Michael Godhe

Associate Professor, Docent

My research interests concern representations of the future. My teaching concerns the interplay between technology and culture and cuts across subjects such as the culture and media history of robots, androids and AI to Critical Future Studies.

Futuristic imagery in speculative fiction, popular science and in political thought

My research interests concern representations of the future from a cultural and media history perspective.

My focus on representations of the future can be described in terms of: (i) expectations, (ii) anticipations, (iii) prognosis, and (iv) orchestrations, which encompass how possible, probable or preferable futures are staged in speculative fiction (utopias, dystopias science fiction et cetera) – but also in different public and political spheres. Self portrait in the form of an illistrution. Photo credit Michael Godhe

Critical Future Studies

Together with Associate Professor Luke Goode (University of Auckland), I introduced a new, interdisciplinary research field which we came to label Critical Future Studies (CFS). A programmatic article appeared in Culture Unbound: Journal for Current Cultural Research, and Goode and I also co-edited a special issue of the same journal which collected recent work in CFS. The publications can be found here:

The Journal of social and Culture Possibilities

I am part of the editorial collective for The Journal of Social and Culture Possibilities, together with William Bridges IV (the University of Rochester) and Luke Goode. JSCP is an open-access journal dedicated to future studies from humanities and social science perspectives, and the first number is scheduled to the end of 2023. See CfP: Journal of Social and Cultural Possibilities (temple.edu)

Science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction

I am also the founder of the Swedish research network Science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, which currently includes over 50 affiliated researchers.

Publications

Recent publications

2025

Michael Godhe (2025) The Modernity That Was Yet to Come: On Claës Lundin's Science-Fiction Novel Oxygen och Aromasia: Bilder från år 2378 Nordic Speculative Fiction: Research, Theory, and Practise, p. 48-62 (Chapter in book)

Continue to DOI

2024

Michael Godhe (2024) Recension av Johan Östling, Anton Jansson & Ragni Svensson (red.), Humaniora i välfärdsamhället: Kunskapshistorier om efterkrigstiden (Göteborg & Stockholm: Makadam, 2023). Lychnos, p. 216-218 (Article, book review)

William H. Bridges. IV, Michael Godhe, Luke Goode (2024) The Journal of Social and Cultural Possibilities: A Triptych Introduction Journal of Social and Cultural Possibilities, Vol. 1, p. 1-13 (Article in journal)

Complete list over my publications

Monographies and articles

Michael Godhe, “The Modernity That Was Yet to Come: On Claës Lundin’s Science-Fiction Novel Oxygen och Aromasia: Bilder från år 2378, in Marta Tveit et al (red), Nordic Anthology on Science Fiction (New York: Routledge, 2024). [referee-granskad]

Will Bridges, Michael Godhe & Luke Goode, “The Journal of Social and Cultural Possibilities: A Triptych Introduction”, in Journal of Social and Cultural Possibilities, 2024:1.

Michael Godhe, ”Some Notes on the Conceptions of Time and History in Speculative Fiction“, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2022:2.

Michael Godhe & Magnus Rodell, “Att förstå globaliseringen utifrån ett samtidshistoriskt perspektiv” [”Understanding Globalizing From a Contemporary History Studies Perspective”], in Lychnos: Årsbok för idé- och lärdomshistoria, 2021.

Jerry Määttä, Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe, ”A Conversation on AI, Science Fiction, and Work”, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2021:2.

Helene Ehriander & Michael Godhe, ”Youth Solving Pandemics: Hopeful Futures in Maths Claesson’s Novel Pandemic”, in Neohelicon, 2021:2. [peer review]

Michael Godhe, ”Att lära sig framtidsberedskap: Om science fiction, didaktik och pedagogik” [”To Learn Preparedness for the Future: On Science Fiction, Didactics, and Pedagogics”], in Anders Burman, Joakim Landahl & Daniel Lövheim (red.), Moderna Pedagogiska Utopier [Modern Pedagogic Utopias] (Södertörn: Södertörn Högskola, 2021). [peer review]

Jerry Määttä, Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe, ”Ett samtal om AI och science fiction” [A Conversation on AI and Science Fiction], in Bodén & Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om framtidens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020).

Michael Godhe, ”Att lära sig leva med robotar: Om normaliseringen av robotar och AI i 2000-talets medier” [”Laerning to Live With Robots: On the Normalization of AI and Robots in 21st Century Swedish Media”], in Bodén & Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om framtidens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020). [English translation available on ResearchGate: (PDF) LEARNING TO LIVE WITH ROBOTS On the normalization of robots and AI in 21st Century Swedish Media [Pre-print]

Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”], in Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om framtidens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020).

