GU-Journal 4–2020

GUJournal

INDEPENDENT JOURNAL FOR THE STAFF AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG #4 AUTUMN 2020

News

No end to email crisis Report

Short-lived reduction of emissions Report

Freed slaves as prison labourers

Flute fantasy BACKPACK FULL OF FOLK MUSIC

Vice-Chancellor

This incident must be properly investigated NFORTUNATELY, the autumn has been dominated by the email problems that the university has been impacted by. Despite the fact that more and more people have regained email functionality, we are unfortunately not out of the woods yet. Many people still do not have e-mail, which is an important communication channel and an essential tool. This causes problems and a tremendous amount of frustration, not only for those immediately affected but for all of us – even for external partners.

AS HEAD OF THIS institution, I of course also

feel frustrated, but above all I feel a great responsibility. I receive daily updates about how the work is being conducted. The IT Unit and the Communication Unit meet in teams twice a day and central crisis management have made sure that all conceivable resources are available and are making the necessary decisions. Many employees are working hard and diligently to solve the problems.

On the same day as the incident occurred, it was reported to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, which is standard practice for IT incidents. The incident was also reported to the Swedish Data Protection Authority on September 23 as a personal data incident, which we are obliged to do in accordance with the GDPR. That this serious incident will be investigated has been clear since the problems were identified, and I have announced previously that an in-depth audit will

take place. Furthermore, this week, the university’s Chair of the Board, Peter Larsson, announced that he, in consultation with me, had commissioned the Internal Audit to carry out an audit immediately and that external investigators should be hired.

I AM AWARE THAT it can be difficult to remain patient in a situation where many people are worried about lost history, missed meetings, important emails and contact information. We do not yet have a definitive answer as to how much can be restored, but all the available expertise in this area is being utilized.

For the rest of us, who are not experts, it is important to be constructive despite the problems we are facing, and to try to help one another based on the information that is being provided. Both employees and managers have a responsibility to stay updated.

Go to the Staff Portal, which is our priority channel for internal communication, both on a daily basis and during a crisis.

I appeal for your patience and that you help your colleagues where possible, and follow updates and instructions from the IT Unit.

We are doing everything in our power to solve this.

Vice-Chancellor EVA WIBERG

Editor-in-chief :Allan Eriksson, phone: 031–786 10 21, e-mail: allan.eriksson@gu.se Editor-in-chief: Eva Lundgren, phone:031–786 10 81, e-mail: eva.lundgren@gu.se Photographer: Johan Wingborg, phone: 070–595 38 01, e-post: johan.wingborg@gu.se Layout: Anders Eurén, phone: 031–786 43 81, e-mail: anders.euren@gu.se Address: GU JOURNAL, University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden E-mail: gu-journal@gu.se Internet: gu-journal.gu.se ISSN: 1402-9626 Translation: Språkservice Sverige AB

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Reg.nr: 3750M

Reg.nr: S-000256

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Contents

NEWS 04–18 04. IT manager explains the email crisis.

06. The whole University effected by the crash.

08. Double ceremonies in

2021.

09. Increased saved capital for the University.

PROFILE 12–15

Unimagined flute playing.

REPORT 16–31 16. Short-lived reduction

of emissions.

18. EUTOPIA - a new

European network.

20. Platform for research.

21. New cooperation with

other courses.

FOCUS 22–26 22. Less time to travel,

more time to think.

23. Easier to manage

work-life balance.

24. Do we really need a

physical University?

25 Real conversations

give energy.

26 Do not forget interacting

on online meetings!

PEOPLE 28–31 28 Freed slaves became

labour prisoners.

30. Wants to create

a better future.

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Jonas Simonson Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG

Masthead

The email crash has affected us all N INCIDENT” was the term used to describe the fact that about 5,000 University of Gothenburg employees lost the use of their email accounts on September 18.

Staff who the GU JOURNAL spoke to used harsher words to describe it, such as ”disaster”, ”chaos”, ”meltdown” and ”total failure”. No matter what word you use, the email crash has affected us all and shows the vulnerability of the digital systems we depend on. Of paramount importance is an open and in-depth investigation into what happened to prevent it from happening again. If the problems continue, it can affect confidence in the University of Gothenburg, as Ola Vigsö mentioned on Swedish Radio. The email crash has also delayed the release of this issue, which Swedish paper version is sent to all employees.

“EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES” is a new way to work together, launched by French President Emmanuel Macron. The University of Gothenburg is part of the EUTOPIA network, together with five other universities. The cooperation has already started, among other things with a course in Euro-

pean Studies, and we of course hope this will be a success.

The pandemic has led to decreased air travel, among other things. At our University, the flights to Stockholm have decreased by 90 percent. But also train travel has gone down with about 80 percent. This might seem like a good thing, but in the slightly longer term, the pandemic does not affect the climate crises. As Professor Deliang Chen points out, we cannot continue living the way we do now, with tens of millions of people who have barely been able to leave their homes and millions of people unemployed.

AND YOU, HOW are you faring at home? We

have interviewed some employees who think that working from home is going really well. It must be an interesting time for organisational researchers, mapping how people are doing in these unusual circumstances.

As always, we want to hear from you, our readers! Contact us with tips and ideas, opinions, praise and criticism.

ALLAN ERIKSSON & EVA LUNDGREN

GUJOURNAL AUTUMN 2020

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News

IT-manager in the middle of the crisis

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GUJOURNAL AUTUMN 2020

After one month, the e-mail crash is far from resolved. A majority of those affected have got their inbox back, even if it was empty.

However, hundreds of people still have no functioning email.

– From our perspective, the focus is now on getting the functionality up and running, says IT Manager Sören Ehrnberg.

But the external audit must ascertain what happened and why. It is also unclear whether all the data can be recovered.

AT THE TIME OF the journal’s deadline (October 15), the IT Unit had managed to restore 3,300 active e-mail accounts out of a total of 5,000. The work on restoring the inboxes takes time, which the IT manager finds regrettable.

– We completely understand that it is frustrating to lose your email and that a lot of people have had to wait so long. It is very serious and we are doing everything we can to sort this out. It is a difficult balancing act between, on the one hand getting the communication in and out, and on the other hand not jeopardizing the stored data. The risk of turning it back on across the board is that we risk destroying an empty mailbox. It is a very complex and multifaceted computer environment with different email programmes, which complicates the work that to a great extent has to be done manually for each user, says Sören Ehrnberg.

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of pressure on IT support, which has had to handle three times as many cases as usual on a daily basis, and is getting almost 300 calls a day. Most of them involve the email crash. According to Zeljko Ergic, Head of IT Support, close to 100 people are working on the email incident.

– And almost 60 percent of them have worked overtime to varying degrees. In

addition, staff from our operating partner ATEA and subcontractors such as Microsoft have been extensively involved in the work.

The damaged disks have been sent to the hard disk company IBIS, which will try to save the data on them. As far as the GU Journal can ascertain, the company charges SEK 6,000-7,000 per hour for the work.

– But in the context this is not a lot of money, considering the impact this has had on the university. The focus is on correcting it, rather than on what it costs, says Sören Ehrnberg.

According to the IT manager, the crash was due to a hidden bug in the firmware, which damaged the email systems. The entire incident has been reported to the Swedish Data Protection Authority. The incident will be examined by external investigators, according to a decision by the University’s Chair of the Board and Vice-Chancellor. Sören Ehrnberg believes that it will involve two different reviews: a technical audit and another more indepth investigation that focuses on the process and working methods.

– What we know currently is that the storage disks failed, both the regular ones and the backups at the same time.

We would like to know more about the exact cause. The “black box” will be analysed and the audit will find out what is right or wrong.

Is there a risk of data and email history being lost?

– That risk cannot be ruled out. Currently, we do not know what the prognosis is. We are collecting everything that is available and that we can get our hands on. The best case scenario is that we can recreate everything as it was before the crash, and the worst case scenario is that we can recreate what exists today, says Sören Ehrnberg.

What responsibility does the company ATEA, which manages the University of Gothenburg’s email system, have for what happened, given that they have 24/7 monitoring?

– This is something that the audit will have to take a closer look at. Our external partners are doing everything they can to get your email up and running and save data. But the hardware itself is owned by and located at the University of Gothenburg.

What lessons have you learned from the email crash?

– We could not even imagine this happening, so it is difficult to learn any lessons from it. One challenge is to communicate the right information to the rest of the organisation. Thankfully, we have had around-the-clock help from the Communication Unit.

– In March, we had a finalized plan to migrate everyone over to the new Office 365 platform, which is cloud-based and thus more secure. But then the corona pandemic happened and we had to postpone those plans. But I’m pretty sure this would not have happened if we had switched to that solution this spring, says Zeljko Ergic, who emphasizes that the IT Unit adheres to Microsoft’s procedures (best practice) for what to do in a crisis like this.

– We try to minimize the impact for our users. We are working in the background to create a recovery mailbox that we are also transferring to the cloud to secure the information. We completely understand that it has created a tremendous amount of irritation and anger.

