ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the division of planning responsibilities between levels of government in Sweden’s administration of marine and coastal areas. In this system, local municipalities are tasked with planning the coastal waters, while national authorities plan the territorial sea and the EEZ. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the chapter analyzes this administrative structure, and highlights how conceptions of marine and coastal areas are formed at the administrative level. The chapter also reveals how the administrative division of marine environments leads to an over-simplified planning in social-ecological systems. Through a study of the Swedish system for marine spatial planning, the chapter finally discusses challenges in marine planning in the European Union and how the complexities of social-ecological systems rarely fit into static perceptions of scale. Rather, the chapter illustrates the need of integrating management across geographical scales and levels of management.
