Jytte Agergaard

Jytte Agergaard

Professor

Curriculum vitae - June 2019

 

Jytte Agergaard (Larsen) - Associate Professor 

 

Date of birth: 23 June 1960

Married with two grown up sons

 

Work:

Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management,

Section for Geography

University of Copenhagen

Oster Voldgade 10

DK-1350 Copenhagen

Denmark

                       

Tel: +45 353 22567

 

Email: ja@ign.ku.dk

 

 

Home:            

Classensgade 12

DK-2100 Copenhagen

Denmark

 

Cell: +45 2446 9856

 

 

Education and Employment

 

2002 -           Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Geology, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

1999              Teaching in Higher Education Certificate, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen

1999-02           Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen

1997-99           Research Fellow,Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen

1998              PhD, University of Copenhagen – thesis: ‘Unsettled Settlement: A Study of the Process of Migration from Lamjung District and Settlement in Chitwan District of Nepal’

1993-97           PhD student, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen

1991-93           High School Teacher, Rysensteen Gymnasium

1991    MSc (Human Geography), University of Copenhagen

1984    BA (History), University of Copenhagen

 

(April – October 1991 & February 1995-February 1996: Maternity leave)

 

 

 

Research Profile

Currently, my research seeks to explore the connections between climate change, migration and mobility and urbanization and how national and international policies on urbanization has implications for academic analyses of this phenomena. My research focuses on human mobility and migration dynamics in relation to rural-urban transformations and urbanization. For this, I critically scrutinize the importance of internal migration, multi-local livelihood arrangements and political and governance related challenges related to mobile livelihoods, urbanization and urban growth. I have primarily studied these processes in the contexts of development and globalization in Asia and Africa. I started out my research in Nepal, where I have continued my research engagement, and I have subsequently conducted extended fieldwork in Vietnam, South Africa, and Tanzania, and less intensively in other Asian and African countries. My research cuts across the fields of social, economic and development geography and includes a number of more particular interests: e.g. formal education and how it impacts on geographical and social inequities and mobilities; gender and generational aspects of new household arrangements; mobile citizenship and governance; migration biographies in relation to migration pathways; and residential mobility and urbanization.

 

 

Funding for Research

 

Climate-induced migration and transformative adaptation in Africa (CLIMA Africa) – Seed money form the Danish Research Council for preparing a full H2020 application

Climate Change Resilience in Urban Mobility (CLIMACCESS) (2010-2022) (Funded by FFU/Danida) – Principal Investigator of WP A – ‘Urban Mobility Patterns’, studying Extreme weather-induced flooding vulnerabilities and community resilience practice in Accra, Ghana

Rural-Urban Transformation (RUT): Governance, Mobility and Economic dynamics in Emerging Urban Centres for Poverty Reduction (2014-19) (Funded by FFU/Danida) – Researcher

Building Stronger Universities Phase II, Kathmandu University (2014-16) (Funded by Danida) Danish WP leader for WP1, ‘Liveable Urban Futures’

Rural City Connections in Sub-Saharan Africa (RurbanAfrica) (2012-2016) EU funded FP7 project including nine other partners than UCPH from Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon, Ghana, Netherlands, France and UK) (Principal investigator)

Nepal on the Move: Conflict, migration and stability (2011-2016) (Funded by FFU/Danida Principal Investigator of the sub-projectMovers, stayers and mobile citizenship building up a New Nepal’

Rural-urban dynamics in a globalizing world: changing livelihoods and settlement patterns in frontier regions of Africa and Asia (2005-2008) (Funded by FFU/Danida) – co-PI and responsible for the research on mobility and livelihood transformation in Vienam’s Coffee frontier

Local responses to global education reforms: Lessons learnt from decentralisation and community involvement in public schooling in Nepal (2004-2006) – (Funded by FFU/Danida) not completed due to the difficult security situation in Nepal – co-applicant

Public Education; The Road to Development? An investigation into Perceptions and Expectations of Modern Education in Nepal (2001-2004) – (Funded by FFU/Danida) – individual research funds for research into the implementation of education for all in the far-West of Nepal.

