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Cecilie Sachs Olsen

Cecilie Sachs Olsen

Job title
  • Professor
Visiting address
  • Pilestredet 52, 0167 Oslo
  • Office number: D507
Phone
  • Mobile: +47 918 36 963
  • Office: +47 672 36 314
E-mail
  • cecilie.sachsolsen@oslomet.no
Affiliation

About

Cecilie Sachs Olsen is professor of Art and Society with a PhD in cultural geography from Queen Mary University of London. She previously held a position as a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow and lecturer at the centre for the GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway University of London. Her work is practice-based and revolves around developing creative methods for urban research and exploring how artistic practice can be used as a framework to analyse and re-imagine urban development, space and politics.

Cecilie has led the development of Drama Labs as a part of the JPI Urban Europe project CONTRA - CONflicts in TRAnsformation (2022). Drama Labs develops theatre-based methods for better accommodating productive conflict in transformation processes towards more sustainable cities. She is also WP leader in the Erasmus+ project ACT UP! Active Citizenship through Theatre for Urban Politics, which develops new educational methods to promote active citizenship in response to the climate crisis. 

Cecilie was the chief curator of Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019, which used fiction, art and performance to explore ‘the architecture of degrowth’ - alternative social and spatial structures that question the supremacy of economic growth as the basis of contemporary societies. She is also the co-founder of the urban performance collective, zURBS and the artist duo SACHS/WESTERDAHL. Cecilie has led a series of urban research and art projects around Europe and recently published a monograph about her work titled ‘Socially Engaged Art and the Neoliberal City’ (Routledge, 2019).

Field of study

Utopias   Climate   Relational aesthetics   Performance Theory   Participation   Urban Studies   Socially engaged art   Creative methods   Multispieces urbanism

Research groups

Research projects

Ongoing research projects

Completed research projects

Publications and research

Scientific publications

Førde, Anniken; Reiertsen, Tone Kristin; Olsen, Cecilie Sachs ; Solvang, Ingeborg; Wilson, Helen F. (2025). The Ladder of Multispecies Participation: Moving Towards a More Convivial Urban Planning. Nordic Journal of Urban Studies. Vol. 6.
https://doi.org/10.18261/njus.6.1.1

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs ; Janas, Krzysztof; Roeck, Lisa De; Koole, Barbara; Janssen, Cato; Hulst, Merlijn van; Loades, Celine Motzfeldt (2025). Estrangement, embodiment and entanglement: Putting agonistic planning into practice through Urban Drama Labs. Urban Studies.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251361315

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Sustainability discourses and the question of democracy. Skjerven, Astrid; Berg, Lisbeth Løvbak; Nielsen, Liv Merete; Stuedahl, Dagny (Ed.). Mediating sustainability in the consumer society. p. 31-50. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003392705-4

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2024). Drama in Drammen: Promoting Active Citizenship through Applied Theatre. DRAMA – Nordisk dramapedagogisk tidsskrift. Vol. 61.
https://doi.org/10.18261/drama.61.1.5

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2024). The arts of attention and Oslo Architecture Triennale. Nordic Journal of Art & Research (A & R). Vol. 13.
https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5284

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs ; Hulst, Merlijn van (2023). Reimagining Urban Living Labs: enter the Urban Drama Lab. Urban Studies.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231187771

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2023). From architectures of capital to architectures of care: the arts of dreaming otherwise in the Oslo Architecture Triennale. Haarstad, Håvard; Grandin, Jakob Olof; Kjærås, Kristin Edith Abrahamsen; Johnson, Eleanor (Ed.). Haste: The slow politics of climate urgency. p. 27-38. UCL Press.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5024310

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2022). Towards an urban attention ecology. LaBelle, Brandon (Ed.). Radical Sympathy. p. 12-23. Errant Bodies Press.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4650624

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2022). Towards an urban attention ecology. LaBelle, Brandon (Ed.). Ecologies of Attention: Artistic research from the Art Academy, Bergen.. Universitetet i Bergen.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4999708

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2022). Co‐Creation Beyond Humans: The Arts of Multispecies Placemaking. Urban Planning. Vol. 7.
https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v7i3.5288



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These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.

Textbooks

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). The What If Garden (TWIG) - a Field Guide to Radical Imagination. 50 p. Lorentz Centre.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4996165



These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.

Research reports

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2024). Toolbox for conducting drama labs in urban development. 69 p. JPI Urban Europe.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4228735

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2023). Drama Labs Toolbox. 42 p. Online: https://indd.adobe.com/view/03f8f937-3343-4456-bf97-87d6971b6acd.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4196988



These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.

Dissemination

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs ; Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla ; Christophersen, Sara; Nygaard, Pål; Dietrichs, Erik Sveberg (2026). Activism and academic rebellion. SDG Conference 2026: Education Unscripted – the Quest for Truth, Collaborative Transformation & Solidarity. OsloMet.
https://doi.org/https://uni.oslomet.no/sdgconferen

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2026). Hvordan - veien til et godt forskningsdesign.
https://doi.org/https://trondelag.pameldingssystem

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Conflicts in Transformation (CONTRA): Hvordan produktiv konflikt kan bidra til bærekraftig byutvikling. UHR konferansen 2025. Universitets- og høgskolerådet.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5320755

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs ; Hovind, Anne Beate (2025). Forskning, fremtid og fabulering. Akademiet for Yngre Forskere 10 års jubileum. Akademiet for Yngre Forskere.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5277680

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Kunst og bærekraft. Bærekraftskurs. Filmskolen, Universitetet i Lillehammer.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/5277681

Sareen, Siddharth; Danbolt, Bjørn Kristian; Aamaas, Borgar; Olsen, Cecilie Sachs ; Bratland-Sanda, Solfrid; Holmen, Heidi ; Bjørndal, Christian Thue; Brodtkorb, André ; Elken, Mari; Vikjord, Sigrid Anna Aalberg; Jensenius, Alexander Refsum; Fløgstad, Guro Nore; Busterud, Guro; Mathé, Nora Elise Hesby (2025). AYFs Jubileumsbok - De første ti årene.
https://doi.org/https://akademietforyngreforskere.

Duch, Michael Francis; Furunes, Alexander Eriksson; Jensenius, Alexander Refsum; Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Kunstnerisk forskning for en kompleks verden.
https://doi.org/https://akademietforyngreforskere.

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Walking with Aarhus Å.
https://doi.org/https://www.summitofspecies.org/pr

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Advocacy Strategies - a discussion on how to advocate on behalf of species and ecosystems. Nordic Summit of Species. Artenes Ambassadører / Via University College Århus.
https://doi.org/https://www.summitofspecies.org/

Olsen, Cecilie Sachs (2025). Oh, the drama! Research creation as participatory theatre-based method to accommodate conflict in urban planning. DATA Stories: Research Creation workshop. Data Stories, Maynooth University.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4698437



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These publications are obtained from Norwegian Research Information Repository. The list may be incomplete.
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