UTOPIAN W.C. 01/THE JURY
Rebecka Lettervall
Photo:
Björn
Larsson
Rebecka
Lettevall
is
a
Doctor
of
Philosophy.
She
is
a
researcher
at
Lund
University
and
her
focus
is
the
relation
between
the
cosmopolitic
and
the
patriotic.
Her
dissertation,
a
contribution
to
the
history
of
ideas,
is
a
study
of
the
German
philosopher
Immanuel
Kant's
monograph
Zum
ewigen
Frieden
(Perpetual
peace)
and
its
influence
over
time.
R.L.
teaches
at
the
University
College
of
Södertörn
in
Stockholm
an
has
a
past
as
journalist
and
publisher.
Edward W. Soja
Photo: Andres Roderiguez-Pose (source: UCLA)
Professor at the UCLA in the Department of Urban Planning. Visiting Centennial Professor in the Cities Programme at London School of Economics.
Professor Soja teaches in the regional and international development area of Urban Planning and in a new field he describes as critical urban studies. After starting his academic career as a specialist on Africa, Dr. Soja has focused his research and writing over the past 20 years on making practical and theoretical sense of the urban restructuring processes that have so dramatically changed the Los Angeles region since the 1960s. His wide-ranging studies of Los Angeles bring together traditional political economy approaches with new critical cultural studies of race, class, and gender; and a particular sensitivity to what he calls the "spatiality of social life."
In addition to his work on urban restructuring in Los Angeles, Dr. Soja continues to write about how social scientists and philosophers think about space and spatiality, especially in relation to how they think about time and history. He is the author of Postmodern Geographies (1989), Thirdspace (1996), and, most recently, Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (2000).
Bo Södersten
Bo Södersten started his academic career with a Master of Political Science at Uppsala University. Later he went on to London School of Economics, Harward and MIT. 1964 he defended his doctor's thesis in Stockholm. He started as a researcher and later professor at Lund University but soon he went on to University of California, Berkeley where he held a professorial chair. He returned to Sweden in 1971, also the publishing year of the first edition of his famous textbook on international economics. During the eighties he lived in Stockholm and there he became a member of parliament representing the Swedish Social Democratic Party. After several years as a professor at Lund University he came to Jönköping International Business School when his wife Birgit Friggebo became Governor of the County of Jönköping.
In
addition
to
this,
Professor
Södersten
has
written
a
great
number
of
books
and
also
taken
active
part
in
society
as
debater
and
critic,
mainly
in
the
Swedish
newspapers
Svenska
Dagbladet,
Dagens
Nyheter
and
Sydsvenska
Dagbladet.
(source
text/photo:
IHH)
Sverker Sörlin
Sverker Sörlin is professor of environmental history at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Umeå, Sweden. His interests encompass a wide range of problems in the fields of history of science, environmental history, research policy, human ecology, and third world issues. Since jan 1 2000 he is director and head of research at the Swedish Institute for Studies of Education and Research in Stockholm. He was Associate Director at the Center for History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1988-1990, visiting professor at The University of California, Berkeley 1993 and Swedish scholar at the European Commission 1995. He is a member of the board for Commission International pour l'Histoire des Universités and was a member of The Swedish Governments Research Advisory Board 1994-98. He is a member of IVA (Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences), a board member of The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Vice President of The Journalist Foundation and 1997-99 board member of the Swedish National Board of Antiquities. 1986-1991 he was editor of Tvärsnitt: Humanistisk och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning, a popular journal published by the Swedish Council for Humanities and the Social Sciences and writes since 1985 for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
In English, French and German he has published numerous articles and essays, and co-edited two books. Among his books in Swedish are Naturkontraktet (The Nature Contract; 1991), a history of Western ideas on nature that was nominated for the 1992 August prize of non-fiction.