Åsa Gerger Swartling specialises in participatory approaches to environmental management and policy. She has been employed at the SEI since 1994, where she currently holds a Senior Research Fellow position and is a theme leader for the Transforming Governance theme.

She is also affiliated researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre where she co-leads the research theme on Adaptive Governance, Networks and Learning and previously the theme on Knowledge Management, Learning and Social Networks.

Swartling has been involved in numerous research and applied research projects dealing with stakeholder engagement, learning, sustainability assessment, project evaluation and policy integration, particularly in the areas of climate change, energy and natural resource management. Among other things she was the SEI project leader of the European Commission funded Urban Lifestyles, Sustainability and Integrated Environmental Assessment (ULYSSES) project (4th framework programme) as well as the Methods and Tools for Integrated Sustainability Assessment (Matisse) project (6th framework programme).

Ongoing research focuses on stakeholder participation, collaboration and learning in the context of climate change adaptation in Sweden. She currently leads the project The Process of Adaptation to Climate Change under the Mistra-SWECIA programme (2008-2015).

Swartling’s research interests and experience include both developing and developed countries. Funders and clients include the European Commission, Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Research Council.

Swartling holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of York, UK. Her doctoral thesis (2002) explored the potentials for involvement of citizens in technical matters of sustainable development policy in Sweden and the UK.


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Publications

• Barriers to and opportunities for climate change adaptation in the Swedish forestry sector (Report chapter - 2012)

• The climate change adaptation landscape (Report chapter - 2012)

• Participation in adaptation processes - focus on the actors (Report chapter - 2012)

• Beyond generic adaptive capacity: exploring the adaptation space of the water supply and wastewater sector of the Stockholm region, Sweden (Journal article - 2012)

• Knowledge for local climate change adaptation in Sweden: challenges of multilevel governance (Journal article - 2012)

• Method Development for Identifying and Analysing Stakeholders in Climate Change Adaptation Processes (Journal article - 2012)

• A framework for facilitating dialogue between policy planners and local climate change adaptation professionals: Cases from Sweden, Canada and Indonesia (Journal article - 2012)

• Climate Change Adaptation in Swedish Forestry: A Historical Overview, 1990–2012 (Project report - 2012)

• GEO-5 Chapter 11: Europe (Book chapter - 2012)

• Social Learning and Sustainability: Exploring Critical Issues in Relation to Environmental Change and Governance (Project report - 2011)

Complete list of publications »

Projects

• Climate change adaptation and water governance: reconciling food security, renewable energy and the provision of multiple ecosystem services (CADWAGO)

  
  

• Wash and Rescue

  
  

• Agricultural transformations in the Greater Mekong Region

  
  

• Baltic Compass

  
  

• Mistra-SWECIA

  
  

• Social Learning in Asia

  
  

• Sustainability A-Test

  
  

• Stakeholder Participation and Engagement

  
  

• Policy Integration for Sustainability

  
  

• MATISSE: Methods and tools for integrated sustainability assessment

  
  

• Evaluation of the Swedish Local Nature Conservation Initiative