The aim of this doctoral thesis is to analyze ethical issues in the adoption and implementation of Vision Zero policies. 

The first article analyses criticisms against Vision Zero goals and measures promoted to reach them. We identify and assess “moral”, “operational”, and “rationality-based” arguments against Vision Zero. In total, thirteen different criticisms are analyzed. 

The second article seeks to reconcile the two major decision-making principles in road safety work, i.e., Cost Benefit Analysis and Vision Zero, which are often viewed as incompatible. We argue that the two principles can be compatible if the implementation of Vision Zero accepts temporal compromises intended to promote efficient allocation of resources, and the results of Cost Benefit Analysis are viewed not as optimal and satisfactory as long as fatal and serious injuries continue occurring. 

The third article uses Vision Zero as a normative framework to explore and analyze road safety work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ensuing analysis shows that there are significant differences between Addis Ababa road safety policies and Vision Zero in terms of how road safety problems are understood and in their responsibility ascriptions for improving road safety problems. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires promoting a broader view of the causes and remedies of road safety problems. Moreover, given the magnitude and severity of road safety problems in the city, it is vital to emphasize the moral responsibility of actors responsible for the design and operation of the road system, and entities that procure and own large number of vehicles. 

The fourth article analyses equity and social justice considerations in Vision Zero efforts in New York City (NYC). Moreover, this study seeks to understand and assess how the city accounts for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. The result of the study shows that equity and social justice considerations played important roles in the initial adoption of Vision Zero policy in the city. Nonetheless, the study also shows that the adoption and implementation process gave rise to important equity and social justice issues which are primarily related to the method of prioritization used in road safety work in the city, equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socioeconomic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings of this study, among others, point to a need for Vision Zero practitioners to give due considerations to equity and social justice implications of Vision Zero policies and strategies. 

The fifth article analyzes the nature and moral acceptability of risk impositions from car driving in a low-income country context. It is shown that car driving involves an unfair and morally problematic risk imposition in which some stakeholders, namely those who decide on the nature of the risk in the road system and benefit the most from car driving, impose a significant risk of harm on others, who neither benefit from the risk imposition nor have decision-making role related to the risks they are exposed to. It is argued that addressing moral problems arising from the unfair risk imposition necessitates the promotion, on the part of beneficiaries and decision makers, of certain types of moral obligations related to the nature and magnitude of road crash risks. Importantly, those who benefit the most from car driving, and actors who decide on the risk level in the road system, have the moral obligation to implement effective risk reducing measures that protect those unfairly risk exposed, obligations to know more about road crash risks, obligations to compensate victims, obligations to communicate with the risk exposed and incorporate their concerns in policy making, and obligations to bring about attitudinal change. 

In this paper, the Addis Ababa city road safety work is examined and analysed based on the Vision Zero approach to road safety. Government policy documents and available research on the state of road safety in the city are explored and assessed in terms of how they compare with Vision Zero, concerning how road safety problems are conceptualized, the responsibility ascriptions promoted, the nature of goal setting with regards to road safety objectives, and the specific road safety interventions promoted. It is concluded that there is a big difference between the Vision Zero approach to road safety and the Addis Ababa road safety approach in terms how road safety problems are framed and how responsibility ascriptions are made. In Addis Ababa, road safety problems are mainly viewed as individual road user problems and, hence, the responsibility for traffic safety extended to other system components such as the vehicle and road design is very limited. It is argued that in order to find and secure long-term solutions for traffic safety in the city, a paradigm shift is needed, both regarding what are perceived to be the main causes of road safety problems in the city and who should be responsible for ensuring that road fatalities and injuries are prevented.

In this article, the Addis Ababa city road safety policies are examined and analysed based on the Vision Zero approach to road safety work. Three major policy documents are explored and assessed in terms of how they compare with Vision Zero policy in Sweden, concerning how road safety problems are conceptualised, the responsibility ascriptions promoted, the nature of goal setting concerning road safety objectives, and the specific road safety interventions promoted. It is concluded that there is a big difference between the Swedish Vision Zero approach to road safety work and the Addis Ababa road safety approach in terms of how road safety problems are framed and how responsibility ascriptions are made. In Addis Ababa, policy documents primarily frame road safety problems as individual road user problems and, hence, the responsibility for traffic safety is mainly left to the individual road users. The responsibility extended to other system components such as the vehicles, road design, and the operation of the traffic is growing but still very limited. It is argued that in order to find and secure long-term solutions for traffic safety in the city, a paradigm shift is needed, both regarding what are perceived to be the main causes of road safety problems in the city and who should be responsible for ensuring that road fatalities and injuries are prevented.

