pursuit of revenues has placed the economic profit at the core of the local policy-making. Urban planning plays a central role in this shift in mindset. The British planning system has been remodelled so to facilitate the implementation of development processes, as these grant revenues from planning obligations, uplifts in land values and higher income from taxes. The reform of the planning system has however conceded free rein to developers, especially through the introduction of the Development Viability Appraisal, a document which they use to reduce the provision of affordable housing, in favour of luxury housing tenures. Therefore, in London the mechanisms that rule the territorial transformations exacerbate the existing housing crisis and force local communities to face displacement. Austerity has thus initiated a cascade-effect whose negative externalities are tangible at the very local level. The emerged topics find their concretization in the description of the Heygate Estate regeneration.

This introduction to the special issue "The Geography of Innovation and Entrepreneurship" in the Annals of Regional Science surveys a collection of nine papers which consider agglomeration economies and spatial heterogeneity of regions and firms through the lenses of innovation and entrepreneurship. They all make use of extensive and detailed data sources that enable models to provide a richer picture of how firms, industries and regions are affected by innovation and entrepreneurship but also how these entities shape and foster renewal. These factors include spatial concentration, industry composition, labor market characteristics, immigration, firm characteristics, R&D activities and R&D collaboration. The papers add to the understanding of the geography of innovation and entrepreneurship by suggesting alternative ways of identifying spillovers, combing and integrating internal and external knowledge sources, and by estimating the impact on innovation, new firm formation and growth.

We analyse changes in individual travel behaviour in Stockholm County over 30 years, using three large cross-sectional travel survey data sets. We show how travel patterns evolve over time by gender, income and age-group, in different areas of the region (centre vs. periphery).  We relate the observed trends in travel behaviour to societal trends (gender equality, ICT adoption, knowledge-based economy) and policy changes (congestion charges), and we compare them to trends in other European capital cities.

We study long-term trends in regional car travel demand within and across socio-demographic groups in Sweden, using cross-sectional data from National Travel Surveys, spanning the period from 1978 to 2011. We find that the reduction in per-adult driving in Sweden mainly occurs among urban men. Urban men of all income groups reduced their driving for both commuting and non-commuting trips in conjunction with rising gasoline prices, which may have contributed to this development. We find that driving among those socio-demographic groups, who have better opportunities to reduce their driving, and driving for discretionary rather than commute purposes is being reduced over time. Sweden is ranked among the most gender-equal countries in the world; yet we find a substantial remaining gender gap in the share of adults driving a car on an average day, even when controlling for other socio-economic differences.

We study aspects of economic growth in a stylized smart city with two distinct features. First, the modeled inhabitants of this city are smart because they possess skills. Using the language of Richard Florida, these inhabitants comprise the city's creative class and hence they possess creative capital. Second, the city is smart because it uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) and we model one specific kind of ICT use. In this setting, we first derive expressions for three growth related metrics. Second, we use these metrics to show that the economy of smart city A converges to a balanced growth path (BGP). Third, we compute the growth rate of output per effective creative capital unit on this BGP. Fourth, we study how heterogeneity in initial conditions affects outcomes on the BGP by introducing a second smart city B into the analysis. At time t = 0 two key savings rates in city A are twice as large as in city B. We compute the ratio of the BGP value of income per effective creative capital unit in city A to its value in city B. Finally, we compute the ratio of the BGP value of skills per effective creative capital unit in city A to its value in city B.

The contradictions of commoning practices have recently gained increasing attention in critical research. As such, research has shown that collective practices of gardening in common produce contradictory effects not necessarily in line with progressive ideas of the common. Instead of a general dismissal of commoning due to its documented contradictions, I suggest looking beyond the naïve wishing away of contradictions by way of deploying Marxist dialectics as a research perspective from which to explicate and understand underlying processes. Rather than undermining the common's potential as a post-capitalist alternative, this article uses contradictions as an analytical lens through which the meaning of six contradictions of urban garden commons identified in the academic literature is explored. This article concludes that a conceptual focus on contradictions allows for a reflexive and critical research practice revealing the complexity of dialectical relations through which the practice of gardening propels changes but also the reproduction of existing relations.

