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Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 43, No. 3, 299-324 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1078087407304689

Whose Responsibility? Swedish Local Decision Makers and the Scale of Climate Change Abatement

Lennart J. Lundqvist

Göteborg University, Sweden, lennart.lundqvist{at}pol.gu.se

Chris von Borgstede

Göteborg University, Sweden

This article uses a framework combining the discourse of scalar politics with a social dilemma perspective. The aim is to find answers to why political interests advocate a specific scalar arrangement. Analyzing informant interviews with top politicians and administrators in four municipal governments in the Gothenburg region of southwestern Sweden, we find that although all recognize the social dilemma, the size and capacity of their local government lead to different scalar arguments about responsibility for climate change. Regardless of municipal size and capacity, however, actors' recommendations finally converge in a pattern of path dependence. Already well-entrenched structures of intermunicipal urban cooperation are seen as the scalarly most appropriate vehicle for addressing the social dilemma and for allocating responsibility for climate-related regional action. This opens up for comparative urban research on how new and existing transboundary urban structures handle climate issues in terms of legitimacy and efficiency.

Key Words: climate change • social dilemma • scalar politics • response capacity • response space • space of dependence • space of engagement • responsibility • path dependence


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