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In many European countries, regional planning is an established institutional framework. In recent years we have observed a resurgent research interest in regional planning with a specific focus on governance and institutional design and on the strategic and practical relevance of regional planning in pursuing sustainable development. However, in Sweden, regional planning traditionally has a weak position in practice as well as in research. Yet over the past 15 years, we have seen an increasing political interest in experimenting with different forms and formats of regional planning. In this paper, we explore the emerging logics of non-statutory regional planning, which the majority of Swedish regions have chosen. Drawing upon a qualitative research design we identify, compare and discuss three different logics and their inherent rationales, practices, challenges and prospects. Our analysis shows that our three case regions can do very little non-statutory regional planning unless they are part of properly working multi-level networks, and have well-established regional informal arenas for interaction and political backing. More specifically, we point at a number of tensions caused by the large degree of freedom to design non-statutory regional planning, which foster conflicts, confusion and insecurity.

Regional spatial planning is on the rise. In a Swedish context, regions hold little mandate in spatial planning, but an ongoing trend of planning extending to the regional level can be seen. Aside from three regions with official planning responsibilities, many regions practise spatial planning through non-statutory practices. The aim of this thesis is to explore the types of logic that three carefully selected regions apply in practising non-statutory regional spatial planning. To that end, I analyse the prevailing understanding of the spatial-political arena of municipalities, regions and national authorities, and the challenges that these various types of logic may lead to when practising non-statutory planning. The thesis responds to two research questions1) the types of logic that guide non-statutory regional planning, and 2) the challenges such logics may face. The three selected regions, the Blekinge region, the Västra Götaland region, and the Östergötland region, were studied and compared through interviews, observations and document analysis. A thematic analysis is applied onto the material, from which dominating logics were identified. Findings show that these regions, even within the same national context, operate in diverse ways, and that challenges relate to the current fuzziness of the Swedish regional planning legislation, a perceived lack of guidance from the national level, and difficulties in collaborating with municipalities.

In response to sea level rise, municipalities in Sweden are already underway in the process of constructing seawalls to protect infrastructure and communities. However, these adaptive measures are not always well received in the communities they are intended to protect. This thesis examined a case of citizen protests against a proposed seawall on the Falsterbo peninsula in Vellinge, Scania, through the concepts of place attachment and climate change perception. The aim was to understand how residents’ relation to their place and their perception of climate change may affect adaptation acceptance. Through a combination of thematic analysis of documents and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the thesis explored the relationship between place attachment, climate change perception and sea level rise adaptation. The findings showed that place attachment may function as a factor in both citizen adaptation acceptance and resistance in expressions of place disruption due to the instructive element the seawall may pose. Past experiences of physical climate change are more influential in residents’ perceptions than projections of the future.