Lina Rahm
University of Gothenburg, Applied IT, Post-Doc
- Linköping University, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning (IBL), Department Memberadd
- Feminist new materialism, Migration Studies, Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, Citizenship, Democracy and Citizenship Education, and 23 moreDonna Haraway, Actor-Network-Theory, Zombies, Adult Education, Adult Continuing and Professional Education, Alternative computing, Critical Design, Post-Digitalism, Computer History, Artificial Intelligence, Popular Education, History of Education, Media Archaeology, Lucy Suchman, Educational Imaginaries, Carol Bacchi, Michel Foucault, Posthumanism, Poststructuralism, Feminist Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Speculative Realism, and Object Oriented Ontologyedit
I Sverige finns det sedan en lång tid tillbaka flera utbildningsinstitutioner utanför det formella skolväsendet vilka erbjuder utbildningsmöjligheter för ungdomar och vuxna. En central plats i detta utbildningslandskap har Sveriges 150... more
I Sverige finns det sedan en lång tid tillbaka flera utbildningsinstitutioner utanför det formella skolväsendet vilka erbjuder utbildningsmöjligheter för ungdomar och vuxna. En central plats i detta utbildningslandskap har Sveriges 150 folkhögskolor. Den här rapporten handlar om folkhögskolornas arbete med deltagare med funktions-nedsättningar eller, mer precist, om de lärmiljöer i vilka folkhögskolornas pedagogiska arbete sker och hur dessa är utformade och anpassade för deltagare med funktions-nedsättningar. Frågor om skolors lärmiljöer kan anses vara särskilt relevanta för deltagare med funktionsnedsättningar. En vanlig distinktion inom detta forskningsfält gör gällande att en funktionsnedsättning blir ett funktionshinder först i mötet med en hindrande omgivning.
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This article argues that sociotechnical imaginaries, defined as collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable sociotechnical futures, are significantly connected to visions, policies, and... more
This article argues that sociotechnical imaginaries, defined as collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable sociotechnical futures, are significantly connected to visions, policies, and projects of educating citizens. These visions, policies, and projects – or educational imaginaries – constitute ways to problematize, negotiate and ultimately govern citizens and citizenship at the intersection between technology and education. This article presents a model which conceptualizes and analyzes educational imaginaries, and specifically introduces the notion (and method) of ‘problematizations’ into these imaginaries. The model, consisting of four key components – technology, problematizations, collective actors, and target populations – is exemplified through a genealogy of the education of the ‘digitalized citizen’.
Research Interests:
Den svenska strategin för att hantera coronapandemin särskiljer sig inter-nationellt. När andra länder stänger ner stora delar av samhället och beor-drar medborgarna att stanna inne är istället Sveriges styrningsrationalitet en form av... more
Den svenska strategin för att hantera coronapandemin särskiljer sig inter-nationellt. När andra länder stänger ner stora delar av samhället och beor-drar medborgarna att stanna inne är istället Sveriges styrningsrationalitet en form av informations-och upplysningskampanj där medborgarna genom ökad kunskap förväntas frivilligt reglera sig själva för att minska den samhäl-leliga spridningen av viruset. Sveriges medborgare ska folkbildas snarare än hindras och förbjudas. Denna artikel bygger på intervjuer med 10 frivilligor-ganisationer och utforskar de "utbildningspolitiska tankefigurer" som känne-tecknar deras agerande under krisen. Artikeln visar att folkbildning blir sätt att hantera krisen på ett flertal sätt, genom att återge myndigheters budskap till grupper som annars kunde varit svåra att nå, men också att krishante-ringen blir ett sätt att initiera utbildningsinitiativ på bred och fokuserad front, både inom organisationen och till dess målgrupper. The Swedish strategy for handling the coronavirus pandemic is internationally distinctive. While other countries shut down big parts of society and order citizens to stay at home, the Swedish approach is one of information and "enlightenment" where citizens are expected to voluntarily regulate themselves. Swedish citizens are to be educated rather than prohibited. This article is based on interviews with 10 voluntary civil organizations, and explores the "educational imaginaries" that signifies their actions during the crisis. The article shows that citizen education becomes a way to manage the crisis, by relaying governmental information to target groups that would otherwise be hard to reach, but also that the crisis becomes a way to initiate educational efforts both broadly and specifically, within the organization as well as towards its target groups.
