INDEPENDENT STAFF MAGAZINE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG #3 SUMMER 2022
NEWS
High demands on new Vice-Chancellor FOCUS
System leads to poor research PEOPLE
New doctors and professors celebrated
Gets a kick out of old stuff Benjamin Hartmann researches nostalgia
Vice-Chancellor
Graduation ceremonies and hopes for the future HE FIRST MONTH of the summer is
here and in Vasaparken happy and well-dressed students mingle in the foyer, ready to enjoy their graduation ceremony in the auditorium. The champagne is flowing and proud relatives are ready to capture the moment with cameras. All against the backdrop of students on the back of lorries trundling past Vasaplatsen, which is packed to the gills with young, whooping students. Some of whom we will be welcoming in the autumn. It is a wonderful cycle of life that we have the privilege of being part of. A topical issue that you can read about in this issue of the magazine is the university's handling of the so-called profile areas within research. It is intended to be a new model for quality-based resource allocation that replaces the previous resource allocation model for basic grants to universities and colleges. How we sort out and define these areas is of course a strategic issue
that will involve many members of staff. The spring has been irrefutably marked by the war in Ukraine and its terrible consequences. As a university, we have made our voices heard and taken a stand. But we have also implemented specific measures and tried to help mitigate the effects in various ways. At the same time, the spring has been full of festivities; we have been able to hold a number of ceremonies after the pandemic, while others will take place in the autumn. They were joyous occasions that gave us strength and energy. A couple of weeks of intensive work and meetings remain before the summer vacation commences. I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for all their hard work and to wish you a relaxing holiday that provides ample opportunity for recuperation, in whatever way you choose! Have a wonderful summer!
Vice-Chancellor EVA WIBERG
Editor-in-chief: Allan Eriksson, phone: 031–786 10 21, e-mail: allan.eriksson@gu.se Editor: Eva Lundgren, phone:031–786 10 81, e-mail: eva.lundgren@gu.se Photographer: Johan Wingborg, phone: 070–595 38 01, e-post: johan.wingborg@gu.se Layout: Anders Eurén, phone: 031–786 43 81, e-mail: anders.euren@gu.se Address: GU JOURNAL, University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden E-mail: gu-journal@gu.se Internet: gu-journal.gu.se ISSN: 1402-9626 Translation: Språkservice Sverige AB The Journal has a free and independent position, and is made according to journalistic principles.
Contents
NEWS 04–07 04. GU:s strategy for work with profile areas. 06. In the search for a new Vice-Chancellor. PROFILE 08–11 08. Your consumption shows who you are. FOCUS 12–14 12. A new research system wanted. REPORT 15–23 15. Whatever you want to know, YouTube has the answer. 18. Tintin Wulia grew up in a borderland. 20. A ceremonial journey through time. 23. Record number of new professors.
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Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
professorial inauguration
Masthead
Soon, the GU Journal will celebrate 25 years as a university magazine HIS AUTUMN, the GU
Journalen will celebrate 25 years as a university magazine and we will of course be commemorating this in various ways. Just in time for the celebrations, the vice-chancellor has renewed the GU Journal's publishing policy, which guarantees the magazine's independent status. Two provisions have been added, one that the editorial staff should have an advisory network with representatives from the entire university, the other that the magazine's content and quality should be continuously evaluated. Today, the GU Journal together with LUM are the only print university magazines in the country. Unlike LUM, the GU Journals' editors are also the publishers, which guarantees independence. From a Nordic perspective, however, the GU Journal is not so unique, as most Danish and Norwegian university magazines have editorial freedom. We believe it is important for credibility. ONE THEME in this issue is meaningless research. Is the fact that half of all research published in the
leading scientific journals cannot be reproduced a sign of substandard research? Professor Olle Häggström does not think that it is as a result of cheating per se, but rather that it stems from carelessness and incompetence. The economist Eva Ranehill largely agrees, and believes that the way in which research is conducted should be fundamentally changed. DO YOU SOMETIMES watch YouTube
to try a new recipe or learn how to fix your car? Oskar Lindwall and Thomas Hillman have studied how people use instruction films on YouTube in all kinds of situations, which often is easier than to study a manual on what functions your new camera or washing machine have. The editors would like to encourage our readers to make their own contributions to the discussion. Contact us if you would like to suggest any issues that you think we should address! The editors would like to wish all our readers a wonderful summer!
Allan Eriksson & Eva Lundgren GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2022
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News
Unclear implementation of profile areas Which areas should be designated as special research areas at the University of Gothenburg? This issue will be investigated in the autumn. This is a new system for the distribution of research funds that the government plans to launch in 2024. But there is much that is still unclear, such as how the assessment process will work and how much money is really involved. IT WAS ON December 17, 2020, that the government presented the research and innovation bill, Forskning, frihet, framtid – kunskap och innovation för Sverige (Research, freedom, future – knowledge and innovation for Sweden) Among other things, an amended model was proposed for allocation of the research funds that are currently distributed according to bibliometrics and external grants. The government wants to introduce a system where higher education institutions apply for funding for special research areas areas instead, according to a model developed by the research funders, the Swedish Research Council, Formas, Forte and Vinnova, states Carina Mal-
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lard, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research. – The bill has led to a lot of work at the various faculties. In September 2021, they submitted 19 proposals for special research areas to the Research Board. On June 1 this year, we received a report from the funders that cleared up some ambiguities, and the further processing of the application for special research areas has since been discussed by the Research Board, the Management Council and the University management. We have now put together a procedural document. The next step is to update, rework and possibly merge some of the proposals, which the faculties must have completed by September 19. – AFTER THE RESEARCH Board has compiled the material, it is time for the faculties and the university's International Advisory Board to rank the proposals, based on the funders' three assessment criteria: the scientific quality of the research, the quality of the collaboration with wider society, and how well the research areas match the university's strategic work for increased quality in research and collaboration. This work should be completed by mid-October.
Then the Research Board and the Management Council will consider the different rankings and agree on a proposal that the vice-chancellor will then decide on, says Carina Mallard. – DURING THE AUTUMN, the
Swedish Research Council will also further clarify its instructions regarding what the application should look like, which of course we will also work on. In January, the higher education institutions will send a brief description of the specializations in the research areas to the Swedish Research Council. This will then form the basis for the appointment of the international panel of ten people who will rate all the proposals. And relevant experts, who will assist the expert panel, will also be appointed to assess the scientific quality. Given that there are 27 higher education institutions in the country that will have the opportunity to apply, and that the larger universities at least are likely to submit more research areas, this will not be an easy task. A complete application comprising a maximum of 30 pages must be sent to the Swedish Research Council sometime in the spring, exactly when is not yet clear. The expert panel will then take
a position on the applications according to the three assessment criteria, which will be graded according to a three-point scale. Obtaining the highest grade according to all three criteria corresponds to 9 points. – The special research areas of the higher education institutions will be assessed separately; thus it is not a matter of comparing the different higher education institutions with each other or ranking the individual research areas themselves. In December 2023, the panel's opinion will be compiled, and in January 2024, the Swedish Research Council will submit a proposal to the government on what investments should be made. ACCORDING TO THE government, a special research area must consist of both research that is already firmly established and research that is judged to have a strong potential to develop high scientific quality. Collaborations between different higher education institutions must also be possible, so this profiling is not about increasing competition. An international focus will also be highlighted. Although there is a process for how the applications will be managed, there is still
Carina Mallard thinks there are many question marks concerning the implementation of research areas.
much that is very unclear, Carina Mallard points out. – FIRSTLY, WE DO not know
how many research areas a major university with a broad scope like the University of Gothenburg can attain, although we think it is about five. And secondly, the budget framework is unclear. According to previous information, it involves SEK 500 million per year, which will be distributed to the various higher education institutions, but whether it is a question of new money or a redistribution of the faculty funds we already receive is unclear. We also do not know whether the funds will be distributed per higher education institution, regardless of how many research areas the higher education institution is assigned, or whether the funds will be allocated to each research area, which in that case benefits the higher education institutions that are assigned a lot of research areas. Furthermore, there are other circumstances that increase the level
THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG’S TIMETABLE: September 19: Deadline for the faculties to submit revised proposals for special research areas. September 26–October 1: Each faculty and the University of Gothenburg's International Advisory Board will rank all the proposed research areas that have been received. October 18–27: The Research Board and the Management Council will consider the rankings and submit proposals for decisions, which the vice-chancellor will make on October 27. The application will then be prepared. January 2023: A summary application will be sent to the Swedish Research Council. Spring 2023: The finalized application for special research areas will be sent to the Swedish Research Council. Spring 2024: The government will make a decision.
of uncertainty, such as the general election in September and pivotal events around the world that may completely change the conditions for the government's investments in research. What does the university management in general think about the investment in special research areas? – We believe that it will lead to more control of the universities that is not necessary. Moreover, the applications will result in a great deal of extra work at all levels: for the faculties, for the university management and, of course, for the Swedish Research Council. We are of course pleased that the government wants to invest in research, but it would have been more efficient to spend the money on the model that already exists. Despite our doubts, our aim is to work very hard on our application and to make it as good as it can possibly be. Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
FACTS The government's investment in special research areas will entail a new model for quality-based distribution of research grants. These are strategic investments of the highest quality that the higher education institutions themselves will define. The Swedish Research Council, Formas, Forte and Vinnova have developed the model. The applications can relate to both new and established areas. They will be assessed by an international panel according to three criteria: the scientific quality of the research, the quality of collaboration with wider society and how well the research areas align with the university's strategic work for increased quality in research and collaboration. The goal is for the model to be introduced in 2024. The plan is to evaluate the investment after 6–7 years.
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News
Wanted: a very versatile person
– All options are open, nothing is off the table. These are the words of the Chairman of the Board, Peter Larsson, who is heading up the job of recruiting a new vice-chancellor.
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– We are looking for a person who has a solid background in academia and is internationally recognized, says Peter Larsson.cerc
We are hoping to get a number of strong candidates who are both internationally recognized academics and who have proven to be good leaders. PETER LARSSON
rate and safeguard collegiality and academic freedom, to mention just a few examples. Peter Larsson points out that it does not necessarily have to be a native Swedish-speaker, but someone who is proficient in Nordic languages. This is also why we have stated that the person must have good communication skills and be able to express themselves well in Swedish (Scandinavian) and English, both orally and in writing.
THE SO-CALLED requirements profile was adopted by the B oardon June 15, which means that the work is entering a new phase. There is a substantial list of requirements. – It must be a person who has a solid background in academia, extensive experience, is an internationally recognized professor who has good leadership skills and
excellent knowledge of the higher education system. To put it simply, a very versatile person, says Peter Larsson. FURTHERMORE, a vice-chan-
cellor must have the following qualities: have integrity, be a strong representative of the university in relation to external stakeholders, both locally and internationally, have a good ability to collabo-
OTHER ISSUES THAT have been highlighted as particularly important for the upcoming term of office are skills supply, the ability to extend the work on sustainable development, digitalization and supply of premises. At the meeting on March 24, 2022, the University Board decided to initiate “a complete process for recruiting a vice-chancellor”. During the spring, the designated recruitment group met a number of times. – The work has gone well and is progressing according to plan. There is a lot of consensus within the group and it has been easy to agree on a new requirements profile, says Peter Larsson. Prior to compiling the requirements profile, the group did a comparison with the previous requirements profile that was drafted six years ago, but also looked at similar advertisements from other higher education institutions. – We have fine-tuned the content, added a little here and there. Above all, we have
discussed the requirements profile thoroughly. Now the work is underway. The Board's representatives from the teaching staff, professors Olof Johansson Stenman and Helle Wijk, are particularly pleased with the requirements profile’s emphasis on the university’s commitment and collaboration with society and the importance of internationalization. – We are hoping to get a number of strong candidates who are both internationally recognized academics and who have proven to be good leaders, particularly in research and education. It is also clear that a recruitment company will be commissioned to continue the process. – That company will get started in mid-August, says Peter Larsson. It will also be possible for people to contact them to express their interest in the job. All options are open and permissible. PETER LARSSON THINKS that
they have allotted more than sufficient time for the recruitment. – There is plenty of time, especially if you compare it with decision-making processes in the corporate world. Nor is there any panic. We have a vice-chancellor whose mandate ends at the end of June 2023, so I'm not at all concerned.
Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2022
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Profile
Enchanted by consumption Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
A black and white Fender Stratocaster is leaning against the wall in a room at the top of the Department of Business Administration. The room belongs to Benjamin Hartmann, recently appointed Professor of Business Administration, who researches nostalgia and consumption, among other things. – For me, the Stratocaster has special value and I will never sell it. It was my first electric guitar, bought in Berlin in 1991. If you put the stylus onto an LP from 1963 and marvel at the wonderful sound, or put your finger in the dial of an old-fashioned telephone and revel in that solution, then you may have suffered from nostalgic enchantment. At least that is what Benjamin Hartmann thinks. – Maybe you think that you bought the things because they reminded you of your childhood? But there are also strong commercial forces that make you want to relive the past with the help of all sorts of items. Nostalgia is an important driving force behind consumption, whether you are looking for authentic vintage items or newly made retro objects that look old, says Benjamin Hartmann. – Nostalgic consumption creates a kind of enchantment in predominantly three ways: partly there are people who simply think it is fun to wear an old East German military jacket, for example, and partly there are people who want to cleave to the past because they think that things were better then. But it is the third type of nostalgia that interests me the most: when you look back to gain inspiration for the future. For example, in the past, people were much better at reusing and repairing broken objects, and perhaps we should do the same today? Benjamin Hartmann also engages in nostalgic
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consumption. He collects electric guitars, for example, and has a Hagstrom guitar, a Viking Deluxe, the same one as Elvis and Frank Zappa played. – Hagstrom went bankrupt in 1983 but the brand lives on, and the guitars are manufactured under licence in Asia. So my guitar is unfortunately not the old Swedish-made model, but still made according to the old drawings.
Benjamin Hartmann's interest in nostalgia may be
related to his upbringing. He was born in 1981 in West Berlin, an enclave in the middle of an East Germany that no longer exists. A 156-kilometre-long wall stretched around West Berlin, of which 44 kilometres went straight through the city. The wall was built in 1961, but on November 9, 1989, the border was suddenly opened. – I grew up just a couple of hundred metres from the wall and still remember what it was like when loads of East Germans were able to stream in. They got 100 Deutschmarks each to buy goods and quickly bought up all the groceries. People from the West could also cross to the other side, on to streets that were previously inaccessible and that we had always wondered about. I also remember the so-called Todesstreifen, a mined
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Profile
We moved from a city that had 3.5 million inhabitants with cafés, restaurants and a great cultural life to the little town of Gränna – and really enjoyed it! I defended my dissertation in December 2013, Berit a month later, and in 2015 we both got jobs at the School of Business, Economics and Law here in Gothenburg. Nostalgic consumption is everywhere, not least in Germany, says Benjamin Hartmann. – After the initial euphoria of reunification, many people missed East Germany. It was believed that there was a sense of solidarity in the midst of the constant queuing for goods, and, furthermore, in the East everyone had jobs. The state-owned East German companies had been sold for practically nothing, but eventually people began to want the very goods that had disappeared. East German beer, sausages and mustard became a way to signify one's origins.
no-man's land, which, after the wall was demolished in 1990, became a giant playground for us children. The fact that Benjamin Hartmann started studying marketing is partly due to the fact that he has always been interested in advertising. – When we watched television, I did not care so much about the film itself, but used to channel surf to find the commercials instead. But my interest in marketing is also due to the fact that since my school days, I have been fascinated by human behaviour. However, my main interest has always been music. When I got home from school, I would throw my bag in a corner and sit down to practise for three hours. I was also part of a rock band that actually came fifth in a competition in Berlin and I had some plans for a career in music. But then I thought that it would be more fun to have music as a hobby instead.
After upper-secondary school, Benjamin Hartmann
did eleven months of civic service instead of military service. This meant helping the elderly in variety of ways, for example by driving them to the hairdresser’s or carrying them in a wheelchair up the stairs. – That period gave me time to think. I had already been accepted to law school but realized that my interest in people and advertising might rather point me towards marketing. So I started studying business in Berlin. In 2005–2006, I was in Lund and did my master's degree in International Marketing and Brand Management. My studies in Germany had mainly been quantitative, and as a student I had taught statistics at Technische Universität Berlin. But in Sweden I encountered a more qualitative approach and it fascinated me more. So after a while, when we were back in Berlin, both myself and my wife Berit became doctoral students at Jönköping International Business School.
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Young people have also started to find East Germany exciting; it has become popular to stay in hotels from 1970s East German, for instance. – It is an example of how you can have nostalgic feelings even for things you have not experienced. Sometimes an entire society can be affected by, for example, Wild West nostalgia or the longing to go back to the time before the First World War, even though no living person was alive at the time. But precisely because we do not know much about life in earlier periods of history, we can fill these epochs with our own fantasies, thoughts and ideas, which make life more interesting. Consumption is a way of showing who you are, Benjamin Hartmann points out. – Man is a pack animal that still wants to be an individual. We buy vintage clothes or become punks to stand out from the crowd but still belong to a group. And the symbolic meaning of consumption is extremely powerful. Personally, I am of the opinion that I belong to the group of responsible consumers, but sometimes our self-perception can be wrong. Some time ago I was in Denmark, and during lunch some colleagues were discussing how much water their dishwashers consumed. For me, it was a little embarrassing to admit that I did not know exactly how many litres of water my dishwasher uses. Consumption is identified as a problem, both in terms of the climate, the environment and inequality in the world. But consumption is also often seen as the solution; it is important to choose goods that are labelled Fair Trade, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. – And we consumers have a lot of power, we can stop buying T-shirts for 30 krona from Bangladesh. But ethical consumption also has a social dimension; not everyone can afford the more expensive Fair-Trade goods. How a brand is perceived depends on a kind of negotiation between the producer and the consumer, over which the company only has partial control. Sometimes things can go wrong. Failed business ideas are
another area that Benjamin Hartmann is interested in. – One example is the disposable DVD where the content would disappear after 48 hours, which was launched twenty years ago but was not a success. Another is the lasagna, made by Colgate, which no one wanted because the company is so strongly associated with toothpaste. This example is particularly interesting as it is used so often, but we do not really know if that lasagna really existed or if it is a “fake failure.” We can laugh at these failures but should probably also try to learn from them. In several countries, “fuckup nights” are held, i.e. events where people talk about things that have gone wrong in their lives, and it is a way of helping others not to make the same mistake.
Music is still one of Benjamin Hartmann's greatest
hobbies. When he visits relatives in Berlin, he often takes the opportunity to play with his old friends in the band. – Together with Jacob Östberg at Stockholm University, I have also investigated how music can be used in disseminating research results. Because just as images or video clips can increase the understanding of a text, music can convey a feeling or a mood. One example is a song written by Chris Hackley, Professor of Marketing at the University of London, called CCT Blues, which provides a somewhat ingenious explanation of consumer research. Jacob and I both wrote an article about that song and made a heavy metal cover version of it. Because it should be fun to do research!
But it is the third type of nostalgia that interests me the most: when you look back to gain in spiration for the future.
Benjamin Julien Hartmann Currently: Recently appointed Professor in Business Administration specializing in Marketing Family: His wife, Berit Hartmann, is a senior lecturer at the Department of Business Administration. They have two children aged 11 and 8. What was the last book you read? The Empty Throne by Bernard Cornwell. What was the last film you watched? The Lighthouse. Hobbies: Tennis, snowboarding, mountain
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Focus | Meaningless research
Wishing for new research system Half of all research published in the leading scientific journals is not reproducible and thus incorrect. Does this mean that the research is substandard? Or is this entirely as it should be? We should be better at having the courage to fail, several researchers at the University of Gothenburg think.
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In the book Kris i forskningsfrågan: eller vad fan får vi för pengarna? (Crisis in research: or what the hell are we getting for our money?) that was published a couple of years ago, the journalist and social commentator Hanne Kjöller examines how well taxpayers' research money is managed by politicians, authorities, universities and the researchers themselves. Her conclusion is, of course, that it is not managed very well. In the current climate, as the trial of Paolo Macchiarini is coming to an end, the book is relevant once again. It was the infamous surgeon's use of humans as guinea pigs that made Kjöller wonder how our research system
works. How was it even possible that he was granted research funding? In the book, Kjöller focuses on a number of themes that are well-known within the research community but largely unknown to the public, and the one that received the most media attention was about the so-called “reproduction crisis”. That's completely understandable. Kjöller quotes John Ioannidis at Stanford University who in one of the world's most quoted articles (2005) showed that half of the research results published in the most prestigious journals are incorrect, as they cannot be replicated when the experiments are repeated. Furthermore,
Eva Ranehill believes there is a pressure on researchers to publish interesting results.
