Academic Interests
- Urban studies and urban planning
- Suburbs, suburbanisation and suburbia
- Relationship between mobility (spatial and digital) and urbanism
- Social representations of place
- Relationship between actors in urban development and "city building"
- Use of methods to analyse places and place development
- Urban planning theories and models, included the post modern critique of these
Courses Taught
Background
- Professor, Department of Sociology an Human Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, from 2013
- Associate Professor, Department of Sociology an Human Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, from 2004
- Researcher at Norwegian institute for Urban and Regional Research, 1992-2004 (Holds now a secondary position)
- Dr.Polit., Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Management and Economy, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, 2001
- Studies in Human Geography, Urban Geography and Qualitative methods, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, one semester 1998
- Cand.Agric. in Regional Planning, Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning (current name), University of Life Sciences (current name), 1991
Full CV (as PDF)
Tags:
Human Geography
Publications
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2025).
The Social Ambitions and Failures of Architecture in Oslo's New Towns of 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
In Phelps, Nicholas A.; Keil, Roger & Maginn, Paul (Ed.),
Peripheral Centralities .The Lost and Past Urbanity of the Suburbs.
Routledge.
ISSN 9781003367246.
doi:
10.4324/9781003367246-13.
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This chapter examines the role of architecture in the making of suburban centralities in Norway’s capital Oslo. It highlights the relationship between architectural design and social life in newly developed environments in suburban contexts. While current policies emphasize urban attractiveness, infrastructure development, and compact city strategies, they often overlook the social implications of architectural change. Drawing on historical examples from Oslo’s satellite towns developed in the mid-twentieth century, the chapter critiques the tendency to attribute social challenges to architectural failings without considering broader socio-economic contexts. It argues that a nuanced and empirically informed understanding of the interplay between architecture and social dynamics is crucial in creating liveable and inclusive communities. Ultimately, the chapter calls for a re-evaluation of planning and design practices to better address the social needs of suburban populations, advocating an integrated perspective that acknowledges both the physical and social dimensions of urban development, as well as the complicated relationships between these.
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Nenseth, Vibeke & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2023).
Sustainable suburban mobilities – planning practices and paradoxes.
European Planning Studies.
ISSN 0965-4313.
32(5),
p. 1059–1077.
doi:
10.1080/09654313.2023.2249950.
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Cities are in transition towards more sustainable mobilities, and many city cores are beyond peak car. However, the suburbs are still largely car based. Although planning principles for compact centres and transit-oriented development have been prevalent since the early nineties, there has been little progress towards more sustainable suburban mobility. This is also the case for the Greater Oslo region. To understand this implementation gap, we have investigated the adoption of the overarching principles of land use and transport planning, as represented in the regional plan for Greater Oslo. In two suburban municipalities, we have focused on key actors in local planning, who are crucial for the implementation of planning principles and strategies to achieve change. We find that the sustainability principles focusing on densification around public transport nodes and in suburban centres are supported. However, essential aspects of social sustainability in the growing suburban towns, have largely been left out. Drawing on the reflexive turn in policies and planning, we argue that this implementation deficit is an unintentional consequence of a too narrow disciplinary spatial planning approach. The implementation of sustainable planning principles requires a broader knowledge base, including the social sciences, in order to take into account peoples’ preferences and practices.
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Wikstrøm, Ragnhild Dahl & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2022).
Sustainable mobility transitions in suburbia–exploring (dis)connections between transport planning and daily mobility.
Urban Research and Practice.
ISSN 1753-5069.
doi:
10.1080/17535069.2022.2119430.
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The development of low-carbon cities calls for a restructuring of their suburban hinterlands, and regional land-use and transport planning has become an instrument to achieve this. However, this restructuring has several social implications and is lived by people, who are expected to develop more sustainable practices. There are disconnections between planning practices and people’s everyday practices, of which the literature has provided little to explore and solve. This paper deals with this by studying how regional low-carbon transport strategies are implemented, translated, and lived in a suburban context, and discusses how disconnections between scales of mobility transitions might be bridged.
