The global urbanization process occurs at an ever-increasing rate, appropriating ecosystemservices (ESS) from areas often several hundred times larger than the actualurban areas themselves. Such notions further press the needs of attaining sustainableurban development. According to recent research, an important element of such a developmentis to incorporate knowledge on ESS and ecosystem function into urbanspatial planning. This study investigates 1) how different sustainability aspects areaddressed by Stockholm’s urban planning organizations and 2) organizational barriersand opportunities towards better including urban ESS in the planning. The focal pointwas set to three environmentally profiled districts in Stockholm – empirical data wascollected through interviews with individuals within urban planning organizations andenvironmental urban planning documents. These data were analyzed through organizationallearning theory and an ESS analysis framework. It showed that in the twobiggest projects, the economic sustainability aspect is perceived as the slow driver; inthe third project, this was not as apparent. Further, there were two time aspects involvedin the learning process – a long-term process of evaluating and revising, and ajuncture-associated timing-aspect. Many interviewees experienced lack of commonsustainability strategies, which is partly related to the ambivalence and complexity ofthe sustainability concept. Even if interviewees understand greater sustainability implications,there is a need to translate it into pragmatic solutions. Thus, there is knowledgeaccumulation on ESS but it is currently held in the individuals, risking deteriorationif/when key individuals leave the organizations. Single-loop and double-looplearning is simultaneously occurring with symbiotic functions, however a doublelearning-loop on the full significance of urban ESS is yet to be completed. In terms oftriple-loop learning, there is currently a paradox in the requirements for it to occurthat the contemporary governance framework of Stockholm does not seem able to resolve.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-50962 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Göransson, Nils |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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