n o 7 | ndre c2 e| mabperri l22001 122
Art for body and soul Mick Wilson wants to create an art introductory course for all
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GU to copy Tromsø
Critical investigation
E-books’ brave new world
More women will gain merits
Swedish research lacks strong leaders
Publishers soon know everything about you
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UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG
2
Vice Chancellor
A magazine for employees of the Universit y of Gothenburg
We have to choose in order to reach our goal photogr aphy: Julia L andgren
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 C o n t r i b u t i n g G r a p h i c F o r m a n d L ayo u t
Björn Eriksson T r a s l at i o n
B ec au s e w e n ow
S o m e t h i n g w e o f t e n have difficulty with in academics is making priorities. There are surely many different explanations for this, historical and cultural ones, but a result of an inability to make priorities, regardless of the reason, can be serious consequences for our attractiveness in the future. Without priorities, it is difficult to achieve the desired situation that is expressed in Vision 2020. It is therefore necessary for management on all levels to help their respective activities to make priorities, and I want to emphasise this clearly. In that context, it is also important to remember that, in order to be able to make priorities, it is also sometimes necessary to reject things.
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
to an end. I think it is one of the most intensive years since I became Vice-chancellor in 2006. It feels that way at any rate, with the big change processes that are on their way to implementation. It has to do both with the work on the reorganisation of GU for its renewal and the work with Vision 2020. I have said it before but it is worthwhile to repeat – it is a fantastic effort that has been made by very many people. Thank you all for your work! 2 0 1 2 i s s o o n co m i n g
have Vision 2020 with goals and strategies, we have laid the foundation for development work that will cover the years 2013 to 2020. This work is already in motion. Action and business plans have been developed on all levels – university-wide, at the faculties and at the departments. These have now been sent in and are publically available for reading on our common website. Perhaps something to sink your teeth into during the holidays … As I see it, Vision 2020 will be the platform that helps us to further develop our activities at the University of Gothenburg. It charts a path toward the future that contains goals and strategies for research, education, co-operation and the work environment. Vision 2020 also has some basic principles that guide us on our way forward: four principles that have to do with our activities being characterized by high quality and having a global involvement, our positions shall be founded on an expressed social responsibility and an important ground is an inspiring work environment.
December 2012
Janet Vesterlund and Debbie Axlid address
GU Journal
proposal has, as everyone knows, more funds than expected. In terms of the higher basic allocations, these will not be distributed until 2014, but we see increased resources already in 2013 from government research financers. We have had great success in allocations from different financers, and it is important that we compete for the new additional resources. There will be resources for example that stimulate the recruitment of new researchers and that give young researchers better conditions for development. Vision 2020 now forms the foundation for guidance in the important work of making priorities. T h i s fa ll’ s r e s e a rc h
A n e x a m ple o f how we have begun the work on Vision 2020 on a university-wide level is international recruitment. That is an area of priority. The results of the RED 10 research evaluation clearly showed that the University of Gothenburg needs to be stronger in international recruitment. We have taken this very seriously and are now developing an action plan for working with recruitments. In summary, I think that we can be satisfied with the year that has gone. And, with Vision 2020 in place, we go into 2013 with good conditions for showing our competitiveness. With this, I would like to wish you all a good end to the year 2012.
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Mick Wilson, Head of the Valand Academy Photography: Johan Wingborg
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Contents
GUJOURNAL 7 | 2012
3
Letter from the Vice-chancellor
2 We need to make priorities news
4 New reform to give more women professors 6 Did you miss Global Week? We give a brief summary. profile 8 Art doesn’t only have to do with creating something radically new, but also about examining what is important in life, according to Mick Wilson.
Report
11 Why is Denmark better than Sweden at top research? 12 E-book – a blessing or a curse?
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Doctoral Thesis 14 Helene Castenbrandt on the pests of ancient times
Courage is contagious
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Brian Palmer was one of the guests of honour during Global Week.
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8 Gothenburger from Dublin
Publishers are watching you
Mick Wilson, who is the new head of Valand, is very happy in his new city.
We constantly leave traces after us in the digital age.
Editorial Office: Languages are important! T h e r e- o rg a n i sati o n is in its last lap; a final report on the new administrative process has just been submitted to the Vice-chancellor. It’s gone quickly, too quickly, according to many who feel that a re-organisation that has taken a long time to plan is being put into action in only a few months. It is now clear who will be the new area managers for the administration; you can read about them in this issue. We do not doubt that the right people got the jobs but can conclude that the number of persons who sought them wasn’t particularly large. According to the records, 7 people sought the 3 positions, with the reservation that there may have come
verbally expressed interest directly to the University director. Not long ago, the information unit, to which we belong, announced a manager position and only 1 person applied. Lucky – a recruitment stop was called later until a new investigation is ready. languages continues. In the latest issue of Universitetsläraren (University Teachers), Git Claesson Pipping, federation director at Sulf, writes that the difficult situation of languages has to do with the resource allocation system. Another reason that came up in a debate at the Humanities T h e d e bat e a b o u t
on November 28 is that high school students actively reject languages in order to improve their chances of getting good grades. That makes it hard for even the larger languages, such as German and Spanish, to recruit students, in a time when language skills should be important since contacts with other countries are becoming more and more important. Language doesn’t only have to do with grammar and vocabulary; it also means learning to understand another culture. Everything points toward interest still being strong though, according to Patrik Hadenius, editor-in-chief of the magazine Språk (Language). We hope you know that GU Journal
has been available in a short digital version in English for several years. It’s sent to almost 700 guest researchers. The English journal, like the Swedish one, is published in interactive pdf format at: http://issuu.com/universityofgothenburg. Fi n a lly, we would like to thank our readers for all the tips and ideas they give us. Continue to contact us. We hope that you will have a truly pleasant and restful Christmas and Good New Year.