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Røe, Per Gunnar; Kjærås, Kristin Edith Abrahamsen & Haarstad, Håvard
(2022).
The Spatialities of the Nordic Compact City.
In Jakobsen, Peter; Jönsson, Erik & Larsen, Henrik Gutzon (Ed.),
Socio-spatial theory in Nordic geography : Intellectual histories and critical interventions.
Springer Nature.
ISSN 9783031042331.
p. 191–206.
doi:
10.1007/978-3-031-04234-8_11.
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The compact city has become the preferred and mainstream model for urban, peri-urban and sometimes even rural planning in the Nordic context. However, the compact city is increasingly contested as a model for sustainability and may be criticized for a functionalistic perspective on social practices and transitions. Besides, the compact city model is part of increasing transnational or global urban policy mobilities including generic models and strategies, and it may be argued that this contributes to the de-contextualisation of urban planning and development. In this chapter we scrutinize the spatialities of the compact city model and examine how the compact city model has played out in the Nordic context – focusing in particular on Oslo. We ask: how is the compact city developed and promoted as a spatial model? We argue that although the compact city has to some extent been promoted in influential policy circles as a universal model, the compact city in Oslo has some distinct features shaped by the Nordic context. In particular, these features can be attributed to welfare state governance centred on the public sector, yet it is also here we find some of the most significant differences between the Nordic countries. In closing, we discuss whether there is such a thing as a Nordic compact city model, and point to some of its political, social and cultural implications. Is there a pathway for a re-contextualized, relational and grounded compact city model?
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Bern, Aleksander & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2022).
Architectural competitions and public participation.
Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning.
ISSN 0264-2751.
127.
doi:
10.1016/j.cities.2022.103730.
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This paper examines how the use of architectural competitions may change democratic and participatory aspects in urban planning. This is operationalised by focusing on how architectural competitions impact procedural justice. The architectural competition is a process where only certain experts and professionals are included. We briefly outline how architectural competitions and planning ideals have developed over time to provide context crucial to understanding how they are brought together in contemporary planning practices. Based on interviews and document studies we analyse a set of cases from the Fjord City waterfront redevelopment in Oslo, Norway. The cases vary in form and organization, from the open and international competition format to a more limited competition called parallel assignments. We first consider how architectural competitions may create barriers for public participation. Then we consider if there is a way to integrate them in urban planning that may contribute towards procedural justice and a more inclusive planning process.
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Haarstad, Håvard; Kjærås, Kristin Edith Abrahamsen; Røe, Per Gunnar & Tveiten, Kristian
(2022).
Diversifying the compact city: A renewed agenda for geographical research.
Dialogues in Human Geography.
ISSN 2043-8206.
doi:
10.1177/20438206221102949.
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The compact city has become part of the policy orthodoxy in dealing with climate change and other sustainability challenges, and scholars from a diverse set of disciplines have informed this policy through empirical research. In this paper, we argue that attuning research in this field to key perspectives and concepts in human geography and critical urban studies can help ‘diversify’ understandings of compact urbanism in ways that advance social and ecological justice. We show that the compact city has been conceived primarily through the lens of territorially bounded physical urban form, and thereby many of its social, political, and ecological implications are overlooked. Based on this critique, we propose a renewed agenda for compact urbanism that rearticulates it as a strategy for sustainable transformation by bridging socio-material and relational approaches and engaging the human geographical toolbox. Three entry points for this agenda are highlighted: (1) commoning the compact city; (2) metabolism of compact cities; and (3) antagonism in the compact city.
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Hjorteset, Mari Andrine; Böcker, Lars; Røe, Per Gunnar & Wessel, Terje
(2021).
Intraurban geographies of car sharing supply and demand in Greater Oslo, Norway.
Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.
ISSN 1361-9209.
101,
p. 1–13.
doi:
10.1016/j.trd.2021.103089.