But does that mean that science is in a crisis? – It is an overly sweeping statement, but it is clear that the low degree of reproducibility that has been discovered in certain subjects is a problem, says Olle Häggström, Professor of Mathematical Statistics. But he does not think it's mostly due to cheating, but more about carelessness and incompetence, and overly naive interpretations of the results of statical analyses. – But psychologists, doctors and economists have paid attention to the problem, and quite a lot is currently being done to get to grips with it, says Olle Häggström.
But Eva Ranehill, Senior Lecturer at the
The way in which research is conducted should be fundamentally changed. EVA RANEHILL
he estimates that 85 percent of all the billions invested in medical studies, clinical trials as well as in other research, is wasted. In the world of media logic, that kind of thing makes a cracking story.
Department of Economics, thinks that more should be done. – The way in which research is conducted should be fundamentally changed. Greater emphasis must be placed on the robustness of statistics and sufficiently large samples. And the main hypotheses should not be changed during the course of the research study, but remain the same when you publish. In the same way, it should be made clear that the results of any exploratory analyses of one's data, which are statistically more uncertain, need to be examined in more detail in further studies. She herself became abruptly aware of the problem about ten years ago. As a postdoctoral fellow in behavioural economics, she led a research group that would replicate a study of body postures and power. The study was well known, in a TED talk with millions of views, the social psychologist who carried out the research explains how people by stretching or adopting a slumped posture for a few minutes can affect their testosterone and cortisol levels. – We thought it was interesting and wanted to develop the study in our own research. The experimental group in the original study consisted of 42 people, Ranehill increased the number to 200. The study was not replicable. In her book, Hanne Kjöller uses the body posture study as a blatant example of lousy research that has received a lot
of attention, and where the researcher behind it was not entirely honest about their statistical selection. And this may be true. But on the other hand, the system worked – the shortcomings in the research were revealed.
– I'm not worried at all. It is not easy to manipulate the system. Anyone who tries to do this, by over-interpreting data, for example, is swiftly caught red-handed. No research is interesting until it has been replicated by someone else achieving the same results, says Henrik Zetterberg, Professor at the Institute for Neuroscience and Physiology. Sure, he thinks it's a little sad that replicability is so low for the research in the leading journals, but why worry about them? – If you want to be misled and get a skewed picture of what a research field looks like, you should only follow high-impact journals. They need to sell ads, and in order to maintain their impact factor, it is important to publish research that receives a lot of attention, and which often speculatively suggests how something important actually
Hanna Kjöller has written the book Kris i forsknings frågan.
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Focus | Meaningless research
– Researchers should have the courage to fail, says Henrik Zetterberg.
works. This means that, for example, it is impossible for me to publish a study in such a journal about a biomarker that was thought to be able to detect Alzheimer's disease but which does not. Instead, it ends up in one of the low-impact journals run by patient associations, for example. – It is in these journals that the most important research for the research field and the patients is published.
If everything always had to be absolutely perfect before publishing, the field would come to a standstill … HENRIK ZETTERBERG
Maybe researchers need to get better
at having the courage to fail? Precisely, Henrik Zetterberg answers. – One should not be so judgemental about non-replicable results. If everything always had to be absolutely perfect before publishing, the field would come to a standstill, which leads to an even worse bias where people don’t dare to present findings they do not really understand, but which are interesting, he says and continues: – This is something that makes doctoral students anxious, they are terrified of making mistakes. But if a researcher is always right during his or her career… well, then something is not right. Eva Ranehill says that she has managed to get an unusual number of “null hypotheses” published. – I've been lucky. The example in Hanne Kjöller's book was such a big thing because the first results that we tried to replicate received such an incredible amount of media attention, she says. But as a rule, that is not the case.
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– At present, it is often difficult to cut through the noise with information that shows that an effect, as presented in a published article, does not in fact exist. Depending on the importance of the original result, that knowledge may not always be disseminated in the leading journals, but we must find a system for it so that we do not try to replicate each other’s research without anyone knowing about it. We need to quickly find out when results from previous research are not accurate.
But of course, this also requires that
researchers write articles about their research studies even when they do not find what they wanted to find. It does not really chime with the incentives structure that permeates academia today. – Hanne Kjöller claims that it is about research money, but I do not think that is the main reason. It's about jobs. As a young researcher, you have to publish a
certain number of articles to keep your job, and those who want to advance must also publish in the top-ranked journals. Researchers thus have incentives to arrive at results and connections that are publishable. And the journals want articles that are considered interesting and provide a lot of quotes. A null hypothesis is often considered less interesting, she says.
– If you get a null hypothesis without having specified exactly which statistical analyses you want to perform in a research plan, well then it is easy to run your data against more variables. The more variables you add, the greater the probability that you will find something you think is statistically significant. This is happening unintentionally to a great extent, I think. You just want to make the best of your material, but at the same time you increase the risk of producing statistically uncertain results. The question is whether the research is stuck in the system? No, Eva Ranehill does not think so. But a more comprehensive debate is needed to find solutions. Because they exist. – There are, for example, journals that accept articles after evaluating research plans instead of results. This means that researchers can write down their best plan and imagined analysis and then not have to worry about what they come up with. Text: Lars Nicklason Photo: Johan Wingborg
Report
YouTube has all the answers Interested in grooming your dog? Or unsure about how to replace a radiator? – On YouTube there are videos about almost everything. The platform can be compared to a library that, instead of disseminating book-learning, conveys practical knowledge to the public, Thomas Hillman and Oskar Lindwall claim. They have both learned more about instructional videos just by watching YouTube. Ï
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Report
hen you stand there
next to your cooker and wonder what blanched tomatoes actually are, you are probably not going to dig out your old cookbook. Instead, you pour water into the saucepan while glancing at a one-minute video clip on YouTube. You're not alone. According to the Swedish Internet Foundation's report Swedes and the Internet from 2020, about 58 percent of Swedes learn new things with the help of YouTube; it is most popular in the age range 26–45 years. Oskar Lindwall, Professor of Communication, tells me.
