Employees

Svein Frisvoll is a senior researcher and the institute director. Dr. Frisvoll has previously been the research manager for two of the institute’s research areas: Local Communities; and Municipalities and Regions – Urban/Rural Interactions. Frisvoll has a PhD in Geography from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and focuses on issues within rural space, regional geography and local government in rural areas. His works on rural space include research on rural change with a particular focus on power and the entanglement of landscape, actors/agency and institutions.  His works in regional geography and local government in rural areas include studies of regional development, amalgamation of municipalities, identity and the institutionalisation of new regional forms. Frisvoll has also studied how rural municipalities, some of which face bleak demographic trajectories, meet challenging national welfare reforms and structural reforms, and  particularly their strategies for producing welfare services through inter-municipal cooperation. Frisvoll is part of the team of researchers studying

• work immigration to rural areas in the ongoing Global Labour in Rural Societies (GLARUS)
• how heritage and cultural environments can represent sources for place development in the ongoing Heritage Routes – new requirements for use of instruments and forms of collaboration in heritage management
• the role of rights in bioeconomic transition in the ongoing Managing the transition to a smart bioeconomy (BIOSMART).