Sverige står idag inför utmaningar för att minska koldioxidutsläppen inom transportsektorn. Bilen har länge varit en planeringsnorm i Sverige. Till följd av satsningar för hållbar utveckling har en omställning till mer hållbara transporter som kollektivtrafik blivit aktuell. Örebro och Västerås är två medelstora kommuner som har uttryckt ambitioner om att utveckla den lokala kollektivtrafiken. Respektive kommun har ett externt handelsområde som är viktigt både för den kommunala och regionala handeln. Arbetet syftar till att analysera planering och effektivisering av kollektivtrafik till och från externa handelsområden. I studien har kvalitativa intervjuer med planerare och politiker, samt dokumentanalys av olika plandokument genomförts. Vidare har planeringshandboken Kol-TRAST och teorier om Stigberoende använts som verktyg i analysen. Resultatet visar på att externa handelsområden ofta bortprioriteras i planering för kollektivtrafik, dels på grund av stigberoende, dels på grund av bristande politisk förankring. Trots goda ambitioner i plandokument finns det ofta en brist på praktiskt initiativtagande inom planeringen. / Today Sweden is facing challenges in reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the transport sector. Planning for car traffic has long been a norm in Sweden. As a result of initiatives for sustainable development, a shift to more sustainable transport such as public transport has become necessary. Örebro and Västerås are two medium-sized Swedish municipalities that have expressed ambitions to develop public transport on a local level. Each municipality has an out-of-town shopping area that is considered important for both municipal and regional trade. This study is based on qualitative interviews, as well as document analysis. The planning manual Kol-TRAST and theories of path dependency have been used to analyze the results. The results show that out-of-town shopping areas often are de-prioritized in planning for public transport, partly due to path dependence and partly due to a lack of political support. Despite ambitious planning documents, there is often a lack of practical initiative in planning.

The intention of this paper is to analyze the impact of a threat environment in the creation of a hi-tech cluster through the development of an independent defense industry. In order to conclude the implications of a military industry in the development of a hi-tech cluster, it was studied the case of the evolution of Israel’s defense industry into a diverse hi – tech industry (Silicon Wadi). This work emerges from a personal concern in order to understand if there are some benefits or positive side effects in developing an indigenous military industry.  Coming from a country in the developing process that has no military forces (Costa Rica) and at the same time has been struggling to create a hi-tech cluster, I wanted to learn what are the implications in the hi-tech sector for lacking an indigenous defense industry and a threat environment. As it will be presented in this study, the major implication of having an independent defense industry is that it creates a path dependency in the military sector and if it’s handled correctly through the cooperation between academia, military forces and business sectors it will be possible to create transitions of this technologies into civilian applications, diversifying the entrance of resources and creating an entrepreneur environment.

Despite that alliance formation commonly happen when states share mutual interests and like-mindedness, it is possible to find alliances, where the states promote radically different political, normative, and cultural characteristics. Such an alliance is observed in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United States, which subsequently have endured. The following research will thus elaborate on how the Saudi-American alliance have endured throughout, despite their radical differences. To examine the endurance of the Saudi-American alliance, this research has conducted a case study and used Walter Carlsnaes Foreign Policy model. The research has concludingly found that the alliance has endured due to a variety of factors such as economic trade, regional instability, and security, that consistently has persisted throughout. Despite the American role as a hegemon and the changing administrations throughout the endurance, it has been argued that the longevity of the relation has contributed to the consistency of the factors mentioned above. This is evident in the unpredictability in terms of the region, instability, and insecurity that opposes threats to the U.S., and economic trade relations which have discouraged the U.S. from leaving the alliance.

The climate means a number of different challenges for the forest, which can both suffer large-scale negative consequences, and at the same time create the conditions for more growth, depending on regional conditions. The Swedish forest industry has contributed to the development of Swedish welfare, which historically has also been supported by the government through laws and regulations that made this development possible. The historically strong support for the forest industry is argued in this work to have led to a path dependency in how Swedish forests should be managed in order to optimize growth in the way that the forest industry wants it. Furthermore, it is described how the path-dependent management methods were able to continue, and how today it creates problems when forest management methods need to be adapted in order to be resistant to a changing climate in the long term. A reluctance to adapt the industry's management methods instead puts great trust for climate adaptation in Sweden's large proportion of private forest owners and their local knowledge. This paper aims to investigate how the important local conditions affect forestry climate adaptation efforts, by collecting mixed quantitative and qualitative data with a survey, and using descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis to analyze the survey responses. The result shows that local forest owners have been given a role as forestry climate adaptation agents as a result of a deep-rooted path dependency in Swedish forestry methods, and that information about management methods and climate change affects the forest owners' knowledge of climate adaptation of forestry at the local level.

