Peter Dahlgren S Research Works Lund University Lund Lu And Other

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 5, 2025, 9:55 PM

peter dahlgren s research works lund university lund lu and other

I write about political use of information & metascience. Peter Dahlgren is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Communication and Media, Lund University, Sweden. His work focuses on media and democracy, from the horizons of late modern social and cultural theory; most recently he has focused on the web and political participation and civic identities. Active in international academic networks, he has also been a visiting scholar at several universities, including the Université Paris 2, Université de Grenoble 3 and the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Along with journal articles and book chapters, his recent publications include The Political Web (Palgrave, 2013), Media and Political Engagement (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and the co-edited volume Young People, ICTs and Democracy (Nordicom,... Peter Dahlgren is Professor Emeritus of Media and Communication Studies Department of Communication and Media at Lund University in Sweden.

Dahlgren has written extensively on the role of mass media and journalism in the development of a democratic public sphere. Author of Television and the Public Sphere (London: Sage, 1995), Dahlgren has also co-edited (with Colin Sparks) Journalism and Popular Culture (Sage, 1992) and Communication and Citizenship (Routledge, 1991). In recent years his work has been addressing democratic participation in the digital media landscape. Read the abstract of the paper Dahlgren presented for STI’s The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered meeting. We value the academic theses in Media and Communication Studies. As part of that, we reward the theses that rise above and beyond with the Peter Dahlgren Excellent Dissertation Award.

These dissertations have all been publicly defended and received the highest grades. To be nominated for the award, the highest mark is not enough. All cited theses are remarkable works that extend beyond the requirements of the grades. Before instituting the Peter Dahlgren Excellent Dissertation Award, Media and Communication Studies at Lund University published the series Excellent MSc Dissertations. It featured postgraduate dissertations from students who graduated from the Master's Programme in Media and Communication Studies in 2008-2023. The texts included had been presented and evaluated as part of the final thesis exams and awarded top grades.

Finally, they were revised and edited for publication in Excellent MSc Dissertations (Förtjänstfulla examensarbeten i medie och kommunikationsvetenskap in Swedish). With Excellent MSc Dissertations, we hope to inspire future students to write dissertations and contribute to debates inside and outside of academia on media, communication and cultural studies. All issues in this series make us think, question and understand ourselves within the socio-cultural and mediated environment in which we live. The following publications in the series are available digitally: Excellent MSc Dissertations 2023 (PDF, new tab), edited by Michael Bossetta Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

The argument has two related parts: firstly, we are witnessing an “epistemic” crisis in public spheres that threatens to undermine political agency. This crisis has to do with the massive amounts and speed of information, the processes by which we construct knowledge, as well as the new forms of knowledge deriving from digital technologies. Many developments in information technologies benefit democracy, but there is a growing concern about cognitive dilemmas. Secondly, in the present tumultuous juncture of Western democracies, dominated by the populist revolt, traditional distrust of media has turned into an assault on basic Enlightenment premises, eroding shared understandings of reality and compatible... “Knowledge” becomes legitimated via emotionality. Critical rationality and progressive politics must engage more with these developments.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review T2 - The Deepening Epistemic Crisis of Democracy N2 - The argument has two related parts: firstly, we are witnessing an “epistemic” crisis in public spheres that threatens to undermine political agency. This crisis has to do with the massive amounts and speed of information, the processes by which we construct knowledge, as well as the new forms of knowledge deriving from digital technologies. Many developments in information technologies benefit democracy, but there is a growing concern about cognitive dilemmas. Secondly, in the present tumultuous juncture of Western democracies, dominated by the populist revolt, traditional distrust of media has turned into an assault on basic Enlightenment premises, eroding shared understandings of reality and compatible...

“Knowledge” becomes legitimated via emotionality. Critical rationality and progressive politics must engage more with these developments. Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review T1 - The Internet, public spheres, and political communication: Dispersion and deliberation N2 - The theme of the Internet and the public sphere now has a permanent place on research agendas and in intellectual inquiry; it is entering the mainstream of Political communication studies.

The first part of this presentation briefly pulls together key elements in the public sphere perspective, underscoring three main analytic dimensions: the structural, the representational, and the interactional. Then the discussion addresses some central themes in the current difficulties facing democracy, refracted through the lens of the public sphere perspective. In particular, the destabilization of political communication systems is seen as a context for understanding the role of the Internet: It enters into, as well as contributes to, this destabilization. At the same time, the notion of destabilization can also embody a positive sense, pointing to dispersions of older patterns that may have outlived their utility. Further, the discussion takes up obvious positive consequences that follow from the Internet, for example that it extends and pluralizes the public sphere in a number of ways. Thereafter the focus moves on to the interactional dimension of the public sphere, specifically in regard to recent research on how deliberation proceeds in the online public sphere in the contemporary environment of political...

