GUJ5-2016

NO 5 | NOVEMBER 2016

Design is power and politics Tom Cubbin is keen to give his students a shake.

INCREASED GENDER EQUALITY

IN THE WORLD OF RANKINGS

NEW RESEARCH EVALUATION

The pilots have now started

No great change over time

What were the results of RED 10?

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Vice Chancellor

A MAGAZINE FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF GOTHENBURG

Education the key to tomorrow’s jobs W H AT I S T H E RO LE of universities in society?

This is a question that, in line with the increasing interest in our operations, receives ever more diverse answers. Most people solidly agree on the basic mission, i.e. developing and disseminating new knowledge. However, there are considerably more opinions on how this knowledge should be used.

It can have escaped no one that globalisation and digitalisation/robotisation are some of the trends that are currently having the greatest impact on our lives, at work and at home. Certain studies and forecasts show that half the jobs we know today will no longer be here in 20 years. Even if it is extremely difficult to say anything completely certain about the future, we can be confident that quite a few jobs will disappear and new competencies will be in demand.

few years, I have been involved in many different undertakings where tomorrow’s jobs and the need for knowledge and skills have been discussed. Discussion has related not only to how professions will change and which jobs there will actually be in the future, but also to what is required of the economy and which changes must be implemented in the labour market, education and welfare systems to meet the challenges presented by technological development and globalisation. Unfortunately, the debate on deficient matching of demand and supply in the labour market has often had an altogether too narrow view of knowledge and skills. This has, amongst other things, led to entrenched positions and impeded the dialogue between working life and universities. Such dialogue is necessary to ensure satisfaction of Sweden’s OV E R T H E PA ST

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

future competence provisioning requirements.

My view is that representatives of working life need to look up and see that new competencies are required to respond to the rapidly changeable jobs market of an increasingly globalised world. Both private and public employers in Sweden seldom see either the necessity of appointing individuals with skills from different areas or the opportunities this brings.

Degrees from other countries often do not fit in. Qualifications in the humanities, social sciences and arts are all too rarely seen as an asset. This is something that distinguishes us from many other countries where, irrespective of subject, an academic degree is meritorious.

Although it is often pointed out that new ideas sprout at the intersections between different bodies of knowledge, the requirement for traditional professional qualifications still dominates when both the public and private sectors advertise positions.

R EG A R D LE S S O F the nature of tomorrow’s continuing professional development needs, I am sure that higher education and research will play a key role in meeting and driving the development. To help answer the major challenges facing humanity, we shall contribute wide and interdisciplinary knowledge. At the same time, we shall continue to invest in developing the deep subject knowledge that must be the basis for the interdisciplinary solutions.

The bases of a modern knowledge society are, of course, good schooling for all and post upper-secondary study courses and programmes that have various objectives. However, there must also be opportunities for continuously learning new things. Lifelong learning that also includes the importance of education opens more perspectives and strengthens all dimensions of knowledge. As a university, we shall also stimulate all the other abilities that will be of critical importance in tomorrow’s job market. Creativity, analytical acuity, inventiveness, collaborativeness, wide-ranging understanding and readiness to adapt are just some of these.

Education is the key to tomorrow’s jobs. It is more too. Education is also a human right that we, as a university, have an important duty to both emphasise and promote.

November 2016 E D I TO R - I N C H I E F A N D P U B L I S H E R

Allan Eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se E D I TO R A N D V I C E P U B L I S H E R

Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D R E P R O D U C T I O N

Johan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se G R A P H I C F O R M A N D L AYO U T

Anders Eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se

ADDRESS

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C OV E R

Tom Cubbin, senior lecturer at the Academy of Design and Crafts Photo: Johan Wingborg

Contents

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2016

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15 10 THE VICE-CHANCELLOR’S COLUMN

2 Education will play a key role in tomorrow’s job market.

NEWS

4 Gender equality by 2019?

Departmental bodies leading the way. ­ 6 Unreliable, but difficult to ignore – How the University of Gothenburg is doing in the various rankings.

Tom Cubbin sees design as a tool for power

Tranquil visit

Wants more anarchy at universities.

Researchers and teachers can receive a bursary to stay in Villa Martinson for a few weeks of peace and quiet.

9 Time for a new investigation of the University of Gothenburg’s research.

10 Villa Martinson offers time to go deeper.

12 Exile as a part of the human condition.

18

PROFILE

15 Tom Cubbin would like students to be more audacious.

REPORT

18 Ceremony for the award of 149 new doctorates.

20 A fanfare for the University of Gothenburg.

21 Deliang Chen is appointed the chair of the nomination committee for the Stockholm Water Prize.

22 Doctor gives hope to Congolese women.

Hats on for our doctors!

23 Chronicle: Climate justice and the retaking of common land.

This year, there were no fewer than 149 doctors, 11 honorary doctors and 12 jubilee doctors.

12 The dream of a united Europe Karolina Enquist Källgren is inspired by a far-sighted Spanish philosopher.

Editorial: Norwegian university newspapers impress W E A R E just back from a visit to Oslo to study colleagues there handling monitoring of the university sector.

The university newspaper Uniforum, which has its 30th anniversary this year, is no longer to print a paper edition. It will now be devoted to news reporting on the internet. The decision to switch entirely to the internet was taken the last time we were there (2011).

However, this led to such strong protests from the employees that the paper edition was reinstated.

Despite 40 – 50 per cent of the employees still primarily reading the paper edition, the editorial board

has decided to cease printing. The editorial team is not unanimously positive about this. Everything has to happen so quickly and there is no functioning web platform for news journalism. Yet, they are upbeat about getting more resources.

I N N O RWAY, several universities and university colleges have already gone over to internet publication.

This has not been partnered by cutbacks. In 2013, the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences started Khrono, an entirely internet-based newspaper.

In the short time since then, it has

become the country’s leading organ for monitoring university issues, for employees and students alike. It has also won several prizes for its design and reportage. With daily news and very lively debate, it is an incredibly ambitious newspaper. It reaches 13 – 15,000 of the country’s university employees and currently has 3,200 subscribers. Khrono has joined battle with Universitetsavisa in Trondheim, which also offers national monitoring.

N O RWAY ’ S U N I V E R S IT Y newspapers are models in their independent role as critical monitors of individual

higher education institutions and university policy. For example, under the aegis of the university board, Uniforum is entirely independent.

This guarantees financial stability and great freedom. Compared with Norway, Sweden has, unfortunately, gone in an entirely different direction in which information, rather than critical examination, has become more important. Khrono is just one shining example of what good news journalism can achieve. We have much to learn. The question is whether we have the courage!

ALLAN ERIKSSON & EVA LUNDGREN

4

News

Gender equality moving slowly forwards ILLUSTR ATION: KRISTINA EDGREN

How is gender equality faring at the University of Gothenburg? According to many, it is going in the right direction, but altogether too slowly.

“The new mission from the government entails the University of Gothenburg mainstreaming gender equality in its day-to-day operations by 2019,” explain Samuel Heimann and Ulrika Helldén, project coordinators at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research. the government has set higher education institutions targets for recruiting new female professors.

New targets are indeed expected in the 2017 state directives attached to fund allocations.

“Such quantitative objectives often lead to short-term initiatives. They can certainly be good for the women in the system at the point of time in question. However, they probably don’t lead to major changes in the long term. That is why the government is also investing in gender mainstreaming. This involves more fundamental initiatives, the effects of which will be noticed in the longer term,” states Ulrika Helldén.

For example, the Jämställda fakulteter? (“Gender equal faculties?”) investigation of 2012 showed that there is still an image of the ideal researcher having to be so devoted to work that there is little time for anything else.

“It is an image that not only makes PR E V I O U S LY,

things difficult for women, it also doesn’t match many men either,” indicates Samuel Heimann. “Nonetheless, as we constantly propagate this ideal, there is a risk that we select based on the sort of person a researcher is perceived to be rather than on competence and research quality. Besides homogenisation of university colleges, this also entails other sorts of risks. The Macchiarini affair ought to serve as a warning of where the ‘cult of genius’ can lead, especially if we start to ignore rules and the correct exercise of public authority.”

