Lund University Agenda 2030 Graduate School
Meet LUSEM’s PhD candidates within Agenda 2030 Graduate School
At LUSEM, we so-far, have three doctoral students within the Agenda 2030 Graduate School: Phil Flores, Juan Ocampo and Linn Ternsjö.
Below you can find out more about their interesting and most impactful research projects.
Juan Ocampo, with the project Organizing money for inclusive economies.
I examine the motivation behind the use of shared micromobility, particularly shared e-bikes and e-scooters
Examining motivations behind shared micromobility adoption through consumer innovativeness and signaling
What is your project about, Phil Flores?
In my thesis, I examine the motivation behind the use of shared micromobility, particularly shared e-bikes and e-scooters. I aim to evaluate the importance of the different product attributes of shared micromobility to its adoption and continuance of use. Additionally, I aim to determine the effects of the non-verbal messages communicated by users in the diffusion of this shared transport innovation.
Does your project relate to any specific SDGs?
My project is related to Agenda 2030's Goal 11 of Sustainable Cities and Communities. Specifically, it supports the target of providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all.
Which theoretical framework and research methodologies do you adopt?
I use the concepts of Consumer Innovativeness and Signaling theory in my research. Consumer innovativeness looks at the extent to which individuals are open to new products and ideas, such as shared e-bikes and e-scooters. Signaling theory, on the other hand, is considered a means to examine the non-verbal communication involved in the diffusion process of shared micromobility. I will gather data through surveys in Denmark and Sweden.
Does your project involve any external partners and if so, how do you collaborate?
Aside from being part of Lund University’s Agenda 2030 Graduate School, I also work with K2, which is Sweden’s National Centre for Research and Education on Public Transport. At K2, I get regular updates regarding what is happening in the transport sector and gain access to valuable feedback and knowledge from researchers who are tackling issues regarding consumer travel behavior.
How can your project lead to sustainable impact?
The results of my thesis will help in the formulation of future marketing strategies for sustainable innovations. Sustainable innovation providers, especially shared micromobility operators, can create more targeted messages to potential users, hopefully leading to faster and higher adoption of these innovations in the future. My project will also help in policymaking in transport, ensuring that shared micromobility is provided the infrastructure it needs and support from cities to launch and gain ground.
Learn more about Phil Flores on the Agenda 2030 Graduate School's webpage
I want to understand new ways of designing money for a more sustained and inclusive economic future
Organizing money for inclusive economies
What is your project about, Juan Ocampo?
I study the stakeholders, ideas, and relations embedded in how money is designed. Specifically, I study how complementary currencies are being implemented in contexts where local communities are in a condition of vulnerability. The project aims to understand new ways of designing money for a more sustained and inclusive economic future.
Does your project relate to any specific SDGs?
The World Bank estimates that the Covid-19 pandemic will push between 119 and 124 million people into poverty, aggravating the lack of access to money that hinders productive development and a society’s wellbeing. As a social technology to organize the economy, money shapes the social and political relations amongst its users and stakeholders, thus influencing the distribution of wealth in our societies. I study how the internal design of money can be used to create more just and equal economies.
Which theoretical framework and research methodologies do you adopt?
I use the constitutional approach to money as theoretical framework in the study of monetary design. Moreover, I build on performative theory to study the ideological, social, and material stories in the creation of money. To construct and analyze my empirical material, I practice an Actor-Network theory perspective and use both ethnographic techniques and computer-based simulations to reflect on monetary configurations.
Does your project involve any external partners and if so, how do you collaborate?
Since 2019, I am collaborating with a research project in Kenya that assists communities in designing complementary currencies. The relationship is twofold. I study the story of how this currency develops in time and I act as a volunteer by verifying, validating, and analysing data emerging from the currency use.
How can your project lead to sustainable impact?
This project leads to economic wellbeing by studying the relationship in modern money’s design and inequality. The project aims to identify some of the organizational challenges and socio-economic opportunities of local monetary arrangements and shed light over the transparency and accountability practices required in the design of Complementary currencies for vulnerable populations.
Learn more about Juan Ocampo on the Agenda 2030 Graduate School's webpage
My project takes a multi-layered approach to analyze socio-economic development
Whose Industrialization? Social Sustainability and Labour-Intensive Industrialization – The Mauritian success story revisited and the road ahead
What is your project about, Linn Ternsjö?
My project is about the historical experience and challenge of pursuing labour-intensive industrialization in the case of Mauritius. Currently, there is a growing interest to specifically advocate this type of industrialization as a strategy for achieving sustained economic growth across Africa. In Mauritius, this type of industrialization played an important role in the country’s structural transformation and economic growth miracle from the 1970s to present-day. Nevertheless, it’s less clear whether this success story is so obvious if we analyze it in relation to a criterion of inclusiveness and social sustainability. My project revisits this ‘economic miracle’ narrative with particular attention on the country’s garment industry and its impacts on labour and gender equality.
Does your project relate to any specific SDGs?
My project is relevant for the overarching 2030 Agenda goal of ‘leaving no one behind’. Specifically, it also relates to SDG 5 on gender equality, SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, and SDG 9 which calls for the promotion of inclusive and sustainable industrialization. How, for example, has Mauritius’s structural transformation merged two possibly conflicting visions of development (as outlined in SDG 8), and what has been the role of women’s agency in the transformation processes?
Which theoretical framework and research methodologies do you adopt?
My project takes a multi-layered approach to analyze socio-economic development. I start with the macro political economy analysis at the national level, before moving on to a sectoral analysis of the garment industry and finally an analysis at the level of the household pertaining to individual workers in Mauritius. I draw on theories on the role of industrialization in structural transformation processes, human development, social sustainability, decent work and agency. I am inspired by feminist economic research and I use mixed methods, combining document analysis with macro- and micro-level data. In the future I will also be conducting semi-structured work-life history interviews with different generations and from various social backgrounds.
Does your project involve any external partners and if so, how do you collaborate?
So far, I am not involving any external partners, but I look forward to collaborating with local scholars, policy makers, textile companies and workers once I begin my field work in Mauritius.
How can your project lead to sustainable impact?
I hope my project will highlight the importance of taking a critical and holistic view of development processes. I also hope my findings can elicit some lessons learned and new insights for developing countries aspiring to achieve structural transformation through inclusive industrialization.
Learn more about Linn Ternsjö on the Agenda 2030 Graduate School's webpage