Rescaling public transport planning in Sweden: investigating the continued planning at the scale ‘left behind’

We will meet physically, but you can follow the presentation via Zoom, too. See the details below!

Speaker: Ida Andersson, PhD
Topic: Rescaling public transport planning in Sweden: investigating the continued planning at the scale ‘left behind’
Time: 16 November, 12:15-13:00
Place: Room 744 or ZOOM

This paper is about the rescaling of planning and the effects of rescaling for the scale ‘left behind’. Through an empirical case discussing rescaling of public transport planning in Sweden in 2012, the paper aims to contribute to a qualitative understanding of rescaling and how this impacts planning strategies and governance relations between different scales. By studying 21 municipalities in Sweden, this paper illustrates how public transport continues to be a concern for the scale ‘left behind’, long after a rescaling process has taken place. The analysis shows how different values guide and are prioritized in local planning for public transport; what causes tensions in the governance relations between the old and the new scale; and how the effects of rescaling are spatially unevenly distributed between the municipalities depending on population size and geographical location within the region. As a result, the geographically varied outcome of rescaling has qualitative effects for how some targets for public transport planning can be aligned and integrated between the local and regional scale in some places, while it at the same time, can lead to layering and parallel policymaking, causing collaborative tensions in other places.