Email is very important. My staff in IT are extremely skilled and have a good understanding of the users’ experience, so we are doing our utmost to solve the problems as soon as possible.

Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg

The e-mail crisis has lead to a great amount of questions from the staff.

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News

A crash that affects th The e-mail crash, which has been going on since September 18, has resulted in lot of irritation and anxiety. Now most people have got their email back, but their mailboxes are still empty and their contacts are gone.

The GU Journal has spoken to a number of concerned employees.

Text: Allan Eriksson & Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

MARIA SJÖBERG, Professor of

History, is also concerned that the incident might affect her research.

– I am working with the Swedish women’s biographical dictionary with more than 400 participating authors. We only communicate via email, so for us it is very serious when it does not work. Now, using a colleague’s email, we were able to inform the people who had previously contributed to the project about what happened. But we do not know anything regarding any new authors who might have tried to contact us. I also work with colleagues in Canada and they wondered how an incident like this could even be possible.

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ALEXANDRA WEILENMANN, Professor of Interaction Design, believes that the most serious consequences to research will only become apparent in the long run.

– Personally, the incident has resulted in delays in, above all, a project where we were just about to start a survey study. On the very day the email stopped working, I had presented the project to external stakeholders and asked them to contact me regarding collaboration. Now I do not even know if anyone tried to contact me or if anyone received cryptic error messages and maybe gave up. It worries me that I might appear slapdash and unprofessional.

ANN-MARIE EKENGREN, Head of the Department of Political Science, points out that it is mainly external communication that has been affected.

– We got started pretty quickly with Teams, which the University of Gothenburg’s information page explained we should use. But when it comes to external parties, I am not sure if there are any good alternatives, so what do you do? External communication is particularly difficult when the email system fails in a situation where the majority of people in the research world are working from home.

STAFFAN I. LINDBERG,

Professor of Political Science.

Research is going to be particularly hard hit – It is a disaster and completely unacceptable from a operational point of view. I’ve never even heard of anything like this at any university.

he whole University

SUSANNE DODILLET, Senior

Lecturer at the Department of Education and Special Education, thinks that the loss of addresses is a bigger disaster than the email crash itself.

– At the same time as I got my email back, my entire private address book disappeared from my private mobile phone. That was because I registered my University of Gothenburg address in the phone’s email app. I thought that was secure.

MARIA SUNNERSTAM, Deputy

Head of the PIL unit, got her email back after two weeks.

– But it is behaving strangely.

Some emails I sent remain in the outbox, it seems as if they are not being sent. I also usually archive my emails in different folders and because I made a backup before the crash, I have got some of my emails back. But most of it is gone.

JOHAN MAGNUSSON,

Director of the Swedish Centre for Digital Innovation, is one of several employees who is critical of the handling of the email crash.

– When this happens, clear communication is necessary regarding what has happened, how it will be solved and what will be set up in the future. It is the university’s management that should assume this responsibility, not IT, and it has not been done.

The email system crashed while a modernization was underway.

– Now there is a risk that employees will lose confidence in the technology and create their own solutions instead, which potentially might lead to an enormous growth of shadow IT. Such a nightmare must be actively opposed by the university’s management.

The only way is through clear communication.

GÜNTHER DIPPE, IT Manager at the National Centre for Mathematics Education (NCM), believes that the incident has created both anxiety and anger among employees.

– It did not get any better when the IT manager released a statement to Göteborgs-Posten where he talked about alternative communication routes which made the University of Gothenburg’s employees hit the roof. The university’s management also handled the crash badly from the start, that is, they did not handle it at all. Perhaps they were not informed how serious the situation was? As far as I know, I have not been affected too badly by the incident. But NCM has several projects that are in critical stages where email communication is absolutely crucial. The incident has obviously caused serious delays and a lot of extra work, as we cannot communicate in the way we normally do. Now that we have finally started to get our mailboxes back, we still do not have access to our old emails. This is another very serious problem that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

SARA THOMÉE, Researcher at

the Department of Psychology, believes that the email crash demonstrates the need to be prepared for unexpected situations.

– There should be procedures for how to respond when something happens, so that we know to always go to the internal website to get information and that everyone is aware of the alternative communication channels. In other sectors, there are regular staff meetings that everyone attends, but universities are different. People are more spread out and the information does not always reach them, especially not now when most people are working from home. However, crises usually shake things up: just think of how the pandemic has made us learn how to use the digital platforms which we have actually had access to for a long time.

Can you imagine what would happen if the entire internet suddenly died. Despite everything, people seem to carry on working anyway, you find other ways of communicating and that is positive.

GUJOURNAL AUTUMN 2020

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News

Double ceremonies next year Two professorial inaugurations in the spring and two doctoral conferment ceremonies in the autumn.

That is the plan for the University of Gothenburg’s major ceremonies next year.

– Anyone who wants a doctoral hats must order one in good time. Otherwise, there is a risk that our hatter will not have time, Marie Lowrie explains.

forced all employees at the University of Gothenburg to change the way they work. But for Academic Ceremonies at the Joint Administration, the change has entailed a particular set of problems. This year’s ceremonies have been cancelled, and most of them will be held next year instead.

– The graduation ceremony for students who are active in the student union is planned to take place in a safe manner, from a Covid-19 perspective, on December 15, says Marie Lowrie. The reason why we do not want to postpone the ceremony is that many students will be leaving after their studies and will therefore not be able to participate at a later date.

THERE WILL BE no Nobel Prize

lectures this autumn. However, next year’s Diligent and Devoted Service to the Realm Ceremony, as well as the retirement ceremony will go ahead as planned.

– The Felix Neubergh Lecture has been moved forward because the Department of Historical Studies, which will be hosting the lecture, wants to give employees and students the opportunity to meet the winner in person.

The professorial inauguration will be held over two days in May and the doctoral conferment ceremony over two days in October, says Marie Lowrie.

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Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG

PANDEMIN HAR tThe pandemic has

Comedian Claes Eriksson became honorary doctor in 2019.

– Most universities in the country have decided to adapt their ceremonies rather than cancel them. After discussions with Svenska Akademiska Högtidskonventet, which is the national network of masters of ceremonies, we have come to the conclusion that a digital solution might work for smaller events. But when it comes to the major academic ceremonies – the doctoral conferment ceremony, the professorial inauguration and the vice chancellor inauguration – it will be difficult in an online format to maintain the dignity, tradition and cultural heritage that these ceremonies require.

They are also special because they involve a symbolic transition where doctoral students become doctors and senior lecturers new professors.

THE PLANNING IS preliminary and will obviously be affected by how the pandemic develops. But if everything goes as planned, next year will be unusually hectic for Academic Ceremonies, Marie Lowrie explains.

– And not just for us, but for everyone involved, such as manage-

Most universities do what we do, and adapt rather than cancel.

ment at the University of Gothenburg, employees and students at the Faculty of Arts, who are responsible for the entertainment, as well as many others. For all the participants, it is important to plan and prepare in advance. And this applies to ordering your hat, in particular. The hat is tailored to fit the doctor’s head and takes several days to make. So do not wait too long …

Eva Lundgren

MARIE LOWRIE

Facts PLANNED CEREMONIES (WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE CHANGES): Graduation Ceremony 2020: December 15

Don’t forget to order your hat!

The easiest way to do this is to go to the hatter Liza Franzén on Västra Skansgatan.

Diligent and Devoted Service to the Realm: January 28 Retirement Ceremony: February 25 Professorial Inauguration: May 21 and 22 Graduation Ceremony 2021: May 25 Doctoral Conferment Ceremony: October 15 and 16

Increased saved capital The University of Gothenburg has achieved its educational mandate for the first time in eight years.

At the same time, most of the indications show that the university will also have a surplus this year and thereby increase its saved capital.

IT IS ESTIMATED that there will

be a surplus of SEK 30 million for the entire year. It is better than expected and is mainly due to improved educational performance, an increased income from grants and lower costs than planned. This was evident from the financial follow-up carried out after the first eight months of the year, the so-called four-monthly report, which was presented to the University Board in mid-October.

– I am most pleased about the fact that the university is fulfilling its educational mandate, says CFO Peter Tellberg.

All the faculties, except the Sahlgrenska Academy, will achieve their educational mandates.

However, this year’s forecast of plus SEK 30 million should be taken with a pinch of salt, Peter Tellberg emphasizes.

– CONSIDERING THAT we have a

turnover of SEK 7 billion, 30 million is relatively little. Although I’m sure it will be a positive result, the question is by how much.

The follow-up shows that personnel costs have increased by SEK 77 million, but that is not due to having more employees, says Peter Tellberg.

– We have seen a very small decrease compared to the same period last year. It may sound a little strange that we have achieved our mandate for the first time in eight years, at the same time as we were given extended mandates this year, but without hiring more lecturers.

One of the bright spots is that research grants are continuing to increase, especially from Swedish donors.

– It is an improvement of 25 percent. The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation accounts for the largest increase, 66 million, followed by the Swedish Cancer Society with 22 million. The fact that research income is increasing, as well as the fact that we are accepting more students, can be seen as a quality indicator.

