Stockholm university
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Lukas SmasSenior Lecturer, Docent

About me

I'm associate professor in human geography with a focus on urban and regional planning. My research and teaching interests are in the governance of planning; planning systems and processes; relations between policy, plans and places as well as the political and economic geographical conditions for planning. Current research activities include projects on regional planning cultures and urban governance for just climate transformation.

Teaching

 

 

Research

Ongoing reseach projects and related activities

Previous research and commissioned projects

Academic commissions and editorial appointments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research projects

Agreement-based Approaches in Nordic Spatial Planning

In spatial planning, new strategic planning practices have appeared in the form of contractual policies and accompanying agreement-based arrangements between state and local governments (public-public partnerships) at the city-regional level.

Research
Regional planning cultures – institutional changes and place-based practices

Questions about how regional spatial planning can contribute to reducing climate impact and how regional actors can manage land use conflicts have been neglected in Sweden, despite the fact that this is an important arena for addressing many of today's acute sustainability challenges. This research project aims to contribute to reducing this knowledge gap.

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Democratic limitations of urban climate governance: proactive and reactive citizen action in four Scandinavian cities

    2024. Håvard Haarstad (et al.). Urban geography, 1-19

    Article

    In this article we examine the limitations of democratic governanceof climate transformation in cities. Advancing the literatures onurban climate governance and climate urbanism, the article asks,how do urban governance institutions manage the variety ofdemands and pressures on the climate agenda? We investigatehow urban governance institutions in four Scandinavian cities(Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm and Gothenburg) respond to proactiveand reactive demands on their climate agenda. We find distinctdifferences between the institutional engagement with proactiveversus reactive citizen groups. Proactive groups more effectivelynavigate city bureaucracies and align their agendas with those ofthe city, while reactive groups are less connected and thereforereliant on more confrontational tactics. We argue that urbanclimate governance must find ways to be more broadly inclusiveof those who do not immediately support the agenda, or else riskfurther populist backlash and disengagement.

    Read more about Democratic limitations of urban climate governance

  • Legitimizing a world-class hospital: policy mobility and narratives in megaproject planning

    2024. Lena Fält, Lukas Smas. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, 1-17

    Article

    Megaprojects are vehicles of change and spatial products of policies from near and far. In this paper, we demonstrate how insights from the policy mobility literature can contribute to a critical analysis of the legitimization of megaprojects. Through a study of the planning of a new ‘world-class' hospital in Stockholm, we show that ideas, experiences and practices from abroad played a decisive role in legitimizing this megaproject. Policies mobilized from elsewhere were strategically used to construct, modify and (re)present a legitimizing narrative centred on the aspiration of excellence and international competitiveness. This narrative emphasized the need to transform both the spatial structure and the organization of the studied welfare institution based on political and value-based rationalities. Initial international references and ideas were adopted in an unstructured and selective manner, but proved enduring throughout the extensive planning process and were eventually consolidated into a coherent concept, effectively excluding alternative development paths. The vague notion of ‘world-class' functioned as a ‘magic concept’ that strengthened this narrative, rendering the project difficult to criticize. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the importance of considering the temporal dimension of planning processes alongside the relational geographies of policy-mobility in megaproject analyses.

    Read more about Legitimizing a world-class hospital

  • On the diversity of spatial planning instruments across Europe

    2024. Lukas Smas, Peter Schmitt. Spatial Planning Systems in Europe, 107-124

    Chapter

    Spatial planning instruments are fundamental for the operation of spatial planning systems. In the ESPON COMPASS project over 250 spatial planning instruments at different policy levels in 32 European countries were identified. In this chapter we compare and review these planning instruments that are used to mediate competition over the use of land, to allocate rights of development, to regulate change and to promote preferred spatial and urban form. The comparative analysis highlights that there are various types of spatial planning instruments at different policy levels many of which have multiple characteristics, that is, they are expected to have multiple functions in relation to spatial development and territorial governance practices. However, there is a significant consistency in how planning systems are hierarchically structured around spatial planning instruments and how these systems are based on rational ideals. Furthermore, the results indicates that there is a clear direction towards more strategic forms of spatial planning, also among statuary planning instruments. In conclusion, our survey reveals that spatial planning instruments are expected to serve as multi-purpose tools that simultaneously provide strategic frameworks and regulate spatial development whilst they have become less visionary.

