Michael Johansson is a researcher within the field of Sustainability Strategies and Service Studies.

Michael Johansson is a researcher in Service Studies and Sustainability Strategies, focusing on how mobility, accessibility, and spatial planning contribute to value creation in urban, rural, and regional contexts. His research is interdisciplinary, situated at the intersection of service research, sustainable mobility, transport and spatial planning, environmental studies, and regional development.

An overarching theme of his research is how spatial, economic, and institutional resources can be organised and allocated to enhance accessibility, sustainability, resilience, and societal value. From this perspective, mobility is understood not merely as movement between places, but as a service and societal resource that enables people to participate in employment, education, public services, and social life.

His research encompasses both urban and rural contexts and addresses sustainable and shared mobility, public and collective transport, mobility hubs, parking and land use, rural accessibility, transport poverty, ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, circular resource flows, and the relationship between mobility, housing development, and spatial planning.

A central analytical perspective concerns value creation and resource allocation. His research examines how decisions concerning transport infrastructure, parking, land, built volume, and mobility services generate different forms of economic, environmental, and social value – and how these values, benefits, and costs are distributed across individuals, organisations, and society. Particular attention is given to values and costs that risk remaining invisible or undervalued in conventional planning and socio-economic appraisal frameworks.

From a service research perspective, mobility and accessibility are conceptualised as outcomes of service ecosystems, in which value emerges through interactions among users, public organisations, private actors, physical infrastructure, digital technologies, institutional arrangements, and other societal resources. This perspective is used to investigate how new mobility services and planning approaches can contribute to both individual well-being and broader public value.

The research has a strong applied and societal orientation and is frequently conducted in collaboration with municipalities, regional authorities, businesses, and other societal stakeholders. Methodologically, it combines quantitative and qualitative approaches with scenario analysis, socio-economic appraisal, life-cycle perspectives, case studies, and the development of new indicators and decision-support tools.

Core Research Areas

The research portfolio can be structured around four interconnected areas:

1. Mobility, Accessibility & Service Ecosystems
   Sustainable, shared, and collective mobility; rural mobility; transport poverty; mobility hubs; Mobility as a Service (MaaS); Living as a Service (LaaS); and realised accessibility. This research examines mobility not simply as transportation, but as a service ecosystem through which accessibility and value are enabled, co-created, or constrained.
2. Urban Space, Parking & Value Creation
   Parking, land use, urban densification, housing, opportunity costs, spatial resource allocation, and the relationship between parking and urban value creation. This research includes the conceptual development of Parking as Spatial Capital and addresses the broader question: How do cities create value – and for whom?
3. Rural Accessibility, Public Value & Resilience
   Rural mobility, accessibility, demand-responsive transport, social inclusion, regional development, preparedness, and resilience. This strand examines how mobility enables participation in society and how its broader societal benefits can be identified and valued beyond conventional measures of transport efficiency.
4. Sustainability Strategies, Ecosystem Services & Circularity
   Ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, climate impacts, life-cycle assessment, circular resource flows, sustainable destination development, and resilience. This area connects environmental sustainability with questions of spatial planning, resource use, and societal value creation.