This means that the balanced capital has been replenished by an estimated SEK 30 million and that at the end of the year it will amount to just over SEK 1.2 billion.

The vast majority of this money, around SEK 900 million, is designated for research assignments that have not yet been completed.

BUT PETER TELLBERG does not believe that the coronavirus pandemic will have a major effect on the finances.

– A surprisingly small effect actually. It was thought that it would have a significant impact, but it has not.

One fear was that there would be significantly fewer foreign, fee-paying students at the University of Gothenburg but that did not happen. There has only been a small decrease compared to 2019.

Although the financial situation is generally stable, there are considerable differences between faculties, departments and research groups. The Faculty of Humanities is still experiencing a tough financial situation. Last year, the University Board decided to contribute SEK 10 million per year for the period 2021–2023 to cope with the adjustment and the sharp increase in rental costs. Although the latest follow-up shows a rapid recovery. From having budgeted a result of minus SEK 17 million, the forecast is now down to minus SEK 3 million for the entire year.

– THE FACULTY HAS worked

extremely hard and is almost in balance. On the research side, things are looking good, but the main explanation is the increased influx of students. Courses that

The fact that research income is increasing, as well as the fact that we are accepting more students, can be seen as a quality indicator.

PETER TELLBERG

are almost full in terms of student numbers have a very positive effect on the finances.

The Joint Administration is also in a difficult situation. The forecast points to a deficit of SEK 31 million, which is SEK 7 million more than planned.

– This did not happen overnight. The Joint Administration has had increased costs over time, which has coincided with an extended mandate that does not align with their current budget.

AN EXTERNAL auditor will in-

vestigate the current model for financing the Joint Administration and University Library for the financial year 2022. Furthermore, a savings requirement of SEK 30 million has been imposed on the Joint Administration for the period 2021–2022, which corresponds to savings of 6.4 percent.

– It is probably not such a good idea to do both of these right now, Peter Tellberg points out.

Despite a positive result, there are challenges and the situation remains uncertain. This primarily applies to the content of the Research and Innovation Bill that will be coming in November.

– It might provide great opportunities, but the risk is that the money will be coming towards the end of the year, and that we do not have time to distribute it and use it in time.

Allan Eriksson

Facts PREDICTIONS FOR 2020 (MILLIONS CROWNS) Faculty of Humanities Faculty of Social Sciences School of Business, Economics and Law Faculty of Education Faculty of Science Sahlgrenska Academy Faculty of FIne Arts IT-Faculty Central Administration

-3 18 -7 16 5 30 -5 -4 -31

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Notice

Strategies and goals in progress

The new vision, A University for the World, forms the basis for the development of the strategy that is now underway. An initial proposal was presented to the Board on September 8. It has since been discussed in the Department Management Council, at the Vice Chancellor’s strategy meeting and in operational discussions where the university’s management meets the faculty management.

– The vision spans a 10-year period, but the goals and strategies span a three-year period, explains Fredrika Lagergren Wahlin, convener of the vision’s project management. We have had intense discussions about what the university should focus on. The strategies are supposed to help us move forward, but they do not involve things we have to do anyway as a public body. The new vision also clearly points to the importance of autonomy and academic freedom. Therefore, we should not centrally be telling the rest of organisation what to do. Instead, the common strategies should be based on certain overall po-

LD EN VÄ R OM

ETT UNIVERSITET FÖR VÄRLDEN

EN ON ATI

RANKING. In this year’s subject ranking from the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also called the Shanghai ranking, the University of Gothenburg’s Institute of Odontology was in the top ranking in the Dentistry & Oral Science category. This means that the research ranking at the Institute of Odontology has climbed from 26th place last year to 18th place this year. It is the highest ranking for the University of Gothenburg, and the Institute also obtained the highest ranking of the leading universities in Sweden.

– Our high ranking, seen from a local, national and international perspective, is the result of hard work from all the Institute’s employees. You could question measurement methods and indicators that form the basis for this ranking, but it is nevertheless considered a prestigious list, says the Head of the Institute, Peter Lingström.

NIS GA OR

Odontology top-ranked again

VISION. What goals and strategies should the university have? We have been preoccupied with that question since the vision was established in mid-April. Among other things, it is about developing a number of overall focus areas.

– The strategies will act as support for the development of our operations and will be evaluated after a three-year period, explains Deputy Vice-Chancellor Fredrika Lagergren Wahlin.

VETENSKAPSSAMHÄLLET V I S I O N 2 0 30

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sitions or focus areas, for example the future management of our skills supply.

Departments and faculties must then be able to link their own operational strategies to the common strategy.

After three years, the strategies will be followed up at the same time as the next three-year period commences.

The strategies must also be supplemented with university-wide one-year operational plans. Departments and faculties must also be able to combine these with their own plans.

– Discussions on strategies, goals and operational plans will continue at various levels during the autumn. The Board is expected to make a decision at the beginning of December, Fredrika Lagergren Wahlin explains.

Find out more about the vision here: https://medarbetarportalen.gu.se/organisation/Visionsarbete. len.gu.se/organisation/Visionsarbete.

The RED 19 report now available in print REPORT. The RED 19 report has now been printed and will be distributed within the university over the coming weeks. Research Evaluation for Development 2019 (RED 19) is a quality assessment that focuses on improving research and research environments. It is in line with the goal in Vision 2020 that the university’s research should

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be of a high international standard and quality.

The purpose of RED 19 is to identify conditions and strategies that enable and create good research environments.

The process and outcome of the assessment will contribute to the quality development of the university’s research and will function as an important instrument for manage-

ment and governance.

The panel reports have previously been published online.

If you have any questions or would like to obtain your own copy of the RED 19 report, contact Mattias Lindgren Sandgren at the Grants and Innovation Office, email, mattias.lindgren@gu.se.

Notice

Reduction in air travel

Photo: NIKLAS MAUPOIX

ENVIRONMENT. At the University of Gothenburg, it is clear that air travel has decreased dramatically. In total, the aviation industry has declined by almost 80 percent during the period from March to September this year. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions from air travel have plummeted by 75 percent and are down to record low levels, after steadily increasing for decades. Last year, at the same point in time, the cost of air travel for employees was SEK 24.6 million and this year that figure is SEK 5.3 million.

– All forms of travel have decreased. The positive thing is that flights to Stockholm have decreased by 90 percent, which is in line with our policy. But you could ask the question how well we are managing the task of educating and researching when we can no longer travel in the same way as before, says Fredrik Högberg, Environmental Coordinator at the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development (GMV).

You might think that this has led to an increase in the number of train journeys, but this is not the case, he points out.

– Train travel has decreased by 80 percent. Rather, it has led to an explosion in the use of digital tools, which also lead to carbon dioxide emissions.

Are we Zooming ourselves to death?

Whether reduced air travel will have any effects over time is unclear, says Fredrik Högberg.

Svetlana Aleksievich concluded this year’s book fair FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Due to the hardening climate for freedom of expression in large parts of the world, not least noticeably these days in Belarus, this year’s book fair in Gothenburg concluded with an exclusive interview with Svetlana Aleksievich on the theme of freedom of speech and literature. Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a democratic society – and what significance can a writer have in its development? The initiator of the interview was the Jonsered Manor –

intellectual centre and the University of Gothenburg’s special meeting place for collaboration – together with interviewer Johan Öberg, former cultural advisor at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow and most recently research advisor at the Faculty of Arts. Fredrika Lagergren Wahlin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Collaboration, also took part and she emphasized the importance of safeguarding both academic freedom and freedom of expression in a less tolerant world.

Do not forget your gifts and rewards NOR. On September 24, the Vice-Chancellor decided that gifts awarded in connection with the ceremony for Diligent and Devoted Service to the Realm must be collected within two years. The reason being that the number of gifts that have not been collected, is growing year by year.

– What we think is strange is that the recipients have taken the time to select and notify us of which gift they want, but then they have not picked them up. Most people receive their gifts at the ceremony

in February, but contacting us and picking them up afterwards has always worked well, says Carina Elmäng at Academic Ceremonies.

The gifts are chosen by the Swedish Agency for Government Employers, but it is up to each authority to decide for how long the gifts will be kept.

Do you have a gift you have not collected?

Contact Academic Ceremonies: hogtider@gu.se You can choose from: gold medal, gold wristwatch (men’s watch/women’s watch) or the following items from Orrefors Kosta Boda: cut crystal bowl, engraved crystal bowl, sculpture/Billgren, or sculpture/ Vallien.

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Open to the unimagined

– We must prepare for the unexpected, says Jonas Simonson. He is the new professor at the Academy of Music and Drama and a freelance flautist. The prepared unforeseen happens when he improvises with other musicians.

But in other areas of life as well, it is important to be able to handle the unexpected – for example when a pandemic strikes.