Research Interests:
• Based on empirical material from Swedish reformist labour movement associations, this article illustrates how digital technology has been described as a problem (and sometimes a solution) at different points in time. Most significant,... more
• Based on empirical material from Swedish reformist labour movement associations, this article illustrates how digital technology has been described as a problem (and sometimes a solution) at different points in time. Most significant, for this article, is the role that non-formal adult education has played in solving these problems. Computer education has repeatedly been described as a measure not only to increase technical knowledge, but also to construe desirable (digital) citizens for the future. Problematisations of the digital have changed over time, and these discursive reconceptualisations can be described as existing on a spectrum between techno-utopian visions, where adaptation of the human is seen as a task for education, and techno-dystopian forecasts, where education is needed to mobilise democratic control over threatening machines. As such, the goal for education has been one of political control-either to adapt people to machines, or to adapt machines to people.
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Dystopias accommodate potentials to burst the bubble of toxic positivity generated by a contemporary capitalist society idolizing perpetual growth. However, this paper argues that notions of dystopia and utopia may obscure the question of... more
Dystopias accommodate potentials to burst the bubble of toxic positivity generated by a contemporary capitalist society idolizing perpetual growth. However, this paper argues that notions of dystopia and utopia may obscure the question of cui bono, even though this is absolutely central to the terms themselves. Dystopias and utopias can not be understood without considering who will win and who will lose. Hence ideas of dystopia and utopia contain ideology, and as such also underpinning ontologies and ethical frameworks. Or in the words of Karen Barad, they are ethico-onto-epistemological, since they must be understood as intertwined.
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Too often, we demand from our students written proof of learning in the form of academic text. This is perhaps especially true within the humanities and the social sciences. We have, however, previously argued for the importance of... more
Too often, we demand from our students written proof of learning in the form of academic text. This is perhaps especially true within the humanities and the social sciences. We have, however, previously argued for the importance of installing an agency for change in students. For us, this agency seems unlikely to come only from producing a text that will at worst only be read by an examiner and at best also by a few classmates. This feeling of agency and efficacy (the capacity to produce an effect) rather comes with produsing hybrid learning products belonging to new/other genres than the ’pure’ critically reflecting text (or hardcore exams). We do not oppose critical reflection as being a foundation stone of any education, but as Laurillard, we argue that further inspiration could be taken from engineering, architecture, computer science and medicine in encouraging more of a ”design thinking” in (digital) humanities students. On a more general scale this is an approach that would combine critical reflection and experiential learning, and imbue students with an agency to make change and, quite literally, push things forward.
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Preppers and Survivalists are commonly described as people who believe in abrupt, imposing and near-in-time disasters and who are actively and practically preparing to survive this imminent apocalypse. Preparing to survive, in this... more
Preppers and Survivalists are commonly described as people who believe in abrupt, imposing and near-in-time disasters and who are actively and practically preparing to survive this imminent apocalypse. Preparing to survive, in this context, usually focuses on collecting gadgets for defence, safety and food (‘bullets, bandages and beans’), but also on social, physical and mental preparedness. Importantly, with the internet, online discussion forums have become a central part of prepping and survivalism. In these social arenas, survivalists and preppers, who want to remain (relatively) anonymous, can engage in discussions on practices and scenarios. In combination this creates a socio-material practice where the personal body comes to the centre. The body and its capacities are co-constructed with tactics and tools in order to prepare it for the upcoming trials. In this process, the internet is used both as a source of information, but also as a way to engage with peers. Consequently, for this paper, I want to explore in more detail how preconceptions of the body affect the socio-material practice of prepping. To bring focus to the paper I will specifically concentrate on a recent online discussion about ‘if, how, and to what extent one, as a survivalist, should or would help a woman with small children alone in a forest with no survival equipment after TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It)’. This particular discussion is relevant since it, as we shall see, puts analytical categories, such as gender and sexuality up front, pointing to their retained importance as objects of study.
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How and why is the zombie metaphor applied in efforts that seek to alert citizens to and prepare them for potential threats and disasters? And what are the consequences of applying this specific metaphor in attempts to govern populations?... more
How and why is the zombie metaphor applied in efforts that seek to alert citizens to and prepare them for potential threats and disasters? And what are the consequences of applying this specific metaphor in attempts to govern populations? This article examines the real-world political implications that come from the recurring adoption of a particular pop-cultural figuration as a guiding, and sometimes even governing, metaphor. More specifically, it looks at how the zombie has been used to promote the necessity for ‘preparing’ for the future in specific ways. While much has already been said about the zombie, this article adds to the current body of knowledge on the subject by looking at how the zombie metaphor has been applied for governing purposes. As such, the article provides analytical tools for studying how pop-cultural metaphors are used as ‘premediations’ — that is, as tools for practical governance in relation to both current and future threats — and for studying the potential implications that comes from such premediations.
