GU-Journal no 3 2013

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

n o 3 | M ay 2 0 1 3

Science fiction becomes real Claes Strannegård does research on robots that resemble people

page 14

Worries at the Faculty of Arts

Debate on academic freedom

Research among plastic tubes

The union demands action

A principle worth defending!

Scientists study climate change in the Gullmar Fjord

page 4

page 10

page 11

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Vice Chancellor

A magazine for employees of the Universit y of Gothenburg

Future questions need broad solutions

May 2013 E d i to r - i n C h i e f a n d P u b l i s h e r

Allan Eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se E d i to r a n d V i ce P u b l i s h e r

T h e t r a d iti o n a l ro le of the university is to create, develop and transfer knowledge.

The globalized and increasingly competitive society that is now growing forth also places other and new demands on us as a knowledge organisation. To be able to contribute to solutions to current important social problems and to a sustainable development – on the basis of financial, ecological, social and cultural perspectives – we need new knowledge and new competences. This first and foremost requires new and multidisciplinary ways of working. To a greater extent than today, different subject areas have to find and cross-fertilise each other to bring about new, creative combinations of subjects. Complex questions require multifaceted solutions.

Universities, as well as other public organisations, are sometimes criticized for working in narrow pipes and cooperating too little over disciplinary and organisational boundaries.

Even though this may not always be a fair criticism, it is still a very important question.

Cooperation and collaboration, both internally and externally, are key factors for the universities and colleges of the future.

O u r st u d e n t s play a decisive role in the work of solving large social questions.

Students ask questions and give perspectives for completely new thoughts and solutions to problems. Students contribute to knowledge development. Satisfied students are also important ambassadors for our university and are a part of our cooperation with the world around us.

We as a university have a great responsibility for students not only being simply bearers of knowledge but also for carrying new and more cross-disciplinary views. It is our obligation to make sure that, beyond relevant knowledge, they are equipped with a critical approach in their professional life. The university must also teach them that solutions to difficult and complex problems require diverse approaches. With this view, students will be the future’s “change agents” and universities will hence contribute actively to the development of society.

Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se P h oto g r a p h y a n d Rep r o d u c t i o n

Johan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se G r a p h i c F o r m a n d L ayo u t

Anders Eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se T r a s l at i o n

Janet Vesterlund address

GU Journal University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg Photogr aphy: Johan wingborg

financers about investing in projects that stretch over disciplinary boundaries. This is also the case among employers. They do not always have insight about what educational programs and what research are done at universities and the value it could have in their development. For example, how many people know what fantastic competence the University of Gothenburg has in subjects such as corruption and democracy?

Fi n a lly, I would like to say that the Government has decided on new external members to the board of the University of Gothenburg. The old board has held its last meeting and the new one will meet for the first time in June. It has been a number of eventful years for the old board with many important decisions, with Carl Bennet as chairman. Two of these decisions, Vision 2020 and the reorganisation work at the University, will have a very strong effect on our activities for many years to come. Now it will be the new board’s role to ensure that research, education and cooperation at the University of Gothenburg develop according to our goals and strategies and that we strengthen our competitiveness, nationally and internationally.

I want to thank the old board for their very good work, and I want also to extend a warm welcome to the new board.

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gu-journalen@gu.se internet

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1402-9626 issues

7 issues/year.

The next issue will come out on 18 June 2013.

De a d l i n e f o r m a n u s c r i p t s

May 24 M at e r i a l

The Journal does not take responsibility for unsolicited material. The editorial office is responsible for unsigned material.

Feel free to quote, but give your source.

Change of address

Inform the editorial office of the change in writing.

C ove r

Claes Strannegård, Associate Professor of cognition science.

Photography: Johan Wingborg

Reg.nr: 3750M

Reg.nr: S-000256

develop new and crossdisciplinary perspectives, we have to create new means of contact between different subject areas. Another area of improvement is research support. It has become better, but there is still uncertainty among research To b e a b le to

Pam Fredman

Contents

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2013

3

From the Vice-chancellor

2 Students are our ambassadors news

4 Serious work environment problems at the Department of Languages and Literatures 6 Dean Margareta Hallberg gives her response 7 Children practice archaeology 8 International environmental education program inspires officials Debate

9 Education as marketing 10 Don’t romanticize the Humboldt ideal!

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Report

11 Come with us to Gullmarsfjorden, where about sixty researchers are studying the acidification of the ocean profile 14 According to Claes Strannegård, robots are neither good nor evil

Future ocean

14

Some sixty researchers measure sea acidity on the west coast.

7 Philosopher on how machines think Artificial intelligence fascinates Claes Strannegård.

Digging for science

Facing enormous challenges

School pupils beome archaeologists during Science Festival.

Phunog Tham and Fredrick Muyano are two participants in the international program on strategic environment.

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Editorial Office: Confidence is the most important thing we have GT- E x pr e s s e n disclosed on April 10th that the head of External Relations, that is, our head, purchased consulting services for 1.7 million crowns during 2012 without having formally procured these services. At the same time, information went out that the head had agreed to leave GU for a sum corresponding to 20 monthly salaries. This came as a shock to all the employees here. There are obviously weaknesses in procurements just about everywhere in the University.

Things can of course go wrong sometimes. But a federal authority that is financed by public money, and is

furthermore a university, should lead by example. Particularly, heads should take the responsibility they are paid to do. The risk otherwise is that a culture spreads and that ordinary employees handle money without care. In its fundamental sense, it has to do with the confidence of the general public in one of society’s most important institutions.

It ’ s o f t e n sa i d that Common Administration’s primary task is to support and provide service to the so called core activities; that is education and research. It gets even clearer

when the economy as a whole is divided into core and support. There is of course a large part that is support and service, but it isn’t everything. The gap easily creates a “we and them” mentality, where the administration is reduced to a necessary evil that can be cut back without there being too many consequences. That view is wrong: Many people in the administration work with cooperation, knowledge development and spreading knowledge. And everyone wants to feel appreciation for their work.