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

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E MEET IN the Green Room at Konstepidemin, an area where Jonas Simonson lives when he is not lecturing at the Academy of Music and Drama. He rummages around in a box of flutes that he always brings with him when he is on tour; they include a Härjedalspipa (a Swedish traditional fipple flute), a månmarkapipa (also a fipple flute) and a double willow flute. In the end, he chooses an instrument made of drainpipes – French drainpipes, he explains.

– The flute is one of the world’s oldest instruments.

Outside the city of Ulm in southern Germany, a bone flute was found that is at least 35,000 years old. But people probably played on wood or reed pipes much further back than that. Neuroscientists believe that culture, not least music and dance, was what made us the social beings we are. We have always come together to sing and play – especially when it comes to important things, such as weddings and funerals. The music opens us up to something bigger than when we just spend time together; we gain access to other emotional states and depths within us that provide belonging and context.

While he is talking, Jonas Simonson puts the flute together and lifts it to his lips. When he starts to play the room starts to swing. Folk-rock jazz, I would probably call it, but Jonas Simonson explains that it is a Halling improvisation. However, he thinks that what genre a piece of music belongs to is less important.

– People have a need to categorize and divide things up, but life is often more complicated. The term “folk music” was coined by the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder at the end of the 18th century. He believed that the music of the peasant population of a certain area was connected with the soul of that community in some way. This was at the start of the period of national romanticism when a privileged class decided what was to be included as part of the folk tradition and where female musicians were excluded. But even if a tradition can have regional origins, it has nothing to do with nations themselves. It is not the case that the music south of Svinesund is particularly different to the music a little further north, or that musicians from Skåne have more contact with people from the north of Sweden than with musicians from the other side of the strait.

NEITHER IS FOLK music a museum artefact consisting of voiced sound that should be preserved for posterity, but rather something that is constantly changing and influenced by many centuries of tradition as well as by what is happening in society right now.

– The folk music that I started to be interested in at the beginning of the 1980s has gone through tremendous change and today consists of music that we could not even imagine would be created. Nowadays, there is an entirely different level of acceptance regarding what different musical expressions can be included in the concept. The musical philosopher Lydia Goehr talks about “open concepts”, a term that, depending on the context and the place, is defined differently and constantly changing over time.

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Profile

I have friends who have rented or even sold their apartments in order to be able to survive financially Jonas Simonson was 21 years old when he came in contact with the folk music group Groupa.

– I grew up in Skara, my mother was a physiotherapist and my father was a priest, which meant that I was introduced to church music at a young age. I went to the municipal music school and played the flute, that was the only class available, as the guitar and drum classes were full. Music school was excellent at that time and was like an after-school club where me and my friends used to hang out. Eventually, I went on to study at Ljungskile adult education college, then I studied for two years at the College of Music here in Gothenburg, but I felt I wanted to do something different. Coming into contact with Groupa opened up a whole new world for me and got me interested in the particular style of playing that is inherent to folk music. I started to listen to the old phonograph recordings of folk music and became interested in how that type of tradition could develop.

SINCE THEN, Jonas Simonson has played in a number of ensembles and diverse constellations, including the groups Bäsk, Kapell Frisell, Sångensemblen Amanda, Zephyr and the Crane Dance Trio. He has demonstrated that it is possible to marry very different musical styles through his collaboration with the bass player Anders Jormin and the organist Karin Nelson, both of whom are colleagues at the Academy of Music and Drama. In collaboration with the band Den Fule (The Ugly), he has also produced a CD together with the Senegalese duo Solo and Adama Cissokho and the Canadian spoken -word artist Sofia Baig.

– That project entailed allowing the different musical expressions to meld together to create something new and unexpected. What interests me most, is just that type of context, where tradition, improvisation and composition interact to create the prepared unforeseen.

Since the beginning of 2001 until very recently, Jonas Simonson was the programme manager for the world culture programme at the Academy of Music and Drama. He is also involved in the development of different feedback methods, such as the Critical Response Process, created by the American choreographer Liz Lerman.

– IT INVOLVES DIVIDING up the feedback into different

stages in order to understand what is most beneficial for the person receiving the response. The method was created for the artistic sector but can actually be used in all kinds of processes that require a friendly critical voice. It has been used together with communicators at the Academy of Music and Drama and with managers at Friskis och Svettis.

The pandemic and the requirement to work from home have obviously made it difficult to give really good feedback to the students, says Jonas Simonson.

– In particular, the ensemble playing has been affected. Instead, we have spent a lot of time on recording and studio techniques, which is also important. We also

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have a number of courses on the theme The World of the Freelancer, as life as a freelancer will be the reality for most of our students. At the moment, these courses feel almost cynical. It was difficult trying to make a living as a musician even before the pandemic, but now it is virtually impossible. I have friends who have rented or even sold their apartments in order to be able to survive financially. If we want to retain cultural diversity, we have to examine how grants are allocated and greatly increase them to freelancers and to those who arrange live events in which freelancers perform.

We could also do what they have done in Norway. At many major public events, for example the official opening of a power station or the like, the première of a work commissioned for the occasion is often incorporated. It is a way of creating interest in and engagement for contemporary music, which Sweden could learn from.

As a professor, Jonas Simonson will have more time for research.

– Art has always challenged, examined the potential for new directions and contained strong reflections. I would say that artistic research has built on the handson traditions that are accommodated within the various artistic disciplines. It involves watching and describing how the actual execution becomes a creative process. It teaches us more about art and the creative process, and contributes to an increased understanding of how these events develop and for the role and function of art in society.

WHAT ARTISTIC RESEARCH involves is still fervently

debated, decades after the term was coined.

– To a great extent, artistic research is about the process, about how a problem is processed and how different strategies can influence it. I am currently working on a solo project where I am investigating how my flutes can be used in the interface between improvisation, composition and traditional music. Everything I have done so far has been done in interaction with the audience, and for me it is important to continue to do so, I want to be relevant outside academia as well.

The significance of interplay, with other musicians as well as with the audience, has perhaps become even more evident when, because of the pandemic, we have not been able to meet in the same way as we did before, Jonas Simonson points out.

– That was particularly evident during the Göteborg Folk Festival in collaboration with Internationella Spelmansstämman at Konstepidemin at the beginning of September, where corona restrictions were in place.

Both the musicians and the public were delighted, this was really something that everyone had been longing for! Playing together means a party, a celebration, jamming, something that is fun to be part of . But it is more than that; a need that is about our actual human nature and which is a way to make us practise encountering the prepared unforeseen, which is what life is all about.

Jonas Simonson Latest achievement: New Professor of Musical Performance at the Academy of Music and Drama.

Role: He lectures in ensemble, music theory and individual teaching. Has previously worked as a flute and ensemble teacher at the Royal College of Music, Ingesund College of Music, Malmö Academy of Music, University College of Music Education in Stockholm and the Danish National Academy of Music.

Plays in the following bands Groupa, Zephyr, ­Tuultenpesä and Jormin/Nelsson/Simonson. Has previously played in Den Fule, Bäsk, Kapell Frisell and Sångensemblen Amanda.

The five different criteria or definitions of folk music, according to the musician Per ­Gudmundson: Social demarcation, geographic demarcation, unknown composer, musical style, and the passing on of music down through the ­generations.

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Pandemic bring environmental b The global reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 is expected to decline by 8 percent, according to the International Energy Agency, IEA. However, the decline is expected to be short-lived.

– People’s changed behaviour can certainly have a symbolic meaning. But for the climate, this 8 percent means nothing, says Deliang Chen, Professor of Physical Meteorology and coordinating lead author at the IPCC. Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

REDUCTION IN ACTIVITIES, traffic and an increased

number of people working from home have led to less greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.

– It is of course positive, says Deliang Chen. But greenhouse gases have a long lifespan and have been emitted by humans throughout 200 years of industrialization. Global warming is responding to these accumulated emissions. A reduction of 8 percent in one year means that we will emit 47 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide instead of 51 billion tonnes; it will not affect the climate crisis at all. Furthermore, if we think about what it has cost to reduce the level of emissions, including tens of millions of people who have barely been able to leave their homes and millions of people unemployed, we realize that our current way of life will not be sustainable in the long run.

However, many people have had positive experiences of being forced to change their lives and live in a simpler way – Maybe the pandemic can have a beneficial effect in that we learn to appreciate everyday things, such as

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taking a walk outdoors and spending time with family and friends, instead of exotic trips to distant lands. If that insight can be maintained, it will of course be good for the climate.

The Covid-19 pandemic can be seen as an indication of what climate change can bring, says Deliang Chen.

– BILL GATES, among others, has pointed out that climate change will have a similar, but more widespread, effect as the pandemic. If emissions continue to increase as they are doing today, it is estimated that they will cause perhaps five times as many deaths as the current pandemic by the turn of the next century. When it comes to the climate, however, it is still possible to act, even though time is running out.

Deliang Chen points out that a crisis often involves new lessons.

– The financial crisis of 2008–2009 led to investments in renewable energy that continue to this day.

Germany plans to phase out all nuclear power by 2022 and will close its coal-fired power plants by 2038.

gs no benefits A reduction of 8 percent in one year … will not affect the climate crisis at all.

