Ekonomisk tillväxtmotor : Mälardalsrådets konstruktion av regional utveckling

Sammanfattning: As current capital accumulates in more flexible ways and is more often than before distinguished from national states, the options and possibilities for governments to control these financial flows change. Establishing regions and regional cooperation are seen as ways for governments to ensure continued economic growth. At these regional levels significant discussions on the development of society in general, and on the idea of sustainable development in particular, take place. However, there are also academic concepts arguing that current economic growth is in fact unsustainable. These concepts suggest an expansion of the current economic order.In this licentiate thesis the reader will meet Mälardalsrådet, the Council of the Mälar Region, a non-profit association for regional cooperation in the region of Mälardalen. In this study the activity of the Council of the Mälar Region will be understood as communication including ideas, statements, views and arguments.Based on a critical social science point of view this study has been inspired by discourse analysis, where language is seen as a major force. The purpose of this study is to highlight how the Council of the Mälar Region communicate development ideas in areas of economy, environment and sustainable development. This is done by identifying and analysing the Council’s communication on regional development.Behind the vision of growth communicated by the Council of the Mälar Region there is a deeper dimension of uncertainty for the changed social and economical conditions, but maybe the insecurity ends right there. While we should not forget that sustainability has been included in the discussion of growth, the ecological dimension of sustainability has become increasingly anonymous and a part of the national and international dominating consensus of growth and the environment.