Medborgardialoger är ett allt vanligare inslag inom planering, och framhålls ofta som ett viktigt verktyg för att främja den lokala demokratin och medborgarnas inflytande över planeringen. Inte sällan finns det stora förväntningar på medborgardialogers potential, då inte bara för ökad demokrati, utan även på den ska bidra till en ökad effektivitet i planeringsprocessen eller ge legitimitet till ett planförslag. Samtidigt är syftena med specifika dialogprojekt ofta är oklart definierade, och många dialogprojekt lider av problem med bristande representativitet och lågt inflytande över den fortsatta planeringen. Stadskärnan i Sundbyberg norr om Stockholm ska genomgå stora förändringar i och med att Mälarbanan kommer dras ner i tunnel och Sundbybergs stad har arbetat med en vision för den nya stadskärnan sedan våren 2013. En del av det arbetet har handlat om att genomföra ett dialogprojekt för att ge Sundbybergsborna en möjlighet att bidra till visionen. För att bättre nå unga i det arbetet genomfördes idétävlingen Ung C Sundbyberg under våren 2015. Jag har gjord en kvalitativ fallstudie över Ung C Sundbyberg som ett atypiskt fall av ambitiösa dialogprojekt som riktar sig specifikt mot unga, med syftet att få en djupare förståelse för spelrummet i frågeställningen och motiven bakom dialogprocesser, då särskilt ungdomsdeltagande. Genom fältstudier där jag närvarat på, gjort observationer och till en begränsad del deltagit i fem workshopar som genomförts i den första deltävlingen i Ung C Sundbyberg söker jag svara på frågor om varför unga var en viktig grupp att nå, hur tävlingsuppgiften ramades in av processledarna och hur tävlingen förhöll sig till ideal om hur en ”god” dialog ska uppnås. Trots de initiala ambitionerna med tävlingen går det inte att förstå fallet som en medborgardialog som ska bidra till ett större demokratiskt inflytande över visionsarbetet för Sundbybergs nya stadskärna. En del av materialet tyder också på att intresset för ungdomar som grupp går att ifrågasätta, istället handlar det snarare om ett dialogarbete nära besläktat med marknadsundersökningar, med ambitioner att skapa uppmärksamhet kring stadsomvandlingen i Sundbyberg. / Citizen dialogues are an increasingly common feature in planning, and are frequently declared to be an important tool to promote local democracy and citizens' influence in the planning. Not seldom, there are great expectations for the potential of citizen dialogue, not only for increased democracy, but also on contributions to an increased efficiency in planning or better legitimacy to a propose plan. At the same time the objectives of the specific dialogue projects are often vaguely defined, and numerous dialogue projects suffer from problems with lack of representativeness and low influence on the future planning. The city centre of Sundbyberg, north of Stockholm will undergo major changes when Mälarbanan will be drawn down into a tunnel, and Sundbybergs stad has worked with a vision for the new city centre since spring 2013. Part of the work has focused on implementing a dialogue project to give residents in Sundbyberg an opportunity to contribute to the vision. To better reach young people in the work with this vision, an idea competition called Ung C Sundbyberg was carried out in the spring of 2015. I have made a qualitative case study of Ung C Sundbyberg as an atypical case of ambitious dialogue projects aimed specifically at young people, with the aim to gain a deeper understanding of the scope of, and motives behind the dialogue process, and especially youth participation. Through field studies where I attended and made observations at, and to a limited extent participated in five workshops conducted in the first round of Ung C Sundbyberg I seek to answer questions about why young people was an important group to reach, how the competition task was framed by the process managers and how the competition is related to ideals of how a "good" dialogue can be achieved. Despite the initial ambitions of the competition, you cannot understand the case as a citizen dialogue that will contribute to greater democratic control over the visionary work of Sundbyberg's new city centre. Some of the material also suggests that the interest in young people as a group is questionable, rather it is more about the dialogue work is closely related to market research, with ambitions to draw attention to urban transformation in Sundbyberg.

