PASSIM - Patents as Scientific Information 1895-2020
As part of the ERC-funded Passim-project I’m currently working on a study of secrecy and securitization in relation to inventions and research in the Soviet Union. Soviet intellectual property politics was full of tensions and contradictions, as intellectual property in general and patents in particular were seen as inherently capitalist, but at the same time indispensable. One solution was to issue Inventor’s Certificates instead of patents as a way to encourage, document and reward inventions. The Soviet Union also viewed inventors, scientists, and the intelligentsia in general with suspicion, but also saw such individuals as necessary for much-needed technical development. The attempts to control inventions, inventiveness and inventors at times involved forced labour and special prisons within the Gulag-system.
Revitalization and Sustainability
Together with Martin Fredriksson I’m developing the research project Revitalization and Sustainability (RESUS). This research explores if and how environmental sustainability can benefit from cultural revitalization: processes and practices where knowledge and skills from the past are revived in a contemporary context. Revitalization is often associated with cultural traditions, but we argue that it can also address environmental challenges by promoting sustainable uses of natural resources and reimagining the relationship between humans and nature
How are common resources made into private property?
I have an interest in natural resources and property issues, and have researched how processes of enclosure (of common resources) are enacted and countered through legal decisions and public resistance. The research has aimed to provide new knowledge about how different kinds of common resources are enclosed and commodified as private property, and how this affects those who used to manage those commons. More specifically, I have investigated how natural resources, generally perceived as common land, are appropriated by corporations. The research has focused on local cases where mining projects on indigenous land in Scandinavia and Australia have provoked resistance.