Socio-economic and socio-cultural consequences of population growth and internal migration in Nepal (1993-96) - (Funded by FFU/Danida) for individual PhD research.

 

Reviewing activities

 

I have undertaken peer reviews for academic positions at Nordic Universities, research applications (including private research foundations and ERC Advanced research grants) and book projects and journal papers. The latter includes reviews for the following journals: Population, Space and Place; World Development; European Journal of Development Research; Journal of Peasant Studies; Asian Population Studies; Development and Change; Diversities; Young; Population Research and Policy Review; Development Policy Review; Danish Journal of Geography.

 

  • Member of the academic reference group for Danida’s Development Grant Committee (2016-17) – the committee was closed down in 2017
  • External contributor and reviewer of African Economic Outlook 2015 on Regional Development and Spatial Inclusion, and 2016 on Sustainable Cities and Structural Transformations
  • Member of academic reference group for the SIDA supported Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET), (2007-2014) – the organization of the evaluation work changed in 2014
  • Member of the editorial board for Museum Tusculanum Press’ series on Migration, Mobility and Integration, (2007-2015)

 

Teaching

 

I am teaching in migration, urbanization and development at all levels, including field training, methodology and theory. I am currently responsible for two master’s courses: ‘International migration: flows, networks and diaspora’ and ‘Livelihoods and rural-urban connections in the Global South’. Since 2014, I have also been responsible for the course, ‘Transnational Actors and Local Place Making’ as part of the inter-disciplinary Master’s Programme, Global Development (at UCPH) – this engagement also includes internship and theses supervision. I have been responsible for running four PhD trainings and been invited speaker for many more. Since 2002, I have supervised 56 (+ five running) Master’s theses and 8 PhD theses (+ four running). I am external examiner in Geography in Denmark, and Social Sciences and Global Studies at Roskilde University and Aalborg University. Also, I have been in the evaluation committee of eight PhD theses.

 

 

PhD supervisions

 

PAST

Michael Helt Knudsen: ‘Livelihoods, mobility and settlement dynamics in Ghana's cocoa frontier’, 2008

Thao Thi Vu: ‘When women make ‘houses’: Female labour migration and family transition in rural Vietnam’, 2011

Birgitte Lind Pedersen: ‘Becoming citizens: Youth, schooling and citizenship in post-war rural Nepal’, 2011

Ana Mosneaga: ’Between Talent and migrant: International students’ status transition to foreign workers in Denmark’, 2012

Irene Velez-Torres: Political geographies of displacement by dispossession in Columbia: The case of afrodescendant communities in the Alto Cauca, 2013.

Marina Korzenevica: ‘Negotiating life chances: The lives of young people and socio-cultural change in rural eastern Nepal’, 2015.

Manja Hoppe Andreasen: ‘Suburbanization, intra-urban mobility and homeownership aspirations: Exploring processes and dynamics of urban expansion from the viewpoint of resident living in the periphery of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’, 2016

Binayak Thapa, ‘Migration, Development and Citizenship: An Ethnographic Case Study of Bhojpur VDC in Eastern Hills of Nepal’, 2017 (degree from Kathmandu University)

Ditte Rasmussen Brøgger, ‘The right to become urban: critical reflections on the dialectics between agency, social space and power in the production of the urban’. 2019

 

 

ON-GOING

 

Susanne Kirkegaard, ‘Exploring social dynamics in emerging urban centres in Tanzania: interrelations between migration, livelihood and gender’.

Festo Eziekel Maro, ‘Livelihood Effects of land-based foreign agricultural investments in rural Tanzania’, Double degree supervision between Sokoine Agricultural University (Tanzania) and University of Copenhagen.

Michael Bruce Byaruhanga, ‘Agricultural investments and labour migration in Uganda’, Double degree supervision between Makerere University (Uganda) and University of Copenhagen

 

Organizational engagements

 

During my career, I have been vastly engaged in trust’s duties, not least related to departmental and collegiate committees and responsibilities. This includes being staff representative (shop steward) for the academic staff and vice-chair of the department cooperation board. I have been engaged in institutional development work in relation to consecutive department mergers and strategic planning, including meeting management, presentations of organizational visions etc. For this, I have drawn on leadership training to excellence in the Danish Scout and Girl Guide Association (completed in 1986). Thus, organizational engagement and leadership has always crossed professional and private life, which more recently has included being chairman of my local cooperative housing association (2006-2018) and chairman of my female-only rowing club, Gefion (2018-).