Kulturarv är en aspekt som måste beaktas i planeringen av framtidens städer. Tinnerbäcksbadet är en plats som många Linköpingsbor har en stark koppling till på grund av dess långa historia. Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra med en ökad förståelse av invånares relation till Tinnis samt hur historiska avlagringar beaktas i planeringen av platsens nya utformning. Platsanknytning och stigberoende har tillsammans genom sina teoretiska utgångspunkter format studiens analys. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ fallstudie där åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med tjänstepersoner och Linköpingsbor har legat till grund för empiriinsamlingen. Anknytning till en plats är individuell och vissa respondenter har en starkare anknytning till Tinnis än andra, det kan påverka deras inställning till förändringen av platsen. Förändringsprocessen har varit lång och utdragen bland annat på grund av de många intressen som finns kopplade till platsen. Planerare måste ta hänsyn till många olika aspekter vilket kan leda till att aspekter gällande kulturarv förminskas. / Cultural heritage is one aspect which urban planning needs to consider. Many of Linköping’s residents have a strong connection to Tinnerbäcksbadet because of its long history. The purpose of this essay is to increase the understanding of the residents’ relationship to Tinnis and how historical remnants are taken into account in the planning of the site’s new design. The essay is a qualitative case study where eight semi-structured interviews have been the basis for the empirical collection. The empirical material was analyzed using the theories place attachment and patch dependency. Attachment to a place is highly individual and some respondents have a stronger attachment to Tinnis than others which may affect their attitude towards the change of Tinnis. The planning process has been protracted, mainly due to the many interests that intersect in this place. Planners need to consider many aspects, which might lead to diminish of cultural heritage aspects.

While many major cities in the United States are once again gaining population, growing their economies, and attracting talent, many small and mid-sized cities are in decline. The reasons for this growing disparity are multi-faceted. A growing body of research has been exploring planning challenges in declining cities and towns. This body of research—often called “shrinking cities” and “urban shrinkage” research—is premised on the belief that many declining places will continue to shed population, jobs, and industries, and planning smartly for this decline is the only sensible path forward. So far, research in the U.S. has focused primarily on Northeast and Midwest cities where population and industrial decline has been the most severe. Less scholarship has studied places that have declined more slowly and more recently. This thesis examines the current trends impacting the decline of mid-sized cities in the Midwestern United States, focusing on four cities in the State of Illinois. It also explores whether these cities are ready to consider the possibility that population decline is not temporary and change their planning strategies accordingly. Finally, this thesis will introduce an emerging paradigm in contemporary urban planning practice that fuses growth and decline strategies, to prepare mid-sized cities for an uncertain demographic and economic future.

