Nordregio is an international research institute established by the Nordic Council of Ministers

Senior Research Fellow & Staff Manager

Elin Slätmo

Home Staff Elin Slätmo

Human geographer specialised in regional and local planning, urban-rural relations and agricultural geography. Research interests in governance models, territorial and multi-level governance, energy transition, sustainable development, actor-structure relations, resilience and participatory methods.

Spatial Story

Slätmo is my family name but also the name of a farm stead in the Swedish landscape Närke. According to a formal letter hanging on the wall at my parents’ house, the farm has been traced back to have been in my family since the 1600s. The meaning of Slätmo can be translated as a form of very fine-grained soil. This might have influenced me to spend four years investigating governance of soils and agricultural land in Sweden and Norway in my PhD thesis.

I am a trained human geographer and a social environmental scientist at the School of Business, Economics and Law in Gothenburg. I moved to Uppsala in 2015, to pursue a postdoc-position at the Swedish university of agricultural sciences. There, at the department of urban and rural development, I was working in a transdisciplinary team of researchers. We did scenario analysis of the future of Swedish agriculture and critically investigated agricultural sustainability. I also had some time to further the studies in governance of soils, policy and planning. I started work as a Senior Research Fellow at Nordregio in 2017, and I enjoy the diversity of the work tasks both regarding concepts, research themes and methods.

Publications

Slätmo, E., Bruno, K. B., & Berchoux, T. (2026). The evolving landscape of farmland ownership in Europe: Implications for food system sustainability. Land Use Policy, 160, 107837. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107837

J. Liljenfeldt, E. Slätmo, D.H.B. Gamez, M. Odai, (2025). When EU goes local: An analysis of the alignment between EU and national energy policies and the needs of local energy initiatives, Energy Policy, Volume 205, 2025, 114681, ISSN 0301-4215, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114681.

Slätmo, E., & Bogason, Á. (2024). Nordic rural policies for future service needs. Nordisk Administrativt Tidsskrift, 101(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7577/nat.5800

Slätmo, E., Nilsson, K. & Huynh, D. (2022) The role of the state in preserving urban green infrastructure – National Urban Parks in Finland and Sweden, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2021.1949968

Slätmo, E. and Kristensen, I. (2021) Urban–Rural Linkages. An Inquiry into Second-Home Tourism in the Nordics. Chapter 15 in Bański, J. 2021 (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Small Towns (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003094203

Refsgaard, K., Kull, M., Slätmo, E., & Meijer, M. W. (2020). Bioeconomy – a driver for regional development in the Nordic countries. New Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2020.10.001

Slätmo, E.; Nilsson, K.; Turunen, E. (2019) Implementing Green Infrastructure in Spatial Planning in Europe. Land 2019, 8, 62. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/8/4/62

Slätmo, E. (2019). Land for agriculture? Conflicts and synergies between land use in two parts of Scandinavia. Fennia – International Journal of Geography, 197(1), 25-39. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.63074

Slätmo, E. (2018). Financialisation and the Swedish Land Acquisition Act. . In H. Bjørkhaug, Magnan, A. and Lawrence, G. (Ed.), The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems. Contested Transformations. (pp. 281-298): Routledge: Earthscan Food and Agriculture. https://www.routledge.com/The-Financialization-of-Agri-Food-Systems-Contested-Transformations/Bjorkhaug-Magnan-Lawrence/p/book/9781138068513

Slätmo, E. (2017). Preservation of Agricultural Land as an Issue of Societal Importance. Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, 4(1): 2, 1–12, DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/rl.39

Slätmo, E., Fischer, K. and Röös, E. (2017). The Framing of Sustainability in Sustainability Assessment Frameworks for Agriculture. Sociologia Ruralis, 57(3), p. 378-395. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12156

Slätmo, E. (2016). Challenges in Agricultural Land Management – A Scandinavian perspective on Contextual Variations and Farmers’ Room to Manoeuvre. In Head, L., Saltzman, K., Setten, G. & Stenseke, M. (Eds.), Nature, Temporality and Environmental Management: Scandinavian and Australian perspectives on peoples and landscapes. (ISBN: 978-1-47-246465-1). Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, p. 169-185. https://www.routledge.com/Nature-Temporality-and-Environmental-Management-Scandinavian-and-Australian/Head-Saltzman-Setten-Stenseke/p/book/9781472464651

Slätmo, E. (2014). Jordbruksmark i förändring. Drivkrafter bakom och förutsättningar för offentlig styrning i Sverige och Norge. Meddelanden från Göteborgs universitets geografiska institutioner. Avhandlingar. Serie B, nr 125, Göteborg. ISBN 91-86472-73-9. https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/37012

Beilin, R., Lindborg, R., Stenseke, M., Pereira, H.M., Llausàs, A., Slätmo, E., Cerqueira, Y., Navarro, L., Rodrigues, P., Reichelt, N., Munro, N., & Queiroz, C. (2014). Analysing how drivers of agricultural land abandonment affect biodiversity and cultural landscapes using case studies from Scandinavia, Iberia and Oceania. Land Use Policy, 36(0), 60-72.

Stenseke, M., Lindborg, R., Dahlberg, A. & Slätmo, E. (2012). System or arena? Conceptual concerns around the analysis of landscape dynamics. I Bieling, C. & Plieninger, T. (Red.), Resilience and the cultural landscape: Understanding and managing change in human-shaped environments. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 80-94.