DELIANG CHEN

France is also making major climate investments, as are China and India. But the fact that the United States has left the Paris Agreement is of course not good; if such a large, rich nation does not want to join, then why should smaller and poorer countries make an effort?

Deliang Chen hopes that the different countries around the world will take advantage of the opportunity for change once the pandemic has subsided.

– I AM BIT OF A pessimist, though I don’t want to, becau-

se, too often, I have seen political decisions go against what the science says. Throughout history, man has also been shown to have a short memory, so there is a risk that we will soon forget everything we have learned in recent months and revert to our previous way of life.

On the positive side, however, there is a clear debate in Europe and elsewhere in the world that the economic recovery must be green. So my hope is that when the wheels eventually start turning again, they will do so in a way that is more sustainable for the climate.

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EUTOPIA

a new cooperation Text: Eva Lundgren Illustration: Maria Källström

The European Universities Initiative – this is the name of the European Commission’s investment in networks between different universities in Europe that will address the many challenges of the future. The EUTOPIA network that the University of Gothenburg is part of was one of the first to receive funding.

– The European Universities Initiative is the model for the development of higher education that the EU will invest in in the future.

That is why it is important to participate from the beginning, explains Pro Vice-Chancellor Mattias Goksör.

IT WAS THE FRENCH PRESIDENT, Emmanuel Macron,

who three years ago proposed the idea of a European Universities initiative where universities collaborate across national borders. Today, there are 41 networks consisting of a total of approximately 280 European universities, of which 11 are Swedish.

– Since the University of Gothenburg has been involved from the beginning, we have a tremendous opportunity to influence the project, says Mattias Goksör, who is responsible for the management of EUTOPIA on behalf of the University of Gothenburg. Our priorities are about sustainability, digitalisation and student influence. For us, it is obvious that students should be able to influence their education, but this is not the case everywhere.

The goal of EUTOPIA is the free movement of students and staff. But that is thirty years down the road.

At the moment, it is a three-year pilot project.

– Among other things, the participating universities will exchange experiences and learn from each other, explains Coordinator Karin Jonson. The University of Gothenburg’s Research Leader Initiative, which supports young research leaders, is an example of an initiative from the University of Gothenburg, and we can also be inspired by the University of Warwick’s virtual student conferences, for example. The idea is also to take advantage of the contacts the various universities have established with wider society. In the case of the University of Gothenburg these include the Business Region Gothenburg, the Västra Götaland region and Lindholmen Science Park.

The network will also map infrastructure and their areas of strength, says Karin Jonson.

– But we must also examine the barriers to col-

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laboration that currently exist, for example when it comes to legislation.

For example, according to the Higher Education Ordinance we cannot accept credits from a foreign university in a Swedish degree. However, the Commission has made it clear that we must be visionary in our approach and that it is not wrong to fail.

Even though laws and regulations can create problems, it is possible to implement many collaborations now, Mattias Goksör points out.

– We have already started a number of “learning units” with collaboration at the course level. We could also create joint theoretical courses for the students, which do not award points.

And by opening up lectures and workshops, students from the other universities can get an idea of what it is like to study in Sweden.

THE 5 MILLION EURO that each European university is financed with is no more than stimulus money, says Mattias Goksör.

– The cost of the collaboration is, of course, much higher. But much of what we have to do now, such as digitalising large parts of our educational programmes, still needs to be carried out. We now have the opportunity to develop together with other universities in Europe.

Sweden has so far been quite hesitant about the European Universities Initiative, says Mattias Goksör.

– What we do not want to see are differences in the universities’ ability to participate, where some universities receive support from their governments while others do not. That would be a cause for considerable concern.

Facts EUTOPIA was one of the first of the 41 European universities funded by the European Commission with EUR 5 million each.

EUTOPIA’s long-term goal is to offer free movement for students and staff by 2050. The ongoing collaboration though, is about a three-year trial operation, organized in seven work packages with a focus on project management,

education, research, regional collaboration, broadened recruitment, internationalization and sustainability. GU is responsible for the research package and has co-responsibility for the education package, where Vrije Universiteit Brussels has the main responsibility.

EUTOPIA includes: University of Gothenburg, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, CY Cergy Paris Université, University Pompeu

Fabra- Barcelona, Univerza v Ljubljana and the University of Warwick. The network consists of 165,000 students and 30,000 employees and has research centers in 760 areas.

On November 23–27, the University of Warwick will hold this autumn’s EUTOPIA Week. In the spring, it is time for GU to be responsible for EUTOPIA Week.

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Platform for research A mobility programme for researchers, support for young research leaders, collaboration on innovation and a large number of postdoctoral researchers, these are some of the opportunities that the EUTOPIA Alliance offers.

THE UNIVERSITY of Gothenburg is responsible for the work package within research, says Henrik Lindskog, Head of Research Grants at the Grants and Innovation Office, who assists Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Göran Landberg, in his role as the coordinator of the research part of EUTOPIA. – As the investment in the European Universities Initiative is part of the Erasmus collaboration, the research part was originally very small. But one advantage of EUTOPIA is that it can be used as a platform to seek additional EU funding, which has been very successful.

In addition to the initial allocation of 5 million euro for EUTOPIA, the research part has managed to obtain additional funding of no less than EUR 7.6 million.

Among other things, we have received 76 postdoctoral scholarships over a five-year period, of which 6 go to the University of Gothenburg.

The research part of EUTOPIA also includes a Young Leaders Academy Development Programme, inspired by the University of Gothenburg’s Research Leader Initiative (REAL).

– As part of the programme, young researchers learn, among other things, to manage a team, give feedback, write applications and reach out to wider society. We have also received funding for a mobility programme that will give rese-

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Among other things, we have received 76 postdoctoral scholarships over a five-year period HENRIK LINDSKOG

archers the opportunity to participate in exchanges with other teams at one of the participating universities. Due to Covid-19, the programme is currently on ice, but we are still accepting applications.

A FURTHER INVESTMENT is the project EUTOPIA-TRAIN, which has just been approved and which aims to develop a joint research and innovation agenda, amongst other things, says Henrik Lindskog.

– With the help of tools like SWOT analyses, the universities must identify areas where, as an alliance, we have the potential to excel. The idea is to also collaborate with industry and public stakeholders. The project also involves developing common guidelines concerning transparency, data management and other research support.

Societal challenges and the UN Sustainable Development Goals are central for EUTOPIA’s research activities. But in addition to the general directives, the ambition is that it will not exert any further influence over the researchers, Henrik Lindskog points out.

– The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation is primarily a political programme that aims to use research and innovation to create welfare and jobs in Europe, preferably as quickly as possible. Within the framework of the alliance, the focus is therefore on societal challenges, but we encourage researchers to come up with ideas themselves regarding what challenges they want to take on and how they want to tackle them.

Because without the commitment of the researchers, we will not achieve anything.

THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE of the European Universities Initiative is to eventually create a new model for how universities in Europe should operate. The ongoing projects are a platform for testing ideas where universities are encouraged to have the courage to fail, Henrik Lindskog explains.

– All major Swedish universities are involved in one of the EU Commission’s 41 initiatives. EUTOPIA is an opportunity for the University of Gothenburg’s employees to exercise influence and to have an impact on the future of the European Universities Initiative, an opportunity that it would be a shame not to take advantage of. It is also a major issue that should engage Sweden as a nation: What do we want to achieve with the European Universities Initiative and how should we collaborate with others?

European course first part of the project Europe in the World is the name of the course selected to be the University of Gothenburg’s first “learning unit” within the EUTOPIA network. The Course Coordinator is Lisbeth Aggestam, Associate Professor of Political Science.

– I think the course is a good choice, because it is multidisciplinary and it already has a strong international focus.

– THE AIM IS TO choose diverse courses

so that we get a broad presentation of the collaborating universities. The partnership might involve developing subject content and pedagogy, but it can also function as a bridge to other forms of collaboration, for example with businesses and organisations in the various regions. Physical or virtual mobility, among students and staff, can also be incorporated. All in all, the intention is that these learning units will develop into larger “learning communities”.

Europe in the World is a masters course in European studies with lecturers from a number of different disciplines. The students come from all over the world, not just Europe, says Lisbeth Aggestam.

– I think that the EUTOPIA partnership

Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG

THE EUTOPIA NETWORK’S first three years involve several pilot activities, including a total of thirty “learning units”, five at each participating university. These are courses that already exist at the universities, which in various ways will collaborate with similar educational programmes at the other universities. Six learning units have already begun collaborating, and in November a decision will be made on another twelve.

– Each university submits proposals for courses that may be appropriate, and then the participating universities make a joint decision regarding who should be accepted, says Deputy Vice-Chancellor Mette Sandoff, who is responsible for EUTOPIA’s work package for education.

Lisbeth Aggestam

Each university submits proposals for courses that may be appropriate ...

LISBETH AGGESTAM

has been extremely rewarding for them.

Among other things, we have had two guest lecturers from the network, one of whom is an expert on EU asylum policy.