Fossil fuels contribute 86% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. These emissions must decline rapidly every year to reach Net Zero by 2050 in order to stay within internationally agreed limits for climate change. The oil and gas industry makes extensive use of information and communication technology (ICT) to run their business of supplying these fuels. In this paper, we investigate the role of ICT in the oil and gas industry, and explore how ICT professionals might reason about their involvement in this deeply unsustainable sector. Through a scoping review, we find that ICT is an essential enabler of the fossil fuel sector with ICT budgets in USD billions and tens of thousands of ICT staff. We map out case studies of collective action against unethical corporate practices and survey pragmatic and ethical bases for deciding whether to leave or stay in the oil and gas industry. Using reports from the activity of ICT professionals, we identify patterns for action. The results show that there are important gaps in the literature on the role of ICT in the oil and gas industry. To counter this, we propose a research agenda to better understand the extent to which ICT enables this damaging industry ("Tech4Bad") and how ICT professionals think about their role within it.

Boosting economic growth and competitiveness in different spatial contexts such as national, regional, metropolitan etc. has always been in the epicenter of both large and small-scale planning efforts pursued at different levels of government from local to extra- regional and their significance is still, and probably will always be, on the rise given the ever increasing competition in today’s, and yet-to-come future world. In order to achieve this, relevant authorities have devised and implemented a vast variety of policies and approaches which are, more often than not, based on abundance of theoretical contributions in the field of economic geography. This thesis explores one of the main theoretical contributions to this field being Innovation Systems theory and tries to adapt the concept, originally intended for application at a larger scale, to the perspective of an individual firm rather than a whole production system while briefly using empirics from the spatial context of Adelaide/South Australia, loosely defined as a region, and the sectoral context of electricity infrastructure. The initial conclusion here is that applying the concept to the more manageable context of an individual firm, may have the potential to enable one to identify the relevant organizational and institutional setup more effectively and present a better explanatory description of their role in the whole Innovation system and in turn, can contribute to a more informed planning and policy- making process for regional economic growth. 

Cities are vital for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), but different local strategies to advance on the same SDG may cause different ‘spillovers’ elsewhere. Research efforts that support governance of such spillovers are urgently needed to empower ambitious cities to ‘account globally’ when acting locally on SDG implementation strategies.

This doctoral thesis concerns the interplay between multinational enterprises (MNE) and spatial economies, with an orientation towards the location and spillover effects of inward foreign direct investments (FDI). The thesis consists of four essays that are self-contained studies. The first essay relates to the shift away from FDI in manufacturing to services and examines whether service FDI locates differently from manufacturing FDI. The second essay concerns the relationship between FDI and public incentives and whether investment promotion schemes are useful to attract FDI. The third essay examines the link between human capital and FDI and how different types of skilled workers influence FDI location. Taken together, these three essays examine conditions and factors that determine the location decision of foreign MNEs in the contemporary era of globalisation. The forth essay examines whether labour mobility is a potential source for spillovers from FDI in a spatial context. Although the latter essay does not provide any final answer to whether spillovers actually arise through this channel, it shows that the potentials for an effect to arise are larger in some regions than others because there are very few or no such knowledge spillover agents in many parts of the country. The thesis concludes by discussing the link between FDI and the policy work on regional development, and some avenues for future studies.

This study investigates the relationship between different types of human capital (HC) and the location of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sweden, over the period 2002-2009. The purpose is to examine how firm-specific, industrial-specific, and occupational-specific HC influence the location of FDI in high technology industries and knowledge based services, among other factors that featured prominently in preceding FDI location work. Conditional logit estimates indicate that all types of HC are important but that occupational-specific HC appears to be key in attracting foreign firms in knowledge intensive production. This result emphasise the importance of highly skilled professionals, whose knowledge is relatively easily transferred across industry and firm settings. Other results largely uphold the basic tenets and empirical results in prior FDI location work.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how human capital influences the regional distribution of Greenfield investments. The research strategy is to classify employees into different occupational groups based on their knowledge and skills, and examine how the regional distribution of human capital influences the probability of a region receiving new foreign start-ups. The relationship between multinationals´ location choice and human capital is studied on a population of new foreign start-ups in business services that established in Sweden between 2001 and 2008.

