Hege Høyer Leivestad is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology. Her research deals with mobility, materiality and the global circulation of commodities.
Research Interests
Thematic: mobility, material culture and consumption, logistics and labour, ports and maritime anthropology, homemaking, social class, mobile dwellings
Regional: Spain, Strait of Gibraltar, Nordic region
Background
- Assistant Professor, Department of Social Anthropology. Stockholm University (2021-2022)
- International Postdoc. London School of Economics and Stockholm University (2018-2021. Funded by the Swedish Research Council).
- Researcher, Department of Social Anthropology. Stockholm University (2016-2018).
- PhD, Stockholm University (2015).
- Trainee and Environmental Researcher, Western Norway Research Institute (2007-2009).
- MA (2007) and BA (2005), University of Oslo
About
Hege has carried out extensive ethnographic research in and around ports, with a particular focus on maritime labour and the local implications of containerised shipping. Her current book project examines labour relations and port–city dynamics, drawing on long‑term engagement with the port town of Algeciras in Andalucía, southern Spain.
She currently leads the convergence environment Cargo Crime: (Il)Licit Seaborne Transport and the Energy Transition, funded by UIO: Energy and Environment 2025–2030. This interdisciplinary project addresses the emerging problem of green maritime crime and tackles several urgent global challenges, including transnational trade, the energy transition and environmental threats. While maritime shipping of goods and raw materials is essential to the global economy, the environmental consequences of cross‑border cargo crime are still poorly understood. Cargo Crime will investigate the illegal shipment of waste, explore risks associated with the Shadow Fleet, and develop methods for analysing fraud and risk in seaborne transport.
Together with international colleagues, Hege is critically examining the broader consequences of global logistics. The project Unpacking the Logistics Town (with Karin Krifors, funded by Swedish FORMAS 2022–2027) probes the political, economic and social processes through which post‑industrial European cities are transformed into logistics centres. This research investigates the role of logistics in the spatial and social remaking of local communities and traces commonalities among mid‑sized European towns amid the ongoing “logistics revolution”. In 2025 and 2026, Hege is collaborating with Karin Krifors and artistic researcher Benjamin Gerdes on the research initiative Aesthetics of Logistics (funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).
Her earlier research examined mobile homes, campsite living and housing infrastructures among British and Swedish caravan dwellers. The monograph Caravans: Lives on Wheels in Contemporary Europe (Bloomsbury/Routledge, 2018) presents a fresh perspective on the relationship between housing, mobility and class across Europe.