Sustainability City Governance and Matter of Epistemological Shifts. The Case of Stockholm's Hammarby Sjöstad District

This study introduces the idea of understanding city management and sustainability development as
an epistemological and practical form of governance. The thesis introduces integral aspects to the
urgent need to rethink how sustainability governance is perceived in relation to Gaia (natural
environment) and how it can open the possibility to introduce a discussion of critical epistemological
shifts that have been taking shape in engaging in sustainability issues. The research draws on rich
empirical material to carry out a well-grounded and conceptually consistent analysis of the emerging
aspects of sustainability governance, taking on concepts and ideas developed in "An Inquiry into the
Modes of Existence" (AIME) project. The aim is to observe and explore sustainability city
governance and its critical issues in practice to track the potential epistemological shifts that are in
play throughout the case study in Hammarby Sjöstad district in Stockholm (Sweden). The thesis
presents a qualitative case study with in-depth semi-structured interviews and extensive textual and
visual content material. The emphasis is placed on observing the selected case through the
interpretation of concepts from the AIME project (Latour, 2013a) to adopt a conceptual framework
that allows to map these “MoE” concepts and evaluate the epistemological shifts within the presented
case study.
The thesis has enabled a valuable contribution to knowledge and to the AIME project (Latour, 2013a),
developing and theorising with the concepts, aspects, and ideas that emerged from the Modes of
Existence approach. The research outcome gives detailed insights into possible forms of
transformative sustainability and the drawing on relevant aspects of Latour's engagement with Gaia,
the emerging possibility of an epistemological critique of the moderns and adopting the Modes of
Existence as a conceptual approach to the design and implementation of research development in the
social sciences field to interpret and analyse empirical findings.