Allan Eriksson & Eva Lundgren
4
News
”I think we’ll reach our goal,” says Pro-Vice-Chancellor Helena Lindholm Schulz.
Tromsø shows the way In three years, at least 40 per cent of all newly employed professors at the University of Gothenburg will be women, a demand made by the Government. An action plan is now being launched that will support women lecturers in their careers. But Pro-Vice-Chancellor Helena Lindholm Schulz emphasises that this won’t create an extra easy path. fact that the lack of equality is still strong among professors. Even though a slow improvement is underway, we can’t be satisfied with the situation,” says Helena Lindholm Schulz, who reminds us that the Government has put the spotlight on all schools by setting quantitative goals. “The government’s goal, like our own ambitions, requires special measures.” Today the proportion of newly recruited women professors at GU is 28.6 per cent. That proportion shall in three years be 40 per cent. The university in Tromsø shows that working with equality pays off. They’ve gone from 9 per cent women professors in 2001
“ It ’ s a w e ll- k n ow n
to 27 per cent in 2011. They’ve gone from being the worst in the country to being the best. “In Tromsø, they base their work on the motto ‘equality is quality’, which is easy to grasp. Striving for equality has to be obvious and is ultimately a question of quality. We discussed the project and its design with the deans and decided not to re-invent the wheel but simply to do the same things as in Tromsø,” says Helena Lindholm Schulz. So what does the action plan mean? Before a position of professor is announced, it will be examined whether there are possible, qualified women to seek the position. In the case that there are, they will be encou-
raged to seek it. Special search committees will be created to facilitate this. “The heads of departments will also be given the task of identifying women lecturers who within a period of two years are judged to have sufficient competence to be promoted to professor.” T h e t h o u g h t i s that the women lecturers shall be given a certain length of time to work on an intended application, which will then be examined by specially appointed people. These examiners will test the degree to which the applicant can be said to already have achieved the competence for the promotion or recommend what the applicant needs to do to be considered for the promotion. If the examiners conclude that it is possible for the women to gain the proper merits within two years, they will be given the opportunity to continue to work to reach the requirements. Then,
if they wish, they can submit their application. A n ot h e r r eq u i r e m e n t is that the proportion of male guest professors at each faculty does not exceed 60 per cent during this period. Helena Lindholm Schulz thinks it will be possible to achieve the goal. “Most women professors at GU have become professors by promotion, so it’s most probable that we have the biggest chances to achieve a change by means of promotion. It doesn’t have to do with special actions or an easy, speedy way or priority, but with an active measure to promote equal conditions.” But political scientist Bo Rothstein is critical to efforts that focus on certain groups. “The question of how you can best support underprivileged groups has been investigated for a long time in two research areas, social policy and integration.
Notes 5
GUJOURNAL 7 | 2012
Quotation Both these research areas give a clear answer, that measures that are focused directly on the group you want to support (the ’poor’ and ‘ethnic minorities’) are primarily counterproductive. There is a risk that it will create suspicion about whether the process has been correct, in terms of both who benefits and who doesn’t benefit.” H e le n a Li n d h o lm S c h u l z says that she has respect for this research and that the type of risks pointed out here will be taken seriously, but that there are other, equally strong, research results that show positive results of similar support actions. “We have to do something. We test a model that’s been used successfully at another school.” Bo Rothstein wonders why the management has been so affected by Tromsø when there are top universities in America that have had considerably more success than GU. “Tromsø is a small, obviously peripheral and very low ranked school. To also state that Tromsø is a ‘research result’ is strange since it’s only based on one case.” Lisbeth Larsson, who is a professor of comparative literature and previous vice dean for research at the Faculty of Arts, thinks it’s a good and forceful suggestion. “The great challenge is to get it into effect. Earlier experience at the Faculty, when we reserved funds to promote women researchers, showed that there are a number of structural and personal obstacles along the way that contributed to the weak result. It has to do with creating involvement and getting everybody on the boat if there will be any results. And good follow-up,” says Lisbeth Larsson.
»There is a risk that it will create suspicion about whether the process has been correct, in terms of both who benefits and who doesn’t benefit. « Bo Rothstein
apply for funds and then pay for half of the cost themselves.” If an even balance between the sexes is what you’re striving for, why doesn’t it apply even in areas where there’s a dominance of women?
Bo Rothstein
Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg
What demands will be placed on the applications when they’re ready?
“The same demands as usual, in other words customary expert security audits where scientific and educational skills are examined just as rigorously as always. The appointment boards will have the same role as today,” says Helena Lindholm Schulz. How much money is the reform estimated to cost?
“We don’t know yet. There are strategic funds that are reserved but I don’t believe that it has to be a very expensive reform. The thought is that the faculties can
“I won’t say that in the long run there won’t be corresponding efforts for male lecturers in certain areas. An underlying purpose is to test whether this can be a model that can be used on the faculty or department level to support both men and women in developing their careers.” There is something in the academic culture that stops women from developing, according to several investigations, among them one at the University of Gothenburg. “It has to do with structural conditions,” says Helena Lindholm Schulz. “For example, Agnes Wold has shown that women have to be much better than men to be granted research funds. It still has to do with hidden structures that benefit men. It’s also common that women take greater responsibility for children, the home and the family than men, which most probably affects opportunities for academic careers. We have a lot to do in terms of structures both in attitudes and values.”