A trendy word in higher education in the year 2013 is “dimensioning”,

which is used in more and more contexts: dimensioning of higher education or studies. However, it isn’t clear what it actually means. It’s an example of words that hide what we talk about.

W e ’ r e h a ppy t h at so many of our readers want to take part in discussions in the journal and hope for continued participation!

Allan Eriksson & Eva Lundgren

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News

Long conflict stirs up worry A total feeling of resignation. These are the words of the employees at the Department of Languages and Literatures, who find themselves on a collision course with the Faculty of Arts.

Now the union is demanding that the Faculty takes its responsibility.

Acco r d i n g to Saco’ s written statement to the Faculty’s leadership, the psychosocial work environment is so poor that employees have lost all enjoyment in their work; many are leaving the Department.

“We think that it is the Faculty’s obligation to immediately make a risk and consequence analysis before further decisions are taken. It’s incomprehensible why the Faculty is not doing anything to improve the situation. This is not good personnel policy,” says Inger Wilgotson Lundh, representative for Saco.

O n e pe r s o n t h at has left the University of Gothenburg is the previous Associate-dean Ken Benson. He became professor of Spanish at the University of Stockholm on January 1st. He feels that the Faculty leadership hasn’t even made an attempt to hold a dialogue with the Department.

“Instead, the employees are met with a language of force that lacks logic and roots, which results in many people even fearing the leadership. It’s a frightening development that

I didn’t think could happen in Sweden and is an example of a leader group that runs counter to leadership courses that I’ve taken at the school in question.”

On behalf of the Vicechancellor, the Faculty merged several departments in 2009, which made the language department the largest one.

“The Department has since put a lot of effort into creating good common environments.

Now the Faculty wants to smash that work and break out parts of the languages.”

Ken Benson is also critical of the University leadership not being interested in listening to other versions than that of the Faculty leadership.

Ken Benson The conflict began four years ago. A SWOT analysis was made that led to a number of languages being phased out while others were under further investigation.

The Faculty’s latest proposal

means that Russian is phased out or made smaller and that the classical languages are phased out or moved to the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science to become a part of the Liberal Arts program.

“The program is led by the Associate Dean, who was also responsible for the SWOT analysis,” Ken Benson points out.

Head of Department, Gunnar Bergh, says that the proposals were introduced without first being treated in the custoGunnar Bergh mary way in the preparatory body. a number of ideas for cooperation, but the Faculty hasn’t considered any of them. They don’t either take notice of the fact that we have the country’s only teacher program in Latin. If the classical languages land at another department, the language department will get weaker, which is completely opposite to our task to strengthen the environments. The Faculty sees each language as its own subject instead of seeing them as parts of a larger environment.

But language is important; if

“ W e ’ ve pr e s e n t e d

they’re made weaker it will have consequences for the whole university.”

M at s M o bä rg , senior lecturer of English, also points out the importance of keeping all the languages together in one department. But the lengthy investigations have had an effect on the work environment.

“Of course it’s important to have evaluations, and changes are sometimes needed, but constant inspections take energy from the real work.”

W h at r e s p o n s i b i lit y does the Department’s head have for carrying out a risk analysis?

According to Gunnar Bergh, it’s absolutely clear that it’s the body that has taken the initiative for the changes that has that responsibility, in other words the Faculty.

A n d sa fe t y representative Solveig Persson feels that the situation is acute.

“Right now it feels very heavy.

Many people feel very poorly, several of the employees have sought help via Previa with the consequence of sick leave. One teacher describes it like there’s a war between the Faculty and the Department. Uncertainty has taken away energy from the real work.”

News

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2013

Photogr aphy: Johan wingborg

»The leadership seems to want to put us up as whiners and dogmatists. But our criticism is most often objective and well-founded«

The Dean gives her response to the criticism.

Read more below.

andrea Castro

Petra Platen, study principal for German and English, confirms that many of the employees have lost enjoyment in their work.

“They hear all the time that what they do lacks quality. The process has been going on for a long time but the downward spiral has recently escalated, they don’t see any end to the misery.”

Acco r d i n g to Andreas Nordin, university lecturer in English, the Faculty lacks a desire for dialogue and all the information goes in one direction.

“It has to do with total power arrogance; I’ve never met with anything like it. The Faculty leadership has built up a wall and we don’t know any more who we can turn to.”

He also feels that it’s no longer a question of what’s best for the subjects but that it’s become a question of prestige.

“At an information meeting, the Dean explained that her vision was to have fewer languages at Andrea Castro the Faculty.”

Andrea Castro, associate professor of Spanish, is among the most

active ones in the debate, not least on Facebook.

“Discussions on social media probably aren’t appreciated by the leadership but I haven’t found any other way to present my opinions. The Faculty doesn’t talk to us. It’s also an expression of the powerlessness that many people feel.”

In spite of the fact that her own subject, Spanish, isn’t affected, she feels that the Department’s whole work environment has been seriously damaged. “ M a n y peo ple have lost confidence in the Faculty, which acts neither democratically nor transparently. The leadership seems to want to put us up as whiners and dogmatists. But our criticism is most often objective and wellfounded. No one wants a conflict at his work place. What people want is to be taken seriously and to have an open dialogue instead of the leadership waving away the criticisms and writing proposals for decisions in secret. We’re involved, we like our work place and we feel like a part of the Faculty of Arts.” a fakulteten.

Allan Eriksson Eva Lundgren

The he ad of the departm ent has the re spon sibilit y A risk evaluation must always be made before changes in activities are carried through, according to Provice-chancellor Helena Lindholm Schulz, who doesn’t want to make a statement in the concrete case.

The employer always has the ultimate responsibility for the work environment. It’s simple and clear that far. But who has the responsibility if there are a number of levels?

“In the valid regulations it says that it is the head of department that has to decide about ‘systematic and preventive work environment efforts according to valid regulations’. At the same time, the whole employer line has a responsibility, even the Dean and Vice-chancellor,” says Helena Lindholm Schulz. What guides us is the instructions of the Work Environment

Authority about systematic efforts on the work environment.”

But in an infected situation where different parties stand far away from one another, this is easier said than done.

