Adrienne Sörbom
Biographic Data
| ID | 106852 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Adrienne Sörbom |
| GIVEN NAMES | Adrienne |
| FAMILY NAME | Sörbom |
| SIGNATURE | SÖRBOM A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Södertörn University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6797-3892 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
(De)Polarization Entrepreneurs? Think Tanks and Pernicious Polarization in Central Europe
Pernicious polarization is an antagonistic Us versus Them division, where the other group is perceived as an existential threat. It is often intertwined with the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. Although studies on polarization abound, there are still some blind spots to be filled. Our contribution is the focus on the mesolevel of civil society and the theoretical development of (de)polarization mechanisms at this level. Empirically,…
Policy knowledge production in de-democratizing contexts
In an era of post-truth, the legitimacy of policy knowledge is questioned, especially in de-democratizing contexts where governments purposefully engage in post-truth politics to support their regimes. In such contexts, technocratic evidence-based policymaking is undermined, and the role played by policy advice changes. Recognizing the significance of political contextual factors that might differ across de-democratizing contexts, we analyzed how…
Governing anticipation: Unesco making humankind futures literate
Purpose This paper explores practices of foresight within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program Futures Literacy, as a form of transnational governmentality–founded on the interests of “using the future” by “emancipating” the minds of humanity. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on ethnographic material gathered over five years within the industry of futures consultancy, including UNESCO an…
Social capital and polarization: The case of Polish think tanks
In this article, we study polarization within civil society. While earlier research on civil society has shown that civil society organizations can be divisive, research on polarization has only paid scant attention to the role of civil society. We bring these two aspects of the literature together to develop a framework for analyzing social capital in a polarized context. The framework helps identify practices that organizations may engage in wh…
Policy professionals in civil society organizations: Organizational hypocrisy and the myth of member centrality
Drawing on 24 interviews with policy professionals in 10 Swedish member-based civil society organizations (CSOs), and observations of policy professionals in three of these, we investigate CSOs from the perspective of their policy teams. This paper theoretically addresses how policy professionals relate to the members in whose name they work. This article extends the literature on civil society professionalization by conceptualizing the conflicts…
Discreet Diplomacy: Practices of Secrecy in Transnational Think Tanks
This article aims to expand both the analytical gaze of diplomacy studies and anthropological interests in the field of transnational think tanks, advocacy and policy advice. Drawing on ethnographic data from three such organisations, it investigates secrecy practices, focussing on how such practices amount to discreet diplomatic efforts. In a variety of ways, secrecy is utilised as a resource in foreign relations and diplomacy; it is a means to …
Future Fears: Anticipation and the geopolitics of emotion in the Future Industry
This paper is based on ethnographic work in organization that form part of what we term the Future Industry - such as think tanks, consultancies and governmental bodies - involved in the charting, description and analysis of geopolitical future scenarios. That is to say, an industry explicitly aiming for organizing the future. This type of activity has for centuries generally been left to politics, executed foremost by governments and political p…
Proximity and distance: Think tanks handling the independence paradox
The credibility of think tanks is grounded in their image as independent experts. In order to gain authority to act, think tanks must be seen as independent, but in order to exert influence and gain funding, think tanks are forced to compromise this independent image. We focus on how think tanks handle this independence paradox. How do think tanks use different resources to construct an independent image? The aim of the article is conceptual, as …
Discretionary Governance: Selection, Secrecy, and Status within the World Economic Forum
Built on the exclusive funding of 1,000 large transnational corporations, the World Economic Forum is a not-for-profit Swiss foundation, aiming to shape the direction of globalization. Its events are characterized by low degrees of formality and transparency. Research on what this organization does is scarce. This article suggests the term discretionary governance to capture the precarious, yet existing, social order that the organization shapes.…
His Master's Voice? Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Business and the World Economic Forum
Commonly, the relationship between corporations and non-for profit organizations, such as foundations, think tanks and private research institutes, is analyzed in terms suggesting that when acting as funders corporations set the frames for the non-for profit organization who, in turn, not only mimics but also serves as to broadcast the views of its funder. Drawing on the case of the Swizz based foundation/think tank World Economic Forum and its c…
Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Market Agendas
In Discreet Power, Christina Garsten and Adrienne Sorbom undertake an ethnographic study of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Accessing one of the primary agenda-setting organizations of our day, the
Från snack till organiserade nätverk: Om tankesmedjors arbete för att värva andra för sina idéer
From chatter to organized networks. How think tanks work to enrol othersThink tanks, both inside and outside the Swedish context, appear as something of a conundrum. Definitions and conceptual understandings of what think tanks actually do have not been adequately developed. One of the most urgent and unanswered questions regards how we understand the ability of think tanks to get other actors in the political landscape to use their ideas? Drawin…
Power, Policy and Profit: Corporate Engagement in Politics and Governance
Power, Policy and Profit: Corporate Engagement in Politics and Governance investigates the manifold ways in which corporate actors attempt to influence political activities in the broad sense. Hist
Magical formulae for market futures: Tales from the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos
Markets are often portrayed as being organized by way of rationalized knowledge, objective reasoning, and the fluctuations of demand and supply. In parallel, and often mixed with this modality of knowledge, magical beliefs and practices are prevalent. Business leaders, management consultants, and financial advisors are often savvy in the art of creatively blending the 'objective facts' of markets with magical formulae, rites, and imaginaries of t…
After a Cycle of Contention: Post-Gothenburg Strategies of Left-Libertarian Activists in Sweden
This article considers the strategic choices that radical activists face when a cycle of contention ends. It investigates the reorientation of the autonomous anarchists or left-libertarian activist milieu in Sweden after the riots at the Gothenburg summit in 2001, which ended a cycle of anti-globalization protests in Sweden. The article identifies five strategies by which this activist milieu attempted to reconstruct collective agency, build a ne…
Individualization, Life Politics, and the Reformulation of Social Critique: An Analysis of the Global Justice Movement
Taking the contemporary political activism of 'the Global Justice Movement' as an illustrative case, this article scrutinizes some influential theoretical ideas about the consequences of 'individualization' for collective political action. Quite often, this process is seen as implying a new politics of individual life style - 'life politics' - which is associated with new social movements and claimed to have gained importance since the 1960s, on …
Proximity and distance: Think tanks handling the independence paradox
The credibility of think tanks is grounded in their image as independent experts. In order to gain authority to act, think tanks must be seen as independent, but in order to exert influence and gain funding, think tanks are forced to compromise this independent image. We focus on how think tanks handle this independence paradox. How do think tanks use different resources to construct an independent image? The aim of the article is conceptual, as …
Policy knowledge production in de-democratizing contexts
In an era of post-truth, the legitimacy of policy knowledge is questioned, especially in de-democratizing contexts where governments purposefully engage in post-truth politics to support their regimes. In such contexts, technocratic evidence-based policymaking is undermined, and the role played by policy advice changes. Recognizing the significance of political contextual factors that might differ across de-democratizing contexts, we analyzed how…
Social capital and polarization: The case of Polish think tanks
In this article, we study polarization within civil society. While earlier research on civil society has shown that civil society organizations can be divisive, research on polarization has only paid scant attention to the role of civil society. We bring these two aspects of the literature together to develop a framework for analyzing social capital in a polarized context. The framework helps identify practices that organizations may engage in wh…
After a Cycle of Contention: Post-Gothenburg Strategies of Left-Libertarian Activists in Sweden
This article considers the strategic choices that radical activists face when a cycle of contention ends. It investigates the reorientation of the autonomous anarchists or left-libertarian activist milieu in Sweden after the riots at the Gothenburg summit in 2001, which ended a cycle of anti-globalization protests in Sweden. The article identifies five strategies by which this activist milieu attempted to reconstruct collective agency, build a ne…
Individualization, Life Politics, and the Reformulation of Social Critique: An Analysis of the Global Justice Movement
Taking the contemporary political activism of 'the Global Justice Movement' as an illustrative case, this article scrutinizes some influential theoretical ideas about the consequences of 'individualization' for collective political action. Quite often, this process is seen as implying a new politics of individual life style - 'life politics' - which is associated with new social movements and claimed to have gained importance since the 1960s, on …
