Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study
Fifth CAT-stay at SCAS: A curiosity-driven Scientific Institute for interdisciplinary researchers
The fifth CAT-stay of our group from October 9-13, 2023 was hosted by the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. The institute was funded in 1985 and aims to foster discussions and exchange on the fields of social and human sciences to obtain an comprehensive understanding on humankind through its historical and contemporary condition.
DAY 1 – Settling in SCAS Uppsala
During our first day we received a very friendly welcome by Pia Hultgren at SCAS. SCAS is located in the main Building of Uppsala Castle gardens, a beautiful traditional u-shaped building covered with ivy plants in the inner courtyard. We were briefly introduced to the administrative staff of the institute and the main spaces that the SCAS fellows use daily to socially interact, like the dining room and attic. We settled at our meeting room located in the building “Prefektvillan”, where we would work during this week which is just located next to the main Building.
After settling in our team had their first meeting online with Rieke Hansen and Joana Guerrin to discuss the next steps of our work.
SCAS, Uppsala.
SCAS library.
At noon we had lunch with Christina Garsten, the principal of the institute whose research focuses on organizational anthropology. She introduced us to the rest of the SCAS team and explained the international and interdisciplinary character of the institute (where historians, sociologists, economists, philosophers and linguists meet), and how active the SCAS is in organizing open seminars, workshops and colloquiums to create more discussions and innovative knowledge.
In the evening we prepared our presentation to be held on Day 3 to the SCAS community.
DAY 2 – Getting inspired by the fellows and SCAS’s premises
We started the second day by participating at the SCAS weekly seminar, held at the Thunberg Lecture Hall (Linneanum). The fellow Desiree Fields presented her research on housing capitalist urbanization and how it is being influenced by digital technologies and finance capital in the United States. Our group found interest in the topic, and exchanged ideas on how to bring a socio-ecological angle to the way algorithms could be developed or complemented, including more justice to social inequities that have been present since decades, but are currently exacerbated by new and innovative technologies.
Desiree Fields presentation at Thunberg Lecture Hall.
By lunch we had the opportunity to chat with Jennifer Mack, a fellow from the institute whose research revolves around modernists suburbs and the alternatives to its legacies of “failure”. Both of our research found synergies in the way cities are being shaped in its built environment across scales, and we discussed on the emergence of concept of garden cities and how humans always felt the need to be in contact with nature in urban areas. After we met, she put us in contact with her PhD students at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, working on ecovillages, mining cities and outdoor environments of the Million Programme in Stockholm.
Uppsala Botanical Garden.
Since temperatures were lowering down we could see how the potted plant species were being moved indoors to survive during the cold winter. After our tour, we also managed to visit Uppsala Botanical Garden, including their vegetable garden, the winter house with a selection of tropical plant species, and the outdoor mosses and shrubs garden. All plant species were properly identified allowing a better understanding of different species by visitors. As Maria Odengrund mentioned, the gardens and the building facilities are often used for events and activities. This is an important aspect since nature-based solutions must included amenities for permanent use or recreational purposes. This motivates local citizens to use the urban public green space that otherwise could become unused.
In the afternoon we met Maria Odengrund who took us on a tour around the SCAS facilities to understand better its history. SCAS is constituted by four renovated buildings: the Linneanum, Prefektvillan, Villa Therese Andersson, and Villa Lugnet. These buildings combined its old structures with unique Scandinavian interiors.
We finished our day by visiting Uppsala Botanical Garden and its tropical house next to the Prefektvillan. Our walk was guided by different species of plans from all over the world which created particularly colorful environment, typical of Autumn’s character.
Potted trees moved indoors during the cold season, Uppsala Botanical Garden.
DAY 3 – Presenting our work at SCAS
This time we were invited to create a more informal presentation to the SCAS researchers during "Fika", a tradition of coffee and cake done occasionally during the afternoon to promote social gatherings.
In our presentation, we focused on the three levels of knowledge (policy, technical and transformative), necessary to promote a more socio-ecological NbS. We gave examples of NbS that we visited during our previous stays. We have focused on examples of integrating ecological principles into urban planning, creating programs that rethink the design and use of NbS to promote biodiversity and inform citizens of their benefits.