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This paper examines urban patterns of car sharing supply and demand at neighbourhood level. By using literature on spatial inequality and unequal mobility access, we provide new insights into the urban geographies of car sharing. We draw on register data of members and vehicles of station-based car sharing for Oslo, Norway, spatially coupled with population composition, urban form and public transport accessibility ratios. We find both the demand and supply of station-based car sharing to be unevenly distributed. Some of the most profound contributors to car sharing demand include middle income levels, middle and higher levels of education, higher shares of the population working in cultural sectors, higher shares of men, higher shares of multifamily housing, and higher strengths of the public transport regime compared to that of the private car. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for sustainable urban mobility, mobility justice and urban and transport planning.
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2021).
Sosiokulturelle stedsanalyser - et grunnlag for medvirkning i planlegging?
In Schreiner, Knut (Eds.),
Forankring Fryder: en bok om medvirkning i byutvikling og arkitektur.
Universitetsforlaget.
ISSN 9788215027203.
p. 82–91.
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Böcker, Lars; Røe, Per Gunnar & Oftedal, Elling
(2021).
Urban regional planning under the pandemic – the case of Oslo.
In Filion, Pierre; Doucet, Brian & Melik, Rianne van (Ed.),
Global Reflections on COVID-19 and Urban Inequalities, Volume 4: Policy and Planning.
Bristol University Press.
ISSN 9781529219043.
p. 189–200.
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Kanestrøm, Jorunn; Røe, Per Gunnar; Böcker, Lars & Solli, Hilde
(2026).
Hva skal til for at vi lar bilen stå? - Universitetet i Oslo.
doi:
https:/www.uio.no/om/aktuelt/universitetsplassen/podkast/episoder/hva-skal-til-for-at-vi-lar-bilen-staa.wav?vrtx=view-as-webpage.
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Let’s face it - det er ikke så mye som er rettferdig her i verden, og noen er mer privilegerte enn andre. Slik er det også når det gjelder våre hverdagslige reiser og krav til at vi velger klimavennlige måter å forflytte oss på. Økt satsing på grønne reiser kan bidra til bærekraftige byregioner, men tilgangen til sykkelveier, tog og bane er ulikt fordelt. Noen har god tilgang, mens andre har betydelig dårligere tilbud.
Rettferdighet er derfor et viktig stikkord i byutviklingen, når bilen skal erstattes av klimavennlige reisemåter. Men er dette et hensiktsmessig mål?
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Cucca, Roberta & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2024).
What is green gentrification, and how can we best understand it?
[Internet].
Podcast - UiO Cities and Society.
Full text in Research Archive
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Østrem, Nazneen Khan; Schnell, Alf Jørgen & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2024).
Mot en motkulturell modernisme for en ny urbanitet.
Full text in Research Archive
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Berker, Thomas; Henriksen, Hanne Marit; Woods, Ruth & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2023).
Splintering Furuset
The history and possible effects of a well-intentioned urban climate mitigation pilot.
Full text in Research Archive
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In 2022, Castán Broto warned that green investments in urban infrastructures, while releasing considerable public spending for urban climate mitigation and adaptation measures, risk to reproduce what twenty years before was called ‘splintering urbanism’ (Graham and Marvin 2001): the move away from modern infrastructural ideals in which infrastructure was designed to provide general services to the whole population. Analysing Green Deal initiatives, Castán Broto found a lack of 'infrastructural vision', which reinforces existing uneven and unjust distributions of infrastructural connections and their effects along the lines of socio-economic divisions. Besides, the revealed privatisation and financialization of infrastructure systems have exacerbated social and geographical inequalities in access and quality to basic infrastructures.
In our contribution, based on a qualitative case study, we analyse a case of contemporary urban climate mitigation through infrastructure development, which helps us to understand how and why well-intentioned scientific and municipal interventions indeed contribute to the splintering effects described by Castán Broto.
