This thesis identifies factors for success and un-success in European sustainable urban development projects and subsequently aims to correlate them with the characteristics and practices of an on-going project, concluding in a set of policy recommendations. Worldwide urbanisation brings a concentration of activities contributing to environmental degradation and social injustice, which implies the need for implementing sustainable development practices in urban planning. Several examples of sustainability-niched experiment districts are found in Europe and in this study four of them were examined through a structured literature review. Results showed that factors impacting the outcomes of the projects were clustered in five broad categories: political/policy, project governance, financial/economic, technical/design and resident/citizen factors. Recurring factors, also implied in the process of the on-going development of Sege Park in Malmö involved multi-scale knowledge transfer, unified leadership, continuity in communication and funding, reflexivity, market fluctuations, design and lifestyle/affluence. By applying a transition management perspective to these recurring factors and their implications for the Sege Park district, the results of this thesis lastly concluded in a set of policy recommendations. Potential transition actors may facilitate the process on a larger scale by partaking in long-term, multi-scalar networks for urban transitions, and on a smaller scale by creating and fostering arenas and policies promoting reflexivity in a city. Furthermore, a continued exploration of pathways and strategies towards a long-term sustainability vision shared by project actors, as well as ways to secure continuous funding for projects is encouraged. A slight shift from mainly relying on technology to solve sustainability issues, towards and integrated socio-technical systems model may be observed in the on-going project. Future challenges to take on may involve gentrification processes, insecure funding, institutional reflexivity and syncing legislation with the process towards sustainability transitions.

Companies’ entrepreneurial actions entail all sorts of conquences among these ethical consequences. While the media reports on unethical activities and blames companies for those actions, the global market economy, with few exceptions, does not value ethical behavior. Consequently, businesses continue to prioritize the pursuit of profits over the consideration of ethical issues. Research suggests that this situation together with traditionally vertical leadership structures produces conflicts in decision-making processes between profit and ethical value goals. New styles of leadership and decision-making are needed to overcome this conflict. Thus, the aim of this project is to identify the characteristics of shared leadership that are perceived as positively influencing corporate decision-making processes with regards to the integration of ethical considerations. A case study approach is chosen to study the phenomenon in a real-life context. A German small-size company practicing shared leadership funcions as the case study. The report presents a framework to analyze various factors regarding. Empirical data from interviews and on-site observations are analyzed using a framework created based on previous research, highlighting inputs, processes and outputs of the decision-making processes in shared leadership. The findings show that individuals’ personalities, intra-team relations, organizational culture, rules and the use of a decision-making tool aiming at consent are important influencing factors of decision-making in shared leadership.

Food consumption plays an important role for future sustainable livelihoods and, in particular, the vegan diet is becoming increasingly popular among consumers of different societies. Understanding how people change their food habits is a major research quest and there is growing interest in the role of social media sites since these are important platforms for visual presentation online where individuals can influence others. This article investigates how vegan ‘men’ present themselves on the social media network Instagram. Drawing on the analytical framework of ‘hegemonic masculinity’, the study examines what values these individuals visually portray online. By conducting a content analysis of 600 top-posts that appear under the hashtag #veganmen, narratives are examined for what they convey and how certain ‘masculine’ perceptions are re-shaped or reinforced. The findings reveal the visual significance of ‘masculine’ self-presentation by vegan ‘men’ over other narratives that portray values of sustainability, compassion and empathy. Nonetheless, this narrative of ‘masculine’ self-presentation can still be understood as an attempt to motivate other individuals to embrace a plant-based diet and thereby contribute to change towards more ‘sustainable’ food consumption habits.

This study mainly argues the role that neoliberalism and neoclassical economics (mainstream economics) have had through foreign aid in Latin America and its effects over the years. The mere ideology of a market-centered society has been detrimental for many already. What this study aims to do is to portray that it has had the same effect on our environment as well. From poverty to environmental destruction, the neglect of social and environmental factors in our political socio-economic system has had its toll worldwide. The constant aim forgrowth and neoliberal approach in politics cannot be simply reversed by applying SDG’s political strategies.The definition of sustainable development has been vague enough already to rely on it as a fix. Ecological Economics on the other hand may imply a factual solution within aid and politics in Latin America and around the world, as it would be environmental and humanitarian-based. Some of the finding of this study include a comparison between ecological economics and neoclassical economics and practical applications for ecological economics within foreign aid.

