Simone Veglió received a FORMAS Mobility grant for early-career researchers. The project explores the implementation of “global infrastructure” – that is, the construction of transnational mega-infrastructure projects such as ports, logistical clusters, road and railways corridors, etc. – in South America’s River Plate basin. The study specifically focuses on commercial ports as key infrastructures serving the basin’s agribusiness activities, evaluating China’s dominant position in the context. The project investigates the development of port infrastructures in the basin and the competition between the main actors; the socio-spatial and environmental transformations generated by such infrastructures; the impact of these activities on state sovereignty and the broader geopolitical implications.

By building on a mixed-methods approach using qualitative methods supplemented by quantitative analysis, the project aims to provide a multidimensional study of the use of global infrastructure as a development strategy.

This is a 4-year research project housed at the Institute for Urban Research that will count on extensive research stays at: School of Interdisciplinary Advanced Social Studies, Universidad Nacional de San Martín (Buenos Aires); Urban Theory Lab, University of Chicago; Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modelling, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing). 

Grant: 5.601.139 SEK

Chiara Valli got a FORMAS grant from the Socially Sustainable Housing Provision For All call. The project is titled Women in Social and structural homelessness: negotiations about responsible housing provision and how social and geographical exclusion can be prevented.

The research project gathers expertise from municipalities, voluntary organizations, and the academic sector to jointly problematize, but also to think anew, about the worsening situation for women in homelessness in Sweden. 

This is a collaborative project between Malmö University (IUR), Chalmers University, the Municipality of Gothenburg (Socialförvaltning Sydväst), the voluntary organization Stadsmissionen, and Faktum magazine. The research is led by Prof. Kristina Grange, Chalmers University. 

Grant: 5.993.000 SEK

Martin Grander has received a grant from FORMAS for the project Discretion for equal access to housing and living environments: Action research on regional, municipal and local practices for a holistic and socially sustainable housing provision. The project also involves Caroline Wigren-Kristoferson from the Department of Urban Studies at Malmo University, and a three-year post-doc will be announced for work on the project.

The project is a collaborative endeavour between Malmö University, Region Skåne, Göteborgsregionen (GR) and the City of Gothenburg. The aim is to investigate and test how different actors’ room for action can be expanded in order to contribute in an innovative way to a socially sustainable housing provision. 

In the project, three sub-studies will be carried out at different scale levels:

1. Road map for regional housing supply.
2. Municipal model for the appropriated strategic room for action.
3. Property owner model for socially sustainable new production and mobility in the housing stock.

In addition, ongoing research will be carried out on social interaction in housing provision. 

Grant: 6.000.000 SEK