Samuel Heimann comments that it is easy to get caught up in pure HR solutions when seeking to improve the work environment. “Of course, it is important to try to address high sickness rates or facilitate employees combining careers with parenthood.

However, it is a basic problem that we have an extremely limited image of what a researcher is. This demands other measures.”

H E LE N A LI N D H O LM , pro-vice-chancellor, is of the opinion that, even if gender mainstreaming will demand a lot of work, it is still in line with how the University of Gothenburg is already working. “Indeed, it was vicechancellor Pam Fredman who began the gender mainstreaming initiative in higher education by suggesting that the University of Gothenburg should be a pilot. The Ministry of Education and Research then decided that all higher education institutions should

have this mission. As gender equality is about, amongst other things, power, resource allocation and role models, quantitative targets are not unimportant. However, it is important to address the underlying structures that create injustice.”

Two of the areas that the University of Gothenburg will be particularly highlighting are: assessment and recruitment processes; and, resource allocation. “ I N T H E SW E D I S H Research Council’s report Jämställdhetsobservationer i fyra beredningsgrupper 2011 (‘Gender equality observations in four preparatory groups 2011’), it emerged that women and men were assessed differently in two of the groups,” relates Helena Lindholm. “It is not unreasonable to think there may be similar injustices in new recruitments and job appointments.”

Another area is the content of study courses and programmes. Teacher education programmes can serve as an example.

“Amongst other things, it’s a question of highlighting both sexes in the course literature and also presenting the study courses and programmes so that they feel relevant to both women and men. There’s a lot to be done.”

A further initiative is coming next year. The vice-chancellor is then inviting 30 heads of research to a three-stage dialogue on gender and power in academia. This is being led by gender researchers from Umeå

University and Malmö University.

However, gender mainstreaming is not just about research and education.

“All operations are to be involved, even, for example, administration,” reveals Ulrika Helldén.

“Administration is absolutely critical in our achieving quality core operations. Cutbacks and de-professionalisation in and of administrative work at higher education institutions presents a great problem for both transparency and quality.”

Samuel Heimann underlines that it is small actions that can propagate inequalities without anyone really wanting this. “When, for example, a professor retires, perhaps the post should not simply be advertised.

Perhaps there should be a needs analysis, a checking of what is really required and, thereafter, an appropriately worded advert. There is then a chance that applicants other than those originally intended may appear.

This could be valuable.”

Universities are state authorities with great societal responsibility, stresses Ulrika Helldén. “Our students train to be doctors, lawyers, social workers and teachers. They must be able to meet society’s gender inequality challenges. Consequently, their study courses and programmes must be permeated by a gender and equality perspective.”

EVA LUNDGREN ALLAN ERIKSSON

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2016

A long way to an equal academia

% 100 90

Women

Men

PROFESSORS

SENIOR LECTURES

ADMINISTRATION

80 78%

78%

77%

70

69%

60 55%

50 45%

40 30 20

53% 47%

31% 23%

22%

22%

10 0

5

2006

2016

2006

2016

2006

2016

Eight bodies chosen In each faculty, a body has been appointed to pilot gender equality work. These bodies are to intensify the work and analyse the parts they themselves feel are the most interesting.

T H AT T H E AC A D E M Y of Music and Drama (HSM) has previously worked with norm-critical projects may be one reason for this body having been chosen as the pilot at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts.

This is the opinion of senior lecturer Helena Wattström, coordinator for HSM’s gender mainstreaming. “Right now, we’re busy mapping out the gender equality situations in the various teaching staffs in the drama, music and teacher education fields. We have chosen course syllabuses and literature lists as special focus areas.”

Yet, there are many challenges. For example, music students often seek jobs on an international market. “If the public never hears music outside the usual repertoire, how is it to be brought round to wanting other music? In school programmes, we could perhaps offer alternatives to Mozart and Beethoven – the Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist, for example. At the same time, we must also prepare our students for the audi-

tions they will face when they later seek jobs out in the world. And there, the Mozart and Beethoven repertoire rules.”

However, Helena Wattström is of the opinion that changes can be made. “For example, in the Actor Programme, we have discussed casting based on the nature of the character to be played rather than on the character’s gender. This has been enormously fruitful.”

T H E FAC U LT Y W IT H the most female students at the University of Gothenburg is the Faculty of Education. Anette Hellman, senior lecturer at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning is, along with senior lecturer Live Stretmo, the faculty’s gender mainstreaming coordinator. She states that the Preschool Teacher Programme finds it particularly difficult to attract men. “That is why we have started a project in which we are overhauling all the study courses and programmes for preschool teachers. Amongst other things, both female and male students are to be interviewed.” It is not only that so few males apply for the Preschool Teacher Programme, it is also that these few often drop out. “When they

are on placements, they often run into tacit norms such as being expected to play football rather than provide comfort or change nappies. There is also the notion that male preschool teachers lack ambition. That, in 2016, we haven’t progressed beyond this is truly deplorable.”

T H E S C H O O L O F P U B LI C Administra­ tion has selected three focus areas for its gender equality work: the work environment; education; and, strategic issues.

“I hope and believe that social scientists are rather aware of gender equality issues. Amongst other things, we do give study courses and programmes in this area,” explains the coordinator, senior lecturer Lars Karlsson. “What is special about gender mainstreaming is that it’s not about a project that can be put to one side when it’s completed. Instead, it’s an organisational change that will never be truly over. Often, there is a head of gender equality to take care of these sorts of issues. However, the idea now is that everyone is responsible. That is an altogether new challenge.”

EVA LUNDGREN & ALLAN ERIKSSON

The diagram shows the percentages of male and female professors, senior lecturers and administrative staff at the University of Gothenburg in 2006 and 2016. These statistics are taken from the HR system and are for September.

Six out of every ten employees are female In certain areas, the division of the sexes at the University of Gothenburg has become more even over time. In 2006, only 22 per cent of professors were female.

Ten years later, the figure is 31 per cent. As regards senior lecturers, the number has risen from 45 to 53 per cent. However, there has been no change in the research student group, where the proportion of women remains 59 per cent. The greatest gender inequality is in administration.

Here, 78 per cent of the current staff is female. Taken overall, the proportion of women has increased by 3 per cent over ten years.

Of all Sweden’s universities and university colleges that have at least 1,000 yearround employees, Malmö University has the highest percentage of female professors (35 per cent). It is followed by Umeå University, Stockholm University and the University of Gothenburg (29 per cent).

Source: Statistics Sweden (SCB)/the Swedish Higher Education Authority (2015)

FACTS In the period 2016 – 2019, the government is investing in gender mainstreaming in higher education. A total of 33 higher education institutions are involved. This is in addition to all state universities and university colleges as well as Chalmers and Jönköping University. The Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at the University of Gothenburg has been assigned the task of supporting the work. It is a question of: support for planning and implementation; coordinating competenceenhancing measures; arranging network meetings for exchanges of findings between higher education institutions and other public authorities; and, disseminating instructive examples.

The following eight pilot bodies have been appointed at the University of Gothenburg: the Department of Computer Science and Engineering; the Department of Law; the Department of Marine Sciences; the Institute of Odontology; the School of Public Administration; the Academy of Music and Drama; the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; and, the Department of Education, Communication and Learning.

6

News

YOUR GUIDE TO THE RANKING LISTS

University of Gothenburg in the world’s rankings They are unreliable and say rather little about the higher education institution’s quality. Yet, they cannot be ignored. “Whatever we think, rankings are here to stay,” comments Magnus MacHale-Gunnarsson.

THE SHANGHAI LIST Since 2003, China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University has annually published Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

This ranking list of the world’s best universities was developed as one element in a plan to create world-class higher education institutions in China and take on the venerable Ivy League establishments in the USA. The list really only measures “excellent research” and is based on a handful of academic awards, publications and citations.

With a certain focus on natural sciences

and medicine, the list is produced with the aim of picking out the world’s absolutely top universities. Large universities are favoured over small ones. In the opinion of most assessors, the list works reasonably well for ranking the world’s largest and most prestigious universities (from 1 to 100), but is rather poor outside this group. In 2014, a gradual change in methodology was introduced. This achieved full impact in 2016 with a switch to a more modern list of most quoted researchers.

