Technology and Social Change (TEMAT)

Tema T - Technology and Social Change - is a nationally and internationally leading environment for research and education, where social science, humanities and interdisciplinary perspectives on technology, science, medicine and social change are at the center.

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Research and teaching focus on how people create and use technology, and how technological change is interwoven with knowledge, policy, practice and ethics.

Research at Tema T – Technology and Social Change is divided into two research programmes. P6: Bodies, Knowledge, Subjectivities researches topics of agency, care, embodiment, knowledge practices, normativities, and subjectivities in science, medicine and other technological practices. These topics are examined from social, cultural, philosophical, and ethical perspectives, contributing to feminist theory, medical humanities, and science, technology and society studies.

STRIPE gathers researchers with an interest in the political and environmental dimensions of infrastructures such as energy, transport and waste.

In addition to our research, Tema T offers PhD education in Technology and Social Change. We offer a bachelor programme in Urban and Regional Planning (in Swedish) as well as an international Master’s programme in Strategic Urban and Regional Planning, and teach courses in theory of science, history of technology, and in medical humanities. Employees at Tema T also teach in various other programmes at all faculties.

Tema T is host for the Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics (CMHB); a cross-faculty centre at LiU that aims to strengthen and develop research, teaching, and collaboration with society within the areas of medical humanities and bioethics.

Research programmes

A group of fingerprints that are glowing in the dark.

P6: Body, Knowledge, Subjectivity

A research collective that explores social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of technology in practices. We are active in the fields of knowledge production and movement, feminist theory, and medical humanities.

A solar panel on top of a roof in the snow.

STRIPE

STRIPE stands for Socio-technical research of infrastructures, politics and the environment. It gathers researchers with an interest in the political and environmental dimensions of infrastructures such as energy, transport and waste.

Knowledge and Politics (KOP)

How can we navigate knowledge and power in today’s post-truth society? The Knowledge and Politics (KOP) Salon invites scholars and students to explore how media, politics, and plural knowledges shape our world. Join us as we challenge assumptions.

Research centre

Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics

We gather, strengthen, and develop research, teaching, and collaboration with the society around us, within the areas of medical humanities and bioethics.

Calendar and activities

Higher seminar series

The Higher Seminar is a series of guest lectures of the Department of Thematic Studies, Technology and Social Change where invited speakers present their own research. Previous speakers have delivered lectures about environmental history and the politics of nuclear power in Ukraine, embodiment and technicity in magnetic resonance imaging, the constitution of households as energy consumers in France, the role of borders in energy transitions, the imagination, negotiation and construction of satellite communications infrastructure during the Cold War, temporal (non)imaginaries in precision medicine and the feasibility of being “non-nuclear” in an increasingly nuclear world.

Information about upcoming seminars will follow as event pages above.

Contact: Claudia Strambo

Other open lecture and seminar series at Tema T

Illustration showing energy saving, sustainable resources, big city, environmental conservation, sustainable energy.

International Lecture Series: Planning in transition

New concepts and challenges for sustainable urban and regional change. This public lecture series engages with contemporary critical challenges in urban and regional development such as climate change, digitalization or social inequality.

Fellowship programme

Tema T Fellowship Programme

Technology and Social Change's visiting fellowship programme provides guest researchers the opportunity to spend between one–two months at the vibrant interdisciplinary research environment of our department.

Education

We teach within the fields of urban and regional planning, various perspectives on technology, science, and medicine, as well as philosophy of science and methodology. Our focus is on broadening perspectives within the areas we teach.

Our main teaching responsibilities are within the Bachelor's Programme in Urban and Regional Planning and the international Master's Programme in Strategic Urban and Regional Planning. These programmes combine theoretical perspectives on planning with practical applications, with a particular focus on how different aspects of sustainability and other societal challenges can be addressed in urban and regional development.

We are also responsible for courses in philosophy of science and methodology within the teacher education programme. In collaboration with the Centre for Technology, Science and Society (CMTS), we offer a course in the history of technology for students at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, as well as courses on urban and regional planning and the societal aspects of technological development for students in the Bachelor's Programme in Logistics Management. Additionally, Tema T collaborates with Tema Environmental Change on several courses within the Master’s Programme Science for Sustainable Development.

Staff at Tema T also contribute to various other programmes across the faculties of Arts and Sciences, Educational Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Medicine and Health Sciences.

Strategic Urban and Regional Planning, Master's Programme, 120 credits

Strategic urban and regional planning is one of the most powerful local instruments to (re)shape long-term urban and regional development and create sustainable cities and regions of tomorrow.

PhD Education

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PhD Programme in Technology and Social Change

Technology and Social Change is a nationally and internationally leading environment for research and education, where social science, humanities and interdisciplinary perspectives on technology, science, medicine and social change are at the center.

