https://www.mdu.se/

This paper investigates problem areas related to energy efficiency implementation in Swedish multifamily buildings. The paper first presents a generic list of (theoretical) problem areas identified through a literature survey. Using a qualitative approach, the paper also investigates if the problem areas identified in the literature also have an impact on the Swedish building sector. Results from the interview study reveal a strong coherence between problem areas in the literature and those expressed by the interviewees. However, this paper identifies seven novel challenges that cannot be derived from the list of barriers in the literature. Moreover, results reveal that as many as 12 problem areas have their origin in national factors such as agreement structures, incentive schemes, and cost calculation methods.

The contribution of this book lies in the historical comparison of infrastructural systems that are normally dealt with separately. The synthesis has been achieved by an extensive literature review of research from a wide range of various fields and by using prime sources. The comparative and long-term perspective allows the discovery of similarities and differences in the development of arrangements around streets, water and sanitation. Using the analytical lens of publicness, the author challenges the common belief that these three areas have always been public concerns or obligations, an assumption based on the fact that presently they are indeed public infrastructural systems. Furthermore, the evolution of municipal streets, water and sanitation has left a historical legacy which is still affecting the way these infrastructural systems are managed today.

DE OSYNLIGA SYSTEMEN handlar om den kommunala infrastrukturens historia i Sverige och utvecklingen från privata eller halvprivata arrangemang för gator, vatten och sanitet till fullt utvecklade offentliga infrasystem från mitten av 1800-talet och fram till idag. Vi är idag beroende av de tjänster som infrasystemen levererar och det är svårt att tänka sig ett modernt samhälle utan dem. Men när systemen väl var byggda tog vi dem snart för givna, vi glömde bort att sköta om dem, och infrastrukturen dras därför med en mycket omfattande underhållsskuld.

En annan sak som bidrar till svårigheterna med att hantera och underhålla de stora infrasystemen är att den tekniska och organisatoriska design som valdes när systemen byggdes påverkar våra möjligheter att anpassa dem till en förändrad verklighet. De fysiska nätverken är gigantiska konstruktioner med en historiskt betingad tröghet, där samhälle och företag investerat väldiga belopp.

Infrastrukturen är kort sagt djupt inbäddad i samhället och svår att förändra. Det här gör oss dåligt rustade att hantera framtidens klimatutmaningar. Men vi kommer inte undan att anpassa oss till ett förändrat klimat. Robusta och motståndskraftiga infrasystem är absolut nödvändiga för att mildra effekterna av klimatkrisen. Gator, vatten- och avloppssystem måste rustas upp och förstärkas.

Boken belyser de faktorer som har påverkat utformningen av de kommunala infrasystemen och hur den processen lämnat ett historiskt arv som fortfarande påverkar oss. Ambitionen är att synliggöra systemen. Hoppet är att historien ska ge uppslag till vad som ska göras idag för att framtidsäkra den kommunala infrastrukturen.

https://byggtjanst.se/bokhandel/hallbarhet/samhallsplanering/de-osynliga-systemen 

Artiklen undersøger den rolle hastighed, højhastighed og’ flow’ spillede ved etableringen af det svenske bilsamfund. Den fokuserer på de argumenter og strategier billobbyen benyttede sig af i deres promovering af den uhindrede (auto)mobilitet, med særlig fokus på efterkrigstiden, da massebilismen blev en realistisk mulighed. Det lykkedes billobbyen ved hjælp af argumenter med rødder i det nye vejbygnings- og trafikmangementparadigme – ”American Traffic Engineering” -  at gøre trafikdebatten til et teknisk spørgsmål.