I det hållbara planeringsidealet anses cykeln vara en viktig del av en fungerande trafiklösning, trots detta tenderar många städer ha problem att uppnå deras egna mål för ökad cykeltrafik. Studien analyserar Malmös och Köpenhamns cykelplanering och cykelvägsstruktur utifrån aktuell cykeltrafikforskning, i syfte att undersöka vilka strategier och förutsättningar som städerna har gemensamt, och vad som skiljer dem åt. Målet för studien är att få svar på hur, och i vilken mån Malmös cykeltrafikandel kan öka utifrån Köpenhamns exempel, och att få en vidare förståelse för de utmaningar som den framtida cykelplaneringen står inför. Studiens metod tar ansats ur fältstudier av fyra cykelfrämjande städer i Europa. Sammanställningen av fältstudierna resulterar i att tre cykelstrategier identifieras som gemensamma för de fyra cykelfrämjande städerna. Därefter analyseras Köpenhamns och Malmös cykelprogram utifrån de tidigare nämnda cykelstrategierna. Analysen fastslår att Köpenhamn borde ses som en framstående cykelstad och möjliggör för en jämförande analys mellan Köpenhamns och Malmös cykelsatsningar. Den jämförande analysen mellan Köpenhamns och Malmös cykelsatsningar avslutas med en redovisning och tolkning av resultaten från analysen.För att kunna förstå cykelprogrammens spatiala relation till städerna de är tänkta att implementeras i används en space syntax-analys. Genom att undersöka satsningarnas rumsliga kontext i förhållande till det befintliga cykelvägsystemet kan en djupare förståelse för cykelsatsningarnas omfattning och orsak uppnås.Studiens resultat identifierar tre strategier som är direkt kopplade till andelen cykeltrafik i städer. Den fastställer även att trots cykelsatsningarnas övergripande likheter, skiljer implementeringen och omfattningen av dessa satsningar sig åt mellan Köpenhamn och Malmö. Infrastrukturens stora påverkan på cykelutvecklingen i stort framgår även det i studiens resultat. Studien visar även på hur de båda städernas cykelprogram förhåller sig till cykelns socialt utjämnande egenskaper. Resultatet visar att det finns indikationer från båda städernas framtida cykelplanering på att dessa utjämnande egenskaper har fått en lägre prioritering allt efter cykeltrafiken anpassas till starkare samhällsgrupper. / In the sustainable planning paradigm, the bicycle is seen as playing an important role of combining effective, environmentally friendly, and space conserving transport to the compact city. Despite its overall positive effect on city life, many cities seem to struggle to achieve the goal of increased bicycle traffic. This study studies the similar strategies and efforts used by bicycle friendly European cities through current research literature, in order to analyze Malmö’s and Copenhagen’s efforts to increase their bicycle traffic. The goal of the study is to examine Malmö’s potential for increased bicycle traffic through Copenhagen’s bicycle planning strategies, and to get a deeper understanding of the challenge’s that may face the future field of bicycle planning. The study’s method starts in field studies of four bicycle friendly European cities. The compilation of the field studies identifies three bicycle planning strategies as mutual for all four cities. The mutual bicycle strategies are then used as a tool and benchmark for the analysis of Copenhagen´s and Malmoe´s municipal bicycle program. To understand the spatial relation between the cities bicycle strategies and the street network that they are supposed to be implemented in, a space syntax-analysis is performed. The results from the comparative analysis of the cities bicycle programs and the space syntax-analysis is then summarized and discussed. The result of the study identifies three crucial criteria’s that according to the study has a high possibility of affecting a city’s bicycle share. It also points to the importance of a well-developed bicycle infrastructure to achieve a higher level of competitiveness for the bicycle as a mode of transport. The study also highlights the socially balancing properties of the bicycle as a mode of transport, and the concern of losing these properties due to bicycle planning strategies that is starting to be adapted in order to attract people from more affluent social groups.

Many economies throughout the world were devastated by the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Ireland in particular experienced a severe collapse in its housing market. Despite the progression of European-influenced planning policy that was meant to promote balanced regional development in Ireland, the country's housing market vastly overbuilt, exacerbating a housing market crash that ended the Celtic Tiger era. Drawing on Europeanization and historical institutionalism as theoretical frameworks, this thesis argues that the link between these EU-influenced policy principles and local Irish planning practice was weak during an important phase of Ireland's economic growth. This conclusion is demonstrated through the analysis of a case study, McEvoy and Smith v. Meath County Council. The findings show that while Ireland's national government created an ambitious National Spatial Strategy modeled on EU principles, non-binding Regional Planning Guidelines allowed local authorities to continue granting zoning changes and permissions. These decisions were therefore uninhibited by the constraints of population projections, consideration for infrastructure provision, and overall good planning practice. This research calls into question the effectiveness of transferring policy principles from the EU to Member States. It suggests more generally that to implement policy and law successfully, policy makers must appreciate the societal and economic context in which these rules will operate.

