Ulrika Persson-Fischier

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Sustainable development, transformative innovation and disruptive systems change with a transdisciplinary perspective

My PhD in anthropology deals with indigineity, social classification and Russia, and how anthropologists "create" indigenous peoples through their representations, built upon a year of fieldwork in Siberia.

Now I turn my anthropological gaze towards phenomena closer at hand: finansial risk management, entrepreneurship, tourism and the cruise industry. I use perspectives on environmental, social and economic sustainability, transformative innovation and disruptive systems change, complexity and wicked problems and transdisciplinarity. I am interested in culture; our implicit ideas on how things ought to be, and change; how we try to create a better world and the good life.

It may seem as if these interests are far away form indigeneity in Siberia, but that is actually not the case. I use the same anthropological points of departure, ethnographic method and participant observation to scrutinize our assumptions and implicit value systems. Through methodological relativism I try to figure out how the world looks like for the actors I work with to understand why do people do as they do?

Teaching

I am the manager of the international master programme in Sustainable Destination Development. I work extensively with ESD, education for sustainable development and pedagogical development projects.

Since a few years back I focus on sustainable destination development and sustainable tourism, with perspectives on transformative innovation and disruptive systems change, transdisciplinarity, resilience and regeneration.

I am currently involved in projects on:

Sustainable Arctic cruise communities: from practice to governance (https://www.nord.no/no/om-oss/fakulteter-og-avdelinger/handelshogskolen/forskning/forskningsprosjekt/Sider/Caring4Cruise.aspx)

Sustainable tourism in the new normal: learning form the pandemic for sustainable innovations (https://cie.uu.se/industrial-engineering-and-management/research/ongoing-projects/sustainable-tourism/)

Cultural heritage, regional development and innovation (https://cie.uu.se/industrial-engineering-and-management/research/ongoing-projects/cultural-heritage/)

Sustainable tourism on Easter Island (Rapa Nui): Glocal perspectives (https://cie.uu.se/industrial-engineering-and-management/research/ongoing-projects/rapa-nui/)

Fishing for sustainability: conditions for sustainable fishing tourism on Gotland (https://www.cie.uu.se/industriell-teknik/forskning/pagaende-projekt/hallbart-fiske/)

What´s next for lifestyle entrepreneurs in hospitality?

I am main supervisor for Marije Poort, researching sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation within destination development and Living Labs, and I am co-supervising Fie Broker-Bulling, researching nature beased tourism.