P-O Rehnquist, previous administrative manager on his blog, published December 10. He comments on the Excellence Investigation’s conclusions. http://peosblogg.wordpress.com/
New charting of administration How much administration do teachers and researchers actually do? No one knows. Now Hans Abelius, who is education leader for the graduate studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, has been given the task of forming a picture of the total administrative activities. An ambition of the investigation is to ensure that the new administrative activities don’t lead to a greater work load for teachers and researchers but rather the opposite. A pre-study will be ready at the end of the year and the whole investigation will be complete on June 30, 2013 at the latest.
New staff portal Is it hard for you to find what you need on the website? That’s going to change. The new staff portal will be launched at the beginning of next year and will be a collective place for internal information at GU. During the fall, the information unit has worked to adapt the information on the web to target groups. This means that “My page” and other internal information at www.gu.se will be moved to the new Staff Portal and be structured on the basis of employees’ needs of service and services instead of organisational location. The portal will be open to everyone but, just like today, logging in will be necessary to gain access to technical systems and certain locked pages. For questions, contact project leader Malin Carlgren: malin.carlgren@gu.se
Apply for scholarships in Jonsered
Equalit y The proportion of women professors continues to increase slowly but surely. Between 1995 and 2011, women have increased from 8 to 23 per cent among professors. Thus it has to do with an increase of a little less than 1 per cent a year. Malmö University has the highest proportion of women among its professors, 38 per cent. The number at GU is 27 per cent. But the
»…all who don’t directly mismanage their jobs tend sooner or later to be promoted. In my view, this may be good personnel care, but hardly quality-enhancing in a competitive business.«
differences between the faculties are large: from 11 per cent at the IT Faculty to 43 per cent at the Faculty of Education. There are also signs that the trend is being broken. At the Humanities Faculty, for example, no new women professors were employed during 2011. Now the faculties will state their own recruitment goals for the period 2012–2015.
Together with the municipality of Partille, scholarships will be offered to stay at Villa Martinson at Jonsered’s manor. The scholarships are intended for researchers, doctoral students and authors and publishers who are looking for a calm place to work in an inspiring environment. The scholarships cover one to three month stays in Jonsered, a historical industrial community in the municipality of Partille. The fellows will get rent-free living and a small sum for extra costs. Read more about the scholarships here at Partille municipality’s website: www.partille.se/jonseredsstiftelsen
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News
Postcards from an international week Persecuted researchers, brave people challenging the power, discriminated Roma, India’s hidden apartheid and why it is so difficult for people to understand the climate issue. Here are some highlights from Global Week, November 12–16.
The freedom of free research Scholars in non-democratic countries may encounter serious problems by asking the wrong questions. They can even be silenced just because they are scholars. Sinead O’Gorman t hopes that Scholars at Risk will get established also in Sweden. The network started at the University of Chicago in the year 2000. Today, it has over 300 members in 35 countries. ‘Our goal is to support all scholars S Sine
ad O
’Gor
man
chol a supp rs at R is ort supp k pers ort ecut ed s cient ists
Change is not obvious
How can a global heroine change your life?
Gothenbur Lecture
g Annual
er
Brian Palm
That’s the question Brian Palmer asked at the Gothenburg Annual Lecture on Global Collaboration. In one of Woody Allen’s films, the female central character explains that she has just met the world’s most wonderful man. The only problem is that he’s a movie star – he is not for real. But then again, you can’t have everything. ‘The first sentence of the UN Declaration of Human Rights reads “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. But for people in Gaza, Tibet or Afghanistan, these rights exist only on paper and not in reality. But then again, you can’t have everything.’ Brian Palmer is lecturing in a large auditorium at the University of Gothenburg. In 2002 he was appointed best teacher at Harvard and in 2008 he held the Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Professorship at the University of Gothenburg. Today he is a senior lecturer at Uppsala University. But he continues to lecture on the same topic: civic courage and bravery. ‘On 9 October, Talibans stormed a school bus in Swat Valley, Pakistan, and shot 14-yearold Malala Yousafzai in her head and neck. She is currently hospitalised in Birmingham,
UK, and miraculously seems to be recovering relatively well. Yousafzai is known for her blog, where she writes about life under the Taliban regime and the importance of letting girls go to school. I dedicate this lecture to you.’ What is it that makes some people do good to others despite horrendous circumstances? Before Brian Palmer attempts to answer this question, he gives several examples. How would you react if you were at an underground station and somebody suddenly had an epileptic attack and fell down onto the tracks? ‘This happened in New York in 2007. A construction worker named Wesley Autrey realises that there is not enough time to get the man out of the train’s way. So he jumps down to the man, pushes him against the ground with his own body, and manages to keep them both safe between the rails with the train roaring above their heads.’ Would you have done the same thing? This is a question most people ask themselves when they hear stories about great courage. ‘Unusually brave people often share certain features,’ says Brian Palmer. ‘They tend to have strong ideals, they have been exposed to different cultures and lifestyles early in life, they have tolerant parents and teachers, and a majority of them are women.’ What’s fantastic about courage is that it is contagious. ‘Millions of people around the world are taking risks for the sake of human rights. They constitute a counterweight to all the violence, greed and indifference in the world. They serve as a reminder of what a human being is actually capable of,’ says Brian Palmer.
who in one way or another are harassed in their home countries; who maybe are censored, get their computers confiscated or even risk being put in prison.’ ‘We require two things from the member institutions: that they acknowledge each scholar’s right to conduct research freely and that they appoint a representative who can communicate with the network. ’ One concrete way to help is to host a persecuted scholar as a visiting researcher for one or a few semesters. Around 400 scholars have been supported in this way over the years. The University of Gothenburg has recently decided to join the network.
