Research

My research explores how urban tech communities in Denmark and Sweden navigate the tensions between the promises of digital transformation and the messy realities of implementation. Focusing on the interplay between sociotechnical imaginaries (e.g., scalability, efficiency, and sustainability) and socio-digital practices (e.g., data-driven governance, IoT deployment, 3D modeling), I examine how municipalities, private tech companies, and public member organisations collaborate—and in some cases clash—over the development of smart cities, digital platforms, and climate-adaptive infrastructures.

Through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews, workshops, and participant observation, my project critically investigates:

• How sociotechnical imaginaries of scale and scalability shape expectations, policies, and practices related to urban digitalization.
• The affective and cultural dimensions of digital transformation, such as the hype around innovation, the exhaustion of practitioners, and the ambivalence toward technological promises.
• The "doings and sayings" of urban tech communities: How shared visions, e.g. "smart" and "sustainable" cities are performed, contested, and re-negotiated in everyday work—from municipal meetings to innovation and tech conferences.
• Comparative insights between Denmark and Sweden, highlighting how national policies, institutional structures, and local contexts enable or hinder the adoption of digital solutions.

By centering messiness, friction, and ambiguity, my work challenges dominant narratives of seamless digital progress. Instead, it reveals how urban tech communities adapt, resist, and reimagine technologies in pursuit of sustainability.

Key themes of my research are the following: Sociotechnical imaginaries | Socio-digital practices | Scalability and scale | Urban tech communities | Smart cities | Digital geography | Science and Technology Studies (STS) | Practice theory