The environmental and climate-related sustainability challenges facing the world today are complex, accelerating and urgent, and they call for change from multiple stake­hol­ders. While govern­ments, busi­nes­ses and other insti­tutions hold a high degree of responsibility for initia­ting and enabling the neces­sary change processes towards sustainable practices, so do also individuals and com­munities. Despite inno­va­tive change projects worldwide much remains to be done. However, making changes is difficult for many people, and even more so in situations characterised by uncertainty. In this study the role of future-oriented ima­gination in motivating changes towards sustainable lifestyles was explored through an experimental intervention design. Test group participants were exposed to a guided imagination of a sustainability scenario in the year 2028, followed by a writing assignment allowing them time to en­ga­ge with how they see their own future life. The control group spent the same amount of time listening to a guided present-day reflection and writing about their current everyday life. Pre- and post-intervention, both groups comp­leted lifestyle question­naires. The pre­-­­inter­­vention ques­tion­naire constituted the baseline assessment against which their post-inter­ven­tion questionnaire results (which was asking both groups to record the lifestyle decisions they thought they would be making in the year 2028 on the same behaviours as in the pre-intervention questionnaire) were compared to check for reported degrees of changes. Besides their expected lifestyle changes, their predicted future personal change and degree of pro-environmental self-identity in the year 2028 was measured. The results show that test group participants, who were exposed to the future-oriented imagination, reported a substantially higher degree of future lifestyle changes and future pro-environ­mental self-identity than the control group, as well as predicting a higher degree of future personal change. Future-oriented imagination seems to be a potent pathway for eliciting future-oriented sustainability enga­ge­ment while avoiding some of the risks of negative spillover. This suggests that future-oriented imagination can play an important role in developing motivation for sustainable lifestyle changes, and that it can be a complement to other psychological drivers for pro-environmental behaviours.

Despite the increase of urban populations resulting in people living in close proximity to each other, society continues to operate with a focus on individual desire and hyper-consumption, at the expense of the earth’s ecologies and all that encompasses it. How can we begin to cultivate an alternative consumption model that not only focuses on the conservation of ecologies but also begins to break away from ways in which “habits, routines, social norms and cultural values lock us into unsustainable behaviours”? (Botsman, R., Rogers, R. 2010). Collaboration, through its many forms, be it ‘commons’ or modern-day ‘sharing economy’, continues to be a topic of discussion as a favourable solution to environmental, social and economic issues. This paper and design project explores the everyday practice of collaboration and its potential for activating a network in urban neighbourhoods, specifically in high-density housing. The project explores: how we can share, where we can share, and what we can share, using the sharing of household items as a seed for sustainable development. The resulting project presents methods and guidelines for cultivating collaboration in the form of a multipurpose toolkit. The toolkit “Collaboration is Cultivation” enables individuals to become activists and implement collaborative practices in their own neighbourhood. Through designerly research and a design project I shed light on the potential of the coming-together of neighbors through collaborative lifestyles that can incrementally transform neighborhoods into one’s that are socially and environmentally, sustainable, resilient and thriving.

