Abstract: This thesis has looked at urban renewal initiatives and what potential consequences these could have on the way an area is experienced and the way people are connected to the area. To accomplish this the concept of authenticity has been used, combined with the concept of place attachment, to create a framework that would allow for a discussion concerning the impact of urban renewal initiatives on a renewed area. The areas of Gottsunda in Uppsala and Sofielund in Malmö were chosen as the focus of the study as they both are experiencing urban renewal initiatives currently and will be in the future as well. To analyze the areas the methods chosen were document analysis of documents relating to each area in combination with interviews with actors working with the initiatives in each area. Using the methods the results showed how Uppsala municipality in Gottsunda broadly favored different physical interventions meant to improve the area whilst in Sofielund the opposite was the case as social interventions were favored by BID Sofielund to improve the area. Overall, the findings showed how a change in both areas’ authenticity was likely to take place following the often-drastic interventions to the physical and social landscapes of each area. The discussion concerning the changing authenticity of the areas also came to include a broader look at what potential factors might have an impact on whether an area’s authenticity might change over how much time changes are implemented or the scale of the changes. Broadly the findings, whilst not definitively stating how an areas authenticity might change, managed to identify many relevant and interesting trends relating to the consequences of urban renewal initiatives, something that should be well worth keeping in mind when planning future changes into the urban space.

This study aims to understand a swedish BID (business improvement district) partnership as a local form of urban governance in neighborhood improvement. The study explores challenges with the collaborative governance of various actors with a majority of private property owners. It highlights the need of public meta-governance and the challenges the network's public leader face in its governing of the network. As a framework for this, the study uses governance theory, which discusses the effective and democratic implications for network governance and how it can be improved by a meta-governor. It also uses various perspectives of BIDs as governance networks and its influence as urban actors. The empirical data is collected through qualitative interviews with involved network actors as well as the network leader, and focus is on their perceptions of the partnership's role and challenges with the collaborative governance. The findings of the study demonstrate the complexity of a multi-organisation partnership as well as the challenges to manage it. The results suggest that the partnership's practice of meta-governance do not live up to the definition presented by the theorists, due to a weak political accountability, and the network actors' governing are therefore left to be determined by their intentions. However, if their intentions are good, the network has the potential to create a well-functioning and committed local democracy with an effective decision-making process with less bureaucracy. Of importance for the discipline of urban studies, the identified aspects of diverging interests and the partnership's weak bond with public deliberation, BIDs as a way of managing space should be questioned in ways of who's interest is taken into consideration in the planning and development of our public spaces.