The paper reports on a study of community gardening in Stockholm. We contribute to the body of knowledge about the sustainability of community gardens and this new form of citizen-led initiatives in Stockholm, with the ambition of creating a debate about the best way to sustain and develop these initiatives in Sweden. We argue that although community gardening may provide leverage for means of developing a sustainable city, it is a marginal phenomenon and contributes little to sustainable development its present form. Through interviews we have investigated how the citizens and municipality officers of Stockholm try to adapt to the renewed interest in community gardening by looking at the policy makers', municipality officers' and grassroots movements' incentives to start community gardens. We specifically focus on how the community gardeners articulate their reasons for participating in collaborative initiatives in the city and how these expectations evolve when they are faced with the reality of gardening and the problems relating to producing food in the city. We have found that there are a growing number of citizens and local authorities advocating community gardening, but the sustainability and endurance of gardens are hampered by vague responsibilities, lack of leadership and unclear expectations of the outcome. Community gardening cases in Stockholm contribute to the debate by exemplifying how formal (e.g. policy making) and informal advocacy (e.g. civic engagement in community gardening) groups are collaborating, but also showing that they often have different agendas and initial motivations for setting up new gardens. We argue that uncritical enthusiasm results in an overly instrumental approach to governance of community gardening and that the sustainability and endurance of the community gardening is not an issue that the governing bodies plan for, and hence it is forgotten. We suggest some routes forward, involving employing facilitators from various stakeholders such as the municipality, housing companies and various NGOs.

This article highlights the motivational factors behind consumers' and tourists' decisions to buy local artisan cheese in Jämtland (Sweden). Empirically, the case itself diverts from the typical Franco-Mediterranean case in which both the actions of producers and consumers are embedded in historical, long-term culinary traditions and territorial features, nor is it the typical farmers' market or another market-driven direct produce system. The main purpose is to shed light on the motivational factors behind the purchasing decision of consumers and tourists by studying the attributes that consumers embody in the products. The article is based on two consumer surveys/short interviews, the first conducted in June 2012 and the second in February 2017. The results were tested against/related to the wider local food discussion conceptualized through four types of attributes. Namely, intrinsic and extrinsic attributes; post-modernity and environmental attributes; geographical and territorial attributes; and local and rural development attributes. The results in this article clearly show that consumers value a combination of different attributes from both market-driven direct produce systems and close typicity systems. Therefore, the construction of proximity from the point of view of the consumer can be derived from a complex set of attributes and motivational factors not normally highlighted in the localized food discussion.

Although once popular prior to the last century, the aquaculture of crucian carp Carassius carassius (L. 1758) in Sweden gradually fell from favour. This is the first genetic comparison of crucian carp from historic man-made ponds in the Scandinavian Peninsula. The aim was to identify old populations without admixture and to compare the relationship of pond populations from different provinces in Sweden. In total, nine microsatellite loci from 234 individuals from 20 locations in varied parts of Sweden were analysed. The genetic distances of crucian carp populations indicated that the populations in the southernmost province of Sweden, Scania, shared a common history. A pond population in the province Småland also showed a common inheritance with this group. In the province Uppland, further north in Sweden, the population genetic distances suggested a much more complex history of crucian carp distributions in the ponds. The data showed that there are some ponds with potentially old populations without admixture, but also that several ponds might have been stocked with fish from many sources.

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The re-emergence and modernization of traditional goat-cheese production in Jämtland led to the articulation of a localized agri-food system that represents the frontline of the return and reinforcement of local food in Sweden. Already in the 1970s, some initiatives were undertaken to formalize the productive activities of this branch and to improve the product quality. The most important project was the articulation of a cooperative that, unlike all other Swedish cooperatives, engaged its members in the development of a joint trademark, development of a standardized assortment, common marketing efforts and finding creative solutions for infrastructure problems. Despite the overall success, we also found some downsides. Producing goat cheese requires that at least two people are involved, because the workload often leads to body injuries and illness for people working alone. By studying the institutional frameworks, rules and regulations, the economic function and entrepreneurial dynamics, and the dynamics of knowledge and competences, the article highlights how and why farm dairies in Jämtland became reinforced and modernized. This grasps both the actions of individual economic agents and their interaction with their environment. A special emphasis was put on the role of regional authorities in this process. Even though many obstacles have been removed and the trade has found successful ways to solve strategic issues concerning product development and marketing, there are still important structural shortcomings that might decrease the profitability and endanger the future development of the trade. There is a lack of experience and infrastructure to solve more complex problems like animal health and the potential risks related to the consumption of unpasteurized cheese and the increasing incidence of Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE).