Planning, Projects, Practice: A Human Geography of the Stockholm Local Investment Programme ...

200 Pages·2006·1.76 MB·English

by  Jonas R Bylund

Planning, Projects, Practice
A Human Geography
of the Stockholm Local Investment Programme
in Hammarby Sjöstad
Jonas R Bylund
Department of Human Geography
Stockholm University
2006
Abstract
Programmes and policies to support ecological sustainable development and
the practice of implementation is a question of innovation rather than known
and taken for granted procedure. This thesis argues a priori models concern-
ing stability in the social sciences, and human geography especially, are less
able to help us understand this practice and planning in such unstable situa-
tions. Problematic in common understandings of planning and policy imple-
mentation concerning sustainability are the dualisms between physical-so-
cial spaces and between rationality-contingency. The first dualism makes it
hard to grasp the interaction between humans and nonhumans. The second
dualism concerns the problem of how to capture change without resorting
to reductionism and explanaining the evolving projects as either technically,
economically, or culturally rational.
The scope of the thesis is to test resources from actor-network theory as
a means of resolving these dualisms. The case is the Stockholm Local In-
vestment Programme and the new district of Hammarby Sjöstad. The pro-
gramme’s objective was to support the implemention of new technologies
and systems, energy efficiency and reduced resource-use as well as eco-cy-
cling measures. The case-study follows how the work with the programme
unfolded and how administrators’ efforts to reach satisfactory results was
approached. In doing this, the actors had to be far more creative than models
of implementation and traditional technology diffusion seem to suggest. The
recommendation is to take the instrumentalisation framing the plasticity of
a project in planning seriously – as innovativeness is not a special but the
general case. Hence, to broaden our tools and understanding of planning a
human geography of planning projects is pertinent.
Keywords: Stockholm, LIP, Hammarby Sjöstad, Sustainability, Innovation,
Planning, Policy, Translation, Actor-Network Theory, Laboratory, Project,
Urban Specialists.
© Copyright The Author and the Department of Human Geography, 2006.
All rights reserved.
Department of Human Geography
Stockholm University
S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
ISSN 0585-3508
ISBN 91-7155-279-0
Printed by Intellecta DocuSys AB, Nacka, Sweden 2006.
Cover illustration: Jonas R Bylund
Contents
Figures 5
Acknowledgements 7
1 Introduction 9
Sources and Delimitation 12
Linear Order 14
2 Performance Test of Actor-Network Theory 16
Technology Implementation in Viscous Structures 17
Human Geography and Imagining Society 21
Mediators, or Discarding the Idea of Inanimate Things 25
The Principles 30
Society-Making with Quasi-Objects 32
3 Reconstructing the Approach to Planning 37
A Questionable Evoutionary Story of Planning 37
The Creative Character of Planning 43
Formateurs 48
4 Enter Sustainability 51
The Operationalisation of Ecological Modernisation 55
The Local Investment Programme 58
The Innovativeness of LIP 60
LIP as Incremental Innovation 60
LIP as Radical Innovation 63
5 Enticement 64
Policies and Programmes 67
6 Inscription 71
The Eco-Cycling Districts 71
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Hammarby Sjöstad 73
The Environmental Programme 74
The Strategy 78
The Test-field 81
The Government’s Response 82
Translation and Delegation 84
7 Instrument 89
Technology Procurement 91
Co-operative Procurement 91
Knowledge Transference 92
Environmental Load Profile 92
Development and Demonstration Projects 93
Contests 94
Instrumental Complexity 95
Middle-ranges and Learning Curves 98
8 Counter Programmes 102
Local Projects 104
LIP Rules 104
Creativity 108
The 1998 Municipal Election 109
Developers’ Rationales 111
Counter Programmes and the Ballistic Diffusion Model 114
9 Exit LIP 117
The Promise of Procurement 120
Procurement in action 123
Individual Measurement Systems 123
Solar Heat in Large Systems 125
Gas-stoves 126