Our contribution included a lecture by the former EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. It would be incredibly interesting if the partnership could be further developed, for example to enable our students to present their papers to students at the other universities as well, and vice versa, in order to open up perspectives and initiate different discussions. Through EUTOPIA, students also make new contacts, which will be important for them in their professional lives.

THE LONG-TERM goal is to create a

partnership where students, lecturers, researchers and other staff can move freely

between the universities in the network.

There are also hopes of eventually being able to create joint educational programmes. However, that is going to be a long journey, which is why the EUTOPIA partnership is planned until 2050, explains Jan Lif, coordinator of the work package for education.

– A survey is currently underway, led

by Senior Lecturer Anna-Maria Fjellman, of the opportunities and obstacles for in-depth collaboration. It might involve practical things, such as different semester start dates, how we calculate credits or which teaching platforms we use. But we also need to discuss cultural differences between universities, such as the view of who should have access to higher education or different perceptions of academic freedom. Achieving this level of collaboration is difficult but not impossible, hence the name “EUTOPIA”, and precisely because it is difficult, it is also interesting.

THE ONGOING PANDEMIC has given the partnership a boost, says Lisbeth Aggestam.

– It’s not fun to be forced to lecture online. But the fact that so many people have managed to become good at Zoom has been positive in this particular context.

Normally, we usually invite lecturers here and try to fit in as much as possible while the person is actually here. This time, it was obvious that the lecturers would have to participate digitally, which made both planning and implementation easier.

The University of Gothenburg has joint responsibility for EUTOPIA’s educational package, together with Vrije Universiteit Brussels, which has the principal responsibility.

– It does not mean more influence but that we have a greater organisational responsibility, says Mette Sandoff. Since the University of Gothenburg has the principal responsibility for EUTOPIA’s research package, we have been given a rather substantial role in the partnership, which of course is very exciting.

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Focus | Working from home

Back to the field Kerstin Johannesson is happy to be able to do more field work.

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

– I have spent the whole summer doing field work in northern Bohuslän. Being a biologist again has been great fun and something which, under normal circumstances, I barely have time for, says Kerstin Johannesson, Professor of Marine Ecology at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory.

THIS SPRING, Kerstin Johannesson had

plans to travel several times to Stockholm, once to Kiel and once to South Africa. Due to the pandemic, none of these trips actually took place.

The physical visits have been replaced by conferences and other meetings online.

– Previously, I have taken long-haul flights to attend conferences where, among other things, the climate was discussed. Of course, I have worried about that paradox, but since Tjärnö is a bit off the beaten track, I have still had to do a lot of travelling, usually by train, though.

Now we have had to adapt to online activities, and for me it has been something of an eye opener to realize how well most things work. Together with my col-

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leagues in Sheffield, I have had meetings, seminars and workshops online. Among other things, I think you hear better what the participants are saying during an online meeting and group discussions also work very well.

Physical meetings are usually seen as important, not least because you get to know colleagues during informal dinners.

– It can be like that, but during a large conference with maybe a thousand participants and a packed programme, you usually almost only have time to talk to people you already know. One alternative is to arrange a combination conference where Nordic participants could meet in Stockholm, but also connect with the USA or Australia, for example.

Not having to travel also gives me time to do plenty of other things, says Kerstin Johannesson.

– Admittedly you can work on the train but it is still tiring to travel. You have to plan and pack, sleep in a hotel room and get up early the next day to catch the train home. When all your energy is not taken up by travelling, you have time to think instead.

And one thing Kerstin Johannesson

When all your energy is not taken up by travelling, you have time to think instead.

KERSTIN JOHANNESSON

has had time to think about is why marine snails of the same species can look so different from one another.

– It has been a long time since I had an opportunity to spend so much time in the field with doctoral students and other researchers. So for me, it has mostly been positive not being able to travel, even though I understand that it has caused problems for lots of other people.

Easier to manage work-life balance

ABOUT A THIRD of Sweden’s population

who are gainfully employed have been working from home during the pandemic. 67 percent of them responded that they enjoy working from home.

However, the factors that affect well-being are not what you might think.

For example, according to the study it is not the case that people who have a long commute are more satisfied with working from home than people who live closer to their workplace. Nor does the number of children a person has or the age of the children seem to matter.

– IT MIGHT SOUND rather unexpected but

may be due to the fact that working from home makes it easier to manage your work-life balance, says Stefan Tengblad, Professor of Human Resource Management. You can drop off and pick up your children at a time that suits you, and it can be nice to do your laundry in the middle of the day instead of waiting until after work. Well-being increases if your partner is also satisfied with working from home and if your children can focus on their schoolwork. However, it does not seem to be important whether you are single or cohabiting, nor whether you have plenty of room or your living conditions are more cramped. People simply enjoy being able to have more control over their work.

People who consider themselves to be

extroverts appreciate working from home more than people who consider themselves to be introverts.

– It may seem surprising, because extroverts are also the ones who thrive most in office environments. But the reason may be that extroverts make new social contacts more easily, even if they are working from home, and also they

Photo: PRIVAT

Neither your salary level, how far you have to commute to work, nor if you have small children play a role in how well you enjoy working from home. What does affect the experience is personality, whether other family members enjoy working from home and how well communication with your manager works.

These are the findings of a survey conducted by Stefan Tengblad, among others.

In the future, we will work in a more individualized way ...

STEFAN TENGBLAD

have an easier time adapting to unexpected situations.

In order for working from home to work well, it is necessary to be able to communicate with your manager effectively and openly.

– Having good contact with colleagues is also important, Stefan Tengblad points out. The survey may have been influenced by the fact that it was carried out in June, when many people were longing for the holidays and appreciated being at home. But even if the results are to be interpreted with caution, it is still clear that the transition to working from home has gone really well.

STEFAN TENGBLAD believes that working

life will continue to change even after the pandemic.

– In the future, we will work in a more individualized way and combine working from home with working at the office.

There is a considerable need for new flexible forms of work, both for increased well-being and reduced stress, but also to save office space and contribute to a better environment. The technology does exist, but it is important to use it wisely.

Stefan Tengblad

Facts The survey was conducted in June and is a collaboration between Stefan Tengblad at the University of Gothenburg, Petri Kajonius at Lund University, Mårten Westberg at the European Institute of Behavioural Analysis and Sophie Hedestad from the research company Netigate. Of the 1,500 Swedes who participated in the survey, 506 responded that they worked from home during the pandemic. The participants had to answer additional questions regarding housing, family, transportation, personality, motivation, productivity and so on.

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Focus | Working from home

Why do we have a physical university?

Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG

This is a question that has long interested Niklas Egels Zandén.

However, due to the pandemic, the topic has now become particularly relevant.

In my experience, students are usually quite reluctant to raise their hands in a lecture hall with 150 people

THE FACT THAT the University of Gothen-

NIKLAS EGELS ZANDÉN

¨THE POTENTIAL IN increased online teaching has been debated for a long time. But now, when everyone suddenly has experience of Zoom and other platforms, it will be possible to conduct discussions on a completely different level, says Niklas Egels Zandén.

– What can we do online that we cannot do in a lecture hall? Are recorded lectures worse than lectures in a lecture hall, or perhaps in some instances better? The lecturer does not have to go on about the same thing for each new

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Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG

burg’s employees and students switched to online activities in record time has of course meant a lot of extra work and frustration. But it has also led to the development of new knowledge, emphasizes Niklas Egels Zandén, Professor of Management and Organization.

– Seeing the online transition as a necessary evil is not much fun, after all.

It is more fruitful to consider our new experiences as a type of research where, in our day-to-day work, we examine what works well and what, perhaps, does not work so well. The fact that we are all in the same boat, employees and students alike, provides particularly good conditions for experimenting, making mistakes and trying again. In different circumstances, the students would probably have had higher demands on perfection, but now they accept that everyone is doing the best they can.

course and the students can watch the lecture as often as they like. Recording your lecture on Zoom is also very easy.

It is also easy to use lecturers from other universities online.

– THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, Economics

and Law has, for example, purchased a series of HSTalks that provide pre-recorded lectures with experts in various fields. The students get to listen, then we lecturers put the lecture in a context, discuss it and practise.

It is often claimed that face-to-face meetings are better than virtual ones, but is that true?

– In my experience, students are usually quite reluctant to raise their hands in a lecture hall with 150 people, Niklas Egels Zandén points out. They are much better at using the chat feature in Zoom.

It also makes it easier for me because I can deal with the issues that are most relevant straight away, and save the other posts for later.

Breakout rooms is a Zoom function where the lecturer with a simple push of

a button can let the students discuss in small groups and then let them return to the lecture.

– One advantage is that it is quiet, group conversations in a classroom can be very loud. In Zoom, group calls can also be made very quickly, perhaps in the space of five minutes, as no one needs to move around or run out and get coffee.

Polls is another feature that makes it possible to ask a quick question and get an immediate answer.

– Students do not have to fiddle with their phones to use other platforms, but can easily answer with the push of a button in Zoom.

