Vestby, Guri Mette

Guri Mette Vestby has a degree in sociology from the University of Oslo, 1989, and works today in the Department for Socioeconomic and Territorial Studies at NIBR.

Guri Mette Vestby coordinates place research at NIBR. Place identity and reputation, and pro-active place development comprise here a key focus of research. It pertains for instance to projects which explore place and business development in conjunction. Vestby has headed the project The Attractiveness of Towns, a comprehensive project with different themes of relevance to place development, identity concept building and marketing for towns in the counties of Østfold and Buskerud. Guri Mette Vestby has also worked on qualitative evaluations of place development as a socio-cultural processes, where the involvement and organisation of partnerships among different types of local community stakeholders are important. She has co-authored a socio-cultural place analysis guide as well.

Guri Mette Vestby has many years of experience in children and youth research, and has, among other things, studied places as arenas for growth where teenagers’ perceptions of place, sense of belonging and place identity have a significant effect on where they imagine living as adults.

Key qualifications

• Child and youth sociology
• Participation processes
• Public health
• Urban development
• Socio-cultural place analyses