Jakob Grandin
Position
Associate Professor, convener UiB Collaboratory
Affiliation
Research groups
Research
I am PhD researcher at SpaceLab, Department of Geography and the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation and convener of the UiB Collaboratory. I have two main interests: to bring the social sciences into the conversation about sustainability and transformation, and to promote innovation in higher education to faciliate active learning and collaboration.
My research explores how cities work together to pursue ambitious, deep and rapid climate transformation policies. I am particularly interested in the politics of how urban transformation pathways are assembled and the temporality of rapid change. A key aim is use theoretical approaches from the critical social sciences – particularly human geography's relational turn and the policy mobilities literature - to shed light on the political dynamics of transformation. I have also convened of the UiB Collaboratory which brings together students and researchers to co-create methods for learning and collaboration that are appropriate for the complexity of current social and environmental challenges.
Before moving to Bergen, I worked with interdisciplinary and student-led higher education at CEMUS/Centre for Sustainable Development at Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, where I still teach from time to time.
Teaching
I am passionate about higher education and try to develop dynamic and participatory ways of learning through the UiB Collaboratory and my teaching activities the University of Bergen and Uppsala University. At the Department of Geography at UiB, I am coordinating teacher of the following courses:
- GEO328: Planning and Society
- GEO206: Qualitative Analysis
- GEO292: Field Course in Regional Geography
I am also contributing to the following courses at UiB:
- GEO100: Introduction to Geography: Global Challenges and Local Responses
- GEO125: Economic Globalisation, Production Systems and Environment
- GEO306: Methods in Human Geography
I founded the UiB Collaboratory together with Tarje Wanvik to bring together students and researchers to co-create methods for learning and collaboration that are appropriate for the complexity of current social and environmental challenges. The Collaboratory is organized as a student-faculty partnership and organizes the Bergen International Student Conference, among other activities.
Before Bergen, I worked for ten years with interdisciplinary and participatory higher education at Uppsala University, where I still teach from time to time. I mainly focus on social science perspectives on sustainable development, complexity and systems thinking and strategies for change at the following courses Sustainable Development A, Climate Change Leadership in Practice, the Masters Programme in Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development - Project Management and Communication. I am also part of the academic course work group for the courses Critical Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Sweden and Sustainable Development A.
I have shared my thoughts on higher education, learning and sustainability at the United Nations, in Morgenbladet, Khrono, the anthology Transcending Boundaries, CChange Perspectives, the CEMUS Diaries, in the development of the ActSHEN principles, and in Uppsala University's Active Student Participation project.
Publications
Academic article
- Haarstad, Håvard; Grandin, Jakob Olof; Solberg, Ronya Reitan (2024). Do cities have tools to meet their climate targets? The limits of soft governance in climate action plans. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob Olof (2023). Rendering the future governable: Navigating temporality and uncertainty in Oslo's climate transformation. (external link)
- Sareen, Siddharth; Grandin, Jakob Olof; Haarstad, Håvard (2022). Multiscalar Practices of Fossil Fuel Displacement. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob; Sareen, Siddharth (2020). What sticks? Ephemerality, permanence and local transition pathways. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob; Haarstad, Håvard (2020). Transformation as relational mobilisation: The networked geography of Addis Ababa’s sustainable transport interventions. (external link)
- Fazey, Ioan; Schäpke, Niko; Rosenberg, Milda Nordbø et al. (2020). Transforming knowledge systems for life on Earth: Visions of future systems and how to get there. (external link)
- Sareen, Siddharth; Grandin, Jakob (2019). European green capitals: branding, spatial dislocation or catalysts for change?. (external link)
- Haarstad, Håvard; Sareen, Siddharth; Wanvik, Tarje Iversen et al. (2018). Transformative social science? Modes of engagement in climate and energy solutions. (external link)
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
Feature article
- Grandin, Jakob (2019). Klimaskam og integritet. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob; Elfving, Johan; Ødegaard, Ragnhild H. et al. (2019). Å gi studenter reell innflytelse over utdanningen sin har en egenverdi. (external link)
- Haarstad, Håvard; Grandin, Jakob (2018). Bærekraftsmålene som endringskraft for universitetene. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob (2018). Imorgen, imorgen, ikkje idag. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob (2018). Nå haster det med klimaomstillingen. (external link)
- Wanvik, Tarje Iversen; Grandin, Jakob; Kjærås, Kristin Edith Abrahamsen (2017). Byen vår er gjort om til et levende laboratorium. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob (2017). To re-educate desire: practicing pluralism, participation and possibility. (external link)
- Kjærås, Kristin Edith Abrahamsen; Grandin, Jakob; Haarstad, Håvard (2016). Retten til framtidens Bergen. (external link)
Popular scientific article
- Grandin, Jakob (2019). Klimatet och framtiden som inte kan börja. (external link)
- Wæhler, Turid Austin; Grandin, Jakob (2018). Sustainable universities?. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob (2018). De misforståtte byene. (external link)
- Grandin, Jakob; Gunnarsson, Sanna; Andersson, Sara (2017). “It feels almost surreal”: Being strategic about how we design participation in order to enlarge the space of the possible. (external link)