Actors in transition: shifting roles in Swedish sustainable housing development
- PDF / 657,641 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 81 Downloads / 193 Views
Actors in transition: shifting roles in Swedish sustainable housing development Pernilla Hagbert1 · Tove Malmqvist2 Received: 5 March 2018 / Accepted: 29 June 2019 © The Author(s) 2019
Abstract In planning for a future that fulfils sustainability goals, there is a need to explore how roles taken in socio-ecological transitions are perceived among different types of actors. Empirical insights from interviews with diverse actors involved in Swedish housing development are presented, addressing the roles, conflicting logics and power relations between different sectoral categories of actors and at different organizational levels. Key aspects that emerge relate to the shift from state to market in contemporary Swedish housing development, where private companies emphasize their role in shaping societal development as inherent to working with sustainability. Conflicting logics can be found between short-term economic interests and long-term planning and policy, as well as intra-organizational differences in competency and leadership. Conclusions point to that the role of third sector or community actors in pushing agendas and norms to bring about transitions could be acknowledged further. Yet there is a need to examine the power relations currently reproduced, and how these could be challenged in future housing development. This includes critically assessing the potential for new types of actors and cross-sectoral collaborations, but also instigating more fundamental discussions of the kind of society strived for, and the radical transitions needed. Keywords Sustainability transitions · Housing development · Multi-actor perspective · Roles
* Pernilla Hagbert [email protected] Tove Malmqvist [email protected] 1
Division of Urban and Regional Studies, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
2
Division of Sustainability Assessment and Management, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
P. Hagbert, T. Malmqvist
1 Introduction Although the direction and extent of transitions to a more sustainable future remains contested, there is nonetheless a growing recognition of the need for more fundamental changes in how society is organized. This includes the design, construction and management of the built environment. Planning for a society that facilitates a safe and just operating space for humanity (Raworth 2012; Rockstrom et al. 2009) is a persistent challenge for policy and practice, not the least in the perception of social and environmental goals and the negotiation of how to reach them. This paper takes a particular interest in what role(s) diverse actors involved in housing development in Sweden—a country often lauded for its ambitious environmental management—perceive they currently have, and could take, in relation to fulfilling far-reaching sustainability goals. The existing housing stock in Sweden is
Data Loading...
