Trond Vedeld

Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, International studies department, Faculty Member

OsloMet—Oslo Metropolitan University, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Faculty Member

Followers

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

Research Professor/Forsker 1 - specialised in governance, urban development, climate change, institutional and environment analysis (India, Africa, Norway).

less

InterestsView All (6)

Uploads

Papers by Trond Vedeld

by Trond Vedeld and Einar Braathen

Environmental Policy and Governance, 2025

In this article, we unpack and compare how differently reactive protest groups and movements resp... more In this article, we unpack and compare how differently reactive protest groups and movements respond to climate-related policy implementation and engage with public institutions to raise grievances and change the course of climate action. We argue that as the climate agenda has become integrated into broad-based policies, such as urban densification and transport/road-tolls, a range of contestations emerge that cannot be reduced to anti-elite sentiments and climate scepticism, as often held in studies of populism and climate politics. The article offers an analytical framework to study how such reactive protest movements and their leadership respond to climaterelated policy implementation in several distinct areas of contestation. The approach is tested with empirical observations from four case studies of popular protests in four Scandinavian cities. We found that hostility and grievances of the protesters included a mix of ideological and material/socio-economic concerns not perceived recognized or responded to by public institutions. Citizen action groups thus actively engaged with a diversity of public agencies and politicians to influence climate-related decisions and actions. We observed that these interactions and resultant effects were highly place-based and context-specific and dynamic. We suggest that engaging with popular/populist climate politics needs to observe changing contextual circumstances and more firmly distinguish between responsiveness to economic, cultural recognition/identity, anti-elitist and knowledge foundations it is entangled in. This includes aspects related to the procedural functioning of public institutions and officials. Relationships are complex and multilayered. A processual and qualitative multi-case study approach facilitated these observations.

Download

Hva skjer i møtet mellom konvensjonelle og samskapende styringsformer?

Plan

Hva skjer i møtet mellom konvensjonelle og samskapende styringsformer?

Plan

Hva skjer i møtet mellom konvensjonelle og samskapende styringsformer?

Plan

Polycentric urban climate governance: Creating synergies between integrative and interactive governance in Oslo

by Trond Vedeld and Hege Hofstad

Environmental Policy and Governance, 2021

Cities have emerged as important agents and sites in climate governance interventions, experiment... more Cities have emerged as important agents and sites in climate governance interventions, experimentations and networks. Drawing upon two strains of climate governance and collaborative governance literature, respectively, this article adopts a polycentric approach to the analysis of Oslo's urban climate governance. It unpacks the relationships between urban leadership, climate goal-setting and institutional design, and reveals how these variables condition the employment of a combination of integrative and interactive governing instruments that foster both self-governance and co-creation in climate responses. The article argues that broad and long-term political support facil

Download

6. Citizens as clients, customers and partners: Evolving roles and relationships in co-creation

«Advancing Co-creation in Local Governance. The Role of Coping Strategies and Constructive Hybridization”, Policy, Administrative and Institutional Change series, pp 226, edited by Asbjørn Røiseland, Eva Sørensen og Jacob Torfing, 2024, Print ISBN: 9781802202229, eISBN: 9781802202236, DOI: https:..., 2024

This chapter investigates how administrators in three Norwegian municipalities across three welfa... more This chapter investigates how administrators in three Norwegian municipalities across three welfare and climate policy sectors cope with the tensions and
dilemmas emerging between the traditional roles and relationships embedded in classic bureaucracy and the new roles required for facilitating co-creation, which expects citizens to move from being clients and customers to empowered and resourceful partners. Such tensions call for effective coping strategies on the part of public administrators (PAs) who aim to combine old and new citizen roles in the co-creation of solutions, plans and projects (Ansell & Gash 2017; Brandsen et al. 2018; Pestoff 2019). We find that the multiple roles played by administrators are reflected in a multitude
of the roles played by citizens, suggesting that citizens are also pragmatic
and dynamic as service users, change agents, activists and lobbyists. There are
clashes that must be dealt with – but also bureaucratic and regulative systems
that provide the required framing and support for co-creation. Overall, we
find both pragmatic and agile administrative reformers in terms of pursuing
co-creation across all cases.

Download

Lokal klimapolitikk: Hva står på spill og hvem har makt og innflytelse?