Academics, experts and politicians have come to the conclusion that democracy is in trouble. The contemporary understanding is that new competitive pressures from the outside and unruly publics from the inside have drastically changed the way politics is enacted. Where it was previously provoked by ideological programs it is now engulfed in issues, and where it used to be framed by established democratic institutions it is now characterized by informal governance arrangements. In this environment, it is argued, only the reformed institution can bridge the gap between politics and democracy and restore legitimacy to the decision-making process. In Swedish planning, these reforms have positioned the citizen as the point of departure for democratic politics, manifested in procedural citizen dialogues and in authorities’ relinquishment of political responsibilities. But when unplanned publics do emerge, they are intuitively dismissed as NIMBYs and obstacles to the planning process – preemptively foreclosing opportunities for public democratic enactment. The aim of this paper is to analyze this process by examining the public controversy surrounding the ongoing redevelopment of Slakthusområdet in southern Stockholm. It draws heavily on Noortje Marres’ work. She suggests that politics pursued outside of established institutions could be occasions for democracy since the activity might indicate that issues are finding sites that are hospitable to their articulation as matters of public concern. However, her issue-focused reasoning also positions the citizen as the focal point for democratic politics, meaning that those who fail to accept this role inevitably have themselves to blame. Her work is therefore supplement­ed with Laurent Thévenot’s understanding of how forms, that is, ideals, rules, and procedures, can be just as important as issues in informing the decisions among actors. Through interviews with those involved, this paper highlights the ease in which the city disarticulates the attempts at public democratic enactment, a proficiency largely stemming from its “reformed” management form. Moreover, while the public finally managed to settle their issue at stake, it came with the substantial cost of eroded faith in democracy. Drawing on this, the paper concludes that both issues and forms, publics and the public sector, are crucial in facilitating the enactment of democratic politics.

Urban planning research and practice provides forceful evidence that urban place-making processes should not be driven by experts and planning professionals alone: they should also build on the experiential knowledge and values of lay citizens. Experience shows that the construction of the green, compact, and healthy city fostered by sustainable development policies requires considering how places are used and valued by all relevant stakeholders. SoftGIS is a form of web-based Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) that provides both a method and tools for mapping the values that people attach to places and for integrating these in professional urban planning practice. This report focuses on three softGIS tools: Mapita’s Maptionnaire, Spacescape’s Bästa Platsen, and SKL’s Geopanelen. Five case studies from Finland and Sweden are analysed so as to discuss some of the main substantive issues surrounding the uptake of softGIS applications urban planning practice and decision-making, particularly in the context of urban densification measures. In so doing, the extent to which softGIS can support dialogue between lay citizens and planning professionals is assessed, with a focus on urban ecosystem services in green areas. It is demonstrated that the potential of softGIS to help broaden communities of practice in urban planning hinges on a conducive institutional context for public participation and dialogue. Furthermore, it is argued that the use of softGIS tools is optimised when it is integrated in a comprehensive multifunctional toolbox that combines both physical and digital forms of public participation.

Lagos State in Nigeria is faced with the massive problem of waste from plastic bags which causes the yearly flooding displacing thousands of residents and causes diseases like malaria. Plastic bags which became popular because of their versatility, affordability and durability have now become a major source of environmental degradation requiring the use of more environmentally friendly alternatives like Jute, woolen bags, and biodegradable types of plastic. The Nigerian legislature proposed a plastic bag prohibition bill to reduce the manufacture and use of plastic bags with fines and time behind bars which is Nigeria’s first attempt at managing the menace of single-use plastic bags. The goal of this study is to determine reasons for the continued use of plastic bags to contribute to better management of plastic bags waste. It further investigates the available alternatives and willingness of the residents of Lagos to embrace some alternatives to plastic bags. Anonymous online surveys were distributed across social media platforms and interviews involving shop owners described as “givers” who are off social media in this study was carried out. Responses from both quantitative and qualitative sources have been analyzed using the Nvivo software and connection circles have been developed to describe feedbacks within the system. Results showed that the lack of alternatives and convenience are the biggest reasons for the continued use of plastic bags in Lagos, Nigeria. The results further show that the proposed bill has not made provision of alternatives to plastic bags and incentives for manufacturers of plastic bags revealing poor public participation in policy-making of this nature. Overall, respondents have indicated a willingness to embrace alternatives to plastic bags and have mentioned that the situation is worsened by poor waste management in the state. Recommendations included more extensive research into the use of plastic bags with a bigger sample size with both online and offline platforms. This could encourage effective public participation in policy-making important for creating useful nudges in behavioural change in the shift from plastic bags.

