Jörgen Sparf

Jörgen Sparf is an associate professor of Sociology at Mid Sweden University. He is a founding member of the Risk and Crisis Research Centre, www.miun.se/en/rcr.

Jörgen is Sweden's appointed representative in the European Science and Technology Advisory Group of the United Nations office for Disaster Risk Reduction (https://www.preventionweb.net/organizations/27123). He is also representing the Risk and Crisis Research Centre in the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes, GADRI (http://gadri.net).

Area of interest

Jörgen's theoretical interests are relational sociology, organization theory, social networks, and theories pertaining to disaster and resilience, vulnerability and capacity. He conducts empirical research mainly in the broad field of crisis and disaster studies, for example social network analysis, critical resilience studies, and vulnerability and capacity issues.

Research

Jörgen has been involved in a large number of projects and is currently the PI/project leader for the following research projects:

Title: LEGITIPREP ‑ Boundaries of Legitimation: Crisis Normalization and Preparedness
Budget: 6 Million SEK
Funder: The Swedish Research Council
Running time: 2024–2026
Website: https://www.miun.se/en/Research/research-projects/ongoing-research-projects/boundaries-of-legitimation-crisis-normalization-and-preparedness/


Title: FUTURESILIENCE – Creating future societal through innovative, science-based co-creation labs
Budget: 2.9 Million €
Funder: Horizon Europe
Running time: 2023–2025
Website: https://futuresilience.eu

Title: FOUNTAIN – Fostering sustainable university-industry techno-entrepreneurial collaborations and innovations in Asian universities
Funder: The European Commission (Erasmus+)
Budget: 800.000 €
Running time: 2023–2025
Website: https://fountain.lk

A significant achievement in Jörgen's career is the unique immersive environment RCR Simulation Lab. He was the project manager for the EU-funded development of the lab and the director of the lab 2017–2022. www.miun.se/en/rcr-lab.

Since 2022, Jörgen is working part-time as senior researcher at NTNU Social Research AS in Trondheim, Norway. Please find more information at https://samforsk.no.

Teaching and tutoring

With over 20 years at the university, Jörgen has extensive experience as a supervisor and instructor on all university levels. He has taught sociological theory, social network analysis, critical thinking, and methods. His teaching in applied fields has mainly been on organisation, leadership, risk and crisis management.

Jörgen currently supervises three doctoral researchers:

- Sophie Kolmodin, on her research of civil society organisations in the field of immigrant reception and social resilience (2018-2025).
- Simone Grännsjö, on her studies of policies to combat radicalisation and violent extremism on a local level (2021-).
- Colin van den Akker, on his research on ambiguity in transfer and communication of scientific knowledge.

Jörgen has supervised two students to completion: Dr Per Becker, professor at Lund University, and Olov Hemmingsson, lecturer at Mid Sweden University.

Jörgen has held administrative positions as Programme Director and Director of Studies for 15 years. He is the founder of the undergraduate programme in risk and crisis management at Mid Sweden University and the Master in Sociology: Risk, Resilience, Working Life.

Above his PhD and MA in sociology, Jörgen holds a teacher's degree, Master of Fine Arts and Education, from Lund University, with the clarinet as his principal instrument.

Research projects

Current

FUTURESILIENCE

LEGITIPREP - Boundaries of Legitimation: Crisis Normalization and Preparedness

Finished

Local networks for safety and security

ASCENT (Advancing Skill Creation to Enhance Transformation)

Multi-organizational co-operation in response to ordinary emergencies

Resilience in Sweden: Governance, Social Networks and Learning (RISE)

Risk and Security Governance Studies within Baltic-Nordic Academic Communities of Practices (Risk-Net)

SECRA – Strengthening University-Enterprise Collaboration for Resilient Communities in Asia