This paper aims at analyzing location choice among foreign companies in Sweden. Using an empirical approach on micro data, their location choices are explored at the regional level and analyzed in a typology setting. Controls are made for industrial sectors and the role played by agglomeration economies. The results are consistent with the hypothesis on a strong relationship between location choice and agglomeration economies and also that industrial agglomeration play a role in location decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how different host-economic attributes are associated with the location patterns of new foreign establishments in the tertiary sector. It investigates Greenfield investments made in Sweden between 2001 and 2007 and how these are related to different host-economic attributes. The aim is to analyze how regional characteristics are associated to differences in how regions succeed to attract foreign investors. Three groups of factors, i.e. agglomeration economies, market potentials and factor endowment are tested empirically in a negative binomial regression model. The principal contributions are insights in the application of regional determinants on foreign start-ups in tertiary industries and how different professionals play a role in firms´ location decisions. The results indicate that non-price benefits from urban economies, accessibility to specialized professionals and local market size play an important role in firms´ location decision. Professionals with technical knowledge are the most required type of personnel. The relevance of the applied model varies between different industries within the tertiary sector. It seems to be most relevant for market knowledge intensive services and least relevant for firms in energy.

This study investigates the location of foreign direct investments in Sweden over the period 2002-2009. FDI are measured through the frequency of foreign ventures, i.e. new operating facilities established through Greenfield investments, per region and industrial sector. The aim is to provide cross-industrial evidence to bear on the question whether there is a need to reconsider factors traditionally used to explain FDI location: market potentials, agglomeration economies, transport infrastructure, and factor costs. Negative binomial regression results indicate significant differences across industries in what determines FDI location. The overall model result is that regions with a relatively diverse economy, good access to international airport and a qualified labour force appear to be the most attractive destinations. Diversity, which relates to Jacobs externalities and may stem from urbanisation economies, seems to be the only factor efficient to explain FDI in both manufacturing and service industries. This emphasises the crucial importance of information and knowledge spillovers in the current era of globalisation.

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to investigate regional location determinants ofmultinationals in the tertiary sector. It develops an empirical framework that is tested with a conditional logit model. Using Sweden as a case in point, the paper investigates how different host-economic attributes influence foreign companies´ investments behavior. The results indicate that the framework has a relatively high explanatory power on location choices made by firms in location boundservices; business related activities and pubic related activities, especially in the situation of Greenfield investments.

The analysis of regional economic performance on the European area is from a national point of view a comparative decision making process. Heterogeneity between regions interferes with the reliability and validity of such studies. Therefore, a comparative framework for European regional studies related to regional disparities in a country is of critical importance. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to establish a typology which aims at making analysis of European regions more meaningful from a Swedish point of view. The established typology is founded on two continuous variables and one nominal variable and has been elaborated with a statistical clustering and classification process. The new typology comprises 39 European regions organized in six relatively homogenous regional families that can be used for analytical purposes.

This study investigates labour mobility flows between foreign firms and domestic employers in Sweden, which is done from the perspective that inter-firm mobility is a potential source of spillovers from FDI. After reviewing related literature, the study identifies potential knowledge spillover agents and examines the spatial extent of labour mobility patterns within and between 72 functional local labour market regions, including the effect of distance. Empirical results are provided on the frequency and relative importance of spillover agents across Sweden. Although the study neither provides any final answer for the underlying reasons for these flows nor their effect on domestic firms or local economies, which are questions left for future studies, it argues that the spatial dimension may have important implications for spillover effects to arise.

Over the last three decades, the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT) has provided the scientific community with outstanding high-latitude data for research on the lower, middle and upper atmosphere and ionosphere using the incoherent scatter radar technique. The research facilities are located north of the Arctic Circle in Finland, Norway, Sweden and on Svalbard, and have since they first were taken into operation in August 1981 contributed a remarkable scientific output. This research has contributed to the understanding of different space and atmospheric phenomena and opened up and to several new fields of research. EISCAT is currently planning the next generation research facility, EISCAT_3D, which is an projected investment of more than 1,1 billion SEK (135 million €) with planned start of construction in 2015, first operations in 2018, and to be in full operation 2021. EISCAT_3D is anticipated to provide researchers with opportunities to conduct novel scientific experiments that may shift the frontiers in several scientific disciplines, but may also be utilized to develop services with specific societal values, see Kero et al. (2013). 

This study examines the economic and societal importance of EISCAT in a spatial context. The results indicate that EISCAT generates minor purely economic effects but contributes to strengthening the regional competitiveness and attractiveness, mainly though a remarkable scientific output and extra-regional linkages which enable continual renewal and dynamism of local knowledge. EISCAT has also implied a large injection of research funding to the region. It is argued ESICAT should not only be considered as a research facility with great scientific value but also as an interconnecting infrastructure and organisation in value creating knowledge networks with global reach. The study suggests that EISCAT_3D is an investment with many important potential implications but that the related development work needs to carefully consider how to promote a high level of absorptive capacity among organisations with related activities. It is obvious that a proactive work and cooperation with national, regional and local actors will impact a full range of benefits from EISCAT_3D.