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Our everyday use of digital technologies, platforms and infrastructures is often portrayed as an autonomous technical development, guided by clever and independent innovations, rather than broad sociotechnical imaginaries that inspire... more
Our everyday use of digital technologies, platforms and infrastructures is often portrayed as an autonomous technical development, guided by clever and independent innovations, rather than broad sociotechnical imaginaries that inspire parliamentary support and governance. This article will consequently shed the light on the often-overlooked structural and societal efforts that have historically shaped the digital citizen of today. For the past 70 years or so, non-formal adult education about computers and computing has been a key part of political ambitions to create a desirable future. Over time, digital technologies have also become a precondition for the enactment of citizenship. That is, 'digital citizenship' is increasingly positioned as a fundamental requirement for democratic participation. The purpose of this paper is to trace how the digital citizen, and its accompanying problems, has been construed over time, particularly through educational imaginaries. What problems is the digital citizen a solution to? Who has been presented as problematic, and who, subsequently, has become the primary target for educational solutions? What skills have been described as indispensable for the digital citizen during different periods in history? By using Sweden as a vantage point this paper provides both concrete examples as well as perspectives on transnational discourses. In focus for the study are discourses concerning non-formal adult education, in the form of awareness campaigns, social programmes and adult liberal education about computers aimed at the general citizenry, during three periods in time: the 1950s, the 1980s, and today. The contribution is a critical take on how the citizen has increasingly become connected to digital technologies, and how this convergence has at the same time created digital exclusion.-2
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This paper historicises and problematises the concept of the digital citizen and how it is constructed in Sweden today. Specifically, it examines the role of popular education in such an entanglement. It makes use of a genealogical... more
This paper historicises and problematises the concept of the digital citizen and how it is constructed in Sweden today. Specifically, it examines the role of popular education in such an entanglement. It makes use of a genealogical analysis to produce a critical 'history of the present' by mapping out the debates and controversies around the emergence of the digital citizen in the 1970s and 1980s, and following to its manifestations in contemporary debates. This article argues that free and voluntary adult education (popular education) is and has been fundamental in efforts to construe the digital citizen. A central argument of the paper is that popular education aiming for digital inclusion is not a 21 st century phenomenon; it actually commenced in the 1970s. However, this digitisation of citizens has also changed focus dramatically since the 1970s. During the 1970s, computers and computerisation were described as disconcerting, and as requiring popular education in order to counter the risk of the technology " running wild ". In current discourses, digitalisation is constructed in a non-ideological and post-political way. These post-political tendencies of today can be referred to as a post-digital present where computers have become so ordinary, domesticized and ubiquitous in everyday life that they are thereby also beyond criticism.
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How do adult students enact citizenship, and what discursive and material conditions make certain enactments more or less possible? This paper draws on 37 interviews with adult students at Swedish Folk High Schools and focuses on the... more
How do adult students enact citizenship, and what discursive and material conditions make certain enactments more or less possible? This paper draws on 37 interviews with adult students at Swedish Folk High Schools and focuses on the everyday material-discursive enactments of interactive media in adult students’ statements about citizenship. Drawing on a post-constructional perspective, the analysis illustrates how students’ statements about citizenship are made possible by ever-present media technologies and the associated practices of ‘living in media’. Students’ statements continuously reiterate how notions of citizenship are entangled with the Internet (and other new media). However, while new media are deeply embedded in the everyday lives of citizens and enables important citizenship enactments they are also a source of discomfort, giving rise to ambiguous statements. These double-edged statements refer on the one hand to negative implications on physical health, distraction from important tasks and an over-reliance on the Internet as an everyday need, and on the other hand to improved access to information, convivial communities and empowered citizenship.
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Diskussioner kring utbildning om datorn hänger förstås samman med vad den specifika maskinen vid en viss tid kan, eller inte kan, göra. Men kanske ännu högre utsträckning och särskilt i relation till utbildning, handlar den om vad en... more
Diskussioner kring utbildning om datorn hänger förstås samman med vad den specifika maskinen vid en viss tid kan, eller inte kan, göra. Men kanske ännu högre utsträckning och särskilt i relation till utbildning, handlar den om vad en fiktiv föreställd framtida dator kan, eller inte kan, och vad denna framtidsbild i sin tur genererar för beskrivningar av hot och möjligheter. Utbildning är ett av de främsta verktygen staten förfogar över för att skapa önskad framtid. Vilken framtid som ska skapas hänger nära samman med hur man tänker sig den tekniska utvecklingen. Datorer handlar således om mycket mer än kiselplattor, minnen och algoritmer – de handlar också i hög grad om samhället och hur dess medborgare ska organiseras och styras. Därför behöver vi undersöka hur vi pratar, och har pratat, om datorer – vilka idéer eller föreställningar om framtiden som ligger bakom de olika, ofta tidsförankrade, beskrivningarna av dessa maskiner, och inte minst, vilka utbildningssatsningar som följt i dess spår.
