Knowledge and Politics: Reproduction – Research System – Health and Welfare

Our colleague Professor Kari Tove Elvbakken, turned 70 on March 4 this year. The Department of Government invites you to a seminar to mark her retirement.

Kari Tove Elvbakken earned her Ph.D. in 1997 at the University of Bergen with a dissertation on the institutionalization of food control in Norway. She was affiliated the doctoral program at the Department of Administration and Organization Theory and was a research fellow at the Center for Social Research (SEFOS). Elvbakken has been a researcher and research leader at SEFOS and research director at the Rokkan Centre. Between 2007 and 2014, she was the university director at UiB. Elvbakken joined the department in 2014 and has been a professor since 2017.

Elvbakken has written numerous books and articles (see the list of publications in Cristin). The book "The Political History of the Abortion Issue 1900-2020" from 2021 address new analyses of political controversies over a century. She has worked on the relationship between knowledge and politics in various contexts and with science studies. The book "Knowledge and Politics – Research, Administration, and Research Institutes" was published in February this year. Elvbakken is one of the editors. The book contributes to discussions about the composition and challenges of the research system.

We welcome everyone at the Department of Government. The seminar will be held in Norwegian.

Programme (tentative)

09.00 Opening

09.15 Reproduction Policy and the Women's Movement

Moderator: Zuzana Murdoch

Astri Andresen: The abortion issue and the fight against women
Tone Hellesund: Sex and the Norwegian women's movement
Thorvald Sirnes: Technology, history, and body politics

10.30 - 11.15 Light refreshments 

11.15 Research System – Institutions and Politics

Moderator: Svein Michelsen

Elvbakken & Schwach (eds.) 2025
Book commentary by Svenn-Åge Dahl

Hanne Foss Hansen: So alike and yet so different: A comparative glance at the research institutes and administration
Terje Finstad: University and the research institute as an engine, fuel, or grit in the innovation machinery?
Jan Heiret: On the fringe?

12.45 Health and Welfare Policy, Knowledge, and Power

Moderator: Winnifred Jelier

Kirsti Malterud: A critical look at evidence-based health policy
Nanna Kildal: John D. Rockefeller: Money, philanthropy, and power
Thor Øivind Jensen: Did user influence go too far?

14.00 End

14.15 Reception in Tårnsalen Universitetsmuseet