• Deprived neighbourhoods, borders and type 2 diabetes
  Shotckaia, Anastasiia  : Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle (2018)	Master thesis (two year)

  

  

  Master thesis US Anastasiia Shotckaia.pdf   (3.729Mb)

• Combining mobility demand and climate protection in urban transport s...
  Stumpp, Inga  : Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle (2018)	Master thesis (two year)

  

  

  English abstract:

  Transportation is an essential part of city life. However the extensive use of private cars in urban transport systems leads not only to a decrease in public health and quality of life but also drives global warming through the emission of GHG. The growth rate of CO 2 emissions caused by transportation is among the highest across all energy sectors. In order to mitigate climate change, it is therefore crucial to reverse this trend and change urban transport systems towards more climate compatibility. Thus, this thesis investigates if and how mobility demand and climate protection can be combined in urban transport systems. To answer these questions, the thesis discusses characteristics of climate-friendly transportation based on findings from academic literature. Moreover, policy instruments to transform urban transportation towards climate compatibility as well as possible obstacles and constraints in this regard are investigated. More precisely, socio-technical/infrastructural, technological, financial, legal, institutional/organisational, political, habitual, and cultural constraints are described and the significance of pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy is ascertained with regard to public and political acceptance of policies. Drawing on these theoretical assumptions, the case of Berlin is analysed in more detail. Based on policy documents, statistical data, expert interviews, and a public hearing in the Senate of Berlin, it is investigated how the city plans to make its transport system more climate-friendly and what the actual state of climate compatibility within the transport sector is at the moment. As a result, it could be observed that policies for climate-friendly transport are in place and mostly implemented but that the amount of CO 2 emissions caused by the transport system and especially by road traffic has more or less stagnated since the 1990s. Several reasons for this development could be ascertained: The transformation towards climate compatibility is, on the one hand, constrained by legal, infrastructural, institutional, political, habitual, and cultural factors as well as by the lack of personnel within the city administration, and, on the other hand, hampered by the perceived inacceptability of car-restrictive policies. The conclusion from this thesis is therefore that it is thereotically possible to combine mobility demand and climate protection in urban transport systems and it is furthermore imperative in order to mitigate climate change and its dreaded impacts. In practical terms, however, cities face several intertwined and often very distinct obstacles and constraints that can only be overcome by long-term, dedicated, and citizen-oriented policy planning and implementation.

  IngaStumpp_US660E_MasterThesis_VT2018.pdf   (1.619Mb)

• 'Smart Kalasatama' and the Role of Sompasauna: a case study of the re...
  Kojonsaari, Anna-Riikka  : Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle (2018)	Master thesis (two year)

  

  

  English abstract:

  Smart city development is thriving, and many cities, including Helsinki, are engaging in the (re)development projects. Helsinki is developing toward smart city and in fact, was ranked in the top six smart cities in Europe in research published in 2014 by the European Parliament1. Especially the district of Kalasatama is currently under a significant smart-redevelopment project. Because these massive changes shape our cities and affect the people living in them, there is a need to examine the effects. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is first to investigate the characteristic of a smart city in the case of the Smart Kalasatama project and its desired spaces, entailing the role of the citizens in a smart city. Secondly, the already existing common space in the waterfront area of Kalasatama, Sompasauna is scrutinised; Sompasauna is an open public sauna built and self-governed by the citizens. At present, Sompasauna appears to be an anomaly within urban planning, perhaps even an undesired space in the neoliberal logic. This thesis considers that neoliberalism in regard to planning can be seen as the belief in the superiority of market mechanisms to organise land use (Baeten, 2018). Thus, the thesis addresses the role of the unplanned public space in a smart city with the method of discourse analysis. By combining the aspects of Smart Kalasatama and Sompasauna, the aim is furthermore to investigate how the expanding growth of smart cities affects the common spaces, especially those built and governed from below, and what kind of role, if any, do these possibly undesired spaces have in the smart city vision. For these purposes, by using neoliberal theory and Mary Douglas’s analytical instrument of impurity as matter out of place, I advance by analysing the connections and interweaving of global neoliberal rationality and contemporary urban planning regarding smart cities. With the analytical tool around dirt as a matter of the existing classification system and order, I further my analysis by examining if Sompasauna appears as a matter out of place due to the neoliberal condition.

  Kojonsaari_Thesis_'SMART KALASATAMA'.pdf   (1.897Mb)

• Urban Curation - An explorative study on understandings, roles and fu...
  Nehl, Marthe  : Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle (2018)	Master thesis (two year)

  

  

  English abstract:

  Curating practices appear in various fields as a common practice of immaterial labour today. To ‘curate’ is an active verb that suggests ‘doing’ something. Seldom if ever are the implications of curating critically discussed outside the arts, and this provides a reason for this thesis to investigate. What does ‘to curate’ mean, imply or suggest in the urban context? How are urban curatorial practices legitimized and where can they contribute to urban planning? Embedded in contemporary urban challenges and the “state of crisis” often referred to, this paper introduces curating as an emerging cultural practice into this field. A vital part of the discussion this thesis opens up, is where art can become part of urban planning. Noting that the relationship between arts and urban environments is ambivalent, since the arts’ symbolic power is recognized within international competition of cities, it is about the margin between the field of arts and urban development. By laying a groundwork of contemporary curatorial understandings in the arts, the paper gives an overview on the existing notions and practices of ‘urban curation’ and highlights that there are strong positions but no existing definition as such. A look into urban planning theory pinpoints the crucial role of economic growth and its implications for the organization of urban developments under the term neoliberalism, a condition in which festivals replace urban development policies and culture becomes a structuring element. The occurrence of projects as organizational structure dominates and challenges long term developments. This constitutes the framework in which the paper discusses three very different project examples from Hamburg, Liverpool and Vienna for closer analysis. Between preservation and management, arranging and staging curating can alternatively be understood as an epistemology producing new knowledge. By cross-referencing between the arts, where the critical discussion on curating is held, and urban planning and architecture, where curatorial practice is applied, the paper suggests strengthening the critical discourse on the relevance and use of cultural practices in urban studies.

  180525_MA_Nehl_Urban Curation.pdf   (1.621Mb)

• You're in Sweden, Speak... Experiences of Language Policy and Integra...
  Cain, Adèle  : Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle (2019)	Master thesis (two year)

  

  

  English abstract:

  Increased global migration coupled with the rise of the Global City invites an evaluation of language policy for the multilingual city, all the more pressing at a time of resurgent nationalism across the continent. The study evaluates Sweden, host to some of the most extensive pluralistic language protections in Europe, from accounts of those relying on non-Swedish languages within Sweden, observational fieldwork, case study and policy review. The study has examined the challenges individuals face with a holistic, organic and individual-led approach and assessed the efficiency, resilience and longevity of language policy in meeting those needs.

  Cain Adele - Language Policy Global City.pdf   (715.1Kb)

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