Research Interests: Historia and Folkbildning
This chapter aims to challenge histories of automation that depict it as a teleological movement from industrial automation to ‘smart’ machines; moving from manual to ‘cognitive’ automation. Instead, we demonstrate that technological... more
This chapter aims to challenge histories of automation that depict it as a teleological movement from industrial automation to ‘smart’ machines; moving from manual to ‘cognitive’ automation. Instead, we demonstrate that technological innovation is never straight-forward, but characterised by failures and dead ends as well as specific choices that are anchored in the social and political context rather than a natural evolution towards the ‘best’ technological solutions. Drawing on popular visual depictions of automation since the 1950s, we focus on critical junctures of automation - such moments where it becomes apparent that automation develops into a different direction than initially imagined. Focusing on these two critical junctures, while following the evolving dominant discourse of computerization and automation since the 1950s, we show that an important part of technological change is constituted by meaning-making processes that shape and make the implementation of new technologies possible.
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In the soon to come future, technological revolutions are likely to change future societies, bodies and minds in more far-reaching ways than ever before history. Transhumanism can be described as ‘a new paradigm for thinking about... more
In the soon to come future, technological revolutions are likely to change future societies, bodies and minds in more far-reaching ways than ever before history.
Transhumanism can be described as ‘a new paradigm for thinking about humankind’s future’ (World Transhumanist Association). Transhumanism is a philosophy, a cultural movement and a growing field of study. More specifically, transhumanism is the belief in morphological freedom and the aspiration to enhance human abilities and attributes and thereby transcend human biological limits.
For this special issue of Confero, we welcome contributions from scholars with various disciplinary backgrounds to debate transhumanistic issues in relation to education, politics, and design.
Topics suitable for this special issue could include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Transhumanism, corporeality and (un)learning
· Transhumanism and disease(s)
· Transhumanism and monstrosity
· Transhumanism and citizenship
· Transhumanism and surveillance
· Transhumanism and cognitive science
· Transhumanism and values (social, economical, ethical, juridical, environmental, moral, instrumental, utilitarian, hedonic etc.)
· Transhumanism and intersectionality (e.g. race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, able-bodied, crip)
· Human enhancement, prosthesis and extension
· Morphological freedom
· Educating the transhuman
· Queering transhumanism
· Transhumanism and speed
· Transhumanist design
· Definitions, practices and consequences of transhumanism (e.g. bio-hacking and DIY citizenship)
· A battle for/of the anthropocene? Posthumanism vs. transhumanism
· Transhumanism as subversive power
Notes for Contributors
Confero is a new interdisciplinary journal focusing on issues related to education and social criticism. The journal provides a space for essayistic writing and especially encourages discussions of philosophical and political nature. Confero welcomes articles that are not only stringent and systematic, but also beautiful, esoteric and profound.
We encourage authors to use the Oxford referencing system. To give the essay form and improve its readability, we ask that the essay has a clearly defined topic or theme that is laid out in the introduction of the piece. We also encourage the writer to divide the text into sections, using headings to promote its readability. Authors are encouraged to refrain from self-references. The text should be proofread before submission. The journal applies double-blind peer review. Authors will also be invited to review papers for this special issue. Guest editors for this special issue are Mattias Arvola (Linköping University), Lina Rahm (Linköping University), and Jörgen Skågeby (Stockholm university).
The editorial group can be reached at confero@liu.se. A first full draft of the essay should be sent to confero@liu.se on or mailto:before 1 April 2016. The subject line of the submission should read “Submission for SI on transhumanism”.
For further information and instructions, please visit our homepage: http://www.confero.ep.liu.se
Transhumanism can be described as ‘a new paradigm for thinking about humankind’s future’ (World Transhumanist Association). Transhumanism is a philosophy, a cultural movement and a growing field of study. More specifically, transhumanism is the belief in morphological freedom and the aspiration to enhance human abilities and attributes and thereby transcend human biological limits.
For this special issue of Confero, we welcome contributions from scholars with various disciplinary backgrounds to debate transhumanistic issues in relation to education, politics, and design.
Topics suitable for this special issue could include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Transhumanism, corporeality and (un)learning
· Transhumanism and disease(s)
· Transhumanism and monstrosity
· Transhumanism and citizenship
· Transhumanism and surveillance
· Transhumanism and cognitive science
· Transhumanism and values (social, economical, ethical, juridical, environmental, moral, instrumental, utilitarian, hedonic etc.)
