Political Science - Environmental Politics and Governance

Environmental politics and governance is a research program and policy field in transition. At a time when dominant forms of social organisation are altering the conditions for life on Earth, established modes of environmental governance no longer seem to make analytical, political or ethical sense. The figure of Nature as a pristine and stable object for Western environmental thought, politics and action, is now taking more troubled, complex, and fragile shapes. Environmental governance is thus less a matter of nature conservation, and more about the governance of worlds un/made in the name of socio-economic development. This realisation raises fundamental questions for political research and practice. Without Nature, what is the function and goal of environmental politics and governance? What does it mean to think and act ‘green’ in an age described as post-natural, post-sustainable, or even post-apocalyptic? 

In this research group, we study how contemporary environmental and sustainability challenges are imagined, known and governed across multiple sites, empirical domains, and actor constellations. Knowledge politics, power, and democracy are central analytical entry points for our research. Rather than approaching the problems, agents and sites of environmental politics and governance as given or necessary, we attend to the micro-political practices that give them form and effect. Through empirical deep dives into Swedish and international climate-, biodiversity-, forestry-, and agricultural policy, we thus ask how sustainability transitions are made governable and with what political effects. How is a just and inclusive transition imagined and done in practice? Which democratic spaces are opened-up and closed-down in the name of green transformative agendas? What forms of research are required to extend political vision and imagination?  

Our research is grounded in a critical-interpretative tradition and placed at the nexus of political theory and practice. Instead of asking which actors that have power and responsibility to govern a rapidly warming world, we examine which agent categories and transition pathways that are made possible through established and emergent ways of governing. This processual ontology means that our political theorizing starts in the messy world of environmental planning, policymaking and governance and is developed in close interplay with intergovernmental organisations, government agencies, municipalities, business and civil society. 

Environmental politics and governance is a new research area at SLU and is currently under development. Right now, we are recruiting new colleagues, developing undergraduate- and graduate training, and exploring collaborative possibilities within and beyond the Department of Urban and Rural Development. 

Our research is organised around the following themes: 

• The democratic drama of sustainability transitions
• The places, politics and practices of green transition policy 
• The knowledge politics of a post-natural age

Click for the seminar program of autumn 2026