Karl Palmås
Biographic Data
| ID | 349318 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karl Palmås |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karl |
| FAMILY NAME | Palmås |
| SIGNATURE | PALMÅS K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Chalmers University of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7156-8136 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
From visioning to crafting futures? Surveying the expanding literature on future making
This article examines the increased use of the concept of “future making” within futures studies and related disciplines. Specifically, it surveys articles in this journal and charts the extra-futures studies interventions that these contributions cite. In so doing, the article explores the cross-disciplinary roots and stakes of the concept. The text suggests that the recent popularity of future making within Futures signals a new tendency within…
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief and the Future of the West
Regulatory fictions and instruments of imagination: How professionals anticipate future bans on chemicals
This article studies how professionals managing chemicals orient themselves in relation to uncertain regulatory futures. Specifically, it interrogates how these professionals strategically use and evaluate a particular device: A list of substances that are deemed likely to become restricted through the European Union REACH legislation. Adopting Jens Beckert’s program of fictional expectations to describe this phenomenon, the article seeks to exte…
The design-ification of future making: Uncertainty and Divination in Contemporary Business Discourse
Engineering Judgment and Education: An Arendtian Account
This article discusses the meaning of judgment in engineering and engineering education, and it does so by introducing the work of political thinker Hannah Arendt.The argument presents Arendt's non-cognitivist account of judgment as a counterpoint to prevailing conceptions of engineering judgment.Moreover, it suggests that Arendt's unique perspective on what it means to be human in the context of modern technoscience is relevant to the discussion…
Science theater on stage: Review of the play The Right Way, written by Torbjörn Lindberg, produced by Teater Sagohuset (www.sagohuset.nu), 2019-2020
This text reviews a science play that has emerged from a collaboration between performing artists and scientists based in Lund, Sweden. It argues that the play, titled The Right Way, can productively be understood as ‘science metatheater'. Thus, it belongs to a genre which knowingly and self-ironically brings the viewer's attention to the staged nature of the theater performance. As such, science metatheater moves beyond placing ‘science on stage…
Implicit Values in the Recent Carbon Nanotube Debate
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the first examples of nanotechnology, with a history of promising uses and high expectations. This paper uses the recent debate over their future to explore both ethical and value-laden statements which unsettle the notion of CNTs as a value-free nanotechnology and their regulation as purely a technical affair. A point of departure is made with the inclusion of CNTs on the Substitute-It-Now list by the Swedish N…
Is there such a thing as a capitalist eschatology
This short communication presents preliminary notes about how to study the role of eschatology in the contemporary economy, focusing specifically on space-colonizing ambitions of US entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk. It is suggested that the proposed research agenda focuses on three problematics, relating to immediacy, investment, and ideology. As such, the text proposes to study the making of alternative futures by situating imaginaries of humanit…
Legitimation crisis in contemporary technoscientific capitalism
Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, March 2021, Command Paper 403. by UK Cabinet Office
In March 2021, the UK Government presented its “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.” The launch of this 111-page document had been eagerly awaited by the securit
Rethinking the MBA: A Turn to the Field within Business Education
In The Transformation of Corporate Control, Neil Fligstein (1990) charts the rise of what he terms "the finance conception of control" within American business.Prior to this mid-20 th century development, management was framed in terms of sales expansion and product diversification.However, as corporations had grown to the point where an executive could hardly be expected to know the specifics of each product, financial analysis became the primar…
Inauthentically Intense: Coveillance and Consumer Culture among Speedsurfers
This article presents material from a small-scale ethnographic study of a community of windsurfers that use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to monitor and share their performance online. Following recent debates within Surveillance Studies, these practices are categorised as a form of coveillance. The argument explores the subjectivity produced by the introduction of GPS technology and social media usage in the context of windsurfers. …
Winning the hearts and minds of farmers: Institutionalized innovation diffusion in sri lanka