“The risk evaluation should be done on the department level. If this isn’t experienced as clear, we have to consider making it so. As far as possible, it’s of course positive if the different levels can cooperate in issues that have to do with risk analyses. The local work environment committee can be a support in that work.”

Helena Lindholm Schulz says that she, as chairman of the Central Work Environment Committee, can support both the Department and the Faculty in the ongoing work.

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News

”Changes always cause reactions” No decision has been made yet – there are only bases for discussion about how languages can best be utilized, explains Dean Margareta Hallberg, who promises to take care of the work environment problems that exist.

lyses are made at departments when there have been changes.

We’ve seen it as important to follow this instruction until new directives come.”

According to a written statement from Saco, which ST also supports, the psychosocial work environment at the Department of Languages and Literatures is very serious.

What is your view?

“Changes always cause reactions – positive and negative – depending on what the change will mean. For several years, different problems have been identified in a number of subjects and it is these problems we have the responsibility to address. The proposals for change we develop will inevitably have consequences for parts of the activities. It is of the greatest importance however to emphasize that it is the faculty board that examines, discusses and makes decisions about the proposals that the leadership puts forward. The procedure in handling the matters perhaps hasn’t been communicated clearly enough to the employees at the Department.”

“We’ve reserved a time with Saco to get a clearer picture of the situation from their perspective.

We will also meet the head of the department very soon and together discuss how we should proceed. The Faculty leadership of course supports the head of the Department in work environment efforts at the Department but we haven’t as yet a request from the head about needing our support and we don’t go past the Department leadership. However, now we’ve gotten a clear signal from Saco about serious work environment problems and we have to act.”

What is your position to the union’s understanding that it is the Faculty’s responsibility to carry out a risk and consequence analysis?

“The work and delegation directions at GU are very clear about the head having the operative responsibility for the work environment at each respective department. The dean also has responsibility, that is to make sure that risk and consequence ana-

What do you feel is the primary reason for the tense atmosphere between the Department and the Faculty leadership?

Margareta Hallberg, dean.

The Department’s head wanted to take care of communication with the employees at the language department and we saw no reason to deny that wish. Now we’re getting signals via the union that the employees experience that they don’t feel like they’re being listened to and we have to follow up what that means.”

How have you communicated with the employees concerning the planned changes to their activities?

Vision 2020 emphasizes the importance of participation among employees. In what way have representatives of the languages in question been able to express themselves in the proposals that have been presented?

“As yet there are no planned changes, only bases for discussion for the board about how certain languages can best be utilized in the future. It’s important that the Faculty board doesn’t make hasty decisions but is given the possibility to calmly and realistically take a position toward different scenarios and understand the complexity of the questions from different aspects.

“As pointed out earlier, the head of the Department did not want the Faculty leadership to have direct contact with the different subjects. Employees’ participation is of course of the greatest importance, but it doesn’t mean that everyone’s wishes always lead the way and determine strategic decisions. The faculty board is each faculty’s highest decision making instance with responsibi-

lity for strategic planning, quality and finances. Certain decisions that are taken on the basis of a holistic perspective will probably be disliked by some employees.”

Complaints have been made that self-interest lies behind the proposals. The associate dean for education, who is the person responsible for Liberal Arts, is also involved in investigating and taking decisions about the classical languages moving there. What is your response to that?

“First of all, the associate dean doesn’t make any decisions, and second, she isn’t responsible for the program, and third, it is extremely unclear to us what this self-interest would be. The people who have voiced criticism have never given their reasons, which is problematic not least from a work environment perspective.

It is correct that the associate dean took the initiative for Liberal Arts. In the peer system, we all belong to a subject and she is associate professor of Latin. She has long experience of developing the classical languages’ cooperation with other disciplines. The cooperation between classical languages and human and natural scientific disciplines in liberal arts is unique in the country.

From that viewpoint, it would be highly unfortunate for Latin’s sake if her competence could not be utilized for the single reason that she is appointed as the associate dean, and it is regrettable that others use that vulnerability that the situation gives rise to.”

Allan Eriksson Eva Lundgren

Science Festival

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2013

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It was a lot of fun, I found lots of things,” says Roque and proudly shows off the clay pipe, which was common between 1600 and 1800.

The International Science Festival in Gothenburg is an annual meeting place where researchers in pleasant and fun circumstances can present their research to school children and the general public. The theme this year was Control or No Control. Lia from Skårs school digs together with classmates in one of the test holes at Floras kulle. University lecturer Anita Synnestvedt helps.

Forgotten and hidden in a park Ten-year-old Lia cries with excitement, “Linnea, I just found a diamond earring.”

She’s part of an archaeological dig at Floras kulle in Kungsparken in Gothenburg together with students from class 3. The dig is being led by archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg and is among the activities in the International Science Festival’s school program.

T h e p u r p o s e o f the dig is for students to understand that things that are thrown away stay in the dirt; for instance, glass bottles that aren’t taken away after a picnic stay there and can remain for hundreds of years.

“At the same time, they can learn what archaeology is, that we archaeologists look for what people left in ancient times in terms of waste or things they lost,” says university lecturer Anita Synnestvedt at the Department of Historical Studies.

She’s standing next to one of the test holes that the archaeologists have prepared by removing grass and opening up ground.

About ten children are on their knees and dig enthusiastically with their plastic shovels. When then find an object, they get help from the archaeology students to identify what they’ve found and they place it in a clear plastic bag.

I n a d d iti o n to the diamond earring (“but the diamond isn’t real”), Lia has dug up pieces of plastic and aluminium soda can openers.

“It’s really exciting and fun, I like finding things. At the same time, I’ve learned that you shouldn’t throw things away in nature

and that you should keep an eye on your things so that they don’t blow away,” she says.

Her classmate Simon agrees. He’s also found a can opener and some pieces of glass.

“Very many people throw things away.

It’s not good.”

A few st ep s away from Floras kulle is Vallgraven, where a raft is moored at the slope. Here, students from class 5 at the Catholic school are busy studying the water environment using nets and measuring instruments.

“You find a lot of debris stuff,” Inez tells us and names a bottle cap and a glass bottle.

