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Nanna Mik-Mey­er

Professor

Subjects
Organisation Qualitative methods Public sector Identity Sociology

Primary research areas

Iden­tit­ies, Or­gan­isa­tions and Power
My re­search ex­plores the dy­nam­ic re­la­tion­ship between in­di­vidu­als and or­gan­isa­tions, with a fo­cus on how power, gov­ernance and pro­fes­sion­al re­la­tions shape people’s op­por­tun­it­ies and po­s­i­tions in so­ci­ety.
Ca­reer and Gender in Aca­demia
My re­search ana­lyses aca­dem­ic ca­reer tra­ject­or­ies, per­form­ance met­rics and gender dy­nam­ics, fo­cus­ing on how struc­tur­al con­di­tions and eval­u­ation sys­tems con­trib­ute to in­equal­ity and shape ca­reer out­comes with­in aca­demia.
Free­dom of Ex­pres­sion
My re­search ex­plores the con­di­tions and sig­ni­fic­ance of free­dom of ex­pres­sion with­in aca­dem­ic in­sti­tu­tions. The pro­ject con­cerns the con­di­tions for free­dom of ex­pres­sion among staff and stu­dents at Dan­ish uni­ver­sit­ies and uni­ver­sity col­leges, primar­ily with­in the so­cial sci­ences and hu­man­it­ies.
In­equal­ity
This pro­ject is about the in­creased so­cial and eco­nom­ic in­equal­ity in the Dan­ish so­ci­ety and is part of the Dan­ish Power In­quiry 2.0 (Magtudred­nin­gen 2.0).

Ex­plor­ing how power and or­gan­isa­tion­al gov­ernance shape in­di­vidu­al op­por­tun­it­ies

My research is grounded in an interest in the interplay between individuals and organisations, and in how power, governance and professional relations shape people’s opportunities and positions in society. This focus has guided my contributions to several widely used textbooks within major welfare education programs. Currently, I am engaged in two research projects. 

The first project is a qualitative study on career paths, performance metrics and gender dynamics in academia, conducted in collaboration with Professor Margaretha Järvinen from Copenhagen University. Our findings - published in leading journals such as Sociology and Current Sociology, as well as in the Danish book Køn og karriere i akademia [Gender and Career in Academia] - have attracted wide attention, with the Current Sociology article alone being downloaded more than 6,000 times in 2024. I have also presented this work at several Danish universities, at the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, and at other relevant forums. 

The other project is part of the Danish Power Inquiry 2.0, where I am part of the management team. This project engages both policymakers and the broader public by providing research-based insights into the current state of Danish democracy.  

Alongside my research, I support academic freedom and societal impact by chairing the CBS Professors’ Association and serving on the boards of the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) and the Danish Center for Social Science Research (VIVE). 

Recent research projects

The Dan­ish Power In­quiry 2.0 (Magtudred­nin­gen 2.0)

I am part of the re­search man­age­ment team of the Dan­ish Power In­quiry 2.0 (Magtudred­nin­gen 2.0), an am­bi­tious, multi-year pro­ject (2024–2028) in­vest­ig­at­ing the dy­nam­ics of power and demo­cracy in Dan­ish so­ci­ety. The pro­ject brings to­geth­er lead­ing schol­ars from across the so­cial sci­ences to ana­lyse how polit­ic­al, eco­nom­ic and so­cial power are dis­trib­uted and ex­er­cised today, and how new forms of gov­ernance, in­equal­ity and par­ti­cip­a­tion shape demo­crat­ic life. With­in the pro­ject, I con­trib­ute both to the over­all re­search co­ordin­a­tion and strategy and to qual­it­at­ive stud­ies of free­dom of ex­pres­sion, dis­cre­tion­ary power and in­equal­ity.

Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia

This pro­ject in­vest­ig­ates aca­dem­ic ca­reer tra­ject­or­ies and is based on in­ter­views with ap­prox­im­ately 200 pro­fess­ors and as­so­ci­ate pro­fess­ors from so­cial sci­ence de­part­ments in Den­mark. So far, we have pub­lished a Dan­ish-lan­guage book, Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia] (2024), as well as four art­icles avail­able in So­ci­ology (2025), Work, Em­ploy­ment & So­ci­ety (2025), Cur­rent So­ci­ology (2025) and Gender and Edu­ca­tion (2025).