 

  • Completed ‘Women in university leadership’ training at University of Copenhagen (2011-12)
  • Member of the advisory board for department merger between the then Department of Geography and Geology and Department of Forest and Landscape at University of Copenhagen (2011-12).
  • Staff representative for the academic staff (tillidsmand), Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen (2004-2010).
  • Vice-chair of the department cooperation board (samarbejdsudvalget), Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen (2004-2010).
  • Staff representative in the board overseeing the department project on ‘Development of Staff and Institutional Competencies’, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen (2001-2003).
  • Member of the committee responsible for the working environment (arbejdsmiljøudvalget) at the Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen (2000-2012).
  • Member of Ph.D. Standing Committee, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen (2000-2012)
  • Board Member, Danish Association of Development Researchers (2002-2012)

 

 

Publications International / peer-reviewed

 

Agergaard, J., Subedi, B &Brøgger DR. (in preparation) 'The micro-geopolitics of urban reclassification'

Brøgger DR. & Agergaard J. (2019) ‘The migration-urbanization nexus in Nepal’s exceptional urban transformation’. Population, Space and Place.

Agergaard, J, C. Tacoli, G. Steel & SB Ørtenblad (2019) ‘Revisiting Rural–Urban Transformations and Small Town Development in Sub-Saharan Africa’ (editorial for special issue), European Journal of Development Research, 31(1): 2-11.

Lazaro, E, Agergaard, J, Larsen, MN, Makindara, J & Birch-Thomsen, T (2019) Urbanisation in Rural Regions: The Emergence of Urban Centres in Tanzania’. European Journal of Development Research, 31(1): 72-94. (corresponding author)

Agergaard, J & SB Ørtenblad (2017) ‘Urban transformations and rural-city connections in Africa’ (editorial for special issue), Danish Journal of Geography, 117 (2): 62-67.

Andreasen, M. H., Agergaard, J., Kiunsi, R. & Namangaya, A. (2017) ‘Urban Transformations, migrations and residential mobility patterns in African secondary cities. Danish Journal of Geography, 117 (2): 93-104.

Lazaro, E, Agergaard, J, Larsen, MN, Makindara, J & Birch-Thomsen, T (2017) Rural Transformation and the Emergence of Urban Centers. IGN Report, University of Copenhagen.

Korzenevica, M., Agergaard, J. (2017) ‘”The house cannot stay empty”: young rural Nepalis negotiating multi-local householding’. The Asian Population Studies, 13(2): 124-139.

Tacoli, C., & Agergaard, J. (2017). Urbanisation, rural transformations and food systems: the role of small towns. IIED Publication, London.

Andreasen, M. H., Agergaard, J., & Møller-Jensen, L. (2017). ‘Suburbanisation, homeownership aspirations and urban housing: Exploring urban expansion in Dar es Salaam’. Urban Studies, 54(10): 2342-2359.

Manja Hoppe Andreasen, & Agergaard, J. (2016) ‘Residential Mobility and Homeownership in the Periphery of Dar es Salaam’. Population and Development Review. 42(1) 95-110.

Agergaard J. &Broegger DR. (2016) ‘Returning to home: Migrant connections and local development in rural Nepal’, Danish Journal of Geography. 116(1): 71-81.

Agergaard, J. 2016. African Rural-City Connections (RurbanAfrica): Final publishable summary report section of PROJECT FINAL REPORT. Submitted to the EU, June 2016.

Knudsen MH & Agergaard J. 2015. ‘Migration to the Ghanaian cocoa frontier: from pioneers to traders’, Geografiske Annaler, Series B, 97 (4): 1-18.