“It’s exciting.”

But she and her classmates have also found blue clay, shells and stones. And when Mikael Olsson from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences picks up a mussel in the bed of the water, they listen with interest when he describes what the mussel does to make the water clearer.

“I’ve also told them about the fish that live in the moat and that we can’t eat them because they have too much quicksilver.

»The best thing is meeting all the enthusiastic children; they think this is fantastically fun. I think this is great fun too!« They’re curious, fun children to be with,” he says.

Up at Floras kulle, the students from Skårs school will soon go and a new class will come.

In all, twelve primary and middle school classes are participating in the investigations.

T h e c h i ld r e n gather around a tree, where the bags with what they’ve found are placed so that at the end of the day they can get an idea of how the park is used. In addition to bottle caps, pieces of glass, porcelain, different pieces of plastic and corks, one of the students has dug up a considerably older object: a clay pipe.

“It was a lot of fun, I found lots of things,” says Roque and proudly shows off the clay pipe, which was common between 1600 and 1800.

Before it’s time to welcome the next class, archaeologist Anita Synnestvedt sums up the day so far: “The best thing is meeting all the enthusiastic children; they think this is fantastically fun. I think this is great fun too!”

Text: Thomas Melin Photography: Johan Wingborg

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News

Photogr aphy: All an Eriksson

Phuong Tham from Vietnam and Fredrick Muyano from Zambia say that environmental work can’t be isolated from the rest of society.

”We can learn much from Sweden” African and Asian officials will now be made better at strategic environmental analysis.

The Centre for Environment and Sustainability is responsible for teaching 26 participants from seven different countries – commissioned by Sida.

GU J OURNALE N met two of them at Ekocentrum on Aschebergsgatan 44, where the classes are held. It’s a longer lunch break and we sit down at the round tables in the café. Phuong Tham from Vietnam and Fredrick Muyano from Zambia have been chosen against tough competition to participate in the Sida financed education program for strategic environmental analysis, arranged by Gothenburg’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability (GMV).

Last week, when they were in Stockholm, an outing was arranged to the archipelago, which was covered by ice.

“It crunched under my feet and I was worried first that the ice wouldn’t hold. It was a magic moment, even though there was snow and it was terribly cold,” says Fredrick Muyano and laughs.

T h e b iti n g s pr i n g -w i n t e r cold also came as a shock to Phuong Tham: “People at home warned me that it would be real winter but it was worse than I could have imagined.”

But apart from that both have been very satisfied with their weeks in Sweden.

“The program has been intense, but we

came here to learn and it’s given a great deal,” says Fredrick Muyano, who is a high official at the Zambian Environmental Management Agency, corresponding to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

He works with legislation on strategic environmental analysis.

Phuong Tham is responsible for a program that will run over several years and that’s financed by Germany’s Sida organ.

She works at the ministry of agriculture and rural development in Hanoi that acts to protect biological diversity, which is often ignored when natural forests are changed into tree plantings or agriculture.

T h e t wo week s in Gothenburg have alternated with lectures and study visits, such as to Älvrummet, Renova, the city planning

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2013

Debate

Debate.

9

please contribute, gu-journalen@gu.se

»It’s like most things in life. The less sound you live, the more it ­strikes back at you.« fredrick Muyano

office and the traffic authority. During the week in Stockholm they visited several authorities: Sida, the Environmental Protection Agency and the environmental court.

“I’m primarily impressed with how you recycle and see waste as an asset,” says Phuong Tham.

Anders Ekbom T h e y say t h at they are deeply impressed over how far Sweden has come in its environmental work. But they point out that the challenges at home aren’t insurmountable.

“Environmental work can’t only be seen isolated from the rest of society. They are related in everything,” says Phuong Tham.

“In Vietnam we have modern environmental legislation that requires strategic environmental analysis but we’re worse at implementing the laws. We also lack a strong enough regulatory agency.”

“The challenges are also enormous in Zambia but there’s relative good knowledge,” adds Fredrick Muyano.

“We have good environmental legislation on paper but the problem is that it’s not moving forward fast enough in terms of using the laws. But this program will motivate us to take the next step. We also have a lot to learn from how Sweden has set up national environmental goals that make it much easier to take actions for the environment. It doesn’t have to do with copying the technology that exists in the West but with developing environmental systems that suit our needs.”

I n m a n y d eve lo pi n g countries, primarily in Southeast Asia and Africa, the strong economic growth has taken place at the cost of the environment.

“It’s like most things in life. The less sound you live, the more it strikes back at you. We have to have an economic growth that interacts with the environment. Without the environment and natural resources there won’t be any economic development,” says Fredrick Muyano.

A n d e r s E k b o m , deputy director of GMV and teacher at the School of Business, Economics and Law, is responsible for the education programs at GMV. The purpose of the program here is to strengthen the countries’ strategic environmental analysis in planning and decision processes. At the study visits, the participants get concrete examples of how Swedish organisations work with this. In spite of there being large differences between the countries, he thinks there are very good discussions and a great exchange of experience among the participants.

“The ambition is to strengthen the participants’ competence in the area. The hope is that it will lead to greater consideration to the environment in the countries.”

It’s the first time this program is being given. It will be repeated in the fall. But actually the weeks in Sweden are just the starting point for a program that lasts for 18 months. The real work with developing action plans, spreading learning to colleagues and beginning work on change starts when they come home. The education program will be followed up in the fall with two weeks in Tanzania and the results will be reported in March of 2014.

T h e co u r s e doesn’t have to do only with environmental analysis but about how to integrate environmental questions in different sectors such as transport, energy, water, waste and forestry. In many countries, strategic environmental assessment is required by law, but then there has to be good knowledge and a capacity for follow up and regulation.

GMV not only won the procurement for the international program. It’s also gotten another project on expert counselling on the environment and climate from Sida, together with SLU in Uppsala, worth 50 million crowns.

“We’ve built up an activity that includes education, research and international collaboration. It’s been seen to be a model that functions well. The education program is an exciting and rewarding way to make research useful in universities as well as to cooperate internationally at the same time that it gives new research ideas,” says Anders Ekbom.