This paper provides an ethical analysis of risk impositions from car driving in a low-income country context. To this end, a model of ethical risk analysis is used in which stakeholders and their corresponding roles in relation to a risk imposition is used to identify the nature and moral acceptability of risk impositions. I argue that car driving involves a risk imposition in which some stakeholders who decide on and benefit from the risk impositions impose an unfair risk of harm on other stakeholders, who are neither beneficiaries from the risk imposition nor have a decision-making role related to the risks they are exposed to. Mainstream ethical theories lack feasible solutions to the moral dilemmas associated with the risk impositions. I argue that addressing the unfair and morally problematic risk impositions requires the promotion certain types of moral obligations associated with the nature and magnitude of the risk impositions. Accordingly, actors who decide on risk levels in the road system and those who benefit from the current risk impositions have the moral obligations to know more about the nature of the risk imposition, to communicate with the unfairly risk exposed, to compensate those who are harmed, and to bring about attitudinal change with regards to the causes and remedies of road safety problems, and to improve safety of those unfairly risk exposed. Most of all, enhancing the safety of children, and pedestrians requires a political and societal commitment to promote effective road safety measures that eliminate major risk factors affecting these groups of road users.

This paper provides an ethical analysis of risk impositions from car driving in a low-income country context. To this end, a model of ethical risk analysis is used in which stakeholders and their corresponding roles in relation to a risk imposition is used to identify the nature and moral acceptability of risk impositions. I argue that car driving involves a risk imposition in which some stakeholders who decide on and benefit from the risk impositions, impose an unfair risk of harm on other stakeholders who are neither beneficiaries from the risk imposition nor have a decisionmaking role related to the risks they are exposed to. Mainstream ethical theories lack feasible solutions to the moral dilemmas associated with the risk impositions. I argue that addressing the unfair and morally problematic risk impositions requires the promotion certain types of moral obligations associated with the nature and magnitude of the risk impositions. Accordingly, actors who decide on risk level in the road system and, those who benefit from the current risk impositions have the moral obligations to know more about the nature of the risk imposition, to communicate with the unfairly risk exposed, to compensate those who are harmed, and to bring about attitudinal change with regards to the causes and remedies of road safety problems, and to improve safety of those unfairly risk exposed. Most of all, enhancing the safety of children, and pedestrians requires a political and societal commitment to promote effective road safety measures that eliminate major risk factors affecting these groups of road users.

This licentiate thesis discusses moral issues associated with road safety work, with a particular emphasis on the Vision Zero (VZ) goal and its interventions. The licentiate thesis contains three articles and an introduction that briefly discusses issues and arguments presented in the articles.

The first article, identifies, systematically categorizes and evaluates arguments against VZ. Moral, operational, and rationality related criticisms against the adoption and implementation of VZ are identified and discussed.

 The second article in this thesis seeks to reconcile the methods of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and VZ in road safety decision making. CBA has been and still is a major decision making tool in road transport and traffic safety work. However, proponents of VZ question the use of CBA in road safety and transport decision making on methodological and ethical grounds. In this paper, we locate the philosophical roots of the conflicting views promoted by proponents of CBA and VZ. Then we try to identify ways through which the two methods can be made compatible.

The third and final paper uses VZ as a normative framework to explore and analyse the Addis Ababa road safety work. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the paper seeks to examine how road safety problems are actually understood by those responsible for road safety at the local level. To this end, government policy documents, reports and other relevant sources where consulted to identify how road safety problems are framed, who is assigned responsibility for addressing road safety problems and through what interventions. Second, the paper aims to examine road safety work in the city from a normative point of view, i.e., what is the best, or most adequate, way of framing the problem, and who should be given the responsibility for addressing the problem and by what measures. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires adopting a broader view of causes of road safety problems, and emphasizing the responsibility of actors that shape the design and operation of the traffic system and the safety of its components.

