The way in which problems relating to sustainable mobility are constructed through discourse and the resultant impact on policy and practice is fundamental to how sustainable transportation systems will be reached in Sweden, as well as the world. Given that sustainable transportation is a political and societal goal, its construction in situ is an important influence upon how such problems are configured and consequently solved. It is assumed that the ways in which sustainable transportation is formulated as a political goal, how this is interpreted and applied, and the solutions that are consequent upon such interpretations at the regional and local levels, are foundational to the success of reaching sustainability. This paper emphasizes the roll of practitioners in the construction of the sustainable transportation discourse. The research question is: Do multi-stakeholder processes increase the capacity of political/administrative organizations for attaining sustainable solutions to transport related problems? Are such processes conducive for reaching the national and global goals regarding sustainable mobility? The analysis includes a description and analysis of both the objectives and the methodology that was applied in an on-going multi-stakeholder collaboration, HUR2050, by way of participatory observation, interviews and text analysis. This paper discusses the strengths, weaknesses and lessons that can be learned surrounding the construction of sustainable transportation in a multi-stakeholder regional planning process. The most important conclusions are that multi-stakeholder processes do indeed increase the capacity of regional planning for achieving long-term sustainability goals. Some of the most important factors are the innovative capability to create an open forum or agenda for social learning as well as an open and efficient platform for strategic planning. The ability to promote consensus among the stakeholders is also decisive for the success of the process. The main identified weakness is a lack of a coherent methodology that is able to adequately encompass such a complex societal goal as long-term sustainable transportation and the needs of ecological modernization. There is a great need for the development of a new methodology that can incorporate strategic proficiency, innovative capability and consensus ability to better increase the ecological modernization capacity of multi-stakeholder planning processes for sustainable transportation (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E212343.
Abstract