Jonathan Feldman Associate Professor

Jonathan Michael Feldman has graduate degrees in regional economic development from MIT (Masters in City Planning) and Rutgers Universities (PhD).  He was a Corliss Lamont Fellow in Economic Conversion and Disarmament at Columbia University in the United States and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Linköping University in Sweden.  He presently works at Stockholm University and previously worked at the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm. Feldman is an expert in several areas including: the economic conversion of defense-serving firms to civilian markets and related questions of demilitarization; the economic, managerial and political factors influencing passenger rail car manufacturing and innovation and related green innovation and jobs questions; industrial policy and related mechanisms for advancing green transitions; and various aspects of social inclusion, economic development questions and democratic empowerment.  Current research projects include investigations of the history of rail transit manufacturing, social transformation models for Iran and the Iranian diaspora, a study of the politics of manufacturing and social transformation in New York City, research on the demilitarization of arms-export dependent societies, and an investigation of Swedish-initiated business diplomacy and related economic development in Palestine. 

On March 9th and 10th, 2009, Feldman organized the first national Green New Deal conference in Sweden, based at Stockholm University, televised by SVT24.  In Swedish,  Ett nytt grönt kontrakt för Sverige? En lösning på trippelkrisen: Tjugohundratalets omvandling av ekologi, energi och ekonomi.  On May 16, 19, 20, 2022, he organized, "Stockholm +50: The Nordic Model of Ecological Transformation, 1972-2022," a three day conference with about 30 speakers.  In November 2025, Feldman gave a TEDxBrussels talk, "The Hidden Power of Institutions in the Climate Crisis," which applies lessons from disarmament and economic conversion campaigns to climate strategy. The talk lays out a framework integrating binding constraints on polluting industries with conversion support, cooperative enterprise, and incentives for affected workers and communities.

Dr. Feldman has authored various academic articles which have been published in the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace & Conflict, the Sage Encyclopedia of Transportation, the International Journal of Labour Research, Journal of Transport History, TheEconomics of Peace and Security Journal, Peace Review, Equal Opportunities International, Environment and Planning A, European Planning Studies, Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, Socialism & Democracy, and Economic and Industrial Democracy, and the International Journal of Multicultural Studies.  He has also published public opinion articles in Svenska Dagbladet, a leading national newspaper in Sweden, and was interviewed by Dagens Nyheter and SVT (Swedish public television) about the Ukrainian crisis in 2022.