Sofia Wiberg

My research interests revolve around questions of knowledge, collective work and decision-making processes, asymmetric power relations, and the epistemological boundaries of knowing. I obtained my PhD in 2018 with the dissertationThe Practice of Listening – Citizen Dialogue, Not-Knowing and Displacements, in which I explore the political dimensions of listening within co-creative urban planning processes. Using an autoethnographic approach, I examine the growing interest in citizen dialogues and argue for the importance of not only seeking answers to predefined questions but also making space for, and remaining within, states of not-knowing—in frictions and ambiguities—so that more judicious and reflective decisions may be reached over time.

I am the director of the doctoral school TRANSPLACE, which initiates radical and ambitious efforts for sustainability transitions in close collaboration with Swedish planning practice. The research is practice-oriented and action-based, aiming to challenge established routines and strengthen the reflective capacity within Swedish spatial planning. More information: https://www.kth.se/en/transplace

Current research themes: 
Ethical Dilemmas and Practical, Situated Knowledge

In my research, I am interested in exploring practical, embodied, and sensory based knowledge in relation to the complex challenges faced in spatial planning. This is a kind of knowledge that cannot be codified into manuals, but concerns the handling of ambiguous, hard-to-assess situations that deviate from habitual patterns. These are often uneasy, friction-laden situations that manifest physically in the body, a form of knowledge is closely related tophronesis, the Aristotelian concept of practical wisdom.

The relationship between art and urban planning

A key strand of my current research examines the evolving relationship between contemporary art and urban planning. Specifically, I investigate processes where artists are invited to engage in the early stages of planning, with a focus on how their participation shapes both the methods and the epistemologies of the planning process. My inquiry centers on what art can contribute beyond instrumental functions: what alternative working methods it may introduce, what desires or imaginaries it may articulate, and what new or disruptive questions it may pose within institutional frameworks. At the same time, I critically interrogate the risks involved in projecting excessive expectations onto art and artists—particularly the tendency to cast them as transformative agents of democratic change. This perspective raises important questions about the limits of artistic agency and the political economy of participatory governance.

This line of inquiry has informed the development of the interdisciplinary courseDesigned Living Environments – Shared Spaces, Interdisciplinary Practices, co-organized by Södertörn University and Konstfack. The course explores tensions, goal conflicts, and the role of situated, practice-based knowledge in collaborative processes within the field ofgestaltad livsmiljö (designed living environment), and constitutes a site of both pedagogical engagement and empirical reflection in my work.The project has resulted in a post master course for practionaires, started in September 2024 at Södertörns University and University of Arts, Crafts and Design. Since 2024, I have taught this course as a lecturer at Konstfack.

https://www.konstfack.se/sv/Om-Konstfack/Kontakta-oss/Anstallda-och-studenter/User/?show=30902

The Politics of Friendship
Since 2023, I have been exploring various dimensions of friendship through study circles, a master's-level course, and collaborative writing. Friendship creates its own world—complete with its own rules, language, and sense of time. At the same time, it is always situated in relation to the broader social context.

What is the relationship between friendship, the public sphere, and politics? What kinds of spaces make friendship possible? How do we distinguish between being a friend, a comrade, a colleague, and a companion? And how can we understand friendship within professional contexts? Could friendship even serve as a form of resistance to contemporary individualism and economic rationalities?

These questions are explored in collaboration with philosopher Eva Schwartz and Sebastian Dahlqvist, director of Hägerstensåsen Community Centre.

Choreography/Urban Planning: A Thinking Practice

A Thinking Practice explores the relationship between theory and practice within the fields of choreography and urban planning. While these domains may appear distinct—emerging from different epistemological traditions and professional cultures—they also share a number of conceptual and methodological concerns.

Both fields are engaged in examining how methods and formats of encounter shape collective processes: how different modes of working and decision-making can redistribute power and foster more democratic forms of practice. Central to this investigation is the relationship between theories of practical knowledge and the practice of theory itself. A key thematic overlap lies in the tension between openness and control. Both choreography and urban planning navigate the inherent contradiction between the need for structure, order, and predictability on one hand, and the desire to open up space for improvisation, spontaneity, and grassroots-driven creation on the other. This raises important questions: What norms are implicitly embedded in so-called “open” processes? What invisible structures of power emerge when visible ones are removed? In what ways can the interplay between governance and openness generate truly democratic practices? The project also explores how these two distinct fields might formulate shared inquiries into organization, power structures, and asymmetries.A Thinking Practice is carried out in collaboration with choreographer and dancer Stina Nyberg, founded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

Research as practice

I am also engaged in exploring research itself as a practice. This involves examining the habits and routines that shape academic work—from writing and meetings to email organization—and developing methods that recognize embodied and experiential knowledge. I hold a fundamental belief that the body is always present in research—whether we are thinking, writing, or sitting in a seminar. My aim is to cultivate research practices that acknowledge and make visible the role of the body in knowledge production.

Teaching

At KTH I teach/have been teaching inProject Sustainable Urban Planning- Strategies for Urban and Regional DevelopmentandPlaneringens aktörer och processer.

I supervise master thesis