The Institute for Urban Research (IUR) is becoming an internationally-leading center for research on urban justice. IUR started as a university-funded research program in 2019 and received renewed funding from Malmö University in 2025 to prolong its activities. Urban research at Malmö University builds upon long-term strategic work to establish urban studies as a prominent research field in Sweden through activities such as establishing the first research education in Urban Studies in Sweden (2012), and through several strong research environments on urban issues, exemplified by CRUSH (Critical Urban Sustainability Hub), a FORMAS Strong Research Environment that ran between 2014 and 2019, the Housing and Welfare Research Network – a FORTE network that has gathered housing scholars and practitioners since 2020, and the Swedish Research Council-funded national research environment Housing as a Digitalized Service, which is a project that has operated since 2024, as well as several smaller national and European-funded research projects. IUR was also the co-founder, in 2019, of the European and North American network of urban research institutes – Urban Agency.
Today, over half (55 per cent) of the world’s global population is living in urban areas, a figure projected to rise to 70 per cent by 2050 (UN 2023). At the same time, we are living in a time of global housing crisis, with more than 2.8 billion people facing some form of housing inadequacy, deprived of adequate living standards and constrained in their development opportunities (UN Habitat 2025). Global urbanization intensifies challenges intersecting environmental, political, economic and social aspects. Societal injustices based on gender, class, ethnicity and other divides are reproduced and reinforced through urban spaces. Segregation, uneven allocation of public goods, services and digitalization, unequal access to housing markets and green and blue infrastructures, the discriminating design of public spaces, power dynamics of migration, the place of Global South cities in the world economy, among other urban injustices, all strengthen existing social divides. Processes of urban justice and injustice unfold at all scales, from the body to the city to the nation to the globe; therefore, urban justice can only be understood if analyses of urban justice are connected to processes that unfold at other scales.
IUR brings together knowledge from various disciplines to propose possible solutions to urban societal challenges. IUR engages with citizens, civil society, private actors, and public authorities to communicate our research results and find ways to implement solutions. Part of our mission is to develop a People’s Urban Studies in close collaboration with societal actors to enhance the exchange of knowledge.
Aims
- Consolidate an excellent research environment to increase the amount of high academic quality output (seminars, publications, research proposals).
- Make visible ongoing excellent urban research at Malmö University, nationally, regionally, and internationally.
- Create a research body that enables collaboration and exchange with other institutes and centers for urban research in Europe, South and North America, Africa, and Asia.
- Identify emerging urban challenges and solutions within new areas for urban research in a co-creative manner.
- Participate in public debates around urban issues, influence public opinion, and continue the publishing of the open-access web journal Urban Matters.
Annual reports
We keep records of our activities, including publications, events, seed grants, and others throughout the year to report to Malmö University administration. These reports are also available for public viewing.