Gunhild Setten

Gunhild Setten is a Professor of Social Geography at NTNU's Department of Geography and Social Anthropology, serving as Deputy Head of Department for research (Jan-Aug 2025). Her work focuses on human-nature relationships, moral geographies, and socio-natural landscapes. She has conducted fieldwork in Norway, Australia, Sweden, and the UK, including research stays at the University of Melbourne, Gothenburg University, and the James Hutton Institute. Her research explores outdoor recreation ethics, agricultural policies, heritage management, and species politics through qualitative methods.

Key themes include: moral judgments in landscape management, contested environmental values, and the interplay between local knowledge and scientific frameworks in disaster risk reduction. Her recent work analyzes migrant integration in Norwegian outdoor spaces and the role of ecosystems in climate adaptation. She co-edited Landscape, Law and Justice - 20 years (2024) and contributed to Nature, temporality and environmental management (2017).

Her articles critically examine topics like biodiversity offsetting in Uganda, community resilience in flood-prone areas, and the socio-cultural dimensions of invasive species. She has engaged in interdisciplinary projects on ecosystem services and participatory governance, emphasizing practical applications of geographical theories.