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.

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

Research centre

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: Graham Minenor-Matheson

Other open lecture and seminar series at Tema T

Fellowship programme

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.

View of Linköping city

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

News

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.

En kvinna som går längs en grusväg i skogen.

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

In her interdisciplinary book, Boel Berner traces how researchers spent more than a century trying to understand the deadly disease pellagra. She has now been awarded the Letterstedt Author’s Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

En kvinna står framför en sten.

What happens when social media replaces health care?

More and more women are choosing Instagram and Tiktok over doctors and local health centres for advice on health issues.  What happens when?

Publications

Latest publications

2025

Dick Magnusson, Kristina Trygg, Ida Grundel, Sabrina Fredin (2025) We Can Build a New Tomorrow - Competencies for Transformative Spatial Planning in Swedish Municipalities European Journal of Spatial Development, Vol. 22, p. 148-177 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Maria Eidenskog, Wiktoria Glad, Katerina Vrotsou (2025) Choreographing low energy cooperative homes in Sweden: space-time activities and constraints Housing and Society, p. 1-24 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Sara Löwgren (2025) Bilden av landsbygden de senaste 50 åren Sociologisk forskning, Vol. 62, p. 367-390 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Iason Sioutis, Vangelis Angelakis, Anna Antonakopoulou, Vasileios Sourlas, Ida Grundel, Tina Neset, Angelos Amditis (2025) A Methodology for Designing Sustainable Urban Mobility Interventions Towards Climate Neutral Cities CLIMATE CRISIS AND RESILIENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, CSUM2024, VOL II, p. 227-237 (Conference paper) Continue to DOI
Boel Berner (2025) Technology The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society (Article, review/survey) Continue to DOI
Tuukka Lehtiniemi, Maiju Tanninen, David Moats, Elisa Elhadj, Maria Eidenskog, Veera Koskinen, Dorthe Brogård Kristensen, Perle Møhl, Ajda Pretnar Žagar, Minna Ruckenstein, Julia Velkova (2025) REAL - Reimagining algorithmic futures: 63 cards for thinking differently about algorithmic systems
Linus Ekman Burgman (2025) Who is Harald?: - a positive relational ontology Stories of transforming cities, stories from the bike - a festschrift for Harald Rohracher, p. 47-55 (Chapter in book)
Kristina Trygg, Ida Grundel (2025) Harald as an agent of change Stories of transforming cities, stories from the bike - a festschrift for Harald Rohracher, p. 29-38 (Chapter in book)

Contact & staff

Staff

Staff

Visit us in Tema Building, Campus Valla

Postal adress
Linköping University, Department of Thematic Studies/Technology and Social Change, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden

About the Department of Thematic Studies