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This paper is based upon a regional development project in a 'vulnerable' Swedish region consisting of three municipalities. At a first glance, this is a region in decline that is lacking in entrepreneurial initiatives. During a crucial time period the project 'Diversity in Entrepreneurship' (DiE) was launched to help the region to become more entrepreneurial and inclusive. An underlying logic was built into the project, which is associated with the critical pedagogy of Paolo Freire. From a Freirean perspective regions lacking in entrepreneurship could be reconsidered emphasizing that the entrepreneurial initiatives are always there - latent - however restrained by certain discourses; in this case a dominant enterprise discourse. Above all the enterprise discourse suppresses the ability for particular groups in society to view themselves as entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to introduce Freire's critical pedagogical perspective to entrepreneurship and regional development. An episode illustrating how the enterprise discourse suppresses an equality discourse, introduced by way of the DiE-project, makes the point of departure for discussing the process of 'conscientization', which refers to a type of learning that is focused on perceiving and exposing contradictions and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality (Freire 1970). Some key Freirean ideas or concepts are explained, first as they were expressed by Freire and then applied to entrepreneurship and regional development. It is then discussed how these concepts found their expressions in the project. The critical pedagogic perspective not only emphasizes an entrepreneurial potential in every individual, but it also gives an idea of what kind of processes could release entrepreneurial initiatives among those who do not view themselves as entrepreneurs.

Idag har en av fyra kommuner färre än 10 000 invånare. Fallande befolkningstal i många av Sveriges småkommuner gör det svårare att uppfylla välfärdsåtaganden. I denna skrift ges en historisk bakgrund till dagens situation. Därefter inventeras och värderas de vanligaste förslagen på hur dessa utmaningar ska mötas: 1) sammanslagning av kommuner, 2) införande av asymmetriskt styrelseskick samt 3) satsningar på utökad mellankommunal samverkan. Författarna presenterar även en fjärde möjlig strategi: att uppmuntra små och krympande kommuner att aktivt formulera en medveten anpassningspolitik.

Based on the synthesis of outside versus inside perspectives, this paper weighs the positive attributes of the so-called deprived place against its negative media image. Applying the concept of territorial stigmatization, small-scale citizen science was conducted to gain a unique understanding of the Swedish neighborhood from within. With the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 11 in mind, this approach enables researchers to reach otherwise difficult to access young urban outcasts and probe the potential to overcome their community’s lack of political influence. An overlap between local media narratives and urban outcasts’ perceptions of “drug and crime” and “football and school” was revealed. Yet, this first-generation study also painted a somewhat different picture of the stigmatized neighborhood, supplying new insights about places that matter most for marginalized young males. In this Swedish case, their pictures revealed that the local corner market, football court and youth club act as an antidote for the effects of stigmatization. This Our Voice citizen science initiative proved to be a good measure of two communities’ abilities to withstand stigmatization, which is either tainted by false perceptions from the outside or weakened by crime from within. Finally, attempting to bypass structural discrimination, citizen scientists’ findings and researchers’ conclusions were made available to students, colleagues and guests at a poster presentation hosted by Mälardalen University and to concerned politicians from Eskilstuna City Hall as well as the broader public via a local Swedish television station. 

Social mix policy normally leads to the gentrification of poor neighbourhoods, which is neither beneficial for their original residents nor urban diversity. Conversely, in search of a possible way to ease mounting pressure on stigmatized neighbourhoods the article aims to uncover the middle class's attitude towards the construction of buildings with cheap rentals, a precondition of social mix policy. To this end, an innovative digital survey was conducted in 2020 in two recently developed inner-city neighbourhoods in the mid-sized Swedish city of Västerås. First, drawing on earlier research, our data confirms that there is a statistically significant negative correlation between young middle-class families, on the one hand, and their willingness to share “their own backyard” with presumptive low-income newcomers, on the other. Second, the analysis brings to the fore the fact that attitudes to social mixing are not just dependent on gender, but even on why one wants to move. Third, the predominance of an apparent elitist conception of housing is challenged by female and older residents who seek diversity. In sum, the findings imply that socially mixing certain kinds of middle-class neighbourhoods is possible if politicians fulfil three preconditions.

In old industrial regions traces from historical mining and production of iron and steel have become a valuable resource in developing a tourism industry and other experience-oriented industries in the post-industrial society. The so called Experience Industry became a buzz-word in regional development programs during the 2000´s.

The region of Bergslagen in the middle of Sweden is a good example of this structural change in economy which has been going on since the crisis of the steel industry in the middle of the 1970´s. In the 1980’s, the region was seen as one of the most depressed areas in Sweden, together with the sparsely populated north. Because of that, cultural heritage has been promoted to strengthen regional identity in Bergslagen.

