3G As a Sustainability Issue in Swedish Spatial Planning
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BETWEEN DARING AND DELIBERATING BETWEEN DARING ABSTRACT The thesis shows how different aspects of sus- Environmental aspects were not handled at natio- tainable development have been handled or not nal level but assessed locally in the building permit BETWEEN DARING AND DELIBERATING handled in the third generation infrastructure handling, as well as the regional 12:6 consultations development in Sweden. The difference between at the County Administrations. This is why the 3G AS A SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE IN SWEDISH SPATIAL PLANNING the design of the 3G development - emphazising municipal permit process holds many of the keys competition, growth and regional access, based on regarding environmental management and plan- a strong technological optimism - and the imple- ning. Therefore the permit processes regarding 3G mentation, as the roll out struck the landscape, masts has been charted as they developed in time including the non-handled radiation issue and the and screened for main issues and conflicts. Public legal changes in order to facilitate the roll out, is participation can be found in the local context tied discussed and analyzed. to the legal concept of being a concerned party in the permit process, or the 12:6 consultation. The roll out formally started in late 2000 as the li- In spite of this, the much debated radiation issue cence allocation process, the so called beauty con- is lifted from the participative aspects and legally Stefan Larsson test, was finished. Four operators were to build defined as not relevant. partly competing systems within three years, each covering 8 860 000 persons, more than 99,98 The theoretical basis of the analysis combines percent of the populated areas. The Post and Tele- spatial planning and sociology of law, applying the communications Agency can sanction operators sociological concept of norms as entities control- not fulfilling licence conditions by a considerable ling action on the discussion of two different pa- fine. The coverage by the end of the period was radigms of governance derived from planning the- between 66 and 74 percent of the promised 8 860 ory. The thesis project has been a part of a study 000, with only three remaining operators still par- within the MiSt programme, an interdisciplinary ticipating. Not until 1 December 2006 did the first research programme on tools for environmental operator report the required coverage, followed assessment in strategic decision making funded by by the two remaining operators by 1 June 2007. the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The municipal permit handling was blamed for the delay, a reason that “could not have been fore- Supervisors: professor Lars Emmelin, School of seen”, which helped the operators avoid sanctions Planning, Blekinge Institute of Technology Karsten from the PTA. The thesis shows that a slow mu- Åström, professor in sociology of law, Lund Uni- nicipal permit process can not explain the lack of versity. coverage in some areas of Sweden. Stefan Larsson Blekinge Institute of Technology Licentiate Dissertation Series No. 2008:02 2008:02 MiSt Report 4 ISSN 1650-2140 School of Technoculture, Humanities and Planning 2008:02 ISBN 978-91-7295-132-7 Between Daring and Deliberating 3G as a Sustainability Issue in Swedish Spatial Planning Stefan Larsson MiSt Report 4 Blekinge Institute of Technology Licentiate Dissertation Series No 2008:02 ISSN 1650-2140 ISBN 978-91-7295-132-7 MiSt Report 4 Between Daring and Deliberating 3G as a Sustainability Issue in Swedish Spatial Planning Stefan Larsson Department of Spatial Planning School of Technoculture, Humanities and Planning Blekinge Institute of Technology SWEDEN © 2008 Stefan Larsson Department of Spatial Planning School of Technoculture, Humanities and Planning Publisher: Blekinge Institute of Technology Printed by Printfabriken, Karlskrona, Sweden 2008 ISBN 978-91-7295-132-7 Preface By the time I started Law school in Lund in 1999, the Swedish 3G development was in its planning stages. In the autumn of 2003 I took my first class in Sociology of Law, gradually finding out about the strength this discipline had when related to my law studies. The 3G coverage was intended to be reached by the end of that year. I however did not pay much attention to the 3G roll out at the time. In 2005, when I graduated both in law and sociology of law, the roll out still continued. This could be seen in media, with by people expressing their opinions on electromagnetic radiation or regarding some legal changes that were made in order to facilitate an infrastructure roll out that had been delayed. This was the year the 3G development and I first met. A year before this, sometime during 2004, I remember sitting in a black sunken down leather chair in the head of the Sociology of Law department Per Wickenberg’s office and he had just asked me if I had ever considered becoming a postgraduate student. I guess I had made some plans for the future, but much remained uncertain. I knew I did not want to practice law. I knew the court career was not for me. I had a feeling I asked too many questions, and had an interest in almost too many other things. I knew that sociology of law had given me some kind of new view on many matters. Still I had honestly never thought about becoming a postgraduate student in the sense of aiming for a PhD. This alternative had just never occurred to me, but from that day I started thinking about it. This is one of the reasons why I am grateful to Per, the one who asked the question and the one who guided me to it. I soon began to work on making this happen. I am also thankful to Professor Håkan Hydén, who was the one who triggered a genuine interest for socio-legal studies during this time of thesis writing on copyright and file sharing. In early 2005, I received a phone call from Professor Karsten Åström when standing outside the massive iron gates of the gothic cathedral in Lund a cold winter day. Karsten explained that he had a resting project regarding the 3G development in Sweden with a professor Lars Emmelin at the Blekinge Institute of Technology that could be of interest to me. Karsten knew of my interest in communication technology from the two theses I had written in sociology of law. This was the chance I had been looking for, which I understood as I stood there saying “yes, of course, yes, interesting”, breathing out smoke clouds in the chilly air. This is when and how my postgraduate studies began. At first, I was of course supposed to write a licentiate thesis in sociology of law, but after a while me and my supervisors discussed the possibilities of me writing the thesis in spatial planning at BIT instead. It changed the expectations on the thesis towards being more founded in planning theory, which meant I had a lot to learn, and it affected what classes I had to take to fulfil the degree. I took the challenge. Several people have contributed to the making of this thesis, in different ways. I am grateful to Lovisa Bjarting and Lars Nilsson, two Master students at BIT, who under supervision by Lars Emmelin collected the municipal permit process data which has been very important for the study. I am also grateful to Lilian Dahl at the department of Sociology of Law, who always seems to have time to lend a helping hand on administrative matters. I need to thank my Anna for being so supportive, and always keeping her faith in me, especially in the quite intense final period of the thesis writing. My brother Marcus has lent his most accurate eyes for proof-reading important parts of the manuscript. Of course, many of my colleagues at the department of Sociology of Law in Lund have been helpful through the years via discussions, debates and useful criticism. It is much thanks to this every day collective exchange I have moved forward towards the scientific researcher I never even thought I could become. The thesis is very much a product of the two supervisors Karsten and Lars, which have been sincerely dedicated and enthusiastic. I am very grateful for all support, all ideas, and for making me go to places like Stavanger, Seoul and Bräkne-Hoby. I am grateful for making our meetings so relaxed and always filled with anecdotes and humour in a good balance with sharp comments on the thesis and relevant scientific discussions. Thank you not the least for being such “masters of digression” and somehow almost always finding your way back to the discussed theme and making a point out of the departure from the subject. I believe that it is an open mind and creativity that can bear the most fruit in science – and life. These are qualities I have found in these two gentlemen, not the least giving the thesis, and me, such an interdisciplinary approach. Any good thing that will come from this thesis shall reflect favourably on Lars and Karsten. Stefan Larsson Lund, 28 February 2008 P ART ONE - THE CASE AND THE PROBLEM......................................... 4 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................. 4 1.1 Presentation of a problem – 3G as a sustainability issue in planning................................................... 4 1.2 Object of thesis .................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Content and delimitations .................................................................................................................... 8 1.4 Studying the 3G case – methodological