Katherine Richa rds
on
How come so many people don’t understand the climate change issue? How come so many people don’t trust what the scientists say? And how come it’s so hard to change people’s behavior? ‘I don’t believe in the greenhouse effect!’ ‘That’s very nice. How do you feel about gravity?’ Katherine Richardson, professor of biological oceanography at the University of Copenhagen, pointed out that scientists always have been questioned. She mentioned Galileo Galilei and Charles Darwin. But it is in fact the scientist’s job to generate knowledge that challenges what people are normally thinking. ‘The most important question right now is whether humans are part of nature or if we stand above it,’ according to Richardson. She believes that we must move away from being hunters and gatherers and instead become stewards of our planet. However, this process The human min dset is going to take many and relation to the earth and clima generations. te change But why is it so hard to change our ways? Gudmund Hernes, Norwegian professor of economics, believes that we really don’t want to change our behavior, since this would make us lose our identity and also lose our friends. Many of our friends still believe that our planet offers limitless resources. ‘It’s about time we realize that we cannot change nature, but that we can change ourselves.’
News
GUJOURNAL 7 | 2012
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Visit from Ghana Romani are treated poorly
The situation of Roma in Europe, Sweden and Gothenburg
Bagir Kwiek
‘I went to the supermarket some time ago with my 7-year-old daughter,’ said Bagir Kwiek, chair of Roma for Cultural Development. ‘Suddenly a security guard started following every step we took. We Roma are usually not treated as individuals but as a group that causes a lot of trouble. We have always been a silenced people, but we need to raise our voices. Sweden used to be the world’s conscience. We have to maintain this role so that we can put pressure on the EU when Roma people are mistreated. And every Swede can decide to treat everybody with respect and compassion.’ The first Roma arrived in Sweden exactly 500 years ago. This is acknowledged not only by the national government but also by the Jonsered Manor, which arranged the seminar held in the University of Gothenburg’s Main Building.
»Millions of people around the world are taking risks for the sake of human rights« Brian Palmer
365 brave people are listed in the 2013 Raoul Wallenberg calendar.
Fighting for the oppressed
hidd India’s id aparthe
a
anoram
Ruth M
en
Ruth Manorama is standing up for the most oppressed group of people in India – the Dalits, or the casteless. They are victims of hidden racism, quite similar to the former South African system. In today’s India there is hidden apartheid, despite the country’s modern and democratic constitution, which grants all people equal value. The Indian Dalit population comprises some 200 million individuals. They have been victims of discrimination, oppression and persecution for many centuries. Moreover, they are at the bottom rung of society, and are the poorest and most oppressed of all groups in India. Officially, the Dalits have the same status as everybody else, but in practice they are still facing severe hardship. Manorama is 59 years old and one of India’s leading human rights activists. She has been involved in the Dalit situation for 30 years. As a result of her work she was awarded the alternative Nobel Prize – the Right Livelihood Prize – in 2006.
This year again there was a full staff training program during Global Week. Participants came from all over Europe, but one of them had come all the way from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. T h e i d e a b e h i n d the staff training program is to give the participants as much as possible of GU in five days. It doesn’t make things worse that it’s held at the same time as Global Week. “The program is a mix of information about GU, a presentation of our administrative process and academic lectures. There are also social activities in the evening such as Global Gala and Global Evening. As far as I know, GU is unique in the world in offering continued personnel education in combination with an international week,” says Laila Laila Johannesson Mary Naa Agbanye Anum Johannesson at the International Centre, which is responsible for the program. GU’s partner universities around the world nominate participants to the program. This year, 24 persons from all over Europe came and most of them are international coordinators who work with student and teacher exchanges. For the first time there was a participant from outside Europe, Mary Naa Agbanye Anum from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, who is international coordinator with special responsibility for exchange students’ welfare. “It’s very exciting and fun to be here. It’s the first time I’ve travelled outside Africa. Right now we have two exchange students from GU and one student from Cape Coast is here. My boss thought it was a good idea for me to come here to learn more about GU and see and experience how it is in Gothenburg. The biggest worry for us is to get a visa and that it’s hard for our students to finance their visits.” S h e m e t i n t e r e st e d students at the student exhibition that was held on Wednesday. So, why should a person study in Cape Coast? “Our university works for international excellence, we have a large and broad selection of courses and we place rather high demands on our students. But, not least, you should choose Ghana because the country is so beautiful and because we have a very good social reception with a lot of trips and activities.” Laila Johannesson says that many outside of Europe would very much like to come but that financing is difficult. “It’s fantastic that Mary Naa Agbanye Anum has come here. It’s a lot of added value for the staff training program.” The program will be evaluated but, according to the reactions that Laila Johannesson has received until now, most of the people are satisfied with the week. “I believe that the city of Gothenburg attracts, but we’ve also worked to put together an exciting and rich program. The participants had their own program during parts of the week that we helped to tailor-make. A lot of them appreciated it. We also had a large attendance at the last day when all the participants shared their experiences.” A n e xc h a n g e h a s just as much to do with what we at GU can learn from others, says Laila Johannesson. “It’s always useful to see one’s own activities with others’ eyes. For example, there are universities that are very good at teacher mobility. An example that was given during the experience exchange was that teachers that teach in English are rewarded. Might that be something that we should copy? My impression was otherwise that the participants were very impressed by everything we do at GU but also because we’re aware of our own weaknesses.”