This study tries to increase the understanding on how expansionist aviation policies are rationalized against the background of climate change politics. The study executes a case study on the Netherlands, focusing on the Royal Schiphol Group aviation expansion project. In order to aid the understanding of the rationale justifying the expansion project, a discourse analysis inspired by environmental discourse theory, is employed. The methodological framework is grounded in John S. Dryzek’s literature on environmental discourses and supported by Fairclough’s school of critical discourse analysis. This framework allows the study to touch upon elements of knowledge and power and incorporates elements of explanatory critique. The results of the discourse analysis uncover that the Royal Schiphol Group expansion project is justified by two dominant narratives. The first is a rather practical argument that excludes the aviation sector from the countries national emission reduction pledges, based on the notion of economic competition. The second and most dominant narrative appears to be a reproduction of the discourse of ecological modernization, promoting the idea that ecological conservation and economic growth have a harmonized and even empowering relationship. Yet, the discussion uncovers that these discursive elements are largely grounded in false claims. It furthermore explains that, even though the knowledge claims appear to be flawed, they still prevail as alternative knowledge is neglected from the debate. Supported by literature of Geels, it argues that the dominance of these narratives is largely motivated by an attempt to resist structural change to low-carbon futures.

The new Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C by the International Panel on Climate Change presents the drastic need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the security and sustainable development of human kind. In Sweden, household consumption related carbon emissions needs to be radically reduced in order to meet the international climate goals set in this report. Changing individual behavior has proven over time to be a challenging task for many initiatives. Community-Based Social Marking is a behavior method that has been proven to be effective in creating sustainable behavior change at the community level. A case study is conducted at Avesta kommun in Sweden in order to discover what behavior is best to change to reduce the carbon footprint per person at this municipality, what strategy is best to achieve this goal and what effect this strategy will have. The results from the Community-Based Social Marketing case study show that a vegan diet as a behavior has the highest positive impact on the environment to promote in Avesta, but the behavior with the second highest impact, a vegetarian diet, is chosen due to its higher probability to implement and external health factors associated with a vegan diet. The strategy chosen is a Facebook page designed to provide weekly vegetarian recipes to families in Avesta with the goal of increasing their consumption of vegetarian food. The strategy is tested on a pilot group to determine its effectiveness. The conclusion of this study shows that the strategy is overall effective on the pilot group for increasing their knowledge and consumption of vegetarian meals.

Uttag av grundvatten är viktigt då det förser nästan hälften av befolkningen i Sverige med dricksvatten. Vid uttag som leder till avsänkning av grundvattennivån kan en inträngning av organiskt material uppstå om det finns ett intilliggande ytvattendrag, ett fenomen som kallas inducerad infiltration. Nackdelarna vid den här typen av läckage från ytvatten är att det är svårt att kontrollerna och att det organiska materialet förbrukar syre, vilket i sin tur kan leda till att järn och mangan löses ut i grundvattenmagasinen. Omformningen från ytvatten till grundvatten går för fort och vattnet renas sämre med risken att också dricksvattenkvalitén försämras. I den här rapporten gjordes en kartläggning som markerade riskområden för inducerad infiltration i Sverige. Dessa områden visade sig finnas jämnt utspridda över hela landet. En närmare undersökning gjordes av mätserier från Gävleåsen och Vanåsen, två åsar som huserar grundvattentäkter. Vanåsen representerades endast av en mycket liten markering i kartläggningen men där visade sig en tydlig ökning av organisk halt och stora problem, medan Gävleåsen var mer synlig i kartan utan att ge något entydigt resultat av ökande halter. Slutsatsen är att där uppförande av vattentäkter planeras måste noggranna analyser utföras för att få en helhetsbild av området, intilliggande ytvattendrag och grundvattenflödets riktningar. / The use of groundwater is important as it supplies almost half of the population in Sweden with drinking water. In the case of withdrawals that lead to a lowering of the groundwater level, an intrusion of organic material might occur if there is an adjacent surface watercourse, a phenomenon known as induced infiltration. The disadvantages of this type of leakage from surface water is that it is difficult to control and that the organic material consumes oxygen, which in turn can lead to iron and manganese being dissolved in the groundwater reservoirs. The transformation from surface water to groundwater goes too fast and the water isn’t filtered good enough with the risk that the quality of the drinking water also deteriorates. In this report, a mapping study was made to mark risk areas for induced infiltration in Sweden. These areas proved to be evenly distributed throughout the country. A closer examination was made of series of measurements from Gävleåsen and Vanåsen, two ridges with groundwater sewers. Vanåsen was only represented by a very small mark in the mapping, but there was a clear increase in organic content and major problems, while Gävleåsen was clearly visible in the map without giving any univocal result of increasing concentrations. The conclusion is that where construction of water sources is planned, detailed analyzes must be carried out in order to obtain an overall picture of the area, adjacent surface watercourses and the directions of the groundwater flow.

