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

Portrait Michael GodhePhoto credit: Michael GodheEver since my time as student in Uppsala during the 1990s I have had an interest in futuristic imagery in speculative fiction, popular science and in political thought. I have written essays on classic utopian writers such as Robert Owen, Edward Bellamy and William Morris, essays and articles on feminist utopian thought, and co-edited two collection of articles dealing with future imaginations in a broad sense. Together with Associate Professor Luke Goode (University of Auckland), I have introduced a new interdisciplinary research field called Critical Future Studies (CFS). Our programmatic article was published in Culture Unbound: Journal for Current Cultural Research, and Goode and I also co-edited an issue of the same journal on the theme of Critical Future Studies. The article and themed issue can be found here:

We have also started a network for Critical Future Studies, CFS. We invite researchers to join - click here to read more (pdf).

Currently I am working on a book about futuristic imagery of spaceflight in Swedish newspapers, 1900-1957. I have also started to develop a project on the question of work in science fiction literature, in light of the computerization of society (automation, robotization, A.I.).

I am also coordinator of research network Science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction.

My teaching at KSM ranges from media history to special courses connected to the theme of Futures Labs, using methods from CFS in order to encourage students interested in questions of the future, in the light of technological development and the most urgent questions of our time.

Publications in selectionShow/Hide content

2021

Essays and reviews - full list in DiVA

2021

Academic meritsShow/Hide content

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, CFSShow/Hide content

We invite researchers to join the network. Read more in the attached PDF.

Full list of publicationsShow/Hide content

Monographies and articles

Michael Godhe, Att föregripa framtiden: Rymdfart i svensk dagspress 1900-1957 [Anticipating the Future: Spaceflight in Swedish Daily Papers 1900-1957], forthcoming 2020.

 

Michael Godhe, “Hopeful Dystopias? Figures of Hope in the Brazilian Science Fiction Series 3%”, i 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”,Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2019:1. [peer review]

 

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”,Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, 2018:1. [peer review]

 

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

 

Luke Goode & Michael Godhe, ”Beyond Capitalist Realism – Why We Need Critical Future Studies”, 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], Linköping Studies in Arts and Science, 271 (diss. 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”], Tvärsnitt, 2000:4. Revised version in Tintinsällskapets årsbok spring 2010.

 

Editorship

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, ”Morris utopi som ett tankeexperiment”, in Next: Utopia (Norrköping: Norrköpings konstmuseum, 2016).

 

Helene Ehriander & Michel Godhe, ”Rymdäventyr i barn- och ungdomslitteraturen”, 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”, i Daedalus 2007.

 

Michael Godhe, Drömmen om rymden: Till månen och Mars (Stockholm: LL-förlaget, 2004).

 

Michael Godhe, ”Ufon som ångestdämpare”, Forskning & Framsteg, 2004:1.

 

Michael Godhe, ”Rymden som metafor för framtidens utopier”, Framtider, 2001:2.

 

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Division of Culture, Society, Design and Media

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

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

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

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