Malte Wehr joins the SPUR team as PhD candidate
On 2 August, Malte Wehr joined the "Densifying Switzerland"-project at the Chair of Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR) of Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann at ETH Zürich.
Malte joins the SNF-funded research project “Densifying Switzerland” and will investigate the acceptance and local democratic support for densification projects in Swiss cities. Densification is the central paradigm of the current revisions of the Swiss Spatial Planning Act and while there is a broad public and scholarly consensus about the desirability of higher densities in metropolitan areas, densification tends to provoke local opposition and public debates. The project thus seeks to investigate factors affecting the acceptance and support for densification projects and Malte will contribute to the project by conducting survey experiments and analysing local ballots.
Malte holds a MA in Political Science from Potsdam University, during which he spent a semester at Sciences Po Bordeaux, and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from Kiel University. Prior to joining ETH Zürich, he gathered experience in the private sector, at a foundation on international relations and a research institute on migration. During the latter, he contributed with data mining and analysis to a project on the living and working conditions of European workers in Germany.
While his focus was on political and party competition during his graduate studies, Malte adds a perspective on political mobilisation and opinion formation to the project. Concerned with equality and the social selectivity of participation, he is interested in identifying relevant factors, which increase the acceptance and support of urban housing policies across relevant agency groups.