– Instructional videos turn upside
down the logic that says not to produce overly-explicit TV. This means that you should not say that you have an orange in your hand when viewers can see that for themselves. Instead, one should create a captivating story and arouse interest. However, an instructional video works the other way around: All the accompanying talk is just annoying, instead you want that orange and you want to know exactly, step by step, how to use it. Despite the fact that so many Swedes
Oskar Lindwall points out that YouTube videos often explain things very clearly.
Instructional videos turn upside down the logic that says not to produce overly-explicit TV. OSKAR LINDWALL
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learn new things on the internet, there is practically no research on what it is or how it works. This is because pedagogical research is very focused on schools, explains Thomas Hillman, Professor of Applied Information Technology. – But we learn things all the time and YouTube is an example of how we absorb knowledge just when we need it. YouTube videos can be about simple things, like crocheting, but also about more difficult things, like replacing a radiator; then you may have to watch several clips to really understand. Even really complicated skills, such as Photoshop, yoga or a language, can be studied on YouTube, often by subscribing to a special channel. Some videos, about cooking for example, are as much about entertainment as a way of learning new things, Oskar Lindwall points out.
– Several genres are very specific, for example those about make-up or computer games. Sara Beauty Corner is an example of a young girl from Bergen who shares her make-up tips; the channel has 10 million subscribers and last year raised 5 million USD in advertising revenue. But then there are those instructional videos where a person simply used their mobile phone to film how to clean a sink. These are short and not very well-made clips, created by a someone who is barely visible in the video. But precisely because they are straightforward and also about real problems, they are easy to absorb. Often the videos also offer mistakes that
Thomas Hillman emphasizes that we not only learn in school but also otherwise when we do things.
Anyone watching videos about Alfa Romeo is probably interested in products related to that type of car. THOMAS HILLMAN
you can relate to. Sometimes, however, these amateur film makers also develop into professional YouTubers with their own channel.
Three things have made this type of instructional videos possible: Mobile phone screens and video cameras, and of course the platform YouTube, Oskar Lindwall points out. – It could be said that these three elements have contributed to a kind of democratization of knowledge. In the past, you could fix your washing machine yourself, today it is more difficult. But the YouTube films give back some of the power to ordinary people so that they do not always have to ask an expert. “Like, share, subscribe” are the three keywords that drive YouTube, Thomas Hillman explains. – The instructional videos also facilitate targeted advertising; anyone watching
videos about Alfa Romeo is probably interested in products related to that type of car. And the viewer is constantly getting suggestions for new videos that will further feed that interest. YouTube's algorithms are admittedly quite crude, but since there are so many videos, something that matches your interests is likely to pop up.
A fun way to study how people learn by watching videos was during the Science Festival in 2019, says Thomas Hillman. – We had a stand in Nordstan where visitors could follow video instructions to learn how to make balloon animals. It's not all that easy, there is a high risk of the balloons exploding when you twist them. But by following the video, most of the visitors managed to complete the task quite admirably anyway. Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
Facts Oskar Lindwall, Professor of Communication, who researches language and practical learning, among other things. Thomas Hillman, Professor of Applied IT, who researches social media, among other things. Both work at the Department of Applied IT.
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Report
Makes art of her country's trauma Tintin Wulia grew up in the borderland between two continents, with music as a constant companion. Today, she is an international artist and postdoctoral fellow at HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design and has received SEK 15 million in support from the European Research Fund (ERC) for her ne Tintin Wulia is in between places right now, as she puts it. After spending the past few years dividing her life between Brisbane in Australia and an apartment in Linnéstaden, she is now in the process of setting up home in Godalming in the south-east of England. – I will be returning to Gothenburg in June. Then we’ll see what things are like in the autumn and later in the future, says Tintin Wulia from her computer screen at home. Today, the whole world is her workplace. But she was born in 1972 in Bali, Indonesia, where she grew up under Suharto's brutal military regime. A dark period in Indonesia’s history, when hundreds of thousands of political prisoners were imprisoned and murdered. During an initial investigation in 1975, 55,000 people were still imprisoned without trial. One of the people murdered during this period was Tintin's grandfather. – It was a family secret. We never spoke
about it with anyone outside the family. But this was a major political conflict and many people have gone through the same experience as us. As an Indochinese person, I grew up with propaganda that led me to believe that people like us deserved to be murdered. At a time when you risked being exposed and seen as a political opponent if you told the truth, this type of story tends to stay within the family, she explains. Silence became a natural part of both
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private and public life. – If you grow up with a secret that absolutely must not be revealed, there is nothing that makes you pause and question what you have been through. Instead, you get used to never asking questions.