Strengthening regional identity is still a matter in regional development in the region, but today efforts are more concentrated on commercial use and packaging of heritage as experience in order to create an attractive image of Bergslagen. Statistical data shows that the regional labour market is changing. During the 1990s and early 2000s employment in the Experience Economy in Bergslagen has increased by almost 30 percent. The emerging labour force is in many ways different from the traditional patterns on the regional labour market. Traditionally marginalized group, such as women, young people and immigrants are well represented. But they are often low educated, low paid and part-time employed. On the other hand we also find a growing well educated and well paid group of employees. They are often in-migrants or commuters from places outside the region.

Campaigns to promote Experience Industries on the local level are common in many places in the region. Local campaigns tend to focus on tourism and the commercial use of the typical industrial heritage associated with Bergslagen. However, the regional identity is often considered a problem due to the negative image of Bergslagen which where formed after the crisis for the steel industry. Although there is a tendency towards a more positive approach to Bergslagen, developers and politicians often still claim that they rather use other local and regional identities in place marketing than being a place in Bergslagen.

Demografiskt sett ligger regionen före övriga Sverige när det gäller antalet personer i arbetsför ålder som snart ska gå i ålderspension, detta innebär att behovet av nyrekrytering av arbetskraft kommer att uppstå inom en nära framtid. Detta är positivt ur synvinkeln att regionen kan komma att få ett försprång gentemot andra när det gäller att hantera problematiken. Det negativa är att man snabbare ställs inför utmaningen att få tillräckligt många att arbeta med offentlig service samt att skapa möjligheter för näringslivet att rekrytera arbetskraft så att man även i fortsättningen kan vara konkurrenskraftiga. Kommunernas befolkning är av stor vikt, både för att kunna planera service och tjänster och för att kunna få en hållbar ekonomi i kommunerna. I stort sett alla Sveriges kommuner har ett önskemål om att kunna öka sin befolkning, och därigenom sitt skatteunderlag. Verkligheten ser dock ut på ett annat sätt. Ett antal stora orter ökar i befolkning, samtidigt som de flesta kommunerna minskar sin. Födelsenettot är historiskt sett lågt och den nationella ökning av befolkning som sker, sker framförallt i storstäderna och drivs på med hjälp av invandring. Denna bild ger kommunerna en hel del att tänka på för att på sikt kunna lösa servicen till medborgarna, både ekonomiskt och med tanke på en minskad befolkning i arbetsför ålder.

Hur har människor det i Dalarna? Vad tycker de om boende, miljö, offentlig service, kollektivtrafik etc? Vilka frågor vill de att politiken ska syssla med? Vad tror de om Dalarnas och sin egen framtid? Under 2000-talet har tre stora regionala undersökningar gjorts som handlat om människors livssituation. Länsstyrelsen gjorde år 2000 en studie av flyttningar och flyttare och år 2002 en boendeundersökning. År 2005 gjorde Region Dalarna tillsammans med Temo en Pejling med fokus på hur människor i Dalarna såg på sin livssituation. Som en fortsättning på det arbetet skickade Region Dalarna i slutet av 2008 ut en enkät till ett urval av Dalarnas befolkning med frågor kring hur man upplevde sin livsmiljö. Målet med enkätundersökningen var att studera och lyfta fram befolkningens syn på viktiga faktorer i det kommunala och regionala utvecklingsarbetet. Resultatet kan i viss mån spegla förändringar sedan tidigare undersökningar i Dalarna och kan också till en del jämföras med liknande undersökningar i andra delar av landet. Kollektivtrafik, serviceutbud, arbetspendling, hälsoläge osv. finns det naturligtvis redan en hel del kunskap om. Men hur ser människors behov, önskemål och attityder ut i förhållande till det man upplever sig ha tillgång till? Hur varierar detta med t.ex. ålder, kön, ekonomiska resurser och typ av bostadsort? Hur ser det ut just i Dalarna, och i Dalarnas kommuner? Svaren på sådana frågor kan vara en viktig del av underlaget för fortsatt regionalt och kommunalt utvecklingsarbete.

Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics captures the way a decentralized form of governing measures and mobilizes life itself through a number of technologies, such as demographics, surveillance and health initiatives, with the aim to prolong and enhance the lives of a population. According to Foucault, this biopolitical form of governing characteristic of modernity implies a detached and technical stance towards individual lives. In short, biopolitics turns individual lives into life as a mass noun. Interestingly, when human life is treated as a resource, human’s self-proclaimed position as the crown of creation is unsettled and humans find themselves part of the same biopolitical nexus as many other animals. The technologies and consequences of the biopolitization of humans and other animals is the subject of the volume Humans, Animals and Biopolitics, edited by Kristin Asdal, Tone Druglitrö and Steve Hinchliffe. It is a book that should be required reading for Foucauldian theorists and human-animal studies scholars alike.

