The aim of this study is to contribute to the bottom-up perspective in the study of civil society participation in local government decisions regarding urban green space. The study investigates what role civic actors set out to take and traces their engagement in the municipal decision-making processes. A descriptive theoretical framework is created to categorize environmental Non-Governmental Organizations' (NGO) strategies to intervene in the municipally governed green space planning within Stockholm County. With a theoretical basis in sociological and political science studies of social movements and public participation, I assess: 1) the timing of an intervention in the municipal planning process 2) degree of NGO collaboration with municipal authorities, and 3) the consensus or conflict driven nature of their approach towards the municipal authorities. Data on the interventions was collected from newsletters, meeting protocols and comments on development plans from the website of two prominent NGO as well as interviews with six activists in the Stockholm region. The distribution of the interventions found in Stockholm shows that reactive, non-participatory and conflict-driven strategies are the most common combination, although one third of the interventions have a participatory approach towards the municipality and a few interventions work to make a change by initiating consensus among stakeholders. Interviews with civic actors suggest that a lack of resources and low expected impact on official planning decisions hinders proactive and consensus-driven engagement, but also broken promises and a lack of responsiveness by municipal authorities can catalyze civic actors towards more conflictual methods of engagement. Further research topics of an explanatory nature on distribution and dynamics of interventions in the new theoretical framework are suggested based on reflections from the interviews.

Cultural landscapes are places that have developed distinct characteristics from the interaction of people and nature. Actors with different roles in a cultural landscape will interpret the value of the landscape features differently. By combining these perspectives, or knowledge systems, a more complete interpretation can be included in development of an adaptive and collaborative environmental management systems. The principles of such adaptive co-management have guided a management initiative in the province of Bali, Indonesia. It aims to safe-guard a selected region of a unique landscape shaped by peaceful water-sharing among Bali’s rice farmer associations, known as subaks. The current challenge is to effectively engage the communities in its implementation. The site is nominated as a Cultural Landscape World Heritage (CLWH) to UNESCO, which is an opportunity to involve the national and provincial administrations in a management strategy.A key assumption is that knowing each other’s interpretations will contribute to building an effective management plan and implementation. In this study perspectives from two stakeholder groups, the management committee and local farmers, have been assessed to understand how they interpret the landscape values. The perspective of a practical knowledge system is contrasted to the scientific knowledge system, although both groups share an understanding of the values of the subak landscape. These knowledge systems were made explicit with visualisation methods in qualitative interviews.Furthermore, the local farmers interpreted the CLWH nomination as an opportunity for tourism and development, although stressing that tourism may have negative effects. The management committee, on the other hand, perceived the CLWH nomination as a tool to attract attention not only from tourists, but also support from the national and provincial government. It can be concluded that the CLWH nomination has achieved involvement and attention from government actors and supported development of an adaptive co-management plan. The Balinese CLWH nomination has potential for evolving environmental management and combine local and scientific knowledge systems, based on the shared place-based lived experience of the subak landscape.

How do children develop an emotional relationship with Nature? This study provides a transdisciplinary exploration of how the connection with the Biosphere develops and how it is influenced by different socio-ecological environments. It assesses environmental sensitivity, awareness and attitude of 28 children in Stockholm together with the biophysical environments in which these children have been, and the environmental ethic of the social context with whom they have been in contact (parents and teachers). The results are summarized into two major findings. First, the biophysical environment in which a child is immersed influences the formation of an emotional relationship with the Biosphere. Children with higher exposure to wild and rural environments have also higher empathy and concern for natural elements, while the opposite is true for children with higher exposure to indoors. Second, the social perception of an environment influences children’s feelings for the same environment. Children who fear forests because of predators have parents and teachers who also perceive forests as unsafe for children’s playing. The complex network of socio-ecological influences and the little empirical evidence does not allow the study to provide insights about the mechanisms underpinning the development of each emotion. However, the study significantly affirms that children’s emotional connection with Nature is adaptive to children’s socio-ecological surroundings. These findings highlight the potential of different disciplines to pursue the mental reconnection of human and Nature, e.g. experiential learning and transmission of social memories. Further, urban planning grants remarkable tools to implement such scientific understanding in the realm of an ever growing urban population.

