Presentation

Charlotte Petersson is a PhD-student within Urban Studies as well as lecturer within Leadership and organisation with a background in Work Science. She has also worked as organisational developer centrally at Malmö university and as a so called ”boundary agent” for the Institute for Sustainable Urban Development. Charlotte has experience from different sectors and organisations such as from working as head of a department at a five-star hotel in Dubai; with export of cosmetics; running/owning a company retailing horse-shoes and ferrier tools and she has also been active and had board assignments for NGOs and is currently a member of the board of Swedish Interactive Research Association (SIRA).

Since 2010 Charlotte has been developing her idea about exploring possible ways of integrating urban outdoor spaces into everyday working life. During 2017 this resulted in the interactive research project ”StickUt Malmö” (StepOut Malmö) which is a combined research- and practical change project in collaboration between Malmö University and The City of Malmö financed by the European Social Fund. The core of the project is a joint learning process about work forms and norms. Apart from the project organisation, it involves sixty participants from different departments within The City of Malmö (Cultural Dept, Environmental Dept, Streets and Parks Dept, City Planning Office, Strategic HR Dept and the Sustainability Office) who are engaged in a participatory process where potential ways of bringing office work outdoors are being identified, tested and evaluated over a fifteen-month period. There are a number of relevant reasons for developing ways of increasing our regular exposure to natural elements, such as possible positive effects upon wellbeing, restoration and health, cognitive functioning, as well as on creativity and learning. As urban life increasingly is being spent indoors the aim here is to counteract this development by exploring ways of integrating urban outdoor spaces into everyday working life; the main knowledge-objective being a deeper understanding of work norms and forms contributing to a more innovative and sustainable working life.