I am an associate professor and reader in Information Studies at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences. Since January 1 2020 I am head of the Centre for Oresund Region Studies, CORS. I share my time between being a teacher and researcher and being head of CORS.

CORS’ position as a centre is to strengthen and support connections and enable meetings between people from different academic disciplines, as well as between the academy and professional fields, and between research and the general public. I find this exceedingly important and interesting. In a time with growing economic and social gaps and polarised opinions, researchers have a significant task to contribute to the public debate with informed knowledge about current issues.

The centre has the purpose and possibility to study and shed light on the Oresund region but also on other regional borders, as well as for example social and cultural borders. With its cultural perspective, the centre can contribute with insights on both how borders are understood and the tangible, physical, practical, cultural and social implications they may have. I find it very interesting to be a part of the centre.

My current research concerns development of public libraries in different regions in Sweden, and the role that policy documents have for libraries and librarians. I am particularly interested in the role that libraries and librarians play in and for democracy. With my research as a starting point, I am proposing that the centre is directed towards the various ways in which culture is formulated as a means for change. When the centre engages with how culture is understood and promoted as an instrument for achieving various goals and changes in society, there are a number of areas that would be interesting and relevant to focus on These are often expressed as bridging over barriers and borders of various kinds. The centre can create opportunities for different parties to meet and learn from each other - Centre for Oresund Region Studies can be a platform for  critical discussion of arguments and arrange activities related to culture as creator of values of different kinds. The centre could shed light on what has been done before, current activities and actions, and, not least, try to point out fruitful roads ahead.

It is with great joy that I have taken on the task as head of CORS and I look forward to being a part of the centre during the coming years.

Johanna Rivano Eckerdal 

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Read more about Johanna Rivano Eckerdal in the research portal LUCRIS.