The case is Oslo's Furuset neighbourhood, which is one of nine pilot areas of the Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities (FME ZEN) and a testbed for new innovative energy solutions, combined with urban design. These climate mitigation interventions enjoy national and municipal support and meet a neighbourhood which has for many years been object of municipal and national concern for its high crime rates and and low socio-economic status. ZEN's main pilot activity is the installation of an innovative micro-grid for heat distribution, combined with a seasonal heat storage facility. Due to lack of compatible technology/infrastructure in existing buildings connecting to the new grid will require high investment costs. Thus, only new buildings will be connected to the new sub-grid. While the effects of this infrastructural innovation on the local population can not yet be studied empirically (the construction activities have just begun), it seems clear that the new technology introduces a splintering effect on the accessibility to sustainable and high quality infrastructure, where neighbouring buildings will be connected to different infrastructures with different environmental impacts.
Parallel with these ongoing initiatives, Furuset's local residents and their representatives focus more on social sustainability, which historically has been the main focus of municipal policies, for example in the large-scale area-based programme “Grorudalssatsingen”, aiming at providing better living conditions for inhabitants in these housing estates from the 1960’s and 70’s. After six years of work with the planning and design of the pilot, the fact that their neighbourhood is a pilot for one of the major public investments in urban climate mitigation research is completely unknown to the local residents.
In this paper, we analyse the genesis of this disconnect between the local sustainability agenda and the research based climate mitigation interventions, and discuss scenarios for possible effects of the splintering of the infrastructure and their determinants.
Castán Broto, Vanesa. 2022. “Splintering Urbanism and Climate Breakdown.” Journal of Urban Technology 29 (1): 87–93.
Graham, Steve and Simon Marvin. 2001. Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition. London: Routledge.
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2023).
Designing public space in the energy smart and compact city - an appropriation of the urban commons.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar; Haarstad, Håvard; Vasstrøm, Mikaela Lise Modalen; Sareen, Siddharth & McNeish, John Andrew
(2023).
Empowered Futures PhD School- communications workshop and excursion.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2023).
Is the compact city strategy sustainable? A critique of the current urban development strategy for creating compact cities, based on investigations in the Oslo region.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2023).
Designing public space in the energy smart and compact city - an appropriation of the urban commons.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2023).
Is the compact city socially inclusive? Investigations of the Fjord City redevelopment project in Oslo.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2022).
Nordic Colonialism in the Arctic: Architectural Imprints and Histories.
[Radio].
Universitetsplassen digitalt.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2022).
Designing public space in the energy smart and compact city - an appropriation of the urban commons.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2022).
Conceptualising, designing and performing the city floor: an appropriation of the urban commons.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2022).
Konseptualisering, design og utøvelse av bygulvet - en appropriasjon av byens allmenninger og fellesrom.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar & Bjerkestrand, Milla Skjeklesæther
(2022).
Designing public space in the compact city – the social performativity of the city floor.
Full text in Research Archive
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Haarstad, Håvard; Hanssen, Gro Sandkjær; Andersen, Bengt; Harboe, Lisbet; Ljunggren, Jørn & Røe, Per Gunnar
[Show all 8 contributors for this article]
(2021).
Nordic responses to urban challenges of the 21st century.
Nordic Journal of Urban Studies.
1(1),
p. 4–18.
doi:
10.18261/issn.2703-8866-2021-01-01.
Full text in Research Archive
Show summary
Cities and urbanism have become increasingly central to social change because of their dominance in culture and politics and as a result of massive urbanization. In line with such developments, ‘urban studies’ has grown into a broad research field that embraces study across disciplines within social sciences and urban planning. The central idea behind this journal is that a strengthened Nordic community of urban scholars can advance the debates within this field of study. In this editorial article, we elaborate on the scholarly foundation that provides the starting point for the journal and critically reflect on how urban experiences in the Nordic countries may provide responses and solutions to challenges of the 21st century. In doing so, we trace some of the research traditions in Nordic societies that can underpin the scholarly advances this journal seeks to make. Finally, we outline an interdisciplinary urbanist approach that we aspire to develop through this journal and point towards research topics that may be well served by further exploration from a Nordic perspective.