“One advantage is that it is a fairly stable

method, there is little change over time. The shortcomings are that it is strongly angled towards certain subjects and that the Nobel Prize is accorded such great significance,” says Magnus MacHale-Gunnarsson.

QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS This has been produced annually since 2004 by QS, an analysis company. Up until 2009, the list was produced on behalf of Times Higher Education (THE). The list was then known as THES. Since 2010, THE and QS have each published their own rankings.

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2016

7

»The methodology is being continuously changed. As a result, many higher education institutions go up and down the list like yo-yos.« MAGNUS MACHALE-GUNNARSSON

QS publishes a list of the world’s top 600 universities and also produces rankings broken down into subjects. Half the ranking value is based on questionnaires (“reputation surveys”) and half on quantitative data.

“To be kind, it can be said that it’s positive that it takes in human assessment, not just mechanical indicators. This adds to the interest. However, with only a 5 per cent response rate to the questionnaires, the quality is very low and the transparency poor. The methodology is being continuously changed. As a result, many higher education institutions go up and down the list like yo-yos,” reveals Magnus MacHaleGunnarsson.

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION Times Higher Education, a British journal, has published a list every year since 2004.

However, the methodology was comprehensively revised in 2010 with the transfer to Thomsons Reuters. Rankings are based on a total of 13 indicators: questionnaire replies, research funding, number of publications, citations, student-teacher ratios and various forms of international collaborations. The list is unique in that, besides measuring research, it also tries to say something about the quality of education.

“This ranking list is more stringent and ambitious than that produced by QS. However, it is unstable. Of the major rankings, THE is the one that, over the years, has changed its methodology most frequently and most widely. The design of the citation indicator is such that extremely small differences can have a major impact.

This list attracts rather large media attention. Yet, I presume that most of the news value lies in higher education institutions fairly often changing their placings, even if such changes are almost exclusively down to changes in ranking methodology,” reveals Magnus MacHale-Gunnarsson.

Magnus MacHale-Gunnarsson

Should we care about university rankings?

FOR 1. They affect the higher education institution’s reputation and reputation affects how easy it is to recruit students and staff.

2. The media pay attention to rankings and we must be able to handle both criticism and praise.

3. Some of them can, at an overall level, say something about a country’s research.

AGAINST 1. They are methodologically poor and say very little about an individual higher education institution’s quality.

2. Universities are sluggish organisations that change very slowly. Place changes from year to year are almost always the result of either a change in ranking methodology or normal annual variations.

3. Universities are large organisations with highly diverse operations. Trying to express an entire higher education institution’s quality as a figure is thus a meaningless task. For example, a higher education institution may be a world leader in stem cell research and pipe organ instruction, yet, at the same time, irredeemably poor in architecture research and chemistry instruction.

Interview with Magnus MacHale-Gunnarsson, analyst at the Analysis and Evaluation unit, the University of Gothenburg.

OTHER LISTS CWTS (the Leiden list) This is produced by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), a research unit at Leiden University in the Netherlands and also an operational company at the same institution. The ranking is comprised entirely of bibliometric measures and is based on data from Thomson Reuters.

It is not really a traditional ranking list, but a collection of key bibliometric indicators. The advantage is that, at an overall level, it is possible to make comparisons based on a number of different bibliometric measures.

Best Global Universities Ranking US News & World Report has long produced rankings for the American education market. Since 2014, it has also published an international list of the world’s top universities. This ranking attracts a good deal of media attention. There is a focus on both research and education. The University of Gothenburg is placed 272nd (6th in Sweden).

Webometrics Ranking of World Universities This list ranks all the world’s universities and their presence and impact on the internet. Since 2007, it has been produced by Cybermetrics Lab, a subdepartment of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

The aim of the list is to foster electronic publication and open access. It is published twice a year (January and July). In July this year, the University of Gothenburg was placed 205th.

Round University Ranking A Russian ranking list of the world’s 750 leading universities. The list covers 20 indicators in four areas: education, research, international collaboration and financial strength. Like Best Global Universities Ranking, it is based on Thomson Reuters’ Institutional Profiles and contains various sorts of indicators. In this list, the University of Gothenburg is placed 252nd.

8

News 150 160

THE SHANGHAI LIST

RANKING UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG 2003–2016

170 180

TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION

190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260

QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKING

270 280 290 300 RANKNING ÅR

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Over time, the University of Gothenburg’s placement on the top three rankings ended up in roughly the same range. Method changes are an explanation for certain fluctuations.

University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) Published annually since 2010, this list was developed by a technical university in Ankara, Turkey. It is based entirely on bibliometric indicators (Thomson Reuters’ citations database). As it covers all the globe’s universities, it is usually described as the ranking list for the rest of the world. On this list, the University of Gothenburg is 198th.

STINT ranking of Swedish higher education institutions Rather than a general ranking list, this is an attempt to measure how international Swedish higher education institutions really are. Produced by the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT), the index covers six different aspects of internationalisation. These include co-production, inwards and outwards travelling students, foreign PhD students and study courses and programmes offered in English. Instead of a ranking, up to five stars are awarded for each indicator. These are then weighed together to give a total score. Since 2011, the University of Gothenburg has scored 3 stars.

Only the Stockholm School of Economics achieved a maximum this year.

ALLAN ERIKSSON

Interview with Magnus MacHaleGunnarsson, analyst at the Analysis and Evaluation unit, the University of Gothenburg.

Universities

Shanghai list

Times Higher Education

QS World University Ranking

Karolinska Institute

44

28

*

Uppsala University

60

93

98

Stockholm University

81

144

196

Lund University

137

96

73

Royal Institute of Technology

237

159

97

Chalmers

283

254

139

Swedish University of agriculture

298

271

*

Linköping University

308

340

282

Umeå University

343

283

294

Stockholm School of Economics

384

*

*

* These universities have no reported figures.

The world’s best universities are: ARWU 1. Harvard University 2. Stanford University 3. UC Berkeley QS World University Rankings 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 2. Stanford University 3. Harvard University THE World University Rankings 1. University of Oxford 2. California Institute of Technology 3. Stanford University

News

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2016

9

New research evaluation underway What were the findings of RED 10? What was lacking and how have the results been used? These are some of the questions currently occupying managers and researchers at the University of Gothenburg. The answers are to form the basis of a new research evaluation.

IT WA S I N 2 0 1 0 that the University of Gothenburg carried out the comprehensive RED 10 research evaluation. This is to be the starting point for the next investigation. However, a pilot study will first answer how the evaluation can be carried out in a way that improves quality as much as possible. Interviews with all deans, heads of departments and other managers are already under way. Additionally, focus groups have been appointed to give a further research perspective to the investigation.

“We have taken most inspiration from Uppsala University, which is a trailblazer as regards research evaluations. It is now undertaking its third such evaluation,” explains Staffan Edén, assistant vice-chancellor.

“It has also issued a research questionnaire that all employees have the opportunity to answer.

I can’t yet say if the University of Gothenburg will have anything similar, but we are holding an open-ended discussion. All interesting proposals are welcome.”

E V E N I F R E D 10 is to be the basis, the idea is not necessarily to do the same thing again.

“RED 10 has been of great significance in the University of Gothenburg’s strategic thinking, not least in designing Vision 2020 and a more international recruitment policy. Many people also emphasise the importance of the process itself, namely, having operations truly scrutinised and discussed. RED 10 additionally led to a number of vision seminars that took up important issues. Nonetheless, the evaluation also attracted criticism. In particular, that the tempo was very high and that the composition of certain panels was not so good. All such opinions are, of

Sigridur Beck

Staffan Edén

»The idea is that we should be each other’s sounding boards in the European arena…«

chancellor, Pam Fredman, or the new vice-chancellor, who enters the post on the 1st of July, is not yet clear.”

To further strengthen research quality, the university of Gothenburg is about to enter the collaboration Aurora with eight other higher education institutions in Europe.

“These are universities that are similar to the University of Gothenburg as regards size, width and research investment.

