Anna Lundgren

Current research: The Openness Buzz in the 21st Century
In the nexus of globalisation, urbanisation and the networked knowledge and information society we find the imperative of openness. With historical roots in enlightenment and democracy, open and openness is often perceived as something positive and have many applications; open data, open source, open education, open government, open access, open innovation….you might even call it a buzzword.

My PhD research started in 2013 with the aim of exploring the notion of openness. How can we understand openness, and how can we analyse openness in today’s contextual framework of increasing globalisation and the networked knowledge and information society? My empircal work is from Sweden, a country that in many regards can be portrayed as an open country (e.g. 50% of GDP comes from exports, 1/6 of the population is born in foreign country and scoring high on innovation).

Relying on an institutional framework I am conducting three empirical studies to  answer to the questions: What is inferred by open and openness in metropolitan regions? How is openness put into practice? And, how do the political parties talk about openness? The overall aim of my research is to contribute to the understanding of openness in today's context and develop an analytical tool that may assist researchers, planners and policy makers in understanding and dealing with openness in different institutional, territorial and contextual settings.

In June 2016 I was awarded a scholarship from the foundation "Stiftelsen Framtiden i Stockholms län"  for my reserach on openness.

Main supervisor: Prof. Hans Westlund, KTH
Co supervisor: Prof. emerita Marie-Louise von Bergmann-Winberg, Mittuniversitetet

Research interests
My research interests concern policy development and governance, mainly with regard to urban and regional development and planning. What make some regions thrive and prosper while others lag behind? What does it take for regions to be attractive, competitive and sustainable? The research I am interested is multi-disciplinary and draw from disciplines such as economics, cultural and economic geography, regional science, urban and regional planning, sociology and political science, several of which come together in the theoretical framework of New Institutional Theory. I have also been working with cross-border and interregional  cooperation in a Nordic context.

My previous work experience consists of 20 years working with policy, regional development,  international cooperation of local and regional authorities and collaboration with stakeholders such as academia and the business sector. I was trained in international social sciences and hold a B.Sc. in political science.