University of Gothenburg
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Eva Maria Jernsand

Senior Lecturer

Department of Business Administration
Telephone
+46 31-786 14 59
Mail
eva.maria.jernsand@handels.gu.se
Visiting address
Vasagatan 1
41124 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 610
40530 Göteborg

About Eva Maria Jernsand

My PhD studies were based on a transdisciplinary research project in Kisumu, Kenya. The project was partly funded by Mistra Urban Futures and their local interaction platform in Kisumu. I worked with other PhD students, practitioners and residents in the fishing village Dunga by Lake Victoria. Our common aim was to develop the place for ecotourism purposes. My research was about understanding and developing participatory place branding. It includes what it is about and how it comes about, and what is needed for place branding and other development work to become participatory. I worked closely with a PhD student from design, Helena Kraff (HDK). We integrated marketing and design to reach community participation and to develop processes, methods and tools together with the local community. The research was both pragmatic and critical. For example, we developed a spiral model of tourism experience innovation where the specific characteristics of experiences are considered. We also discussed who is left out and who has the power in participatory processes. We criticized consensus thinking in place branding since it does not correspond with the multifaceted nature of places or the pluralistic point of democracy and participation. A lot of the work focused on understanding transdisciplinary research, since it is based in a developing country in a project where research and practice were intertwined and where several disciplines were involved.

I am now involved in a maritime development project in Bohuslän, where I study the development of an innovation arena for maritime tourism. The project is partly EU-funded. An innovation arena can be seen as part of the expected outcome of the project, i.e. "a model for the future development of the maritime business community in Bohuslän, and create enhanced cooperation on issues such as transport, ports and business development." The innovation arena can be in the form of clusters/networks, collaborations on specific packages or products, or physical venues, what can be called test beds or "living labs". It can also be a way to work with common tools, strategies or definitions. The actors may be researchers, the public, private and non-profit sectors.

On other web sites

Research areas

  • Place branding
  • Experience Innovation
  • Sustainable Tourism
  • Design
  • Transdisciplinary Research

Research in progress

Teaching areas

  • CSR in Tourism and Events
  • Experience Innovation
  • Place Branding
  • Transdisciplinary Research

Selected publications

Inclusive place branding – What it is and how to progress towards it
Jernsand, Eva Maria

Engagement as transformation: Learnings from a tourism development project in Dunga by Lake Victoria, Kenya
Jernsand, Eva Maria
Action Research, 15:1, s. 81-99, 2017

Tourism Experience Innovation Through Design
Jernsand, Eva Maria, Kraff, Helena, Mossberg, Lena
Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 15:1, s. 98, 2015

Participatory place branding through design: the case of Dunga beach in Kisumu, Kenya
Jernsand, Eva Maria, Kraff, Helena
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 11:3, s. 226-242, 2015