Dr. Andreas Back

Biography

Andreas Back is an Assistant Lecturer in Cultural Geography at Umeå University. His research focuses on vacation home tourism, regional development, community planning, and housing issues. He studies how society is influenced by the mobility of people, resources, and capital. He teaches introductory courses in Cultural Geography for new students as well as courses on tourism planning, planning theory, social geography, and global justice. He supervises students writing theses at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Master's levels. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 2020, investigated how vacation home tourism affects municipal community planning and housing markets. This research explored the interplay between society and economy, resulting in varying conditions, opportunities, and challenges for municipalities. He is deepening this research by examining how vacation home tourism influences the labor market, particularly the construction sector. From 2024 to 2026, he participates in the Formas-funded research project "One Foot Here, One Foot There," focusing on vacation homes as workplaces for remote work and jobs in creative and cultural industries. Beginning in 2026, he will lead a multi-year research project on vacant homes in rural areas, known as "ghost houses," aiming to gain a deeper understanding of abandoned houses in Sweden. This includes studying how municipalities and local associations manage these properties, the relationship to other housing in rural areas, and potential reasons for their abandonment. The project will utilize various data sources to provide accurate estimations as official statistics on ghost houses are lacking. He also reviews article manuscripts for various scientific journals and grant applications for the Norwegian Research Council.

Research Interests

Courses