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Mads Bødker

Associate Professor

Subjects
Design User experience Digitalisation Artificial intelligence Qualitative methods Media Future

Primary research areas

Digital Labour Organizing

What are the social and technical implications of data tools for labour organising? Given that algorithmic technologies can now be harnessed to capture data about work at an unprecedented scale and scope, what role will such tools or procedures play in the future of organising?

AI in cultural production and the arts

What are the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for creativity and cultural production? Does it risk undermining human creativity, or will it instead serve as an augmentative tool that opens new horizons of practice and expression for artists and other creative workers?

Design methods

Design offers a distinctive mode of inquiry and intervention for addressing complex and dynamic problems. How might companies and organisations deploy design methods in reflective, analytically informed, and context-sensitive ways that balance creativity with rigour and accountability? This entails iterative and participatory practice, systematic evaluation of outcomes as well as a focus on the ethical implications of design choices.

Co-design

Scandinavia and the Nordic countries have a long-standing tradition of stakeholder involvement in both governance and innovation. Can the ethos of cooperation and relatively non-hierarchical relations - particularly between employers and employees - be reclaimed and sustained in an era of pervasive digitalisation? What institutional and technological arrangements would be required to renew this tradition, including a focus on participatory design methods, algorithmic transparency, worker data rights, and co-governance of digital platforms?

Digitalization of work

How is work transformed when it becomes digital, and when managers gain routine access to granular data on tasks, performance, and behaviour? What does ‘work’ look like under conditions of ubiquitous digitalisation and algorithmic oversight?

Futuring methods/Speculation

Speculation permeates contemporary life - from science fiction and artistic practice to financial markets and policy discourse. How can speculative modes be harnessed as instruments for navigating an otherwise stifling uncertainty of the future? In what ways can we engage creatively with multiple futures without defaulting to the teleological assumption that the future will simply reprise the past in improved form?

Human-Robot interaction

Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) concerns not only technical performance but the social texture of encounters with ”intelligent” machines: trust, empathy, dignity, and the negotiation of roles and responsibilities. As robots and AI systems enter public space, homes, workplaces, or care settings, designers must attend to embodiment, gesture, voice, and timing and the micro-pragmatics that make collaboration feel intelligible and respectful.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Human–Computer Interaction aims to craft interfaces that are legible, usable, and humane, while preserving room for invention in modalities and changes in the contexts of use. Design should combine established usability and accessibility heuristics with exploratory prototyping that can include sound, voice, gesture, haptics, augmented reality, and context-aware or ambient interfaces.

Shaping critical understanding of how digital technologies transform human experience, culture, and work practices. Exploring interdisciplinary and response-able methods for envisioning and designing more humane and meaningful digital futures

I hold a Masters Degree in Film/Media Studies and a Ph.D. In Human-Computer Interaction from the IT-University in Copenhagen. My research lies in the intersection of Information Systems (IS) and the humanities, with a specific focus on the felt and affective properties of Information Systems and Experiential Computing. My current work is mainly centered on digital labour organizing and attempting to reimagining the role of data in traditional (physical) work settings and labour organizing. This includes how to conceptualize, design and utlizie worker centric data, particularly focussing on how organizing processes can be aided by harnessing data as a resource for negotiations. Another major topic in my research is how to represent practices and users ’differently’ in AI and design research, particularly how performance-, arts- and design-oriented methods can aid in understanding how living with AI and ubiquitous IT has felt, embodied as well as cognitive, aesthetic and socio-cultural implications. This work suggests how more sensory acute and kinesthetically oriented field work and design experimentation can complement the IS discipline.  

My research contributes to the broad discussions around work in the digital age, specifically about how data is becoming an important battleground for labour relations. Using both more traditional forms of qualitative inquiry as well as post-qualitative ways of working, my work also contributes to the conceptualization of use and user in the context of emerging technologies that include AI and robots both in work settings, in cultural production, and in everyday life. 

Mads is Associate Editor at Journal of the Association of Information Systems (JAIS) and holds invited guest Associate Editorships with the Information Systems Journal (ISJ) as well as Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC). He has been involved in co-chair positions at a number of ACM conferences and has been Associate Editorship work at major IS conferences.  

His work has included research and field work conducted at Cornell University as well as James Cook University in North Queensland, Australia. During 2016 he was visiting fellow at Southern Methodist University in Dallas TX, and during 2018 he was International Guest Professor in Tourism Design at the Catholic University Ingolstadt-Eichstätt in Germany. 

 

Recent research projects

DFF Field Study Grant: Encouraging repeat visitation by supporting visitors' relationships with tourist destinations using digital technologies

This project explores how tourists and destinations can use digital tech to enhance experiences and how new tech design can build stronger loyalty.

InnoCoast - Innovation in Coastal Tourism: Co-creating Competitive Experiences

Danish coastal tourism faces long-term decline due to weak innovation and fragmented actors. InnoCoast drives firm growth through research-based experience innovations in nature, culture, and food.

Nordic-Baltic Tourism Research Studies 2

The project connects the tourism competences of four universities in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark to share the information and knowledge on tourism research trends and studies.

Outside activities

Design Thinking workshops, Nordic Healthcare Group, 2023–2023

Methods oriented and inspirational workshops on user involvement and service design methods for healthcare
https://nordichealthcaregroup.com/

PhD committee, Aarhus BSS

PhD committee, Southern Danish University