Structuring Sustainability Issues: the Case of the Swedish Sugar System

In English This paper suggests an approach to conceptualize problems of unsustainability situations by
embedding the Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) scheme within a system of
jurisdictional levels represented by Torsten Hägerstrand’s system of nested domains. Taken
together these frameworks offer one way to decipher complex situations at different levels by
identifying specific problem areas, their associated driving forces, actors, discover where
problem-solving attempts are occurring, and where applicable, spot where contradictions
and/or disconnects may lie (e.g. conflicting policy goals, policy gaps, technological
deficiencies). To illustrate the scheme the case of the multiple problems associated with the
sugar production system in Sweden is used. The result is a representation of the important
driving forces at a number of levels and better insights as to where contradictions, scalar
disconnects within the system lie.