FACE-TO-FACE meetings are best suited

for discussions where students can come up with their own experiences and ideas, and where you can delve into a question that does not have a definitive answer, says Niklas Egels Zandén.

– If the courses are structured so that the teaching takes place mainly online, face-to-face meetings become all the more important. As a lecturer, you can demand that everyone is really well prepared on the occasions when we actually meet.

More online teaching could also be a solution to the university’s problems with its premises.

– Instead of holding a lecture at 8–10 on a Monday morning, because there is no other time available, you could have it online at 10-12. Fewer premises also means lower costs, which means more money for teaching. And that’s something all lecturers want, right?

Real conversations give energy, regardless of platform On September 15, Jonsered Manor hosted a full-day seminar on the US presidential election.

The seminar was held online with participants from both sides of the Atlantic.

– My opinion is that the conversations, the quality of the discussions and the intellectual exchange was as high as when the seminars are held at the manor, Lena Ulrika Rudeke explains.

THE SEMINARS at Jonsered Manor usu-

ally begin with lunch. Eating together is important to create the relaxed atmosphere and curiosity that characterizes the subsequent discussions. However, during the pandemic the seminars have been held via Zoom.

– Many people see digital platforms as merely a substitute for meetings in real life. But used correctly, an online platform can be a really excellent complement to face-to-face meetings, says Lena Ulrika Rudeke, Operations and Programme Manager at Jonsered Manor.

However, it is important to carefully prepare a digital seminar.

– We have listened to advice, discussed what works or does not work, how to work in large and in small groups. The risk you run when holding digital seminars is that they can be a little slow or that participants forget to take a break. The challenge is to maintain a certain pace, while also allowing everyone the time to have their say.

As the moderator of a seminar, you must constantly infuse the seminar with energy, in a way that stimulates and promotes the level of engagement and dialogue.

ONE OF A NUMBER of advantages of digital

seminars is that you can reach other participants than those who are able to physically get to a certain place, Lena Ulrika Rudeke points out.

– It can be difficult for people with a full schedule to find time for a Jonsered seminar. And for people who live out in the country, who do not have an organisation

Face-to-face meetings on site generate a particular presence, but the digital ones create a different kind of proximity.

LENA ULRIKA RUDEKE

behind them, such as artists and writers, a trip to Jonsered can be too expensive.

Another advantage is that participation becomes more egalitarian online, says Lena Ulrika Rudeke.

– SOMETIMES IT CAN be easier to start

a digital discussion than a real one.

Face-to-face meetings on site generate a particular presence, but the digital ones create a different kind of proximity. The focus is on what the participants have to say, not on anything else. The digital discussions at Jonsered’s Manor have been so interesting that many people did not want to bring them to an end.

Digitalization provides new opportunities that we have only just begun to explore, explains Lena Ulrika Rudeke.

– When the pandemic is over, I think

we will have learned something, for example how digital meetings could work as a complement to meetings in the physical realm. It might be possible to arrange seminars digitally and then develop and extend them at face-to-face meetings at the manor. In this way, we can create new forms of collaboration while also saving both time and money.

Many people are tired of Zoom and other digital meetings.

– Nevertheless, I notice that once a discussion has started, I can see smiles on people’s faces. Real discussions, which are allowed to take time and be probing, are energizing – whether they take place in a manor house or via a computer screen.

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Nyheter Focus | Working from home

Jennie Knutsson

Interactivity is important!

About seventy participants usually come to the meetings arranged by the HR network for personnel officers and administrators. On September 8, however, a record was set when more than a hundred employees took part.

– We usually offer a topical and interesting programme that attracts many participants. But the fact that the meetings are now online makes it easier for more people to participate, HR Manager Jennie Knutsson explains.

HOWEVER, HOLDING a meeting for a hundred participants can be difficult.

Jennie Knutsson believes that it is important to tell the participants about the set-up at the beginning of the meeting, for example that you can ask questions in the chat.

– We also explain that we will use breakout rooms and how that works.

Different employees have adapted to digital development in different ways, so

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Maybe the future will feature some kind of mix between digital and face-to-face meetings …

JENNIE KNUTSSON

cause it can be tiring to look at a screen for too long, says Mathias Hassnert.

Whether they take place on site or virtually, the HR meetings always contain a combination of information and a topical lecture. But an interesting programme is perhaps even more important when the participants do not meet physically, says Jennie Knutsson.

– YOU LOSE THAT small talk during the

it is important to be clear.

The most recent meeting was held by Section Manager Mathias Hassnert.

– We also had a person who answered questions from the chat so that I could concentrate on chairing the meeting. In addition to the chat, we did Mentimeter surveys to quickly get feedback from the participants.

The virtual meetings must feel animated. Therefore, they are also somewhat shorter than the meetings that were previously predominately held in Vasaparken.

– We are also careful to take breaks be-

coffee break that is so important. That is why we try to be really interesting in other ways. At the next meeting, for example, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Fredrika Lagergren Wahlin will be participating, and she will be talking about the vision.

Obviously, it is too early to say how the HR meetings will be organized in the future – But of course it is important to take advantage of the experience we have now gained. Maybe the future will feature some kind of mix between digital and face-to-face meetings, we will have to decide on that eventually, Jennie Knutsson explains.

Nyheter Notice Photo: ANNA-LENA LUNDKVIST

RANKING.The University of Gothenburg has risen 20 places to 141st place in this year’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, more popularly known as the Shanghai ranking. Thus far, it is the best placement ever for the University of Gothenburg. The University of Gothenburg has also improved its ranking dramatically on the QS list, but has fallen somewhat on the THE ranking..

In the Shanghai ranking, the University of Gothenburg is in fourth place in Sweden and this year it beat Lund University, which has slipped down to 151st place.

– It is great that we have managed to achieve such a good result. Although, they are really just slight changes.

One explanation is that it is an adjustment of the method, which has benefited the University of Gothenburg. The change means that the University of Gothenburg has increased the number of its researchers on the Highly Cited list from 5 to 8, while the number of researchers on the list from Lund University has decreased, which of publications in Nature and Science and how many researchers are on the Highly Cited list.

– It is not easy to rise significantly on this list.

If we were to get significantly more articles published in Nature and Science or even more highly cited researchers.

New website for oceanic research NEW WEBB. Now all the research, education and news about the ocean can be found on the website: gu.se/havet.

– Previously, ocean-related activities have been spread across various parts of the university’s website. It is now clear what extensive knowledge and expertise there is in this area, says Lena Gipperth, Director of the Centre for Sea and Society.

The website has six areas: Life in the oceans, technology and the oceans, food and the oceans, responsibility for the oceans, the climate and the oceans, as well as man and the oceans.

– By gathering the educational programmes in the same place, it will be easier for students to see what the University of Gothenburg has to offer, says communicator Karl-Johan Nylén.

Another important goal is to facilitate contact with researchers and other staff at the university, including a list of marine experts.

The idea is also to facilitate collaboration with the business sector, authorities and organisations outside the university.

– We already currently have a lot of ongoing collaborations, but would like to have more in the future, says Lena Gipperth.

Contact the editors by emailing havet@gu.se.

Felix Neuberghlecturer ECONOMY. This year’s Felix Neubergh Lecturer is Timothy Earle, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, USA. Timothy Earle specializes in archaeological studies of social inequality and political economy in early chiefdoms and states.

Among other things, he has conducted comparative studies of the emergence of social complexity, and has conducted multi-year fieldwork projects in Argentina, Denmark, Peru, Polynesia and Hungary.

Through his extensive scientific output, not least the monographs Bronze Age Economics and How Chiefs Come to Power, he is regarded as the leading international expert on prehistoric political economy.

Timothy Earle has collaborated with researchers at the Department of Historical Studies since 1990. During the period 1990–2006, he participated in Professor Kristian Kristiansen’s projects in Denmark and Hungary. From 2011, he has actively contributed to Bronze Age research at the department, including as a visiting professor. The collaboration has resulted in several articles together with professors Kristian Kristiansen and Johan Ling, the most recent was published in Current Anthropology.

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People | Thesis

Freed slaves were sentenced to hard labour The abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865 caused great difficulties for southern plantation owners. One way of continuing to obtain cheap labour was to use prisoners. By systematically imprisoning African Americans for minor offences when the cotton was ready to be picked, the plantations could keep running.

Melissa Rubio’s doctoral thesis, which is based on a unique compilation of census data and various digitalized archives, demonstrates this.

AT THE BEGINNING OF the Civil War in 1861, there

were about 4 million slaves in the United States. Their work made the large cotton plantations, which were a cornerstone of the economic system of the southern states, possible. The abolition of slavery meant economic disaster, not only for the plantation owners but for society in general.

– In connection with the ban on slavery, the number of African-American prisoners increased in areas where slavery had been common, says Melissa Rubio. One explanation that is often put forward is that the dire financial situation of the emancipated slaves forced them into criminality. However, the crimes African Americans were accused of often involved petty things that had nothing to do with survival. Another explanation is that the plantation owners used the 13th amendment, which admittedly abolished slavery but still permitted its use as a punishment for crimes. This led to emancipated slaves being imprisoned precisely when the need for labour was increasing. However, no major study of this has been done before. My dissertation is the first that systematically, based on a large amount of data, examines the racial differences in the American prison system in order to understand it from an economic perspective.

