A key perspective in this thematic priority area is how transnational economic relations, cultural interaction, and interdependence between places and people in different parts of the world influence politics and political participation, cooperation, and sustainable development. Special attention is given to social development in the Global South. A geographical perspective is used to provide new knowledge that will contribute to the development and implementation of institutional practices and measures to ensure that groups of people, which for various reasons do not participate in conventional planning processes, are included in decision-making processes. A major theme is how citizenship is emerging as an arena and resource for social and political strategies. The research in this thematic area will contribute to ways of facing the challenges of cultural diversity, social exclusion and democratic deficit.

Key research themes:

• Migration and cultural encounters
• International capital, trade and investment
• New preconditions for citizenship
• Collaboration and participation in planning and management processes

Projects:

• CitRes-Edu - Ståle Angen Rye
• Sustainable entrepreneurship and skill integrated education - Ragnhild Lund
• Geographies of community: unpacking the politics of the local - Gunhild Setten
• Co-producing sustainable and smart cities - Hilde Refstie, Hilde Nymoen Rørtveit
• AidAccount - Hilde Refstie

Recent publications:

• Nanang Indra Kurniawan, Päivi Lujala, Ståle Angen Rye, Diana Vela-Almeida: The role of local participation in the governance of natural resource extraction. Journals and books, Science Direct, 2021.
• Halvorsen, Thomas; Rød, Jan Ketil; Eide, Arne H.; Munthali, Alister: Using Prospective Methods to Identify Fieldwork Locations Favourable to Understanding to Understanding Divergences in Health Care Accessibility. International Journal of Geo-information, 2021.
• Halvorsen, Thomas; Rød, Jan Ketil; Munthali, Alister; Braathen, Stine Hellum; Eide, Arne Henning: Using locational data in a novel mixed-methods sequence design: Identifying critical health care barriers for people with disabilities in Malawi. In Social Science & Medicine, 2021.
• Lund, Ragnhild; Kyoko Kusakabe; Nitya Ro; Nireka Weeratunge (eds.) 1921. Fisherfolk in Cambodia, India and Sri Lanka. Migration, gender and well-being. 
  Routledge: London and New York. 
• Azmi, Fazeeha; Lund, Ragnhild; Rao, Nitya; Manimohan, R.: Well-being and mobility of female-heads of households in a fishing village in South India. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 2020.
• Moreano, Melissa; Vela Almeida, Diana Raquel: El lugar de la ecología política dentro de la geografía latinoamericana: el caso de CLAG. Journal of Latin American Geography 2020 ;Volum 19.(1) s. 74-83.
• Nielsen, Sigurd Solhaug; Setten, Gunhild; Klein, Jørgen: Producing global awareness? An analysis of Norwegian pupils' negotiations of images in a museum exhibition. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 2020 ;Volum 74.(2) s. 75-87.