· Transhumanism and intersectionality (e.g. race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, able-bodied, crip)
· Human enhancement, prosthesis and extension
· Morphological freedom
· Educating the transhuman
· Queering transhumanism
· Transhumanism and speed
· Transhumanist design
· Definitions, practices and consequences of transhumanism (e.g. bio-hacking and DIY citizenship)
· A battle for/of the anthropocene? Posthumanism vs. transhumanism
· Transhumanism as subversive power
Notes for Contributors
Confero is a new interdisciplinary journal focusing on issues related to education and social criticism. The journal provides a space for essayistic writing and especially encourages discussions of philosophical and political nature. Confero welcomes articles that are not only stringent and systematic, but also beautiful, esoteric and profound.
We encourage authors to use the Oxford referencing system. To give the essay form and improve its readability, we ask that the essay has a clearly defined topic or theme that is laid out in the introduction of the piece. We also encourage the writer to divide the text into sections, using headings to promote its readability. Authors are encouraged to refrain from self-references. The text should be proofread before submission. The journal applies double-blind peer review. Authors will also be invited to review papers for this special issue. Guest editors for this special issue are Mattias Arvola (Linköping University), Lina Rahm (Linköping University), and Jörgen Skågeby (Stockholm university).
The editorial group can be reached at confero@liu.se. A first full draft of the essay should be sent to confero@liu.se on or mailto:before 1 April 2016. The subject line of the submission should read “Submission for SI on transhumanism”.
For further information and instructions, please visit our homepage: http://www.confero.ep.liu.se
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This thesis makes use of a genealogical approach to map out and explain how and why computers and citizenship have become so closely connected. It examines the historical continuities and disruptions, and the role thatpopular education... more
This thesis makes use of a genealogical approach to map out and explain how and why computers and citizenship have become so closely connected. It examines the historical continuities and disruptions, and the role thatpopular education has played in this interrelation. Drawing on previous research in the overlap between Swedish popular education history and historical computer politics, this thesis adds knowledge about how imaginaries of popular education, operating as silver bullet solutions to problems with computerization, have had important functions as governing tools for at least 70 years. That is, Swedish popular education has since the 1950s been imagined as a central solution to problems with computerization, but also to realize the societal potentials associated with computers.
Specifically, this thesis makes two contributions: 1) Empirically, the thesis unearths archived, and in many ways forgotten, discourses around the historical enactment of the digital citizen, and the role of popular education, questioning assumptions that are taken for granted in current times; 2)Theoretically, the thesis proposes a conceptual model of educational imaginaries, and specifically introduces the notion (and method) of‘problematizations’ into these imaginaries.
Specifically, this thesis makes two contributions: 1) Empirically, the thesis unearths archived, and in many ways forgotten, discourses around the historical enactment of the digital citizen, and the role of popular education, questioning assumptions that are taken for granted in current times; 2)Theoretically, the thesis proposes a conceptual model of educational imaginaries, and specifically introduces the notion (and method) of‘problematizations’ into these imaginaries.
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Research Interests: Politics and Automation
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Drawing on research on gender and class and especially on the work of Beverly Skeggs we analyse adult educational student’s stories of their future occupations and future lives. We argue that these ...
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Den svenska strategin för att hantera coronapandemin särskiljer sig internationellt. När andra länder stänger ner stora delar av samhället och beordrar medborgarna att stanna inne är istället Sveriges styrningsrationalitet en form av... more
Den svenska strategin för att hantera coronapandemin särskiljer sig internationellt. När andra länder stänger ner stora delar av samhället och beordrar medborgarna att stanna inne är istället Sveriges styrningsrationalitet en form av informations- och upplysningskampanj där medborgarna genom ökad kunskap förväntas frivilligt reglera sig själva för att minska den samhälleliga spridningen av viruset. Sveriges medborgare ska folkbildas snarare än hindras och förbjudas. Denna artikel bygger på intervjuer med 10 frivilligorganisationer och utforskar de ”utbildningspolitiska tankefigurer” som kännetecknar deras agerande under krisen. Artikeln visar att folkbildning blir sätt att hantera krisen på ett flertal sätt, genom att återge myndigheters budskap till grupper som annars kunde varit svåra att nå, men också att krishanteringen blir ett sätt att initiera utbildningsinitiativ på bred och fokuserad front, både inom organisationen och till dess målgrupper.The Swedish strategy for handling the coronavirus pandemic is internationally distinctive. While other countries shut down big parts of society and order citizens to stay at home, the Swedish approach is one of information and ”enlightenment” where citizens are expected to voluntarily regulate themselves. Swedish citizens are to be educated rather than prohibited. This article is based on interviews with 10 voluntary civil organizations, and explores the ”educational imaginaries” that signifies their actions during the crisis. The article shows that citizen education becomes a way to manage the crisis, by relaying governmental information to target groups that would otherwise be hard to reach, but also that the crisis becomes a way to initiate educational efforts both broadly and specifically, within the organization as well as towards its target groups.QC 20210824</p
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Detta paper presenterar kvantitativa resultat fran en kartlaggning av folkhogskolans deltagargrupper over tid 1997-2013 vad galler deltagare som kategoriserats i olika funktionshinderomraden, och f ...
