The project will research neighborhoods with ethnic diversity in order to understand residents' views on the environment. The project was granted for three years and the group includes top urban geography and political science researchers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
The project called "The Future of Diverse and disadvantaged Neighborhoods in the Nordic Welfare States - The Voices of Residents" will try to understand how the residents of diverse and disadvantaged neighborhoods relate to society. The research project aims to raise the collective voice of these neighborhoods and create methods for hearing people who are less active in participating in the societal discussion. The research covers neighborhoods in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Professor Mari Vaattovaara, who represents University of Helsinki, highlights the importance of Nordic cooperation to develop neighborhoods:
- Better understanding of neighborhoods and preventing diversification are current themes in Urban development. It is a pleasure to work with these topics with my Nordic colleagues.
The research project got 850,000 euros grant from multiple different foundations, that were willing to support the research of the future challenges in the Nordic region. The research project is funded by Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Svenska kulturfonden, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Stiftelsen Brita Maria Rendlunds minne, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and Familjen Kamprads stiftelse.
The project is located at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with the Professor of Political Science Peter Esaiasson as project manager.