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Haarstad, Håvard; Hanssen, Gro Sandkjær; Andersen, Bengt; Harboe, Lisbet; Ljunggren, Jørn & Røe, Per Gunnar
[Show all 7 contributors for this article]
(2021).
Nordic responses to urban challenges of the 21st century.
Nordic Journal of Urban Studies.
1(1),
p. 4–18.
doi:
10.18261/issn.2703-8866-2021-01-01.
Full text in Research Archive
Show summary
Cities and urbanism have become increasingly central to social change because of their dominance in culture and politics and as a result of massive urbanization. In line with such developments, ‘urban studiesʼ has grown into a broad research field that embraces study across disciplines within social sciences and urban planning. The central idea behind this journal is that a strengthened Nordic community of urban scholars can advance the debates within this field of study. In this editorial article, we elaborate on the scholarly foundation that provides the starting point for the journal and critically reflect on how urban experiences in the Nordic countries may provide responses and solutions to challenges of the 21st century. In doing so, we trace some of the research traditions in Nordic societies that can underpin the scholarly advances this journal seeks to make. Finally, we outline an interdisciplinary urbanist approach that we aspire to develop through this journal and point towards research topics that may be well served by further exploration from a Nordic perspective.
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Winther, Tanja; Røe, Per Gunnar; Westskog, Hege; Smørdal, Ole & Berge, Erik
(2021).
Møte med Seksjon for innovasjon, samspill og instituttpolitikk, Avdeling for høyere utdanning, forskning og internasjonalt arbeid, Kunnskapsdepartementet (KD).
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Winther, Tanja; Inderberg, Tor Håkon Jackson; Røe, Per Gunnar & Smørdal, Ole
(2021).
Møte med rep. fra Energi- og vassdragsavdelingen i Olje- og energidepartementet (OED).
Full text in Research Archive
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Greussing, Markus & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2021).
Kultur Montag: Spezial aus Oslo.
[TV].
Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF).
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2021).
”Smart Mobility Suburbs” - Et tverrfaglig forskningsprosjekt finansiert av NFR-programmet EnergiX.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2021).
Sattelite centralities and communities. The social ambitions and failures of architecture in Oslo's new towns of 1950's-1970's.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar & Tveiten, Kristian
(2021).
Suburbanizing the Compact City Model: The Imagination of a Post-suburban Oslo Region.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar & Tveiten, Kristian
(2021).
Suburbanizing the Compact City Model: The Imagination of a Post-suburban Oslo Region.
Full text in Research Archive
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Wikstrøm, Ragnhild Dahl & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2021).
Sustainable mobility transitions in suburbia
- (dis)connections between transport planning and daily mobilities.
Full text in Research Archive
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Winther, Tanja; Inderberg, Tor Håkon Jackson; Røe, Per Gunnar; Westskog, Hege & Smørdal, Ole
(2020).
Dialogmøte med OED om Include.
Full text in Research Archive
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Böcker, Lars & Røe, Per Gunnar
(2020).
Inclusive Urban Epidemic Resilience: Investigating and Mitigating uneven COVID-19 Impacts on Mobility, Health and Wellbeing.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2020).
Inkluderende by- og regional utvikling. Hvordan kan omstillingen til lavutslippssamfunnet være sosialt inkluderende? Innledning til sesjon.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2020).
Hvordan kommer koronaepidemien til å påvirke arbeids- og levevaner framover?
[TV].
NRK nyheter.
Full text in Research Archive
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Røe, Per Gunnar
(2020).
Sosiale implikasjoner av regional plan for Oslo og Akershus (eller av post-suburban planlegging).
Full text in Research Archive
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Winther, Tanja; Westskog, Hege; Inderberg, Tor Håkon Jackson; Røe, Per Gunnar & Smørdal, Ole
(2020).
Møte med 22 brukerpartnere Include.
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Published
Oct. 14, 2010 9:41 AM
- Last modified
May 11, 2020 5:02 PM