    Read more about On the diversity of spatial planning instruments across Europe

  • Dissolution Rather than Consolidation - Questioning the Existence of the Comprehensive-Integrative Planning Model

    2020. Peter Schmitt, Lukas Smas. Planning practice + research

    Article

    Previous research has shown that the comprehensive-integrative planning model seems to be expedient for modernising planning systems, specifically regarding the relation between spatial planning and sectoral policies. However, contemporary, and particularly comparable studies are non-existent. Based on empirical findings from a European research project our comparative analysis explores whether spatial planning in nine countries conforms to key features of this idealised planning model. Our analysis reveals discrepancies regarding how spatial planning is positioned in relation to sectoral policies across the various countries. We argue that this planning model appears rather to be in a state of dissolution than of consolidation.

    Read more about Dissolution Rather than Consolidation - Questioning the Existence of the Comprehensive-Integrative Planning Model

  • Region + planering = regionplanering – en komplicerad ekvation

    2022. Lukas Smas, Peter Schmitt. Regioner och regional utveckling i en föränderlig tid, 43-62

    Chapter

    I detta kapitel undersöker vi regional planering som generell företeelse och den svenska regionala planeringens besynnerligheter. Med utgångspunkt i detta är syftet med kapitlet att klargöra varför regional planering är en så komplicerad ekvation i Sverige idag.

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  • Att lokalisera och formge ett megaprojekt

    2021. Lukas Smas. Megaprojekt, 181-205

    Chapter

    Varför lokaliserades megaprojektet Nya Karolinska Solna till Hagasta- den mitt i Stockholmsregionen? Förutsättningarna för att bygga ett nytt sjukhus på denna plats var minst sagt komplexa och har i stor utsträckning påverkat planeringen och utformningen av sjukhuset samtidigt som projektet bidragit till att förändra platsen och dess omgivning. Ett megaprojekt beskrivs ofta i termer av komplexitet, ekonomisk storlek och tidsomfång men i detta kapitel analyseras lokaliseringen och formgivningen av ett megaprojekt, dess rumsliga dimensioner och bevekelsegrunder. Megaprojekt är som Flyvbjerg (2014) poängterat inte bara uppförstorade mindre projekt utan ofta extraordinära projekt med samhällsförändrande potential. De utmanar rådande samhällsstrukturer snarare än anpassar sig till dem. Ett megaprojekt är således svårt att avgränsa och att lokalisera det i tid och rum är en komplex fråga.

    Detta kapitel utgår ifrån ett utredningsuppdrag om beslutsprocesserna kring planeringen av Nya Karolinska Solna, det så kallade NKS-projektet. Detta megaprojekt syftade till att uppföra ett nytt sjukhus i den nya stadsdelen som fått namnet Hagastaden på gränsen mellan Karolinska sjukhusets område och Karolinska Institutets campus i Solna och det före detta Norra Stationsområdet i Stockholm. NKS var ett megaprojekt som inte bara handlade om att bygga ett nytt sjukhuskomplex, utan även om att omorganisera sjukvården i Stockholmsregionen. Dessutom var syftet också att främja forskning och tillväxt i regionen. Megaprojektet var en viktig del i en vision om att skapa en plats i världsklass, ett kluster för livsvetenskap integrerat i en internationellt attraktiv stadsmiljö.

    Read more about Att lokalisera och formge ett megaprojekt

  • Positioning regional planning across Europe

    2020. Lukas Smas, Peter Schmitt. Regional studies

    Article

    Many scholars argue that regional planning has lost its political significance and practical relevance in recent years. Based on a comparative analysis of formal regional planning in eight European countries, this study questions and nuances this view. It is concluded that the institutional conditions for regional planning are still extensive and have been adapted to changing contexts since the year 2000, but along different pathways across the analysed countries. The investigation highlights that multiple forms of planning regions have been incorporated in the planning systems through multipurpose planning instruments that have further added to the existing dynamic and diversified regional planning landscape across Europe.

    Read more about Positioning regional planning across Europe

  • Sjukhuset, regionen och staden

    2020. Lukas Smas.

    Report

    Nya Karolinska sjukhuset i Solna (NKS) har varit ett omfattande samhällsplaneringsprojekt. Det har handlat om att bygga ett nytt sjukhus i världsklass och om att reformera sjukvården i regionen – en ny byggnad för en ny organisation. Det urbana sjukhuset har även varit en viktig komponent i stadsutvecklingsprojektet Hagastaden och i utvecklingen av ett regionalt kluster i världsklass. För att förstå ett megaprojekt som NKS är det viktigt att sätta in det i ett vidare samhälleligt sammanhang men också i den lokala och regionala kontext det är sprunget ur. Denna här rapporten redovisar resultat från en rumslig analys av detta samhällsplaneringsprojekt. I analysen har fokus varit dels på kontextens betydelse, dels på de olika typer av rumsliga föreställningar och fysiska åtgärder som har underbyggt planeringen av NKS och stadsdelen Hagastaden.

