Photo of Hilda Wenander

Hilda Wenander

PhD student

My research is about urban planning and politics of neighbourhoods with a sustainability profile and the implications for everyday life of urban residents from a post-political perspective.

The politics of new urban neighbourhoods and energy systems: visions, materialities and practices in everyday life and planning

How are new neighbourhoods with high sustainability and energy efficiency ambitions planned in Sweden today? Who gets to take part in the planning processes? How do processes of depoliticisation and repoliticisation influence the planning and what does this mean for current and future residents?

In Sweden, the planning of new neighbourhoods with sustainability ambitions are considered particularly important to meet sustainability targets as well as the need for housing. In neighbourhoods with a sustainability profile, a sustainable transformation of urban structure and sociotechnical systems, such as energy systems, are central in accelerating planning for sustainability. However, these neighbourhoods have not yet fully managed to live up to the high ambitions and visions for sustainability.

There are both issues related to missing goal fulfilment as well as lacking participation and democracy in the planning of sustainability profiled neighbourhoods and the respective energy systems. This leads to questions about the openness of the planning system in relation to citizen involvement of urban residents in sustainable urban development and transformations of energy systems.

In my research I seek to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between politics and planning in transformations for sustainability in urban areas in Sweden, and what this relationship means for urban residents. I am engaging with post-political theory to specifically look at how a potential depoliticisation, as well as repoliticisation, of urban planning for sustainability in Sweden takes place and what the consequences are for urban residents.

My empirical work is focused on the three neighbourhoods Brunnshög in Lund, Kvillebäcken in Gothenburg and Vallastaden in Linköping.



Short texts

CV

2020
Research assistant in the project “Planning for sustainable energy transition – the role of urban and regional planning in promoting energy innovations“, Linköping University, Sweden

2016
Master of Science in Human Ecology – Culture, Power and Sustainability, Lund university, Sweden

2014
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Sociology, minor in Human Geography, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany

Publications

Research

Teaching

I teach in several undergraduate courses at the bachelor's programme in Urban and Regional Planning.

Supervisors

Organisation