When she eventually realized the extent of the regime's influence on her upbringing, and the terrible effects Suharto's regime had had, she slowly but surely began to delve into her family’s and the country's history. Something that at the age of twenty resulted in her first work of art, where she examined her own and other people's experiences in the country. – Something very powerful emerged when I started communicating and asking questions about my secrets. Initially, she was careful about including Suharto's regime in her art. Only much later, at the age of thirty, five years after the fall of the regime, did she dare
to express herself in a more pronounced way regarding her background and the country's trauma. At the time, she had started a doctoral degree in art at RMIT University in Melbourne, a safe distance from her home country. Prior to that, she had spent several years teaching music, studying to be an architect and experimenting with various types of media, as well as going on tour in Germany with a band, as their video photographer. Music and art have always been a natural part of Tintin Wulia's life.
– I grew up in the music school that my
parents founded. My mother and father met when they were playing in a student orchestra, and my mother's first job was teaching, which she continued to do until she was 78 years old. Dedicating myself to art in some form always felt very natural. For the past 20 years that she has spent in the profession, her art has been characterized by a process-based and
Photo: PRIVATE
ly affected her. Indonesia is wedged between Australia to the south-east and Asia to the west. And is surrounded by two of the world's great oceans. – Indonesia is truly a border country in that sense. This also entails a lot of embedded conflict.
Tintin Wulia grew up in Indonesia during Suharto’s brutal military regime.
multimedia approach. Often this entails getting the spectators involved in the work, or by creating experiences with the help of videos, murals, sound or performance. The exploration of topics such as social policy, borders, migration and identity is a common theme in her work. Something she largely believes is based on the experience of growing up under the Suharto regime.
– Growing up as an Indochinese person means belonging to a group that is legally discriminated against. This is probably one of the reasons why my family has always attached great importance to legal documents and other documentation, as they help you prove that you have the right to live in your own country. Much of this was expressed in the form of the art project Make your own passport, with which she participated at the Science Festival this year. The fact that her homeland is located right in the middle of two continents has also strong-
Tintin Wulia sees combining artistic practice with research as a way of honing her artistic work. Such as using a clear framework and a schedule. Even as an artist, she engages in theoretical work. – I combine the roles of researcher and artist. The strength of this is that even as an artist, I am really expected to achieve something when the work is linked to research. That she came to Sweden in 2018 stems from the fact that a friend had found out that the School of Global Studies was looking for a postdoctoral fellow in crafts, design and art, with a focus on migration. – This is you, he said. “Apply!” And I did it without knowing the faculty or ever having set foot in Gothenburg before. She got the job, which was thus divided between HDK-Valand and the School of Global Studies. Now that she has received SEK 15 million to conduct an interdisciplinary study on how aesthetic objects lead to socio-political change, she sees it as a natural development in her work to explore issues related to migration and geopolitics. Not least considering that our way of
looking at and experiencing different objects can change dramatically depending on the context, according to Tintin Wulia. – You can affect individuals with objects that exist in both political and social institutions. When an object is embedded in a social interaction, there is something that triggers how we experience the
Something very powerful emerged when I started communicating and asking questions about my secrets. TINTIN WULIA
object in that particular situation. I want to investigate this through both theory and practice. That she is the first researcher at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts to receive research funding from the ERC, one of the largest and most prestigious grants a researcher can receive early in their career, she feels is a tremendous honour, but also a responsibility. A research team will be put together, including research assistants who will work with various organizations in several countries.
She wants to develop the method
related to the practical work of handling objects while at the same time introducing theory and a research perspective into the project. – That is the strength of being artistically grounded in your research. You are not only permitted to work in a practical manner. You are expected to do so.
Hanna Jedvik
Tintin Wulia Born: In 1972 in Bali, Indonesia. Profession: Artist and researcher at HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design. Lives in: Godalming, United Kingdom.
Tintin Wulia's work Nous ne notons pas les fleurs (2010) is based on a filmed experiment. It consists of a world map where flowers, spices and herbs represent different countries. Participants were invited to move around the ingredients according to personal experiences and their travels, which resulted in this work of art. GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2022
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Doctoral conferment ceremony
– Honoured doctors! It was finally time for the delayed doctoral conferment ceremony, where both doctors, honorary doctors and award winners were honoured and celebrated for their hard work. It was very much a long-awaited ceremony. The pandemic put paid to the ceremony, but a year and a half later than planned, it could finally take place. First and foremost, the ceremony focuses on all new doctors who defended their theses during the period 2019–2020. About 130 of the recipients of the doctors’ degrees were guided across the stage by the faculty's supervisor, speaking mellifluous Latin. The ten honorary doctors received their insignia and were also guided across the stage to receive accolades from the audience. In addition, a number of award winners were honoured: one of them was Carl Bennet, who received the university's finest distinction: Socci et Amici. Completing a doctoral dissertation is a milestone in life, said Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg, who invited the audience to take a journey through time. – Let us imagine that today is October 16, 2020, i.e. a year and a half ago. That was precisely the date that had been planned if the pandemic had not intervened. A lot has probably happened since then, some of you have perhaps moved away and found new jobs, maybe even had children. Still, you have taken the trouble to participate in this little journey through time. Why? I believe that the pandemic, despite all the misery, has taught us an important lesson: the realization that it is important to come together and to celebrate. A doctoral conferment ceremony is not just any old
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ceremony. It is solemn and intended to honour those involved. It is a two and a half hour extravaganza, where everything is rehearsed down to the tiniest detail. The audience sat quietly and only a few cheers were heard when the doctors lined up on stage. The musical numbers were performed by students from the Academy of Music and Drama, and provided a much-needed interlude and a very pleasant backdrop. After filing out to the music of Bernhard Crusell, guests mingled with champagne and canapés before the congress hall was ready to receive 700 guests who enjoyed a three-course menu with well-chosen wines. One speech succeeded another, but the most entertaining was probably by the actor David Dencik, an honorary doctor of the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts.
