Jan Erik Karlsen

Sociological contributions to futures’ theory building

Purpose – This article aims to contribute to futures theory building by assessing the inherent ontological and epistemological presumptions in foresight studies. Such premises, which are usually embedded in foresight studies, are contrasted with sociological imagination and contemporary social science discourse.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual analysis of theoretical assumptions embedded in foresight studies.Findings – Sociological lenses, including concepts like anticipation, latency, time, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, change and plurality of images, offer clarity in terms of both futures studies and foresights.Research limitations/implications – Explicating presumptions embedded in foresight methods helps recognition of how such methods shape the concepts of future and time. This is vital for assessment of the analytical products of foresights studies.Originality/value – This research contributes to the ambition of linking the theoretical world of futures research and the ...

The Nordic Osh Model at a Turning Point

Abstract This paper examines the emergence and development of the ‘Nordic model’ of occupational safety and health. The model emerged during the 1970s and since then has been used to regulate the working environment and occupational safety and health in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). The model, both innovative and future-oriented, stemmed from labour contract negotiations of the 1930s, and was based on a ‘three-pillar’ system involving employers, employees and government. The paper goes on to examine the fragmentation of the Nordic model during the 1990s, which resulted in a shift away from the former reflexive practice based on common ideas, tripartism and job security, towards principles of flexibility, thereby leaving important aspects of occupational safety and health to be regulated by market forces rather than institutional actors. The paper concludes with a look at how the Nordic occupational safety and health model may develop in the coming years.

Expert groups as production units for shared knowledge in energy foresights

Purpose – This article seeks to investigate the knowledge sharing processes in expert teams working with foresighting, creating knowledge for and about the future in electronic work groups.Design/methodology/approach – Observations and assessments have been made this study in two expert workshops conducted on the European level aimed at assessing the true status of plausible hydrogen technologies and their potential.Findings – Building on an understanding of knowledge sharing as cyclic in its orientation, it is proposed that knowledge creation in expert teams draws heavily on latent knowledge embedded in the individual experts. Explicating latent knowledge is seen as occurring during reconstructions that involve questioning, confrontations and debates. Such reconstructions are not fully explicated in the dualistic representation of knowledge often referred to as explicit and tacit.Research limitations/implications – Based on the assumption that expertise used in foresighting is embedded in some sort of im...

Classification of Tools and Approaches Applicable in Foresight Studies

Are predictive quantitative methods too limited to serve as tools in foresight studies? This concern has recently been met by the emerging application of qualitative methods as a means to complement and compensate for the perceived weaknesses of quantitative methods. It is particularly in terms of reflecting sudden changes or detecting incremental and weak signals of change in real societies that quantitative methods are deemed too static. A productive foresight analysis will need a more differentiated sense-making and robust repertoire (Rossel 2010, 2012). Krawczyk and Slaughter (2010: p. 75) state:

Strategies for Internationalisation at Technical Universities in the Nordic Countries.

This article investigates strategies for internationalisation at technical universities in the Nordic countries. The study explores the institutional rationales for internationalisation, the stories told in the strategy documents, the importance of leaders, faculty, administration and students for implementation of the strategy, and barriers and key components of successful internationalisation. We studied the strategic work with inter-nationalisation across 27 technical universities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. This work reflects both global trends of competition and the traditional Nordic model of cooperation. Overall, the universities incorporated internationalisation in their strategies in order to increase quality in research and education, and to establish strategic partnerships and networks. There is a shift in rationales from a more traditional approach of internationalisation to a new integrated form.

Arbejdsmiljøcertificering som tilsynsredskab og -strategi : Resultater og anbefalinger

Arbejdsmiljocertificering vinder frem i de nordiske lande og specielt i Danmark, hvor de certificerede virksomheder som udgangspunkt har vaeret fritaget for Arbejdstilsynets screeningsbesog siden 20 ...