Nina Vogel

As a researcher, I am affiliated with the theme group for governance and management at the Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, SLU Alnarp, and am one of the program directors of studies (PSR) for the landscape program at the bachelor's and master's level at Alnarp.

I am educated as a civil engineer in planning and environment with a specialization in urban planning and management (MSc) and hold a doctoral degree in planning and development.

In my research, I am interested in understanding and influencing contemporary urbanization processes and shaping sustainable urban transformations. Here, new forms of collaboration and co-creation affecting learning and practice are the focus of my work. Alternative forms of governance and knowledge creation, through e.g., urban experiments, living labs, or prototypes, are part of my interdisciplinary research methods, exemplified by the Social Innovation Living Lab (SOIL), a collaboration and learning platform where practice and academia meet.

RESEARCH PROJECTS (finalized and on-going)

URSOILL - Innovative solutions for sustainable urban soil restoration through urban Living Labs Horizon Europe project (2025-2029) URSOILL tackles the growing degradation of urban soils caused by sealing, pollution, and compaction. The project establishes five Living Labs across Europe — in Sweden, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Luxembourg — where local communities, researchers, and policymakers collaborate to co-create, test, and implement innovative solutions for urban soil restoration. This project is a collaboration between RISE (lead) and 34 partners and SLU is one of them. 

Från Källare till Kök (#2)/From Basement to Kitchen - Growing futures for ´Million Program´ areas Vinnova project through ShiftSweden (2025-2028) This project is a continuation and upscaling of the prototype and a project affiliated to ShiftSwedens Transition Labs. The project will measure social effects as well as technical impact of the indoor farming, the demand and interest of property owners is mapped and a handbook developed to support planners and developers. This is a collaboration between SLU, Botildenborg (lead), Form/Design Center Malmö and Malmö Stad. 

Från Källare till Kök (#1)/From Basement to Kitchen - Growing future visions for ´Million Program´ areas Vinnova project through ShiftSweden (2024-2025) This pilot project developed a prototype and model for transforming existing built environments into sustainable, inclusive and aesthetically pleasing local places that contribute to solutions for local food security, social preparedness, safety and community. Future images were developed and exhibit that guide and visualize the anchoring of measures to develop future living envirobments. This project is a collaboration between SLU (lead), Botildenborg, Form/Design Center Malmö and MKB. 

Green4Extremes – Green infrastructure for synergetic climate adaptation to extremes events Formas project (2024-2026) This project will conduct an integrated assessment of how green infrastructure can provide synergistic effects that counteract both flooding and heat stress in cities while making cities more pleasant to live in. This is a collaboration between SMHI (lead), Lund University, SLU, City of Nörrköping and Malmö. 

Innovation Arenas Markaryd Vinnova project (2021-2023)  This project is about co-creative testing of prototypes for outdoor work and studies. The project is a collaboration between Markaryd municipality, local actors in Markaryd and researchers at SLU.

Car-free urban districts - an inter- and transdisciplinary research project.
Vinnova project 2018-2021. The Vinnova funded project ‘Car-free urban districts’ is an inter- and transdisciplinary research project that develops, tests and synthesizes conceptual approaches and practices towards car-free urban development. The city of Malmö and Gothenburg are collaborative partners and serve as case study ground. 

Mo-Bo | Mobilitetstjänster banar väg för nytänkande arkitektur. Viable Cities project (2018-2019). Mo-Bo is a housing concept with mobility services that solves the residents' transport in a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable way. In particular, the car-parking free concept allows for innovative and qualitative housing. Mo-Bo offers a transformative change towards a ‘new normal’. This transition includes new inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, new professional roles and capacity building.

New space cooperatives: Governing and transforming future urban sites. Postdoctoral research project within FUSE at SLU Alnarp, 2015-2017. This research facilitates knowledge about perceptive planning and governing urban sites alternatively, thus animates people to think beyond their professional boundaries and/or personal bias and may also view qualities of spaces differently. The project engages with effective and improved planning practice, which comprises an ethical and critical component in regards to current sustainability rationales embedded in often growth-led planning practice. Here applying and exploring a critical sustainability notion in form of e.g. commons will link to the possible challenge of generating and maintaining sustainable environments.

Transition in the making: Acritical dispute on urban transition processes toward sustainable mobility. PhD project affiliated to SusTrans at Aalborg University, Denmark, 2010-2014. In this PhD thesis I studied sustainable mobility transition strategies to offer critical reflection on existing solution approaches and possible alternatives. The thesis demonstrates reverse effects of technological fixes, inequitable development through unlimited mobility ideals, and limits to urban growth calling for an alternative path. The inquiry promotes more radical change and restructuring to achieve an environmentally sustainable and just mobility future.

DOCTORAL CO-SUPERVISION 

Dennis Tidblom, Doctoral Student, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management

Andrew Gallagher, Doctoral Student, Department of Human and Society

PUBLICATIONS (selected)

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS & THESIS 

Ode Sang, Å., Vogel, N. and Mercado, G. (2025) What are the potentials for local governments when participating in research on knowledge co-creation through nature-based solutions? Socio-Ecological Practice Research, 7:1, 29-41.

Herth, A., Vogel, N. and Bossert, M. (2024). From Living Labs on Campus to the Campus as a Living Lab - A tool to support the Sustainability Transformation of Universities. In: Filho, W.L., Newman, J., Lange Salvia, A., Viera Trevisan, L., Corazza, L. (eds) North American and European Perspectives on Sustainability in Higher Education. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80434-2_42

Jansson M, Mårtensson F and Vogel N (2024) Developing outdoor spaces for work and study—an explorative place-making process. Front. Sustain. Cities 6:1308637. doi: 10.3389/frsc.2024.1308637

Marcheschi, E., Vogel, N., Larsson, A., Perander, S., and Koglin, T., (2022). Residents’ acceptance towards car-free street experiments: Focus on perceived quality of life and neighborhood attachment. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Vol 14, 100585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100585

Vogel, N. (2022). Samskapande är vägen framåt In: Olsson, T. (ed) Urban natur human stad. Stad och Land, 190, SLU Tankesmedjan Movium. 

