Research

Research Identity & Expertise

My research examines how governance systems adapt when policy goals and socio-technical change outpace the institutions meant to implement them. I study science, technology, and environmental policy with a focus on clean energy transitions, state preemption, and the institutional conditions that shape what local governments and nonprofit organizations can realistically do.

Grounded in public administration and urban planning, my work explains how governing arrangements emerge and stabilize under institutional mismatch as situations where rules, venues, and administrative capacity exist but fit poorly with new problems. Across projects, I develop and apply theory on contested rule formation, showing how actors compete to define problems, claim jurisdiction, and build workable decision processes when authority is fragmented or constrained.

A central contribution of my research is clarifying the role of nonprofits and cross-sector intermediaries in these settings. I show how nonprofits often function as technical and organizational connective tissue by building capacity, creating templates and informal venues, and advancing implementation when formal arenas are closed, while also shaping how equity concerns enter policy through grant-funded, project-based interventions.

My goal is to produce scholarship that is analytically rigorous and practically useful: diagnosing why governance breaks down (or adapts) and identifying the design choices that improve administrative capacity, accountability, and equity in real-world implementation.

Papers Under Review

Jangjoo, S. (2025). Institutional Voids, Technological Disruption, and the Contestation of Rule Formation: Toward an Integrated Perspective on Early-Phase Socio-technical Transitions. Policy Studies Journal.
Jangjoo, S. (2025). Governing AI in a Multipolar World: Addressing Ethical Risks and Institutional Gaps through the Institutional and Governance Evolution Framework. Research Policy.
Jangjoo, S. (2025). Filling Voids, Driving Change: Nonprofit Institutional Entrepreneurship in Florida Renewable Energy Transitions. Nonprofit Management and Leadership Early Scholars Fellowship Program.
Berlan, D., Denis-Luque, M., Sun, Y. & Jangjoo, S. (2024). Civil Society After Disasters. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Jangjoo, S. (2024). Immigration Policy, Institutions, Precarity, and Wellbeing of Citizen Spouses in Mixed-Status Families. Administration and Society.
Jangjoo, S., Askari, S., & Doaee, A. (2024). The Role of Built Environment on Sense of Community and Women’s Community Wellbeing Perceptions in Residential Apartment Complexes. Cities.
Sadeghi, A. R., Alishahi, R., Panahi, N. & Jangjoo, S. (2025). Intersections of Gender, Culture, and Sound: Exploring Women’s Perception of Urban Green Space Soundscapes. Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Jangjoo, S., & Tang, T. (2025). Renewable energy transitions from the ground up: Building a framework for local action despite limited state support. Cities, 158, 105737.
Sadeghi, A. R., Baghi, E. S. M. S., Shams, F., & Jangjoo, S. (2023). Women in a safe and healthy urban environment: environmental top priorities for the women’s presence in urban public spaces. BMC women's health, 23(1), 163. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02281-8
Sadeghi, A. R., & Jangjoo, S. (2022). Women's preferences and urban space: Relationship between built environment and women's presence in urban public spaces in Iran. Cities, 126, 103694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103694
Sadeghi, A. R., Ebadi, M., Shams, F., & Jangjoo, S. (2022). Human-built environment interactions: the relationship between subjective well-being and perceived neighborhood environment characteristics. Scientific reports, 12(1), 21844. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25414-9
Jangjoo, S., Hajipoor, K., & Lotfi, S. (2024). Empowering Cities through Eventful City Planning: A Toolkit for Enhancing Destination Competitiveness. Tourism Planning & Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2024.2371835
Lotfi, S., Sholeh, M., Hajipoor, K., Jangjoo, S., & Fallah Manshadi, A. (2022). Event-Led Regeneration in Reconnecting the Ritual-Religious Structure of Historic Cities (Case Study: Inter-Connected Structure of Historic Shiraz). Geography and Urban Space Development, 9(3), 171-193. https://doi.org/10.22067/jgusd.2022.47725.0
Jangjoo, S., Hajipoor, K., & Lotfi, S. (2021). Providing Eventful City Planning Strategies Based on the Principles of Enhancement of Destination Competitiveness, Case Study: Shiraz, Iran. Journal of Tourism and Development, 10(3), 97-115. https://doi.org/10.22034/jtd.2020.239083.2079
Sadeghi, A. R., Khakzand, M., & Jangjoo, S. (2019). Historical analysis of the role of bazaar on the formation of iranian islamic urban forms; case study: Shiraz, Iran. Armanshahr Architecture & Urban Development, 12(26), 89-101. https://doi.org/10.22034/aaud.2019.89058

Working Papers

Bridging Formal Institutional Designs and On-the-Ground Adaptive Practices through SysML and Hetero-Functional Graph Theory: A Policy Network Approach. - with T. Tang. Paper presented at NSF GCR Workshop 2025. Ready for submission to PSJ.
Translating Performance Between Funders and Nonprofits - with D. Berlan and G. VanLandingham. Paper presented at ARNOVA 2024. Ready for submission to PPMR.
Contested Rule Formation in Institutional Voids: A Perspectives on the Institutional and Governance Evolution (IGE) Framework. Proposal Accepted to PMRC 2025.
Are Small Nonprofits Stepping Stones or Springboards? A Multi-Dimensional Study of Turnover Intentions and Perceived Fit Discrepancy. - with L. Azevedo. Paper presented at ARNOVA 2024 (working project).
Bridging the Divide: Explaining the Paradox of National Support and Local Opposition to Renewable Energy. - with X. Gao.
From Advocacy to Action: NGOs and the Evolution of Collaborative Water Governance in Oregon. - with X. Gao.
Recurrent Institutional Voids and Bottom-Up Innovation: Rethinking Florida’s Solar Future.

Grants

Convergent Anthropocene Systems (Anthems) – A System-of-Systems Paradigm (Chesapeake Bay Program Governance Decision Support System Modeling). National Science Foundation ($3.6 million) (2024)

EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Solar for All Grant. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency via a subcontract with The Nature Conservancy ($311,127) (2024)

Assessing the Potential for Transactive Energy Communities in Rural New Hampshire. National Science Foundation ($1.7 Million) (2025)

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