Mattias Höjer

Determinism and backcasting in future studies

In this paper, four frequently cited approaches to future studies are criticised. We use examples mainly from the field of transport research. The first approach is the tendency to try to establish ...

Smart sustainable cities – Exploring ICT solutions for reduced energy use in cities

This article explores the opportunities of using ICT as an enabling technology to reduce energy use in cities. An analytical framework is developed in which a typology of ICT opportunities is combi ...

Smart Sustainable Cities: Definition and Challenges

In this chapter, we investigate the concept of Smart Sustainable Cities. We begin with five major developments of the last decades and show how they can be said to build a basis for the Smart Sustainable Cities concept. We argue that for the concept to have any useful meaning, it needs to be more strictly defined than it has previously been. We suggest such a definition and bring up some of the concept’s more crucial challenges.

Images of the future city : time and space for sustainable development

What could a future Western city look like if energy use per capita was reduced by sixty percent? This is the overarching question researchers have addressed in a major backcasting study carried ou ...

Transport telematics in urban systems—a backcasting Delphi study

This paper includes a presentation of the results from a scenario study on transport telematics in urban passenger transport. An international Delphi panel of 100 experts from 20 countries replied ...

Technological innovation and transformation perspectives in environmental futures studies for transport and mobility

Futures studies such as technology foresight and backcasting are concerned with changes in society and technological transformation in a long-term perspective, but are also recognising the importan ...

Planning for smart sustainable cities: Decisions in the planning process and actor networks

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been ascribed an important role for decreasing energy use and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in urban areas. Through automation, dem ...

Stockholm’s Urban Development

The population centers in the Stockholm region have followed the typical pattern for all building activity, namely growth in development waves interspersed with periods of much lower activity. These waves have been concentrated to certain parts of the cityscape and dominated by certain object types with special characteristics regarding size, building types and density. For the most part they have built on a certain type of traffic supply and promoted by specific investor constellations. The crests and durations of these wave movements are marked not only by favorable financial conditions, but also by the fact that the parties involved managed to establish relatively stable institutional relationships around the construction. Traffic system expansion has contributed strongly to the construction and is described in the next chapter.

Sustainable Communications and Innovation: Different Types of Effects from Collaborative Research Including University and Companies in the ICT-Sector

This paper presents experiences from the Centre for Sustainable Communications (CESC) located at KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Since 2007, the centre has carried out research in collaboration with private firms in the information and communication technology (ICT) and media sectors as well as with public sector organizations in the city of Stockholm. The aim is to share experiences from how the partners of the centre describe benefits and effects from collaborative research. Since the centre is focusing on use of ICT and media technology, rather than technology development per se, this provides an account of a wide range of effects from university-industry collaborations and new insights into the innovation processes targeting sustainability in the ICT and media sectors. This is an important perspective of sustainable and responsible innovation that is not captured in traditional innovation surveys (counting the number of new products or patents). Areas examined here include: increased knowledge and competence, new contacts and networks, publications, methods and new technology as well as changes in business operations and behaviour targeting sustainable solutions. The results also confirm firm-level business value as a driver for sustainability and provide experiences from involving users in the quest for sustainable and responsible innovation.

Future Cities – Possible Changes

Over the last 50 years the physical structure of the urban regions in the west has undergone basic changes. This is especially true of the larger cities. They have continued to grow, not only through a comprehensive immigration, but also due to a strong increase in space use expressed both in terms of building utilization and land use per capita. In many cases the increase in space use reaches more than twice the original. Tendencies to sprawl, functional separation, segregation, thinning and population growth have led to comprehensive suburbanization. The sparsely built suburb has surpassed the traditional, dense city. As has been described in an earlier chapter, a new phenomenon has appeared after WW2 where the formerly financially dominant traditional city core has been reduced in importance, while a number of smaller, but still viable centers have grown in the suburban zone.