Who I Am

Who I Am

I’m Dr. Sven Daniel Wolfe, an urban and political 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. I like to work from the ground, from a micro-perspective informed by everyday life and minor theory. This blog is an informal introduction to me and my work. It’s an academic diary of sorts.

A box truck used in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, repurposed for personal use after the Games

I’ve published widely on mega-events like the Olympics and the Men’s Football World Cup, particularly 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 Environment and Planning C, Leisure Studies the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, Sport in Society, Nature Sustainability, and many more. I’ve also written a book on the 2018 FIFA Men’s Football World Cup in Russia. A new book on the geopolitics of hosting is due out in 2024.

A spectacular new tourist site overlooking the Doha skyline, built for the 2022 Men’s Football World Cup in Qatar

Aside from sport, I research the practices of authoritarian politics, focusing particularly 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 and researchgate, academia.edu, and orcid profiles for the more formal stuff and my twitter (those these are increasingly rare). Get in touch with me here.

From an interview on Sportschau on the implications of the Russian war on Ukraine