In Deutschland und den USA engagiert sich die unternehmerische Philanthropie zunehmend in der Allgemeinbildung, während der letzten Dekade vor allem in den „MINT“ und den „STEM“ Fächern. Hierzu gibt es bisher kaum systematische Studien. Diese vergleichende Arbeit untersucht, warum und wie sich Unternehmen in diesen Bereichen engagieren, und wie sich ihre Rolle in der Bildung verändert. Die Studie beruht auf einer historischen Analyse der Rolle von Unternehmen in der Bildung seit 1945 und auf Interviews mit Experten aus dem MINT- und STEM-Bereich. Die wichtigsten Befunde der Studie sind: (1) Zuvor überwiegend in der dualen Bildung aktiv, begannen deutsche Unternehmen in den frühen 2000er Jahren u.a. als Reaktion auf den PISA-Schock, sich philanthropisch in der allgemeinen Schulbildung zu engagieren. (2) Unternehmerische Philanthropie führten die MINT und STEM Bildungsbewegung an. Aufgrund ihrer etablierten, gut vernetzten und vielfach finanzkräftigeren Stiftungen gelang es US-amerikanischen Unternehmen besser als deutschen, das Thema ins öffentliche Bewusstsein zu rücken, Ressourcen zu erschließen und Änderungen in der Bildungspolitik zu erwirken. (3) Unternehmen und deren Stiftungen wurden in erster Linie durch Entwicklungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt, langfristige ökonomische Überlegungen und die Notwendigkeit zur Innovation motiviert, sich zu engagieren; aufgrund unterschiedlicher demographischer Aspekte und Entwicklungen in der Bildung fanden sich Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Ländern. (4) In Deutschland und den USA agiert die unternehmerische Philanthropie zunehmend strategisch, d.h. sie handelt ergebnisorientiert und achtet auf Skalierbarkeit ihrer Aktivitäten. Dies hat das Engagement von Unternehmen in der Bildungspolitik verstärkt und die Anforderung der Wirtschaft in den Fokus gerückt. Manche US-amerikanische Unternehmen haben begonnen, Berufsbildungswege zu schaffen, was bisher nicht die Regel war. / Corporate philanthropy is active in K-12 education in Germany and the U.S. but there is minimal research about it. Over the last decade corporate philanthropic actors in both countries have become active in STEM* education (in Germany, MINT). This comparative study is about why and how they decided to invest in these initiatives and how that is tied to their traditional roles in education. It leans on the history of company involvement in education since 1945 and on interviews with experts active in the STEM and MINT education scenes. The main findings are: (1) As a result of the PISA shock and other factors, German companies that traditionally engaged only in vocational education have become active in general K-12 education. (2) Corporate philanthropy led the STEM and MINT education movements. However, U.S. companies and their foundations, with decades of philanthropic experiences and networks in education, were more successful in raising awareness, organizing resources, and achieving policy changes at the federal level. (3) Companies and their foundations were driven to invest in STEM and MINT education largely by workforce, long-term innovation, and economic concerns but there were key differences because of the differing demographic and education trends in the two countries. (4) In the U.S. and Germany, corporate philanthropy is attempting to be more strategic. This has resulted in a focus on outcome-based measurements and scalability but has also led to more investments in nonprofit and policy organizations instead of schools or their booster clubs. It has also resulted in corporate philanthropy better aligning with company competencies and needs, which made STEM and MINT ideal. In the case of the U.S., this has also resulted in some companies creating vocational programs, an area of education most companies avoided in the past. *STEM= Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math MINT= Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik

This paper discusses the implications of autonomous-connected-electric-shared vehicles (ACES) for public finance, which have so far been widely ignored in the literature. In OECD countries, 5-12% of federal and up to 30% of local tax revenues are currently collected from fuel and vehicle taxation. The diffusion of ACES will significantly reduce these important sources of government revenues and affect transport-related government expenditures, unless additional policies are introduced to align the new technological context with the tax revenue requirements. We argue that the realization of socioeconomic benefits of ACES depends on the implementation of tailored public finance policies, which can take advantage of the increase in data availability from the further digitalization of transportation systems. In particular, the introduction of road tolls in line with "user Pays" and "polluter Pays" principles will become more feasible for policy. Moreover, innovation in taxation schemes to fit the changing technological circumstances may alter the relative importance of levels of governance in transport policy making, likely shifting power towards local, in particular urban, governmental levels. We finally argue that, given the risk of path-dependencies and lock-in to sub-optimal public finance regimes if policies are implemented late, further research and near-term policy actions taken during the diffusion process of ACES are required.