Christina Garsten - Biography#

Christina Garsten became Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University in 2008. She served as Chair of the Department of Social Anthropology between 2002 and 2011. She is now Professor of Social Anthropology at Uppsala University, and, since 2018, Principal of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, and Professor of Social Anthropology at Uppsala University. Since 2022 she is also President of the European network of institutes for advanced study, NetIAS.

Christina Garsten’s research interests lie in organizational anthropology, with a special focus on globalization processes, sociocultural dynamics and forms of governance. Her current research focuses on the role of think tanks and policy professionals in the production and diffusion of knowledge and ideology, in influencing political decision-making processes and in shaping global governance. Particular attention is placed on the creation and use of future foresight activities and scenario creation as part of knowledge creation. A related project is focused on the role of think tanks and corporate-based organizations and their involvement in climate change governance.

Some of her book publications reflecting these research interests are Discreet Power: How the World Economic Forum Shapes Global Markets (with Adrienne Sörbom; Stanford University Press, 2018); Power, Policy and Profit: Corporate Engagement in Politics and Governance (ed. with Adrienne Sörbom; Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017); Makt utan mandat (with Bo Rothstein and Stefan Svallfors; Dialogos Förlag, 2015); Makeshift Work in a Changing Labour Market: The Swedish Model in the Post–Financial Crisis Era (ed. with Jessica Lindvert and Renita Thedvall; Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015); Anthropology Now and Next: Diversity, Connections, Confrontations, Reflexivity (ed. with Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Shalini Randeria; Berghahn, 2014), and Organisational Anthropology: Doing Ethnography In and Among Complex Organisations (w Anette Nyqvist, eds. 2013. London: Pluto Press).

She has developed and taught courses at all levels in the fields of organizational anthropology, anthropology of policy, and globalization and organization, at Stockholm University, Copenhagen Business School, Stockholm School of Economics, and at several other universities as visiting scholar.

Christina Garsten serves on academic boards and committees. She is a member of the Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala, a member of the International Advisory Board of the College of Fellows, University of Tübingen, Editoral Fellow at Paris Institute of Advanced Studies, and Affiliate Faculty at Tokyo College, Tokyo U, and a member of the Swedish Society for International Affairs.

She has held/holds editorial positions in the Culture and Society book series, Pluto Press, Observing Organizations book series, Bristol University Press, and the journals Organization, Journal of Business Anthropology, American Anthropologist.

Visiting positions include Stanford U, Cambridge U, Georgetown U, EHESS, ESCP Paris, LSE, EUI, and Tokyo College.