Denna studie handlar om framtiden för Borås. Den gör det för att dess tema gäller högskolans roll som en central komponent i en kunskapsproducerande ekonomi med global räckvidd. I studien analyseras hur kunskap sprids från utbildnings- och forskningsverksamheten vid Högskolan i Borås till det omgivande samhället samt betydelsen av olika kunskapsspridningsmekaismer. Syftet är att öka förståelsen av högskolans roll för kompetensförsörjning, forskning och samverkan i en regional kontext. Studiens bakgrund är ett tilltagande behov att förstå och förklara hur kunskap sprids och spiller över från universitet och högskolor samt den långsiktiga betydelsen av högre lärosäten för kompetensförsörjning och regional utveckling. För planerare och beslutsfattare kan studien ligga till grund för diskussioner och planeringsarbete om hur främja högskolans roll som motor i en kunskapsdriven ekonomi.En slutsats av den förhållandevis omfattande genomgång som studien görs av utbildning, forskning och samverkan vid Högskolan i Borås är att högskolan uppvisar förhållanden som liknar de som gäller vid andra regionala högskolor i landet. Studenterna sätter sin prägel på stads- och kulturliv. Högskolan framstår som väl etablerad på sin ort. Detta lägger en grund för ekonomisk tillväxt och utveckling. Man behöver dock förbättra det strategiska arbetet med att få fler att stanna kvar, inte minst bland dem med utbildning och kunskap utanför välfärdsrelaterade yrken. Bland dem med utbildning och kunskap typisk inom innovationsrelaterat arbete samt teknisk forskning och utveckling är det relativt få som stannar kvar. För att få studenterna att stanna kvar efter avslutad måste förutsättningarna stärkas för karriärer inom yrken med krav på (fördjupad) högskolekompetens.För att detta ska vara möjligt krävs ett långsiktigt och gränsöverskridande arbete som involverar högskolan, företag, entreprenörer och offentliga arbetsgivare samt planerare och beslutsfattare på lokal, regional och nationell nivå. Ett lyckosamt ett exempel på ett sådant arbete är satsningen Smart Textiles. Man behöver dock ett bredare och mer omfattande engagemang. En central fråga i ett sådant arbete är hur långt man kommit i att främja ett närings- och arbetsliv som skapar en kompetensmultiplikator till nytta för den ekonomiska utvecklingen på längre sikt. En annan fråga är hur kunskapsnyttor från forskningsverksamheten vid Högskolan i Borås kan få ännu större spridning och förankring i regionen.För att komma vidare på det spåret behövs en kritisk granskning från universitetsledningen av hur man ska förhålla sig till frågan om konkurrens eller samverkan mellan universiteten i Västra Götaland. Vid strategivalet kring Högskolan i Jönköping eller som lärosätet nu heter Jönköping University har frågan om lokal förankring eller internationell positionering varit av central betydelse. Det ambitiösa valet att satsa på det internationella spåret och göra hela Jönköping University internationellt har inte skett utan motsättningar och svårigheter.

This study investigates factors determining the location of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Sweden. The main purpose is to examine the link between FDI and public incentives, in the form of regional grants, which make up a central part of the Swedish regional policy and state expenditures that explicitly addresses regional development. Our main finding is that there is no evidence of a robust relationship between grants and the location of FDI. However, a statistically significant effect is found for investment support and transport allowance, which are grants that aims at promoting development in designated areas. This by supporting investments in machines, buildings, and so on, and offset costs disadvantages in the northern parts of the country. We conclude that a better integration between the work on FDI and regional development may be a plausible route to promote economic development in Sweden, particularly in deprived regions.

This paper applies an analytical method for developing policy strategies to optimize municipal waste management systems (MWMSs) to the case of the Land of Fires (LoF). The LoF is an area of Italy’s Campania region that is characterized by a legacy of authoritarian environmental governance and the improper dumping and burning of waste. In this paper, we employ the fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) method, which draws on a participatory approach. Specifically, the complexity of the investigated system was determined from the causal relations identified by relevant stakeholders and experts. The results show that the most effective policy strategies to improve the LoF MWMS, as identified by informants, include: fostering social innovation (e.g. communication and information campaigns); promoting technological innovation (e.g. material and process design); and supporting scientific and technological cooperation among actors. The overall diversity of the identified policy strategies suggests that policy makers must move beyond a simple “best option” approach, given the systemic complexity of the waste management sector.

