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Svedberg Helgesson, Karin

My research concerns problems and issues cutting across levels, types of actors, and disciplinary boundaries. This includes questions on accountability and legitimacy, knowledge and regulation, compliance and resistance, and risk-management across the public-private divide.

In addition to being an associate professor at DMO, I serve as an appointed Economic Expert (SFS 2016:188) in the Patent- and Market Court, and in the Patent- and Market Court of Appeal.

Agents of the State

"Renegotiated civil and military borders - Turning government communicators into online agents in cyber warfare".

The growing threat of cyber warfare to democratic societies have placed new actors at the frontline.  In this project, funded by the Swedish Research Council, professor Ulrika Mörth (PI) and I study how turning government communicators into intelligence agents redefines and renegotiates the boundaries between the civil and military sectors, including democratic implications. In so doing, we build on our previous research on the role of for-profit professionals in AML/CTF.  

Notably, we investigate the response dilemma of the communication professionals: Should they be vigilant in accordance with military manuals on how to mitigate online threats to societal security? Or had they better not respond as disinformation could still be seen as part of democratic processes of freedom of expression? Government communicators in two policy sectors (public health and meteorology/climate) in four national political contexts (the UK, France, Germany and Sweden) are studied. 

(In)Equality in Elite Organizations 

Another research interest, with associate professor Ebba Sjögren, is the gendering effects of formalisation in processes of academic assessment and promotion. Relatedly, and in further collaboration with assistant professor Pernilla Bolander, we analyse how the 'supply chain' for knowledge and the organizing of the core business may be implicated in the perpetuation of gender inequality in elite business organizations (supported by a grant from the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation & the Tore Browaldh Foundation).

Select Publications (See also the "Publications" document below.)

with Ulrika Mörth (2019) 'Instruments of Securitization and Resisting Subjects: For-Profit Professionals in the Security-Finance Nexus', Security Dialogue, 50, 3:257-274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010619835655

with Ebba Sjögren (2019) 'No Finish Line: How Formalization of Academic Assessment can Undermine Clarity and Increase Secrecy', Gender, Work & Organization, 26, 4:558-581. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12355

with Robert P. Gephart Jr. and C. Chet Miller (Eds) (2019) The Routledge Companion to Risk, Crisis and Emergency Management, Routledge: New York. Now also in paperback:  https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Risk-Crisis-and-Emergency-Management/Gephart-Miller-Helgesson/p/book/9781032475981

with U. Mörth (2018) ‘Client Privilege, Compliance and the Rule of Law: Swedish Lawyers and Money Laundering Prevention’, Crime, Law and Social Change, 69, 2:227-248. (Pdf available on the right)

with U. Mörth (2016) ‘Involuntary Public Policy-Making by For-Profit Professionals: European Lawyers on Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 54, 5:1216-1232. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcms.12356/abstract

with U. Mörth (Eds) (2013) The Political Role of Corporate Citizens. An Interdisciplinary Approach. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137026811

with U. Mörth (Eds) (2012), Securitization, Accountability and Risk Management: Transforming the Public Security Domain. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415680141

(2011) ‘Public-Private Partners Against Crime: Governance, Surveillance and the Limits of Corporate Accountability’, Surveillance & Society, 8, 4: 471-484. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v8i4.4183

with Maria Bergström and U. Mörth (2011) ‘A New Role for For-Profit Actors? The Case of Anti-Money Laundering and Risk Management’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 49, 5: 1043-1064. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5965.2010.02167.x/full

Teaching

BE916 (NEW) Beyond HRM for Diversity: Challenges and Change

BE917 Decision Making for Individuals and Organizations