The first contribution of this report lies in the historical comparison of infrastructural systems that normally are dealt with separately. The synthesis has been achieved mainly by an extensive literature review of research from a wide range of various fields and by using prime sources to some extent. I have reinterpreted earlier results and brought together research areas that not so often communicate. The comparative and long-term perspective allows me to discover similarities and differences in the development of arrangements around streets, water, and sanitation. By using the analytical lens of publicness I can challenge the common belief that these three areas have always been public concerns or obligations. An assumption that relies on the fact that presently they indeed are public infrastructural systems. The second contribution is that I connect the historical development of these three sectors with research in medical, social, cultural, economic, and political history highlighting the most important contextual factors in society at large that has profoundly affected streets, water, and sanitation. I show how their respective evolution into public infrastructural systems has been strongly influenced by the strong Swedish tradition of local independence, by urbanization, demography, and industrialization, the municipal reform of 1862, and specifically for water and sanitation, the conflict between the private and the public; the social issue (concern for, and fear of, the working class and the poor); high mortality, Cholera epidemics and new perceptions of health and sickness; the Sanitary movement; the national health act of 1874. Finally, using theoretical concepts from the research traditions of Large Technical Systems (LTS, Hughes) I show how the evolution in municipal streets, water, and sanitation has left a historical legacy still affecting the way these infrasystems are managed today.

The objective of this article is to discuss the actors involved, and the arguments used, in the process leading to the implementation of The Road Plan for Sweden. The Road Plan, a 20-year program to improve and modernize Sweden, aimed to rebuild and adapt the country's network of roads to suit the needs of mass motorization. It marked a breakthrough as a new kind of far-reaching societal planning, with the car as the point of departure. This article analyzes the means by which technical ideas and planning approaches developed elsewhere found their way into the plan. The Swedish road system was connected to the European road network, but the technical ideas of traffic engineeringon which the plan rested derived from an even wider base that reached all the way to the United States. This article investigates and explains the influence of the international road and car lobby—specifically the International Road Federation and its "local branch" the Swedish Road Federation—in encouraging the adoption of American-based traffic engineering ideals in the Swedish Road Plan.

The first of July 1952, the moped was legislatively excluded from existing restrictions for heavier two-wheeled motorized vehicles. A driver/owner of a “bicycle with auxiliary engine” – this was the original denomination of the vehicle – thus needed no registration, driver’s license or insurance, nor pay any vehicle tax. The legislators did, however, postulate some technical requirements. Besides regulation of the engine, the vehicle should be “bicycle-like” and have pedals. It should thus be driven primarily by means of human, not mechanical, power (i.e., it was not supposed to be a lighter version of a motorcycle). In terms of social and economic goals, the state assumed workers to be the primary users, and a utilitarian use rather than one connected to pleasure and spare time. Very quickly, however, the moped lost all resemblance with the ordinary bicycle (except for the pedals). In a new legislation in 1961, the state yielded to the technical development. The moped no longer needed to resemble a bicycle or have pedals. Meanwhile, the moped also became more of a toy for boys – a vehicle for freedom – rather than the useful tool the state had wished for. In fact, we argue that the demands from user groups not foreseen played a crucial role in changing the legal technical requirements of the moped.This paper deals with the co-evolution, technically and institutionally, of the moped during the period 1952–75. Using a method inspired by evolutionary theory, the moped models released in Sweden in these years are grouped in “families” with distinctive technical features and accompanying presumed uses. We analyze this development using concepts from the theoretical fields of innovation studies and the history of technology

Blomkvist, Pär & Martin Emanuel, From Utility to Freedom: The Co-evolution of Technology and Institutions in the History of the Swedish Moped 1952–75, Division of Industrial Dynamics, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Stockholm 2009)

The first of July 1952, the moped was legislatively excluded from existing restrictions for heavier two-wheeled motorized vehicles. A driver/owner of a “bicycle with auxiliary engine” – this was the original denomination of the vehicle – thus needed no registration, driver’s license or insurance, nor pay any vehicle tax. The legislators did, however, postulate some technical requirements. Besides regulation of the engine, the vehicle should be “bicycle-like” and have pedals. It should thus be driven primarily by means of human, not mechanical, power (i.e., it was not supposed to be a lighter version of a motorcycle). In terms of social and economical goals, the state assumed workers to be the primary users, and a utilitarian use rather than one connected to pleasure and spare time.

Very quickly, however, the moped lost all resemblance with the ordinary bicycle (except for the pedals). In a new legislation in 1961, the state yielded to the technical development. The moped no longer needed to resemble a bicycle or have pedals. Meanwhile, the moped also became more of a toy for boys – a vehicle for freedom – rather than the useful tool the state had wished for. In fact, we argue that the demands from user groups not foreseen played a crucial role in changing the legal technical requirements of the moped.