Free­dom of ex­pres­sion in aca­demia (con­duc­ted as part of the Dan­ish Power In­quiry 2.0)

This pro­ject in­vest­ig­ates the con­di­tions for free­dom of ex­pres­sion among staff and stu­dents at Dan­ish uni­ver­sit­ies and uni­ver­sity col­leges, primar­ily with­in the so­cial sci­ences and hu­man­it­ies. It com­bines a na­tion­wide sur­vey with more than 100 qual­it­at­ive in­ter­views and ex­plores how re­search­ers and stu­dents ex­per­i­ence free­dom of ex­pres­sion and the in­clu­sion of minor­it­ies today. The pro­ject also ex­am­ines the role of politi­cians and so­cial me­dia in shap­ing the bound­ar­ies of free ex­pres­sion.

Dis­cre­tion and de­cision-mak­ing in the pub­lic sec­tor (con­duc­ted as part of the Dan­ish Power In­quiry 2.0)

This pro­ject ex­am­ines how mu­ni­cip­al case­work­ers ap­ply pro­fes­sion­al dis­cre­tion in their de­cisions – and how the Dan­ish Ap­peals Board (Ankestyrelsen) func­tions as a cor­rect­ive body. The study is based on 25 qual­it­at­ive in­ter­views and quant­it­at­ive ana­lyses of areas with high rates of over­turned de­cisions. The aim is to shed light on the re­la­tion­ship between pro­fes­sion­al judge­ment and leg­al cer­tainty in wel­fare state prac­tices.

Rising in­equal­ity in Den­mark (con­duc­ted as part of the Dan­ish Power In­quiry 2.0)

This pro­ject fo­cuses on how eco­nom­ic and so­cial in­equal­ity has de­veloped in Den­mark since the turn of the mil­len­ni­um, and what con­sequences this has for so­cial co­he­sion, cit­izen power and demo­crat­ic in­flu­ence. Draw­ing on both quant­it­at­ive data and qual­it­at­ive in­ter­views, the study ex­am­ines shifts in the dis­tri­bu­tion of eco­nom­ic, cul­tur­al and so­cial cap­it­al – and how these af­fect demo­crat­ic par­ti­cip­a­tion, trust in in­sti­tu­tions and the le­git­im­acy of polit­ic­al de­cisions.

Outside activities

Mem­ber of the man­age­ment team of the Dan­ish Power In­quiry (Magtudred­nin­gen 2.0), , 2023 -

Board mem­ber DFF - In­de­pend­ent Re­search Fund Den­mark , 2022 -

Chair of CBS' Pro­fess­or’s As­so­ci­ation and chief salary ne­go­ti­at­or for CBS-Pro­fess­ors , 2021 -

Lec­ture at Uni­ver­sity of South­ern Den­mark, Gender and ca­reer in aca­demia , 2025 - 2025

Lec­ture at HR Kon­fer­en­cen [the HR Con­fer­ence] 2025, Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia) , 2025 - 2025

Lec­ture at Aal­borg Uni­ver­sity, Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia] , 2025 - 2025

Lec­ture at Roskilde Uni­ver­sity (w. Mar­garetha Järvinen), Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia] , 2025 - 2025

Lec­ture at ATV – Akademiet for de Tekniske Videnskaber [ATV – the Dan­ish Academy of Tech­nic­al Sci­ences], Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia] , 2025 - 2025

Lec­ture at DM - Din akademiske fag­foren­ing [DM – Your Aca­dem­ic Uni­on], Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia] , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at Uni­ver­sity of Copen­ha­gen, Aca­dem­ic Free­dom and Stu­dents: Act­iv­ism, self cen­sor­ship and free­dom of speech , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at CBS Aca­dem­ic Coun­cil, Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at Rock­wool Fonden, Køn og kar­ri­ere i aka­demia [Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia] , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at Aar­hus Uni­ver­sity, Di­versity in Aca­demia , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at Uni­ver­sity of Copen­ha­gen, Di­versity in aca­demia , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at KPMG, Deals in heals – in­sights from aca­demia , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at CBS Ex­ec­ut­ive Fonden, Gender and Ca­reer in Aca­demia , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at Justi­tia, Foreløbige res­ultater i Magtudred­nin­gen 2.0 [Pre­lim­in­ary Res­ults in the Power In­quiry 2.0] , 2024 - 2024

Lec­ture at Kom­mun­al Polit­isk Årsmøde [the Mu­ni­cip­al Polit­ic­al An­nu­al Meet­ing], Velfærd un­der op­brud [Wel­fare in Trans­ition] , 2024 - 2024

Board mem­ber VIVE – The Dan­ish Cen­ter for So­cial Sci­ence Re­search , 2019 -

NUI Gal­way Ex­tern­al Ex­am­iner in the Sub­ject Area of So­ci­ology , 2018 - 2022