– In my profession, I go to many festive award cere-
monies, but most of the time I come home empty-handed, but not today. I'm just a guest of the scientific community, but today, strangely enough, I feel a little at home in this dress suit with a hat and a gold ring. This whole event is extremely eccentric, but today we have reason to celebrate, he said and called for a toast to all the “glamorous” doctors who put in so much hard work. – Dixi.
Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg
It's been a few years since you completed your PhD. What is the biggest thing that has happened during this time? that it gets this solemn sometimes. There is a researcher's every day and a teacher's every day, but today it’s party time! Lena Dafgård, IT Faculty. Works as a pedagogical developer with a focus on digital competence at Dalarna University
Erik Gustafsson, School of Business, Economics and Law, works as post doctor at the schools Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
– My dissertation was published in the beginning of 2020, just when the pandemic started, and since it is about distance education and teachers' use of video, it got a lot of attention. I became a doctoral student at the IT faculty in 2006, so it has taken me 12 years to complete my dissertation. In the meantime, I have worked as an educational developer at the University of Gothenburg, the University of Skövde and Mälardalen University. The graduation ceremony is a milestone for me.
– After my dissertation, I received research funding from the Bromanska Foundation. After that, I got the Wallander Scholarship, which means that I can do research for three years full time, for which I am deeply grateful. Being part of this day is absolutely fantastic. I am very happy with my doctoral education where I started my research on entrepreneurship in the fashion industry. Luckily, I defended my dissertation before the pandemic struck.
Matilda Amundsen Bergström, Faculty if Humanities, works as post doctor at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion. – I have a job that extends beyond a year, something not everyone has in my field (literary studies). And I have received enough project funding to be able to do research for several more years. After a postdoctoral stay in Copenhagen, I am also back at my favorite institution, which is really wonderful. Apart from my job, the biggest thing that has happened to me is that I, together with five friends, have opened the bookstore Mare literature. This allows me to surround myself with and think about literature for days on end!
Martin Göthberg, Faculty of Education. Works bot at Dalarna University and at the Academy of Music and Drama. – On the scientific side I have contributed to publishing the anthology Att undervisa i teater (To teach theater), the first of its kind in Sweden. The anthology fills a need within the theater teacher education at GU and other teacher education institutions that address aesthetic forms of learning. I have also worked with research and development projects in collaboration with Dalarna University and Mora Gymnasium.
Anna Jeppsson defended her dissertation in medical science, Sahlgrenska Academy, and is working as a researcher at the section for clinical neuroscience. – I was lucky to get a job directly in clinical neurology. It is fun and solemn to celebrate this day.
– I see the promotion as a bridge from generation to generation, a legacy of learning and knowledge. The promotion is like a scenic representation of what the academy stands for. And it’s nice GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2022
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Doctoral conferment ceremony
Business manager Carl Bennet received the University’s finest award, Soccii et amici Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Professor Göran Wenngren was the promotor of the Sahlgrenska Academy. Remigio Cabrera Trujillo received his honorary doctorate. FanQi Wu from the Academy of Music and Drama.
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Professorial inauguration
Record number of professors inaugurated Alexandra Weilenmann was one of over 100 professors that were celebrated.
Sweden's largest professorial inauguration ever took place on May 20, when as many as 106 professors were inaugurated at the University of Gothenburg. In addition, pedagogical award winners and excellent teachers were celebrated. As many as 96 professors were inau-
gurated, another eight were appointed adjunct professors, and two visiting professors were welcomed by Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg during the ceremony at the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Centre. In her speech, the vice-chancellor explained how important teachers are for society as a whole. – Hundreds of thousands of professionals in our country implement through practical application everything they learned during their education at the University of Gothenburg. In this way, they contribute to our society and the country's development. When you think
about it, it is almost breath-taking the significance you have as teachers! She also pointed out the hard work and dedication required to become a professor.
– Failures, setbacks, things that do
not turn out as planned, you have all experienced these. But somehow you have managed to keep going, finding a different approach or maybe even starting from scratch. The professors were inaugurated faculty by faculty. Each faculty was presented with a short film, produced at the Communication Unit, where three to four professors spoke about their research. Inger Gjertsson, Professor of Rheumatology, held a thank you speech on behalf of all professors. – When I started as a rheumatologist about 30 years ago, all patients with rheumatoid arthritis were severely handicapped. Thanks to research, led by professors,
new treatments could be developed and the world has become significantly better for the percentage of the population with rheumatic disease. Excellent teachers and pedagogical award winners also received diplomas, after which Daniel Johansson, Vice Chairman of the University of Gothenburg's student unions, held a speech. Among other things, he pointed out the importance of professors as role models for students.
– However, I feel reassured, because if
there is anyone who knows the lie of the land, it’s a professor at the University of Gothenburg. Students from the Academy of Music and Drama provided the musical entertainment. A wind quintet performed pieces by Carl Nielsen and soprano Viktoria Karlsson sang Puccini's Oh! Mio babbino caro with accompaniment by Beatrice Hedly. The ceremony ended with a buffet.
Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2022
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