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De senaste decennierna har ”digital humaniora” nämnts i otaliga sammanhang och kommit att påverka litteraturvetenskaplig utbildning och forskning – trots att begreppets innebörd alltjämt är omdebatterad. Är det en ny disciplin eller... more
De senaste decennierna har ”digital humaniora” nämnts i otaliga sammanhang och kommit att påverka litteraturvetenskaplig utbildning och forskning – trots att begreppets innebörd alltjämt är omdebatterad. Är det en ny disciplin eller specialisering av forskning och undervisning som redan bedrivs? På vilka sätt hänger digital humaniora ihop med samhällets och universitetens datorisering? Är det ett svar på hur litteraturen kan förstås i en digitaliserad värld, eller en fingervisning om litteraturvetenskapens framtid? För att reda i begreppen bjöd TFL-redaktionen in till ett panelsamtal via videolänk, av och med Karl Berglund (Uppsala universitet), Oscar Jansson (Lunds universitet) och Lina Rahm (KTH).
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Diskussioner kring utbildning om datorn hänger förstås samman med vad den specifika maskinen vid en viss tid kan, eller inte kan, göra. Men kanske ännu högre utsträckning och särskilt i relation till utbildning, handlar den om vad en... more
Diskussioner kring utbildning om datorn hänger förstås samman med vad den specifika maskinen vid en viss tid kan, eller inte kan, göra. Men kanske ännu högre utsträckning och särskilt i relation till utbildning, handlar den om vad en fiktiv föreställd framtida dator kan, eller inte kan, och vad denna framtidsbild i sin tur genererar för beskrivningar av hot och möjligheter. Utbildning är ett av de främsta verktygen staten förfogar över för att skapa önskad framtid. Vilken framtid som ska skapas hänger nära samman med hur man tänker sig den tekniska utvecklingen. Datorer handlar således om mycket mer än kiselplattor, minnen och algoritmer – de handlar också i hög grad om samhället och hur dess medborgare ska organiseras och styras. Därför behöver vi undersöka hur vi pratar, och har pratat, om datorer – vilka idéer eller föreställningar om framtiden som ligger bakom de olika, ofta tidsförankrade, beskrivningarna av dessa maskiner, och inte minst, vilka utbildningssatsningar som följt i dess spår.
Research Interests: Historia and Folkbildning
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The aim of this paper presentation is to identify how the principles of democracy and the market are played out in Swedish adult education. More specifically, we focus on how collective and individ ...
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The presentation analyzes the formation of citizenship in today’s multi-ethnic Sweden with a particular focus on how migration renders visible existing citizenship ideals, defined in terms of similarity and difference on the basis of... more
The presentation analyzes the formation of citizenship in today’s multi-ethnic Sweden with a particular focus on how migration renders visible existing citizenship ideals, defined in terms of similarity and difference on the basis of ethno-cultural background. Analysing three individual stories of women who have migrated to Sweden, with different biographies and stories of how they ended up in Sweden, the presentation focuses on negotiations of the boundaries and contents of citizenship in multi-ethnic Sweden.
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Based on empirical material from Swedish reformist labour movement associations, this article illustrates how digital technology has been described as a problem (and sometimes a solution) at different points in time. Most significant, for... more
Based on empirical material from Swedish reformist labour movement associations, this article illustrates how digital technology has been described as a problem (and sometimes a solution) at different points in time. Most significant, for this article, is the role that non-formal adult education has played in solving these problems. Computer education has repeatedly been described as a measure not only to increase technical knowledge, but also to construe desirable (digital) citizens for the future. Problematisations of the digital have changed over time, and these discursive reconceptualisations can be described as existing on a spectrum between techno-utopian visions, where adaptation of the human is seen as a task for education, and techno-dystopian forecasts, where education is needed to mobilise democratic control over threatening machines. As such, the goal for education has been one of political control—either to adapt people to machines, or to adapt machines to people.