This report treats the co-evolution, technically and institutionally, of the moped during the period 1952–75. Using a method inspired by evolutionary theory, the moped models released in Sweden in these years are grouped in “families” with distinctive technical features and accompanying presumed uses. For understanding how demands of different user groups can alter the “dominant design” of a technology (Abernathy & Utterback, 1978), the concept pair of technical and functional demand specifications are developed. While dominant design may capture conservative features in technological development, our concepts seem to better capture the dynamics in technical and institutional change – the co-evolution of technology and institutions.

This article investigates the attempts to regulate innovation in Sweden’s road traffic system, specifically small, two-wheeled motorized vehicles or mopeds. Regulators wanted to establish a definition of the moped as a utility vehicle. Moped users and producers challenged their intentions, envisioning the moped as a vehicle for leisure. Our close reading of artefacts allows us to trace the evolution of moped technology and to conceptualize innovation in the moped niche. Situating moped innovation within the context of regulatory attempts and social change, we show how the imposition of technical requirements failed to regulate specific usage of a consumer technology. More broadly, the case study shows how users together with the producers find ways to innovate and shape technologies for their own purposes.

Keywords: freedom, moped, regulation, road traffic system, Sweden, welfare state

Method for engineering students provides an overview of how to formulate, design, produce and deliver a thesis of good quality. The book is relevant for all types of degree projects on bachelors’ and masters’ levels and is also useful when performing research work in other contexts. This is the first comprehensive book on research methodology for engineering students who are performing their degree project within or close to the social sciences. The book has been inspired by modern product design – the thesis is seen as a product – and takes as its starting point the fact that one may have two clients when carrying out a degree project (Academia and Industry). It also describes how to work one’s way through the process through the development of different prototypes. We see the thesis work as a form of craft and the book contains the most important scientific tools that are needed in order to make informed choices.

Uppsats enligt 4-stegsmodellen

I den här boken får du hjälp genom hela uppsatsprocessen – från forskningsidé och problemformulering till färdig text. Boken bygger på 4-stegsmodellen, som består av att problemformulera, undersöka, producera och leverera. Genom de fyra stegen i uppsatsprocessen arbetar du successivt fram alltmer färdiga utkast. Den grundläggande principen är att det mest effektiva sättet att komma framåt i arbetet är genom att skriva och presentera dessa utkast.

Att skriva uppsats är ett hantverk och boken innehåller en genomgång av de viktigaste vetenskapliga verktyg du behöver använda för att kunna göra medvetna val för just din uppsats.

Boken vänder sig i första hand till dig som ska skriva en uppsats i företagsekonomi på kandidat-, magister- eller masternivå. Men den fungerar också för dig som skriver uppsats inom andra samhällsvetenskapliga ämnen.

Water and sewage (WS) systems are, like most grid based infrastructural systems, often centralised and hierarchical and the end user has almost no possibility to influence the technical standards, business models or system architecture. The preferred method for connecting new areas to the grid are underground water pipes and gravity flow for sewage. Thus, the WS system is “tightly coupled”. It is hard to change and conservative in its system culture, exhibiting a strong “momentum” or “path dependence”.

In this article we investigate an unusual case in the development of WS-systems. As a rule, WS-systems, as most infrastructural systems, develop gradually through incremental innovations, and system owners/utilities traditionally build their systems “from the inside out”. In our case, we investigate a situation where the end users took the initiative to connect a residential area, Aspvik, part of the municipality of Värmdö, outside Stockholm, Sweden, to the municipal grid and thus expand the WS-system, not from the inside out, but from the outside in.

Furthermore, we highlight another unusual feature: the role of a resident that acted as the “entrepreneur” in this process of WS-system expansion. The entrepreneur had unique trust building abilities in the local community, which the regime actor (the WS utility), could not match. Historically, inventor-entrepreneurs have been common, acting as “system builders” in the establishment phase of new infrastructural systems. However, entrepreneurs outside the regime are not common in the WS sector.

Although atypical in mature WS systems in developed countries, these types of local initiatives or hybrid solutions are common in developing countries. In this article, we argue that there are lessons to be learnt from our case, when dealing with system expansion processes both inside and outside the Global North.