The idea is that we should be each other’s sounding boards in the European arena. I think it can be of immense interest,” says Sigridur Beck.

EVA LUNDGREN

SIGRIDUR BECK

FACTS

course, valuable. We are scrupulous in wanting our staffs to truly get what interests them from the new investigation.”

Evaluations are always taking place at universities, not least when a researcher is applying for funding.

“No one we have so far spoken with has, in fact, questioned having another investigation,” reveals Sigridur Beck, research coordinator. “Instead, the stress is on the importance of independent investigators and not doing things unnecessarily. We are, of course, highly aware of the risks of the evaluation’s mechanics.

This investigation must not take too much energy away from employees’ everyday work.”

Research Evaluation for Development of research 2010 (RED 10) involved a thorough review of the University of Gothenburg’s research.

With a total of 110 international experts, 18 panels undertook an investigation that resulted in a 653page report.

As set out in Vision 2020, a follow-up of RED 10 must take place no later than 2020. Currently a pilot study is under way and is to be presented to the board this coming spring. The evaluation itself will take place in 2017.

To further strengthen continuous quality improvement, the University of Gothenburg will be joining the network Aurora that comprises the following north European higher education institutions: the University of Aberdeen, the University of Antwerp, the University of Bergen, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of East Anglia, the Université Grenoble Alpes, the University of Iceland and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

A N E VA LUATI O N that suits all sorts of research at a university as wide as the University

of Gothenburg may appear an impossibility. “However, even if there really is a great difference between, for example, art research and medical research, the research processes themselves are quite similar,” opines Sigridur Beck.

T H E R E S E A RC H B I LL scheduled for the middle of November will also affect the evaluation.

“Obviously enough, we must adapt to the requirements of the people in power,” explains Staffan Edén. “We hope to be able to collect all impressions in December. A proposal will then be written. This has to be discussed, gone through with a fine-toothed comb and anchored.

We hope to be able to present the board with the final proposal in April/May. Whether the decision will be taken by the present vice-

10

Report

Room for work and rest A fifteen-minute walk from Jonsered’s train station, there is Villa Martinson. Constructed of white wood, this detached house is not far from the lake Aspen and Jonsered Manor. Researchers, teachers and authors can receive a bursary to stay in the house for a few weeks of peace and quiet. For, even if work is the order of the day, many guests experience the stay as a sort of holiday.

T H E H O U S E CO M PR I S E S five well-equipped apartments. Four of these have two rooms.

A slightly larger dwelling has three.

However, it is in the shared library on the upper floor that GU Journal has arranged to meet two of the house’s present guests.

Tim Perkis is an experimental musician and film maker from Berkeley, California. He has been given funds for a two-month stay in the house. Petra Pohl is a physiotherapist from Linköping and postdoctor at the Sahlgrenska Academy. She is spending a month here.

“I came here in September,” explains Tim Perkis, sitting down on the sofa. “I usually have quite a lot of people around me so it took a while before I got used this place. However, after a time, I realized that I like being able to work in peace and not be constantly drawn into other things.

Primarily, I have to work on a project about musical improvisation. This project is with two colleagues from the Academy of Music and Drama (HSM) at the University of Gothenburg. I also hope to have a little time for composing.”

PE T R A P O H L I S involved in a project on the significance of a stimulating environment for the brain’s recovery after a stroke. At the moment, she is going through the interview answers of people who have had music therapy. Thus, even if her research field is

markedly different from that of Tim Perkis, there are points of contact.

“Researching into stimulating environments while at a place as wonderful as this is indeed rather special. The apartments are extremely nice but, most of all, I appreciate my forest walks. That’s when I really get time to think and find those precise formulations that are so difficult to come up with when sitting at a computer. My usual promenade, past the Stora Ramsjön lake and the Swedish Outdoor Association’s tiny homestead, takes around 45 minutes. That feels about right.”

T H E V I LL A M A R TI N S O N ’ S guests take care of cooking and shopping themselves.

“I give lectures at HSM a couple of times a week and take the opportunity to shop then,” reveals Tim Perkis. “There is indeed a little food shop and a pizzeria nearby here, but I’ve never actually been.”

“I also shop in Gothenburg,” relates Petra Pohl. “Mostly, I make my own meals but, today, my brother is visiting me. So, we’ve decided to eat at Jonsered Manor. You can do that when there’s something going on there, but you have to book in advance.”

Is there anything that Tim Perkis and Petra Pohl still miss at Villa Martinson?

“A compulsory meeting with the other guests, where you speak about your project

might be good,” opines Petra Pohl.

“Yes, you do get inquisitive about the other guests,” comments Tim Perkis. “My months here are now soon over and life will return to normal. That’s good, of course.

However, it would be fun to come back, at least for a short time, to once again enjoy the atmosphere and the beautiful surroundings of the lake.”

The body in charge of Villa Martinson is the Jonsered Foundation, a collaboration between the municipality of Partille and the University of Gothenburg. The scholarships are funded by various funds and foundations.

T H E PE DAG O G I C A L Development and Interactive Learning (PIL) unit at the University of Gothenburg rents one of the house’s two-room apartments. This is to give the University’s teachers the peace, quiet and opportunity to write texts related to higher education teaching and learning competencies.

“Many of Villa Martinson’s guests are PhD students in the final phase of their theses,” states Bengt-Ove Boström, senior advisor to the vice-chancellor and vice chair

Petra Pohl and Tom Perkis enjoying the autumn garden.

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of the Jonsered Foundation. “More women than men apply for bursaries. This may be because women have a greater need to get away from home in order to be able to concentrate. We also try to ensure that as many different sorts of researchers and artists receive bursaries – not only to be fair, but also because visits here are probably more rewarding if there is a large variation in guests.”

Visits are usually from one to two months. The bursary is around SEK 10,000.

This is to cover the rent, travel to and from Gothenburg and a few other extra costs.

The three-room apartment is a little more expensive and thus entails a slightly larger bursary. “ T H E R E A R E , of course, similar bursary opportunities elsewhere in the country. The activities of the Sigtuna Foundation are perhaps the best-known of these. Nonetheless, as it is linked to a university, the Jonsered Foundation is still somewhat special,” emphasises Bengt-Ove Boström. “The bursary recipients I’ve spoken with usually say that, during their visits, they’ve worked more than ever. Nevertheless, they’ve experienced the time as a sort of recreation that has allowed them to escape their everyday lives and really concentrate on their projects.”

Since 2012 a large number of scientists and artists have stayed in the house. For example Anna Godhe, professor of marine ecology, spent the month of May in Villa Martinson.

“It was an absolutely amazing time. My research is on marine algae and, together with my postdoctoral colleague who came out to me nearly every day, we put together most of the manuscripts we worked on during our stay here. When you work undisturbed you can also deepen your thoughts in a way that is difficult otherwise.

For me, this month was a real gift.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

VILL A MARTIN SON Since 2012, it has been possible for researchers, PhD students and authors to receive bursaries for stays at Villa Martinson in Jonsered. This model is taken from the famous Grez-sur-Loing, south of Paris. The house comprises five apartments, four of two rooms and one of three. There is no particular time for bursary applications. However, they must be made well before the desired month of stay. The house takes its name from Harry Martinson, who worked at Jonsereds Fabriker from 1919 to 1920.

For more information: http://jonseredsherrgard. gu.se/samverkan/villa-martinson.

Email: bengt-ove.bostrom@gu.se.

Telephone: +46 (0)709 323 888.

Petra Pohl and Tom Perkis often meet for a chat in the library.

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The dream of a unite “Who really are Spain’s philosophers?” wondered Karolina Enquist Källgren while on holiday in Mallorca several years ago. She was advised to buy the four books by María Zambrano that just happened to be in the book shop in Palma. At once, she had found an author who, no less than 70 years ago, was engaged in one of the world’s most burning issues: exile.

O R T EG A Y G A S S E T is probably the Spanish philosopher who has attracted most international attention. His pupil, María Zambrano (1904 – 1991) is, on the other hand, virtually unknown outside the Spanish-speaking world, even though she is there counted as one of the greats. One reason is probably that none of her 52 books have been translated into English.