    Read more about Sjukhuset, regionen och staden

  • Shifting Political Conditions for Spatial Planning in the Nordic Countries

    2019. Peter Schmitt, Lukas Smas. Politics and Conflict in Governance and Planning, 133-150

    Chapter

    The political conditions for spatial planning in the Nordic countries are changing in multiple directions. This chapter investigates recent shifts and trajectories of change in spatial planning in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The focus is on the politics behind these recent shifts and the induced rescaling processes and modification of spatial planning instruments. The chapter provides at first a background on the so-called Nordic model, the different political-administrative structures in the Nordic countries and recent changes in regard to the political conditions for spatial planning. After that, we review the shifts in the spatial planning systems in the countries with a particular focus on the spatial planning instruments in the last 15 years. This is followed by a section in which we compare a number of further trajectories related to spatial planning. In the concluding discussion, we take up the post-political question in order to reflect upon to what extent we can identify signifiers towards either depoliticization or even repoliticization in regard to spatial planning in the Nordic countries.

    Read more about Shifting Political Conditions for Spatial Planning in the Nordic Countries

  • COMPASS – Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe

    2018. Vincent Nadin (et al.).

    Report

    The objective of the COMPASS project was to provide an authoritative comparative report on changes in territorial governance and spatial planning systems in Europe from 2000 to 2016. This Final Report presents the main findings, conclusions and policy recommendations. The COMPASS project compares territorial governance and spatial planning in 32 European countries (the 28 EU member states plus four ESPON partner countries). COMPASS differs from previous studies in that the accent is not on a snapshot comparison of national systems, but on identifying trends in reforms from 2000 to 2016. It also seeks to give reasons for these changes with particular reference to EU directives and policies, and to identify good practices for the cross-fertilisation of spatial development policies with EU Cohesion Policy. The research is based on expert knowledge with reference wherever possible to authoritative sources. Experts with in-depth experience of each national system were appointed to contribute to the study. The research design involved primarily collection of data from the 32 countries through questionnaires and five in-depth case studies of the interaction of EU Cohesion Policy and other sectoral policies with spatial planning and territorial governance.

    Read more about COMPASS – Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe

  • Organising regions

    2018. Lukas Smas, Johannes Lidmo.

    Article

    In some European countries, sub-national regions are important geographical arenas for spa- tial planning. However, in Sweden, statutory regional planning is rather limited and the regional level is often described as having a weak position in the spatial planning system. In this article, we investigate territorial governance practices in two Swedish regions, with a focus on their interaction with the EU and the national level, and with the local level, as well as how these regions function as organisations and arenas for coordination of different policy fields. The study is based on semi-structured expert inter- views and document analysis. The results show that spatial planning is practised both through statutory planning and soft planning approaches, and that these practices in different ways coordinate sectoral policies i.e. transport infrastructure and regional development. Both cases also illustrate difficulties not only of external coordination between different institutions and policy fields but also internally within or- ganisations. It is also highlighted that spatial planning at the regional level focuses on coordinating actors and policy fields but that spatial planning is also an instrument to implement regional policies. In con- clusion, it is argued that the organisation and territorial governance practices within a given institutional arrangement and the perception of spatial planning are crucial in determining how regions might function as multi-level coordination actors and policy arenas within spatial planning.

    Read more about Organising regions

  • Integrating environmental sustainability into strategic spatial planning

    2018. Sara Gustafsson, Brita Hermelin, Lukas Smas. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

    Article

    Strategic spatial planning has been suggested as a means for environmental sustainability. However, there are significant challenges with operationalising and integrating policy-driven strategic spatial planning within the standardised and process-oriented management systems of local authorities. This aspect has motivated discussions on how implementation of strategic spatial planning with a focus on environmental sustainability is conditioned by management systems. The empirical case is local planning and management practices in a local authority in Sweden. Interviews with planners, together with planning and policy documents, make up the empirical material. The analysis proposes that the integration of environmental perspectives into strategic spatial planning processes depends on (i) the overall concerns for environmental issues in local policy, and (ii) how administrative management systems can facilitate transformative practice in planning. In conclusion, this article illustrates how environmental sustainability in strategic spatial planning is formed and conditioned through interplay between local policy and administrative management procedures.