Allan Eriksson
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Profile
text eva lundgren | Photography Johan Wingborg
There is power in art ‘Change the world!’ could be his motto. ‘Feed the world!’ is another way to put it. Mick Wilson, Head of the recently established Valand Academy, feels that the arts once again must nourish our lives. e j u st c a m e bac k from a celebration of the 30-year anniversary for Gothenburg University’s Photography programmes and greets me in his small room at Valand, which he shares with two colleagues, Mats Olson and Christina Dege. I see three laptops, a couple of desks and chairs, and that’s about all. But Mick Wilson is full of enthusiasm; over his new job as Head of Valand Academy, over his small studio-flat in posh Haga and over Gothenburg and Sweden in general. ‘The town-planning and architectural mix in Gothenburg is fascinating. And the streets are so full of life, unusually so for a relatively small city in northern Europe. And wherever I go people are generous and welcoming. The only thing I’m a bit concerned about is the weather. Although it does remind me of western Ireland, I had no idea it could rain this much.’ R i g h t n ow he’s reviewing the budget; he’s probably one of few University staff members who can talk about Agresso and smile at the same time. ‘It’s working, isn’t it? Computers aren’t crashing, the systems are user-focussed and I have immediate access to all the recent critical literature in the world. I hope I’ll never get so complacent that I start taking all this for granted’ In Gothenburg there is a humane professionalism, Mick Wilson says. People may compete over resources, but not in a destructive way. ‘I compare what I see here with Ireland,
where art education is severely underfunded and its importance is simply not recognised properly. But also where the ability to see both the person and the organisation issues in balance is undermined by a radical short-termist economism and generic managerialism.’ at home in his new city. ‘If I hadn’t moved now, in my 40s. I probably never would have. But what felt like a major decision became a pretty ordinary thing very fast. Who knows, maybe I might start enjoying moving around and suddenly find myself in Brazil or Korea? Or maybe not though, my partner Farishi will be coming over next year. So I guess we will be putting down some roots.’ Mick Wilson grew up in a working class neighbourhood in Dublin. His father worked variously as a chauffeur, van-driver and porter. But he became interested in art already as a 10 or 11 year old. ‘While my classroom in the small Christian Brothers School was being renovated, my class was put in the library for some time. I ended up in the far back, near the art section. And in that corner, in this small, conservative Catholic school, I found books about Egon Schiele and the Vienna Secession – quite out of place in the authoritarian and phobic ambience of my education. That was the first time I realised there was something more in life than the oppressive and prescriptive normality that I was used to. Mick Wilson studied mathematics at the renowned Trinity College for two years, H e a lr e a dy fe e l s
moved on to study sculpture and art history, later computer science and eventually earned his doctorate at National College of Art & Design. ‘In my undergraduate art education I encountered Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, Althusser, Ricouer and Bourdieu; critical theory, culture studies and gender studies. It was the art schools in Ireland rather than regular faculties of humanities that encouraged ambitious critical intellectual student work at that time.’ But Mick Wilson also learned something else: that higher education means following two curriculums at the same time: One official, which clearly states which courses must be taken. ‘ B u t t h e r e ’ s a l s o a hidden curriculum within the Anglophone system, where you learn how to participate in some normative professional or bourgeois existence. So my years in school gave me both abilities and disabilities. I learned a lot in all the programmes, of course, but I also became disconnected in some ways from my home background. I find several aspects of this interesting: For example, why do some 18 year olds know that they want to become architects or film directors; while others would never even think about this? And how can we design higher education that is open to everyone but that doesn’t mean that the students cut the ties to their different social backgrounds? Students must adapt to the university world, but it is equally important that the universities are able to accept different types of people.
GUJOURNAL 7 | 2012
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Profile
»What is important is a dialogue that doesn’t contain clichés about what a biologist, an economist, an artist or a historian is.«
Mick Wils on News : New Head at the Valand Academy of Arts, chair of the SHARE Academic Network (www. sharenetwork.eu) and member of European Artistic Research Network (EARN) Prev ious appo intm ents : Dean of the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media (GradCAM ), Head of Fine Art DIT, and Head of Research Nation al College of Art and Design Lives : In Haga Family: He has a partner Farishi Ahmad who is currently living in Ireland and he will move to Gothen burg in 2013 Inter ests: Contemporary art, curating and philosophy; history of ideas, critical urbanism, and public culture L ast book read : Heinrich Meier’s Carl Schmit t and Leo Strauss: The Hidden Dialogue Favo urite food : Bavette Genovese with Green Beans (a current obsession)
h i s i s s o m e t h i n g Mick Wilson tried to implement as Dean at GradCAM, an experimental doctoral school split between National College of Art & Design, the Dublin Institute of Technology, and the University of Ulster. ‘At GradCAM there are more than 40 doctoral students in regular programmes but also about 100 ‘associates’ attending free courses and participating in seminar programmes and research development work. It’s a bit like this brilliant Swedish system of freestanding courses, where, in theory at least, just about anybody can study almost any subject.’ It ’ s a way o f thinking that is also a bit like the courses offered by the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts in for example the Gothenburg suburbs Bergsjön, Hammarkullen and Angered. ‘It’s so exciting that the University reaches out to people where they live and that it not only teaches but also learns from practising artists out in the suburbs.’ Overall, Mick Wilson seems so impressed with the University of Gothenburg, that I feel I have to point out that we do have problems too. ‘But there is a willingness here to become something more than just a carbon copy of other universities that are reducing themselves to mere service providers to industry. The University of Gothenburg seems to be combining the ideals of ‘university of reason’ and of the ‘university of culture’. This is a balance that is being lost elsewhere!’ Valand Academy is a brand new institution. Yet it is based on four units, each with its own history: the School of Film Directing, the School of Photography, the Valand School of Fine Arts and the Department of Literary Composition, Poetry and Prose. One might suspect that the merger wasn’t entirely friction free. ‘Are you kidding? Sure there has been friction! Although all four parts are arguably forms of ‘auteur’ culture, they are also very different. It’s important to respect the distinct identity and traditions of each subject. But it’s also important to make decisions as openly and democratically as possible. Because if one has a pretence of democratic decision-making, people will become doubly troubled: they’ll feel their time is wasted getting involved for no reason; and they’ll feel the discomfort of having decisions made above their heads.’ M i c k W i l s o n thinks the combination of visual and verbal arts in the same department is especially important. ‘We have here an art school with a great tradition under the same roof as a school of photography that is associated with the world-leading Hasselblad Center. And then there is a school of film making that despite its small size keeps winning international awards and out-performs much larger institutions elsewhere. And on top of that a completely unique school for authors that has become a critical centre for new Scandinavian literature.’