The Final Report 127
A Note on the Global LIP 130
New Technology and Laboratories 132
10 Characteristics of the Case 140
Translating Ecological Modernisation 142
The Local Staging 145
Escaping the Experiment 146
Procurement as Framing 147
Power of Procurement 149
Text and Materiality 150
Elements of the Trial 151
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11 Perspectives on Planning Projects 154
Sisyphus and Daedalus 154
Bubbles in the Wallpaper 157
Boundary Bashing? 160
Concluding Remarks 165
Appendix A: Glossary 168
Appendix B: Lists on Projects From the Final Report 173
Appendix C: Timeline Overview for the Stockholm
Local Investment Programme 183
References 184
Figures
Figure 1.1. A map of inner-city Stockholm with Hammarby Sjöstad
Figure 1.2. A view within Hammarby Sjöstad
Figure 1.3. A very generalised illustration of the main question for this
investigation
Figure 2.1. A schematic interpretation of Bourdieu’s social space and
fields of power-relations
Figure 2.2. The duality of society and space as generally conceived in hu-
man geography
Figure 2.3. Lefebvre’s triad of material, mental, and social space
Figure 2.4. Examples of common dualisms at play when conceptualising
space
Figure 2.5. The modern dimension of nature and society with a non-
modern dimension added
Figure 3.1. A revised figure of a project’s ontological variability
Figure 6.1. A map from the Hammarby Sjöstad Comprehensive Plan
2003
Figure 6.2. The Hammarby Model of eco-cycling
Figure 6.3. A simplified diagram of the project’s social topography
Figure 7.1. The route of the applications
Figure 7.2. The spectrum of relatively stable and relatively unstable arte-
facts
Figure 7.3. The almost-objects added to the revised spectrum
Figure 7.4. The learning curve
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Figure 8.1. The Environmental Load Profile’s system boundaries
Figure 9.1. The ideal procurement process
Figure 9.2. The set of movements in a procurement
Figure 9.3. Excerpt translated from the final report tables on the measur-
able environmental effects for the Eco-cycling Districts
Figure 9.4. The procurements made in the Eco-cycling Districts measure
Figure 9.5. Number of projects and utilised subsidy within the instru-
ment Development and Demonstration Projects
Figure 9.6. Monkey business
Figure 9.7. The intelligent GlasshouseOne at Hammarby Sjöstad which
says ‘Hi!’
Figure 10.1. The rotated spectrum of relatively stable and relatively un-
stable artefacts
Figure 10.2. The figure illustrates what the nonmodern dimension means
from the point of view of calculative agents
Figure 11.1. Olsson’s a=b in my interpretation
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Acknowledgements
I am, in the last instance, fully responsible for authoring this text. But
the piece of work it has become, the product, would have been something
quite different and less joyful without the involvement of the following
characters. Thank you!
In Stockholm, I would like to thank Nils Borg and Borg & Co, Gre-
gor Hackman and the SLIP-Council in Stockholm; Mats Dryselius, Göran
Lundberg, and Agneta Persson, for support and discussions. Bo Lenntorp
and Elisabeth Lilja, for the supervision. Andrew Byerley, for the invaluable
and sensible proof-reading of my Swenglish. Juan Velásquez, for comments.
Stefan Ene, for help with cartographic issues. Collegeues at and around the
Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, for stimulating
discussions and reflections in the corridors. Jan-Olof Drangert, for the com-
mentary on an early draft presented at the ‘final seminar.’ Anna Green and
Örjan Svane, for information exchange. Anna Bylund, for cover and layout
issues and for a sofa. Lena Bylund, for intellectual support and a sofa. Lars
Bylund, for discussions on energy issues and support. Rebecca Fleischer-
Medici and family, Sophie Naess and family, and Cecilia Stalín for more
sofas and company during field-work. Formas and the Stockholm Local
Investment Programme, for funding the main part of the research behind
the thesis. The Stockholm City Planning Agency, GlashusEtt in Hammarby
Sjöstad, and Fortum, for the rights to use their maps and images.