Allan Eriksson

Education as marketing D u r i n g m y 2 0 y e a r s in the Economics Department I have edited (i.e., provided language correction–plus rewriting as needed–and detailed technical feedback for) many journal articles, book chapters, doctoral theses, etc. Besides GU I also edit for other departments and research institutes–currently for the African Development Bank and the Universities of Örebro and Dalarna– who see me as a GU person, which must be good for GU’s image. (To compensate for the cost of printing or copying of such “external” projects I’ve always given departmental clients a per cent discount.)

Since finishing my own thesis last year (at age 65) I continue reading economics, attending seminars, and writing (including in public debate in the U.S.) as well as editing. But now all this has been made more difficult because I have been denied even occasional access to shared office space at the department.

T h e r e a r e ot h e r older researchers in the department who are still active but no longer teaching (they might like to, but decision-making has passed to a younger generation). A public purpose is served by maintaining provision in overhead for shared office space for such people, whose presence around the department benefits students and younger researchers by providing a sense of historical context, which is otherwise sadly missing in the curriculum.

But what seems to be happening increasingly is excessive focus on education as a business: on marketing and branding, on numbers of degrees granted or articles published in a narrow group of “top” journals, and on reducing costs rather than on comfortable facilitation of academic activities.

One elderly researcher–who is still quite active– was told last year that, because of room-cleaning costs, he could no longer have his file cabinet with all his files!

Measurable outputs and costs have their place, certainly–but universities’ centuries-old traditions of continuing education (lifelong learning) and external involvement also deserve respect.

Rick Wicks

PhD, economics

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Debate

Debate. please contribute,

Response: New contribution to debate on academic freedom

gu-journalen@gu.se

Don’t romanticize the Humboldt ideal!

It i s ve ry co m m e n da b le that the changes in the control of universities and colleges that the so called autonomy reform means are discussed. Tomas Forser and Thomas Karlsohn name in the last number of GU Journalen the important questions that the reform raises, not least in terms of university teachers’ possibility for critical questioning and free discussion. I however doubt whether their historiography is correct in the sense that I want to question whether their picture of the earlier so cherished peer control actually functioned as a guarantee for the central values of free academia. My experience of now three Swedish universities (Lund, Uppsala, Gothenburg) gives a contrasting picture. To give an example, I can name that the peer control at my own faculty, the social sciences, for nearly two decades has shown itself to be completely unable to do anything about a department that with respect to all normal measures does not function, neither in terms of research nor of teaching.

My three years in the faculty committee were a dismal story where a majority of the members worked only to protect their own departments’ interests but carefully avoided dealing with difficult questions. The same occurred when I was at Uppsala and Lund. The peer control in combination with weak faculty leaderships led to an irresponsible culture that made the organisations unable to deal with environments that were long seriously dysfunctional for students and doctoral students.

As regards the threat to academic freedom, there is reason to name that the idea of forcing on all researchers a specific theoretical

perspective in their teaching and research in the form of what came to be called gender certification in Lund or gender labelling in Uppsala comes from peer processes and where researchers from the humanities faculties were those who were the driving forces. If one goes farther back in time, one is sorrowfully forced to confirm that the peer controlled univer-

»…the peer controlled universities in Germany during the 1930s willingly allowed themselves to be subsumed under Nazi control.« sities in Germany during the 1930s willingly allowed themselves to be subsumed under Nazi control. At these universities, which also embraced the Humboldt principle of the freedom of research, the peer selected leaderships worked actively to drive out Jewish teachers and students while the large majority of teachers in the best case looked the other way.

Research on the peer university leadership in Lund during the 1930s has indicated that, after Denmark’s occupation, preparations were made for how to be subsumed under Nazi control. I believe simply that Forser and Karlsohn romanticize the free and democratic qualities of peer control. The student essay they refer to as a basis for their conclusions actually con-

tains nothing empirical about what has been the outcome of the autonomy reform with respect to the actual possibilities for critical discussion and questioning.

I f o n e lo o k s at the control of e.g. leading American universities (at which many of the most prominent and socially critical humanities researchers work) another picture emerges, namely that they on the one hand have considerably strong university and faculty leaderships that often without excuses address poorly performing or in some other way dysfunctional environments. But they have at the same time very strong and self-aware peer structures that balance the strong leader groups. As I see it, the problem at Swedish schools has been that we have had both very weak university and faculty leaderships and a weak peer culture. In other words, it is wrong to see the distribution of power between peer control and academic leadership as a zero sum game. Quite the opposite, I feel that a good university is characterized by strong (and as has been found scientifically very competent) leader groups that can, dare and want to make priorities and first and foremost control (or sometimes even to phase out) the research and teaching environments that do not function.

At the same time, these leader groups must be balanced by strong and self-aware peer structures. To this time, with a few exceptions, at Swedish schools we have lacked both.

Bo Rothstein

PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Response: Different between ideal

Final response: A principle worth defending

BO ROTHST E IN ’ S response to Tomas Forser and Thomas Karlsohn is interesting in many ways. A difficult circumstance for Rothstein’s argument is however that he is fundamentally incorrectly informed about the responsibility of the peer organs for the proposal of introducing gender labelling at the University of Uppsala. Quite the opposite, what he cites was just the peer influence that spared us from this decree from above! Gender labelling of research and teaching does not exist at Uppsala. But now, however, GU has an organisation that leaves it wide open for overriding actions both by present and coming university leader groups. We are no longer surprised at this development.

A pr i n c i ple c a n b e worth defending even if it is so-so with how it is implemented and followed.

A political scientist such as Bo Rothstein surely agrees with that. It applies for many of the controversial concepts for civilized contexts. Democracy, for example.

The principles that the best argument wins and that peer self control has strong reasons have been a foundation of the university world. With certain anecdotal evidence, Rothstein seems to question this. And in one sense we agree: We ourselves have similar dismal experiences. But the weaknesses in the system must be interpreted as deviations from the peer condition and not as its realization.