This paper analyses how Vision Zero (VZ) efforts in New York City (NYC) account for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. VZ policy documents, research literature, popular science and opinion articles on road safety work in the city were studied with a prime focus on equity and social justice. Twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in road safety and transport planning in the city and at national level were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of policy design, the adoption process, and the role of equity considerations in the city's road safety work. The results show that major equity and social justice issues arise in the adoption and implementation of VZ. These issues are primarily related to equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socio-economic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings point to a need for VZ practitioners to give due considerations to equity and social justice implications of VZ policies and strategies. Among others, it supports the need for understanding the nature of past equity and social justice problems in road safety and transport planning in the VZ policy design process. Moreover, the findings suggest the need for empirical studies on the socio-economic implications of VZ strategies and interventions.

This paper analyses how Vision Zero (VZ) efforts in New York City (NYC) account for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. VZ policy documents, research literature, popular science and opinion articles on road safety work in the city were studied with a prime focus on equity and social justice. Twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in road safety and transport planning in the city and at national level were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of policy design, the adoption process, and the role of equity considerations in the city’s road safety work. The results show that major equity and social justice issues arise in the adoption and implementation of VZ. These issues are primarily related to equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socio-economic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings point to a need for VZ practitioners to give due consideration to equity and social justice implications of VZ policies and strategies. Among others, it supports the need for understanding the nature of past equity and social justice problems in road safety and transport planning in the VZ policy design process. Moreover, the findings suggest the need for empirical studies on the socio-economic implications of VZ strategies and interventions.

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and Vision Zero are often considered to be incompatible approaches to road traffic safety. The discord between the two can be traced back to basic incompatibilities between utilitarian and deontological modes of moral thinking. However, both have something to contribute. CBA is an expression of the reasonable principle that the resources available for improving traffic safety should be used as efficiently as possible, and Vision Zero expresses the equally reasonable principle that deaths and serious injuries in road traffic are always unacceptable. The two can be reconciled, if due attention is paid to the fact that Vision Zero accepts temporary compromises, albeit not end-goal compromises, and the efficiency analysis of CBA is disassociated from claims of optimality. We propose two ways to reconcile the two approaches. First, the results of a CBA can be presented not only for the currently used life-value but also for alternative, higher life-values. Secondly, essentially the same information can be presented in the form of cost-effectiveness safety analysis (CESA), which reports the economic costs per life saved. We propose that a CESA should be performed for all road traffic projects, not only those that have safety improvement as their main objective. In this way, an economically informed total overview of the impact of Vision Zero in traffic safety can be obtained.

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and Vision Zero are often considered to be incompatible approaches to road traffic safety. The discord between the two can be traced back to basic incompatibilities between utilitarian and deontological modes of moral thinking. However, both have something to contribute. CBA is an expression of the reasonable principle that the resources available for improving traffic safety should be used as efficiently as possible, and Vision Zero expresses the equally reasonable principle that deaths and serious injuries in road traffic are always unacceptable. The two can be reconciled, if due attention is paid to the fact that Vision Zero accepts temporary compromises, albeit not end-goal compromises, and the efficiency analysis of CBA is disassociated from claims of optimality. We propose two ways to reconcile the two approaches. First, the results of a CBA can be presented not only for the currently used life-value but also for alternative, higher life-values. Secondly, essentially the same information can be presented in the form of cost-effectiveness safety analysis (CESA), which reports the economic costs per life saved. We propose that a CESA should be performed for all road traffic projects, not only those that have safety improvement as their main objective. In this way, an economically informed total overview of the impact of Vision Zero in traffic safety can be obtained.

Despite Vision Zero’s moral appeal and its expansion throughout the world, it has been criticized on different grounds. This chapter is based on an extensive literature search for criticism of Vision Zero, using the bibliographic databases Philosopher’s Index, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Phil Papers, and by following the references in the collected documents. Even if the primary emphasis was on Vision Zero in road traffic, our search also included documents criticizing Vision Zero policies in other safety areas, such as public health, the construction and mining industries, and workplaces in general. Based on the findings, we identify and systematically characterize and classify the major arguments that have been put forward against Vision Zero. The most important arguments against Vision Zero can be divided into three major categories: moral arguments, arguments concerning the (goalsetting) rationality of Vision Zero, and arguments aimed at the practical implementation of the goals. We also assess the arguments. Of the thirteen identified main arguments, six were found to be useful for a constructive discussion on safety improvements.

