Ny väg till nya vägar och järnvägar : Finanseringspragmatism och planeringsrationalism vid beslut om infrastrukturinvesteringar

Investment planning is a decision-making process with specific characteristics. It is often seen as a rational quest for solutions that are in the public interest, and the dominant discourse tends to be technical and economic. Public documents reproduce this picture of a decision-making process based on rationalist premises where analytical methods and objective facts form the basis for decisions. Behind this purely rationalist façade, however, planning is also a highly political process where various actors try to impose their will on others. This aspect of the planning process is characterised by a less rationalist and more pragmatic way of thinking. The overall aim of the dissertation is to explore the tension between rationalism and pragmatism in decision-making and to investigate the manifestations of these aspects in the instruments that govern planning processes. Special emphasis is placed on decision-making processes involving multiple tiers of government. The research presented in the dissertation has been carried out as a case study of the planning of road and railway investments in Sweden. One part of the empirical analysis focuses on the historical-institutional development of investment planning from its introduction in the 1950s to the present day, with a special focus on the planning instruments involved. A second part of the analysis focuses on the decision-making process that resulted in a major investment plan presented in March 2010, with special emphasis on local and regional co-financing as a new and highly pragmatic instrument used in the process. The dissertation shows that a shift towards more pragmatic views has taken place during the last couple of decades. New financial arrangements are an indication of such a dynamic change.

Grantor dc:publisher

Lund University

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Hultén, John

• Political Science
• pragmatism
• rationalism
• railway investments
• road investments
• transport infrastructure
• co-financing
• alternative financing
• investment planning
• planning
• Decision-making process

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

swe

Identifier

urn:isbn:978-91-88306-83-8
urn:isbn:91-88306-83-6

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:lup.lub.lu.se:83110fbe-3feb-485a-a536-65965b966981