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Prof. Kristina Söderholm
Lulea University of Technology

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0 Cleaner Production
0 Environmental History
0 History Of Technology
0 Policy
0 20th Century history

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Short Biography

In her research, Kristina focuses on the environmental adaptation and energy efficiency of Swedish primary industry (such as the paper and pulp, steel, and mining industries) during the 1900s and early 2000s. Kristina is also interested in the driving forces and organization (at both local and national level) behind the emergence of infrastructural systems such as water/sewerage and district heating. Kristina usually collaborates closely with political scientists, legal scholars and economists, where it becomes relevant to try to formulate policy lessons related to the environment, sustainability and the climate problem from historical research.

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Research article
Published: 26 May 2021 in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
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The paper analyzes the prerequisites for a regulatory-driven transition toward radically lower air and water pollution in industry. This is achieved in the empirical context of the Swedish mining and metals industry, and by investigating the environmental licensing processes during two regulatory systems. The paper derives an analytical framework that explores under what circumstances such licensing processes can result in radical emissions reductions without seriously jeopardizing the competitiveness of the industry. Archived material covering six environmental licensing processes, three during each system, is used to illustrate the various design and implementation issues. The results suggest that regulatory-driven green transitions benefit from trust-based bargaining procedures in which companies are involved in repeated interactions with regulatory authorities, and which extended probation periods permit tests of novel abatement technologies (including innovation). The findings also illustrate the importance of abstaining from simplified normative notions about policy instrument choice (e.g. taxes versus standards).

ACS Style

Patrik Söderholm; Ann-Kristin Bergquist; Maria Pettersson; Kristina Söderholm. The political economy of industrial pollution control: environmental regulation in Swedish industry for five decades. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 2021, 1 -32.

AMA Style

Patrik Söderholm, Ann-Kristin Bergquist, Maria Pettersson, Kristina Söderholm. The political economy of industrial pollution control: environmental regulation in Swedish industry for five decades. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. 2021; ():1-32.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Patrik Söderholm; Ann-Kristin Bergquist; Maria Pettersson; Kristina Söderholm. 2021. "The political economy of industrial pollution control: environmental regulation in Swedish industry for five decades." Journal of Environmental Planning and Management , no. : 1-32.

Journal article
Published: 10 September 2020 in Environments
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This article provides a sectoral innovation system perspective of the development of energy efficient and clean process technologies in the Swedish pulp and paper industry. Specifically, the analysis elaborates the importance of knowledge development, actor networks, and institutions (including policy) for progressing and diffusing novel technologies related to energy use. The empirical analysis also sheds light on how significant changes in the sectoral innovation system have influenced the relevant research, development and demonstration activities in the Swedish pulp and paper industry over the period 1970–2010. The results are based on various sources—e.g., industry magazines, reports from industrial consultants and associations, minutes from meetings—and illustrate the importance of well-functioning innovation systems for successful technological development and diffusion processes. They display, in particular, the importance of joint, industry-wide R&D activities, trust-based state—industry relationships, government R&D expenditures, and intense information sharing. One important implication is that the role of policy stretches beyond the funding of basic R&D. Policy also involves measures that strengthen existing actor networks, build competence, and secure the existence of research institutes that provide a bridge between basic knowledge generation (at the universities) on the one hand, and industrial application on the other.

ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm; Patrik Söderholm. Industrial Energy Transitions and the Dynamics of Innovation Systems: The Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry, 1970–2010. Environments 2020, 7, 70 .

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm, Patrik Söderholm. Industrial Energy Transitions and the Dynamics of Innovation Systems: The Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry, 1970–2010. Environments. 2020; 7 (9):70.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm; Patrik Söderholm. 2020. "Industrial Energy Transitions and the Dynamics of Innovation Systems: The Swedish Pulp and Paper Industry, 1970–2010." Environments 7, no. 9: 70.

Original paper
Published: 30 October 2017 in Mineral Economics
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In this paper, we analyze the strategies adopted by the Swedish state-owned iron ore mining producer LKAB in response to the 1970s energy crises, i.e., soaring energy input expenses in combination with stagnating demand for iron ore. The analysis builds on a unique empirical material, e.g., minutes from board meetings, over an extended time period. This permits in-depth analyses of the two main strategies pursued by LKAB at the time: (a) securing energy supplies (as well as output sales) through upstream investments in uranium and coal mining; and (b) engaging in own R&D to enable energy-saving measures and product development. While the LKAB experiences tend to support the notion that investments supporting broader societal goals, although at the expense of firm productivity, may be likely in the presence of strong state government involvement, they also show that state-owned mineral enterprises can be highly innovative and competitive following investments in internal R&D. Specifically, LKAB’s R&D contributed to significant product development and energy savings, the latter occurring both in the company’s own pelletizing process as well as in the processes of key customers (i.e., the steel companies). The paper concludes by highlighting a number of important lessons for contemporary energy transitions in the process industries.

ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm; Linus Larsson; Patrik Söderholm. Managing the 1970s energy crises in a state-owned mining company: strategies pursued by the Swedish iron ore producer LKAB. Mineral Economics 2017, 31, 179 -190.

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm, Linus Larsson, Patrik Söderholm. Managing the 1970s energy crises in a state-owned mining company: strategies pursued by the Swedish iron ore producer LKAB. Mineral Economics. 2017; 31 (1-2):179-190.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm; Linus Larsson; Patrik Söderholm. 2017. "Managing the 1970s energy crises in a state-owned mining company: strategies pursued by the Swedish iron ore producer LKAB." Mineral Economics 31, no. 1-2: 179-190.

Journal article
Published: 22 August 2016 in Sustainability
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Housing plays an important role in the development of welfare policies and also often in achieving sustainability goals. There exists, however, implementation gaps between policies and practices in urban development and housing. Here it should be possible to draw lessons from policy implementations in the past. In this article we explore the strategies of the Swedish central government in implementing a social housing policy in the mid-20th century. The policy was successfully implemented in that it resulted in the rapid expansion and modernisation of the Swedish apartment stock in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and acute housingshortages and poor housing standards were overcome. The main lesson learned from the Swedish case study is the critical role of the central government in implementation throughthe strategic coordination of policy aims, instruments, stakeholders and interests throughout the implementation process. Although the central government could have used hard, almost authoritarian policy instruments to force the realisation of the new policy, it mainly used soft policy tools and focused on coordination. In the contemporary networked governance setting, the central government, like no other player, still has the potential to guide and coordinate implementation processes for the realization of sustainable housing visions.

ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm; Elin Wihlborg. Striving for Sustainable Development and the Coordinating Role of the Central Government: Lessons from Swedish Housing Policy. Sustainability 2016, 8, 827 .

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm, Elin Wihlborg. Striving for Sustainable Development and the Coordinating Role of the Central Government: Lessons from Swedish Housing Policy. Sustainability. 2016; 8 (8):827.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm; Elin Wihlborg. 2016. "Striving for Sustainable Development and the Coordinating Role of the Central Government: Lessons from Swedish Housing Policy." Sustainability 8, no. 8: 827.

Journal article
Published: 01 October 2014 in Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning
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In this paper we analyse past sociotechnical transitions, and based on that we discuss the prospects for the central state in promoting radical transitions towards improved sustainability today. The case studies include the sociotechnical systems in Sweden providing for: (a) urban housing; (b) passenger cars as a favoured mode of transport; and (c) piped water/wastewater, all fundamentally transformed over the first seven decades of the twentieth century and especially in the 1940s up until the 1960s. The core lesson from the case studies is that the central state, by taking an active role and by coordinating the roles of different stakeholders, values and knowledge as well as different policy areas and instruments, can accomplish a coherent and effective management of such transition processes. Also in contemporary network governance settings the central state is well suited to accomplish such an active and coordinative role based on its legitimate power to design and implement different public policy instruments.

ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm; Elin Wihlborg. Policy for Sociotechnical Transition: Implications from Swedish Historical Case Studies. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 2014, 17, 1 -23.

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm, Elin Wihlborg. Policy for Sociotechnical Transition: Implications from Swedish Historical Case Studies. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning. 2014; 17 (4):1-23.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm; Elin Wihlborg. 2014. "Policy for Sociotechnical Transition: Implications from Swedish Historical Case Studies." Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 17, no. 4: 1-23.

Journal article
Published: 28 November 2013 in Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning
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ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm. Svenska riksdagskvinnor i samförstånd och konflikt under tidigt 1990-tal. Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 2013, 37, 274 -293.

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm. Svenska riksdagskvinnor i samförstånd och konflikt under tidigt 1990-tal. Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning. 2013; 37 (03-04):274-293.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm. 2013. "Svenska riksdagskvinnor i samförstånd och konflikt under tidigt 1990-tal." Tidsskrift for kjønnsforskning 37, no. 03-04: 274-293.