Despite adding 292 million inhabitants to its urban population between 1960 and 2010, the level of urbanization in India has remained considerably low. Recent efforts on behalf of the government, however, illustrate a shift from a previously passive approach to urban development to a more active one, signifying a concerted effort to accelerate urbanization. In an attempt to better understand India’s contemporary urban narrative, this paper sets out to examine its urban transition between 1960 and 2010, and to speculate on its future growth trajectory. In doing so, it seeks to explore the questions, why has India’s urbanization failed to take-off? And, should India be pursuing an accelerated urbanization strategy? Findings suggest that India’s urban transition has been underpinned by processes of demographic change, leading to dramatic increases in both urban and rural populations; a dynamic that has slowed urbanization. It also finds that, despite there being a strong relationship between the level of urbanization and the level of economic growth, no compelling relationship between the speed of urbanization and the speed of economic growth was found. This suggests that pursuing an accelerated urbanization strategy may not lead to the intended economic outcomes. This goes to show that the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is complex, and that urbanization on its own is not a panacea for development. Urbanization strategies thus need to be complimented and reinforced by a range of other development policies.

Owing to the dramatic pace and scale of its transformation, Nigeria is considered Africa’s next urban giant. Between 1960 and 2010, Nigeria added approximately 62.5 million inhabitants to its urban population, with forecasts to 2050 projecting an additional 226 million. As Nigeria forges ahead into the next chapter of its urban transition, there is an unmet need to take stock of past experiences, identify trends, and speculate on future growth trajectories. Taking advantage of recently available datasets from the United Nations and the Africapolis Project, this paper launches an inquiry into the nature and causes of Nigeria’s rapid urban transition between 1960 and 2010. It disaggregates urbanization into its individual components of urban growth and calculates their contributions to the overall urban increment. Several notable findings are highlighted. Nigeria, which is considered a late urbanizer, is currently in the accelerated stage of its urban transition and is projected to enter the terminal stage by 2030. Urban natural population increase has been the dominant component of urban growth in the post-colonial period and will likely continue to be so in the immediate future. Despite this, policies aimed at stemming rural to urban migration appear to have been the preferred mechanism for lessening the pressures posed by the contemporary urban transition, suggesting a potential policy mismatch.

This thesis is concerned with the challenges posed by the contemporary urban narrative in developing countries. It is premised on the notion of the urban transition, which posits that as a country develops it undergoes a transformation from a predominantly rural society to a predominantly urban one. Throughout most of history, the urban transition was largely a phenomenon confined to what are considered todays developed countries; however, sometime around the middle of the 20th century, this began to change and the urban transition began to takeoff in developing countries. The contemporary urban narrative differentiates itself from historical accounts in that it is unfolding at an unprecedented pace and scale, placing significant pressure on urban areas. With the pressures of rapid urbanization and rapid urban growth already outstripping the capacities of local governments, planning and managing the urban transition is arguably one of the most important topics of the 21st century. In an attempt to identify approaches for managing the unprecedented pace and scale of the contemporary urban narrative, this thesis sets out to investigate the forces underpinning it. It has been organized into two parts: the first part comprises a comprehensive cover essay setting out the overarching research agenda and the second part comprises a series of five articles that make up the empirical analysis. Both sections can be read independently or constitute a single entity.

The main contribution of this thesis is the introduction of a multidisciplinary framework for conceptualizing the urban transition in developing countries and its application to several case studies. The so-called ‘Rapid Urban Growth Triad’ situates the components of urban growth (rural to urban migration, urban natural population increase and reclassification of rural areas as urban) within their dominant theoretical discourses. As such, it views urban natural population increase as a demographic factor effected by changes in fertility and mortality patterns, rural to urban migration as an economic factor resulting from rural push and urban pull dynamics, and reclassification of rural areas as urban as a political/ administrative factor which occurs through the annexation of neighboring settlements, rural areas upgraded as urban, settlements crossing defined population thresholds and changes in urban definition. The framework offers explanatory power to the previously neglected components of urban growth and serves as a diagnostic for examining the urban transition under a range of circumstances.