“However, her thoughts about the exi-

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»Her life resemles an exciting novel and has, indeed, been turned into a film.« KAROLINA ENQUIST KÄLLGREN

ed Europe led, which she formulated during and after World War II, still feel as current now as they did then,” explains Karolina Enquist Källgren, senior lecturer in the history of ideas and deputy director of studies for the European Studies Programme.

To understand María Zambrano’s interest in the condition of being exiled, it is important to know a little about the woman herself.

“Her life resembles an exciting novel and has, indeed, been turned into a film.

She committed herself to the republican cause in the Spanish Civil War and was in Barcelona in 1939 when the city was taken by Franco. With a group of likeminded people, she fled, on foot, across the Pyrenees. When they arrived in France, most of them were immediately interned.

However, as María Zambrano was already a

famous author, she was given permission to travel on to Paris.”

There, she was one of 350 Spanish intellectuals who were invited to Mexico by President Lázaro Cárdenas. He had great plans of building a socialist state.

“For ten years, she travelled around Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico before finally returning to Europe. First, she lived in Italy.

Here, because people mistakenly believed she was a communist, she was called the Red Princess. Yet, as she had no papers other than her republican pre-war passport, she never became a citizen anywhere.

Instead, she was harried from country to country. Eventually, she landed up in Paris.

She stayed there for twenty years. As a stateless person, she had to have her passport stamped by the police every three months.”

Karolina Enquist Källgren points out that, even if María Zambrano’s life was difficult, the conditions she endured were not, of course, unique. around 200,000 Spaniards left their country. World War II created millions of refugees. Nonetheless, María Zambrano’s position as an exiled intellectual was extraordinarily ambivalent. Although financially destitute, she was still a member of UNESCO’s global network of authors. She lived more or less on bread and water, but was part of a group of refugee intellectuals who sent letters to one another, and discussed and influenced public debate.”

Even if most of these philosophers and authors never met personally, they moved around in the same areas of Italy, Switzerland and southern France. They were all afraid of nation states which, after all, were the reason for their homelessness.

Consequently, they had universalistic ideas about basic human rights for all. They drea-

“A F T E R T H E C I V I L WA R ,

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K AROLINA ENQUIST K ÄLLGREN WORKS AS: Senior lecturer in the history of ideas and deputy director of studies for the European Studies Programme.

AGE: 33.

THESIS: Subjectivity from Exile, Place and Sign in the works of María Zambrano (2015).

L ATEST PROJECTS: Working with the new humanistic specialisation that the master’s programme in European Studies will be offering next year. This will include studies of philosophers who have been significant in the European ideal.

Karolina Enquist Källgren believes that, just as World War II at least had the positive effect of leading to a wide, ethics-pervaded discussion of human value, today’s refugees should again have us reflecting on human vulnerability and the fundamental condition of being human.

med of a unified Europe – quite unlike the EU we now have. This latter was primarily founded on the will to facilitate trade between various countries.

FO R T H E S E E X I LE D freethinkers, a future Europe should rather be a new society in which, irrespective of nationality and citizenship, people had political influence where they lived and worked. For María Zambrano, the refugee was something more, a paradox that posed fundamental questions about human existence itself. On the one hand, society should be so inclusive that no one need suffer the hard life of an exile. On the other, she saw exile and homelessness as one of the most important and fundamental experiences of the human condition.

“Right now in Sweden, there is strong ideologised debate on the degree to which refugees should be integrated or perhaps even assimilated into society,” states Karolina Enquist Källgren. However, for María Zambrano, the exiled person’s constant need to renew himself or herself was something valuable that ought to be capita-

“ H E R E , M A R Í A Z A M B R A N O’ S philosophy can serve as inspiration, not least for universities. She believed that an ethical reception of those who have fled involves giving them material, linguistic and social platforms. For example, at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, we have started a refugee reception programme in which we are trying to pair up the University’s researchers with newly arrived academics and authors. So far, it hasn’t really worked as was intended, partly because, up until now, the refugees have had far more pressing commitments than taking part in discussion and debate. A number of teachers and students are also involved in the Fast track project. This aims to help young refugees gain Swedish uppersecondary qualifications so that they can go on to university.”

Only after 45 years in exile was María Zambrano able to return to Spain. She was then hailed as the mother of Spanish democracy.

“Since 2011, a project has been under way to get her collected works published in ten volumes. I am one of the members of the editorial team,” reveals Karolina Enquist Källgren.

lised on. According to her, constantly redefining oneself is not just a necessity, but also a fundamental democratic right. She herself did not want to be classified as a refugee, Spaniard, woman or poet. She felt that a person’s identity was in constant flux.

Precisely because migration throws human existence into sharp relief, it is important to receive immigrants in a worthy manner.

“It is important for the exiled person’s sake and our own. For it is only when we are ready to be receptive to new ideas and to learn from new arrivals that we too can change in a positive manner.”

M A R Í A Z A M B R A N O interested herself in issues other than the plight of refugees.

One of these was how we, as humans, can understand the alien person, “the other”.

“She launched the concept of ‘poetical reason’, which was also a way of including art, religion and mysticism in her ideas.

However, it makes her texts quite hard to read. She uses a dreamlike, almost delirious language. This may be one reason why she hasn’t been translated.”

María Zambrano, 1904–1991

“ I H O PE T H AT I will also have the opportunity to translate some of her texts into English. María Zambrano is currently seen as one of the Spanish-speaking world’s most important contemporary authors. Quite obviously, she should also be available in other languages.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Profile

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2016

Design is about power and politics.

That is the opinion of Tom Cubbin, new senior lecturer at the Academy of Design and Crafts (HDK). He is keen to give the students a shake and get them to see design and handicrafts with a critical eye. “That’s my contribution to changing the world,” he states.

T Y R S Ö I N Gothenburg’s southern archipelago is overhung by a grey, cloudy sky. The stairs up to Tom Cubbin’s apartment on the top floor of a detached house are full of golden-yellow leaves from the maple in the garden. Everything is quiet and as far as possible as you can get from the throbbing city pulse of London. “Yes, the contrast is striking,” affirms Tom Cubbin. “But I’ve always felt a pull to northern environments.”

The removal truck set off in January. That was when Tom Cubbin left his job as a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London to take up the post as senior lecturer in design history at HDK in Gothenburg. He was attracted by the Academy’s high teaching ambitions

and that the Academy is entirely independent of the design industry. He feels that, in line with the rises in semester registration fees, design academies in England have increasingly lost this independence.

“C E R TA I N TA LE N T E D students are excluded because they can’t afford to study.

Furthermore, students are forced to sign agreements with the industry and their academic projects are often linked to something of benefit to the industry’s companies. Students’ artistic freedom and opportunities for experimenting have been restricted,” reveals Tom Cubbin.

The same is also true of the opportunity to take a critical stance on design. This is where

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Swedish students still have a unique chance to look underneath the surface and discover the message that an object really communicates.

It is precisely this critical eye that Tom Cubbin wants to help the students at HDK to acquire. His role at the Academy is to develop the students’ analytical abilities and contribute to them acquiring a critical selfawareness. His vehicle for doing this is the teaching of design history, material culture studies and ethics.

TO M C U B B I N M A I N TA I N S that, even if he does not see himself as especially politically active in private life, he is politically active in the classroom. It is there that he can show the power structures in the design world and help students to see the political mechanisms around a design object.

“Opening the students’ eyes, that’s my contribution to changing the world,” he states.

Tom Cubbin believes that, to understand why objects are produced for a certain time and in a certain way, a knowledge of the design’s history is important.

fascinated by Russia and the former Soviet Union. He was an assiduous student in extra lessons given by a teacher at uppersecondary school. Similarly, he also had an early interest in history, especially Russian, and read Dostoyevsky in his bedroom in the evenings.

“I probably felt quite deep and took myself very seriously,” he discloses.

“However, joking aside, there is something exciting about Russian culture. It is strongly driven by art and literature. I have always been driven by a desire to understand Russian culture.”

