Tora Holmberg

Current projects

• Livsstilar på svenska gårdar: Tradition och förändring
• Intimitetens sociala former: Närhetspraktik och identitet i kollektivt boende, husdjursrelationer och pardans
• Soparbete i hållberhetsekonomin: värdeomvandlingar av spillvatten och matavfall

Links

• The Cultural Matters Group (CMG). soc.uu.se/forskning/forskargrupper/cultural-matters-group/
• The Seed Box. An environmental humanities collaboratory funded by Mistra and Formas. theseedbox.se
• SIC! www.cargocollective.com/s-i-c

The research question that guides all my investigations is: how do people know how to act, think and feel in any given situation? My research can broadly be situated within science and technology studies (STS), urban theory, and human-animal studies. It takes a cultural sociology approach and thus, meaning making and practice are central concerns of previous and current projects. Cultural sociology holds at its heart a belief that culture as a system of meaning and practice is a more or less self-contained sphere that can be studied in its own right. Another common thread is that I have been interested all along in issues that may appear as somewhat marginal to social science and sociology: science and its objects, sex, bodies, nature, animals, physical space, and more. The advantage of this interest in liminal issues is the potential of furthering sociological knowledge and theory with the help of multi-disciplinary encounters with other theoretical traditions and not least, through encounters with the objects under inquiry themselves (eg non-human animals). What challenges can these liminal objects pose and how can a sociological approach further the exploration and understanding of these phenomena? Cultural sociology brings essential new knowledge needed to solve pressing "wicked problems" such as climate change.

"Klåfingriga politiker vill göra universitetet till fabriker" (med Anders Hagfeldt) https://www.dn.se/debatt/klafingriga-politiker-vill-gora-universitet-till-fabriker/

"Kan forskningen vara både fri och samhällsnyttig?" (med Yvonne Svanström) https://www.tidningencurie.se/debatt/kan-forskningen-vara-bade-fri-och-samhallsnyttig

"Nazisters sabotage hotar att tysta forskare" (med Anders Hagfeldt) https://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/a/66OGp8/uppsala-universitets-rektorer-om-hot-fran-nazister

"Samhället behöver akademins kritiska röst" (med Anders Hagfeldt) https://www.publikt.se/debatt/samhallet-behover-akademins-kritiska-rost-25095