Nordic Journal of STS

11/02/2026

🧩🌾 New Publication: “Script Tales from a Rural Participatory Research Process” Critical Reflections from Co-Designing Energy Transitions

How are ideas of participatory energy transitions enacted in rural communities? What happens when urban-centred participation ideals encounter rural realities?

In this article, Lina Naoroz Bråten, Berit Therese Nilsen, Lucia Liste & Pasi Aalto critically reflect on a participatory research and co-design process in Overhalla, Norway. Drawing on Citizen Action Labs (CALs) and script theory, the study illustrates how urban-focused ideals may be misaligned with various rural realities, as evidenced by differing responses to energy citizenship frameworks.

📌 Participatory energy transitions must be context-sensitive. Urban-oriented scripts of participation may not translate smoothly into rural social, spatial, and economic landscapes—calling for tailored, place-based participatory methods.

📄 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i2.6368
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/6368

Script Tales from a Rural Participatory Research Process Critical Reflections from Co-Designing Energy Transitions Authors Lina Naoroz Bråten Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6921-7484 Berit Therese Nilsen NTNU Social Research https://orcid.org/0000-...

04/02/2026

🤲🌿 New Publication: “Conducting caring collaborations in societally engaged research”

How can researchers collaborate with societal actors with care? What are the implications of the care ethics literature for responsible scientific collaborations?

In this literature review, Anna Umantseva, Katia Dupret, and Daniela Lazoroska examine 27 scholarly articles to explore how care is articulated, practiced, and constrained in research collaborations. The review distinguishes between internal dimensions of collaboration (within research institutions) and external dimensions (with societal stakeholders).

📌 The key argument:
Even when care is explicitly valued, caring collaborations are often limited by institutional logics, performance indicators, and policy regulations—posing challenges for societally engaged research.

📄 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i2.5629
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5629

Conducting caring collaborations in societally engaged research A literature review Authors Anna Umantseva Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6955-6638 Katia Dupret Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-...

18/06/2025

🛡️📲 New Publication: "Longing and Lacking: Pasts, presents, and futures in municipal crime prevention technology"

How do local officials make sense of digital crime prevention tools—while balancing fear, hope, and frustration?

In this article, Katarina Winter explore the messy realities behind the implementation of “System X,” a leading Swedish crime prevention technology, and how it becomes embedded in the daily work of municipal officials. Drawing on articulation work and sociotechnical imaginaries, the study shows how officials navigate the tension between a rejected “unsystematic past” and an anticipated, evidence-based future.

🔁 A complex interplay between techno-optimism and everyday struggles, where officials must simultaneously manage expectations, overcome technical hurdles, and justify their work within broader discourses of securitization and plural policing.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5857
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5857

Longing and Lacking Pasts, presents, and futures in municipal crime prevention technology Authors Katarina Winter DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5857 Abstract This article examines the intersection of three key developments in global north societies: the growing emphasis on (in)security an...

12/06/2025

🧦🔍 New Publication: "From crime scenes to digital spaces: A mundane object’s journey through forensics"

What can a sock teach us about forensic knowledge production?

In this article, Maja Vestad follow the unlikely but revealing journey of a single, mundane object as it travels from the crime scene into digital forensic systems. Using perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS), the piece examines how the sock becomes meaningful evidence—not through its intrinsic qualities, but through the technological and procedural translations it undergoes.

🧠 As the sock shifts from material to digital form, it multiplies into various representations, offering a unique lens into how forensic knowledge is made, rather than simply found.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5861
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5861

From crime scenes to digital spaces A mundane object’s journey through forensics Authors Maja Vestad Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5861 Abstract Ordinary objects can assume exceptional significance when discovered at cri...

04/06/2025

🧾🔍 New Publication: "Beyond error detection: The Performative Role of Checklists in Shaping Forensic Practices"

In this article, Nina Sunde explore how checklists—often seen as simple procedural tools—play a performative role in shaping digital forensic practices within the criminal justice system. Drawing on insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Actor-Network Theory, the study reveals how checklists become active participants in the co-production of forensic reports, shaping not just what gets written, but how professional, ethical, and legal standards are enacted.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5856
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5856

Beyond error detection The Performative Role of Checklists in Shaping Forensic Practices Authors Nina Sunde The Norwegian Police University College DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5856 Abstract This study explores the performative role of checklists in enhancing the quality of digital foren...

28/05/2025

🚨✨ New Publication: "Making space for digital statecraft: The work of consultancy models in an audit of police digitalisation"

What happens when management consultancy meets public sector digitalisation?

In this new article, Gro Stueland Skorpen and Hilde Reinertsen dive into the curious journey of digital transformation models—crafted by consultants, adopted by state actors, and reinterpreted in the complex setting of Norwegian police reform. Based on an in-depth empirical study, they follow how these models are mobilized by both auditors and police officials—but in very different ways. This piece offers fresh insights into the material politics of public sector digitalisation, revealing how consultancy frameworks travel, transform, and take root in statecraft.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5858
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5858

Making space for digital statecraft The work of consultancy models in an audit of police digitalisation Authors Gro Stueland Skorpen Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo Hilde Reinertsen Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo https://orcid...

23/05/2025

🚓📡 New Publication Alert!

"Seeing as One? Materialisation and Distribution of the Police-drone Gaze"

How does technology reshape what the police see—and what they know?

