Lena Fält Researcher

I am an urban geographer interested in urban planning and its effects, within both African and Swedish contexts. My work examines how planning processes are shaped, legitimised, and implemented, and how they affect different groups in the city. I am particularly interested in the encounter between urban planning and everyday life, the intersections of formal and informal practices, and the ways planning relates to equality, social justice, and social welfare.

Theoretically, I draw on critical urban theory, the governmentality perspective and postcolonial urban theory. I also engage with the growing literature on infrastructure and its role in shaping cities, and more recently with labour geography and citizenship studies.

I am the PI of the research project 'The labours of new large-scale infrastructure projects in urban Africa', funded by The Swedish Research Council. I belong to the Urban Africa Group and Stockholm Urban and Regional Research Environment (SURE), both based at the department.