Based at NMBU's Faculty for Landscape and Society, we are a research group that aims to:

• be a meeting place for discussion and debates related to environmental planning and natural resources governance
• support and strengthen research and education within the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and the Faculty of Landscape and Society more broadly, on these themes
• facilitate exchange of experiences, insights and ideas with other interested researchers, students, and the public at large

This research group explores issues of politics, power and knowledge in environmental planning and natural resource governance to promote sustainable and just societies.  Theoretically, we build on insights from planning theory, political ecology, science and technology studies, discourse analysis, interpretive policy analysis, theories of transition and transformation, environmental justice, critical cartography, assemblage theory and socio-spatial relations.

In terms of geographical focus, our research interests span Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

Thematically, our research includes exploring some of the following themes:

• Climate change mitigation and adaptation, and transformation to sustainability
• Water governance and water quality
• Natural resource rights regimes and conflicts of access
• Conflicting interests in the coastal commons
• Protected areas, local community development, nature-based tourism
• The politics of scale, multi-level governance, roles and responsibilities state-regional-local levels
• Processes of participation and knowledge co-production in planning and governance

2022