The five Action Grant recipients and their activities are:
Aleksandra Zarek: Fieldwork and data collection on urban design management practices in delivering mixed tenure housing in the case of Wrocław, Poland.
The objective of this on-site research activity will be the investigation of the integrative management of stakeholders’ roles and interests in the implementation phase of mixed tenure housing in Wrocław, Poland. The expected findings will further help identify transferrable good practices in building socially sustainable and cohesive developments, applicable to other urban contexts at an international scale. This data collection constitutes part of the doctoral research study on critical success factors in delivering socially and spatially balanced tenure integration.
Valentin Chenier: Sport, Society, and Sustainability: Skateboarding’s Role in Agadir’s Urban Transformation
The research explores how the rapid rise of skateboarding along Morocco’s Atlantic coast intersects with the region’s urbanisation and shifting social landscape in the periphery of Agadir. Through immersive ethnography and participant-observation at stakeholder gatherings, the project addresses four key themes: (1) policy inclusivity and the preservation of indigenous cultures; (2) the environmental and societal impacts of coastal urban expansion; (3) the resilience and sustainability of emerging urban infrastructure and business models; and (4) the health and well-being effects of institutionalising new sports, such as surfing and skateboarding, through dedicated infrastructure and initiatives like the “surf-city” label. Findings will be presented to regional and national policymakers at official roundtables to foster inclusive and sustainable policies.
Mikko Kyrönviita: Developing Research Networks studying DIY Skateparks as Practice-based Politics towards Resilient and Sustainable Cities – research visit of Tom Critchley
Insurgent Spatial Practices Research Collective (ISP) and the Research Group of Politics of Nature and the Environment will host a research visit from Tom Critchley from Goldsmiths University of London. Critchley’s research focuses on networks of skateboard philanthropy and collaborative skatepark projects as practice-based politics towards inclusive and resilient communities. In an open seminar and workshop, he will present his research on DIY skatepark projects in Jamaica, Jordan and London with a focus on participatory design practices. Critchley’s visit will also include joint field work with ISP researchers to allow comparing grassroots communities in the Global South and Global North and establish further collaboration between Tampere University and Goldsmiths. Critchley’s visit aims to support early-career researchers exploring bottom-up, practice-based politics and their contributions to sustainable, resilient urban futures across contexts.
Krista Willman: Research visit in Södertörn University, networking and field visits to urban gardens in Stockholm
The visit in spring 2026 aims for broadening my understanding of urban gardening initiatives and phenomenon from Finnish to Swedish context. With help of garden field trips, stakeholder meetings and academic collaboration with my host, Senior Lecturer in environmental science and Associate Professor in Geography, Madeleine Bonow, we will develop ideas for joint research in Nordic context under the theme “Bottom-up or top-down? New trends in operational space of urban community gardening”. The research visit works as a starting point for my post doc project and formulating joint research funding in future. The cross-departmental research platform Ecologically and Socially Just Sustainability Transformations (EcoJust) in Södertörn University, and especially its Urban hub has similarities with STUE. With the help of this research visit we build connections between these two neighboring research communities.
Elina Alatalo: Research visit to Paris-La Villette architecture university in France
Grant allows a long research visit to build international relations for the post-doctoral career phase, deepening the collaboration born during the Writing Urban Places COST network 2021-2023. Linking architecture and literary studies, the network focused on creative narrative methods in the context of urban studies, pushing researchers for example to work with film or poetry, together with citizens. In addition to developing new projects on the earlier ones, the work in Paris thematically deals with teaching through small scale building, similar to Hiedanranta sauna experiment.