IN HER RESEARCH, Melissa Rubio has used census data

on prisoners and race from all the counties in the entire United States from 1860–1940.

– I then compared this data with information in various archives, such as the US Department of Labor archives, which, among other things, documented the prisons’ activities and profitability. There you can

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unearth facts about the great debate that was going on in the southern states about the relationship between labour that is free and not free respectively, where moral considerations were in direct opposition to the opportunity to make money. For example, having five prisoners carry out work cost the same as employing one free labourer.

Melissa Rubio has also examined the archives of the US Department of Commerce.

– I already knew that the slave trade was a matter that was handled by the Department of Commerce.

But I was quite shocked when I realized that even after 1865, it was the Department of Commerce that archived facts about prisons, the number of prisoners of different races and the type of punishment, including prison, reform school, hard labour and so forth.

When Melissa Rubio combined the different data, she came to the conclusion that African Americans were often imprisoned precisely when the plantations needed labour.

– THE CRIMES COULD involve petty things, such as noise

disturbance or breach of the peace. Vagrancy, i.e., not having a job, could also result in imprisonment.

If it is true that the number of African-American prisoners increased in line with the increasing need for cheap labour, the opposite should also apply: that the number of African-American prisoners decreased when the need for workers declined.

To investigate this, Melissa Rubio studied three causes behind a reduced need for labour: increased mechanization, the Mississippi River floodings which destroyed crops, and cotton blight, resulting in reduced harvests.

– Interestingly, there is a clear connection between these three examples and the decline in the number of African-American prisoners. The most interesting example is the cotton blight, because it resulted in an even worse economic disaster than the abolition of slavery.

If the theory that African Americans committed crimes mainly because of financial hardship, the blight should have led to an increase in the number of prisoners, but the numbers went down instead.

The fact that blacks often ended up in prison may have influenced a general perception, which may still persist, of African Americans having more pronounced

Nyheter

criminal tendencies than others.

– Today, black men constitute 6.5 percent of the American population but approximately 40 percent of the prison population. Blacks are also often sentenced to longer prison terms than whites for the same crime. The fact that there is a historical cause for the injustices is important to understand, not least in light of the many protests that are currently taking place in response to violence against blacks.

MELISSA RUBIO’S thesis consists of three

parts. In addition to prisoners being used as labour on the plantations, her thesis is also about how conflicts in Colombia impact social cohesion, and about income risk in developing countries.

– There are many reasons for my interest in social justice, but one of them is probably the fact that I grew up in Colombia, one of the world’s most unequal countries. It is hard not to wonder how it came to be this way and why there are so many injustices in the world. Now I have a postdoctoral position in Cologne where I will continue to research these issues.

Cologne is a very international city and even though I will miss Gothenburg, I am really looking forward to my new job.

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

Melissa Rubio Latest achievement: On June 16, she defended her doctoral thesis on The Economics of Coercive Institutions, Conflict, and Development at the Department of Economics.

Next challenge: A six year postdoctoral position at the University of Cologne.

Family: I was born in Miraflores, a small town in the Andes that produces amazing coffee and lots of papayas.

I have a three-year old son and three younger siblings. My father was a politician and my mother was a veterinarian.

Interests: Long-distance swimming, dancing, cycling, spending time with friends, historical fiction, popular science, trying to improve my cooking.

Book tips: My favourite book is Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende, but I also recommend Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker.

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People

Wants to create a better future Text: Karin Frejrud Photo: Johan Wingborg

Honing research projects, finding the right target group and having as big an impact on society as possible. This is something with which Marcial Franze and his colleagues can help the university’s researchers and students. He is an innovation advisor at the Grants and Innovation Office. – We are good at asking the right questions and at questioning old ways of solving problems, he says.

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THE EPITOME OF a citizen of the world may sound like a

cliché – but it actually suits Marcial Franze pretty well.

Not only did he move 12 times to different places in Germany and Belgium while growing up, but since then he has also lived in the USA, Argentina, Switzerland and Qatar.

– I feel like a European citizen, not a German one, he says. My philosophy of life is based on the fact that we all belong together, we are first and foremost human beings – nationality is not that important. And our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone.

Marcial Franze adheres to this philosophy in his working life as well as in his private life. And that was also one of the reasons why the job as an innovation advisor at the University of Gothenburg appealed to him.

– My hope is that the job will be part of contributing to a society that feels better both ecologically and socially, is happier and is based more on love than competition.

He has been at the Grants and Innovation Office for almost two and a half years now, which is located a stone’s throw away from Vasaplatsen. Marcial Franze talks enthusiastically and captivatingly about his job; in almost flawless Swedish.

– I like talking to people in their mother tongue, he says. So I really make an effort to learn.

A total of 10 innovation advisors work in the office, where everyone at the University of Gothenburg is welcome, researchers and students alike.

– We would like you to bring your research project to us at an early stage. Then we can help identify which path to choose, based on the impact you want to have and the target group you want to reach. It can save both time and money.

HE TALKS ABOUT a current project where he and his colleagues helped a research team launch a tool for estimating greenhouse gas emissions, both for companies and individuals.

– We helped the team to direct their attention away from solely engineering considerations, that is, to optimize the product, to also think about finding a market and the right partner. It turned out very well and they have attracted major customers, including a number of municipalities and universities.

A major challenge with the job is that innovation advisors have to deal with a host of subjects from across the entire university. This means that in the space of a single day, Marcial Franze can work with projects from four different disciplines, each with its own language, its own culture and its own way of doing things. He admits that it can be a little overwhelming sometimes.

– And very intellectually demanding. Like trying to maximise your knowledge on steroids.

– We cannot be experts in everything, but we must have the ability to dive into a new field of research and quickly understand what it is about. I like that aspect of the job very much.

But it was not just the job that attracted him to Gothenburg.

– No, my wife and I longed for the humidity, the greenery, the rain and the cold. I’m not joking!

After over five years in Qatar, the couple were star-

ved of the Nordic climate. Although it did not turn out quite as they had hoped. The summer of 2018 was the warmest and driest in living memory. When the couple arrived in Gothenburg in May, the city, together with Oslo, had the highest temperature in all of Europe.

– It was like a joke. For five and a half years in Qatar, I had never been sunburned, but after a week here, my face was as red as a beetroot.

However, the humidity, greenery and cold eventually arrived. Now Marcial Franze has really settled in.

For some time, he and his wife have been living in a collective in Örgryte. They grow vegetables, keep bees, eat mainly vegan food and live an active life as close to nature as they can. Participating in and contributing to the transition to a more sustainable society is important for Marcial Franze.

– I want to actively contribute to a good future, I can’t just sit here and wait.

– In many ways, we are locked into unsustainable behaviours and an unsustainable economy and we must all help break out of that.

AS AN EXAMPLE, Marcial Franze raises the issue of German and Swedish arms exports. A topic he thinks there is alarmingly little discussion about in Sweden.

– It pains me, the fact that our welfare is largely due to the export of weapons that kill other people. War is also the most unsustainable activity there is for ecosystems and human well-being.

As committed as he is to his work, he is equally committed to living in accordance with his values and to working for change as much as he can. Therefore, the summer months are particularly hectic. In addition to beekeeping, the cultivation of mainly perennial plants and various building projects at the collective, Marcial Franze also manages a number of other allotments in various places in Gothenburg together with other Gothenburgers.

– We must deal with the food production chain if we are going to be able to live sustainably. The principal production must come from the local area where we live, and be cultivated in a way that promotes biodiversity, he says.

I want to actively contribute to a good future, I can’t just sit here and wait.

MARCIAL FRANZE

Marcial Franze Age: 38 years.

Family: Married.

Lives in: In a lovely, green, multi-generational, collective in Örgryte.

Job title: Innovation Advisor at the University of Gothenburg.

Background: Previously worked as a startup coach, consultant and entrepreneur in different sectors in different countries. Is trained in communication design with a focus on information design and perception psychology.

Comes from: Germany.

Hobbies: “Our summers are full of various sustainabilityrelated activities. We are members of Omställningsnätverket, we have an allotment and are beekeepers.

In addition, I like climbing, cycling, hiking and doing Acroyoga”.

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The moment

c

Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG

Where? who? when?

• Department of Languages & Literatures • Linda Flores Ohlson • September 14, 2020

Short description Should I activate the webcam or not?

A good lecturer does not teach a lesson as if their students were mannequins in a store. A good lecturer does not talk to their students but with them. A good lecturer relies on non-verbal feedback from their students, eye contact and facial expressions. A good lecturer constantly scans the faces of their

students for signs that they understand, that they are interested and enthusiastic. Lecturing in front of a computer screen full of dark boxes, which represent students who have not activated their cameras, is like lecturing in a cemetery. Good lecturers chose not to become priests because they do not want to bury the dead but educate the living.