When Tom Cubbin was 19, he went to Russia for the first time. It was summer and he was to teach English to adolescents in Moscow. For a middle-class chap from England, there was a surrealistic feel to being met by a private chauffeur at the airport and housed by an oligarch who had a domestic servant. Losing his passport and having to buy an exit visa via a perhaps not entirely legal route made the end of his stay rather claustrophobic.

“An unknown man contacted me and

»It is this very duality, the dark side of design, that interests me so much.« TOM CUBBIN

“Design is very much about politics.

What is it that we are trying to show?

Scandinavian design conveys a message of security and safety. This applies to the design of furniture and of weapons too,” says Tom Cubbin. “It is this very duality, the dark side of design, that interests me so much.”

The dark side of design is also the focal point of Tom Cubbin’s own research into one of the world’s strongest propaganda machines – design in the Soviet Union during the cold war. In his thesis, he studied how, from the 1960s onwards, design was professionalised in the Soviet Union. His work was the first academic study to focus on something that is called “artistic design”, a phenomenon that was critical of socialism and which was developed at Senezh Studio, an institution that championed alternative design.

“It was interesting to study how the artists there could be immensely creative while also being highly controlled by the state,” he reveals.

Tom Cubbin was born and bred in Brentwood, Essex in an academic family.

His mother was a historian and his father a professor of economics. An academic career thus came quite naturally and he took his degree at the University of Sheffield. A pull towards all things Russian led to him becoming a historian with a focus on the Soviet.

“Still, there is also something secure about institutions. That’s probably why I was drawn towards this profession,” reveals Tom Cubbin.

As early as his teenage years, he was

said I should meet him at the airport. A couple of hours before the plane left, I still didn’t know if I would be able to leave the country. However, everything came together. I got my exit visa,” affirms Tom Cubbin.

T H O S E S U R R E A L , Kafkaesque experiences seem to have marked many of his trips to the country over the years. He speaks about a winter during his studies when he lived in St Petersburg, directly opposite the apartment of Raskolnikov, the main character in Crime and Punishment.

“I read Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground and became so depressed that I couldn’t go to my lectures. I realised that, to survive a St Petersburg winter, a slightly sadomasochistic trait was necessary.”

Another illustration is provided by the time when, for his master’s paper, he needed to gain access to material in a Moscow archive. The people who worked there were strange. They called each other “comrade” and seemed to take pride in making Tom Cubbin’s visits there a nightmare. They were forever demanding new certificates from his university and new stamps. They also lied that the material was not in the archive.

“I even had to get a certificate to use my computer in the archive. Then I was not allowed to connect it to the mains. I was absolutely not permitted to use their electricity. However, I had to tough it out, I needed the material for my academic paper.

After a month, they did, in fact, become a little more helpful.”

Blackness, inconsistencies, sharp contrasts to the west – Russia has continued to fascinate him.

“Yet, it is frightening to see how patriotism is growing, how family values are becoming increasingly conservative. As a gay, I’m not particularly interested in travelling there today,” states Tom Cubbin.

Design then? How did you, as a historian, get into design?

“It was chance. I got a summer job at an auction firm, Sotheby’s, in London. I ended up in the Russian art section,” divulges Tom Cubbin. “It was incredibly exciting and it opened my eyes to the visual.”

GUJOURNAL 5 | 2016

TOM CUBBIN YRKE: Lektor med inriktning på designstudier, designhistoria och samtidskultur på Högskolan för design och konsthantverk, HDK. ÅLDER: 28.

BOR: Styrsö, Göteborg.

UPPVUXEN: I Brentwood i Essex, England.

FAMILJ: Make och katt.

FORSKNINGSOMR ÅDE: Professionaliseringen av industridesign i Sovjetunionen under 1960-talet och hur den utvecklades under de följande årtiondena.

AVHANDLING: Critical Soviet Design: Senezh studio and the utopian imagination in late socialism (University of Sheffield, 2012–2016) KNEP FÖR ATT L ÄR A MIG SVENSK A: – Jag har sett massor av avsnitt av tv-serierna Rederiet och Saltön. Rederiet tröttnade jag på efter ett tag men jag gillar det långsamma tempot i Saltön, det är lätt att hänga med.

INTRESSEN: Segla och vara ute i naturen. I somras vandrade vi längs Höga kusten. Annars går vi mycket på opera och konserter.

TOM CUBBIN WORK: Senior lecturer specialising in design studies, design history and contemporary culture at the Academy of Design and Crafts (HDK).

AGE: 28.

LIVES: Styrsö, Gothenburg.

GREW UP IN: Brentwood, Essex, England.

FAMILY: Partner and cat.

RESEARCH AREA: The professionalisation of industrial design in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and how it developed in the subsequent decades.

THESIS: Critical Soviet Design: Senezh studio and the utopian imagination in late socialism (University of Sheffield, 2012 – 2016).

TRICK FOR LEARNING SWEDISH: “I have lots of episodes of the TV series Rederiet and Saltön. After a while, I grew tired of Rederiet, but I like the slow pace of Saltön. It’s easy to follow.”

INTERESTS: “Sailing and being outdoors. This summer, we walked the High Coast trail. We also go to lots of operas and concerts.”

Tom Cubbin started to ponder why “communist” objects looked “communist”.

What was it in the design that made them “communistic”? He wanted to learn more about communistic design’s influences and discovered that there was not particularly much written material on this. In this knowledge gap, he found an entirely unique entrance to design history and the subject for his thesis. “ I R E A LLY FE E L that I’ve made the right choice. I feel more at home in the design world than in an institution focused on history.

I feel I would suffocate there. At HDK, for example, I can wear my Vivienne Westwood

Sex T-shirt. That wouldn’t go down quite as well in a history department,” he laughs.

A F T E R A LM O ST 10 months in Gothenburg, Tom Cubbin is beginning to feel more and more at home. He and his partner are trying to enjoy the archipelago life at Styrsö to the full. They sail, take dips in the sea several times a week as part of their saunas and are out in the countryside as much as possible.

“I like Sweden. The class system here isn’t as complicated as it is in England. If there’s one thing I detest about England, it’s the social classes and how they permeate all of society. It’s as if it’s impossible to break free of your assigned class.”

On the other side, he feels Sweden can be a little square. He has noticed a tendency for his students to want to be proficient and to do the right thing. Many find it difficult to leave their comfort zone. He believes this is fundamentally a reflection of Swedish conformity in general.

“The students here have fantastic energy. However, I’d like them to be a little more audacious and rebellious. Creating something new requires a little anarchy.”

TEXT: KARIN FREJRUD PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

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Doctoral ceremony

CONFERMENT OF DOCTORAL DEGREES 2016 In the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre, the stage of the largest auditorium was adorned in pomp and splendour. The occasion was this year’s doctoral award ceremony. In total, 149 doctors, 11 honorary doctors and 12 jubilee doctors were to be honoured. The evening’s theme was “mobility”, a word that can be interpreted in many ways. In this case, the doctors’ crossing of Parnassus might be seen as an act of “mobility”.

O N I C A DA N I E L S S O N

and Nina Norblad of the Academy of Music and Drama were the comperes and opened the ceremony with a David Foster piece bolstered by new lyrics for the evening. There was then the premiere of Fanfar för Göteborgs universitet (“Fanfare for the University of Gothenburg”), specially written by Joel Eriksson to welcome the vice-chancellor, Pam Fredman. In her welcoming speech, she emphasised that this was her last doctoral award ceremony as vice-chancellor.

Mobility also came into the spotlight when Pam Fredman spoke about the University of Gothenburg’s investment in sustainable research and the University’s role in the refugee crisis.

ST U D E N T CO N G R AT U L ATI O N S

were extended by Lina Olofsson, chair of the University of Gothenburg Student Unions (GUS), in a speech honouring the new doctors. It included quotations from Dumbledore, the fictional headmaster in the Harry Potter books.

There was, of course, more

music during the ceremony.

This included performances from Göteborg Akademiska Kammarkör (the “Gothenburg Academic Chamber Choir”) and excerpts from Mozartian opera.

It goes without saying that all the numbers were accompanied by the University of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted

by Finn Rosengren.