Related Research Projects
Ongoing
Recognizing and Supporting Psychological Resilience: Regional Approaches Across the Nordic Countries State of the Nordic Region Nordic thematic groups 2025-2027 Giving Rural Actors Novel data and re-Useable tools to Lead public Action in Rural areas (GRANULAR) Evaluation of Åland Rural Programme 2014-2027
Finished
Nordic thematic groups 2021-2024 Robust Regional Preparedness Strategies to address rural labour shortage Collaborative Regional Leadership Service provision and access to services in Nordic rural areas – secure, trusted and for all ages Local ownership in transitions towards sustainable energy systems (ELO) Defining Värmland The Sustainable Hub to Engage in Rural Policies with Actors (SHERPA) Carbon Neutral Islands Trend analysis for Bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region Digitalisation in rural and sparsely populated areas – joint Nordic-Baltic learning Urban-rural flows of seasonal tourists – local planning challenges and strategies Agenda 2030 GRETA – Green infrastructure: enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services for territorial development
Related Publications
Recipe book for regional development: How to improve your community? Terra Nordica: The Nordic Land-Negotiation Game Local ownership of sustainable energy Lokalt ägandeskap av hållbar energi Gotland’s community biogas initiative Austerland Energi – energy transition for local development Robust civil preparedness in the Nordic Region Stabil civil beredskap i Norden Strategies to address Nordic rural labour shortage Robust regional civil preparedness in the Nordic Region Inclusive green transition using wind in Bornholm Powering up Värmland with water Local energy production in action: Igelbodaplatån Essential Service Provision and Access to Services in Nordic Rural Areas Service provision and access to services in Nordic rural areas Essential rural services in the Nordic Region – Challenges and opportunities Agenda 2030 och hållbarhetsmålen på lokal nivå Ålands Utvärderarnas fördjupade årsrapport för 2019 Compact cities trigger high use of second homes in the Nordic Region Agenda 2030 and SDGs at the local level – a brief start-up guide State of the Nordic Region 2020 Urban–rural flows from seasonal tourism and second homes: Planning challenges and strategies in the Nordics Ålands Utvärderarnas fördjupade årsrapport för 2018 Green Infrastructure – Strategic land use Globala mål för lokala prioriteringar: Agenda 2030 på lokal nivå Global goals for local priorities: The 2030 Agenda at local level Evaluation Report 2018
Related Events
Tackling rural labour shortages: challenges, strategies and solutions Nordic Day in Sweden: A sustainable energy transition – for a secure Nordic Region The missing multiplier Ruralities and Regions in Transition Webbseminarium: Återhämtning efter covid-19 på Åland Webinar: How does second homes and seasonal tourism affect Nordic municipalities? Agenda 2030 at the local level: What’s next? BioWiseTrans Final Conference: “People and Networks Matter – Enabling Sustainable Bioeconomy Transition” GENERATION 2030: Global Goals for Local Priorities Agenda 2030 at the local level Lunch seminar on Agenda 2030 in the Nordic Region, Umeå PECSRL 2018 – European landscapes for quality of life?
Related News
New Nordic declaration highlights psychological resilience as key to societal security Can sustainable food policies build stronger, healthier communities? A guide to owning energy locally How to boost robust regional civil preparedness? Nordregio Hosts Norwegian and Swedish Ministries Working with Municipal Policies Locally produced energy: Solar energy on the rooftops in Nacka and a windmill park in Bornholm Making Europe – and especially rural areas – climate neutral Can local ownership facilitate the transition towards greener energy systems? Highly topical research project maps out possibilities and challenges How developments on agricultural land are threatening food self-sufficiency: Nordregio researcher on the radio UppTalk 29 March: Local communities need local energy production SHERPA project working towards sustainable multi-actor platforms Nordregio – part of the Rural Revitalisation Thematic Group Nordregio and SLU host a conference “Ruralities and Regions in Transition” Second-home population needs more attention in Nordic policy and spatial planning State authorities can and should support urban green infrastructure – New Article Bioeconomy – a super force for the Nordic region? “Radical, equal, innovative and attractive” – The future for rural Europe? Webbseminarium – Återhämtning efter covid-19 på Åland: Kapital och Kompetensförsörjning Nordregio joins Swedish “Local 2030 Hub” – plans for broader network Agenda 2030 at the local level – the work continues Urban–rural flows from seasonal tourism and second homes: New report published Realizing Agenda 2030 – the local way A Sustainable policy hub for rural actors – SHERPA Green Infrastructure: a successful tool in strategic land use planning Seasonal tourists and second homes boost local economies, but challenge local service planning Nordregio researchers involved in a series of new publications
Related Maps
Community Impact by second home users in 2018 Second Homes in 2010-2017 Second Homes in 2017 Community Impact by second home users in 2017
Contact

elin.slatmo@nordregio.org
+46 708962709

LinkedIn

Academic qualifications

PhD in Human Geography (University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2014)

MSc in Human and Economic Geography (University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2009)

MSc in Environmental Science with Specialization in Environmental Planning (University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2009)

Languages

Swedish (mother tongue)

English (fluent)

Norwegian (working knowledge)

Danish (working knowledge)

Prior positions

2015-2017: Post-doctoral researcher and research fellow at the division of Rural Development, Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

2009-2015: PhD-student, lecturer and research fellow at the unit of Human Geography, Department of Economy and Society, University of Gothenburg

2009-2015: Associate Member of the research group Landscape and Planning at the unit of Human Geography, University of Gothenburg