Michael Godhe, “Hopeful Dystopias? Figures of Hope in the Brazilian Science Fiction Series 3%”, in Joe Trotta, Zlatan Filipovic & Houman Sadri (red.), Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 2019).

Michael Godhe, ”The Right Kind of Curiosity”, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2019:1.

Michael Godhe, “’The Old Stories Had Become Our Prison’: Globalisation and Identity Politics in John Barnes’s Science Fiction Novels A Million Open Doors and Earth Made of Glass”, in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2018:1. [peer review]

Michael Godhe & Luke Goode, ”Critical Future Studies – A Thematic Introduction”, in Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2018:2.

Michael Godhe, “After Work: Anticipatory Knowledge on Post-Scarcity Futures in John Barnes’s Thousand Cultures Tetralogy”, in Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2018:2. [peer review]

Luke Goode & Michael Godhe, ”Beyond Capitalist Realism – Why We Need Critical Future Studies”, in Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2017:1. [peer review]

Staffan Bergwik, Michael Godhe, Anders Houltz & Magnus Rodell, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”], in Bergwik, Godhe, Houltz & Rodell (eds.), Svensk snillrikhet? Nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning 1800-2000 [Swedish Ingenuity? National Conceptions About Entrepreneurs and Technical Skill 1800-2000] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014).

Michael Godhe, ”Post Scriptum: Vårt behov av geniala och innovativa individer”, [“Post Scriptum: Our Want of Genial and Innovative Individuals”], in Bergwik, Godhe, Houltz & Rodell (eds.), Svensk snillrikhet? Nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning 1800-2000 [Swedish Ingenuity? National Conceptions About Entrepreneurs and Technical Skill 1800-2000] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014).

Michael Godhe & Jonas Ramsten, ”Inledning” [”Introduction”] and ”Efterord” [”Afterword”], in Godhe & Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Michael Godhe, ”’Literature of estrangement’: Några linjer i feministisk utopi- och sf-forskning” [”’Literature of estrangement’: Some Features in Feminist Research on Utopia and Science Fiction”], in Godhe & Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Michael Godhe & Elin Bommenel, ”Teknik och vetenskap i populärkulturen: Tintin och 1950-talets drömmar och farhågor” [“Technology and Science in Popular Culture: Tintin and the Dreams and Fears of the 1950’s”], in Per Gyberg & Jonas Hallström (eds.), Världens gång – Om samspelet mellan teknik, människa och samhälle (Lund: Studentlitteratur, 2009).

Michael Godhe & Martin Kylhammar, ”Förord” [”Preface”], in Kylhammar & Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Michael Godhe, ”Vem blir rymdhavets Columbus? Utopiska föreställningar i rymdprojektet under 1950-talet” [“Who Will Become the Columbus of Outer Space? Utopian Beliefs in the Space Project During the 1950’s”], in Kylhammar & Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Michael Godhe, ”Att iscensätta det moderna: Stockholmsskildraren Claës Lundin som vetenskapsjournalist” [“Staging Modernity: The Stockholm Narrator Claës Lundin as Science Journalist”], in Anders Ekström (ed.), Den mediala vetenskapen [The Medial Science] (Hedemora: Nya Doxa, 2004).

Michael Godhe, Morgondagens experter: Tekniken, ungdomen och framsteget i populärvetenskap och science fiction i Sverige under det långa 1950-talet [Tomorrow’s Experts: Technology, Youth, and Progress in Popular Science and Science Fiction in Sweden During the 1950’s] (PhD. Thesis; Linköping; Stockholm: Carlssons, 2003).

Michael Godhe, ”Science fiction-berättelsen som utvecklingsroman: Om olika framtidsförhållningar i science fiction och populärvetenskap under 1950-talet”, in Sam Inkinen, Henrik Bruun & Fredrik Lindberg (eds.), Framtiden i nuet: Om konsten att möta det okända (Helsingfors: Söderström, 2003).

Michael Godhe, ”Science fiction–kertomus kehitysromaanina: Erilaiset tulevaisuuskuvat 1950-luvun science fictionissa ja populaaritieteessä”, in Sam Inkinen, Henrik Bruun & Fredrik Lindberg (eds.), Tulevaisuus.nyt: Riskiyhteiskunnan haasteet ja mahdollisuudet (Helsingfors: Finn Lectura, 2002).

Michael Godhe & Elin Bommenel [Frykman], ”Tintin, tekniken och politiken” [”Tintin, Technology, and Politics”], in Tvärsnitt, 2000:4. Revised version in Tintinsällskapets årsbok spring 2010.