This licentiate thesis is comprised of a “kappa” and two articles. The kappa includes an account of personal autonomy and informed consent, an explanation of how the concepts and articles relate to each other, and a summary in Swedish.

Article 1 treats one problem with the argument that a patient’s consent to treatment is valid only if it is authentic, i.e., if it is “genuine,” “truly her own,” “not out of character,” or similar. As interventions with a patient’s life and liberties must be justified, the argument presupposes that the authenticity of desires can be reliably determined. If the status of a desire in terms of authenticity cannot be reliably determined, discarding the desire-holder’s treatment decision on the basis that it is inauthentic is morally unjustified. In the article, I argue that no theory of authenticity that is present in the relevant literature can render reliably observable consequences. Therefore, the concept of authenticity, as it is understood in those theories, should not be part of informed consent practices.

Article 2 discusses the problem of what it is to consent or refuse voluntarily. In it, I argue that voluntariness should be more narrowly understood than what is common. My main point is that a conceptualization of voluntariness should be agent-centered, i.e., take into account the agent’s view of her actions. Among other things, I argue that an action is non-voluntary only if the agent thinks of it as such when being coerced. This notion, which at first look may seem uncontroversial, entails the counterintuitive conclusion that an action can be voluntary although the agent has been manipulated or coerced into doing it. In defense of the notion, I argue that if the agent’s point of view is not considered accordingly, describing her actions as non-voluntary can be alien to how she leads her life. There are other moral concepts available to describe what is wrong with manipulation and coercion, i.e., to make sense of the counterintuitive conclusion. Voluntariness should be reserved to fewer cases than what is commonly assumed.

The opposing views in the scholarly debate on evidence-based policy (EBP) have recently been labeled ‘rationalist’ and ‘constructivist’, where the former are positive to EBP and the latter are not. This framing of the debate is suboptimal, as it conflates critical positions that should be kept separate. This article suggests that the debate should be understood as one between idealists, realists, and counter-idealists about EBP. The realist position, that is, that EBP is difficult or impossible to achieve in practice, has already been treated at length in the debate. The conflict between idealism and counter-idealism, to the contrary, has been neglected. This article aims to stimulate the scholarly debate on EBP by initiating a principled discussion between idealism and counter-idealism about EBP, which should motivate proponents of EBP to formulate their ideal with substantial moral arguments. This places the debate on EBP in the context of normative political theory, where it rightfully belongs.

It is sometimes argued that autonomous decision-making requires that the decision-maker’s desires are authentic, i.e., “genuine,” “truly her own,” “not out of character,” or similar. In this article, it is argued that a method to reliably determine the authenticity (or inauthenticity) of a desire cannot be developed. A taxonomy of characteristics displayed by different theories of authenticity is introduced and applied to evaluate such theories categorically, in contrast to the prior approach of treating them individually. The conclusion is drawn that, in practice, the authenticity of desires cannot be reliably determined. It is suggested that authenticity should therefore not be employed in informed consent practices in healthcare.

The notion of authenticity, i.e., being “genuine,” “real,” or “true to oneself,” is sometimes held as critical to a person’s autonomy, so that inauthenticity prevents the person from making autonomous decisions or leading an autonomous life. It has been pointed out that authenticity is difficult to observe in others. Therefore, judgments of inauthenticity have been found inadequate to underpin paternalistic interventions, among other things. This article delineates what justifies judgments of inauthenticity. It is argued that for persons who wish to live according to the prevailing social and moral standards and desires that are seriously undesirable according to those standards, it is justified to judge that a desire is inauthentic to the extent that it is due to causal factors that are alien to the person and to the extent that it deviates from the person’s practical identity. The article contributes to a tradition of thinking about authenticity which is known mainly from Frankfurt and Dworkin, and bridges the gap between theoretical ideals of authenticity and real authenticity-related problems in practical biomedical settings.