Utilizing the new conceptual framework as the primary mode of analysis, this thesis employs several demographic accounting techniques to disaggregate urbanization into its individual components of urban growth and computes their individual contributions to the overall urban increment. China, Nigeria and India have been selected as notable case studies, as these three countries are expected to account for the largest increase in urban population over the coming decades. The findings indicate that rural to urban migration has been the dominant component of urban growth in China, while urban natural population increase has been the dominant component in Nigeria and India; furthermore, in all three case studies, reclassification has made a more sizable contribution than initially understood. Moreover, it was found that in some instances the policies being prescribed to manage the urban transition did not match the identified sources of growth, suggesting a potential policy mismatch. This thesis also reveals several dynamics pertaining to the unprecedented pace and scale of the urban transition and the relationship between urbanization and economic growth. Collectively, these findings offer a more nuanced account of the urban transition in developing countries.

Despite the urban transition being a universal event that unfolds in nearly all countries of the world, this thesis finds that it does not necessarily unfold in a uniform manner, suggesting the notion of multiple urbanization trajectories. These findings have implications for existing policies, which tend to be based on a rather outmoded understanding of the urban transition. Ultimately, this thesis calls for more informed (evidenced-based) approaches for understanding and managing the urban transition in developing countries.

As a country transitions from a lower order of development to a higher order of development, it undergoes a structural transformation. Accordingly, the spatial economy transforms from a system organized around smaller economic units distributed throughout the countryside, to one comprising larger economic units concentrated in dense urban areas. While historically this process unfolded at a rather gradual pace, it is now being redefined by the unprecedented pace and scale of the contemporary urban narrative. This has presented new patterns of urbanization. Utilizing comparable datasets for China, Nigeria and India this paper examines the evolution of national urban systems under conditions of rapid urban transformation. In doing so, it scrutinizes three key dynamics: the spatial distribution of cities, the rate of growth by city size class and the size hierarchy of cities. The results are compared to see if uniform patterns emerge. The findings of this paper suggest a certain degree of heterogeneity among national urban systems; and in some instances contrasting patterns can be observed. We thus caution against a ‘one size fits all’ approach to interpreting the urban transition in developing countries. The findings of this paper have implications for both theory and policy.

As a country transitions from a lower order of development to a higher order of development, it undergoes a structural transformation. Accordingly, the spatial economy transforms from a system organized around smaller economic units distributed throughout the countryside, to one comprising larger economic units concentrated in dense urban areas. While historically this process unfolded at a rather gradual pace, it is now being redefined by the unprecedented pace and scale of the contemporary urban narrative. This has presented new patterns of urbanization. Utilizing comparable datasets for China, Nigeria and India this paper examines the evolution of national urban systems under conditions of rapid urban transformation. In doing so, it scrutinizes three key dynamics: the spatial distribution of cities, the rate of growth by city size class and the size hierarchy of cities. The results are compared to see if uniform patterns emerge. The findings of this paper suggest a certain degree of heterogeneity among national urban systems; and in some instances contrasting patterns can be observed. We thus caution against a ‘one size fits all’ approach to interpreting the urban transition in developing countries. The findings of this paper have implications for both theory and policy.

Having gone from 11.8% of its population inhabiting urban areas in 1950 to 49.2% by 2010, China represents the most dramatic urban transformation the world has seen. With the contemporary urban narrative presenting new challenges, particularly in terms of its unprecedented pace and scale, this paper conducts an inquiry into the nature and causes of China’s rapid urban ascent. Making use of a new analytical framework, this paper maps out the changing stages of China’s urban transition and examines the components of urban growth underpinning it. It arrives at several notable findings. Rural to urban migration has been the dominant component of urban growth, followed by urban natural population increase and reclassification. Although China’s urban growth rates were high, it is the reduction in rural growth rates that underpinned China’s particularly rapid urbanization rates. China is currently in the latter part of the accelerated stage of its urban transition, and is expected to enter the terminal stage by 2030. In light of China’s ongoing urban transition, this paper concludes with reflections on China’s New-Type Urbanization Plan 2014–2020.

The aim of the paper is to elaborate the popular concept of spatial clusters in a broader regional development context. Are regional clusters natural and emergent? Do we understand how and why? Does the concept necessarily imply nearness? How much? How little? Is there a role for policy makers? This contribution offers an up-to-date critical perspective. 

