I will be working on the new interdisciplinary research project “Democratic Sustainability in Afforestation: Can food forests increase participation, empowerment and biodiversity?”, led by Professor Heather Anne Swanson, which is funded by Velux Foundation’s Demokratisk Bæredygtighed (Democratic Sustainability) programme.

The project, which I helped co-design, will explore how food forests can potentially strengthen the social benefits of Danish forest initiatives. I am excited by the project’s exploration of transformation, and particularly thrilled to be working on local citizen involvement that focuses on transformative change and empowerment through local knowledge. Concretely, the project will test new models for democratic participation while establishing two food forests in Denmark, one near Lemvig and one by Himmelbjerget.

I am also passionate about the project’s interdisciplinarity and practical application, as I come from having worked the past ten years for organisations with aims of societal transformation through projects focused on climate, gender or inner development. For the past nine months, I have also worked as a research assistant at the AU Centre for Environmental Humanities.

The project will unfold in collaboration with partners Klimatorium – Denmark’s International Center for Climate and Himmelbjerggaarden – Nordic Centre for Sustainable Development, and will engage Aarhus University researchers from several departments, including Anthropology, Ecoscience, and DPU.

Contact: 
Mika Thorsgaard Frølunde
School of Culture and Society
Department of AnthropologyMoesgård Allé 20
8270 Højbjerg
mtf@cas.au.dk