Kollaborativ konsumtion är en slags ekonomi som handlar om att människor konsumerar genom att hyra, dela, byta eller låna saker av varandra. Den här rapporten handlar om hur en sådan typ av konsumtion skulle kunna implementeras och utvecklas i stadsbebyggelse. För att undersöka detta gjordes en fallstudie över stadsdelen Norra Djurgårdsstaden som är ett stadsutvecklingsprojekt i Stockholm med fokus på miljö och hållbarhet. Där studerades i vilken utsträckning Stockholms stad har tagit med kollaborativ konsumtion i sitt hållbarhetsarbete samt vad som planeras göras i framtiden. Dessutom tog författarna till den här rapporten fram förslag på hur kollaborativ konsumtion skulle kunna utvecklas ännu mer i stadsdelen. Syftet med det här arbetet var således att genom fallstudien redogöra för hur kollaborativ konsumtion skulle kunna bidra till mer ekologisk och social hållbar stadsutveckling. Dessutom undersöktes vilka aktörer som skulle kunna tillhandahålla kollaborativ konsumtion och vilka som skulle använda sig av den i Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Resultatet i rapporten visar att Stockholms stad, och särskilt Östermalms stadsdelsförvaltning, redan idag arbetar med vissa typer av kollaborativ konsumtion i Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Exempelvis finns stads- och biodlingar och bilpooler. Stockholms stad satsar även mycket på utbildning och information till de boende för att inspirera till hållbarare livsstilar och därmed förändrade konsumtionsmönster. Det finns många utvecklingsmöjligheter för den delande ekonomin i Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Exempelvis skulle fler lokaler för olika typer av byteshandel kunna finnas, mer delande av transportmedel och även byten av tjänster mellan de boende i området (exempelvis barnpassning, rasta hunden, matlagning, och så vidare). Dessutom skulle fler samarbeten mellan Stockholms stad och andra aktörer, såsom företag och organisationer, kunna uppstå. Fallstudien visade att det finns en viss problematik när lokala beslutsfattare planerar för att skapa förändrade konsumtionsmönster hos de boende i en stadsdel eftersom sådan planering kan inskränka på människors egna val och personliga integritet. Planeringsarbete som handlar om att styra människors vardagsvanor är kontroversiellt. Samtidigt krävs det att människor förändrar sina livsstilar till att bli mer hållbara. Förvisso är det inte givet att en mer delande ekonomi i en stadsdel ger mer hållbarhet, men den här studien visar att det finns positiva effekter av kollaborativ konsumtion, både miljömässiga och sociala, och att den delande ekonomin har potential att utvecklas i stadsbebyggelse. / Collaborative consumption is a kind of economy where people consume through sharing, hiring, swopping and borrowing. This report investigates how the sharing economy can be implemented and developed in urban areas by doing a case study over the Stockholm Royal Seaport (Norra Djurgårdsstaden). This district in Stockholm was chosen because it is an ongoing urban development project that focuses on sustainability. In the case study researches were made on how the City of Stockholm (the Stockholm municipality) uses collaborative consumption in the sustainability program of the Stockholm Royal Seaport, and also their plans for the future. Furthermore suggestions on how collaborative consumption could be developed in the district were presented. The purpose with this project was thus, with the use of the case study, to outline how collaborative consumption can contribute to ecological and social urban development. The result of this report shows that the City of Stockholm, and especially the district administration of Östermalm, already today works with different types of collaborative consumption in the Stockholm Royal Seaport. For example they have planned for urban framing, beekeeping, and car- sharing. The City of Stockholm also focuses on education and information to the inhabitants to inspire to more sustainable lifestyles and thereby changed consumption patterns. There are many opportunities to develop the sharing economy in the Stockholm Royal Seaport. For example they are planning for facilities for different kinds of trading, more sharing of transport and also swopping services between the inhabitants, such as babysitting, walk the dog, cooking, etc. The case study showed that planning for changed consumption patterns can be difficult for the local stakeholders. The reason is that such kind of planning can reduce people’s own choices and personal integrity. It can be controversial with planning that approaches controlling of people’s living habits, but at the same time people must change their lifestyles to be more sustainable. However, the sharing economy does not definitely bring more sustainability, but this study shows that there are positive effects by collaborative consumption, both ecological and social, and the sharing economy has potential to develop in urban areas.

Background Modern capitalist societies have consumption at the core of their social and economic activities. This is one of the underlying problems that sustainability is facing. In need of solutions and avenues for limiting our footprint and consumption, we turn towards alternative solutions such as coliving as a potential for facilitating sustainable lifestyles in their residents.   Objectives The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate coliving impacts on the sustainability practices of residents within the Swedish urban environment. To do this effectively, the theoretical framework of this thesis will primarily utilize practice theory, as well as institutional theory and clan control theory to a secondary degree, to explore their interactions between coliving social structures and residential agents in terms of following sustainable activities and compare those with a single living household. Through conducting interviews with the residents of the Coliving and single living in line with these frameworks, this thesis aims to explore to a greater degree how the coliving housing model can contribute to more sustainable lifestyles.   Methods A qualitative research strategy was chosen for the study with a two-case comparative study design. To further explore the complexity of the interactions between agents and properties of social structures, data collection methods were utilized, such as semi-structured interviews with residents of coliving and single-living. The analytical approach was conducted through a thematic data analysis method.   Results The Coliving initiative stimulates sustainable lifestyles by creating a set of social structures and cultural rules that promotes interaction, diversity, and sustainable lifestyles. The design of the Coliving initiative activated the most evident and impactful change mechanisms. Specifically, the built environment that is diverse and flexible and facilitates variations of facilities and immense recourses accessible for the residents to interact and use for different moods and behaviors. The recruitment process facilitates a foundation of balance between diversity and like-minded individuals for learning potentials and collaboration. The governance structure of the community-based organization is nonhierarchical participatory, and consensus-based, and the community is self-organized. These features have shown to promote collaboration and interaction between individuals and stimulate sustainable practices. Last, the cultural rules of the community also promote interactions and collaboration, as well as many of the social sustainability principles and anti-consumption practices.   Conclusions The coliving, compared to the single-living, has much more quantitive, qualitative, and diverse set of structures with sustainable properties that brings the residents more or less into the situation where a greening of their corresponding lifestyles becomes a very convenient option.

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