Thoroddur Bjarnason

The project Byggðafesta og búferlaflutningar was a collaborative effort between the Icelandic Regional Development Institute (Byggðastofnun) and university scholars at several higher education institutions, initiated by Snorri Björn Sigurðsson, then director of development at Byggðastofnun. Its main aims were to synthesize the state of knowledge on residential attachment and migration in Iceland, collect new data to shed light on trends, current conditions, and future prospects, and map key topics for further research in this field.

The project also aimed to support the training of early-career researchers in rural studies and migration, strengthen domestic and international research collaboration, and ensure that Icelandic research becomes part of international knowledge on residential attachment and migration through publication in peer-reviewed outlets.

Thoroddur Bjarnason, Professor of Sociology at the University of Iceland (HÍ) and Research Professor in Rural Studies at the University of Akureyri (HA), led the project. The research team changed over time due to retirements and changes in the work environment, but the following specialists were part of the team during the project period:

• Edward H. Huijbens, Professor of Geography at HA (2018–2019)
• Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, PhD student at the University of Akureyri (2019–2021)
• Guðmundur Guðmundsson, specialist at Byggðastofnun (2018–2020)
• Matthias Kokorch, geographer at the Westfjords University Centre (2019–2021)
• Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, Professor of History and Dean of the School of Humanities at HÍ (2018–2021)
• Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir, specialist at Byggðastofnun (2018–2021)
• Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir, Professor of Anthropology at HÍ (2018–2021)
• Vífill Karlsson, Professor of Economics at Bifröst University and Associate Professor at HA (2018–2021)
• Þorkell Stefánsson, specialist at Byggðastofnun (2020–2021)

• 2025Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta B. Jóhannesdóttir og Ólöf Garðarsdóttir. From city lights to country nights? The long-term effects of gossip in rural communities on rural return migration preferences and intentions. Sociologia Ruralis, 65: e70007.
• 2024Þóroddur Bjarnason og Tialda Haartsen. Closest family in the household or in the community? The role of family in residential satisfaction among intended stayers in Iceland. Population, Space and Place, 30(3), 2714. doi.org/10.1002/psp.2714" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">doi.org/10.1002/psp.2714
• 2022Einar Baldvin Þorsteinsson, Þóroddur Bjarnason, Natasha M. Loi og Ársæll Már Arnarsson. Sexual orientation and migration intentions among rural, exurban, and urban adolescents in Iceland. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 24, 31–47. doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2020.1813333
• 2021Þóroddur Bjarnason, Aileen Stockdale, Ian Shuttleworth, Marco Eimermann og Mark Shucksmith. At the intersection of urbanisation and counterurbanisation in rural space: Microurbanisation in Northern Iceland. Journal of Rural Studies, 87, 404–414.
• 2021Þóroddur Bjarnason, Tialda Haartsen, Ársæll M. Arnarsson og Vanda Sigurgeirsdóttir. The impact of school bullying on adolescent migration intentions. Population, Space and Place, e2422. doi.org/10.1002/psp.2422
• 2021Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, Þóroddur Bjarnason, Aileen Stockdale og Tialda Haartsen. What’s love got to do with it? Love-life gossip and migration intentions in rural Iceland. Journal of Rural Studies, 87, 236–242.
• 2020Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, Þóroddur Bjarnason, Stefán H. Jónsson og Ian Shuttleworth. Is internal migration declining in Iceland? Intensities, geographical patterns and population composition 1986–2017. Population, Space and Place. doi.org/10.1002/psp.2339
• 2020Þóroddur Bjarnason, Clifford Stevenson, Ian Shuttleworth og Markus Meckl. Spatial mobility and tolerance towards immigrants: The case of Northern Iceland. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43(10), 1813–1832. doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2019.1667003
• 2020Þóroddur Bjarnason. The myth of the immobile rural: The case of rural villages in Iceland. Bls. 55–70 í Linda Lundmark, Dean Carson, Marco Eimmerman (ritstj.). Dipping in to the North: Living, Working and Traveling in Sparsely Populated Areas. Palgrave Macmillan.
• 2018Þóroddur Bjarnason og Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir. Vinnusókn til höfuðborgarsvæðisins frá öðrum byggðarlögum á Suðvesturlandi. Tímarit um viðskipti og efnahagsmál, 15(2), 97–114.
• 2018Þóroddur Bjarnason. Innfæddir og aðfluttir andskotar: Áhrif uppruna og staðarsamsemdar á búsetuánægju á Norðurlandi. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 9, 22–44.

Þóroddur Bjarnason (ritstj.), Byggðafesta og búferlaflutningar á Íslandi. Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan.

ISBN: 978-9935-23-285-4

• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, Guðmundur Guðmundsson, Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir, Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir og Vífill Karlsson. Um byggðafestu og búferlaflutninga. Bls. 13–21.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason og Ólöf Garðarsdóttir. Mannfjöldaþróun á Íslandi. Bls. 23–53.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir og Ólöf Garðarsdóttir. Búferlaflutningar og flutningsjöfnuður. Bls. 55–86.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir og Ólöf Garðarsdóttir. Búferlaflutningar yfir ævina. Bls. 87–104.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Ólöf Garðarsdóttir og Vífill Karlsson. Búsetufyrirætlanir og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 105–124.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir og Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir. Búsetuánægja og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 125–138.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, Ólöf Garðarsdóttir og Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Menntun og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 139–158.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason og Vífill Karlsson. Atvinna og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 159–186.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason og Vífill Karlsson. Samgöngur og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 187–206.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir og Vífill Karlsson. Húsnæðismál og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 207–227.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir og Vífill Karlsson. Búferlaflutningar og búseta. Bls. 229–245.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir og Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Tengslanet og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 247–264.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir og Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Kynjuð viðhorf og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 265–284.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason, Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir og Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Innflytjendur og búferlaflutningar. Bls. 285–310.
• Þóroddur Bjarnason. Búferlaflutningar og byggðaþróun. Bls. 311–331.