But while respecting these great achievements it’s important that the art programmes keep developing. ‘The notion that real artists are rebels in perpetual conflict with the system is a cliché that has become part of an older artistic norm of “avant-gardism”. However, art can also be more than simply creating something radically new; it can be about finding out what matters, what is urgent in contemporary experience, what has enduring importance in human lives. One way to explore these questions is to carefully study what others have done and are currently doing; not to copy them as such, but attending to the work of others in order to see what we can do ourselves.’ The fact that the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts is part of a large university should also be taken advantage of more than today. ‘I have a pet project: to develop an introduction course for contemporary art and culture, available for students in all programmes. All students have to be literate and know how to count. But why isn’t it equally important that they are participant citizens, open to cultural experiment and literate in contemporary art and culture?’ T h e a r t s c a n play a part in the development of students in any subject area, Mick Wilson says. ‘Sciences, economics and the humanities can all find interesting points of development within the arts. What is important is a dialogue that doesn’t contain clichés about what a biologist, an economist, an artist or a historian is. We need points of encounter for exploration of issues and problems presented by our world, and not just the internal priorities of our own disciplines.’ One point of encounter is food. “The Food Thing” is a project that started two years ago among teachers, researchers, and associates in the general orbit of GradCAM. The project involves the making of a cookbook with recipes that many different people have contributed; and “recipe salons” where these recipes are tested. The project also includes larger public meals, for example a five course public banquet as part of The Tall Ships Races Festival in Dublin in August 2012. ‘You learn so much at the dinner table!’ says Mick Wilson. ‘The history of breadmaking from the Norman English ‘Assize of Bread’ to 18th century legislation on ‘whitening’ additives in bread, such as lead! The simple exploration of recipes form the 17th century can open a door onto overlooked dimensions of the slave trade in Europe. And then there is the question of what really happens when everything we eat becomes industrialised. Also by turning to food as a device within an art project, we can overcome some of the imagined gaps between mass culture and elite culture. But we also reconnect to a main task of art: to address the urgencies of contemporary living; to imagine things otherwise; to work with questions of taste, embodiment, public life and the aesthetic openings of our closed mortal existence.
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News
University of Gothenburg as an app for iPhone and Android Find people, lecture halls and departments. Get the latest new about research and education. Update yourself about what’s happening at the University. You can do this now with GU’s new app for iPhone and Android.
The first version of the app is limited. The idea is that it will be developed and be given a number of new functions for version number two. You can help by giving us tips about things you want to see in the app to app@gu.se.
Download the app at www.gu.se/app Have you installed a barcode reader? You can download the app by scanning the qr codes to the right!
I Phone
Android
Denmark beats Sweden in the research top Question: How do we get research of the highest quality in Sweden? Answer: Do what the Danes do. That’s a way to summarise the Excellence Investigation done by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that was recently presented.
D e n m a r k , Holland and Switzerland are three countries that are similar to Sweden in many ways. But they are still completely different. They succeed considerably better when it comes to really strong research that is bibliometrically important. The Excellence Investigation tries to give an answer to the question of why. “One explanation we indicate is that in Sweden we organise research around projects instead of around basic funding,” says Mats Benner, chief secretary for the Investigation. “Schools put their efforts into the projects that can be financed instead of doing the opposite: instead first deciding what areas are important and then applying for funding for these. They’ve let the financers in the short term decide the direction of research instead of taking long-term responsibility themselves. That permanent positions are also so dependent on external funds creates unnecessary adherence, a situation where research is done in what it’s possible to get funding for instead of following interesting ideas.”
about 60 per cent of all research has internal financing and 40 per cent is financed by external parties. In Sweden, these figures are almost the opposite; nearly 60 per cent of research is financed externally. In Holland 70 per cent and in Switzerland 80 per cent of research is financed internally. In Denmark,
More basic resources to uni-
versities and better possibilities to take control of their activities are Mats Benner’s solution to the problem. “But the universities then have to take complete responsibility for recruiting researchers and ensuring high research quality. That means that the academic leaders have to be less administrators and more strongly
Annette Granéli
universities don’t control anything anymore. Research can’t be developed. It remains short-term, trendy, without consideration to the whole picture.” D e n m a r k h a s more basic resources but also greater central control, according to Staffan Edén. “Maybe it’s better for the government to say clearly what is wanted instead of, as in Sweden, pretending that the universities are independent but then control them anyway. It’s the Government that is investing in Life Science in Stockholm and
Staffan Edén
Mats Benner
»… the academic leaders have to be less a dministrators and more strongly intellectual prods.« Mats Benner
at GU and vice chairman of the Young Academy of Sweden. “Vetenskapsrådet finances researchers that are already successful and in that way benefits established research areas. The dependence on external financing has the effect that universities don’t dare to take risks, and few new research orientations are created. Schools should instead themselves choose researchers that they believe in and give them good conditions for success.” R ec r u it m e n t services would be one way to gather good researchers. That means that the university chooses prominent post docs and gives them assistant professorships that can later become lectureships. “Universities have to be active and clear in their recruitments, based on high demands for quality. And job announcements have to be open and transparent so that we can get people from outside the schools. In that way, we’ll get better quality in research and greater equality,” says Annette Granéli. An introduction of recruitment services is on its way at the University of Gothenburg. A decision is expected early next year.