Journal article
Published: 01 November 2013 in Technology in Society
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ACS Style

Elin Wihlborg; Kristina Söderholm. Mediators in action: Organizing sociotechnical system change. Technology in Society 2013, 35, 267 -275.

AMA Style

Elin Wihlborg, Kristina Söderholm. Mediators in action: Organizing sociotechnical system change. Technology in Society. 2013; 35 (4):267-275.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elin Wihlborg; Kristina Söderholm. 2013. "Mediators in action: Organizing sociotechnical system change." Technology in Society 35, no. 4: 267-275.

Journal article
Published: 29 April 2013 in Sustainability
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The experiences of past efforts of industrial pollution control while maintaining competitiveness should be of great value to research and policy practice addressing sustainability issues today. In this article, we analyze the environmental adaptation of the Swedish pulp industry during the period 1970–1990 as illustrated by the sulfite pulp producer Domsjö mill. We investigate how this company managed to adapt to heavy transformation pressure from increasing international competition in combination with strict national environmental regulations during the 1960s to the early 1990s. In line with the so-called Porter hypothesis, the company was able to coordinate the problems that were environmental in nature with activities aiming at production efficiency goals and the development of new products. Swedish environmental agencies and legislation facilitated this “win-win” situation by a flexible but still challenging regulatory approach towards the company. From the early 1990s and onwards, the greening of the pulp industry was also a result of increased market pressure for green paper products.

ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm; Ann-Kristin Bergquist. Growing Green and Competitive—A Case Study of a Swedish Pulp Mill. Sustainability 2013, 5, 1789 -1805.

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm, Ann-Kristin Bergquist. Growing Green and Competitive—A Case Study of a Swedish Pulp Mill. Sustainability. 2013; 5 (5):1789-1805.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm; Ann-Kristin Bergquist. 2013. "Growing Green and Competitive—A Case Study of a Swedish Pulp Mill." Sustainability 5, no. 5: 1789-1805.

Original articles
Published: 01 July 2012 in Journal of Urban Technology
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The purpose of the article is to analyze a number of historical explanations behind the slow process of change in stormwater management in Swedish urban planning and practice. We achieve this by studying three different periods of the long-term establishment of the Swedish urban water system over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, developments which were strongly linked to stormwater. The article recognizes the social construction of the system, i.e., how it grew out of human desires and how it grew extensively during the twentieth century due to an expansive growth of system-supporting public initiatives. These included funding opportunities as well as the establishment of different institutions and organizations. The analysis indicates that in their current efforts to transform urban stormwater management in a more sustainable direction, policymakers and implementers ought to be encouraged by an increased awareness of this social construction; what humans by their desires once built up, they should also be able to transform. Still, an important implication is also the need for such transforming efforts to determinately break away, both physically and mentally, from the traditional pipe-bound system and system culture.

ACS Style

Annicka Cettner; Kristina Söderholm; Maria Viklander. An Adaptive Stormwater Culture? Historical Perspectives on the Status of Stormwater within the Swedish Urban Water System. Journal of Urban Technology 2012, 19, 25 -40.

AMA Style

Annicka Cettner, Kristina Söderholm, Maria Viklander. An Adaptive Stormwater Culture? Historical Perspectives on the Status of Stormwater within the Swedish Urban Water System. Journal of Urban Technology. 2012; 19 (3):25-40.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Annicka Cettner; Kristina Söderholm; Maria Viklander. 2012. "An Adaptive Stormwater Culture? Historical Perspectives on the Status of Stormwater within the Swedish Urban Water System." Journal of Urban Technology 19, no. 3: 25-40.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2009 in Business Strategy and the Environment
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ACS Style

Kristina Söderholm. Environmental awakening in the Swedish pulp and paper industry: pollution resistance and firm responses in the Early 20th century. Business Strategy and the Environment 2009, 18, 32 -42.

AMA Style

Kristina Söderholm. Environmental awakening in the Swedish pulp and paper industry: pollution resistance and firm responses in the Early 20th century. Business Strategy and the Environment. 2009; 18 (1):32-42.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kristina Söderholm. 2009. "Environmental awakening in the Swedish pulp and paper industry: pollution resistance and firm responses in the Early 20th century." Business Strategy and the Environment 18, no. 1: 32-42.