Lena Fält Researcher

Contact

Name and title: Lena FältResearcher

Mail: lena.falt@humangeo.su.se

Phone: +468164842

ORCID0000-0001-7679-7851 Länk till annan webbplats.

Workplace: Department of Human Geography Länk till annan webbplats.

Visiting address Room X333Svante Arrhenius väg 8

Postal address Kulturgeografiska institutionen106 91 Stockholm

About me

I am an Associate Professor (Docent) in Human Geography and an urban geographer whose research examines urban planning and its effects in both African and Swedish contexts. My work explores how planning processes are legitimised, negotiated, and implemented, and how they shape the lives of different groups in the city. I am particularly interested in the encounter between urban planning and everyday life, the relationships between formal and informal practices, and the ways planning relates to (in)equality, social (in)justice, and social welfare.

Much of my research has focused on Accra, Ghana, where I have conducted extensive qualitative fieldwork on contemporary processes of urban transformation. My studies have examined the planning and rationalisation of the new private city of Appolonia; the forced eviction of an informal settlement; the regulation and use of public space; the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on informal livelihoods; and the politics and socio-spatial effects of new large-scale transport infrastructure projects.

I have also studied the legitimisation of the New Karolinska Solna (NKS) mega-project in Stockholm, Sweden.

My research is informed by critical urban theory, governmentality studies, and postcolonial urban theory. I also engage with the growing literature on infrastructure and its role in shaping urban development, and more recently with labour geography and citizenship studies

I am currently the PI of the research project 'The labours of new large-scale infrastructure projects in urban Africa', funded by The Swedish Research Council.

I am the principal supervisior pf PhD candidate Jack Odeo.

I am a member of the Urban Africa Group and Stockholm Urban and Regional Research Environment (SURE), both based at the department.

Teaching

I coordinate and teach the following courses:

Urban Governance
Globala Processer (Geography II)
Motstånd och Kollektiv Organisering (Global Development I)

In addition, I regularly deliver lectures and lead seminars on processes of urban development in a range of other courses.

I supervise bachelor's and master's theses in Global Development (Global Utveckling), Urban and Regional planning (Samhällsplanering) and Human Geography (Kulturgeografi).

Research

Research interests:

My research focuses on urban planning and urban (re)development, with particular interests in new cities, urban mega-projects, and infrastructure development. I work on questions related to infrastructural labour, urban informality, displacement, grassroots urban movements, and everyday urban life. My research is informed by critical urban theory, governmentality studies, and postcolonial urban theory, with a regional focus on African cities

Ongoing research projects:

Principal Investigator: The labours of new large-scale infrastructure projects in urban Africa.
Swedish Research Council project grant, 2022–2025.
Co-Investigator: Towards an inclusive circular economy: the contribution of informal workers in urban Africa.
Formas grant, 2025–2028.
PI: Onyanta Adama.

Concluded research projects:

Co-Investigator Emergent ‘world-class’ transport infrastructures: urban visions and infrastructural spaces in African cities.
Formas project grant, 2020–2025.
PI: Ilda Lindell.

Co-Investigator – Informal livelihoods in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban Africa: prospects for recovery and recognition.
Swedish Research Council project grant, 2022–2025.
PI: Ilda Lindell

Co-Investigator – The university hospital of the future – decisions on New Karolinska Solna.
Stockholm Region Research Grant, 2017-2020.
PI: Göran Sundström.