This paper introduces an analytical framework for a special phenomenon: when a common-pool resource (CPR) institution and a large technical system (LTS) are connected and mutually interdependent. The CPR in this case is a node managed by its appropriators within a centrally planned and managed system; here named CPR-LTS constellations. Our framework is empirically derived from two historical investigations of CPR institutions within two LTSs, the agricultural-technical system and the road transport system of Sweden. By comparing similarities and differences it is possible to identify paths to successes and failures. To understand why one survived and the other disappeared we connect Elinor Ostrom's theories about management of CPRs with Thomas P. Hughes's theories about LTSs. We are proposing a framework that can bridge the gap between theories about management of CPRs and LTSs. By combining the two theories it should be possible to better understand how small-scale producers using bottom-up CPRs can be linked to top-down LTSs. We will argue that to fit within an LTS, a CPR needs alignment between different parts or components within the constellation/system and alignment with other systems and institutions in society. We propose three analytical levels to deal with the phenomenon of aligning a CPR project to an existing, large sociotechnical system: Local alignment (CPR): How are CPRs organized and managed 1. at local sites? 2. Sociotechnical alignment (CPR-LTS): How are CPRs connected to the sociotechnical system? 3. Contextual alignment: How are CPR-LTS constellations aligned with neighboring institutions and systems in society? Our work indicates that for successful management of a CPR-LTS constellation it is important that the CPR be included in legislation and that government agencies support the CPR in alignment with the LTS. Legislators must recognize the CPR-part in the CPR-LTS constellation so that its institutional body is firmly established in society. In this study, we have used the framework ex-post; however, we anticipate that the framework could be a diagnostic tool ex-ante for CPR-LTS constellations

This article examines innovation activities in water infrastructure in Nairobi, Kenya. The focus is on efforts by Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Corporation (NCWSC) to provide water services to the inhabitants in the informal areas of the city using an automated vending machine, or Pre-Paid Dispenser (PPD). In this study, we investigate what happens when a regime actor like NCWSC tries to implement an ambidextrous (two-handed) strategy: managing the existing system according to conventional practice and at the same time innovate in new technical solutions and business models to cater for unconnected users.Besides presenting our results, our aim in this article is also to introduce a research strategy for innovation studies in infrastructural systems in low-income urban areas. Three interconnected parts stand out as our contribution:First, we present a novel conceptual framework, by adding ideas from innovation studies to the Large Technical Systems approach. We investigate how regime actors can innovate to provide water to unconnected users, without expanding the system in a traditional way.Second, we propose a novel method for analysing and understanding innovation on the margins of the infrastructural system, or in our terms, innovation in the critical interface. Central to our method is, through empirical observation, to identify misalignment between the innovation (PPD) and contextual factors at the local level, where the innovation is implemented (interface misalignment), and misalignment between the innovation and the existing water regime (internal misalignment). We use a qualitative method and results forms as a basis for further research and starting point for regime actors in search of an improved ambidextrous strategy.Third, we analyse the innovation process per se. In the Nairobi case, we assess the ambidextrous innovation strategy, and claim that the PPD functions as an adapter in the critical interface, enabling the regime actors to operate in an environment of misalignment.

AbstracIn this paper we discuss the process of designing a new Industrial Management Master Program given by the department of Industrial Economics and Management at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The foundation of the IM-master program lies in the notions of authenticity and change. We decided early on in the design process, that our aim was to teach the skills of real world change management and to "mould" our students into industrial managers able to master complex industrial change processes. But we realized that we also had to "mould" our own pedagogical tools, examination forms, and not the least, faculty, to reach our goals. These insights lead us to emphasize a Systems perspective, both in regards to program and course design and in regards to the actual management skills we wanted to teach. The objective of this paper is to present and discuss our explicit use of a systems perspective in designing the Industrial masters program. We have identified four major parts of "our system" where changes had to be made: Premises - Learning activities - Examination - Program management. These four system parts are divided into ten subsections - "systems components". We discuss all four system parts in relation to our goals to enhance authentic skills in change management.

Science and technology studies and urban political ecology have made important contributions to the understanding of water provision in the Global South. In this article we develop insights from these fields with the aim to understand the blurring boundaries of urban water regimes and their power relations mediated by actors, institutions and technology. Furthermore, we explore how urban water regimes can form a critical interface which is a form of institutional–actor space where formal and informal water regimes encounter each other through conflict and cooperation.