When all diplomas, doctoral hats, laurel wreaths and jubilee rings had been awarded, it was time to march out to the music of Bernhard Crusell. Outside the auditorium, there was a mix and mingle with drinks, nibbles and,

additionally, the families and friends of the new doctors.

Towards seven in the evening, most of the guests were waiting patiently, but hungrily, for admittance to the banquet hall. The organisers met the promised schedule – yet, there were rumours that seating arrangements were ready only two minutes before the doors opened.

Once seated, the guests were treated to grilled scallops, carrot purée and Spanish almonds.

T H E E V E N I N G’ S G U E ST of honour was Bo Ralph, one of the eighteen members of the Swedish Academy. In his capacity as a jubilee doctor, the Academy’s former permanent secretary, Sture Allén, was also there. It was thus no chance that this year’s winner of the Nobel Literature Prize frequently entered the conversation and, in his speech, Bo Ralph sung parts of Blowin’ in the Wind.

The University of Gothen­

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Sture Allén, founder of the Swedish Language Bank, was one of this year’s jubilee doctors.

At the top right: The promotor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Ingrid Höjer, helps one of the new doctors over the parnassus. Right: Johan Malmsten receives the School of Business, Economics and Law’s special prize, Pro Studio et Scientia.

burg’s eternal toastmaster, Jörgen Kyle, guided the guests through the evening. He too tapped into Dylan’s spirit when he spontaneously launched into The Times They Are a-Changing.

T H E LI ST O F speakers continued with Alf Björnberg, who drily observed that he had, of course, Googled for jokes about honorary doctors, but without success. With mock horror, honorary doctor Roger Butlin later spoke of the Swedish habit of eating yogurt and muesli for breakfast. In between, honorary doctor Arve Henriksen made a successful putsch for the stage and regaled listeners with north Sámi joiks and Mongolian throat singing.

County governor Lars Bäckström gave the speech of thanks, mixing Monty Python references with Gothenburgian puns and choosing to hail Pam Fredman with the words “warm heart, cool head, clean hands”.

With the guests being served cod loin and local cheeses, the banquet finished with a well-choreographed girlband/boyband medley by students on the Music Programme.

TEXT: ALEXANDER LJUNGQVIST PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Hanna Styf Subject: Marine zoology

Glenn Kjerland Subject: Pedagogics

Kittichate Visuttijai Subject: Medical science

What does the evening’s theme, “mobility”, mean to you?

“Increased mobility, the ability to try new things and new roads outside academia without ‘ending up outside’. Also, of course, further opening up research and giving more people influence and the right to have an impact.”

What did this day mean to you?

“Indescribable. I’ve been looking forward to this my whole life. Right now, the banquet has the greatest pull!”

What did this day mean to you?

“It’s difficult to sum up all the years of work behind this day. Most of all, I’m thinking about my parents and how proud they are. They’ve supported me since day one!”

Can you claim that you were mobile in your research?

“Ha-ha, not really! I mostly sat still.”

What has “mobility” meant in your research?

“That I’ve had a good number of guest researchers from all over the world help me with my research.”

Can you please tell us about your costume?

“My costume reflects who I am, a Thai who has gained his doctorate in Sweden. The top is a classical, formal jacket. Beneath that, I’m wearing chong kraben, traditional wear at ceremonies in Thailand.”

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Doctoral ceremony

The University of Gothenburg may be the only university with a fanfare of its own.

What does the University of Gothenburg sound like?

Everyone at the doctoral award ceremony on the 21st of October learned the answer.

This was the event where the University’s own fanfare was premiered.

“It’s the only specially written university fanfare I know of,” reveals the composer, Joel Eriksson.

IT WA S A N D E R S W I K LU N D, Director Musices at the University of Gothenburg and senior professor at the Academy of Music and Drama, who came up with the idea of the University of Gothenburg having its own fanfare. He assigned the task to Joel Eriksson, senior lecturer in music theory and composition teacher at the Academy of Music and Drama.

“Originally, fanfares were used most in military connections. However, to signal the entrance of an important person, they’ve also been used in stage music ever since the 16th century. For example, in Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, there is a fanfare from behind a door when a governor appears. La Péri, a ballet by Paul Dukas, also has a famous fanfare, not to mention Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man,” explains Joel Eriksson.

T H E R E A R E A L S O fanfares for special sports events, e.g. the Olympic Games, and for other ceremonies such as the Nobel Prize Awards. Yet, Joel Eriksson does not know of

any other higher education institution, in Sweden or abroad, that has its own fanfare.

“The University of Gothenburg fanfare is built on the letters in its Swedish name, Göteborgs universitet. I started from the German names of the notes, C, D, E, F, G, A and H and the Italian do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti. I interpreted ö as oe and o as do. This means I included all letters except v and n.”

Composing a piece of music based on the letters in a name is not a Joel Eriksson invention.

“For example, Bach composed music based on his own name. Robert Schumann wrote a tribute to the Danish composer Niels Gade on the notes G, A, D and E and Dmitri Shostakovich used the German initials of his name, DSCH, as a signature in his music.”

AT 4 5 S ECO N D S , the University of Gothenburg’s fanfare is fairly short, but of adequate length as fanfares go. It has three sections and ends in E major, Joel Eriksson’s favourite key.

“The University of Gothenburg fanfare has a modern, slightly impudent tone. As the University is not that old, a too traditional piece would sound wrong. In the middle, there are some tubular bells. They sound like church bells and are a homage to England, where this type of musical interlude often heightens ceremonial occasions.

» The Uni-

versity of Gothenburg fanfare has a modern, slightly impudent tone. As the University is not that old, a too traditional piece would sound wrong.«

JOEL ERIKSSON

I took my doctorate at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and have also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In the United Kingdom, there is a fine tradition of ceremonies. These are, of course, very dignified, but still have a relaxing distance about them that I very much like and which inspired me.” around a month to write.

“However, that was because I couldn’t devote myself to it wholeheartedly all the time. I do have a job too. So, I’d imagine it’s really 3 to 4 days’ work. It’s written for an ensemble of 11 brass instruments and percussion. There’s also a simpler version for five instruments: two trumpets, French horn, trombone and tuba. The simpler version was premiered at the doctoral award ceremony on the 21st of October. It is intended that the fanfare should be played at just such ceremonial occasions and events.”

Can it also be used in other ways?

Perhaps as a ring tone on the phones of University of Gothenburg employees?

“Hmm! I could, of course, pick out a couple of phrases and rework them as a snippet for mobiles. It would then be by far my most played work.”

T H E FA N FA R E TO O K

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Report

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New head of water award committee Deliang Chen, August Röhss professor of physical geography and professor of physical meteorology, has been appointed chair of the nomination committee for the international Stockholm Water Prize. ”The Prize is sometimes referred to as the ‘Nobel prize in Water’.

Nomination is, of course, a great honour.”

A N E X A M PLE O F an organisation that has won the prize is the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka. The institute researches how water can be used in an environment-friendly way that also provides a good supply for poor farmers.

Deliang Chen’s long commitment to environmental issues is the reason for the appointment.

Amongst other things, he was one of the main authors of the fifth evaluation report on cli-

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

A S R EG A R D S WAT E R , the Stock­ holm Prize is the world’s top. It is given to a person or organisation that has contributed new knowledge, increased awareness or, in any other way, been of great value in conserving water or water quality. It has been awarded since 1991 and, so far, has been administered by the Stockholm International Water Institute. However, as of next year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA) is taking over the responsibility. Deliang Chen has been a member of this since 2010.

“Professor John Anthony Allan has won the prize in the past. He created the concept of ‘virtual water’. This revolves around making people aware of how much water goes into, for instance, food or textile production. We in Sweden, for example, do not release so many contaminants.

However, we do contribute to environmental degradation when we buy goods from developing countries that do not have good water treatment plants.”

matology commissioned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He was also one of the people taking the initiative for Future Earth, a global investment in research into sustainable development.

Furthermore, from 2009 to 2012, he was the head of the International Council for Science, one of the world’s leading science organisations.

“The job is principally about examining and assessing the many nominations that are received and taking part in various meetings. Our chosen candidate then has to be presented to KVA’s board. This makes the decision.”

