The Zetterberg Prize goes to Carl Öhman

Each year, the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University awards the international Hans L. Zetterberg Prize to a “young researcher, Swedish or international, whose scholarly work, preferably by productively combining theory and practice, has shifted the forefront of research”. The prize amount is SEK 100,000.

This year’s recipient is Carl Öhman, Associate Professor at Department of Government, Uppsala University. The prize will be awarded on 22 October 2026.

Award statement:

“Carl Öhman’s work represents a compelling example of a fruitful combination of theoretical originality and empirical relevance. Throughout his research, Öhman has successfully linked innovative conceptual analyses to contemporary digital social issues. His scholarship operates both thematically and disciplinarily at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), digital ethics, the information society, political theory, and memory studies. It has resulted in theoretical contributions that have achieved significant impact.

Of particular importance is Öhman’s ability to develop new conceptual perspectives for understanding the long-term consequences of digitalization. As an object of inquiry, artificial intelligence emerges in multiple forms: as a source of social and epistemic authority, as a technology of synthesized memory, and as a cultural force.

Carl Öhman demonstrates a remarkable ability to connect the abstract and principled questions posed in his research to the ways in which individuals and societies concretely navigate a changing contemporary world. His scholarly work exhibits an unusual capacity to unite philosophical analysis with issues of direct societal significance.

Öhman’s work has advanced the research frontier by introducing new theoretical perspectives on questions that had previously often been approached in more instrumental or policy-oriented terms.”

Anders Berndt