Velez-Torres I, Agergaard J 2014 ‘Political remittances, connectivity, and the trans-local politics of place: An alternative approach to the dominant narratives on ‘displacement’ in Colombia’, Geoforum, 53: 116-125

Mosneaga A, Agergaard J. 2012 ‘Agents of internationalisation? Danish universities’ practices for attracting international students’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 10(4): 519-538.

Thao VT, Agergaard J. 2012. ‘White cranes fly over black cranes’: the longue duree of rural-urban migration in Vietnam, Geoforum, 43(6): 1088-1098.

Thao VT, Agergaard J. 2012. '”Doing Family”: Female migrants and family transition’, Asian Population Studies. 8(1):103-119.

Agergaard J, Thao, VT. 2011.’Mobile, flexible, and adaptable: Female migrants in Hanoi's informal sector’, Population, Space and Place, 17(5):407-420

Mertz, O, Bruun, TB, Fog, B, Rasmussen, K & Agergaard, J. 2010. ’Sustainable land use in Tikopia: Food production and consumption in an isolated agricultural system’. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 31(1):10-26

Lind, B, Agergaard J. 2010 ‘How students fare: Everyday mobility and schooling in Nepal’s hill Region’. International Development Planning Review, 32(3-4): 311-331.

Bryceson DF, Gough K, Rigg J, Agergaard J. 2009. ‘Critical commentary: The World Development Report 2009’. Urban Studies. 46(4):723-738.

Agergaard J, Fold N, Gough K. 2009 ‘Global-local interactions: socio-economic and spatial dynamics in Vietnam's coffee frontier’, Geographical Journal. 175(2):133-145.

Agergaard J, Fold N, Gough K (eds.). 2009. Rural-urban Dynamics: livelihoods, mobility and markets in African and Asian frontiers. London: Routledge

Rigg J, Gough K, Bebbington, A, Bryceson DF, Agergaard J, Tacoli C, Fold N. 2009 ‘The World Development Report 2009 'reshapes economic geography': geographical reflections’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 34(2):128-136.

Carney S, Bista M. and Agergaard J 2007. 'Empowering' the 'local' through education?: Exploring community-managed schooling in Nepal. Oxford Review of Education. 33(5):611-628.

Agergaard J, Birch-Thomsen T. 2007. Transitional rural landscapes: the role of farming in former homelands of Post-Apartheid Kwa-Zulu Natal. Danish Journal of Geography (106(2)):87-102.

Agergaard, J. 2004.Public Education: The Road to Development? An Investigation into Perceptions and Expectations of Modern Education in Nepal. Research Report Presented to the Danish Council of Development Research.

Agergaard, J. 2001. ‘Challenges of Decentralizing Public Schooling in Nepal’, working paper, Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen.

Agergaard, J. 1999. ‘The Household as a Unit of Analysis: Reflections from Migration Research in Nepal. Danish Journal of Geography 99: 101-111.

Agergaard, J. 1999. ‘Settlement and Changing Land Use in the Chitwan District of Nepal’. Danish Journal of Geography:  11-19.

Agergaard, J. 1998. ‘Unsettled Settlement: A Study of the Process of Migration from Lamjung District and Settlement in Chitwan District, Nepal’. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen.

 

Publications in Danish

 

Agergaard, J. 2007.Land-by relationer og ’kaffeeventyret’ i Vietnams Centrale Højland. Dansk Geografi 2006. (Rural-urban relations and ‘the coffee adventure’ in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, in Danish Geography, 2006)

Agergaard, J. 2006. Befolkning I en globaliseret verden. In Anne-Lise Lykke-Andersen, Karl-Erik Christensen, Torben P. Jensen, Knud Selzner & Laust Wium-Olesen (red.) Naturgeografi, jorden og Mennesket. Geografforlaget: 293-318. (Population in a globalizing world, in Geography – Earth and Man – geography curriculum for Danish High Schools)

Agergaard, J., Poulsen, I, Hansen, AS & Paars, KK. 2003 ’Temanummer: Uddannelse og Udvikling’, Den Ny Verden, Vol. 36(1) (special issue on ‘Education and Development’ of The New World, Danish Journal for Development Studies)

