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2013: Finished PhD projects

Department of Human Geography


Erik Jönsson

     "Fields of Green and Gold: Territorial hunger, rural planning, and the political ecologies of high-end golf"

  • Presentation: Fields of Green and Gold is a multiple case study analysing the placing and establishment of two large-scale, high-profile, upmarket golf developments with the aim of exploring a political ecology of high-end golf. The cases studied are Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Upplands-Bro, opened in 2007, and Trump International Golf Links Scotland in Aberdeenshire, opened in 2012. Reading these two cases together permits shedding light on the radical but multifarious environmental transformations undertaken to produce landscapes for the production and selling of upmarket golf experiences. The cases together also provide an opportunity to analyse the complex planning processes which these high-profile developments are enmeshed in, and the ways through which planning practices are reshaped in dealing with developments potentially reorganising rural landscapes and local/regional economies in new ways.

Carl-Johan Sanglert

     "Att skapa plats och göra rum - Landskapsperspektiv på det historiska värdets betydelse och funktion i svensk planering och miljövård"

  • Presentation: PhD-thesis defence: 16th November 2013. This thesis is based on an analysis of how historically motivated values are treated in contemporary planning- and conservation practices. The aim is to discuss the premises of a sustainable landscape development regarding historical landscapes and heritage. The analysis takes its theoretical point of departure in time-geography and critical realism. These perspectives have been used to develop a realist landscape ontology. As a result, this thesis proposes a landscape ontology based on three structural levels: the viewscape, landscape as a social and material outcome, and the flowscape. In relation to this model I also outline how the concepts of discourse and aesthetics may be used to develop the analytical perspectives of time-geography. A method for historic landscape analysis based on the application of stratigraphy diagrams within archeology is also presented. In contrast to the traditional application of the method, this modified version has the potential to include other historical sources, such as historical maps, aerial photography and written sources.

Elena Zukauskaite

     "Institutions and the Geography of Innovation: A Regional Perspective"

  • Presentation: PhD-thesis defence: 4th October 2013. Economic geographers have long been intrigued by the role of institutions in innovation processes. It has been argued that differences in institutions are among the factors explaining the uneven innovative capacity across and within countries. The regional innovation system approach highlights the interrelationships of firms, universities, governmental authorities and other organizations, as well as how those relations are influenced by the institutional setting in a region. There is a general perception in this stream of literature that institutions do matter. They constitute a legal framework for actions, define communication patterns and influence learning possibilities. However, these studies have been criticized for their lack of discussion of the interaction between institutions at different geographical levels, the relation between individuals and institutions and the impact of changes in the institutional framework on innovation activities.