This chapter focuses on spatiality in representations of the loss of and grief for companion animals. Giorgio Agamben’s theorization of the distinction between political and bare life is used to analyse around 350 condolence cards for bereaved pet owners. It is shown that the visual emplacement of pets in different contexts in the collection of cards underlines that pets are worth grieving, while at the same time a distance is maintained between humans and other animals. In spite of this distancing, it is argued that the cards have the potential to challenge the normative boundary between grievable and ungrievable life. 

Pets are animals included in the cultural realm, they are often considered family members and, to some extent, the rituals surrounding their death resemble those of human death. Yet, pet owners also conceive of their pets as animals who are guided by their instincts and belong to the realm of nature. Special cemeteries for pets, for instance, have been established in many Western countries since the 19th century. Pet cemeteries are often located in natural environments in rural or peri-urban areas, with a suggested association between animals and nature. These spaces present a specific culture of petkeeping, where remembrance and different material and visual expressions of grief for the death of a companion animal are allowed, encouraged and shared.

In this presentation, we explore the ways in which companion animal death is performed in pet cemeteries in Scandinavia. Drawing from photographic data collected at selected pet cemeteries in Finland and Sweden, supported by interviews with key informants and information published by cemetery organizations on websites and in newsletters, we explore the material practices and shared spaces of mourning and remembrance. In Scandinavia, the popularity of second homes is high, which means that many owners choose to bury their animal companion on private land. Cremation services for pets are also widely used by owners. In this context, pet cemeteries can be understood as spaces where the mourning is shared between pet owners. The grave of a pet is individually marked and has an identity that makes it both similar to and different from other graves. 

In our study, we investigate different practices and rituals related to animal death at pet cemeteries. We focus on the use of items such as headstones, statues, and pictures, with attached verses and other verbal remembrance at the grave. We also pay attention to rules and norms prevalent at the cemeteries, as well as to the role of religion and related use of the cross and figures such as angels. We suggest that in these spaces pets are simultaneously grieved as human-like friends and family members, and as nonhuman others. Pet cemeteries thus mirror humans’ ambivalent status to nonhuman animals and to the idea of nature.

Riding became a widespread leisure activity for children in Sweden and Finland during the post-war decades through the emergence of riding schools. Horse yards, especially riding schools, provide a unique context for the analysis of children’s relations to animals and their care in the Nordic countries. Drawing on books and comics published in Sweden and Finland from the 1960s to the present, together with interviews and observations at contemporary Swedish riding schools, we approach this development with a geographical, historical and sociological focus. We ask how children’s equestrian cultures were formed within the spaces of horse yards, especially riding schools, and how caring well was understood and negotiated through different types of knowledge and the idea and practice of horse ownership. As we show in the analysis, despite the increase of written knowledge about horses and their care, situated and relational knowledges based on interspecies interaction prevailed in children’s equestrian cultures. Mutual agencies, guided by knowledges of different types, defined a cultural sphere for children, situated in specific human– animal spaces in which children had a chance to interact with animals and care for them outside the everyday spaces of family and school. In these cultures of interspecies care, ideas of horse ownership carried expectations of continuity where the child–horse relationship was secured and had a chance to develop. The entry to these spatial cultures was through rites of passage characterised by embodied interaction and hands-on care, where children learned to care for animals well.

Pets are liminal creatures: they are regarded as friends and family while they are, at the same time, considered to be belongings. Violence against pets is highly socially stigmatizing in most contexts, but at the same time, owners of companion animals may chose to end their pets’ lives without facing legal charges. There is a general idea, present both in research and popular culture, of a widespread norm against strong emotional responses to the passing of a pet. The reason would be that pets are not considered fully human, and grieving pets in a way similar to human mourning would challenge the boundary between humans and other animals. Yet, there are numerous products and services specifically designed for bereaved pet owners: condolence cards, bereavement counseling, popular psychology books—and pet cemeteries. Through an ethnographic study of pet cemeteries in Sweden, Finland and Norway, we show how pets’ ambiguous status is conveyed through tombstones, decorations and the practices of cemetery visits. Relying on photographs, field notes, interviews with key informants, and the studied pet cemetery organizations’ documentation, we explore the material and meaning-making practices that make these places possible. We suggest that these spaces enable a double sense of pets’ life: pets are simultaneously grieved as human-like friends and family members through anthropocentric gestures, and as nonhuman others through innovative and norm-challenging ways of grieving. Drawing on Judith Butler’s writing on grief, and Giorgio Agambens’ conceptualization of “the animal,” we discuss how practices at pet cemeteries convey abstract and sometimes ambiguous understandings of what life is.