Rothstein speaks about an “irresponsible culture”, but we would instead like to speak of a possible responsible culture.

and practice

It i s u s ua lly obvious for us political scientists to distinguish between ideal and practice when we discuss democracy.

Democratic governance does not always function according to our ideals but we do not throw away democracy as an idea or practice for that (and replace it with its opposite). The same applies to peer governance. That there are examples that peer governance does not function as it should thus does not mean that one uncritically accepts its opposite – line control – as the only and right medicine. The question should instead have to do with how to ensure and develop peer influence that research shows is necessary for a creative and successful teaching and research environment.

Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg, A ssociate Professor Christer Karlsson, A ssociate Professor Sten Widmalm, professor Political scientists at the Universit y of Uppsal a

T h e u n i ve r s it y syst e m ’ s catastrophic development in Germany during the 1930s was not a result of the peer system but the effect of a conscious offensive against the autonomous forms of control that had developed during the 19th century. The medicine is thus not to weaken but to strengthen this form of control. The ongoing development however gives reason for fear, which Elin Sundberg’s essay clearly shows.

Our case was consequently not to idealize the principle and its qualities but to maintain that present rapid change processes from a seminar culture to process industry with declared teaching goals toward “employable” students erodes the

view of knowledge in the humanities, that in which everything is not measurable and evident but even unpredictable and surprising.

Ge n d e r ce r ti fi c ati o n and gender labelling hold unwieldy criteria in a free and democratic knowledge process. We agree on that. Neither does a knowledge process of that kind feel well in line organisations’ top bottom world. Strong university leaderships are in no way incompatible with departmental democratic structures. This is not least shown in North American environments that Rothstein mentions. The most successful universities are characterized remarkably often by peer decision making forms and great influence on the part of teachers and researchers.

Finally: We welcome Bo Rothstein’s contribution to the debate and very much want to carry on discussions further in different contexts. But we note at the same time the compact silence from those who have the actual power over organisation questions – our own university leadership..

Tomas Forser and Thomas Karlsohn

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Among giant test tubes in Gullmarn Giant test tubes float in Gullmarsfjorden out­ side of Fiskebäckskil. About sixty researchers are gathered in a large international project lasting five months to investigate the effects of acidi­ fication on the ocean’s ecosystem.

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Ulf Riebesell, marine biologist from Germany, has done similar research projects, in a polar environment, outside of Hawaii and off the costs of Finland and Norway, but this project is the largest.

h e y c a n b e s ee n from afar. From the boat they look like ten narrow, several storey buildings balancing on the waves in Gullmarn – not something you’d expect to see in the archipelago of Bohuslän.

The plastic houses are called “mesocosmoses”, in other words “medium sized cosmoses”, and contain a complete ecosystem. Each mesocosmos consists of an almost ten meter high metal scaffolding that holds in place an enormous plastic sack, which in turn contains 55 000 litres of ocean water. The researchers have added carbon dioxide to half of the sacks to see how marine plant and animal plankton is affected at the degree of acidity that the researchers believe will be present at the end of the century.

Seagulls scream over our heads. Lysekil’s church tower reaches up to the sky on the other side of the fjord–a well-known landmark, according to the skipper. Only fifteen minutes earlier had we hopped onboard the Nereus at Lovéncentre’s pier in Kristineberg.

While the ship ploughs through slate grey waves and the wind takes holds of us, we passengers zip up our wind jackets and pull them tighter around us.

T h e r e h a s b ee n a lot of media interest since the project started at the end of January, among both Swedish and foreign journalists.

“It’s important to spread information to people about what the researchers do and what the acidification of oceans means for our future,” says Maike Nicolai, the

project’s press officer, who today is hosting a group of German scientific journalists.

“Es ist kalt” one of them shivers. The German Marine biologist and project leader Ulf Riebesell jokes: “It’s summer today compared with yesterday.” He’s wearing a well padded orange overall.

U lf R i e b e s e ll came by sea to Kristineberg almost three months ago on the loaded research ship Alkor to start the ocean acidification project.

“The way into the Lovéncentre in Kristineberg was completely blocked by all the equipment that had been unloaded from the research ship,” Ola Björlin, chief of administration and responsible for the infrastructure at the Lovéncentre, tells us. He’s had countless contacts with the research team during the almost three months that the project has been running.

As he sums it up, it’s been “a lot of work, but fun.” The bottleneck has been living quarters. Kristenberg has 62 beds and it’s been like laying a puzzle to find a place for all the extra researchers.

Ulf Riebesell has carried out similar acidification projects on a smaller scale in a polar environment, outside Hawaii and outside the Finnish and Norwegian coasts. But never have such large mesocosmoses been used as here, or for such a long time.

“Here in Gullmarn, it’s been a fight against the elements. Nowhere else have we met the problems that we’ve encountered here,” he says.

The aroma of coffee tells us that

Researchers Jan Czerny and Jessica Bellworthy take water samples from the mesocosmoses.

something warm is coming. It’s received with thanks by us frozen journalists. Ulf Riebesell confirms that it’s been an ice cold spring that has led to unexpected difficulties for the project. for the ice cover but not for the salt level in the water to swing so quickly in Gullmarn from one day to another. When the divers had gotten the mesocosmoses in the water, the salt level decreased and the sacks got heavier in relation to the surrounding water and were starting to sink. So we had to take them up again and start over,” says Ulf Riebesell, who is the constructor of the giant test tubes.

The droning of Nereus’ engine suddenly becomes louder as three smaller fast boats

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build a convoy with the ship on the way to the research area. The small boats pass the orange buoys that mark the boundaries of the test area and then continue toward the mesocosmoses.

“What you see is just the tip of the iceberg. The plastic sacks go 25 meters down below the surface of the water,” says Ulf Riebesell. has been added to half of the giant containers to see how marine plant and animal plankton is affected by acidification. During the months that the project will continue, the researchers can follow many generations of plankton and measure the chemistry of the water every day. Larvae of herring and cod are also added to the mesocosmoses to see how the small fry develop in the enclosed ocean water that builds an ecosystem.

