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Lena Eriksson

Senior Lecturer

Linguistics and Theory of Science unit
Telephone
+46 31-786 41 84
+46 766-18 41 84
Mail
lena.eriksson@theorysc.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
C537
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Lena Eriksson

I am Associate Professor (Docent) in Theory of Science and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg. My research examines how knowledge is produced, evaluated and put to work in institutional settings where medical assessments, legal decisions and societal governance intersect. After completing my doctoral studies at Cardiff University, I held my first academic appointment at the University of York, where I worked within the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). My early research focused on scientific controversies, expert authority and the conditions under which claims to objectivity and independence are established. During my doctoral training, I secured competitive funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led an independent research project alongside my dissertation.

Since joining the University of Gothenburg, I have developed a broad interdisciplinary research profile spanning healthcare, law and public administration. I have led and contributed to research projects funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR), Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ), Forte, AFA Insurance, and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency’s independent research fund. My research has addressed sickness certification practices, insurance medicine decision-support tools, clinical guidelines, medico-legal expertise and compulsory care. A recurring characteristic of my work is the ambition to follow questions across organisations and institutional logics, analysing how concepts such as evidence, risk, responsibility and normality are reshaped as they move between clinical practice, administrative agencies and courts. Rather than isolating individual institutions, my research traces how decisions emerge across multiple arenas and how legal and medical forms of knowledge interact under conditions of uncertainty.

In recent years, my research has increasingly focused on medico-legal decision-making and coercive interventions. I have led a Swedish Research Council–funded project on decision-making in administrative courts concerning compulsory care, with a focus on expert roles, evidentiary standards and epistemic tensions. I currently lead a research project on forensic psychiatric care, conducted in close collaboration with Västra Götaland Region and Sahlgrenska University Hospital, where I hold a joint appointment bridging academia and clinical practice. I am also a senior researcher and core collaborator in a research project on the reassessment and removal of ADHD and autism diagnoses, conducted in collaboration with Region Skåne. The project examines how diagnostic categories evolve over time and how responsibility for sustaining, revising or withdrawing diagnoses is distributed across clinical, administrative and societal actors. I contribute with epistemological and STS–oriented analyses of diagnosis, evidence and epistemic authority.

I have extensive experience of academic leadership and teaching. I have served as Deputy Head of Department, Associate Head for Doctoral Education and Associate Head for Education, and supervise doctoral candidates in theory of science as well as clinically based PhD students in medical disciplines. I have also been involved in the interdisciplinary Master’s Programme in Evidence-Based Practice, where humanities-based perspectives are used to engage analytically and in a practice-oriented manner with questions of knowledge, evidence and decision-making in professional settings.