This research addresses the need to foster human rights in the international investment law (IIL) regime through public participation in Kenya. It highlights the asymmetrical nature of IIL and the need to balance competing foreign investor rights and public interest concerns, particularly human rights in host states. It buttresses the vital role that IIL can play in the socio-economic growth of developing countries, more so, its role in the sustainable development agenda. This research spotlights the increasing human rights concerns in the proliferated foreign direct investments in the natural resources and infrastructure development sectors in Kenya while proposing innovative solutions to this problem through avenues for effective public participation as provided for in the existing international, and domestic legal, and policy frameworks. Lastly, this research analyzes the deficiencies of investor-state arbitration in IIL in providing access to remedy to victims of business-related human rights claims against foreign investors and proposes alternative participatory and more efficient judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms that can potentially enhance access to justice and ultimately human rights protection in the IIL regime in Kenya. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretorai, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

Within the last 15 years, the first three Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) in North America formed and completed their work. Patterned after similar efforts in South Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere, the TRCs in Greensboro, North Carolina; Maine; and Canada heard voluntarily-offered testimony from members of the general public and key parties to decades-long conflicts. The Commissions also evaluated responsibility for the conflicts and offered recommendations for change in their respective communities and countries, informed by the testimonies they received. This qualitative methods multiple case study of the three Commissions’ recommendations involved archival research and data analysis of testimony to the Commissions, alongside the subsequent recommendations made by those Commissions and any further policy measures taken by host governments in Greensboro, Maine, and Canada. The dissertation attempts to answer the research question: to what extent can truth and reconciliation commissions empower parties to long-running and wide-reaching conflicts to influence changes in their communities, states, or countries in ways courts cannot? Among the conclusions reached in this research is that TRCs integrated public testimony to a significant extent into their findings and recommendations, though the three governments in Greensboro, Maine, and Canada have implemented those recommendations with varying levels of commitment. This study can assist others tackling large-scale conflicts to consider how best to incorporate a truth and reconciliation commission into their efforts at healing and growth in their communities.

Magister Legum - LLM / An environment, which is not dangerous to the health or well-being of individuals, is every South African's basic Human right.1 In addition.it is every South African's basic human right to have the environment protected for the · "benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures".2 These measures must aim at preventing pollution and ecological degradation. The measures must further advance. conservation, and guarantee ecologically sustainable development and use of natural .· resources. 3 Stakeholders, such as, non-governmental, organizations (henceforth NGOs), and the community as a whole have important roles to play.4

Wind energy is a means of energy production without carbon emissions, facilitating regional and national energy security. While there are currently no offshore wind farms in the United States, there has been growing success in building land-based wind capacity. Within the wind industry, there is a call for a streamlined permitting process, as well as an objective evaluation of current stakeholder processes. Within city and regional planning, the stakeholder process and public participation in general have long been subject to research and discourse, as scholars and practitioners alike seek to identify and typify what exactly makes public participation robust or rigorous. In Europe, researchers have found that a stakeholder process characterized by early inclusion and local decision-making increases community acceptance of large-scale wind projects, and that a ‘soft-path’, decentralized approach to infrastructure development, as seen in Germany, leads to greater community acceptance as well, versus the ‘hard-path’, centralized approach to infrastructure development as typified in early Dutch wind development. While the public process should not supplant the formal permitting process, or detract from technical expertise, a better understanding of what type of siting and decision-making process are construed by participants as positive or negative could help to formulate stakeholder involvement more effectively in future projects. It could also help to decrease the length of permitting times by promoting consensus-building rather than inadvertently creating an adversarial decision-making climate. This thesis uses a case study methodology to compare three land-based wind farms in Massachusetts and Vermont. It also compares the wind development policies between the two states. From each site, stakeholders are identified and interviewed concerning their experiences and perspectives of the stakeholder or public process. Interviews are analyzed using a matrix composed of success criteria pulled from the fields of regional planning and public participation theory, collaborative planning, and adaptive resource management. Findings include evidence as to what degree there was a stakeholder process, and to what degree participants found it positive or negative. The research found that the characteristics and practices of ore robust or rigorous stakeholder engagement are largely lacking in New England land-based wind development. These characteristics or practices included third-party data collection and reporting; early and broad stakeholder inclusion; collaborative ground rule setting; and no third-party mediation or facilitation. Stakeholder process perspectives are easily divided by wind-energy attitudes: anti-wind stakeholders reported greater antipathy toward the process, whereas proponents of both specific projects and the technology in general reported greater favorability toward the process and outcome. Vermont and Massachusetts have distinct wind development processes and distinct mechanisms for public participation and stakeholder engagement in a renewable energy technology context. In many ways, the siting of renewable infrastructure still follows the ‘decide, announce, defend’ character of conventional infrastructure and facility siting. Wind proponents, and proponents of other renewable energy technologies and sustainability measures in general, should pause and consider how to craft meaningful, robust and rigorous stakeholder processes prior to site selection and development. This will lend legitimacy to both the process and technology, lending political and social sustainability to a technology that is well needed for social, economic and environmental well-being. Continued avoidance of early and robust stakeholder engagement may contribute to ongoing conflict and confusion regarding renewable energy siting, permitting and development. Stakeholder experiences and perspectives also demonstrated that there are many factors contributing to public and social perceptions of wind technology and specific projects, including the financial gain or reward to communities and stakeholders; the size of individual turbines; project ownership and management; and project scale. There is opportunity for enhancing the public process and allowing rigorous and robust stakeholder process in wind energy development.

