Home » Researchers » Magnus Gustafson

My research is situated in the intersection of historical, literary, rhetorical and ethnographic studies.

I received my PhD from Malmö University in January 2025. My thesis is about the Social Democrat Agda Östlund (1870–1942) who was one of the first five women in the Swedish Parliament.

My newly started research project has the working title “In the Tracks of Cement – ​​Aspects of Cement’s Impact on the Capitalist Welfare Society, the Example of Köping 1941–1978”. This project aims to study the capitalist welfare society through two prisms: the place Köping and the material cement. Through these two prisms, the study will illuminate how the global and the local are connected and clarify the relationship between cement, concrete and the urbanization of small towns.

Research Themes

At the IUR, urban humanities mobilizes humanities scholars to engage with the full range of human expression in and of the urban, from literature and visual culture to public art, the built environment, memory, and heritage. These explorations open new ways of understanding and imagining urban space, lived cities, and the cultural object we call…

Read more: Urban Humanities

Global Urbanism aims to explore the heterogeneity/diversity of urban conditions, practices and experiences in different geographical locations. It aims to highlight how contemporary urban theorization reflects (or fails to reflect) this diversity. The theme challenges assumed urban hierarchies and highlights urban practices outside the mainstream state-led and market-led frameworks, particularly activities carried out by people…

Read more: Global Urbanism