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  • Re-thinking and reviewing European spatial planning systems through spatial planning instruments

    2018. Lukas Smas, Peter Schmitt.

    Conference

    Plans and other planning instruments that are used to mediate and regulate spatial development are fundamental for the operation of spatial planning systems, and for defining them, as well as pursing spatial planning objectives. This paper is based on an extensive comparative study of spatial planning systems in Europe (ESPON COMPASS), which included a review of spatial planning instruments that are used to mediate competition over the use of land, to allocate rights of development, to regulate change and to promote preferred spatial and urban form. Over 250 spatial planning instruments in 32 different European countries were identified by national experts. The results show a diverse pattern with strong differences in regard to the instruments' characteristics (e.g. visionary, strategic, framework or regulative) at different policy levels (national, regional and local) even between countries that have been grouped together within similar types or traditions in earlier studies. Furthermore, many individual planning instruments are often expected to combine several functions, e.g. they are expected to simultaneously be, in different combinations; visionary and agenda setting, providing strategic and long-term coordination, establishing policy frameworks for other plans and decisions, and/or be regulatory including legally binding land use commitments. Many planning instruments might thus be understood as 'multi-purpose tools'. Based on this review and analysis we offer empirically derived typologies and conceptualizations of spatial planning instruments that provide a different image of spatial planning systems across Europe compared to earlier studies, and as such gives insights in what directions spatial planning in Europe is moving.

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  • What is the role of spatial planning in relation to other policy areas?

    2018. Peter Schmitt, Lukas Smas. AESOP 2018

    Conference

    Spatial planning is often expected to coordinate other policy areas or sector policies, in particular those that have strong spatial impacts. Ideally this process of coordination shall lead to policy integration or to other forms of consensual agreements such as policy packages. Inevitably the question arises to what extent spatial planning can be considered as an autonomous policy area with specific instruments (e.g. statutory frameworks that are of visionary, strategic or regulative character) and power resources. We address this question by discussing and comparing the role of spatial planning across 32 European countries in relation to 14 other policy areas based on findings from the ESPON COMPASS study. First, the degree of integration of spatial planning is investigated within other policy areas at three different policy levels (national, sub-national and local). Secondly, the extent to which these 14 policy areas are influential in current debates on spatial planning will be compared with the year 2000. The analysis reveals a number of recurrent patterns and types of spatial planning as well as directions of change. In the end we argue that spatial planning plays a significant and for the most part even increasing role in relation to other policy areas in most of the studied countries in Europe, but at the same time we can construe a growing degree of diversification between countries, policy levels and policy areas.

    Read more about What is the role of spatial planning in relation to other policy areas?

  • Urban Planning through Exhibition and Experimentation in Stockholm

    2016. Peter Schmitt (et al.). Smart me up! How to become and how to stay a Smart City, and does this improve quality of life?, 1003-1007

    Conference

    In this paper we discuss findings of our case study on the making and implementation of the exhibition 'Experiment Stockholm' in 2015, which, based on artistic exhibits as well as a number of forums, aimed at generating creative narratives for the sustainable urban future in the Swedish capital city-region. Our analytical framework is informed by the emerging notion of 'urban living labs' across Europe as well as 'communicative' and 'actor-relational' planning theory', which is discussed in another paper within the poceedings of this conference (cf. Schmitt et al. 2016). We argue that the exhibition 'Experiment Stockholm' and the activities around it can be characterised as a soft mode of urban governance that can help to unlock creativity and to open up avenues for experimentation and alternative solutions in urban planning. However, caution must be taken to not overvalue such approaches, as our example implies a rather exclusive expert forum instead of a a mode of governance that might be associated with openness and wider engagement. In addition, our example illustrates the significance of suitable and unconventional methods, which otherwise considerably limits the innovative capacity of the participating stakeholders and their search for alternative solutions.

    Read more about Urban Planning through Exhibition and Experimentation in Stockholm

  • Brave new ‘mega-regional worlds’? Critical reflections from a North European perspective

    2015. Lukas Smas, Peter Schmitt. Megaregions, 146-174

    Chapter

    How can the established concept of ‘Norden’ – which covers the Northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – be understood in a brave new world of megaregions? The significance of Norden, which literary means ‘the North’, is often acknowledged to be a ‘stabilised’ transnational (mega) region (Gustafsson, 2006). This is due, in part, to the Nordic countries sharing a number of cultural and historical commonalities, somewhat similar political trajectories through the 20th century and a well-known welfare state tradition. Yet, on closer inspection, we have seen in recent years various diverging development paths in territorial policy and politics in general, and urban and regional planning in particular. Furthermore, when adopting a relational perspective, we can detect how a number of Nordic city-regions are being formed and transformed – through transnational (business) networks and various related state spatial strategies – with the aim being to strategically place them as nodes within the global space of flows. What this amounts to is a more fluid geographical image of Norden. Against this backdrop the concept of Norden is an interesting example of how (mega) regions are being constructed through particular sets of relations, processes and mechanisms, while at the same time being challenged and deconstructed by other sets of relations, processes and mechanisms. In this chapter, we seek to problematize these happenings, providing critical reflections from a North European perspective. The research presented derives from a range of studies and observations produced by Nordregio – The Nordic Centre for Spatial Development.

