About the Research School

The four disciplines at the Department of Urban and Rural Development Landscape Architecture, Rural Development,  Environmental Communication and Agrarian History are joined in the research school Society, Landscape and Land Use, running 2013-2016. All PhD students at the department are automatically members of the research school, which main aim is to support their work.

The research school is based on two profiles; social science and design science, and is directed especially to PhD students engaged in environmental design, policy, land management, natural resource management, planning and related issues. The four disciplines at the department work with similar questions, methods and theories in many parts of the world which open up for comparative perspectives, both in research and education.

The activity of the research school is formed by courses, seminars, workshops and student driven initiatives. All activities are open for PhD students not only at SLU, but also at other universities internationally.

A basic objective of the research school is to provide stability and structure to the PhD program in the Department of Urban and Rural Development, and to strengthen the research that exists within and between the different disciplines: rural development, landscape architecture and environmental communication.

The research school principal objective is thus to support PhD-students working in the subjects of rural development, landscape architecture and environmental communication. One of the school's other important tasks is to create an arena based on the humanities and social science perspectives can work with interdisciplinary issues that are central to SLU, with a particular focus on the problems with ties to agriculture and forestry.

It is a particular concern of the research school to offer support to PhD-students working in a wide area with elements including issues related to environmental design, policy, land use, natural resource management and planning. Among the important research to develop include subject-specific theories and methods in the environmental interpretive disciplines, and research on landscape architecture practice and history. This research is within the design science, but is closely related to research in the social sciences and the subject of history. Cooperation within the cluster of landscape and society will therefore form the cornerstone of the new the research school.

Another important field is the social aspects of sustainable development, governance mechanisms and effects of policies affecting land use, social and cultural organization, natural resource management, and issues concerning the relationship between urban and rural environments. On the basis that the three subjects included in the research school, are working on similar issues, methods and theories in many different parts of the world, opens good opportunities for comparative approaches, both in research and in education.