About
Bengt Andersen is a social and urban anthropologist. He has done fieldwork in urban regions in the USA (Kentlands, Gaithersburg, MD) and in Norway. Andersen has published on topics like architecture and planning, segregation, marginalization and inclusion, integration, everyday life cities and suburbia, youth, urban unrest, urban policy, social sustainability, place-attachment, well-being and belonging, as well as heritage and marketing.
Bengt Andersen is a social and urban anthropologist at AFI, Oslo Metropolitan University. He has done felt work in urban regions in the USA (Kentlands, Gaithersburg, MD) and in Norway. Andersen has published on topics like architecture and planning, segregation, marginalization and inclusion, integration, everyday life cities and suburbia, youth, urban unrest, urban policy, social sustainability, place-attachment, well-being and belonging, as well as heritage and marketing.
He is currently part of a Nordic research project. The project investigates the tensions between Nordic openness and security that characterize surveillance practices at the Nordic borders. The project studies the legal, public and institutional discourse on new digital surveillance practices, enabled by advanced technologies, like automated border control gates, biometric scanning, facial recognition, automated plate number recognition, and the practices and organization of surveillance work – through both analogue and digital technologies – at the borders. The project involves a group of researchers from Sweden, Norway and Denmark with backgrounds in design studies, organization studies, information systems, anthropology, sociology, law and science and technology studies.
Field of study
Urban Anthropology Town planning Segregation Architecture Youth Research Urban studies Urban governance
Research groups
Research projects
Ongoing research projects
-
Digital Nordic Borders
Our project investigates the tensions between Nordic openness and security that characterize surveillance practices at the Nordic borders, with a particular focus on new forms and tools of digital surveillance.
Completed research projects
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Possible consequences of moving patterns for people who have been granted a start-up loan in Oslo municipality
The project examines who the initial loan recipients were and are in Oslo, and what the consequences of selective relocation are for districts and sub-districts in Oslo.
Publications and research
Scientific publications
Andersen, Bengt
; Rolandsson, Bertil; Raviola, Elena
(2026).
Enabling border policing through socialization at the playground.
Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5331164
Andersen, Bengt
;
Kitterød, Hilde Rønnaug
; Kvamme, Alvina Jimenez; Skrede, Joar
(2026).
Barnehagen – en usikker integrasjonsarena i den delte byen.
Nordic Journal of Urban Studies.
https://doi.org/https://www.scup.com/doi/10.18261/
Andersen, Bengt
; Rolandsson, Bertil; Raviola, Elena
(2025).
Enabling border policing through socialisation at the playground.
Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2025.2606422
Andersen, Bengt
; Skrede, Joar; Grevstad-Nordbrock, Ted
(2024).
The significance of culture for social sustainability – a discussion of cultural security and insecurity in neighbourhoods.
Local Environment : the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability.
Vol. 30.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2024.2424427
Mouratidis, Konstantinos;
Andersen, Bengt
(2023).
What makes people stay longer in the densifying city? Exploring the neighbourhood environment and social ties.
Housing Studies.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2023.2185593
Andersen, Bengt
; Skrede, Joar
(2023).
Intervju som metode.
ISBN: 9788202753375.
142 p.
Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4419338
Andersen, Bengt
; Skrede, Joar
(2022).
By eller forstad? En diskusjon av barnefamiliers flyttemotiver.
Nordic Journal of Urban Studies.
Vol. 2.
https://doi.org/10.18261/njus.2.1.1
Skrede, Joar;
Andersen, Bengt
(2022).
The Emotional Element of Urban Densification.
Local Environment : the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability.
Vol. 27.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2022.2034769
Skrede, Joar;
Andersen, Bengt
(2022).
Visualising the past for the future: a social semiotic reading of urban heritage.
Social Semiotics.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2035654
Fagerlid, Cicilie;
Andersen, Bengt
; Dalseide, Astri Margareta
(2021).
Engaging with mixed-use design. The case of the urban library in Oslo.
Stender, Marie; Bech-Danielson, Claus; Hagen, Aina Landsverk (Ed.).
Architectural Anthropology: Exploring Lived Space. p. 122-134.
Routledge.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3259948