Respect for autonomy is a central moral principle in bioethics. The concept of autonomy can be construed in various ways. Under the non-ideal conceptualization proposed by Beauchamp and Childress, everyday choices of generally competent persons are autonomous to the extent that they are intentional and are made with understanding and without controlling influences. It is sometimes suggested that authenticity is important to personal autonomy, so that inauthenticity prevents otherwise autonomous persons from making autonomous decisions. Building from Beauchamp and Childress’s theory, this article develops a non-ideal authenticity-based conceptualization of personal autonomy. Factors that indicate inauthentic decision-making are explicated, and the full concept is defended from three expected objections. The theory is then tested on a paradigm case which has concerned theorists and practitioners for some time, namely the possible inauthenticity of anorexia nervosa patients’ decision-making. It is concluded that the theory seems to be fruitful in analyses of the degree of autonomy of patients’ decision-making, and that it succeeds in providing reliable action-guidance in practical contexts.

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to bridge the gap between theoretical ideals of authenticity and practical authenticity-related problems in healthcare. In this context, authenticity means being "genuine," "real," "true to oneself," or similar, and is assumed to be closely connected to the autonomy of persons. The thesis includes an introduction and four articles related to authenticity. The first article collects various theories intended to explain the distinction between authenticity and inauthenticity in a taxonomy that enables oversight and analysis. It is argued that (in-)authenticity is difficult to observe in others. The second article offers a solution to this difficulty in one theory of authenticity. It is proposed that under certain circumstances, it is morally justified to judge that the desires underlying a person's decisions are inauthentic. The third article incorporates this proposition into an already established theory of personal autonomy. It is argued that the resulting conceptualization of autonomy is fruitful for action-guidance in authenticity-related problems in healthcare. The fourth article collects nine cases of possible authenticity-related problems in healthcare. The theory developed in the third article is applied to the problems, when this is allowed by the case-description, to provide guidance with regard to them. It is argued that there is not one universal authenticity-related problem but many different problems, and that there is thus likely not one universal solution to such problems but various particular solutions.

Respect for autonomy is a central moral principle in bioethics. It is sometimes argued that authenticity, i.e., being “real,” “genuine,” “true to oneself,” or similar, is crucial to a person’s autonomy. Patients sometimes make what appears to be inauthentic decisions, such as when (decision-competent) anorexia nervosa patients refuse treatment to avoid gaining weight, despite that the risk of harm is very high. If such decisions are inauthentic, and therefore non-autonomous, it may be the case they should be overridden for paternalist reasons. However, it is not clear what justifies the judgment that someone or something is inauthentic. This article discusses one recent theory of what justifies judgments of inauthenticity. It is argued that the theory is seriously limited, as it only provides guidance in three out of nine identified cases. There are at least six authenticity-related problems to be solved, and autonomy theorists thus have reason to engage with the topic of authenticity in practical biomedicine.

Much of contemporary research ethics was developed in the latter half of the twentieth century as a response to the unethical treatment of human beings in biomedical research. Research ethical considerations have subsequently been extended to cover topics in the sciences and technology such as data handling, precautionary measures, engineering codes of conduct, and more. However, moral issues in the humanities have gained less attention from research ethicists. This article proposes an ethical principle for reading for research purposes: Respect the author.

In the second half of the 2010s, far-right populist parties gained increasing power and influenceacross Europe, and around the world. Core to their ethnonationalist, anti-elite agenda, and theiremotive politics, has often been a defense of fossil fuels, threatening action to address the climatecrisis and raising the spectre of fascism. Increasingly-perceived-as-‘dirty’ coal, the raw material thatmade the industrial modern world order possible and contributed most to its mountingcontradictions, has acquired a special status in contemporary far-right ideology. What is theemotional intersection between them at a time of far-reaching economic, environmental and energyinstability and change, when coal has not only been losing its material value and its symbolic link tomodernity, but is increasingly widely deemed immoral too?

