IT, planeringen och kommunerna

Sammanfattning: The overall aim of this thesis is to examine municipal planning and the implementation of information technology in various geographical contexts. The empirical material consists of an inquiry, covering 85 per cent of the Swedish municipalities, and of five case studies in Arvidsjaur, Arvika, Gotland, Helsingborg and Ystad.Theories of the urbanisation of capital and planning theory compose the theoretical framework. These are supplemented by Lefebvre's conceptualization of the production of space, together with a discussion of the learning process. The purpose is to reach an understanding of how IT is perceived, implemented and developed in different geographical contexts. The thesis also discusses the relationship between context, rationality and action.The analysis shows that the power over the social and economic processes catalysed by IT is geographically uneven. Mechanisms that make IT a social force for local development are identified. The scrutiny of the case studies also leads to the development of a geographicalized learning process. It is stressed that the co-ordination and synthesis of resources of all sorts, including other than the local ones, is of major importance to the learning process as regards IT. However, this coordination and synthesis of resources also requires what is conceptualized as geographical timing, i.e. the uncodified sensitivity for what is appropriate here, now and under prevailing conditions.