Torrens, J. et al., …. Vogel, N. …. (2021). Advancing urban transitions and transformations research. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Vol 41, pp. 102-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2021.10.026 

Vogel, N., Arler, F., Gulsrud, N. and Jansson, M. (2020). Ethical dimensions in landscape governance and management. In: Randrup, T.B. & Jansson, M. (eds.) Urban Open Space Governance and Management. Routledge.

Jansson, M., Vogel, N., Fors, H. & Randrup, T.B. (2019). The governance of landscape management: new approaches to urban open space development, Landscape Research, 44:8, 952-965, DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2018.1536199 

Parker P., Vogel N., Diedrich L. (2019). Investigating the Democratic Potential of Temporary Uses in Urban Redevelopment Projects. In: Fisker J., Chiappini L., Pugalis L., Bruzzese A. (eds) Enabling Urban Alternatives. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

Vogel, N. (2017). Synergies through entanglement: commoning entering the Urban Governance Realm, The Public Sector, 43:1,7-18, DOI: 10.34749/oes.2017.2358

Vogel, N. (2016). Municipalities’ ambitions and practices: At risk of hypocritical sustainability transitions? Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 18:3, 361-378, DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2015.1099425

Vogel, N. (2015). Transition in the making: A critical dispute on urban transition processes toward sustainable mobility. PhD Thesis. Aalborg University, Aalborg. 

Valderrama Pineda, A.F. & Vogel, N. (2014). Transitioning to a Low Carbon Society? The Case of Personal Transportation and Urban Form in Copenhagen: 1947 to the Present. Transfers 4.2, 4–22.

Næss, P. & Vogel, N. (2012). Sustainable urban development and the multi-level transition perspective. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 4, 36–50.

OTHER PUBLCATIONS INCL POPULAR SCIENCE

Jansson, M., Nilsson, C., Nordius, A., Troije, C.P., Mårtensson , F. & Vogel, N. (2024). Skapa möljigheter för kontorsarbete och studier utomhus. Movium Fakta #6, 2024. 

Vogel, N., Hagemann, F. A. och Mercado, G. (2022) Living labs - Gröna Fakta – Utemiljö 6/2022. ISSN 0284-9798.

Fors, H., Jansson, M., Vogel, N. & Sunding, A. (2021). Förvaltarens nya roller för rättvis förvaltning och governance. I temat: UTEMILJÖNS FÖRVALTNING OCH GOVERNANCE, del 5, Landskap, 8, 26-29.

Marc Wolfram, Jonas Torrens, Vanesa Castán Broto, Jake Barnes, Chiara Fratini, Irene Håkansson, Katharina Hölscher, Kaisa Schmidt-Thome, Nina Vogel, Timo von Wirth, Josefin Wangel, Emilia Smeds, and Niki Frantzeskaki (2019). Urban pathways towards sustainability: Concepts, knowledge boundaries and a transformative future agenda. Presented at IST 2019, Ottawa, Canada.

Vogel, N. (2017). #Pixlapiren – Ett urbant experiment. I temat: Medskapa Landskapet. Landskap, 2, 18–21.

REPORTS

Drottberger, A.; Dharmarathne, D.; Bergstrand, K-J.; Mirza, A. and Vogel, N. (2025) Omvärldsanalys: Inomhusodling i boendemiljö, SLU Rapport, 2025. 

Ode Sang, Å. & Vogel, N. (2023). Knowledge co-production within the European ULLs. REGREEN Report of WP7 Urban Living Labs, Horizon grant 821016. 

Vogel, Nina and Khan, Jamil and Nordqvist, Joakim and Hildingsson, Roger (2020). Hållbar områdesutveckling i Malmö: från experiment till ny praxis? Rapport inom Mistra Urban Futures Local Interaction Platform Skåne. SLU Urban Futures, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, ISBN 978-91-576-9705-9.

Koglin, T., Vogel, N., Perander, S., Larsson, A. and Marcheschi, E. (2019) Implementering av bilfria distrikt. En dokumentstudie från ett internationellt, nationellt, regionalt och lokalt perspektiv. K2 Working Paper, ISBN 978-91-985495-4-6.

Vogel, N. (2019). MO-BO AS A TRANSDISCIPLINARY PROJECT: UNPACKING TRANSDISCIPLINARITY IN PRACTICE. In: Mo-Bo. Mobilitetstjänster banar väg för nytänkande arkitektur. Viable Cities Project Report, p. 72-73. Available at: https://adobeindd.com/view/publications/d12b6844-ff07-4fff-bee3-27da72a71c7a/cm85/publication-web-resources/pdf/Slutrapport_2019_20190603.pdf

My experience in teaching at the university level goes back to my time as a doctoral student at Aalborg University, DK, and my teaching position at DIS – Study Abroad in Scandinavia.

At SLU, I am responsible for the course Environmental Discourses and Communication (LK0444) within the Bachelor's program in Forest and Landscape. Since 2015, I have been teaching at SLU and have been/are involved in several courses, such as Studio Project - Transformation of Urban Landscapes (LK0442), LK0447, LK0408, LK0436, MP0001, as well as various thesis courses at the Bachelor's and Master's levels.