Kamila Svobodova

Kamila’s research contributes to more inclusive, evidence-based and adaptive governance of mining-affected landscapes, with a focus on long-term community wellbeing and sustainable regional development.

Her work has advanced knowledge in two key fields:

(1) Global complexities of energy and industrial transitions: She developed novel frameworks that conceptualise energy and industrial transitions as local socio-spatial processes. This framing challenges the dominant techno-economic view of energy transition and reveals its often overseen social and spatial effects. Notably, her lead-authored article, “Decarbonization, population disruption and resource inventories in the global energy transition”, published in Nature Communications in 2022, reconceptualised decarbonisation as a process that can generate significant demographic disruption and provided the first data-driven evidence of these dynamics. The paper ranked among the journal’s top 25 most downloaded articles in the Social Sciences and Human Behaviour category in 2022.

(2) Community values and engagement in changing industrial landscapes: Her research in this field advances understanding of the importance of place attachment and community values in changing industrial and energy-transition contexts. It develops approaches that promote equitable and informed decision-making. Recognising these approaches supports social cohesion, reduces conflict and protects community well-being in industrial regions. Outcomes that, if ignored, can generate significant social and financial costs for government and industry. Working with major partners such as BHP, Anglo American, Peabody, International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), Heidelberg Materials and Nymølle, she co-developed participatory frameworks that are now being used to inform practices and policy. For example, the regional framework for stakeholder engagement in post-mining land use planning developed by Worden et al. (2024) is widely cited in the ICMM handbook