This article deals with ongoing attempts to recover heat and greywater at property level, based on an in-depth study of Stockholm, Sweden. We explore different socio-technical development paths from now up until 2050 using a novel combination of on-property technology case-studies, actor studies and system-level scenario evaluation, based on Artificial Neural Networks modelling. Our results show that the more conservative scenarios work in favour of large-scale actors while the more radical scenarios benefit the property owners. However, in the radical scenarios we identify disruptive effects on a system level due to disturbance on wastewater treatment plants, where incoming wastewater can be critically low for up to 120 days per year. At the same time, net energy savings are relatively modest (7.5% of heat demand) and economic gains for property owners small or uncertain. Current policies at EU and national level around energy-efficient buildings risk being counter-productive in cases when they push property owners to install wastewater heat recovery technology which, in places like Stockholm, can create suboptimal outcomes at the system level. 

This study investigates the Jisomee Mita, an innovation based on ICT-powered metering at property level aimed at increasing access to piped water and sewerage in low-income areas in Nairobi, Kenya. We present empirical findings from field investigations and actor interviews, which are analysed using a novel framework drawing on studies of business models, sustainability transition, and the history of technology. We explore the critical interface between utility infrastructure and potential customers as a locus of innovation. We find that the property owners are the main benefactors of self-read meters, while low-income end-users still depend on overpriced and unsafe water. The Jisomee Mita thus cannot be called a pro-poor innovation in its current implementation and context.

In this paper we want to contribute to a theoretical framework suited for analysing and understanding infrastructural change in Africa, and to explore how such a framework may offer a different, more comprehensive and historically informed perspective, which will be necessary for a transformative shift towards global sustainability. We examine the socio-technical dynamics of large water infrastructure in a developing country, Kenya. In particular, we look at the provision of water to the capital Nairobi and its historical trajectory over the past one hundred years. We also discuss tentative results from an ongoing case study on pre-paid metering in the water system in Kampala, Uganda.

In our theoretical approach we combine ideas from the fields of history with innovation- and system studies. We revisit some of the thinking once assembled in the global North around how large infrastructure systems grow and change (the Large Technical Systems, LTS) and try to make parallels and divergences to the trajectories of water infrastructure in Nairobi, while we also bring on board key concepts from the multi-level perspective (MLP). Essentially, we try to locate to which level in the system innovation activity has been concentrated, and what has been the main direction of this activity over a longer period of time. For a broad-brush picture such as this one, we draw our empirical material mainly from our earlier historical research, much of which has already been published, as well as other authors. The novelty of this paper is our re-interpretation of the broad transformation patterns which we enable by using a long time perspective and by the recombination of theory and historical observations.

Our conclusion is that key actors have focussed the continued supply of capital for expansion of the large-scale infrastructure of the system, particularly in its upstream sections. At the same time, the piped part of the water system has become increasingly misaligned with the plurality of sub-systems delivering water outside the borders of the system, which forms the downstream environment of the system. Notably, poor people living in so called “informal settlements” or “slums” have remained disenfranchised to the regime, as they have been defined by regime actors as illegal and thus as externalities of the system. A re-alignment process has taken place in the past two decades through sector reform which has re-enabled capital supply and thus large-scale infrastructure growth. On the other hand, this growth is of a kind that is of marginal benefit to the growing group of low-income urban consumers on the periphery of the large-scale piped system. We suggest that the system exhibits a dual structure of a conservative core serving the middle and high-income population, and with peripheral parts of the system containing a plethora of local innovations. 

Our proposition is the development of an analytical and policy-oriented framework which focuses on alignment processes between what we argue is the most critical level of system interface; between the established water system (regime) and the peripheral sub-systems (local innovation). If we are serious about universal service provision and the human right to water, we must understand this interface, its actors, subsystems and processes; and how alignment between system levels can be achieved.