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  • Knowledge Dynamics in the Stockholm Region

    2010. Brita Hermelin, Lukas Smas.

    Report

    This report discusses aspects of the transformation of the economy in the wake of thedevelopment of information and communication technology (ICT) using a case study ofStockholm. This study is conducted as a part of a Nordic research project titled ‘RegionalTrajectories to the Knowledge Economy—Nordic-European Comparisons’ (REKENE).REKENE involves seven regional teams from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, witheach team made up of both researchers and practitioners.The objective of REKENE and the Stockholm case study is to identify activities and processesthat generate knowledge development and innovations. REKENE involves a conceptualframework, which particularly stresses the concepts of knowledge dynamics, of different typesof knowledge, gender aspects, multilocal networks and the processes of anchoring resources tothe region.The different regional teams in REKENE study different industrial sectors. For Stockholm, ourpoint of departure is knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) with a particular focus oncomputer services/ICT expertise and medical technicians and technologists (medtech).The report describes the development of knowledge from the point of departure from a smallfirm engaged in medtech. This description illustrates how interactions between sectors andknowledge domains are distinctive for KIBS, wherein firms work closely with their clients andusually adopt the roles of co-creators and co-producers. Important developments are thengenerated through composite knowledge whereby policies may facilitate the integration of arange of competencies, skills and experiences in networks. Indeed, it is difficult to discern anyouter boundary delimiting the skills that are most relevant for the development of ICTapplications. Although the establishment of strong relationships among local actors in theStockholm region is an important resource for knowledge dynamics to be effective, widerinternational connections are needed for sustainable development.

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  • Transaction Spaces

    2008. Lukas Smas (et al.).

    Thesis (Doc)

    Consumption forms and is formed by the city. How, when and where commodities are transacted is essential in this urban drama of mutual relationships. This thesis explores how consumption and everyday life in cities are interrelated. The specific objective is to analyse how commodity transaction situations are configured and constrained in time and space, and, how consumer service spaces are formed in and are part of city formation. Transactions are conceptualised as economically and socially situated material projects constituted by consumers, commodities and producers. Commodities and values are transferred and created through transaction spaces. The theoretical perspective is framed around consumption and production of spaces, and particularly informed by Hägerstrand’s time-geographical thinking and Lefebvre’s work on urban space. Methodologically different examples of consumption projects and spaces are used to discuss configurations and formations for commodity transactions.

    The thesis stresses material and time-spatial constraints for commodity transaction and it discusses the blurring of boundaries between what conventionally has been separate social and economic activities and places. Changing transaction configurations and the formation of consumer service spaces in the city are explored through analysis of different consumption places and commodities such as books, coffee and clothes and property development projects in Stockholm city centre. Transaction configurations display geographical and historical continuities and changes as well as time-spatial flexibility and spatial fixity. Transactions spaces are continuously formed and reformed through processes embedded in the global cultural economy, urban development and politics, as well as through people’s everyday life. Producers’ strategic production and consumers’ tactical appropriation of transactions spaces are accentuated as crucial in the spatial practice of transactions, places and city formation.

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  • Konsumtion, det urbana livet och stadens morfologi

    2005. Lukas Smas.

    Thesis (Lic)

    Urban consumption is both created and recreated by everyday urban life and the morphological structure of the city. Consumption is here conceived of as a drama, where a distinction can be made between consumption as a societal phenomenon and consumption as an everyday life project, which unfolds upon the city stage. The thesis analyses this mutually interdependent relationship by focusing on transactions of commodity goods and services in time and space. This is conducted through a theoretical analysis of the relationships between consumers, products and producers, in which the role of material and immaterial restrictions and institutions are emphasised. Hägerstrand’s time-geography and Lefebvre’s theory of socio-spatial dialectics are in the thesis used for the development of a time-space perspective in which moments of transactions are abstracted from transaction situations. The relationships of transactions are illustrated within their time-space context with concrete examples from Stockholm City.

    Read more about Konsumtion, det urbana livet och stadens morfologi

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