Rapid technological advancements in digital cameras and widespread public access to the internet have inspired many researchers to consider alternative methods for collecting, analyzing, and distributing scientific data. Two emerging fields of study that have capitalized on these developments are “citizen science” and photo-id in wildlife capture-mark-recapture (CMR) studies. Both approaches offer unprecedented flexibility and potential for acquiring previously inconceivable datasets, yet both remain dependent on data collection by human observers. The absence of rigorous assessment of observer error rates causes many scientists to resist citizen science altogether or to fail to incorporate citizen-collected data into ecological analyses. This same need for consistent measurement and documentation of the type and frequency of errors resulting from different observers is mirrored in numerous ecological studies employing photographic identification. The driving question of interest behind this thesis rests at the intersection of these two fields: can citizen scientists provide an effective alternative to commonly utilized computer-assisted programs used with large photo-id databases from wildlife studies? To address this question we reviewed the history of wildlife photo-id in order to gain a better understanding of knowledge gaps caused by a failure to consistently report human error rates (Chapter 1). We then piloted a crowdsourcing approach to distributed photographic analysis by soliciting responses to image comparisons from a large number of untrained observers (Chapter 2). We found that observers correctly assessed 99.6% of all comparisons, but that the predictor variables for the two types of error (false positive and false negative) differed. Building upon a deeper understanding of the history, limitations, key issues, and recommendations for researchers considering using photo-id, we recommend the expanded use of citizen science methods as an effective alternative to computer-assisted approaches with large image libraries. Error rate improvements should allow scientists to more readily accept data collected by untrained observers as valid, and will also contribute to improved accuracy of ecological estimates of population size, vital rates, and overall conservation management of threatened or endangered species. Additionally, the general public will benefit from expanded opportunities to engage with and learn about the scientific process.

Wind energy is an appropriate solution to reduce carbon emissions and climate change. The expansion of wind energy developments in Sweden in recent years has created substantial opposition which makes wind energy tougher to develop. The landscape and visual constraints associated with wind energy developments has become the critical reason for local opposition and protest. Planning information relating to the visual and landscape impacts of a proposed wind energy development are often brought forward through a landscape analysis. Digital tools are used in a landscape analysis to identify the proposed visual effects associated with a development. These tools provide visual aid of the proposed development through 2-dimentional and 3-dimentional images, identify constraint areas on a map as outlined in the respective development plans and identifies where visibility is likely to occur. This thesis uses a quantitative assessment by the example of a potential wind farm in Sundsvall Municipality in Sweden and theoretical research on landscape connotation. The motivation of this thesis is to outline the opportunities and limitations associated with the digital tools used to conduct a landscape analysis, promote a standardised approach to practice and implement suggestions to improve digital tools to allow for more public participation and to limit opposition towards wind farm developments. The results of this thesis suggest that the social issues and visual perceptions of turbines can be reduced through the inclusion of digital tools, but radical changes are needed within the planning process to recognise the benefits of digital tools and provide a standardised framework.