Agergaard, J. & Poulsen, I. 2003. ’Kan uddannelse bane vejen for udvikling?’ Den Ny Verden, Vol. 36(1) (‘Will education become the road to development?’ in The New World, Danish Journal for Development Studies)

Agergaard, J. (2003) ‘Pigers skolegang i Nepal: Fra målsætning til praksis’. Den Ny Verden, Vol. 36(1) (‘Girls’ education in Nepal: From Idea to Practice’ in The New World, Danish Journal for Development Studies)

Agergaard, J. & Winther, L. (red.) 2003. Geografiernes globalisering - geografi om globalisering, Akademisk Forlag, København. (edited  volume - Globalising geographies and geography about globalization – for teaching in Higher Education in Denmark)

Agergaard, J. & Winter, L. 2003) Er verden ude af kontrol?, i Agergaard, J. & Winther, L. (red.), Geografiernes globalisering - geografi om globalisering, Akademisk Forlag, København. (‘Is the world out of control?), in Globalising geographies and geography about globalization – for teaching in Higher Education in Denmark)

Agergaard, J. 2003. ‘En verden uden grænser? Overvejelser om sammenhængen mellem globaliserings- og migrationsprocesser’, i Agergaard, J. & Winther, L. (red.), Geografiernes globalisering - geografi om globalisering, Akademisk Forlag, København. (‘A World without borders? Reflections about the interrelations of globalization- and migration processes’, in Globalising geographies and geography about globalization – for teaching in Higher Education in Denmark)

Agergaard, J. 2001. Folk i bevægelse. Ansatser til en (praksis)tilgang inden for udviklings- og migrationsstudier, i Simonsen, K. (red.), Praksis, rum og mobilitet – socialgeografiske bidrag. København: Samfundslitteratur: 207-237.

Agergaard, J. 2000. ’Befolkning i bevægelse’, i Dolin, J. (m.fl.), Geografiske Verdensbilleder. København, Gyldendal Uddannelse: 220-247.

Agergaard, J. 2000. Et liv i Nepals bjerge. Geografisk Orientering 30 (2), temanummer ’Bjerge’: 342-349.

Agergaard, J. 1999. Forskning om migration i udviklingslande. Geo-Nyt 38: 26-32.

 

 

Presentations

 

 

2018             Paper presentation: ‘State-citizen relations of rural-urban migrants in Nepal’, with Ditte Broegger & Binayak Thapa – workshop at Aarhus University, 14-15 May 2018 on Social and political transformation in Nepal: Ethnographic perspectives on state-citizen relations, as preparation for special issue of Journal of South Asian Studies, 2019.

 

2017             Paper presentation: ‘Living in-between: Mobility practices of rural youth in the wake of Nepal’s migration surge’, presentation with Marina Korzenevica, 5th International Conference on Children and Youth, Loughborough, UK, September 2017.

 

2017             Paper presentation: (Re-)configurations Migration Pathways in Nepal. Temporal and Spatial Perspectives’ Presented for the Panel: ‘Mobility, generation and temporality’ at the American Association for Nepalese and Himalayan Studies Conference, Boulder, Colorado, September 2017.

 

2017             Paper presentation: ‘The role of small towns in Africa: sketching a (new) research agenda’, presented together with Cecilia Tacoli, European Conference of African Studies, Basel, July 2017.

 

2017             Paper presentation: ‘The emergence of urban centres: Perspectives on the Intertwinement of Rural Transformation and Urbanization in Tanzania’, presented with Evelyne Lazaro, Torben Birch-Thomsen & Marianne Nylandsted Larsen, European Conference of African Studies, Basel, July 2017.

 

2017             Paper presentation: ‘Young people’s future-making and urban co-creation in small urban centres’, presented with Susanne Kirkegaard, Nordic Geographers’ Meeting, Stockholm, May 2017.

 

2016             Poster presentation: ‘Politics of Urban re-classification in Nepal’, prepared together with Bhim Prasad Subedi, Ditte Rasmussen Brøgger & Sagar Sharma, presented at Urban Transitions Global Summit, Shanghai, September 2016.