The small boats that followed tie up to a mesocosmos, and the researchers take water samples. It requires good balance and physical strength to work from a small boat moving up and down in the water. And it’s hard to lift off the plastic roofs of the mesocosmoses that are covered with sharp steel spikes to protect them from birds. One of the researchers lowers an almost half meter long test tube and reels up the tube filled with ocean water from the container. The water is poured into plastic bottles. The test samples will be analysed on land.

Coming back from the boat trip we meet Angela Wulff on the pier. She is a professor of marine ecology with a specialty in marine botany and is one of the roughly twenty researchers from the University of Gothenburg that is participating in the C a r b o n d i ox i d e

»This is the way that research contacts are created and that good research is done.« angela Wulff

project. She shows the way to five large white tubs close by. They’re covered with green nets.

“I got 20 litres of water this morning from each mesocosmos,” she says and points at the five tubs.

Angela Wulff studies how the algae society of plant plankton and bacteria react to the stress of increased acidification and temperature.

“We’ve poured the water from the different mesocosmoses into plastic bags. Now they’re lying in tubs that have different temperatures,” she says and takes off the green nets to show the different algae societies.

Angela Wulff studies how plant plankton and algae react to increased acidification and temperature.

best at a higher temperature of about six degrees,” says Angela Wulff.

She thinks that the international project is a fantastic opportunity for Swedish researchers.

“There’s an openness between the researchers in the project. This is the way that research contacts are created and that good research is done.”

has the same temperature as the ocean water. The temperature is then increased by two degrees in each subsequent tub, and Angela Wulff explains that it’s about eight degrees higher in the fifth tube. With the climate changes that are going on now, it’s expected that both the amount of carbon dioxide and the temperature in the oceans will increase.

“Organisms in the ocean will react in different ways to the increase in temperature.

The ones that build calcium won’t be able to build a shell when it gets too acid, while bacteria and plant plankton often like heat.

I expect that algae and bacteria will grow T h e fi r st t u b

Jan Czerny takes samples every day from the mesocosmoses and in that way can follow how plankton and fish fry develop in an increasingly acid ocean.

Ecotox i co lo g i st Maria Granberg works with the test tubes and pipettes in a laboratory in Kristineberg’s main building together with her research team. When we step through their door we meet one of her Masters students, Marcus Stenegren, sitting on a bench and radiating concentration.

He’s filtering samples of water from the mesocosmoses to investigate the bacterial society and especially the existence of poisonous vibriobacteria. Maria Granberg’s research team studies the synergy between ocean acidification and environmental poisons on the bacterial society. When the environment becomes more acid, certain poisons change form and can then more easily be taken up by living organisms.

“This is new research territory. We don’t know how the picture of poisons in the oceans will change with acidification,” she says.

T h e h e a d o f the Lovéncentre, Michael Klages, thinks that this is a magnificent project and points out that it would be difficult to carry it out without the resources of the Lovéncentre. He applauds the researchers’ involvement and tenacity and their refusal to give up despite snow, ice, bad weather and mysterious salt levels.

“We had to start the project over again after three weeks, but the researchers managed that and things look good now.

It’ll be fantastic when all the results are analysed and can be presented,” says Michael Klages.

Text Carina Eliasson Photography Johan Wingborg

facts The BIOACID project (Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification) is coordinated

by Ulf Riebesell, professor of biological oceanography at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiet, Germany. The approximately sixty participating researchers in BIOACID Gullmarn come from Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.

Financial assistance for the project is from German scientific institutions, the EU and individual countries. The Royal Scientific Academy in Sweden also contributes.

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Machine as fellow human Can robots be evil? That question hardly worried Claes Strannegård just six months ago. But then he attended a conference in Oxford that gave him food for thought. h e r e ’ s a r i cke t y spiral stair­ case in the middle of Claes Strannegård’s octagonal living room and another floor under the domed roof ten meters above.

Standing there, below a painting of Bertil Berg, you have a 360 degree view of the entire city; at the moment, Claes Strannegård is checking out the lawn far below where his nine-year-old daughter Siri is having a picnic together with her friend Felicia.

Here are bookshelves, white armchairs and a table where Claes Strannegård has placed his laptop – because, what better place could there be to sit and ponder over two difficult questions, one of them ancient

and the other hyper modern: How do people think and how can you get robots to think like people?

Claes Strannegård is namely a robot researcher or, more precisely, an associate professor in cognition science. His path to where he is now started in 1996 when he became Sweden’s first doctor of logic.

“What logicians normally busy themselves with is trying to understand how to draw correct conclusions from a mathematic perspective. But I’ve drifted over to being most interested in human thinking and what logical conclusions we people draw.”

Logic may be a subject rather apart from others. But as a post doc in Utrecht, Claes Strannegård came upon a way to use his

knowledge in a purely practical way. By logically analysing the electronics in for example cars and integrated circuits, he could find bugs and errors in the systems, which is a truly large problem in industry.

R i s k c a pita li st s invested 30 million crowns in the company he had started at the time, Safelogic.

“I’d hardly be able to have gotten investments of that kind in a research idea if I’d stayed in academia. After a while, when I left Safelogic, the company had about twenty employees.”

Since then Claes Strannegård has started a further four companies. One of them is Optisort, which uses artificial intelligence to

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“So called narrow artificial intelligence, where you use specialised programs inside well defined boundaries, is used all around us now. For example, robots can build cars, cut the grass or run a vacuum cleaner and mobile telephones are full of applications that can play chess, turn speech into text or find the fastest route between two cities.”

The more human-like constructions are much more complicated. Knowledge from many different areas is needed to develop them. For that reason, Claes Strannegård collaborates with philosophers, psychologists, brain researchers, computer experts and mathematicians.

“We want to create a robot that can conceptualise its surroundings on its own. For example, a robot that helps in a home has to be able to adapt itself to different homes and to different changes that take place all the time.”

A spiral staircase leads to the upper level where Claes Strannegård has a 360 degree view over the entire city.

