I’m Dr. Sven Daniel Wolfe, a human geographer and Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione fellow at the ETH Zurich. I’m interested in everyday geopolitics, urban sustainable development, soft power, and the cultures of protest and resistance.
To make sense of spectacular transformations of cities and societies, I focus on micro-perspectives informed by everyday life and minor theory.
I’ve published widely on mega-events like the Olympics and the Men’s Football World Cup, focusing on the political underpinnings of hosting, the attempts at sustainability, and the implications on everyday life for host city residents. My sports-related work has been published in Area, Environment and Planning C, Leisure Studies the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, Sport in Society, Nature Sustainability, and more. I’ve also written a book on the 2018 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup in Russia. A new book on mega-event geopolitics, Potemkinism, and authoritarianism is due in 2025.
Aside from sport, I research the practices of authoritarian politics, focusing on post-soviet spaces like Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. I recently completed a project at the University of Zurich that explores the everyday implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine. In this vein I’ve published in journals like Geopolitics and Antipode. I’m also a regular contributor to media outlets in the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, and beyond.
Here’s my university page, researchgate, and orcid profiles.
Selected publications
Geopolitics and the geographer: ethics and the everyday in times of global existential crisis
Eurasian Geography and Economics 2024
Area 2024
