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Since the mid-1990s, the Vatican contests the concept of gender as forged by feminists to study social arrangements through which the sexual order is naturalised. This contestation came with the distortion of the analyses and claims formulated by feminists and LGBTQ scholars and social movements. This article understands the Vatican's invention of 'gender ideology' as a new rhetorical device produced both to delegitimise feminist and LGBTQ studies and struggles and to reaffirm that sexual norms transcend historical and political arrangements. It also investigates how the transnationality of this discursive construct relates to the specific features it has taken in two different national contextsFrance and Italy. The article is structured as follows: it first highlights the logic and structure of the anti-gender discourse. Then, it analyses how the same argumentative device is performed in anti-gender demonstrations. Finally, it scrutinises the rhetorical and performative strategies through which anti-gender actors have formulated their views and argues that 'gender ideology' can be understood as a political reaction against the entry of minorities into the fields of politics and theory.

a b s t r a c tMunicipalities play an important role in the development of sustainable societies, particularly by way of public procurement. Within this area, municipal governments can significantly impact the environment by placing environment-conscious demands on the products and services purchased. At the same time, municipalities are largely responsible when it comes to decreasing the fastest growing source of CO 2 emissions in urban areas: road transport. Yet, while much has been done to curb the environmental impact of passenger transport, freight transport seems to have been nearly forgotten. Some Swedish municipalities have set a good example by coordinating the distribution of goods to their facilities and by separating the purchases of goods from those of distribution services. Although municipalities claim that cooperation and knowledge dissemination are central to developing sustainability management, it remains unclear how such should be applied to coordinated urban freight distribution. This paper thus aims to describe and analyse activities in Swedish municipalities' developmental processes of promoting the coordinated freight distribution of goods, in order to identify which activities of knowledge dissemination and collaboration should be prioritised. Empirical data were gathered from interviews, the Internet, and brochures for initiatives taken by Swedish municipalities. Results indicate that the initiatives demonstrate several similarities and differences, as well as provide examples of how knowledge can be integrated into municipal organisation. Above all, results indicate a need for increased collaboration among actors to make freight transport in Swedish cities more efficient, as well as that increased knowledge transfer can help municipalities to overcome several of their weaknesses.

Swedish municipalities have traditionally had significant powers and played a major role in implementing national energy strategies. This paper describes the factors influencing development of municipal climate and energy plans in five Swedish municipalities and assesses the relevance and importance of these factors from theoretical and practical perspectives. The questions raised in the paper are: what are the characteristics of municipal climate and energy planning processes in the five Swedish municipalities, how do municipalities include stakeholders in the process, and in what ways do stakeholders influence outcomes? Results suggest that a number of key factors influence the development of municipal climate and energy strategies and their content. These include the importance of a clear, shared vision and engaged politicians; the size and organisational structure of the municipality and its willingness and capability to act; the organisation of the process and extent to which stakeholders have been involved and feel included; the need for clarity about financial aspects, such as planned financing of implementation; the need for greater clarity concerning selection of targets and their relevance to global climate and energy trends. By illustrating the characteristics of the municipal climate and energy planning processes in five Swedish municipalities, the study makes a contribution to the research on local governments and sustainable development in general, and specifically to the growing literature on municipal climate and energy planning. The study and its results may be used to inform policy-makers on the national and local levels about the factors influencing municipal energy planning and the importance of involving stakeholders and citizens in the strategic work to reduce climate impacts and energy consumption.

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The transition to a sustainable society requires the development of visions paving the way for socio-technical changes. In recent years, the literature on sustainable transitions and urban planning has highlighted the intermediation role of municipalities to implement international and national goals and visions at a local level. Yet, empirical research studying municipalities from the lens of the intermediation theory are sparse. This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of what strategies municipalities use when intermediating between and within different scales of governance (i.e. local, national and international), and what factors influence the choice of strategies. Through semi-structured interviews and document studies, three Swedish municipalities are studied. Results show that these municipalities translate the visions through local experiments, task delegation and coalitions. Additionally, the analysis indicates that the local circumstances, rather than the relations between the local level and the higher levels of governance or the guidance of national policies, influence the choice of intermediation strategy. Particularly, whether the management approach is centralized or decentralized, result-or process-oriented, participative or exclusive, is determinant. Results also indicate that municipalities perform both top-down and bottom-up intermediation, i.e. closing the loop from the local to the national and/or international levels. ARTICLE HISTORY

The UN emphasises the importance of collaboration and integrated approaches to effectively implement the SDGs. Much of the action will have to take place locally where municipalities will play an important role in coordinating the efforts towards SDG fulfilment. They are constant local actors close to citizens and they can also influence other actors through their strategies. This paper reflects on how the SDGs can be integrated into existing strategies in order to avoid parallel non-effective processes and to avoid the risk of the SDGs to become marginalised. Furthermore, the paper discusses roles and preconditions of municipalities in the SDG implementation process. This study focuses the implementation of the SDGs into a regional municipality's strategic planning and management, Region Östergötland, Sweden. The challenges and opportunities connected to implementing the SDGs will be problematized, and the paper gives recommendations on how this type of organisations can implement the SDGs taking advantage from qualities in already existing management and working procedures.

Strategic spatial planning has been suggested as a means for environmental sustainability. However, there are significant challenges with operationalising and integrating policy-driven strategic spatial planning within the standardised and process-oriented management systems of local authorities. This aspect has motivated discussions on how implementation of strategic spatial planning with a focus on environmental sustainability is conditioned by management systems. The empirical case is local planning and management practices in a local authority in Sweden. Interviews with planners, together with planning and policy documents, make up the empirical material. The analysis proposes that the integration of environmental perspectives into strategic spatial planning processes depends on (i) the overall concerns for environmental issues in local policy, and (ii) how administrative management systems can facilitate transformative practice in planning. In conclusion, this article illustrates how environmental sustainability in strategic spatial planning is formed and conditioned through interplay between local policy and administrative management procedures.