Classical diffusion research, both in geography and sociology, received considerable criticism in the 1970s and 1980s, but after that the diffusion debate has faded away. At the same time, one of the earliest contributors to diffusion research, Gabriel Tarde, is now attracting the attention of both geographers and sociologists. Drawing on earlier experiences with agricultural extension and the Green Revolution, this Tarde‐inspired article aims to…
The production of chemical worlds: Territory and field science in global agribusiness
This article explores how the marketing practices of an agrichemical corporation can be understood in relation to particular landscapes and soils. Surveying material from a three-year ethnography of farming practices in Sri Lanka, the text interrogates how paddy fields are rendered expressive for farmers. This 'territorialisation', the article suggests, is not to be understood as an effort to claim authority over a geographical space, but rather …
Predicting what you'll do tomorrow: Panspectric surveillance and the contemporary corporation
In an economy of rapidly mutating consumer preferences, new forms of surveillance have been developed within contemporary business. Increasingly, so-called “panspectric” techniques of predicting consumption choices, and tracking the shifting customer desires, are proving crucial for corporations trying to compete on the market place. Using the Deleuzian concepts of “assemblage” and “societies of control” as a point of departure, this paper explor…
Predicting what you'll do tomorrow: Panspectric surveillance and the contemporary corporation
In an economy of rapidly mutating consumer preferences, new forms of surveillance have been developed within contemporary business. Increasingly, so-called “panspectric” techniques of predicting consumption choices, and tracking the shifting customer desires, are proving crucial for corporations trying to compete on the market place. Using the Deleuzian concepts of “assemblage” and “societies of control” as a point of departure, this paper explor…
Legitimation crisis in contemporary technoscientific capitalism
Inauthentically Intense: Coveillance and Consumer Culture among Speedsurfers
This article presents material from a small-scale ethnographic study of a community of windsurfers that use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to monitor and share their performance online. Following recent debates within Surveillance Studies, these practices are categorised as a form of coveillance. The argument explores the subjectivity produced by the introduction of GPS technology and social media usage in the context of windsurfers. …
The production of chemical worlds: Territory and field science in global agribusiness
This article explores how the marketing practices of an agrichemical corporation can be understood in relation to particular landscapes and soils. Surveying material from a three-year ethnography of farming practices in Sri Lanka, the text interrogates how paddy fields are rendered expressive for farmers. This 'territorialisation', the article suggests, is not to be understood as an effort to claim authority over a geographical space, but rather …
Is there such a thing as a capitalist eschatology
This short communication presents preliminary notes about how to study the role of eschatology in the contemporary economy, focusing specifically on space-colonizing ambitions of US entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk. It is suggested that the proposed research agenda focuses on three problematics, relating to immediacy, investment, and ideology. As such, the text proposes to study the making of alternative futures by situating imaginaries of humanit…
Engineering Judgment and Education: An Arendtian Account
This article discusses the meaning of judgment in engineering and engineering education, and it does so by introducing the work of political thinker Hannah Arendt.The argument presents Arendt's non-cognitivist account of judgment as a counterpoint to prevailing conceptions of engineering judgment.Moreover, it suggests that Arendt's unique perspective on what it means to be human in the context of modern technoscience is relevant to the discussion…
Predicting what you'll do tomorrow: Panspectric surveillance and the contemporary corporation
In an economy of rapidly mutating consumer preferences, new forms of surveillance have been developed within contemporary business. Increasingly, so-called “panspectric” techniques of predicting consumption choices, and tracking the shifting customer desires, are proving crucial for corporations trying to compete on the market place. Using the Deleuzian concepts of “assemblage” and “societies of control” as a point of departure, this paper explor…
Winning the hearts and minds of farmers: Institutionalized innovation diffusion in sri lanka
Classical diffusion research, both in geography and sociology, received considerable criticism in the 1970s and 1980s, but after that the diffusion debate has faded away. At the same time, one of the earliest contributors to diffusion research, Gabriel Tarde, is now attracting the attention of both geographers and sociologists. Drawing on earlier experiences with agricultural extension and the Green Revolution, this Tarde‐inspired article aims to…
The production of chemical worlds: Territory and field science in global agribusiness
