SARA SKARP RESEARCH
Welcome!
This site is still under construction, but feel free to browse around.
If you're here because you happened to pick up a little yellow booklet
about waste projects and you're curious to know more, please head to this page to read about my research on the community waste movement.
About
My research focuses on sustainable consumption, organisation, and societal transformation, specifically in the areas of tourism, mobility, and waste. Within my research, I work to emphasise the human experience as well as collective action and organisation for sustainability. I am driven by the aim to find and understand hope, possibility, resistance and prefigurative action in the face of the climate crisis.
Current and previous research
Sustainable consumption in tourism and leisure
Lund University, 2022-25
This project explores how sustainable tourism is defined and framed by organisations working to promote and facilitate more sustainable forms of tourism consumption. It delves into the challenges and dilemmas that arise in these definitions, aiming to understand the broader implications for the future of tourism.
Pandemic holidaying and transformative potential
University of Manchester, 2022
During the pandemic, international travel, especially by air, became difficult. This project examined how people adapted by traveling over land, uncovering what they learned from these experiences and exploring how such shifts could lead to more sustainable travel practices in the future.
Nature use conflicts in tourism and leisure
Lund University, 2023-24
This case study investigates a nature use conflict in Sweden, where different views on nature - rights of access, how it can be experienced, and who has the right to decide - emerge. The study sheds light on how diverse perspectives shape experiences, and subsequently management, of natural spaces.
Sustainability and organisation in the Community Waste Movement
University of East Anglia, 2017-21
My PhD research project investigated community-led waste initiatives, such as reuse hubs, litter-picking groups, and item-lending libraries. It highlighted how grassroots efforts offer insights into transforming waste systems and practices to be more sustainable and fair. Read more.