Editorship

Michael Godhe, Elisabeth Oakes & Essi Varis (red.), ”Time and History: Specific 2021” (special issue), in Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2022:2.

Daniel Bodén & Michael Godhe (red.), AI, robotar och föreställningar om morgondagens arbetsliv [AI, Robots and Notions of Tomorrow’s Working Life] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2020).

Michael Godhe & Luke Goode (eds.), Critical Future Studies, Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2018:2.

Staffan Bergwik, Michael Godhe, Anders Houltz & Magnus Rodell (eds.), Svensk snillrikhet? Nationella föreställningar om entreprenörer och teknisk begåvning 1800-2000 [Swedish Ingenuity? National Conceptions About Entrepreneurs and Technical Skill 1800-2000] (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014).

Michael Godhe & Jonas Ramsten (eds.), Möjliga världar: Tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction [Possible Worlds: Technology, Science and Science Fiction] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2010).

Martin Kylhammar & Michael Godhe (eds.), Frigörare? Moderna svenska samhällsdrömmar [Liberators? Modern Swedish Societal Dreams] (Stockholm: Carlssons, 2005).

Popular works

Michael Godhe, ”Mars som drömlaboratorium för en multiplanetär framtid”, in Ikaros: Tidskrift om människan och vetenskapen, 2023:2.

Michael Godhe, ”Science fiction som framtidsoffentlighet” [”Science Fiction as a Futural Public Sphere”], in Isak Hammar & Jenny Larsson (red.), Humtank 2014-2019: Humanistiska dimensioner. Blogginlägg i urval (Lund: Humtank, 2019).

Michael Godhe, ”Morris utopi som ett tankeexperiment” [”William Morrs’s Utopia as a Thought Experiment”], in Next: Utopia (Norrköping: Norrköpings konstmuseum, 2016).

Helene Ehriander & Michel Godhe, ”Rymdäventyr i barn- och ungdomslitteraturen” [”Space Adventures in Children’s and Youth Literature”], in Cornelius Holtorf (ed.), Rymden och människan: Rymdforskning i humaniora, konst och samhällsvetenskap (Kalmar & Växjö: Linneuniversitet, 2015).

Michael Godhe, ”Allan Kämpe och drömmen om rymden” [”Allan Kämpe and the Dream of Space”], in Daedalus 2007.

Michael Godhe, Drömmen om rymden: Till månen och Mars [The Dream of Space: To the Moon and Mars] (Stockholm: LL-förlaget, 2004).

Michael Godhe, ”Ufon som ångestdämpare” [”UFO’s as Tranquilizers”], in Forskning & Framsteg, 2004:1.

Michael Godhe, ”Rymden som metafor för framtidens utopier” [”Space as a Metaphor for the Utopias in the Future”], in Framtider, 2001:2.

Essays and reviews

See DIVA for a full list

Academic merits

Academic background

Associate professor in Culture and Media. Department of Culture and society, Linköping University 2020.
Senior lecturer in Culture and Media.
Masters degree in History of ideas and Intellectual history, Uppsala University 1997.
PhD. tema Technical and Social change, Linköping University 2003.

Teaching

The Bachelor Program Kultur, samhälle och mediegestaltning, KSM.

Critical Future Studies, CFS

The Critical Future Studies (CFS) network brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars with a shared interest the future and, in particular, how potential futures are imagined, represented or discussed.

CFS draws on perspectives from various disciplines including sociology, political studies, intellectual history, cultural history, media and cultural studies, utopian studies, science fiction studies, science and technology studies, and philosophy. CFS also engages with discourses and ideas from the natural sciences (including popular science), computing and economics.

CFS, as we conceive it, also values and promotes vigorous, imaginative and inclusive debate about the future. We seek to explore both the possibilities of and obstacles to a futural public sphere capable of challenging fatalism and an all-too prevalent cynicism about our capacity to imagine alternative futures in the face of contemporary crisis and precarity. CFS embraces diverse perspectives and, taken as a whole, does not promote any one particular vision of the future. It is best understood as a programme of engaged and open-ended social critique underpinned by rigorous research and debate.

Invitation to the Critical Future Studies Network

The Critical Future Studies Network (PDF, 110,0 kB)

Organisation

Division of Culture, Society, Design and Media (KSFM)

The division conducts problem-oriented cultural science research and teaching at the intersection of the humanities and social sciences.

Department of Culture and Society (IKOS)

At the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), social sciences and the humanities gather in environments where research and education work together.

Groups of students at tables in Studenthuset

Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FILFAK)

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences provides education and research in humanities, social- and behavioral sciences, commercial law, art disciplines and thematic science.