Exc ellence inve stigation
intellectual prods, with research experience of the highest level that can utilise the universities’ unique role as places for curiosity and original thinking.” Staffan Edén, Deputy ViceChancellor at GU, agrees that the relation between external and internal funding isn’t a sound one. “Since external funding requires co-financing from the school, standing resources are tied up for each grant. In the end, the
at an ESS plant in Lund, so of course things are being controlled.” The investigation also indicates the importance of clear career paths to get young talents to get into research. Vetenskapsrådet and other financers that decide what research the universities should have and what researchers will be recruited,” says Annette Granéli, biophysicist
“ To day it ’ s
The goal of the newly published investigation was to provide an answer about why Swedish research is losing international competitiveness on the level of breakthrough research. Denmark, Holland and Switzerland are 35–40 per cent above the world average while Sweden is about 15 per cent over the average. Gunnar Öquist, former
Permanent Secretary at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, is chairman of the investigation and Mats Benner, professor at the research policy institute in Lund, is the main secretary. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ordered the investigation and the financer is the Wallenberg Foundation.
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text eva lundgren | Photography Johan Wingborg
They know what, when and how you read They know what notes you make and where you have your bookmarks. Reader investigations aren’t necessary since they already see exactly what you do. Welcome to the brave new world of e-books! “ I ’ m a h a p py user, but a deep sceptic,” says Mathias Klang, researcher in informatics. He’s one of the steadily growing readers that are always walking around with a whole library in their pockets, called Kindle, a little eReader from the American company Amazon. E-books are easy to buy and download, directly from Internet. It’s also possible to loan them at libraries. Together with all the other texts on Internet, modern man has access to a vast amount of reading. “Not too long ago, most people had only a handful of books in their homes,” Mathias Klang tells us. “They read them carefully, over and over again; they even memorised certain parts. Now we have text everywhere but only limited time to read. So a different reader has begun to take form, one who gets more and more impatient. Because if a novel hasn’t captured your interest after five pages, three hundred other novels are waiting in your pocket …” A m a zo n i s t h e world’s largest Net shop, interested in selling. But it’s also a company that’s begun to get a new relation with its customers, according to Mathias Klang. For example, it sends recommendations for books that you individually are expected to be interested in. “Nerds rule! If you only like historical mystery stories that are set in Athens in the 1700s, it’s only that type of book the Amazon will suggest.”
Amazon also knows quite a bit about you: they know where you start and stop reading, what you browse through and if you give up on page 37. “And if you mark a paragraph you can see that maybe seven other people have also marked it,” explains Mathias Klang. “We used to buy a book and then discuss what was good or bad. Now it’s extremely clear what other readers think and it of course affects your own reading.” Maybe it will even go so far that Amazon will start to act as a consultant for authors, Mathias Klang mentions. Since the company knows exactly what readers like and that they for example often stop reading on page 37, authors can get help to specially adapt their texts according to readers’ taste. T h i s m e a n s m o r e “doctored” books but also that publishers’ time has passed. “Publishers that publish books in small languages, like Swedish, seem to think that if they can just not sell via Kindle then everything will continue as usual. But the truth is the opposite: what isn’t on Kindle – well, doesn’t exist.” Because, according to Mathias Klang, if a person has bought an eReader, he wants to fill it. “I’ve noticed that I myself do a lot of impulse buying to my Kindle with books I’ll never have the time to read. On the other hand, I buy almost only cheap books. The selection is so big,
why buy expensive ones when there are so many exciting ones under a hundred crowns?” “Books, for that matter, that you buy are actually access to a data file,” says Mathias Klang. “It’s in the licences that no one bothers to read that Amazon can remove access to the book. That happened recently to a woman in Norway whose account had been connected to another person who used it in a bad way. So she wasn’t considered worthy of the library that she’d paid for and all her files were erased!” The problem is avoided by ripping all your books, that is, take away the digital copy protection on the book file. “It’s of course not allowed, but the more companies irritate their customers, the more they legitimate unlawful behaviour. And the customers of course think that they have the right to do what they want with the things they’ve bought.” How do you find things in the overflow of texts? The person who can point out what’s worth reading will in the future have an even more important role than the author or journalist who produced the text itself, according to Mathias Klang. “And that means a big chance for libraries. Our libraries have such an incredibly democratic view of literature! Of course they can say which books are really good but they find it difficult to say what is really bad. But in a world that is flowing over with text, that task will be more and more important, not least when it comes to helping schools to decide what in this huge selection students need to read.” Will society itself be changed by the digital culture? Yes,
GUJOURNAL 7 | 2012
Do you read e-books? Since it’s easier to loan as many as you want whenever you want and, not least important, simple to search in, e-books are becoming more and more popular. The University Library (UB) has almost 300 000 titles to choose from.
»Nerds rule! If you only like historical mystery stories that are set in Athens in the 1700s, it’s only that type of book Amazon will suggest.«
Mathias Klang thinks that it will be harder and harder to define different identifies, such as what it means to be Swedish. “Strindberg will still be read but maybe in Japan just as much as in Sweden. And I’ll feel I have even less in common with reindeer keepers in Norrland. There will certainly also pop up opposition movements, slow book groups, who work for the conservation of books as artefacts. And certain analog books will probably remain. Because it really feels wonderful to sit with a beautiful book of photographs in your knees, enjoy the pictures and feel the paper between your fingers!”
