This article analyses how urban densification, primarily in relation to ecosystem services, is addressed in comprehensive plans from three cities in southernmost Sweden: Malmö, Lund and Helsingborg. The aim was to investigate and problematise how the comprehensive plans articulate and negotiate how to build dense cities while preserving and enhancing ecosystem services. A qualitative content analysis was performed on the comprehensive plans in use during the study period. The comprehensive plans were all ambitiously formulated. However, three recurrent issues were found. Planners struggled to address the issue of scale: Ecosystem services in the city were addressed when planning for densification, while ecosystem services for the city were either omitted or mentioned in the passing. The timeframe in relation to sustainable urban development was also not clarified. Most importantly, there were profound unclarities regarding priorities. Densification was suggested to provide all positive qualities simultaneously, including enhancing and supporting ecosystem services, which is, from a systems viewpoint, not possible. We suggest that when planning for sustainable cities, based on best available research, politicians should bring the prioritisation process to the fore, to clarify and address how to plan for dense, healthy cities with functioning ecosystem services in a more holistic manner.

Cet article présente la situation historique et socio-économique du Nord intérieur de la Suède, le Norrland. Les ressources forestières, hydrauliques et minérales de cette région périphérique de l’Union européenne ont été intensément exploitées au profit de l’Etat suédois. Elles ont servi de base au développement de l’Etat providence suédois moderne. Le coût environnemental, culturel et économique du modèle de développement mis en oeuvre dans cette région est analysé. Pour ce faire, l’auteur s’appuie sur les acquis des recherches d’Immanuel Wallerstein et de sa théorie du système monde. Selon cette théorie, l’accumulation de la richesse dans les régions centrales se fait aux dépens du développement économique des périphéries. Aujourd’hui les beaux jours du développement fondé sur le prélèvement des ressources naturelles appartiennent au passé. Les chercheurs, les décideurs politiques, la société civile suggèrent de mettre le cap sur d’autres modèles de développement.

White-collar workers around the world are reconfiguring their ways of working. Some have found their way out, performing office work outdoors, through walk-and-talks, outdoor meetings, or reading sessions. Working outdoors has proved both invigorating and challenging. This qualitative interview study aims to develop a conceptual framework concerning the implications of white-collar workers incorporating the outdoors into their everyday work life. Applying a constructivist grounded theory approach, 27 interviews with a total of 15 participants were systematically analyzed. Findings evolved around the following categories: practicing outdoor office work, challenging the taken-for-granted, enjoying freedom and disconnection, feeling connected and interdependent, promoting health and well-being, enhancing performance, and finally adding a dimension to work. These categories were worked into a conceptual model, building on the dynamic relationship between the practice of working outdoors on one hand, and how this challenges the system in which office work traditionally takes place on the other. Interviews reflected the profound learning process of the employees. Drawing on the concepts of free space and resonance, we demonstrate how performing office work outdoors may unlock a transformative potential by opening up connectedness and interdependence and contribute to a sustainable work life as well as overall sustainable development.

Air pollution is estimated to cause more than 7000 deaths annually in Sweden alone. To reduce the impact of air pollution and to plan and build sustainable cities, it is vital that research is translated into efficient decisions and practice. However, how do civil servants in a municipality access research results? How do they normally find relevant information, and what obstacles are there to accessing and applying research results? As part of the collaborative and transdisciplinary research project Air Pollution Research in Local Environmental Planning (ARIEL), these questions were explored through interviews and seminars with civil servants within the Malmö Municipality Environmental Office. We found that the civil servants generally have proficiency in processing research results, but often do not use such results as part of their everyday decision making and practices. Instead, the data and measurements used are mostly produced case-by-case within the municipal sector itself. Information about best practices is also collected via a number of knowledge access practices, involving the Internet or social networks within other municipalities. Lack of time, paywalls, and the insufficient applicability of research hinder the dissemination of up-to-date results. This slows down the process whereby research, funded by tax-money, can be put to best practice in the effort to create healthy and sustainable cities.

In the spring of 1826, the young Danish naval officer Carl Irminger and two of his friends sailed with a cargo ship from Copenhagen to Iceland to stay there during the summer. This article is based on Irminger’s unpublished travel diary. Irminger and his friends blended in with the local elite, which provided them with equipment and contacts to travel. Their journeys out from Reykjavik were adventurous and depended on local guides and the hospitality of residents along the way. The tales of hardships during the travels, combined with contacts established during the trip, became important credentials in Irminger’s future career. He was hired as an adjutant to the Danish prince, and the narrative of his summer in Iceland ignited a royal expedition there in 1834, of which Irminger was to be the trip leader. Irminger’s diary reflects a broader shift from Enlightenment exploration reporting into Romantic travel writing, with more emotional and aesthetic emphasis. His journey was a forerunner of the nature tourism that eventually was to sprout in Iceland.