Landscape Governance and Management

Management covers strategic, inclusive and long-term approaches for continuous re-planning, re-design, re-construction and maintenance of open space, including organizational perspectives such as leadership and strategic development of landscapes. Governance covers both (i) the many ways public and private actors cooperate to govern public spaces with a special emphasis on inclusion and awareness of power relations, and (ii) how (public) organizations are structured and organized in their work – related to management of urban open spaces.

LGM has a strong inter-, and multidisciplinary research basis, with numerous larger projects financed by the EU, Nordic Council of Ministers, and Swedish funding agencies such as Formas and Vinnova. We also attract funding from academies, national boards, SLU and LTV, and use smaller grants strategically e.g., for short term-employments, and outreach activities such as the annual event ‘Utemiljödagen’. We often attract significant funding via cooperation with other Theme Groups, Departments or Universities as well as collaborators outside academia, nationally and internationally.

The LGM subject area contributes to a large number of courses on all landscape related programs across the LTV faculty. This includes a bi-annual PhD course on Landscape Governance and Management. The teaching has expanded much during later years on bachelor level, while the contributions on master level can be increased further. Educational activities emphasize landscape management from strategic, organizational and operational perspectives, and covers governance of relevance for all the department’s subject areas. Emphasis is on research-based teaching at all educational cycles, and across all teaching activities where research projects, cases, and learnings are used to exemplify, relationalize and conceptualize landscape governance and management. LGM also contributes to the development of educational literature such as compendiums and textbooks.

Much of the focus of LGM is related to landscape management practice and practitioners’ needs. This plays a central role both in education and research, which we often develop and conduct in close collaboration with practitioners and local governments in Sweden and abroad. Our research approaches and methodologies are related to the social sciences but not strictly limited to these. We prioritize using real-world situations in both research and education by the use of physical testbeds, living laboratories, and policy laboratories. Using such living labs as an outset, we perform real life studies in order to further understand and potentially develop landscapes and the related social-ecological interaction at several levels. Thus, we usually frame our studies in relation to a specific geographical scale, being it local (school grounds or local parks), neighborhood, city, national or global. Our methodological approaches include for example document analysis, stakeholder analysis, organizational and governance analysis and interviews, often in a comparative mode.

Within the LGM subject area all individuals should feel part of the group, being able to find synergies inwards and (re)present us outwards. In line with SLU policies, an important purpose of being part of the LGM subject area is thus to support each other and stimulate joint resilience in our activities. The basis for doing that is to develop and promote a common language, terminology, and understanding for the theme and its approaches in education and research. This is supported by common activities such as authoring the Routledge book on Urban Open Space Governance and Management, the educational compendium Forested Landscapes: Analysis & Governance, Utemiljödagen, the Governance Talks, and the International Symposium on Managing Public Space.

We use our Mission and Vision actively and are discussing and updating both when needed. Group discussions are aimed at creating a safe space for critical thinking, to secure the Theme Group constitutes a strong social network for all members. Thus, we prioritize personal academic interests and experience in the theme, not only to represent it but also to contribute to the further development of the subject area and the group.