The Municipal and the Territory; The Municipal Eologist Perspective on Environmental Issues in Land Use Planning

Abstract

My PhD-studies is a part of a multidisciplinary research project, «The Municipal and the Territory», on the need to redefine planning to cope with the challenge of sustainability (Asplund & Orrskog 1996). The project is administrated by a core group of researchers at the Department of Infrastructure and Planning at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Researchers from other disciplines and institutions are associated for complementary studies through the project. The focus of the project is on strategic land-use planning at the municipal level. The municipal competence will be empirically investigated and discussed. The competence concept in the project is interpreted in two ways: "professional competence" and "political competence". By professional competence we mean the competence developed within the administration of the municipality. Such competence is made up of knowledge and professional skills, steering instruments, organisation, decision-making processes, ways of co-operation among officials and between officials and politicians, etc. Political competence refers to the competence to involve the inhabitants as well as local economic actors in the transformation of the society towards sustainability.