To date, studies of far-right populism have largely overlooked how energy and environmentalchange feature in their present rise. This reflects how these issues have been largely treated astechnical matters, and therefore relegated to the domain of scientific expertise, rather thanrecognized as inherently social, cultural and political concerns. Tending to adopt a macro-levelapproach, far-right studies have also not yet fully addressed the historically, geographically, andculturally-situated reasons for this success, particularly among the (white, male) industrial workingclass.From a bottom-up, ethnographic perspective, the role of intersectional (class-based,occupational, gendered, racialized regional and national) ecologically-positioned embodiedsubjectivities and identities and their emotional lived experience remains to be considered.

This PhD thesis, set within the concerns of a transdisciplinary environmental and energy humanitiesframework, addresses this lacunae in the context of Poland; the most coal-dependent country in theEuropean Union where a pro-coal platform unexpectedly helped the far-right populist party Lawand Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) into majority government in 2015. It is primarily based on ayears’ ethnographic research conducted in 2017 with both residents and particularly coal miners andtheir families in a minescape in Upper Silesia, the nation’s, and one of Europe’s, last remainingmining heartlands. Adopting a postcolonial postsocialist perspective, and drawing on rare empiricaldata from participant observation and qualitative interviews, the thesis explores the politics ofincreasingly ‘dirty’ coal expressed in localized conflicts over air pollution, domestic heating, andthe meaning of work, dignity, respectable personhood, the economy and community, setting themwithin their historical context. The rapidly shifting material and symbolic meaning of coal withinthe context of Silesia’s long-standing troubled history is particularly studied in light of Europeanintegration, a post-industrial, neoliberal, ‘green’-cosmopolitan project that links East and West in anunequal relationship. The naming of coal and its way of life as increasingly ‘dirty’ in newlystigmatizing senses from ‘outside’, is found to be experienced by the mining community as an eliteimposedprocess of ecological dispossession. This generates a toxic intersectionally-andecologically-mediated shame in the bodies of those that particularly labour intimately with itsmaterial touch; a shame that resonates with what this thesis terms industrial populist politics and itsemotive charge as a felt common sense. In the postsocialist context of the marginalization anddevaluation of industrial working-class lives, and pervasive and normalized orientalist classismexperienced as an attack on one’s ecologically-enmeshed Silesian-Polishness, the relational longingfor a sense of a purified home, that can cleanse dirt’s discomforting and shame-inducing stigmas inoverlapping economic, social, cultural and environmental terms by refusing and reversing itsdesignation, is proposed as lying at the heart of industrial populism’s visceral draw.

Social theory has paid little attention to air, despite its centrality to bodily existence and air pollution being named the world’s biggest public health crisis. Where attention to air is found, the body is largely absent. On the other hand, conceptualizing the body without life-sustaining breath fails to highlight breathing as the ongoing metabolic bodily act in which the materiality of human and more-than-human intermingle and transmute one another. Political ecology studies how unequal power structures and knowledge production reproduce human–environment relations, including a nascent focus on the body and air – but as separate issues. This article argues that a political ecology of air would productively fuse with a political ecology of the body to bring the visceral realm into intersectional analysis of air’s contemporary materialities. A feminist political ecology situates explicitly air-and-breathing-bodies, their intimately posthuman, relational, elemental and corpomaterial intra-action, at the heart of such analysis.

The article is an abridged version of the first chapter in the edited volume A Theory for Empire Written on Its Margins. It presents an account of more than 150 years of what the authors identify as "etnos-thinking" - the attempt to use positivistic and rational scientific methodologies to describe, encapsulate, evaluate, and rank "etnoses" across Eurasia. Its central argument is that the work of professional ethnographers created a powerful language parallel to the political vocabulary of "tribes," "nationalities," and "nations." The essay surveys the definitions of etnos offered by scholars during the twentieth century, and argues that historically etnos-thinking emerged and developed in the multidisciplinary scientific environment of "biosocial" science - an approach to identity heavily influenced by physical anthropology and natural sciences. The biosocial synthesis - and etnos-thinking - was incompatible with Soviet Marxism of the 1930s, but had a piecemeal revival in the 1960s. The article claims that etnos-thinking acquired new dynamism in post-Soviet Russia. Although leading academic anthropologists criticize the concept, it remains high on the agenda for many intellectuals and ethnic activists in the twenty-first century.

