An ongoing theme of my research has been the ways in which capitalist restructuring impact on welfare, wellbeing, employment and inequality. More recently, I started to combine these research interests with issues of ecological sustainability, particularly climate change, sustainable welfare and degrowth/postgrowth. I also carry out research into synergies and conflicts across environmental, social and economic policies. 

Research Projects:

Postgrowth Welfare Systems: funded by Lund University’s Research Programme for Excellence, focusing on Agenda 2030 and sustainable development. I coordinate the project and work together with Mine Islar (LUCSUS), Johanna Alkan Olsson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, CEC) and Alexander Paulsson (School of Economics and Management). The project will be concluded in January 2025.

FLYWELL: How to reduce air travel and at the same time maintain a high quality of life (Norwegian Research Council): The project is coordinated by CICERO, Oslo, and Monica Guillen-Royo (PI). I am mainly responsible for the theoretical work package based on social practice approaches. The project will be concluded in December 2026.

Economic Elites in the Climate Change Transformation: Practices, justifications and regulations of unsustainable lifestyles in Sweden (FORMAS, Swedish Research Council), Reseach programme "A sustainable transformation for climate action in a changing world": I am PI of the project and work together with Jayeon Lee, Kajsa Emilsson and Håkan Johansson. The project will be concluded on 30 November 2028.

Regulating the Polluter Elite: Exploring policy measures limiting carbon footprints of the rich (FORMAS, Swedish Research Council, Early-Career Researcher Grant). The project is coordinated by Jayeon Lee (PI), University of Gothenburg. I am mainly responsible for the theoretical and policy-related work packages. The project will be concluded on 30 November 2027.

Finished research projects:

Sustainable Welfare for a New Generation of Social Policy, Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), Research programme “Människor, Energisystem och Samhälle" (MESAM): I coordinated the project and worked together with Johanna Alkan Olsson (Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, CEC) and Jayeon Lee (University of Gothenburg). The project was concluded in June 2023.

The New Urban Challenge? Models of Sustainable Welfare in Swedish Metropolitan Cities, FORMAS (Swedish Research Council): I was mainly responsible for the theoretical part and the quantitative comparative study. The project was concluded in December 2022.

Sustainable European Welfare Societies: Assessing linkages between social and environmental policy, Research Council of Norway (coordinated by NOVA, Oslo: I was responsible for the mainly theoretical Work Package 1 (‘How does the meaning of social welfare change if we take requirements for environmental sustainability into account?’). The project concluded in spring 2019.

Sustainable Welfare and Eco-social Policies, FORTE (Forskningsrådet för Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd): I dedicated my research as guest professor at the University of Edinburgh to theoretical issues in sustainable welfare and discuss these as well as policy implications with UK colleagues. The project was concluded in July 2017. 

Degrowth, Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies: Coordinated by Ekaterina Chertkovskaya and Alexander Paulsson, School of Economics and Management, Lund University (2015-2016).

Connecting Social Policy and Urban Planning for a Low Carbon Future, Australian Research Council (coordinated by the University of Queensland; 2016-2018).

Sustainable Welfare, Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies: I coordinated an interdisciplinary research network that brought together ecological sustainability and social welfare researchers (2014-2015).

Combating Poverty in Europe (COPE): FP7 programme of the European Union (coordinated by Oldenburg University) (2012-2015).

Attitudes towards Climate Change and Social Policies - a Comparative View, GESIS– Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne (2013).

My teaching subjects include political economy, social inequality, labour market and welfare regimes, comparative social policy and ecological sustainability issues. I have taught these subjects in Germany, the UK and Sweden.

I am Course Director of the course Social Policy in Europe, 15 credits; http://soch.lu.se/en/education/courses/social-policy-in-europe. I also teach on the masters programme Welfare Policies and Management. 

I have been a Visiting Scholar / Guest Professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Glasgow University, Programa de Economía del Trabajo (Santiago de Chile), Lund University (prior to my current employment), GESIS - Leibniz Institute of the Social Sciences in Cologne, University of Edinburgh and at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam.

I currently serve on the editorial board of Environmental Values and on the advisory board of a range of international projects including  ORSI-Towards Eco-Welfare State (Tampere) or Collorative Future Making (Malmö University). 

I am (co)author / coeditor of books including 'Pathways to Sustainable Welfare: Inertia, Emergence and Transformation in Swedish Cities', 'Deep Transformations: A Theory of Degrowth',  'Postgrowth and Wellbeing: Challenges to Sustainable Welfare', 'Sustainability and the Political Economy of Welfare', 'Non-Standard Employment in Europe: Paradigms and Policy Responses', 'Capitalism and Climate Change: Theoretical Discussion, Historical Development and Policy Responses', 'Roads to Postsfordism: Labour Markets and Social Structures in Europe', 'Unternehmen Transformation: Sozialstruktur und gesellschaftlicher Wandel in Chile' and 'Vom Strukturwandel einer Klassengesellschaft: Theoretische Diskussion und empirische Analyse'.