When sustainability goals clash – research highlights the actors behind trade-offs

What more specifically are you researching?

Landscape and land use planning! It lies at the core of several of the most complex societal challenges of our time – which also makes it an incredibly exciting and important field of research.

In landscape planning, planning processes are expected to balance objectives such as ecosystem protection, housing availability, public health and water management. We often talk about multifunctional landscapes, synergies and sustainability integration, but in practice, planning also involves difficult trade-offs between objectives that cannot always be realised at the same time.

There is a strong belief that policy instruments such as land-use plans, impact assessments and sustainability certifications will steer societal development towards sustainability. However, there is a crucial link that often receives less attention: what actually happens when these policy instruments are put into practice.

This is where my research takes its starting point.

I investigate how actors such as municipal planners, sustainability strategists, consultants and public officials interpret, apply and collaborate in using these tools in their day-to-day work. The aim is to give voice to the conditions of practice, reveal hidden dimensions and suggest avenues for further research.

What kind of reactions do you encounter when it comes to your research?

An important part of the research involves collaborating with stakeholders outside academia to test and further develop findings together. Concrete results such as new working methods, guidelines and services demonstrate that collaboration creates practical benefits.

It can also create something else: new ways of understanding and reflecting on one’s own practice. During my associate professorship lecture, I illustrated what this might entail with a quote from a consultant I have collaborated with in my research:

The quote shows that research helps to put experiences into words – it contributes to a deeper understanding of one’s own circumstances and options for action.

What lies ahead?

The so-called green transition requires rapid expansion of energy production, infrastructure, mines and factories. The changing global security landscape is creating further needs, while at the same time increasing demands for greater efficiency and shorter approval processes.

At both European and national levels, we are seeing reforms that aim to speed up decision-making on land use and natural resources – sometimes by centralising power or limiting opportunities for participation in decision-making processes. Such changes affect the space for action in planning through changes in priorities, resources and power relations.

There are also indications of more direct pressure. Through my research, I have encountered practitioners with experiences of pressure, self-censorship and uncertainty regarding professional boundaries. This may involve local authorities that deviate from their procedures and exclude certain departments from internal consultations, or individuals who are put under pressure during work meetings. 

Disagreement, conflicting objectives and political priorities are a natural part of planning practice, but when such pressures lead to silence, conformity or manipulation, both environmental protection and democratic legitimacy risk being undermined.

There are very few studies on what this entails in the field of landscape and the environment. Issues of integrity, corruption and manipulation are discussed in research on impact  assessment, but empirical knowledge remains limited.

This is where I see my future research agenda.

Would you like to know more about Mari’s research? Read more here (slu.se).