Historically, the modern infrastructure ideal has dominated the imagination of urbanists. As a consequence, cities and their infrastructures of pipes, roads, wires and trams, have largely been built in the same way all over world. Or have they? Recent urban scholarship suggests that cities and their modes of service provision needs to be re-envisaged, especially in the global South, not just through the lens of the ’situated’ but through disentangling it from the modernist framing altogether. The multilayered challenges - including new types of vulnerabilities of technology and users - experienced by cityregions worldwide imply that a new thought-model is called for. This paper picks up the concept of ‘Heterogeneous Infrastructure Configuration’ (HIC) suggested by Lawhon, Nilsson, Silver, Erntson and Lwasa (2017). In somewhat speculative fashion we go on to hypothesise that Stockholm, Nairobi and Kampala are at interesting historical junctures in terms of conceiving infrastructures and how they distribute power and risk across user spectrums. Are urban infrastructures across the globe being re-engineered from below, but for different reasons? We sketch at a research agenda where grounded and diverse experiences of global North and South will generate new insights for sustainable transformation of cities globally.

In this paper we discuss the introduction of collaborative writing (CW) tools in a course designed with learning activities based on problem-based learning (PBL), authentic case methodology, and teamwork. We argue that CW is a vital, but poorly understood, part of teamwork, and a black-box activity. Our ambition is to open the black box of CW and discuss how CW concepts can enrich teamwork activities. We build on our students’ reflections on challenges linked to CW in a teamwork setting. In total the data consisted of 77 individual reflection papers, which were analyzed using constructs from prior literature on CW. Our results show that our students actively used CW tools and strategies and that CW had a large impact—and, in fact, enhanced teamwork management. The CW tools also helped in creating sustainable teamwork in the sense that they enhanced the three criterions of team performance: productivity, cohesion, and learning.

I den här rapporten presenteras en deskriptiv och kartläggande undersökning som kan betraktas som en förstudie till ett framtida mera djuplodande projekt.

Syftet är att genom litteraturstudier, kommunernas policydokument och intervjuer undersöka hur några kommuner i Mellansverige arbetar med klimatanpassningsåtgärder för sina VA-anläggningar. Den övergripande frågan gäller vilka drivkrafter och utmaningar som aktörerna har identifierat. Vi fokuserar på möjligheter och hinder för klimatanpassning av avloppssystemet inkluderande ledningar, pumpstationer och avloppsreningsverk i fyra kommuner i Mälardalsregionen.

Med hjälp av litteraturen och kommunernas policydokument (som till exempel vattentjänstplaner) beskriver vi det politiska, lagstiftningsmässiga och klimatrelaterade sammanhang som VA-organisationerna måste ta hänsyn till i arbetet med att klimatsäkra sina avloppssystem.

Resultaten visar att såväl kommunerna, i sin övergripande planering, och VA-organisationerna tar klimatfaran på allvar och arbetar med åtgärder för klimatanpassning av VA-sektorn, inklusive byggnader, och annan infrastruktur samt avloppsystemen. Generellt kan man säga att man inte hunnit särskilt långt med att implementera klimatåtgärderna. Planer och medvetenhet finns, men än så länge är man bara i början av det konkreta arbetet att klimatsäkra.

Åtgärderna består av flera olika aktiviteter som dels sker i samband med planering av nybebyggelse, dels i redan existerande områden inklusive den befintliga VA-infrastruktur som där finns. I områden som planeras att bebyggas kan dessa skyfallssäkras, till exempel genom att införa en klimatfaktor vid dimensionering av ledningssystem eller genom att ombesörja att det finns möjlighet att bygga någon form av anläggning för lokalt omhändertagande av dagvatten, så kallad LOD. I befintliga områden försöker man att identifiera områden som riskerar att drabbas av översvämningar vid skyfall eller långvarig nederbörd, i avrinningsområdena kan anläggningar för omhändertagande av ovidkommande vatten eventuellt byggas. Renovering av ledningar och brunnar samt installation av backventiler för att förhindra att avloppsvatten pressas bakåt i systemet vid skyfall eller långvarig nederbörd är relativt enkla åtgärder som nämns av de VA-organisationerna. En annan viktig åtgärd som nämns är att försöka skapa samarbete med andra berörda aktörer, det kan handla om ökat samarbete mellan olika förvaltningar i en kommun, samarbete mellan den kommunala VA-organisationen och förvaltningarna eller andra aktörer, exempelvis privata fastighetsägare.

I det avslutande kapitlet presenterar vi några övergripande slutsatser – främst vad gäller behovet av samarbete mellan olika organisationer inom sektorn – och pekar ut ett intressant område för framtida forskning.