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How do adult students enact citizenship, and what discursive and material conditions make certain enactments more or less possible? This paper draws on 37 interviews with adult students at Swedish Folk High Schools and focuses on the... more
How do adult students enact citizenship, and what discursive and material conditions make certain enactments more or less possible? This paper draws on 37 interviews with adult students at Swedish Folk High Schools and focuses on the everyday material-discursive enactments of interactive media in adult students’ statements about citizenship. Drawing on a post-constructional perspective, the analysis illustrates how students’ statements about citizenship are made possible by ever-present media technologies and the associated practices of ‘living in media’. Students’ statements continuously reiterate how notions of citizenship are entangled with the Internet (and other new media). However, while new media are deeply embedded in the everyday lives of citizens and enables important citizenship enactments they are also a source of discomfort, giving rise to ambiguous statements. These double-edged statements refer on the one hand to negative implications on physical health, distraction f...
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In this open issue we present five papers covering different adult education and learning contexts across different geographical spaces, ranging from Spain, Germany, Eastern Europe to Canada. The topics of research range from young people... more
In this open issue we present five papers covering different adult education and learning contexts across different geographical spaces, ranging from Spain, Germany, Eastern Europe to Canada. The topics of research range from young people to retired people, adult educators and men and women reading self-help literature.
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This essay considers the entangled nature of classroom spaces and mediated course content. The authors rework an example course on digital media theory by applying three queer tactics in order to make room for diversity. These tactics are... more
This essay considers the entangled nature of classroom spaces and mediated course content. The authors rework an example course on digital media theory by applying three queer tactics in order to make room for diversity. These tactics are disidentification, crisis and failure. Their application provided the original course content with a number of resonating queer themes, including temporality, virality, anarchives, glitch, heterodoxy, and agency for change. The final theme (agency for change) is expanded upon by resignifying resistance as something positive to be developed in the classroom space. Positive resistance includes an acknowledgement of oppression in both theory and practice as well as an appeal to values such as fairness, social justice and ethical accountability in critical analyses of media. The essay also introduces some unconventional genres of writing that can support the queering of digital media theory, namely: anti-thesis; media-archaeology; interaction criticism...
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This paper historicises and problematises the concept of the digital citizen and how it is constructed in Sweden today. Specifically, it examines the role of popular education in such an entanglement. It makes use of a genealogical... more
This paper historicises and problematises the concept of the digital citizen and how it is constructed in Sweden today. Specifically, it examines the role of popular education in such an entanglement. It makes use of a genealogical analysis to produce a critical ‘history of the present’ by mapping out the debates and controversies around the emergence of the digital citizen in the 1970s and 1980s, and following to its manifestations in contemporary debates. This article argues that free and voluntary adult education (popular education) is and has been fundamental in efforts to construe the digital citizen. A central argument of the paper is that popular education aiming for digital inclusion is not a 21st century phenomenon; it actually commenced in the 1970s. However, this digitisation of citizens has also changed focus dramatically since the 1970s. During the 1970s, computers and computerisation were described as disconcerting, and as requiring popular education in order to counte...
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Paradoxes of citizen formation: Citizenship positioning in stories about belonging in an era of migration:This article analyzes the formation of citizenship in today’s multi-ethnic Sweden with a pa ...
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In a fairly recent blog post, Jussi Parikka discusses how media archaeology can be criticized for being a "boy's club". In the introduction of this text, he writes: One of the set critiques of media archaeology is that it is... more
In a fairly recent blog post, Jussi Parikka discusses how media archaeology can be criticized for being a "boy's club". In the introduction of this text, he writes: One of the set critiques of media archaeology is that it is a boys' club. That is a correct evaluation in so many ways when one has a look at the topics as well as authors of the circle of writers broadly understood part of 'media archaeology'. I make the same argument for instance in What is Media Archaeology?, but there is also something else that we need to attend to. There is however a danger that the critique also neglects the multiplicity inherent in the approach. For sure, there are critical points to be made in so many aspects of Kittler's and others' theoretical work, but at the same time it feels unfair to neglect the various female authors and artists at the core of the field. In other words, the critique often turns a blind eye to the women who are actively involved in media ...
The term ‘bashing’ commonly refers to a verbal attack of something, often conducted in a violent way. It may also signify “the concept of saying rude things about a certain subject over the Internet”, as a user on the website Urban... more
The term ‘bashing’ commonly refers to a verbal attack of something, often conducted in a violent way. It may also signify “the concept of saying rude things about a certain subject over the Internet”, as a user on the website Urban Dictionary put it. This is not to be confused with criticism. Criticism of research is necessary; something immanent and ubiquitous in the system of research and science. But the bashing of educational research is perhaps something new—at least as it is expressed on various media platforms, in new contexts, by different people.