 

2016             Organization of the RurbanAfrica Scientific Conference, Copenhagen January 2016.

 

2015             Paper presentation: ‘Rural transformation, human mobility, and ‘ordinary urbanization(s)’, for the panel: Rural-Urban Transformations and Human Mobility at the N-SEA workshop on Security and Migration, Helsinki, October 2015

 

2015             Paper presentations: ‘Making home away from home: Exploring domestic educational migrants in Nepal and their home-making process’, presentation with Ditte Rasmussen Brøgger, the 23rd ECSAA Conference European Conference on South Asian Studies), University of Zürich (Switzerland), July 2014.

 

2013             Paper presentation: ‘Demographic Shifts and ‘Rural’ Urbanization in Tanzania during the 2000s´with Sarah D’haen and Torben Birch-Thomsen, at the panel Urbanization as the New Global Frontier, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, August 2013

 

2013             Organizing the Panel: Urbanization as the New Global Frontier, RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, August 2013 together with Katherine V. Gough.

 

2009             Paper presentation: ‘Re-making migration theory: intersections and cross-fertilisations’ Population Geography Research Group of the RGS-IBG Conference, 13-14 May 2009’, Agergaard: ‘Livelihoods involving fixities and flows: Exploring the mobility-migration nexus.

 

2008              Paper presentation: Verona Conference for the European Society for Oceanites. Katherine V. Gough, Jytte Agergaard, Torben Birch-Thomsen and Andres Egelund Christensen: ‘Mobility in the Solomon Island: place, livelihood and identity on Bellona, Ontong Java and Tikopia’

2007              Paper presentation: Paper Session 4350 – Rethinking Frontiers in Southeast Asia. The 2007 Meeting of the AAG, April 17-21 2007, San Francisco. Agergaard, J., Fold, N: & Gough, K. ‘Global-local Interactions: Socio-economic and Spatial Dynamics in Vietnamese Frontiers’,

 

2007              Paper presentation: CLIP Conference, Copenhagen, 22-23 August 2007. Agergaard, J., Mertz, O. & Fog, B., ‘Sustainability of the Tikopian sustainable microcosm.

2005              ‘Empowering’ the ‘local’ through education? Exploring community managed schooling in Nepal’, presentation at the UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, Oxford 2005 (with Stephen Carney and Min Bahadur Bista)

 

2004    ’Piger og Uddannelse - Menneskeret eller samfundspligt?’, Præsentation hos IBIS,            Marts 2004.

 

2003              ’Uddannelse til at være en god mor – eller hvorfor piger skal have en uddannelse’
Præsentation på FAU seminar, Marts 2003

 

2002.             ‘Who wants girls to be educated? Combating gender inequalities in Nepalese education’ – paper presented at Panel no. 46: ‘Education and Social Change in South Asia: 1900-2002’ at the 17th European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies, Heidelberg, September 2002

 

2002              ’Er uddannelse også for piger? Eller hvorfor er det så svært at skabe lighed for alle mht. skolegang i Nepal’. Foredrag i Dansk-Nepalesisk Selskab.

 

2002              ’Er uddannelse vejen til udvikling? Geografiske betragtninger om moderniseringen af det nepalesiske uddannelsessystem’. Foredrag i det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab, March 2002

 

2001              ‘Challenging gender inequalities through educational reforms in Nepal’. Paper presented at Nordic Symposium of Critical Geography, Oslo, October.

 

2000               ‘Public Education: The Road to Development?’ Paper presented at the International conference on Immigrant Societies and Modern Education, Singapore, August-September 2000.

 

1999              ‘Migration Histories: Reconsidering the Biographical Approach to Migration and Settlement Research’. Paper presented at the International Conference on Development Geography, Vaasa, June.

 

1999              ‘The Socio-cultural Significance of Minor Crops and Wild Plants’, poster presented at ‘Methodology Workshop on Environmental Services and Land Use Change’, Chiang Mai, Thailand, June – co-authored with. Hanne Christensen and Ole Mertz

 

1998              ‘Unsettled Settlement: Perspectives on the Settlement Process in Chitwan District, Nepal’. Paper presented at annual meeting of American Geographers (AAG), Boston, March.

 

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