The urban politics of sustaining growth: Sustainability governance in the Gothenburg metropolitan area
Abstract
Urban governance for sustainable development (SD) can in Sweden, for several
reasons, be given a privileged position. By scrutinizing such a promise case, illustrated with a case study of a city regional collaborative governance process in 2002-2014 in the Gothenburg Metropolitan Area (GMA), the aim is to give insights on how city regional collaborative governance arrangements address SD and what story lines regarding SD are deployed. In GMA and its city regional body of governance, the narrative of weak sustainability privileging economic growth, regional enlargement and urban densification is
advanced by a cohesive discourse coalition. While critical coalitions are present, stronger SD
narratives are not structured or institutionalized in the strategies. The article contributes empirical insights in how the discourse coalitions became dominating and discusses some factors involved in the adoption of the weak SD narrative and the potential for stronger interpretations in future processes.
Publisher
School of Public Administration/Förvaltningshögskolan
Other description
This working paper examines urban sustainability policy in the Gothenburg Region and how the local and regional actors in the Gothenburg Region have chosen to jointly define it. It is part of an international research project funded under the auspices of Mistra Urban Futures, Centre for Sustainable Urban Development (http://www.mistraurbanfutures.org/en). The
research project studies knowledge, governance and sustainable development policy in four cities: Manchester (UK), Capetown (South Africa), Kisumu (Kenya) and Gothenburg (Sweden). The overall purpose of the project is to generate knowledge, which can develop alternatives to current policies for a more sustainable society by adopting trans-disciplinary research strategies in which research and practice are closely linked.
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Date
2015-02Author
Tahvilzadeh, Nazem
Montin, Stig
Cullberg, Mikael
Keywords
sustainable cities
city region
sustainability governance
Gothenburg
social sustainability
Publication type
report
ISSN
1651-5242
Series/Report no.
School of Public Administration Working Paper Series
29
Language
eng
Metadata
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