Research subject Stockholm Urban and Regional Research Environment

Stockholm Urban and Regional research Environment (SURE) consists of researchers with a variety of interests and approaches but all are united in exploring contemporary spatial processes and change. Our research engages with debates in urban, cultural, and economic geography as well as spatial planning, governance and policy studies.

Current research within the profile includes work on: the cultural and creative sector, creativity and innovation, digital geographies, social movements and spatial justice, cultural policy, urban and regional development, gender perspectives, and emotional geographies. 

Another cluster of current research themes covers the governance and culture of regional planning, the need of expertise for future urban and regional planners, urban governance and climate transformation, planning and development of mega-projects, comparative research on planning systems and policy as well as EU cohesion policy. 

The projects in SURE includes:

• Embodied rhythms of digital geographies
• Planners as agents for the transition towards sustainable cities and regions – implications for future needs in expertise and education
• Cities confronted by protests: Democratic governance for efficient and socially just climate transformation
• Regional planning for sustainable land-use
• Regional planning cultures – institutional changes and place-based practices for a sustainable future
• Creative Industries Cultural Economy Production Network. 
• Beyond the process - Finding common ground for a discussion on planning’s substantial foundation
• Geography of Governance
• Emergent “world-class” transport infrastructures: urban visions and infrastructural spaces in African cities
• The labours of new large-scale infrastructure projects in urban Africa
• Informal livelihoods in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban Africa: prospects for recovery and recognition
• Tacking informal employment in Asia: building post-COV19 solutions to precariousness through case-study based evidence on Bhutan, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
• Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development 
• Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe 
• Urban riots: A comparative study of Stockholm and London.
• Creativity from below: Understanding the socio-political construction of 'creativity' in the European city.
• Justification for agreement-based approaches in Nordic spatial planning: towards situational direct democracy?
• Nordic Policy Styles in Urban and Regional Governance