Today we are experiencing an urbanization process at a speed never acknowledged before. With mobilityaccounting for a considered share of the environmental impact of these expanding urban ecosystems, the bicycleassumes an increasing fundamental role in the framework of sustainable development. However, despite gainingrecognition as valuable sustainable transportation alternative, it is still marginalized within a current car-centeredsociety. Collective action around cycling has therefore started to mobilize in order to defend cyclists’ interestsand needs. Yet, there is still limited research on its role on affecting urban development, as well as on its impacton the people who engage in such action. This thesis aims to fill this research gap by focusing on how collective action around cycling has shaped city andpersons. First of all, the collective action framework has been delineated by building on different authorscontributions: in this thesis, collective action has then been defined as an action of the collectivity for thecollectivity through the efforts of both single individuals and organized groups. Three sub-questions haveconsequently been investigated: how collective action changed its own practitioners, transforming theircapabilities and self-perceptions; how collective action has been shaped itself by cyclists group identity; and howsuch action has impacted the development of the city of Stockholm, taken as case study. The methods appliedinclude a literature review to provide relevant background, followed by a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews. The informants involved were selected based on their engagement in the collective actionof the Stockholm scene, taken as case study due to its rather rapid process and quest in becoming a more bikeablecity. By analyzing their experiences and answers, the study results provide a new perspective on the impact ofcollective action, focusing in particular on the way group identification can strengthen and direct this engagementand on how the latter has contributed to a more personal development of its practitioners. The results build up on and also confirm previous findings in relation to dynamics typical of collective action andgroup identity, applying a more case-related perspective. In regard to its practitioners, collective action has beenfound to have an impact by enhancing a feeling of empowerment, freedom and community, affecting also non-practitioners and benefiting the society as a whole. Group identification resulted to play a significant role inshaping the different kinds of engagement, for example by focusing on contrasting the car hegemony within theurban system; however, consistent differences were found between high and low identifiers. For what concernsthe urban development of Stockholm, collective action has been found to have shaped the city in regards toinfrastructure, policies and organization, thanks to a growing network and political engagement of different actorsand organizations. The deriving increased awareness and recognition represent a core starting point for theachievement of future goals.

Local food systems (LFS) connect producers and consumers in a geographically restricted food supply chain. Local food advocates argue that limiting the spatial scope of food systems can help to address the sustainability challenges present in the global food system. LFS are argued to eliminate intermediaries, enable clear product provenance, encourage community interactions, and involve few food miles. LFS are growing in Sweden, where the government launched a National Food Strategy in 2016, which among other aims promotes the proliferation of local food. This study aims to understand why several farmers from Uppland, central Sweden engage in local selling and whether concerns about sustainability influence the choice of selling channels among them. Using on-farm, semi-structured interviews with the farmers, this research explores three research questions concerning: (1) farmer motives for engaging in local selling channels, (2) factors constraining farmer involvement in LFS, and (3) farmer perceptions on the future of local selling channels. The overall purpose of this research is to provide a critical perspective on local selling as a sustainable food system solution. The study reveals a wide range of motives, including economic advantages from responding to consumer demand and cutting out middlemen, price premiums, more customer interactions, job satisfaction, and proximity to markets. Various economic and personal constraints limit the farmers’ use of local selling channels. Such constraints include seasonality of produce, performing time-consuming middlemen tasks, limited access to essential infrastructure, low transport load utilisation, and individual reasons for not wanting to up-scale local production. The results indicate that better access to on-farm or nearby infrastructure, improved small-scale efficiency, increasing food prices for consumers, changing consumer preferences, more diverse farm products, and better congruency between government objectives and import policies could all help to support LFS in the future. This research exposes a number of underlying contradictions and tensions associated with local food in the literature and among the interviewed farmers. The study finds that sustainability concerns are not a critical motive for the farmers’ involvement in local selling. Some of the farmers even question the sustainability of such channels and challenge the idea that LFS are inherently more sustainable than food systems on other scales. Furthermore, almost all the farmers are involved in both local and global food systems. The farmers do not find it conflicting to be part of both food systems, and are in fact consciously using both systems to their economic advantage. Thus the clear distinction between local and global food systems made in the LFS literature is not reflected in the practical experiences of the farmers involved in this study.

Deciding between sustainability or prosperity may be a false choice when the phenomena are appropriately defined and considered together (Stiglitz et al. 2009). With reference to existing indicator systems and frameworks, including the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) and the Community Capitals Framework (CCF), this research developed three novel indices (SMSI, SMSI+, and CCFI) using a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) approach to measure and analyze the correlation between sustainability (SMSI, SMSI+) and prosperity (CCFI) in Swedish municipalities. The spearman rank-order coefficient values were 0.259 and 0.588 for SMSI and CFFI and SMSI+ and CCFI, respectively. Both were significantly correlated with a p-value of 0.05, where SMSI+ and CCFI were 0.329 more correlated than SMSI and CCFI. This showed that an index that more comprehensively considers an SSD approach correlates more with CCFI. Furthermore, only six out of 234 Swedish municipalities ranked in the top 10 percent of both SMSI+ and CCFI, showing that it is difficult to successfully pursue sustainability and prosperity together in practice. Importantly, this research also demonstrates that it is possible to create indices using an SSD approach while outlining the methods for how to do so.