The concept of etnos—one of the more controversial anthropological concepts of the Cold War period—is contextualized by looking at its “life history” through the biography of one of its proponents. Sergei Mikhailovich Shirokogoroff was a Russian/Chinese anthropologist whose career transected Eurasia from Paris to Beijing via Saint Petersburg and the Siberian borderlands of the Russian Empire. His transnational biography and active correspondence shaped the unique spatial and intellectual configuration of a concept that became a cornerstone of both Soviet and Chinese ethnography. The theory of etnos turned out to be surprisingly stable, while circulating through various political and intellectual environments ranging from England, Germany, and China to Imperial, Soviet, and modern Russia. This case study presents a history of anthropology wherein networks and conversations originating in the Far East of Eurasia have had unexpected influences on the heartlands of anthropology. 

The idea of etnos came into being over a hundred years ago as a way of understanding the collective identities of people with a common language and shared traditions. In the twentieth century, the concept came to be associated with Soviet state-building, and it fell sharply out of favour. Yet outside the academy, etnos-style arguments not only persist, but are a vibrant part of regional anthropological traditions.Life Histories of Etnos Theory in Russia and Beyond makes a powerful argument for reconsidering the importance of etnos in our understanding of ethnicity and national identity across Eurasia. The collection brings to life a rich archive of previously unpublished letters, fieldnotes, and photographic collections of the theory’s early proponents. Using contemporary fieldwork and case studies, the volume shows how the ideas of these ethnographers continue to impact and shape identities in various regional theatres from Ukraine to the Russian North to the Manchurian steppes of what is now China. Through writing a life history of these collectivist concepts, the contributors to this volume unveil a world where the assumptions of liberal individualism do not hold. In doing so, they demonstrate how notions of belonging are not fleeting but persistent, multi-generational, and bio-social.This collection is essential reading for anyone interested in Russian and Chinese area studies. It will also appeal to historians and students of anthropology and ethnography more generally.

Parks and private and public gardens do not exist in isolation, but form part of the urban fabric, contributing to ecological functioning. There is growing interest in how civil society shapes urban ecologies and vegetation patterns. This paper explores the ecological outcomes of a series of indigenous plant greening interventions in Cape Town. The six different sites were sampled: two civic-led intervention sites, one expert-led rehabilitation site, two conservation sites and one abandoned site. These sites are compared in terms of their plant and insect diversity and then discussed in relation to their contingent management arrangements and in relation to conservation and abandoned land. Plant and insect diversity measured at the civic-led greening intervention sites suggest these sites are similar to adjacent conservation sites, while floristic composition differs. The inclusion of a vacant lot with poor species and growth form diversity shows the significant role of intervention in the ecological reformation of urban green space. By emphasizing the ecological outcomes, this study highlights the importance of civil society in linking conservation goals to more broad-based notions of quality of life and the 'good and just city'. Our results indicate that civic-led efforts warrant attention in keeping with those of experts, both in relation to meeting indigenous conservation targets, as well as supporting functional groups and wider ecological processes, with the acknowledged exception of fire. How to integrate such civic-led interventions into urban biodiversity management planning is still an open question.

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Rapport från arkeologisk fältforskning vid Sorgfjorden, Svalbard, Juli 2017. Rapporten innehåller en dokumentation av lämningar från den svensk-ryska gradmätningsexpeditionen 1898-1902 i form av kartor, foto och textbeskrivningar. Arkeologisk fältdata finns tillgänlig hos Sysselmannen på Svalbard.

The majority of scientists agree on climate change and on the most daunting environmental problems humans arefacing today. Moved by a commendable desire to contribute to the solution of these problems, several scientists havedecided to speak up, telling the scientific truth about climate change to decision-makers and the public. Althoughappreciating the commitment to intervene in the public arena, I discuss some limits of these interventions. I arguethat stating the reality of climate change does not prescribe any specific solution and sometimes it seems faint indistributing responsibilities. I ask whether unveiling/knowing the truth can be enough to foster radicaltransformations. Can knowledge move people towards transformative actions if power relationships do not change?Various environmental justice controversies prove that even when science is certain—and this is rarely the case inthat kind of controversies—knowing might be not enough in the face of power structures preventing free choices and radical changes. In the end of my article, I state that it is fair to recognize that scientists have done their parts, and it is now up to social movements to foster the radical changes in power relationships that are needed for transforming societies.