This thesis is based on a minor field study conducted in Kagera, Tanzania, during approximately two months in 2009. In the Kagera region, agriculture is seen as the main dependent factor for the small-scale farmers' livelihoods, which is an activity challenged by environmental constraints including soil degradation and deforestation. The non-governmental organisation Vi Agroforestry has been active in Kagera since 2005, focusing on the re-establishment of a healthy and sustainable environment, while simultaneously trying to reduce the levels of poverty and food insecurity through rural-based agroforestry techniques and enterprise development. Its work is implemented with a demand-driven group approach and the small-scale farmers' self-reliance as a key element. The purpose of the field study was to investigate the socio-economic situation for small-scale farmers in Kagera and how it possibly had changed over time as well as in what ways Vi Agroforestry so far might had affected the farmers' situation. The possible diverse development between farmers that were members in groups collaborating with the organisation and non-members was also investigated. During the field study semi-structured interviews signified the main source of information and the material gathered was analysed according to the capital assets of the pentagon of the sustainable rural livelihood framework. Overall, even though the small-scale farmers still seemed to face challenges in their daily lives when this study was conducted, the general impression was that their socio-economic situation had improved over time and that Vi Agroforestry had constituted a contributing engine for this development. The main contributions by the organisation in this regard seemed to have been the education and training in agriculture and agroforestry techniques, enterprise development and micro savings and loans. Due to an apparent small-scale development with a diverse focus among the farmers on improving different capitals, as well as insufficient data on how the farmers' situation was before the organisation's arrival, no prominent differences seemed evident between the farmers who were members of groups collaborating with Vi Agroforetry and non-members.

To engage in environmental and social issues is getting more important for companies, and many companies have integrated environmental considerations into their business. Consumers have a strong influence on companies and their environmental awareness and willingness to pay affects the companies work within the environmental field. The consumption of clothes has grown rapidly and the average Swede spends 3.9 percent of their income on clothes. The production process of clothes can harm the environment, society and the consumers themselves. So the purpose of this thesis is to see if consumers have a willingness to pay extra for an environmentally friendly garment. The aim is also to identify what factors that may influence consumers’ decisions. A survey containing a contingent valuation has been conducted. The results show that a prominent majority, 89 percent, of the respondents stated that they would pay extra to make sure the garment they buy is eco-friendly, and the median for the amount they are willing to spend is 65 SEK extra. This indicates that there is an interest from the consumers to pay extra to make sure environmental consideration is taken in production of clothes. The awareness of the indirect harm that purchasing clothes can cause themselves, others and the environment and how intensely consumers feel that it is their own responsibility not to cause that harm, probably have an influence on peoples’ willingness to pay extra.

Poverty and degradation of ecosystem services are prevalent features of the livelihood insecurity of coastal communities in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Livelihood diversification is typical in coastal rural areas and it is increasingly important to identify opportunities for income generation and ways to alleviate poverty. Sustainable enterprises provide a strong tool for livelihood development, but are still unable to find pathway towards development of ecosystem services and sustainable enterprises in coastal communities in Zanzibar.The aim of this study is to understand the existing livelihood diversification and income generating patterns in order to introduce sustainable enterprises in the future. Also, we aim to identify the conditions of the present dominant livelihood activities in terms of sustainability. During the study a household survey was conducted using a sample of 200 households from five coastal villages in Zanzibar. The data was collected by maintaining a daily diary and conducting comprehensive interviews. The statistical techniques, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), linear regression and other statistical measures were used to analyze the results. The ANOVA technique is used to test the differences in income generated by different livelihood sectors. The regression analysis techniques are employed to find out whether there is a correlation between numbers of livelihood activities and income.The results show that livelihood diversification is very high in coastal households in Zanzibar. With respect to ecosystem-based livelihoods, there is more household participation in fishing and seaweed farming, but it varies from village to village. Furthermore, fisheries and tourism are the most important sectors, and offer more opportunities to generate higher income for households. The findings suggest that there is space to improve the current dominant livelihood sectors in a sustainable way in the future. Livelihood management strategies are needed to take into account the market opportunities and their roles in livelihood development. Also, there is a need to identify possibilities to enhance livelihood opportunities in sectors with low household participation as an important way to reduce pressure on ecosystems. Finally, we outline the possible future impact of unsustainable development and of sustainable enterprises, and highlight the importance of a collaborative sustainable enterprise system to ensure livelihood security.

Adaptive co-management (ACM) has downplayed the role that diversity withincommunities could play in management schemes. It has understood communities asgroups of persons with similar interests. This thesis attempts to explore some of theconsequences that diversity of preferences of the future over social-ecologicaltrajectories within communities could have on adaptive co-management processes.The relevance of understanding this lies in the urgency of finding solutions thatpromote better resource and environmental management aimed at sustainability. Thefollowing work uses scenarios as a way to explore the effects that diversity ofpreferences within communities might have on ACM processes.

