Resource Use Conflicts and Urban–Rural Resource Use Dynamics in Swedish Coastal Landscapes: Comparison and Synthesis

ABSTRACT

In European countries, the coasts are areas with high population density, intensive use of marine and terrestrial resources, and rapid urbanization. Coastal development creates conflicts and further ones are expected through climate change and sea level rise. In this article, the aim is knowledge synthesis for conflict research to support strategies for sustainable coastal zone management. For that purpose an interdisciplinary conceptual framework is elaborated and applied in exemplary conflict analyses. The framework combines knowledge from different fields of environmental and conflict research. In an analysis of 26 local, non-violent resource use conflicts in the Swedish metropolitan coastal areas of Gothenburg and Malmö, the themes of coastal landscape changes, resource management, and conflict analysis are connected in a governance perspective. The data were collected through qualitative, semi-structured interviews and discussions with local stakeholders and experts, document analysis and analysis of articles from local newspapers. The conflict analysis showed the multi-faceted and complex nature of the conflicts. Solutions require interdisciplinary research and knowledge synthesis. Our conclusions relate to the requirements of further development of knowledge integration and approaches to multi-scale environmental governance.

KEY WORDS:

• Coastal conflicts
• environmental governance
• sustainable development
• coastal landscapes
• interdisciplinary conflict analysis