Mine Islar

Mine Islar is a Senior Lecturer and Docent at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), part of Lund University's Faculty of Social Sciences. She serves as Principal Investigator for BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate) and is a Profile Area Member for both Nature-based Future Solutions and The Energy Transition at Lund University.

Dr. Islar's research focuses on the politics of transformative change for sustainable futures and the political agency of change. She explores collective movements for sustainability through case studies including citizen municipalism in Barcelona and renewable energy cooperativism in locations such as Samsö island (Denmark) and South Lalitpur (Nepal). Her work reworks concepts of political community and ecological citizenship as a 'new politics of obligation,' where humans have ethical responsibilities to non-humans including animals, trees, and mountains. She believes conventional conceptions of justice and citizenship lack adequate tools for resolving today's ecological challenges.

Her recent publications show strong focus on energy justice, degrowth alternatives, transformative governance, and diverse values of nature. The research demonstrates increasing attention to the intersection of climate change, social justice, and political transformation across Europe, Nepal, and other regions facing sustainability challenges. Her work employs diverse methodological approaches including qualitative case studies, policy analysis, and participatory research methods.

• NATURICE: Exploring plural values of human-nature relationships in glacierized environments (funded by FORMAS, 2023-2027)
• Post-growth welfare systems (funded by Lund University Agenda 2030)
• Double transitions of energy in Nepal (funded by VR Development grant, 2023-2027)
• Ecological citizen and politicization after the right to the city movements (funded by VR, 2015-2018)

Dr. Islar teaches MESS 34 Governance for Sustainability, MESS 56 Popular Culture, and a PhD Course on Degrowth and Sustainability Studies. Her work contributes significantly to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to climate action, sustainable cities, and reduced inequalities. She has served as a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), developing methodological frameworks for pluralistic valuation of nature.