(De)Polarization Entrepreneurs? Think Tanks and Pernicious Polarization in Central Europe
Pernicious polarization is an antagonistic Us versus Them division, where the other group is perceived as an existential threat. It is often intertwined with the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. Although studies on polarization abound, there are still some blind spots to be filled. Our contribution is the focus on the mesolevel of civil society and the theoretical development of (de)polarization mechanisms at this level. Empirically,…
Från snack till organiserade nätverk: Om tankesmedjors arbete för att värva andra för sina idéer
From chatter to organized networks. How think tanks work to enrol othersThink tanks, both inside and outside the Swedish context, appear as something of a conundrum. Definitions and conceptual understandings of what think tanks actually do have not been adequately developed. One of the most urgent and unanswered questions regards how we understand the ability of think tanks to get other actors in the political landscape to use their ideas? Drawin…
Future Fears: Anticipation and the geopolitics of emotion in the Future Industry
This paper is based on ethnographic work in organization that form part of what we term the Future Industry - such as think tanks, consultancies and governmental bodies - involved in the charting, description and analysis of geopolitical future scenarios. That is to say, an industry explicitly aiming for organizing the future. This type of activity has for centuries generally been left to politics, executed foremost by governments and political p…
Discretionary Governance: Selection, Secrecy, and Status within the World Economic Forum
Built on the exclusive funding of 1,000 large transnational corporations, the World Economic Forum is a not-for-profit Swiss foundation, aiming to shape the direction of globalization. Its events are characterized by low degrees of formality and transparency. Research on what this organization does is scarce. This article suggests the term discretionary governance to capture the precarious, yet existing, social order that the organization shapes.…
Magical formulae for market futures: Tales from the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos
Markets are often portrayed as being organized by way of rationalized knowledge, objective reasoning, and the fluctuations of demand and supply. In parallel, and often mixed with this modality of knowledge, magical beliefs and practices are prevalent. Business leaders, management consultants, and financial advisors are often savvy in the art of creatively blending the 'objective facts' of markets with magical formulae, rites, and imaginaries of t…
Individualization, Life Politics, and the Reformulation of Social Critique: An Analysis of the Global Justice Movement
Taking the contemporary political activism of 'the Global Justice Movement' as an illustrative case, this article scrutinizes some influential theoretical ideas about the consequences of 'individualization' for collective political action. Quite often, this process is seen as implying a new politics of individual life style - 'life politics' - which is associated with new social movements and claimed to have gained importance since the 1960s, on …
After a Cycle of Contention: Post-Gothenburg Strategies of Left-Libertarian Activists in Sweden
This article considers the strategic choices that radical activists face when a cycle of contention ends. It investigates the reorientation of the autonomous anarchists or left-libertarian activist milieu in Sweden after the riots at the Gothenburg summit in 2001, which ended a cycle of anti-globalization protests in Sweden. The article identifies five strategies by which this activist milieu attempted to reconstruct collective agency, build a ne…
Magical formulae for market futures: Tales from the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos
Markets are often portrayed as being organized by way of rationalized knowledge, objective reasoning, and the fluctuations of demand and supply. In parallel, and often mixed with this modality of knowledge, magical beliefs and practices are prevalent. Business leaders, management consultants, and financial advisors are often savvy in the art of creatively blending the 'objective facts' of markets with magical formulae, rites, and imaginaries of t…
Power, Policy and Profit: Corporate Engagement in Politics and Governance
Power, Policy and Profit: Corporate Engagement in Politics and Governance investigates the manifold ways in which corporate actors attempt to influence political activities in the broad sense. Hist
Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Market Agendas
In Discreet Power, Christina Garsten and Adrienne Sorbom undertake an ethnographic study of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Accessing one of the primary agenda-setting organizations of our day, the
Från snack till organiserade nätverk: Om tankesmedjors arbete för att värva andra för sina idéer
From chatter to organized networks. How think tanks work to enrol othersThink tanks, both inside and outside the Swedish context, appear as something of a conundrum. Definitions and conceptual understandings of what think tanks actually do have not been adequately developed. One of the most urgent and unanswered questions regards how we understand the ability of think tanks to get other actors in the political landscape to use their ideas? Drawin…