Mot kyliga apparater tar man inte till knytnavarna : En historia om arbetarrorelsen och datorn
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IntroductionHow and why is the zombie metaphor applied in efforts that seek to alert citizens to and prepare them for potential threats and disasters? And what are the consequences of applying this specific metaphor in attempts to govern... more
IntroductionHow and why is the zombie metaphor applied in efforts that seek to alert citizens to and prepare them for potential threats and disasters? And what are the consequences of applying this specific metaphor in attempts to govern populations? This article examines the real-world political implications that come from the recurring adoption of a particular pop-cultural figuration as a guiding, and sometimes even governing, metaphor. More specifically, it looks at how the zombie has been used to promote the necessity for 'preparing' for the future in specific ways. While much has already been said about the zombie, this article adds to the current body of knowledge on the subject by looking at how the zombie metaphor has been applied for governing purposes. As such, the article provides analytical tools for studying how pop-cultural metaphors are used as 'premediations' - that is, as tools for practical governance in relation to both current and future threats -...
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Popular education is often described as particularly suitable for various projects related to digital inclusion. For example, the popular education guiding principle: "free and voluntary” has been described as an important... more
Popular education is often described as particularly suitable for various projects related to digital inclusion. For example, the popular education guiding principle: "free and voluntary” has been described as an important prerequisite for effectively digitizing Sweden. From this we can be (mis)led to understand that the mission of public education to promote the digital citizen is a new quest (or at least beginning in the early 2000s). However, popular education has played a central role in the digitization of citizens for over 40 years now. This genealogy aims to shed light on the role of popular education in the history of digitalization.
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1 Preppers and Survivalists are commonly described as people who believe in abrupt, imposing and near-in-time disasters and who are actively and practically preparing to survive this imminent apocalypse. Preparing to survive, in this... more
1 Preppers and Survivalists are commonly described as people who believe in abrupt, imposing and near-in-time disasters and who are actively and practically preparing to survive this imminent apocalypse. Preparing to survive, in this context, usually focuses on collecting gadgets for defence, safety and food ('bullets, bandages and beans'), but also on social, physical and mental preparedness. Importantly, with the internet, online discussion forums have become a central part of prepping and survivalism. In these social arenas, survivalists and preppers, who want to remain (relatively) anonymous, can engage in discussions on practices and scenarios. In combination this creates a socio-material practice where the personal body comes to the centre. The body and its capacities are co-constructed with tactics and tools in order to prepare it for the upcoming trials. In this process, the internet is used both as a source of information, but also as a way to engage with peers. Con...
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Our everyday use of digital technologies, platforms and infrastructures is often portrayed as an autonomous technical development, guided by clever and independent innovations, rather than broad sociotechnical imaginaries that inspire... more
Our everyday use of digital technologies, platforms and infrastructures is often portrayed as an autonomous technical development, guided by clever and independent innovations, rather than broad sociotechnical imaginaries that inspire parliamentary support and governance. This article will consequently shed the light on the oftenoverlooked structural and societal efforts that have historically shaped the digital citizen of today. For the past 70 years or so, non-formal adult education about computers and computing has been a key part of political ambitions to create a desirable future. Over time, digital technologies have also become a precondition for the enactment of citizenship. That is, ‘digital citizenship’ is increasingly positioned as a fundamental requirement for democratic participation. The purpose of this paper is to trace how the digital citizen, and its accompanying problems, has been construed over time, particularly through educational imaginaries. What problems is th...
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In this article we have analysed the ways a discourse on individualisation is taking shape within adult education in Sweden, how it operates, and what effects it has in terms of shaping student sub ...
Too often, we demand from our students written proof of learning in the form of academic text. This is perhaps especially true within the humanities and the social sciences. We have, however, previ ...
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The thesis is based on a case study of a Swedish discussion forum where survivalism and prepping is the main focus. The awareness of an abrupt and immanent breakdown together with a full and thorough preparation for any conceivable threat... more
The thesis is based on a case study of a Swedish discussion forum where survivalism and prepping is the main focus. The awareness of an abrupt and immanent breakdown together with a full and thorough preparation for any conceivable threat posed by that breakdown is what legitimizes survivalism and prepping. This preparation, or risk-proofing is 1) grounded in an isolation of the body and its predispositions from perceived risks, and 2) actualized through artefacts, theoretical and practical knowledge and awareness. Stories of the embodied survivalist are also stories of masculine and heterosexual subjects and “the others”. This thesis shows how a converging mobilization of design, technology and users can create a compact hegemony. Consequently, the thesis indicates how it can be fruitful to see 1) stories of risk-proofing as inseparable from the mediating technology used and 2) how stories of survivalism, as potential practices in an imaginary future, are based on hegemonic identities