Sofia Wiberg

I obtained my PhD in 2018 with the dissertation The Practice of Listening – Citizen Dialogue, Not-knowing and Displacements, in which I explore the political dimensions of listening in relation to co-creative urban planning processes. The dissertation, written as an autoethnography, critically examines the increasing interest in citizen dialogues. I 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.

My broader research interests concern questions of knowledge, collective working and decision-making processes, asymmetrical power relations, and the epistemological boundaries of knowing.

I am the director of the research school TRANSPLACE, which engages in ambitious initiatives for sustainability transitions in close collaboration with Swedish urban planning practice. The research is practice-based and action-oriented, aiming to challenge established methods and strengthen the reflective capacity within Swedish urban planning practice. The school currently hosts seven PhD candidates and two postdoctoral researchers. More information: https://www.kth.se/en/transplace

Ongoing 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 to phronesis, 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 course Designed 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 of gestaltad 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, starting in September 2024 at Södertörns University and University of Arts, Crafts and Design.

https://www.konstfack.se/sv/Utbildning/Fristaende-kurser/Gestaltade-livsmiljoer-gemensamma-rum-interdisciplinara-praktiker-Kurspaket-60-hp-HT24-VT26/

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. Between 2020 and 2022, two symposia on these themes were held at Hägerstensåsen Citizen house in Stockholm.

Teaching

At KTH I teach/have been teaching in Project Sustainable Urban Planning- Strategies for Urban and Regional Development and Planeringens aktörer och processer.

I supervise master thesis