News

Two women sitting at a desk talking to each other.

Two scholarships for early career historians announced at the Department of Thematic Studies

Thanks to a donation, two early career researchers will have the opportunity to devote three years to historical research at the Department of Thematic Studies. Applications are now open.

En kvinna tittar på ett konstverk som hänger på en vägg.

The artist Birthe Jørgensen in collaboration with researchers from Tema

How can artistic practice contribute to research on a just transition? This is what the artist Birthe Jørgensen will explore together with researchers at Linköping University.

A man is standing outdoors on a bridge, speaking to several people.

Tomorrow’s urban planners solve real challenges

Students on master’s programme in Strategic Urban and Regional Planning do more than study how cities develop. They step straight into reality. By working on real cases in Norrköping, their ideas could help shape the city’s future.

Publications

Complete list of publications

To the complete list of publications for Technology and Social Change in DiVA

Latest publications

2026

Chunjiang Li, Kajsa Ellegård, Yanwei Chai, Eva Thulin (2026)

Studying Physical-Virtual Hybridisation in Everyday Life Through the Time-Geographic Project Concept Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tesg.70110

Simon Haikola, Natalia Buier (Editorship) (2026)

The Political Economies of High-Speed Rail: A global view (Collection (editor))

https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003588207

Simon Haikola (2026)

Sweden: An uncomfortable compromise: The unravelling of Swedish high-speed rail as an ecological-modernity vision for transport The Political Economies of High-Speed Rail: A global view, p. 205-223 (Chapter in book)

https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003588207-15

Simon Haikola, Natalia Buier (2026)

Introduction: Political economies of high-speed rail The Political Economies of High-Speed Rail: A global view, p. 1-16 (Chapter in book)

https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003588207-1

Md Fahim Sikder, Ericka Johnson, Fredrik Heintz (2026)

StreamFair: Online Fair Adaptation Under Temporal Intersectional Drift AI Transparency Journal, Vol. 1, p. 168-176 (Article in journal)

Behnaz Kavoosighafi, Maria Eidenskog, Wiktoria Glad, Katerina Vrotsou (2026)

An empirical benchmark of deep time-series models for smart meter energy forecasting Energy and AI, Vol. 25, p. 1-12, Article 100870 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.egyai.2026.100870

Flora Mary Bartlett (2026)

Reimagining Swedish Forests: moving beyond tbe nature-culture divide On the Edge of Change: Nordic Energy Transitions Disrupted, p. 275-299 (Chapter in book)

Linus Ekman Burgman (2026)

Dirtiness in the Swedish sewage sludge debate Urban Matters (Article in journal)

Contact & staff

Management team

Head of Division

Head of Unit

Head of Unit

Head of unit

Administration and Management Support

Administrator

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Management Support

Technology and Social Change (TEMAT)

Research programmes

P6: Body, Knowledge, Subjectivity

STRIPE

Knowledge and Politics (KOP)

Research centre

Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics

Calendar and activities

Higher seminar series

Other open lecture and seminar series at Tema T

International Lecture Series: Planning in transition

Fellowship programme

Tema T Fellowship Programme

Education

Strategic Urban and Regional Planning, Master's Programme, 120 credits

PhD Education

PhD Programme in Technology and Social Change

News

Two scholarships for early career historians announced at the Department of Thematic Studies

The artist Birthe Jørgensen in collaboration with researchers from Tema

Tomorrow’s urban planners solve real challenges

Letterstedt Author’s Prize awarded to Boel Berner for book on medical mystery

What happens when social media replaces health care?

LiU Student’s Thesis Awarded: “Provides Valuable Insights”

Better care of expectant mothers in focus for new research centre

SEK23 million for research in humanities and the social sciences

More than SEK 63 million in Formas research grants

Award winner with an interest in how people solve practical problems

Highly radioactive nuclear waste – how to keep it from oblivion

Reindeer husbandry in the shadow of war – then and now

Diplomatic talks focusing on nuclear waste and climate

Art and science meet at the intersection of nature and nuclear power

A retreat for academic and personal development

How does biogas reach its market?

Post-COVID syndrome made researchers combine different perspectives

The future of women's health in the limelight during scientific salon

New network with a focus on women's health

Lennart Nordenfelt appointed honorary doctorate

Scientific salon about the consequences of the pandemic

SEK 39 million for graduate school on just climate transition

11 new PhD students at Tema in 2022

Collaborations between medicine, social sciences and humanities at Futures Ahead conference

Publications

Complete list of publications

Latest publications

2026

Contact & staff

Management team

Head of Division

Head of Unit

Head of Unit

Head of unit

Administration and Management Support

Administrator

Management Support

Staff

Staff

Visit us in Tema Building, Campus Valla

About the Department of Thematic Studies

Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA)

Work at TEMA