This case study investigates change processes in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) over a 10-year period. It aims to increase the understanding of the dynamics of change processes in organizations which operate at the science-policy interface at the international level. ICES plays a key role in supplying policymakers and marine management agencies with scientific advice. The challenges facing governance of oceans and coastal areas have led these actors to embrace an ecosystem-based approach. This study takes a qualitative, transdisciplinary approach to investigate if and how ICES has responded to this shift towards a more holistic management paradigm. Resilience theory, combined with organizational change theory, is used to analyze several change processes identified. The ICES advisory program and the ICES science program have both undergone major reforms during the last 10 years. The ICES Secretariat has been reorganized, and strategic planning has given ICES new guiding documents. While the ecosystem-based approach was important as a backdrop for the reforms, it was not manifested as a dominating driver behind the changes. The major drivers were the need to improve efficiency and a striving for better integration between different components within the organization. The findings show that the international network structure of ICES gives a different dynamics of change compared to similar processes in traditional hierarchical government organizations. Implementation of change requires time to allow for broad consultations, which are important to ensure support and a sense of ownership within the ICES community. Changes are implemented incrementally to align with opportunities and constrains embedded in the complex institutional landscape within which ICES resides. These insights can contribute to the development of strategies aiming to enhance the capacity to govern marine ecosystems and build resilience of social-ecological systems.

Important throughout the 20th century, trade unions are an influential social actor that can affect and influence various policies, public opinion, and working standards through collective agreements, social activism, and political partnerships. Both within and extending beyond the workplace, unions have at times played a role in determining solutions to environmental issues, from health and safety standards all the way to national and international policy and solidarity activity, though this subject is rarely studied or analyzed. In particular, trade union stances and action on climate and energy issues represents an under-researched, yet important topic of analysis. Using the United States and Sweden as case studies, with analysis of two blue-collar unions in each, the research analyzes the important factors affecting choices and action regarding climate and energy matters. Within the case study approach, using a neo-institutional theoretical approach, I employed qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews, complemented with primary source documentary analysis. The analysis demonstrates that two unions (one in each country) can be described as active and two as defensive on environmental issues, respectively. The United Steelworkers in the United States and Kommunal in Sweden, both affected and acting within a particular structure, have been active at combating and seeking solutions to climate change, while linking work and environmental issues at multiple levels. Key factors such as working within a social unionism paradigm; instrumental leadership combined with multilevel work; and important mergers converge to influence and define behaviour. The United Autoworkers (U.S.) and IF Metall (Sweden), both defensive, though in their own ways, are influenced by factors including historical institutional power; regional concentration of employment; and the types of employment they represent.

The geographic distribution of dengue fever has increased worldwide in recent years and is at present the most widespread vector borne viral disease in the world (Halstead 2002). Because of its rapid spread and increasing seriousness of its complications it is considered to be the most troubling vector borne disease (Wilcox and Colwell 2005, Phillips 2008). Dengue fever is the one vector borne disease that poses the greatest threat to New Zealand. Imported cases are being reported in ever increasing numbers and all the components for a mosquito borne disease cycle is already present (Ministry of Health 1997). Furthermore, New Zealand’s geographic isolation makes it a unique location for studying the emergence of vector borne diseases, such as dengue. The objective of this thesis was - by using case studies on dengue fever on a global scale and the potential emergence of the disease in isolated New Zealand as examples – to explore the interlinkages between global changes (climate change and rapid urbanisation), globalisation (rapid travel and trade), and their local impacts on vulnerability and health (i.e. changes in local climate, travel and trade patterns and demographic changes that affect emergence and transmission of disease). This was done by 1) reviewing the ecological and environmental conditions necessary for dengue transmission; 2) examining key social and environmental factors contributing to the recent global increase in dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and 3) drawing projections to 2070 in order to build future scenarios for epidemic dengue risks in New Zealand. Regression analysis were used to analyse 16 years of area specific dengue rates from 232 geographical areas in relation to key social and environmental factors proposed to contribute to dengue emergence. The results were tested on the mainland of New Zealand in order to build future scenarios for epidemic dengue risks in New Zealand for 2070. The outcome from the regression analysis proved to have a good ability to predict dengue rates based on national characteristics and it predicted a nearly fourfold increase in risk of epidemic for New Zealand’s North Island based on climate projections for 2070. The projected increase in population density however, had much less of an effect on the perceived risk than the projected climate change despite an estimated increase of 33% in population density. This is the first study that makes an attempt to measure the relative importance of different social and environmental variables proposed to contribute in the recent global increase in dengue.