His Master's Voice? Conceptualizing the Relationship Between Business and the World Economic Forum
Commonly, the relationship between corporations and non-for profit organizations, such as foundations, think tanks and private research institutes, is analyzed in terms suggesting that when acting as funders corporations set the frames for the non-for profit organization who, in turn, not only mimics but also serves as to broadcast the views of its funder. Drawing on the case of the Swizz based foundation/think tank World Economic Forum and its c…
Proximity and distance: Think tanks handling the independence paradox
The credibility of think tanks is grounded in their image as independent experts. In order to gain authority to act, think tanks must be seen as independent, but in order to exert influence and gain funding, think tanks are forced to compromise this independent image. We focus on how think tanks handle this independence paradox. How do think tanks use different resources to construct an independent image? The aim of the article is conceptual, as …
Discretionary Governance: Selection, Secrecy, and Status within the World Economic Forum
Built on the exclusive funding of 1,000 large transnational corporations, the World Economic Forum is a not-for-profit Swiss foundation, aiming to shape the direction of globalization. Its events are characterized by low degrees of formality and transparency. Research on what this organization does is scarce. This article suggests the term discretionary governance to capture the precarious, yet existing, social order that the organization shapes.…
Future Fears: Anticipation and the geopolitics of emotion in the Future Industry
This paper is based on ethnographic work in organization that form part of what we term the Future Industry - such as think tanks, consultancies and governmental bodies - involved in the charting, description and analysis of geopolitical future scenarios. That is to say, an industry explicitly aiming for organizing the future. This type of activity has for centuries generally been left to politics, executed foremost by governments and political p…
Governing anticipation: Unesco making humankind futures literate
Purpose This paper explores practices of foresight within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program Futures Literacy, as a form of transnational governmentality–founded on the interests of “using the future” by “emancipating” the minds of humanity. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on ethnographic material gathered over five years within the industry of futures consultancy, including UNESCO an…
Social capital and polarization: The case of Polish think tanks
In this article, we study polarization within civil society. While earlier research on civil society has shown that civil society organizations can be divisive, research on polarization has only paid scant attention to the role of civil society. We bring these two aspects of the literature together to develop a framework for analyzing social capital in a polarized context. The framework helps identify practices that organizations may engage in wh…
Policy professionals in civil society organizations: Organizational hypocrisy and the myth of member centrality
Drawing on 24 interviews with policy professionals in 10 Swedish member-based civil society organizations (CSOs), and observations of policy professionals in three of these, we investigate CSOs from the perspective of their policy teams. This paper theoretically addresses how policy professionals relate to the members in whose name they work. This article extends the literature on civil society professionalization by conceptualizing the conflicts…
Discreet Diplomacy: Practices of Secrecy in Transnational Think Tanks
This article aims to expand both the analytical gaze of diplomacy studies and anthropological interests in the field of transnational think tanks, advocacy and policy advice. Drawing on ethnographic data from three such organisations, it investigates secrecy practices, focussing on how such practices amount to discreet diplomatic efforts. In a variety of ways, secrecy is utilised as a resource in foreign relations and diplomacy; it is a means to …
(De)Polarization Entrepreneurs? Think Tanks and Pernicious Polarization in Central Europe
Pernicious polarization is an antagonistic Us versus Them division, where the other group is perceived as an existential threat. It is often intertwined with the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. Although studies on polarization abound, there are still some blind spots to be filled. Our contribution is the focus on the mesolevel of civil society and the theoretical development of (de)polarization mechanisms at this level. Empirically,…
Policy knowledge production in de-democratizing contexts
In an era of post-truth, the legitimacy of policy knowledge is questioned, especially in de-democratizing contexts where governments purposefully engage in post-truth politics to support their regimes. In such contexts, technocratic evidence-based policymaking is undermined, and the role played by policy advice changes. Recognizing the significance of political contextual factors that might differ across de-democratizing contexts, we analyzed how…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Economics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies (5 works) · Computer Science (3 works)