In Berlin, many thanks go to Die Berliner Hedonisten, Dirk Gebhardt,
Thomas Bürk-Matsunami, Matthias Naumann, and Kim Förster, for
reading drafts and discussions on geography, life, and everything over the
years. Judith Utz, for taking it down to earth and pushing me to make
some sense of it. Susanne Dähner, Andrea Nieszery, and Frederik Bom-
bosch, for reflections on writing and academic work. Felix Kiesbauer, for
conversations about all things weird and wonderful about politics and
technology. Sibylle Mühlke, for the Mensa Sessions on open source, lan-
guage, and learning issues. Matthias Hühn, for the sketchy drawings in
the cover picture. The people over at the Zentralbuero Lab.
Scattered around the world: Salvatore ‘Saed’ Engel-di Mauro, for the
hybrid view on European research and politics. Arish Dastur, for the op-
portunity to entice Columbia’s planning students. Daniel Genberg, for
on-the-go comments on things. Merethe Roos, for discussions on episte-
mology, the arts, and theology. Avigail Manneberg, for comments on the
cover-pic and discussions on creative work.
With sincere appreciation of the ongoing disputes on how to write a
text, what code is and how it works: Bråkfia.
Jonas R Bylund, Frescati, May 1st 2006
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1 Introduction
… ‘technology’, as the computer scientist Bran Ferren memo-
rably defined it, is ‘stuff that doesn’t work yet.’ We no longer
think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs.
But there was a time when we hadn’t worked out how many legs
chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would of-
ten ‘crash’ when we tried to use them. (Adams 1999)
Planning, policy-making, and human geography have gone hand in hand
for quite some time. This thesis is about how to conceptualise planning
projects and policy implementation. It is done by way of a particular case
in Stockholm.
Through the early days and most of the research phase the thesis-project
had the working title The Production of Urban Sustainable Space, which
reflects the intention to investigate how a city adapts to ecological sustain-
ability. Specifically, the focus is on the implementation of unconventional
technologies in Stockholm and the intended intersection is between urban
planning, environmental politics, and innovations. This is a focus that, in
turn, implies questions concerning the boundaries and praxis surrounding
the relation between human and environment.
The case is the Stockholm Local Investment Programme and its involve-
ment in the new district of Hammarby Sjöstad. The programme is Stock-
holm’s part in the national Local Investment Programme (LIP). LIP was
intended to help the Swedish municipalities proceed with their ecological
adaptation and subsidised projects in the period from 1998 to 2002 – al-
though it dragged on to 2004. It was also a way to operationalise ecologi-
cal modernisation in Swedish environmental policy in the late 1990s.
Hammarby Sjöstad is a new, state of the art, but not yet completed
development area located right on the border of Stockholm’s inner city.
Development commenced in the 1990s. The part which pertains to this
investigation is the south side of the district (Figure 1.1 and 1.2).
The reason for choosing this particular case and the focus is twofold.
On the one hand, ecological adaptation in the LIP entailed the implemen-
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Figure 1.1. A map of inner-city Stockholm with Hammarby Sjöstad approximately
marked out (map by author).
tation of unconventional environmentally friendly technologies or innova-
tive methods. The problem concerning innovations and implementation
was originally posed by people involved in the Stockholm Local Invest-
ment Programme themselves. In 2001, after doing consultancy work for
a private company on the concept of the sustainable city and energy ques-
tions, I got in touch with the programme. According to the administra-
tors, they had experienced difficulties carrying out projects concerning
environmental technology and wanted a follow-up on this problem. They
had concers about the way many part-projects in the Eco-cycling Districts
– of which Hammarby Sjöstad is one – evolved. The question they put
was something like: When the technology exists, why is it so difficult to
get project-owners to adopt and start using it? They suggested that this
should be investigated and evaluated by a social scientist.
On the other hand, in many, if not most, policy and planning evalu-
ations there is a slight deficiency concerning an issue central to LIP and
ecological modernisation. The question that is rarely fully approached is
how the implementation of new technologies work out; that is, what is
the role of the artefacts and the work of shaping them and a sustainable
society? For the most part, the evaluations remain limited to an adminis-
trative area of analysis, with human-human interactions and procedures,
and without opening up the problems posed by innovative projects.
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