Economic downturns and the subsequent trends of privatization and marketization that follow have prompted the development and expansion of urban commons as the commoner searches for more participatory forms of governance. Modern member-driven and non-profit organizations, like makerspaces, are utilizing the digital commons to provide more accessibility and autonomy, reducing the need for external funding and providing a means to crowdsource information and manage shared resources. This research investigates how combining digital and physical forms of governance, communication and learning can enable urban commons to sustain themselves and eventually compete with the mainstream market. In this research the case study of the Stockholm Makerspace is analyzed through two theoretical lenses, firstly Ostrom’s eight design principles and secondly the community capitals framework. The research methodology involved an open-ended survey, desktop study, and a digital ethnography. I found that digital commons provide an accessible arena for conflict resolution, community planning, and informal education by facilitating interpersonal relations for urban dwellers with weak social ties. The digital infrastructure also provides a platform for group monitoring and community awareness that I think is vital to maintaining a satisfied body of members.

Transforming energy systems is increasingly recognized as a societal response to mitigating climate change, with potential to catalyse a paradigmatic shift towards decarbonization. The article looks at the diversity of claims presented to ascribe meaning to policy problems (i.e. structural conditions, contextual technical or ideational appeals to values), and framed within wider institutional perspectives for reform, development, and strategies for addressing climate change in Mexico and Vietnam. The findings suggest both governments maintain a more exclusive than inclusive form of energy governance and retain centralized power over renewable energy and climate change mitigation responses. This is not only because of technological infrastructural lock-ins, but also because they maintain a more exclusive than inclusive form of energy governance that is justified and legitimized by the need for energy supply and access security, and green growth as a source of continuous economic growth. Framing broader energy reforms as part of climate change mitigation goals allow for incumbent actors to further legitimise a conservative neoliberal agenda. These two cases offer insights into how newly emerging economies are facing energy sector reforms while being confronted with energy sector transformations dictated by the climate change mitigation agenda.

KEYWORDS: Low-carbon electricity infrastructure, development discourse, energy systems, transformational change, discursive institutionalism

Quite recently certification systems for sustainable development of neighborhoods and communities came to the market. These systems try to define urban sustainability through sets of criteria that in a variety of ways measure aspects in developments that have an influence on environmental, social and economical issues. The idea in this thesis is to investigate the monetary values on these criteria, derived from property prices from apartments and single family houses in Copenhagen. In order to make proper estimates on the monetary values for certification criteria a hedonic price model is used. The model holds property prices from about 20 000 sales as dependent variable which is then correlated, through multiple regressions, with variables made out of the criteria. Translation from certification criteria into measurable variables is done with great consideration to contemporary urban theory. It turns out that 19 of all measured criteria are statistically significant. From this result the conclusion would be that people are not very willing to pay for urban sustainability, but going back to theory and earlier studies it seems more likely that it is a question of scale. Since previous studies implies that many of the key factors in urban sustainability are positively valued on a city scale, the result from this thesis could be viewed as complementing in the sense that it shows that people are not willing to pay for urban sustainability within their neighborhood but on the city scale they might be.

Transport is largely a derived demand and serves the needs of producers and consumers acrossthe various sectors of the economy. Hence, business decisions taken by these non-transport sectorscan have a major influence on passenger and freight travel patterns (particularly in terms of then umbers and location of trips); yet these transport consequences and the impacts on traffic congestion, accidents, air pollution and CO2 emissions, are rarely taken into account when these sectors develop their models for (public) service delivery and business models. This deliverable provides an initial conceptual framework to help address this problem.

It first presents (Chapter 3) an international review of locational and service delivery decision-makingin several sectors, with a more in-depth analysis of case studies from the health sector. It concludes that, while there is a credible academic literature, there is limited public documentation about actual business decision-making processes and no underpinning conceptual framework.

The latter issue is addressed in Chapter 4, where seven conceptual cornerstones are introduced, as inputs to aproposed conceptual framework. Chapter 5 considers the applicability of this embryonic conceptual framework to four sectors (health, education, retail and tourism), while Chapter 6 explores existing forms and degrees of cross-sectorcoordination in each of the six SUMP-PLUS cities.

Energy security has gained increasing prominence on the EU political agenda, but is often framed narrowly, in terms of import dependency or security of supply. In this paper we screen and scope out a more comprehensive suite of energy security aspects to be considered when assessing low-carbon energy scenarios and apply it using the EU Energy Roadmap as an example. Availability and affordability issues as well as security of demand matters and geopolitical security aspects are identified and discussed. External factors, e.g., future international climate treaties and international relations, are important for some energy security outcomes. A broader framing of energy security together with structured assessments on the security implications of energy transitions would benefit future EU energy policy.