T H E W I N N E R I S announced only on World Water Day, the 22nd of March. However, Deliang Chen reveals that the prize is actually awarded in August during World Water Week in Stockholm.

“There is an impressive ceremony at Stockholm’s city hall.

Here, the king presents the prize.

Then, just as at the Nobel Prize ceremony, there is a dinner.”

Being appointed chair of the nomination committee is, of course, a great honour, an incredible mark of confidence and a major responsibility.

“Yet, it also involves exciting work for the entire nomination committee. We learn so much that is new and which will certainly be of use to us, both in our research and in other activities.”

“I’m very honoured,” says professor Deliang Chen.

EVA LUNDGREN

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Report PHOTO: ALL AN ERIK SSON

“Congo’s women need your support!”

Denis Mukwege is working to get the Congolese women involved in the peace process.

This is how, before a packed hall at the School of Business, Economics and Law, Denis Mukwege began his lecture on female victims of the violence in the Congo. The event was part of the Global Challenges series of seminars.

S PEC I A LI S I N G I N H E LPI N G victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country with a decades-long history of war and violence, Panzi Hospital was founded in 1999 by Denis Mukwege, a doctor.

“Following the genocide in Rwanda, parts of the perpetrating army fled to the Congo.

This led to war and chaos,” explains Denis Mukwege. “Although a peace treaty was signed in 2003, conflicts continued, especially in the eastern parts of the country.”

R A PE , TO W H I C H whole villages are sometimes subjected, is a way of spreading fear and despair.

“In the years since the foundation of Panzi Hospital, we have treated something over 40,000 victims of sexual violence. Of these, 3,500 were under age and a little more than 200 were children under 5 years old. Rape is an act of war that causes people to flee their homes and destroys families and cohesiveness. It also has severe consequences for human reproduction and for the economy.”

»Not capitalising on women’s knowledge and strength is pitiful.« DENIS MUKWEGE

However, Panzi Hospital is special. From concentrating on purely medical care at the beginning, the hospital has developed into helping improve the position of women as a whole throughout their lives.

“Our work rests on four pillars: medical care, psychological help, socio-economic assistance and legal support. The idea is that victims should only have to tell their stories once and then receive the help they need, no matter what this may be.”

M E D I C A L C A R E H E R E revolves around repairing and reconstructing damaged genitals and treating HIV as well as other sexually transmitted diseases and infections. The hospital also has a mobile unit that provides treatment and teaching out on-location.

Supporting women’s education, helping them to find work and paying for legal advice are other facets of the hospital’s activities. Denis Mukwege is also committed to getting women involved in an eventual peace process.

“Only 5 per cent of those who worked out the 2003 peace treaty were women.

Not capitalising on women’s knowledge and strength is pitiful. It is they who take responsibility for the children and, often, also for family finances. It ought to be obvious that women and men should work together for a lasting peace.”

Denis Mukwege hopes that the experience from Panzi can be of benefit in other conflict-torn countries.

“I have, for example, been to Colombia and met incredibly committed and clever teachers, lawyers and psychologists who are helping vulnerable people. However, they have no coordination. It is there that Panzi might be able to provide inspiration.”

T H E LEC T U R E WA S given on the 17th of October in the Malmstenssalen hall of the School of Business, Economics and Law. After a trailer for The Man who Mends Women, a film directed by Thierry Michel, Denis Mukwege took part in a panel debate along with two researchers from the University of Gothenburg. These were Marie Berg, midwife and professor of health care sciences, and Maria Stern, professor of peace and development research. The latter has carried out research into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Maria Bard of PMU (a development collaboration led by Sweden’s Pentecostal churches) acted as moderator. The seminar was jointly organised with Right Livelihood, Läkarmissionen (a Swedish aid organisation) and PMU.

EVA LUNDGREN

Chronicle

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Climate Justice as re-appropriation of commons ILLUSTR ATION: KRISTINA EDGREN

CO N T E M P O R A RY G LO BA L ECO N O M Y

comprises of public, private and community economies. While public sector is governed by regulations, private sector is led by norms of competition and community economies by custom based cooperation. Historic growth of capitalist private sector was based on rational economic decisions based on the utilitarian dogma that “more of a good is good”. Rational decision making at individual level was supposed to lead to rational collective outcomes and maximum happiness for the greatest numbers. However, at the turn of century, we see rational decision making at individual level leading to climate change, threatening the very existence of humanity.

T H R E AT O F C LI M AT E change underscores the need to identify the gaps in the ‘rational choice’ framework which leads to individual prosperity in tandem with collective disaster.

The definition of economic problem in conventional economics makes distinction between economic and free goods on the one hand and obliterates the distinction between value and price on the other. Economic goods have value because they are scarce.

Values are converted in to prices through supply and demand of goods in the market. This ‘distribution’ theory of value did not consider nature as source of value and did not take into consideration replenishment of natural resources in determination of prices. Since free gift of nature in the form of land, water, forests and other resources was so much in abundance that it could never diminish in relation to human ‘wants’ ; natural goods therefore did not carry any price. This led to encroachment of commons by the ‘free market’ during the post industrial revolution period. It entailed commoditization of human labour and nature and in the process converted free goods into scarce goods. The process of commoditization commen-

ced with colonization of alien lands, encroachment of commons, over harvesting of natural wealth, externalization of the cost of production and marginalization of communities.

Economic inequalities, injustice and perpetual conflict accompanied the process of commoditization at global scale. However, it is not commoditization of labor but commoditization of nature which has led to degradation of natural resources, loss of commons and threat of extinction to human existence.

I R R ATI O N A L O U TCO M E of economic decision making in the form of climate change points to the need for dealing with the paradox of utilitarian rational framework by revisiting economic behavior at the firm level. If there is a connection between individual and collective economic choices, then irrationality of collective economic choice must have its roots in the individual economic choice. There must be some internal inconsistency in the process of maximizing benefits in using limited means having alternative uses. An immediate issue that comes to attention is that conventional economic theory is a theory of price determination based on distribution and not production of values. The goods which

are considered to be scarce and priced are initially appropriated by economic agents from the domain of free goodsconsisting of land, rivers, forests, oil, natural resources, clean air etc; they don’t possess any intrinsic value in the free market framework; value is attributed to them externally in the process of exchange. Conversion of free goods into scarce goods takes place through a social process which converts social wealth into private wealth through the process of expropriation, rent collection and control. This introduces an inherent discrepancy between private and social prices in the decision making process. Private profit is generated by incurring social loss. Low private price caused by high social costs due to encroachment of commons never enters the choice making calculus of the firms. Making choices based on distorted prices generates individual profits and collective losses at the same time. However, gravity of the privately rational and collectively irrational economic choices becomes apparent not at individual but at collective level; leaving no trace of its micro underpinnings.

Market failure in arresting climate injustice is accompanied by policy failure in effectively regulating the

price distortions, leading to catastrophic results. Both, the market and regulatory failure partly arise from the inconsistency in the utilitarian theory of individual choice. Reversal of encroachment of commons and effective regulation of private sectors calls for the need to revisit the theory of choice. This theory of choice needs to be informed by the discrepancy in private and social prices and appropriate tools needed to redress this distortion at individual level.

D I ST R I B U TI V E T H EO RY of value based on exchange value was challenged

by Marxian labor theory of value and both these frameworks did not take into consideration a natural theory of value. Rejecting nature as a source of value had great implications on the theory of individual choice at household and firm level and macroeconomic decision making through competition and regulation. This framework is being challenged at micro level through numerous community support programs inspired by Rio Conference on sustainable development held in 1992. However, many of these practice based initiatives and their support framework based on Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals repeat the perils of Free Market thinking by trying to replicate distorted macro level models at micro level; by trying to provide subsidies for restoration of depleted commons for the duration of project cycle, rather than building models reversing the market and policy failures. It is time to gain in depth understanding of selected micro initiative based on ‘nature theory of value, and draw theoretical insights and policy prescription for alternative choice theory from these cases.

FAYYAZ BAQIR

FÖRE DET TA GÄ STFORSK ARE PÅ GÖTEBORGS UNIVERSITET (SCHOL ARS AT RISK)