»We want to create a robot that can conceptualise its surroundings on its own.«

sort batteries into different environmental classes. In 2011 he gave all his shares and a sum of money to the company’s CEO. In return he has the rights to a tenth of the purchase price in an eventual future sale of the company. Recently, Optisort landed on the prestigious 33 list, where the magazines Ny Teknik and Affärsvärden rank Sweden’s most promising young innovation companies.

“At this point, two machines have been delivered, one to Renova in Gothenburg and one to GP Batteries in England. But requests are coming in from all around. And the machine in England sorts about two thirds of the country’s batteries.”

Entrepreneurship and innovation

are absolutely fun but at the same time they’re a little painful, according to Claes Strannegård; there’s the constant threat that the whole project would be dashed for different reasons. So, he’s been fairly satisfied with being able to devote himself to research in the past two years, primarily at the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Scientific Theory, but also at Chalmers.

The reason is that, as a researcher, Claes Strannegård can truly devote himself to his greatest interest: the next generation of robots that is built on so called general artificial intelligence. It has to do with robots that, just like people, can adapt themselves to new environments and learn completely new things.

Peo p le c r e at e co n cep t s with information that they get through their senses and their experiences.

“We also discover patterns among concepts that help us to survive. For example, we see changes between day and night, in what kinds of terrain blueberries grow or that we get sick if we eat red mushrooms that have white dots.”

Just as a child discovers little by little more and more about its world, the robot should be able to learn things that aren’t programmed from the start, although not absolutely everything. What’s necessary is to get the program to think like a human.

“Take the sequence problem in IQ tests for example; what number would you continue with if you had a series that started with 2, 4? The answer isn’t evident. If it had to do with doubling the previous number, the next would be 8. But a repetitive series is equally logical: 2, 4, 2, 4. Most people spontaneously suggest 2, 4, 6, 8…”

I llo g i c a lly e n o u g h , certain patterns feel more logical than others. And since intelligence tests don’t measure what is most logical, but rather what people tend to see as most logical, computers usually have a difficult time managing this type of test.

“But our research group has developed a program that mimics humans’ way of solving problems. The results in IQ tests show 130-150, which is the result of our combining mathematics with psychology.”

Robots that think roughly like humans are thus becoming better. Should they also look like humans? Maybe.

“A robot that shows facial expressions, uses gestures and varies its tone of voice can be easier to interact with. And the human body has a very good design: for example, it’s practical to have arms and hands that

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»A robot can therefore be evil in spite of not having been programmed to be.«

nary eyeglasses. Or why not Goggle’s new eyeglasses that are wirelessly connected to a mobile phone and for example can show the way to something by arrows projected on the inside of the eyeglasses.

“It’s still just being tested but they show what’s coming,” Claes Strannegård explains. “And more is on the way; man has never backed down from modifying himself.”

Claes Str annegård At present: New associate professor of cognition science and founder of the company Optisort that’s landed on the 33 list, where Ny Teknik and Affärsvärlden rank Sweden’s most promising young innovation companies.

Family: Partner Elena and daughter Siri.

Lives: In Vasastan.

Age: 50 years.

Most recently read book: I barnets hjärna (In the Child’s Brain) by Hugo Lagercrantz (recommended) and Makens skönhet (The Beauty of the Husband) by Anne Carson (not recommended).

Most recently seen film: Saving Willy 4.

Favourite food: American breakfasts.

Other interests: Participates in a book circle and likes to travel.

Makes him happy: Finding good songs on Spotify.

Makes him angry: That we people can’t manage to construct a stable and sustainable world that is fairly good for all people. We continue to make things optimal for our own countries and companies and are paralyzed in the face of the enormous problems that plague and threaten humanity.

Wants to do in the future: Continue doing research and to hold the crossscientific seminars in human thinking and start a Swedish association for cognition science.

can carry things and two legs that can walk steps.”

In science fiction, however, attempts to create artificial life usually end in a catastrophe like in Bladerunner and 2001 – A Space Odyssey, films that Claes Strannegård hadn’t taken particularly seriously before, at least until this winter, when he went to the Winter Intelligence Conference in Oxford.

“Now I’m a little more worried about certain future scenarios. Consider for example a robot that has as its only instruction to be as good as possible at chess by playing many, many games. That sounds completely peaceful, doesn’t it? But what would happen if someone tried to turn the robot off or reprogram it? Then it wouldn’t be able to develop as a chess player, which would go against the instructions. Since it lacks both manners and morals, it would use whatever methods, perhaps also brutal ones, to stop this. A robot can therefore be evil in spite of not having been programmed to be.

Artificial intelligence has many advantages, but if we don’t think about the ethical, legal and economic consequences, I think that we can be very surprised.”

H oweve r , n ew t ec h n o lo gy doesn’t only have to do with robots. With the help of different equipment, we can strengthen man’s natural characteristics, so called human enhancement. An example is ordi-

M o d e r n t ec h n o lo gy also means that other qualities and knowledge become more important than what we’re used to.

“People are constantly inventing different kinds of tools that change the world they live in. Physical strength, craftsmanship, memory and numerical ability have had great significance for our development but today immense amounts of work tasks can be done by machines. And machines are on the rise even in terms of knowledge and learning. For example, the mobile phone can tell you in five seconds what the capital city of Burundi is.”

Perhaps tomorrow’s most desirable quality will be the ability to play and fantasize.

Then we also have to create societies that stimulate creativity and new thinking.

One way is to organize meetings between different kinds of people. Claes Strannegård does just that in a seminar series about thinking that he’s started, where a pharmacologist and a psychologist of law have discussed the eternally unanswered question of whether man has free will.

A n ot h e r way c a n be to create architecture that encourages different thinking: for example, a room with ten meters between the floor and ceiling, where food is hoisted up in a basket and where there’s a vantage place with a real, sturdy, brass machine telegraph that can order full speed ahead.

“We moved to this apartment two years ago and are very happy in it. The tower was originally built to look good from the outside and was only used as an attic where they hung wash. Now it’s our living room and the girls that are sitting down there on the blanket recently had a disco here with their classmates. We rented mirrored disco balls, laser lamps and a smoke machine.

The children were very satisfied.”

Text Eva Lundgren photography Johan Wingborg