Research
My research examines how politics is rendered governable in contexts of institutional and political transformation, with a particular focus on Swedish local government. I study moments in which established governing arrangements are unsettled – such as political transitions, administrative reforms, and the introduction of new governance models – and analyse how political ambitions are reorganised, translated, and stabilised within organisational practices.
Across my dissertation articles, I examine how social sustainability becomes institutionalised as a central organising principle while growth-oriented objectives remain in place. I analyse how political priorities are articulated and negotiated during mandate transitions, how governing commitments are translated into administrative arrangements, and how authority and governing capacity are produced through meta-governance practices that extend beyond the immediate local political arena.
Critical Fantasy Studies and the Psychic Dimension of Governance
Theoretically, my work is grounded in Political Discourse Theory and Critical Fantasy Studies. Building on a post-foundational understanding of radical contingency, I approach institutional transformation as moments of dislocation in which taken-for-granted meanings become unsettled.
Drawing on psychoanalytic insights, I analyse the psychic dimension of governance. Rather than treating fantasy as illusion or misrepresentation, I understand it as a narrative structure through which subjects navigate contingency. Fantasy organises affective investment by staging ideals, obstacles, and guarantors that render political projects coherent and desirable.
This perspective allows me to examine how social sustainability – conceptually indeterminate and politically contested – becomes meaningful, credible, and actionable in practice. I analyse how certain political trajectories acquire a fantasmatic grip, stabilising governing routines, while others remain fragile or open to rearticulation. In this way, my work contributes to debates on sustainability governance by foregrounding the affective and ideological dynamics through which governing practices become sedimented or remain contested.
Industrial PhD and Embedded Ethnography
I am an industrial doctoral candidate (kommundoktorand) and employed as a policy analyst in a Swedish municipality that forms part of my broader empirical field. This dual position enables long-term, embedded ethnographic research into everyday administrative work, political negotiation, and moments of institutional uncertainty.
At the same time, it requires careful attention to reflexivity, ethics, and anonymity. Questions of proximity, knowledge production, and the politics of research are therefore integral to my methodological approach.
Broader Interests
Beyond my dissertation, I maintain an interest in postcolonial and feminist political theory, particularly questions of subject formation, power, and knowledge production in public institutions.
Teaching
Due to my employment as an industrial doctoral candidate, myteaching responsibilities are limited and primarily consist of supervising Bachelor’s theses.