Finally, the analytic category of deliberative democracy is critically examined; while useful, some of its rationalist biases, particularly in the context of extra-parliamentarian politics, limit its utility. It is suggested that the concept of civic cultures offers an alternative way to understand the significance of online political discussion. AB - The theme of the Internet and the public sphere now has a permanent place on research agendas and in intellectual inquiry; it is entering the mainstream of Political communication studies. The first part of this presentation briefly pulls together key elements in the public sphere perspective, underscoring three main analytic dimensions: the structural, the representational, and the interactional. Then the discussion addresses some central themes in the current difficulties facing democracy, refracted through the lens of the public sphere perspective. In particular, the destabilization of political communication systems is seen as a context for understanding the role of the Internet: It enters into, as well as contributes to, this destabilization.

At the same time, the notion of destabilization can also embody a positive sense, pointing to dispersions of older patterns that may have outlived their utility. Further, the discussion takes up obvious positive consequences that follow from the Internet, for example that it extends and pluralizes the public sphere in a number of ways. Thereafter the focus moves on to the interactional dimension of the public sphere, specifically in regard to recent research on how deliberation proceeds in the online public sphere in the contemporary environment of political... Finally, the analytic category of deliberative democracy is critically examined; while useful, some of its rationalist biases, particularly in the context of extra-parliamentarian politics, limit its utility. It is suggested that the concept of civic cultures offers an alternative way to understand the significance of online political discussion. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research T1 - The Democratic Horizons of the Museum: Citizenship and Culture N2 - Change is sweeping through the world of museums, technologically, financially, and ideologically, impacting on the sociocultural evolution of their roles and status. We seek to contribute to ongoing reflections by offering a conceptual framework that links museums with democratic theory, to citizenship and its practices – a domain that is also in notable transition. We connect concretely with the current research on museum communication based in Tartu, Estonia, which focuses on three key streams: public dialogue and debate, content, and processes. We see the raison d’être of museums as situated in a force field between culture – including “popular” culture – and the ambitions, rights, and duties traditionally associated with the role of the citizen.

These domains are increasingly overlapping with each other. Our analytical horizons consist of two complementary perspectives. First, the perspective of civic cultures underscores the cultural prerequisites for civic participation, underlining such dimensions as knowledge, spaces, practices, and identities. Second, cultural citizenship is a trajectory that elucidates the democratic character of popular culture – its accessibility, its inclusiveness, its offers of “community.” From these two vistas, museums become sites that can – via... Integrating these two orientations, we look analytically at the three streams of museum communication identified by the Tartu group. Public discussion and debate involve civic participation beyond the confines of the museum's space, that is, in the larger society.

Here museums have the potential, for example, to stimulate a reflexive interpretation of history and collective identities. Processes relate not least to actual communicative strategies; museums are moving away from the unidirectional “transfer” of knowledge and are encouraging the negotiation of meaning in regard to society, culture, heritage, and so forth. As museums shift toward contemporary cultural mainstreams, options for active communicative efforts emerge, for example, “remixes” of established works or perspective, multivalent messages, and dialogical interaction with visitors. From our outsider perspective, our contribution aims to be descriptive and analytical but also normative. We argue that museums have an important and growing role to play in the development of democracy and its civic cultures. AB - Change is sweeping through the world of museums, technologically, financially, and ideologically, impacting on the sociocultural evolution of their roles and status.

We seek to contribute to ongoing reflections by offering a conceptual framework that links museums with democratic theory, to citizenship and its practices – a domain that is also in notable transition. We connect concretely with the current research on museum communication based in Tartu, Estonia, which focuses on three key streams: public dialogue and debate, content, and processes. We see the raison d’être of museums as situated in a force field between culture – including “popular” culture – and the ambitions, rights, and duties traditionally associated with the role of the citizen. These domains are increasingly overlapping with each other. Our analytical horizons consist of two complementary perspectives. First, the perspective of civic cultures underscores the cultural prerequisites for civic participation, underlining such dimensions as knowledge, spaces, practices, and identities.

Second, cultural citizenship is a trajectory that elucidates the democratic character of popular culture – its accessibility, its inclusiveness, its offers of “community.” From these two vistas, museums become sites that can – via... Integrating these two orientations, we look analytically at the three streams of museum communication identified by the Tartu group. Public discussion and debate involve civic participation beyond the confines of the museum's space, that is, in the larger society. Here museums have the potential, for example, to stimulate a reflexive interpretation of history and collective identities. Processes relate not least to actual communicative strategies; museums are moving away from the unidirectional “transfer” of knowledge and are encouraging the negotiation of meaning in regard to society, culture, heritage, and so forth. As museums shift toward contemporary cultural mainstreams, options for active communicative efforts emerge, for example, “remixes” of established works or perspective, multivalent messages, and dialogical interaction with visitors.

From our outsider perspective, our contribution aims to be descriptive and analytical but also normative. We argue that museums have an important and growing role to play in the development of democracy and its civic cultures.

Peter Dahlgren S Research Works Lund University Lund Lu And Other

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