Earlier this spring, I had the chance to spend time at Mid Sweden University in Östersund as part of my ongoing doctoral research within the VIMAS Marie Curie network and for my first of two secondment research stays. The purpose of the visit was clear: to deepen collaboration across the Nordic region through our Marie Curie project, foster intellectual exchange between institutions, and gain valuable feedback on my own work in visitor monitoring and management —while also exploring the landscapes and methodologies shaping the field in Sweden first hand. Spending this time in Sweden where my co-supervisor Sandra Wall-Reinius is based, my work package leader Peter Fredman is based, and two members of my VIMAS consortium also work, was the perfect change of academic environment to stimulate new perspectives on the development of my project, with the current phase of research I’m undertaking.
My time in Östersund was not only academically enriching but also personally and professionally transformative. As a Canadian researcher based at the University of Iceland, this was my first opportunity to engage directly with the ETOUR research group—a major player in European tourism research. Being an extremely lively, and international faculty, I was allowed the opportunity to meet with a wide range of researcher’s, specializing in a vast tropical landscape; while collaborating, planning, and discussing my project, its current phase and its trajectory. The experience helped contextualize my work in citizen science within a broader Nordic framework, offering a rare view into how collaborative, interdisciplinary visitor monitoring and management research is conducted in Sweden.
One of the central components of the visit was giving a seminar to ETOUR and VIMAS-affiliated researchers. I presented the foundations of my ongoing PhD work, which focuses on developing a values-based framework for citizen science in visitor monitoring and management, grounded in local priorities, co-creation, and effective/proper use of Citizen Science. The seminar sparked some critical feedback, discussions, and thoughtful questions, particularly around the translatability of my Icelandic case study into other Nordic contexts, the focus on smarter monitoring techniques and how that will be used, and evaluative feedback on the framework I’m seeking to create. It was illuminating to have researchers so embedded in Sweden’s outdoor recreation and tourism landscape weigh in on the methodological aspects and feasibility of my approach, a truly invaluable experience for me as a newer researcher. This seminar also allowed me to reflect in a more big picture manner on my overall project, while familiarising the ETOUR members on what I’m doing, with the potential of contributing to ongoing projects in Citizen Science elements.
Beyond the seminar room, a major highlight was the opportunity to take part in two field excursions designed to showcase applied visitor monitoring and management in action, while partaking in outdoor recreation in the trails my fellow PhD VIMAS consortium members are familiar with. The first was a trip to Edsåsdalen—a mountain village and skiing destination within the Åre Municipality known for its scenic trails and evolving strategies around sustainable tourism and nature access, during the last weeks of Spring skiing season in Easter, one of the busiest times of the year. This area features year round tourism, as an extremely prevalent summer destination for fishing, biking and hiking as well, and more and more markets itself as an all year tourism destination.
Joined by VIMAS members, like Elena Pibernik and Coen van Bendegom, and some ETOUR staff, we explored the recreational infrastructure through skiing and informal group discussion, as well as chats with local ski hut and rental companies about the landscape of visitors within the region. These shared outdoor moments gave life to the theoretical conversations we’d been having, helping to ground our ideas in the physical and cultural terrain of Sweden, while actually being present within the outdoor recreational landscape to understand how things were actually being constructed in larger tourism spheres in this region.
The second excursion took us to Tysjöarna Bird Sanctuary, a protected wetland, nature reserve and Ramsar site of importance, just outside the city. It’s a 424.0 ha piece of land, crucial for waterfowl and migratory birds within the area, showcasing naturally occurring lime lakes and marl fields (Rsis Ramsar, 2016). This site was particularly fascinating from a visitor monitoring standpoint, as it integrates urban access with sensitive ecological management, in extremely close proximity to the city. The sanctuary features a network of accessible trails designed with inclusivity in mind—a rare example of integrating accessibility into environmental management from the ground up. Here, we saw firsthand how bird monitoring and recreational planning intersect, and how visitor data is used to shape trail design, manage visitor pressure, and protect biodiversity. This visit highlighted how deeply embedded ideas of social sustainability and environmental justice are within Swedish public recreational space design, offering direct relevance to my own work on inclusive citizen science. This excursion was also accompanied by members of the VIMAS consortium, offering time for open dialogue, collaborative thought, and expert knowledge exchange.
Throughout the week, I also had the chance to sit down with researchers from ETOUR and Mid Sweden University, exchanging notes on how various institutions structure their projects, manage research dissemination, and foster cross-institutional collaboration. Meeting with Daniel Laven, Peter Fredman and Robert Pettersson were of particular interest to get perspective not only on my own project, but really understand how things worked at MIUN within the projects being worked on, and past work that they had been part of in their careers. These behind-the-scenes insights were just as valuable as the fieldwork—particularly in understanding the different institutional cultures and expectations within the VIMAS network, and how other institutions function compared to my current host University.
The most striking aspect of my experience was the balance between rigorously challenging academic work and the culture of cooperation, reflectiveness, and sociality that pervaded every encounter. Sweden's model in engaging with guests—particularly on matters of access, co-creation, multi-stakeholder governance, and sustainability, is one I hope to integrate more explicitly into the path of my own work. The discussions I engaged in throughout this process will definitely inform the future phases of my citizen science evaluatory framework development.
This trip encapsulated the VIMAS program's overall objectives: building cooperation between nations and institutions, creating exchanges of innovative ideas, and anchoring abstract theory in empirical reality through shared experience. Leaving Östersund, I felt refreshed, invigorated, and ever more inspired in my doctoral academic journey with my VIMAS colleagues.
