Madeleine Bonow

In active in two projects right now:

Tick-borne Diseases and Public Health
Project start: 2025-09-01 Project end: 2029-08-31
Project leader: Patrik Dinnétz Other participants: Shafqat Ahmad, Therese Jantzén, Mona Petersson

Our project is based on a socio-eco-epidemiological framework to assess the risk of tick-borne diseases in Stockholm County. Researchers from multiple disciplines collaborate to analyze public health risks and develop strategies to manage them. We examine whether different types of peri-urban green spaces show variations in tick density and the presence of tick-borne pathogens, as well as whether these areas attract different numbers of visitors depending on the characteristics of surrounding residential areas.

In addition, we study visitors’ attitudes and awareness regarding ticks and tick-borne diseases, as well as their movement patterns and behaviors that may influence infection risk. By answering these questions, we aim to contribute to improved public health and create safer outdoor environments.

The second project is

European Urban Community Gardening: A Social Innovation in a Time of Turbulence (GARDIN) 2024–2026 Other participants: Oksana Peuluck

Project leader: Marine Elbakidze

This project (GARDIN) aims to explore how Urban Community Gardening (UG), as a form of social innovation (SI), can be used to address current challenges in sustainable urban development in both Western and Eastern Europe. UG refers to plots of land collectively managed by members of a gardening association for urban cultivation. These gardens are located in parks, courtyards, or unused spaces within cities. UGs are organized by those who garden together and can be considered a grassroots movement working to create positive change in local communities. GARDIN will primarily focus on UTs that actively participate in the management of urban green spaces.

GARDIN will be implemented in Sweden, Georgia, and Ukraine, representing the diversity of political, cultural, and socio-economic challenges currently facing urban development in Eastern and Western Europe. Sweden is undergoing rapid demographic and cultural changes. Immigration, including the recent influx of migrants from Syria and Ukraine, is one of the central factors driving this transformation. Socio-economic polarization among immigrants and native Swedes, along with growing inequality, poses major challenges for developing sustainable living environments that meet the needs of all residents in increasingly multicultural cities. Georgia and Ukraine have experienced radical changes in governance systems and socio-economic structures since the 1990s, followed by various crises largely caused by the transition from planned to market economies. Armed conflicts, particularly the recent large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, have dramatically increased instability across the region and worsened living conditions.

Over a three-year period, GARDIN will explore UG as a social innovation and its potential for broader societal impact in (re)building inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities in different European contexts, in line with SDG 11. A transdisciplinary framework for social innovation using a systems approach will be applied to study the interdependent processes and outcomes of UG as SI. The project will also assess the results and impacts of UG as SI at different levels and analyze their scalability potential for sustainable urban development in Europe

I have been involved in a project called Sustainable Communities through Digital. In the project the purpose is to investigate the role of digital design as a contributor and carrier of meaning in sustainability activists movements within urban agriculture but also to contribute to the body of knowledge about the sustainability of community gardens and this new form of citizen-led initiatives, with the ambition of creating a debate about the best way to sustain and develop these initiatives. We argue that although community gardening may provide leverage for means of developing a sustainable city, it is a marginal phenomenon and contributes little to sustainable development its present form. The project has made studies of community gardening in Sweden, Poland, England and Germany.

Another project that i have been involved in is Horse-keeping in the transforming per urban landscape. The project analyse sustainable cultural landscapes through the lens of ecosystem services. The study focuses on transformation of the peri-urban landscape of the Stockholm region, Sweden. Peri-urban landscapes are characterized by diversified and fragmented land uses that are strongly related to urban lifestyles. The rapidly increasing trend for recreational horse keeping is replacing traditional agriculture. Horse keepers and local government perspectives on horse keeping are examined, as well as the related demand for ecosystem services, which affects the landscape.

I have also finnished research in a three year project that has the title: The story of crucian carp in the Baltic Sea region History and a possible future, founded by the Baltic Sea foundation Research leader Håkan Olsén.

The overall purpose of this research project was to focus, in an interdisciplinary perspective, on the history and current status of the fish crucian carp, Carassius carassius (L.), in the Baltic Sea region, and to evaluate the species´ future potential in aquaculture on a local basis. It is very likely that the escalating problems in world fisheries and aquaculture based on predatory fish will result in increasing interest in omnivorous and herbivore species. This will give species such as crucian carp and tench (Tinca tinca L.) a renaissance as a food source in the northern hemisphere. The project is composed of three closely interlinked parts. One part is based on the history of the crucian carp in human use and the second part on its possible future use in aquaculture. The third part of the project will focus on the origin and routes of spreading of crucian carp in Sweden and the Baltic region