Fyris River, Uppsala city center.
An interesting example of transformative knowledge was a neglected building in a socially deprived neighborhood that is now being used by an association to demonstrate ecological strategies of urban gardening.
After our presentation with had a very interesting discussion with Dieter Plehwe – a Political Scientist with a strong interest in the transformation of globalized capitalism via a holistic view through history, culture, and politics – about city activism networks.
Also the exchange with Iva Lučić – an Associate Professor in history with a focus on forest exploitations – brought up some fruitful thoughts and ideas.
At the end of the afternoon, we went sightseeing Uppsala on foot, visiting the Cathedral, library, castle, the old city center, and the pedestrian zone in the center to get a sense of place to also find out how densely NbS are placed throughout the city center on both sides of the Fyris River (Fyrisån).
DAY 4 – Visit Rosendal and Gottsunda dagvattenpark
The fourth day we started after breakfast on discussing the next steps of our work. First of all we shared our thoughts on our presentation and its feedback and questions from the day before with all the team members. Which then also led to further ideas on how to progress on our ideas in contributing to science with a the active participation on a Conference on NbS and writing our fist publication togther. During lunch the interesting discussion with Iva Lučić regarding our work and interdisciplinary research in general continued.
In the afternoon we visited Rosendal, a new housing development that is being built in the southern part of Uppsala. The car park was located at the entrance of the neighbourhood and few cars were visible around the buildings. On the contrary, the use of bicycles seems to be crescent and most buildings include bicycle storage areas. The residential buildings were designed to integrate inner green courtyards with recreational elements such as communal outdoor tables, barbecues, small playground areas, and sandpits. In these inner courtyards, the ground floor apartments included a direct connection to the inner courtyard creating a private garden area interconnected with the surrounding green.
Gottsunda urban water retention pond.
Rosendal inner courtyard.
An interesting aspect was the views at the very end of the road connecting directly to the existing woodlands. Also, in the side elevations of buildings connecting to the inner courtyards we could often find green facades with ivy suspended in cables reducing the visual impact of blank facades. On top of some buildings, we could also identify the presence of green roofs sometimes with small trees in outdoor terraces of the top floors.
After, we decided to visit Gottsunda dagvattenpark, an urban water retention pond created to treat rainwater before it is sent to the Elkoln river. In this location, we could find as well information on the biodiversity that is present in this environment.
After that, we did a walk around the city center and could understand better how the Fyrisan River is so present in the urban environment including several recreational green areas along both sides of the river.
DAY 5 – Visiting Stockholm
On our last day, we had the opportunity to meet Chero Eliassi Sarzeli, a Landscape architect and Doctoral Candidate at KTH. Chero is a Ph.D. student of Jennifer Mack, working at the Architecture school on "green allotments around Stockholm". Her work relies on a strong exchange with the community she found on site. She was particularly intrigued by the fact that gardening, despite minor language barriers, helps form a community by connecting through gardening itself and that digging in the soil creates a sense of belonging for the gardeners.
After that, we had the opportunity to have lunch with Sverker Sörlin, Professor of Environmental History at KTH, Eric Paglia, Postdoc on the history of science, technology, and environment, and Anja Moum Rieser, research assistant, all working at the Environmental Humanities Laboratory (EHL) at KTH. During our talk, we discussed common interests of research. Among other things, we talked about the critique of the ecosystem services concept, of which Sverker Sörlin and a colleague also wrote an article about. After lunch, they showed us the Science, Technology and Environment Laboratory at KTH and we continued debating on relevant literature for our work and how the urbanization is affecting Stockholm.
KTH University building covered with a green facade.
We ended up the day by visiting the Ugglebacken, a Natural Park in the North part of Stockholm connecting with other NbS at the East and West parts of the city. After walking across the outstanding green heritage we visited the new housing developments at the Kvarteret Muddus neighbourhood including several green courtyards and a direct connection to the Ugglebacken Park. Since we were in autumn we were delighted on several occasions by the natural beauty of vegetation changing its colour from green to yellow and red creating a seasonal mood in the urban environment.
Ugglebacken, Stockholm.