Martin Westin

My work explores citizen participation and collaborative governance in sustainability transformations, with a focus on communicative processes across diverging interests and worldviews. I conduct my research in close collaboration with civil society, businesses, and public sector actors, which allows me to contribute to governance theory as well as practice. I have contributed both theoretically and methodologically to the fields of planning and governance, particularly through research on power relations in participatory practices and the development of practical tools such as The Sustainability Walk and The Reflection Cycle. In my research I mainly apply qualitative methods and I publish my findings in both academic and popular formats. I currently lead and contribute to several research and development projects that investigate democratic dialogue in polarized contexts, trust and knowledge coordination in environmental governance, and the role of collaboration in navigating resistance to sustainability initiatives.