And as demand
increases, there will be more. Because the advantages are many. “E-books are always available, often for several book borrowers at the same time,” says Annica Rydholm, university librarian at Digital Services. “The loan time is largely unlimited, which is important for example for course literature. Purchase, delivery and availability can take place quickly and at the same time. We have no worries about storage and no transports are needed.” “All the e-books are in our catalogue, Gunda, so they’re easy to find. Searchability is anyway what we experience as most revolutionary. So we put a lot of effort into offering reference works in electronic format.” A n ot h e r a dva n tag e is that the library can develop statistics about e-books in a simple way and see in detail how much they’re used. The number of downloads of e-books and e-newspapers was over two million during 2011. “We don’t have the same problems as the municipal libraries, with costs for loans of Swedish e-books,” explains Ulla Elmqvist, university librarian. “We’ve chosen a limited number of titles in expert literature in Swedish, which makes the cost not so high. Our contracts for foreign literature are different. We pay a sum for a packet in a certain field that we then own and we loan access to e-books via certain suppliers. We can also buy individual titles, for example course literature or titles that our users suggest for purchase.” A particular supplier offers a large number of titles for so called user-steered acquisition. That means that, when the user finds a title in the catalogue, UB pays for the loan with a certain per cent of the price and, when the book has been loaned three times, it’s purchased automatically. “We see a great development for research where you can now read older texts from the 1600s and 1700s in full text,” says Annica Rydholm. “In that way we don’t need to wear out the older and sensitive published collections to the same extent as before.” D i sa dva n tag e s? Yes – it’s harder to read several e-books at the same time. “The publishers can also be unwilling to offer the latest version in an e-version and also often exclude course books in their packets,” says Annica Rydholm. “Each supplier also has different conditions for print-outs, copying, downloading and simultaneous users, which can be difficult to give information about.” “If you’re used to printed books, it can also be hard to read from the screen,” Ulla Elmqvist points out. “A physical book gives a completely different experience, so we don’t think that the e-book will eliminate the paper book.”
Link to UB’s e-books: http://www.ub.gu.se/sok/ebok/
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Photogr aPHy: Johan Wingborg
Thesis
Looking for a bloody pest Pest or cholera, which is worst? Perhaps dysentery. Even though cholera caused the greatest fear during the 1800s, dysentery was a more common cause of death, shows Helene Castenbrandt. I n t h e y e a r s 17 7 3, 1808 and 1857, Sweden was ravaged by dysentery, a disease that was called red pest because it often gave bloody diarrhoea. “In 1857, during the last large outbreak of dysentery in Sweden, only four provinces were affected. But in Jönköping’s province, about 4 000 people died. That can be compared with cholera, which also hit the same year. Only a little over 200 people died in the province.” Medical historian Helene Castenbrandt tells us this. Her doctoral thesis deals with the spreading of dysentery in Sweden in the period 1750–1900, with Jönköping’s province as a case study. In contrast to the general understanding among historians, that dysentery was a less serious disease; her research shows that people were hit very hard. “But the geographical differences are large: the same year, over 90 per cent of all deaths in a parish could be from dysentery while the neighbouring parish had hardly any cases at all.” One reason can be that only deaths are recorded in the church books, newspaper articles and doctor reports that Helene Castenbrandt has studied. “Maybe the differences don’t have to do with more people being infected in certain areas but that there were unusually few who survived.”
an important risk factor for dysentery in Africa and Asia today. But it can hardly be the explanation for why different parishes in Sweden were hit in such a different way in the 1700s and 1800s since the lack of hygiene was a general problem. “Perhaps there were social differences between the parishes, but in any case they weren’t so large that they alone can explain the differences. It must have to do with a combination of poverty, overcrowded P o o r h yg i e n e i s
homes, poor hygiene and maybe other conditions too,” Helene Castenbrandt thinks. In spite of the fact that dysentery was such a common cause of death during the 1800s, it was another epidemic disease that spread fear: “Cholera came to Russia in the 1820s and reached Western Europe about 10 years later. Unlike dysentery, which had been rampant on the countryside for a long time, cholera meant a new, unknown epidemic, with a very rapid course, that mainly hit the cities. The authorities therefore issued regulations, the newspapers wrote articles, special cemeteries were created for cholera deaths. Cholera became the new danger that people were afraid of.” “It’s probably about the same now. Aids is a new frightening disease that gets a lot of attention while for example malaria has existed in developing countries so long that we don’t worry as much.” Dys e n t e ry disappeared from the Western World around the end of the 1800s because of better hygiene and generally greater prosperity. Among other things, the land changes in the 1800s, which broke up villages and gave people the opportunity to build better houses farther apart from one another, meant that it was harder for infections to spread. “Today about a million people die of dysentery every year. But there are hardly any Westerners among them; these diseases are seldom lethal for people who are in good physical shape and drink enough liquids.” But how was it that you started to do research on just dysentery? “I’m interested in statistics and population development and studied medical history at the University of Glasgow,” Helene Castenbrandt explains. “There’s a great interest in medical history in Great Britain and it will probably increase here too, not least because medicine has become such a
Helene C astenbr andt
Currently: Has come with her doctoral thesis Rödsot i Sverige 1750–1900. En sjukdoms demografiska och medicinska historia (Dysentery in Sweden 1750–1900. A disease’s demographic and medical history). Family: Husband and three-yearold son and a baby to come at the end of April. Lives: In Kålltorp. Interests: History, travel, outdoor activities, making pottery.
significant power factor in society. I hope to be able to continue to do research, this time on diseases rather than death. What does it mean that so few people today die of contagious diseases? Are we less sick now? Or are we just the opposite more sick since we survive things that people died of long ago?”
Eva Lundgren