Drawing on rich ethnographic data from a one-year trial in the Norwegian Police Service, Jenny Maria Lundgaard investigates how drone technologies reconfigure the police gaze and the production of operational knowledge. While drones were introduced to enhance situational awareness through "objective" visual data, the reality turned out to be more complex.

Rather than replacing verbal communication, drone footage sparked the creation of new manuals for better oral interpretation—revealing that shared images do not automatically lead to shared understanding.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5869

🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5869

Seeing as One? Materialisation and Distribution of the Police-drone Gaze Authors Jenny Maria Lundgaard The Norwegian Police University College DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5869 Abstract From 2019, a one-year trial tested the use of drone technologies within the Norwegian Police Services....

09/04/2025

🚔 New article out now!

"Negotiating digital traces: The epistemic power of recorded police data"

How do police officers in Norway actually engage with the growing demands for digital data collection and intelligence work? In this article, Helene O. I. Gundhus, Pernille Erichsen Skjevrak and Thea Wathne explore how digital traces—central to the Norwegian police’s Intelligence Doctrine—are experienced and used on the ground.

Drawing on two empirical case studies and inspired by domestication theory, the researchers found that recorded data is not always used as intended. Officers resist, adopt, reinterpret, or negotiate with the data in their everyday work. Despite a standardized framework, practice is far messier—shaped by bias, intuition, workarounds, and police culture.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5872
🔗 Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5872

Negotiating digital traces The epistemic power of recorded police data Authors Helene O. I. Gundhus University of Oslo, Norwegian Police University College https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5279-7291 Pernille Erichsen Skjevrak Centre for the study of Professions, Oslo Metropolitan University https://orcid...

02/04/2025

🚓🔍 How does technology shape what counts as "fact" in policing?

Our new paper A matter of facts explores how Science and Technology Studies (STS) can shed light on the digitalisation of policing and the knowledge practices it entails. From operative work on the ground, to online presence, to criminal investigations, G**o Flinterud, Jenny Maria Lundgaard, Brita Bjørkelo, and Johanne Yttri Dahl examine how human–technology interactions help authorize uncertain information and turn it into operational truths.

📄DOI: https://doi.org/10.5324/njsts.v13i1.5877
🔗Link: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/article/view/5877

A matter of facts Mapping Materialisations of Digitally Mediated Knowledge in the Police Authors G**o Flinterud Norwegian Police University College https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0599-8618 Jenny Maria Lundgaard Norwegian Police University College Brita Bjørkelo Norwegian Police University College Joha...

25/03/2025

🚨 New Special Issue of the Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies is out! 🚨

This special issue Special Issue: Knowledge, Technologies and the Policeis edited by members of the research project “A Matter of Facts: Flows of Knowledge through Digitalized Police Practices”, based at the Norwegian Police University College.

Together with fantastic contributors, this issue explore a timely and important question:

👉 How does digitalization shape knowledge production in policing?

Across seven articles, scholars use perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to examine the interplay between humans and technology in Nordic police work. From actor-network theory to socio-technical imaginaries, these pieces dive into digital tools, evidence-making, intelligence, forensic practices—and how all of it matters for what gets recognized as “knowledge” in police work.

🔍 Topics include:

Drones & digital registries
Crime prevention tech
Operational and forensic practices
Plural policing
Auditing & checklists

As digitalization becomes increasingly central to policing strategies, critical reflection on its implications is essential—for law, for democracy, and for society.

📘 Read the issue here: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/issue/view/556

10/03/2025

🚀 Call for Abstracts: Special Issue on Strong Sustainability in the Nordics 🌍📢

We are excited to announce a call for abstracts for a special issue on "Strong Sustainability in the Nordics" in the Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies (NJSTS). This issue aims to explore the multifaceted role of social sciences and humanities (SSH) in driving sustainability transformations across the Nordic region, with a particular focus on practices within the academic environment itself.​

🔍 Topics of interests include:
✅ Examining the principles and practices of strong sustainability within Nordic contexts, both in general and within academic settings.​
✅ Investigating how SSH contributes to sustainable development and transformation.​
✅ Applying innovative methodologies for studying (strong) sustainability, including interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.​
✅ Critically reflecting on the sustainability performance of academic life, such as assessing the environmental impact of academic conventions.​
✅ Exploring alternative academic practices that promote sustainability and inclusivity, moving beyond traditional metrics like publications.​

We welcome contributions from all disciplines, provided they engage with Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholarship and/or theories to some degree. Submissions that combine critical self-reflection with empirical research and offer new perspectives on how academia can contribute to sustainability in innovative and impactful ways are encouraged. We also invite non-traditional formats, such as personal or visual essays, experiential accounts, collaborative manifestos, narratives, poetry, or prose.​

📅 Key Dates:
🗓️ Abstract deadline: April 17, 2025
🗓️ Full paper deadline: December 15, 2025
🗓️ Publication: June 1, 2026

Interested? Submit your 250-word abstract + 200-word bio to [email protected] by April 17, 2025.

For inquiries and submissions, please contact:​
Carolin Zorell: [email protected]​
Line Valdorff Madsen: [email protected]​
Anne Bach Nielsen: [email protected]​
Marius Korsnes（马力） : [email protected]

🔗 More details: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/njsts/announcement/view/83

We look forward to your contributions to this important and timely discussion!🌱✨
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Call for Abstracts: Special Issue on Strong Sustainability in the Nordics 2025-03-10 We invite abstract submissions for a special issue dedicated to exploring the theme of Strong Sustainability in the Nordics. This special issue aims to look at the multifaceted role of social sciences and humanities...