There are many signs indicating that artificial intelligence – reproduction of the cognitive functions that humans have such as learning and problem solving by machines– has been spreading among various industries. The rise of artificial intelligence – as this article conceptualize as a general purpose technology –   is affecting not only the cognitive dimension of technological innovation systems but also the organizational, institutional and economic dimensions. However, from a technological point of view, studies in technological innovation systems often focus on specific purpose technologies. What about general purpose technologies – which open up new opportunities rather than offering complete final solutions? In this paper, we aim to explore how a general purpose technology affects the innovation systems. In order to do so, we conduct a qualitative case study on artificial intelligence in mining and metal producing industry of Sweden. Our contribution is twofold. Firstly, we clarify how artificial intelligence can be conceptualized as a general purpose technology in innovation systems perspective. Secondly, we find out how a general purpose technology affects the dynamics of innovation systems.

The iron and steel industry accounts for one third of global industrial CO2 emissions (IEA, 2015a), putting transformative pressures on the industry to shift towards more sustainable modes of production.  Steel is widely used in every country and almost all industries, with a growing trend around the globe. There is a common agreement that the industry needs to improve the energy efficiency, recycle more and switch to low-carbon production processes (IEA, 2015a; Rynikiewicz, 2008; Sridhar and Li, 2016; WSA, 2016). However, this transitions requires a lengthy and complex process at which radical innovations are required to reduce the emissions and ,thus, facilitate the sustainability transitions (Wesseling et al., 2016).

In this study, we focus on the iron and steel industry in Sweden – a rarely studied context in the field of sustainability transitions. The country is the host of SSAB AB, known to be a promising steel company to lead the sustainability transitions of the industry worldwide (Fryer et al., 2016), as well as the LKAB, which is the EU´s largest iron ore producer with 78% market share (LKAB, 2016). The SSAB and LKAB, together with the Swedish policy makers and Vattenfall – as electricity supplier –, committed themselves making Sweden to be the first place to reach zero-carbon steel production (PC, 2016). However, despite the ambitious goals, a few decades might be needed. For example, much is expected from the radical innovations, such as the hydrogen based reduction technology (HYBRIT, 2016), which are still at the experimental stage. Thus, we raise the following research question: What are the possible pathways for sustainability transitions in the iron and steel industry in Sweden? The case in Sweden is highly relevant for the field of sustainability transitions because there is a collective guidance and governance towards carbon free steel production (PR, 2017). As a method, we choose an explorative case study approach (Yin, 2003). We combine primary qualitative data, such as semi structured interviews, with secondary data, such as reports, papers and press materials. This data is used to discuss the possible transition pathways for the industry.

Our case study relates to the ongoing research in sustainability transitions studies, especially in regards to the literature on technological innovation systems (Bergek et al., 2015; Hekkert et al., 2007; Walrave and Raven, 2016) and transitions pathways (Geels and Schot, 2007; Geels et al., 2016). On the one hand, the case of hydrogen based reduction technology demonstrates a combination of strengths and weaknesses of the functions in the innovation system. For instance, the knowledge exchange and guidance for research are significantly high, while the market formation is still at its very early stage. On the other hand, incumbent actors try to reorient themselves towards a new radical technology (i.e., hydrogen based reduction technology) which may lead to both a technical substitution and a reconfiguration of the system components. Thus, this case (initially) shows some characteristics from two distinct transition pathways: transformation and reconfiguration. Although the shifts between the pathways are recently discussed in the literature (Geels et al., 2016), an overlap between them is a relatively new phenomenon which needs further investigation. 

The literature on lead markets has long argued that the global diffusion of innovations is often driven by the country-specific attributes of a lead country. However, less attention has been paid to the sub-national level. Can region-specific attributes of a lead region drive national diffusion? This paper takes the lead market model and applies it to the diffusion of photovoltaic systems among households in Germany. Based on an indicator-based approach, our paper identifies the presence of both lead and lag markets at the sub-national level. Our findings show the importance of the lead market characteristics (i.e., demand, cost, export, transfer and market advantages) of early adopter sub-national regions as critical drivers of the national diffusion of innovations. This is particularly important for policymakers seeking to influence the diffusion of environmental innovations through institutional support. If a national policy can drive the diffusion of an innovation in a specific sub-national region that has lead market attributes, the diffusion in other regions is likely to follow the lead region subsequently.