This article explores how the marketing practices of an agrichemical corporation can be understood in relation to particular landscapes and soils. Surveying material from a three-year ethnography of farming practices in Sri Lanka, the text interrogates how paddy fields are rendered expressive for farmers. This 'territorialisation', the article suggests, is not to be understood as an effort to claim authority over a geographical space, but rather …
Inauthentically Intense: Coveillance and Consumer Culture among Speedsurfers
This article presents material from a small-scale ethnographic study of a community of windsurfers that use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to monitor and share their performance online. Following recent debates within Surveillance Studies, these practices are categorised as a form of coveillance. The argument explores the subjectivity produced by the introduction of GPS technology and social media usage in the context of windsurfers. …
Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, March 2021, Command Paper 403. by UK Cabinet Office
In March 2021, the UK Government presented its “Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.” The launch of this 111-page document had been eagerly awaited by the securit
Rethinking the MBA: A Turn to the Field within Business Education
In The Transformation of Corporate Control, Neil Fligstein (1990) charts the rise of what he terms "the finance conception of control" within American business.Prior to this mid-20 th century development, management was framed in terms of sales expansion and product diversification.However, as corporations had grown to the point where an executive could hardly be expected to know the specifics of each product, financial analysis became the primar…
Is there such a thing as a capitalist eschatology
This short communication presents preliminary notes about how to study the role of eschatology in the contemporary economy, focusing specifically on space-colonizing ambitions of US entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk. It is suggested that the proposed research agenda focuses on three problematics, relating to immediacy, investment, and ideology. As such, the text proposes to study the making of alternative futures by situating imaginaries of humanit…
Legitimation crisis in contemporary technoscientific capitalism
Implicit Values in the Recent Carbon Nanotube Debate
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the first examples of nanotechnology, with a history of promising uses and high expectations. This paper uses the recent debate over their future to explore both ethical and value-laden statements which unsettle the notion of CNTs as a value-free nanotechnology and their regulation as purely a technical affair. A point of departure is made with the inclusion of CNTs on the Substitute-It-Now list by the Swedish N…
Engineering Judgment and Education: An Arendtian Account
This article discusses the meaning of judgment in engineering and engineering education, and it does so by introducing the work of political thinker Hannah Arendt.The argument presents Arendt's non-cognitivist account of judgment as a counterpoint to prevailing conceptions of engineering judgment.Moreover, it suggests that Arendt's unique perspective on what it means to be human in the context of modern technoscience is relevant to the discussion…
Science theater on stage: Review of the play The Right Way, written by Torbjörn Lindberg, produced by Teater Sagohuset (www.sagohuset.nu), 2019-2020
This text reviews a science play that has emerged from a collaboration between performing artists and scientists based in Lund, Sweden. It argues that the play, titled The Right Way, can productively be understood as ‘science metatheater'. Thus, it belongs to a genre which knowingly and self-ironically brings the viewer's attention to the staged nature of the theater performance. As such, science metatheater moves beyond placing ‘science on stage…
Regulatory fictions and instruments of imagination: How professionals anticipate future bans on chemicals
This article studies how professionals managing chemicals orient themselves in relation to uncertain regulatory futures. Specifically, it interrogates how these professionals strategically use and evaluate a particular device: A list of substances that are deemed likely to become restricted through the European Union REACH legislation. Adopting Jens Beckert’s program of fictional expectations to describe this phenomenon, the article seeks to exte…
The design-ification of future making: Uncertainty and Divination in Contemporary Business Discourse
From visioning to crafting futures? Surveying the expanding literature on future making
This article examines the increased use of the concept of “future making” within futures studies and related disciplines. Specifically, it surveys articles in this journal and charts the extra-futures studies interventions that these contributions cite. In so doing, the article explores the cross-disciplinary roots and stakes of the concept. The text suggests that the recent popularity of future making within Futures signals a new tendency within…
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief and the Future of the West
Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Engineering (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Social science (4 works) · Engineering ethics (3 works) · Law (3 works)