Plan

How to Lead Collaborative Governance for Climate Transformation: A Guide for City Leaders and Decision-makers

Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy

Based on extensive international research on city climate governance and co-creation, this policy... more Based on extensive international research on city climate governance and co-creation, this policy briefing allows for a nuanced understanding of how contextual features provide distinct types of challenges and condition city leadership in situations of diverse actors and purposes. The complexity of the challenge requires design and employment of a mix of collaborative, regulative, and financial policy tools to pursue effective climate transformation. Such a hybrid form of governance enables cities to inspire and mobilize multiple actors, adapt infrastructures, and enhance their own space of manoeuvre across scales. The briefing suggests 10 essential lessons highlighting key policy tools that climate-ambitious cities may mix and draw upon. The findings build on a combination of (climate) governance and leadership theory and empirical examples from a variety of global cities, including the cities of Cape Town, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, and Oslo.

Download

Cities as public agents: A typology of co-creational leadership for urban climate transformation

Earth System Governance

Urban climate governance and co-creation – In Cape Town, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Oslo

Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Oslo Metropolitan University, Jun 1, 2020

The study provides an outline and comparative analysis of the evolution in climate policies and g... more The study provides an outline and comparative analysis of the evolution in climate policies and governance systems of four cities with ambitious climate goals and strategies; three Scandinavian cities, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Oslo; and one South African city; Cape Town. In each city, we explore the evolution in climate goals, strategies, policy and institutional designs over two decades and how these materialize in distinct approaches to urban climate governance and co-creation. Our aim is to shed light on different – and similar - paths to urban climate governance among forerunning cities with bold climate goals i.e. in terms of embracing a coherent climate policy for mitigation, adaptation, climate equity and sustainable urban futures. The study adopts a polycentric governing perspective (multilevel and multi-actor). The empirical findings from the four city case studies are based on reviews of key climate change-relevant policy documents and websites (through 2019) and a set of key informant interviews. In each of the cities, we find that urban climate governance is manifest in a mix of traditional governance mechanisms, and new, more innovative co-creational instruments through hybrid forms of governance. The study brings up some distinctive and important differences in the urban climate policies and governing approaches between the three Scandinavian cities and Cape Town, but the study also reveals many similarities in approaches across all the four cities. All the cities engage in diverse networks and co-creational arenas for shared climate responses at different levels and scales. Drawing upon the comparative experiences of urban climate governance all these forerunning cities, ‘eight essentials for effective, sustainableand fair urban climate governance and leadership’ are suggested that might bring cities onto pathways towards climate transformation

Hvordan lede lokal klimaomstilling? 10 prinsipper for samskapende klimalederskap

Plan

Social-economic and ecological constraints on increased productivity among large circle chitemene cultivators in Zambia

The Co-creation Paradox: Small Towns and the Promise and Limits of Collaborative Governance for Low-Carbon, Sustainable Futures

Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration

Co-creation is considered a ‘near perfect strategy’ for resolving complex and unruly public probl... more Co-creation is considered a ‘near perfect strategy’ for resolving complex and unruly public problems, such as climate change. Based on data collected among small Scandinavian towns, this article investigates the role of co-creation in the urban governance of climate- and sustainability responses by looking at their vertical and horizontal integration in the wider polycentric governance framework. The article has a two-fold aim. First, it develops an analytical framework for investigating how small towns and municipalities navigate in a range of governance contexts based on two strains of theories on collaborative governance and urban climate governance. Second, it applies this framework to a comparative study of small towns to analyse how co-creation plays a strategic role across types and scales of governance in relation to an evolving climate agenda. The article finds that new forms of public leadership in each of the three municipalities and towns is a main factor in the ‘remakin...

Regional bolig-, areal- og transportplanlegging – status og utviklingsmuligheter

By- og regionforskningsinstituttet NIBR, OsloMet, Oct 1, 2019

Alle fylker arbeider med en eller annen form for BATP, men ambisjonsnivået varierer. Noen fylker ... more Alle fylker arbeider med en eller annen form for BATP, men ambisjonsnivået varierer. Noen fylker har et avgrenset fokus. Andre utarbeider regionale planer med et bredt fokus, der alle elementer – bolig, transport og areal – er med, og der en i tillegg forsøker å utvikle BATP i en regional kontekst. Regionale planleggere anser BATP å være et viktig felt i forhold til annen regional planlegging. Regionale BATP synes dessuten å legge overordnede føringer for kommunale planer

Local health overview

Download for free This report is the result of a process evaluation of Vestfold County's work... more Download for free This report is the result of a process evaluation of Vestfold County's work on population health in 2014-15 with funding from the Directorate of Health. The evaluation summarizes and analyzes lessons from Vestfold County Council's ”Experience project” which is part of a national population health project supported by the Directorate of Health. The aim of this project was for Vestfold County Council, in partnership with two selected municipalities, to develop models and tools for population health overview of the local health conditions and the positive and negative determinants of health. This overview work stems from the Public Health Act’s (PHA) aim to systematize population health – and to make population health work more knowledge-based. This would lay the foundation for policy, planning and action. Specifically, the aim of the report is to identify opportunities and challenges for health overview work, with reference to the work in Vestfold. Summary in...

Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network

This publication was developed and produced by the Social Development Family of the World Bank. T... more This publication was developed and produced by the Social Development Family of the World Bank. The Environment, Rural Development, and Social Development Families are part of the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) Network. The Social Development Family is made up of World Bank staff working on social issues. Papers in the Social Development series are not formal publications of the World Bank. They are published informally and circulated to encourage discussion and comment within the development community. The findings, interpretations, judgments, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of the Board of Executive Directors or the governments they represent.

Download

Revue du Programme de I' Aide de I'Eglise Norvegienne (AEN)-Mali

English summary and recommandations 1.0 Historique du Programme AEN-Mali et contexte actuel 2.0 L... more English summary and recommandations 1.0 Historique du Programme AEN-Mali et contexte actuel 2.0 L'objectif et I'approche de la revue du Programme 3.0 L'ecosysteme instable comme une contrainte au developpement de la zone 4.0 Securite alimentaire English sum. mary and recom. mendations The AEN programme operates in a marginal area in northem Sahel under same of the most difficult and complex conditions an NGO can possibly do. This places particular demands on programme approaches and management. Overall, the programme has had remarkable and important resu. lts despite the armed conflict during 1991-1996 in northem Mali. This conflict, however, seriousely set back the programme in a crucial period. The programme is now in a difficult transitory phase. AEN-Oslo has taken the decision to withdraw from the Gourma. within year 2000. The idea is that a Malian NGO created by Malian AENstaff will take over the implementation of AEN-activities after 31. December 1999 still with funding from AEN-Oslo. In AEN's present policy of reorientation, focus has been placed on development to meet food security and social service needs, and consolidation of peace. An aim is also to contribute to the decentralisation process and democracy information/training. This reorientation means that the total budget is scaled down considerably, the number of activities are reduced, new environmental investments are not taken on, and the number of Norwegians in the programme has been reduced. At large, the team supports AEN's reorientation policy. There are constraints in implementing the new policy, however, in part due to problems related to the initial programme approach. Positive achievements The AEN programme has, generally speaking, responded to local needs, and had major positive effects on local food security and production capacities. It has had positive impacts on health and health services and instituted systems of education and functional alphabetisation. The programme has introduced technologies and facilitated a diversification in production systems and infrastructure such as wells, irrigation schemes, and physical infrastructure (schools, cereal stores etc.). The building of competent project staff is an important result of the programme, same of whom have since acquired central positions in Malian society. The programme had a stabilising effect in a difficu. lt political situation, and contributed to the peace that was finally endorsed with the seremony (burning of arms) in Timbuctoo in March 1996. Staff is competent and well regarded at all levels, although the competence in production oriented activities seems stranger than in local institution building and in dryland ecology. The organisational structure seems to match _ programme activities well, given the priori ties made. Positive environmental effects arise from more area-productive systems (e.g. improved fonio plains, rice schemes, bourgou management). Infrastructural investments are at the moment undertaken with the input of local labour and technology. The logistic support is well worked out. Weaknesses

Download

Preparation report on the Luangwa Integrated Resource Development project [LIRDP]

Summaries

Forum for Development Studies, 2003

The main aim of this article is to explore certain conditions under which a particular form of de... more The main aim of this article is to explore certain conditions under which a particular form of decentralisation defined as democratic decentralisation will positively affect poverty reduction. This is done through a review of the international literature on the subject presented in a conceptual framework for understanding such linkages. Democratic decentralisation is often perceived as a necessary precondition for poverty reduction in developing countries. But little convincing evidence has been found of such a direct connection. The process has not (yet) emerged as a pro-poor programme. Relatively successful cases across countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are compared, in order to identify preconditions for enabling more pro-poor processes. Such enabling conditions relate to central government commitment; bureaucratic capacity to reform; democratic basis of political parties; capability of local leaders and elites; and capacity of communities and civil society. The Scandinavian experiment is used as an illustration of the way in which democratic decentralisation, in a particular context of political struggles and compromise, emerged 'from below' and helped reduce poverty for the majority of the country's population. Important parallels are highlighted, between the evolutionary processes in Scandinavia and changes in social formations and political transformation in developing countries.

Forsknings for Framtidens byer. Status og utfordringer i møte med en ny global agenda

Trond Vedeld

Uploads

Papers by Trond Vedeld

Log In