Just and Sustainable transitions research group builds off the key experiences and competences from staff at the department engaged in research on topics that occur at the nexus between politics, economy, and space with a focus on sustainability, just transitions and societal inequalities. The group covers a broad range of topics where governance, innovation and participation is discussed in relation to energy transitions, sustainable regional and urban development, natural resource management, global production networks and alternative economies. At the core of our research is a notion that intertwined political and economic processes both constitute and are constituted by the social production of space. Our aim is to explain the spatial configuration and scales by which various political and economic processes are organized, in addition to highlighting geographical differences related to the outcomes of these processes.

Questions we ask are: 

• Why does community participation in urban planning projects, natural resource management, and energy transitions widely differ across space?
• Why are the benefits and costs of societal transitions, such as the transition to a low-carbon economy, unevenly distributed across space?
• How is the global political economy of energy shifting and what are the implications for regional development and sustainability in different places? 
• How are urban and regional development policies mobilized and translated across space, what is their impact, and why do they become a subject of contestation?

Ongoing Research Projects 

• Norske kommuners rolle i det grønne skiftet (NorSkift) - Henrik Brynthe Lund
• Making the Green Shift Work for Regions (GSW) - Asbjørn Karlsen, Danny MacKinnon, Stuart Dawley, Henrik Brynthe Lund, Alexander Dodge, Camilla Houeland, Samson Afewerki, Mari Wardeberg and Markus Steen.
• Gemini Centre for post-growth futures
• Citizens Participation in Resource Governance and Sustainable Transition - Ståle Angen Rye, Asbjørn Karlsen, Diana Raquel Vela Almeida and Hilde Nymoen Rørtveit.
• Citizen Engagement and Natural Resource Governance Education (CitRes-Edu) - Ståle Angen Rye, Asbjørn Karlsenn and Hilde Nymoen Rørtveit.
• Environmental Policy Instruments across Commodity Chains Multilevel governance for Biodiversity-Climate in Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia. - Diana Raquel Vela Almeida and Ståle Angen Rye.
• Co-producing smart sustainable cities - the role of knowledge production in fast policymaking - Hilde Refstie, Hilde Nymoen Rørtveit, Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel.
• Innovasjonsprosjekt i offentlig sektor: Datadrevet samskaping - metoder og verktøy for bærekraftig innovasjon og samfunnsutvikling - Hilde Refstie, Hilde Nymoen Rørtveit, Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel.
• Capacity building for socially just and sustainable energy transitions - Charlotte Anne Nakakaawa-Jjunju and Alexander Dodge.
• Fraying Ties? Networks, Territory, and Transformation in the UK Oil Sector - Alexander Dodge.
• FME North Wind - Asbjørn Karlsen