• 2022Þóroddur Bjarnason, Ian Shuttleworth, Clifford Stevenson og Eerika Finell. Migration and partisan identification as British Unionists or Irish Nationalists in Northern Ireland. Acta Sociologica, 66, 372–387. doi.org/10.1177/00016993221136979
• 2021Ian Shuttleworth, Eerika Finell, Þóroddur Bjarnason og Clifford Stevenson. Individual residential mobility, immobility, and political attitudes: The case of Brexit voting intentions in the 2016 UK EU Referendum. Population, Space and Place, e2444. doi.org/10.1002/psp.2444
• 2021Þóroddur Bjarnason. Tunnelling the Peninsula of Trolls: A case study of road infrastructure improvement and demographic dynamics in Northern Iceland. European Countryside, 13(2), 368–387. doi.org/10.2478/euco-2021-0023
• 2021Marco Eimermann, Þóroddur Bjarnason, Evan K. Adjei og Linda Lundmark. Exploring population redistribution at sub-municipal levels – Microurbanisation and messy migration in Sweden’s high North. Journal of Rural Studies, 88, 93–103.
• 2020Ian Shuttleworth, Clifford Stevenson, Þóroddur Bjarnason og Eerika Finell. Geography, Psychology, and the ‘Big Five’ Personality Traits: Who moves, and over what distances, in the UK? Population, Space and Place, e2418. doi.org/10.1002/psp.2418
• 2020Dean B. Carson, Þóroddur Bjarnason og Olof Andreas Stjernström. The changing youth population. Bls. 71–88 í Linda Lundmark, Dean B. Carson og Marco Eimermann (ritstj.), Dipping in to the North: Living, Working and Traveling in Sparsely Populated Areas. Palgrave Macmillan.
• 2020Þóroddur Bjarnason. The myth of the immobile rural: The case of rural villages in Iceland. Bls. 55–70 í Linda Lundmark, Dean Carson, Marco Eimmerman (ritstj.). Dipping in to the North: Living, Working and Traveling in Sparsely Populated Areas. Palgrave Macmillan.
• 2020Lara Hoffmann, Þóroddur Bjarnason and Markus Meckl. Regional differences in the inclusion of immigrants in Icelandic society. Bls. 97–109 í Samfélag fjölbreytileikans. Háskólinn á Akureyri.
• 2019Þóroddur Bjarnason. Íslenskar landsbyggðir og byggðafélagsfræði. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 10(3), 30–64.
• 2014Þóroddur Bjarnason. Adolescent migration intentions and population change: A twenty-year follow-up of Icelandic communities. Sociologia Ruralis, 54, 500–515. doi.org/10.1111/soru.12050
• 2014Þóroddur Bjarnason og Kjartan Ólafsson. Skammtímaáhrif Héðinsfjarðarganga á mannfjöldaþróun í Fjallabyggð. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 5, 25–48.
• 2010Carole L. Seyfrit, Þóroddur Bjarnason og Kjartan Ólafsson. Migration intentions of rural youth in Iceland: Can a large-scale development project stem the tide of out-migration? Society and Natural Resources, 23, 1201–1215. doi.org/10.1080/08941920903278152
• 2010Jón Þorvaldur Heiðarsson, Kjartan Ólafsson, Sveinn Arnarsson og Þóroddur Bjarnason. Umferð á norðanverðum Tröllaskaga: Erindi og áfangastaðir vegfarenda. Bls. 16–29 í Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng. Háskólinn á Akureyri.
• 2010Kjartan Ólafsson og Þóroddur Bjarnason. Föst búseta og hlutabúseta í Fjallabyggð. Bls. 58–64 í Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng. Háskólinn á Akureyri.
• 2010Þóroddur Bjarnason. Búsetufyrirætlanir íbúa Fjallabyggðar. Bls. 65–71 í Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng. Háskólinn á Akureyri.
• 2010Þóroddur Bjarnason, Kjartan Ólafsson og Kolbeinn Stefánsson. Búsetuþróun í Fjallabyggð. Bls. 50–57 í Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng. Háskólinn á Akureyri.
• 2010Þóroddur Bjarnason og Kolbeinn Stefánsson. Samgöngubætur og byggðaþróun á norðanverðum Tröllaskaga. Bls. 4–15 í Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng. Háskólinn á Akureyri.
• 2009Þóroddur Bjarnason. London calling? Preferred emigration destinations among Icelandic youth. Acta Sociologica, 52, 149–161.
• 2007Þóroddur Bjarnason. Á leið af landi brott? Framtíðaráform íslenskra unglinga vorið 2007. Afmælisrit Háskólans á Akureyri.
• 2006Þóroddur Bjarnason og Þórólfur Þórlindsson. Should I stay or should I go? Migration expectations among youth in Icelandic fishing and farming communities. Journal of Rural Studies, 22, 290-300.