Martin Hultman
About Martin Hultman
Martin Hultman is a professor of sociology with a specialization in technology and science studies (STS).
For the past twenty years, he has researched, taught and participated in the societal debate primarily in three areas: climate, environmental legislation and economics. Within these, he has zoomed in on climate obstruction, gender, masculinities, the Rights of Nature, as well as ecopreneurship and the circular economy. His contemporary and historical research is about human existence on earth together with other creatures. The research asks questions such as: How can we shape just and caring societies within the planetary boundaries of the earth?
Among Hultman's books we find, among others, Climate Obstruction (2022); Att ställa frågan - Att våga omställning (2021); Naturens rättigheter (2019); Ecological Masculinities (2018).
Research
As a project manager, Hultman has been responsible for nine major research projects and is currently leading Rights of Nature and Climate Obstruction. Methodologically, he has worked with archival research, interview studies, mass media analyses, participant observations, opinion polls, social media reviews and systematic research compilations. Over the years, his research practice has been critically examining (of industrial/breadwinner and ecomodern values & practices) and transformatively engaging (ecopreneurs in circular economies, ecological masculinities, ecopedagogy, the rights of nature, etc.).
International
Hultman's international experience includes longer visiting research stays, multiple assignments as keynote speakers at international conferences and examination boards, editorship of cross-border special issues (TGV, - Gender and Environment; Small Enterprise Research - Ecopreneurship; Kvinder, Køn & Forskning ; NORMA - International Journal for Masculinity Studies - Planetary) and anthologies, as well as invited publications in prestigious handbooks such as Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Sociology, Routledge International Handbook of Masculinity Studies, and Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment. During his years in academia, he has been the main organizer of more than ten conferences and has hosted a large number of guest researchers at the Center for the Study of Climate Denial (CEFORCED). Today, Hultman is part of two ongoing international research programs funded by the EU Horizon (ST4TE) and the Swedish Energy Agency (Empowering All), both which deal with societal transformation linked to justice.
Public intellectual
The responsibility as an employee at a university includes the so-called third mission - to disseminate research results outside the academic world. As a public intellectual, Hultman is part of the societal dialogue for all his specialist areas. He contributes to popular science contexts (e.g. the Swedish Science Festival), gives lectures to the public, writes columns) and informs authorities. Over the years, Hultman has also contributed to organizing contexts where science and people meet, such as Transitions Talks at Chalmers and in an award-winning lecture series in the small village of Bestorp in the countryside south of Linköping where he lived for ten years.
Publications
Hultman's publications range from extensive interdisciplinary collaborative book projects to individual articles, included in STS journals such as Environmental Sociology, History and Technology as well as engineering International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and natural science Annual Review of Environment and Resources and in book series such as Palgrave History of Science, which have been cited 3501 times with an h-index of 25 and an i10-index of 35, according to Google Scholar December 2025. The publications range from theoretically innovative articles, textbooks in STS and posthumanism to popular science books, translated into six different languages, for example Portugese. Hultman participates in academic dialogues through reviews of important works in journals such as Sociologisk forskning, Tidskriften för genusvetenskap, Scandia and has been in discussions about academic engagement in Lychnos. The most recent publications are listed at the end of this presentation.
Teaching
Hultman's teaching experience includes course responsibility at all levels. He supervises students at bachelor's and master's levels, as well as several doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. In recent years, he has co-created various forms of didactic educational materials (e.g. comic album), researched affective pedagogy, and experimented with various forms of decolonial learning.
Awards
Hultman has been awarded Vattenfall's Marie Nissers Scholarship in 2014, was named Future Research Leader by FORMAS in 2018, was named the most influential academic in Gothenburg in 2019 by Göteborgs Posten, and was awarded Alumnus of the Year 2021 from Linköping University.
Selected publications from 2020 - today (for all publications and merits, please see CV)
Books
- Buckingham, S., Hultman, M., Magnusdottir, G. L., & Morrow, K. (Eds.). (2025). Feminist Climate Policy in Industrialised States: A Gender-Just Climate Emergency Response. Taylor & Francis.
- Ekberg, K., Forchtner. B., Hultman, M. & Jylhä, K. (2023). Climate Obstruction. How Denial, Delay and Obstruction Are Heating The Planet. Routledge. London
- Hultman, M. and Pulé, P. (2022), Masculinidades Ecológicas. Bambual publications. Rio de Janeiro
- Hultman, M., Kall, A-S. & Anshelm, J., (2021) Att ställa frågan. Att våga omställning. Birgitta Hambraeus och Birgitta Dahl i den svenska energi- och miljöpolitiken 1971-1991. Arkiv förlag. Lund
- Pulé, P. M., & Hultman, M. (2021). Men, Masculinities, and Earth Contending with the (m)Anthropocene. London. Palgrave Series in History of Science.
- Lindvall, D., Vowles., K & Hultman, M. (2020), Upphettning. Demokratin i klimatkrisens tid. Fri Tanke förlag. Stockholm
Special Issues
- Aavik, K., Hearn, J., Hultman, M., & Shefer, T. (2025). Men, masculinities, and the planet at the end of (M) Anthropocene: ecological/social/economic/political relations, processes and consequences. Introduction to special issue Masculinities and the Planetary, NORMA. International Journal of Masculinities Studies 1-15.
- Mehrabi, T., Hultman, M., Uldbjerg, S., & Xin, L. (2024). Gender and Climate Catastrophe. Kvinder, Køn og forskning, 37(1).
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- Ahlborg, H., Michael, K., Unsworth, S. J., Hategekimana, S., Osunmuyiwa, O., Åberg, A., & Hultman, M. (2024). Thirty-five years of research on energy and power: A landscape analysis. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 199, 114542.
- Vowles, K., & Hultman, M. (2022). Dead white men vs. Greta Thunberg: Nationalism, misogyny, and climate change denial in Swedish far-right digital Media. Australian Feminist Studies, 36(110), 414-431.
- Ekberg, K & Hultman (2022) “A Question of Utter Importance: The Early History of Climate Change and Energy Policy in Sweden, 1974–1983”. Environment and History DOI: 10.3197/096734021X16245313030028
- Hultman, M (2021) ”Ökologische Männlichkeiten: Auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Normalität?” ZDfm–Zeitschrift für Diversitätsforschung und-management Vol. 6 Nr. 1 pp. 8-22
- Stoddard, I. Kevin Anderson, Stuart Capstick,….,Martin Hultman, et. al., (2021) “Three decades of climate mitigation: why haven’t we bent the emissions curve?” Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 pp. 653-689
- Hultman, M. (2020). El viaje de la derecha nacionalista al ecocidio.: El caso de los Demócratas de Suecia (Sverigedemokraterna). Ecología política, (59), 101-106.
- Hultman M., Pulé P. (2020) “Ecological masculinities: a response to societal crisises of our time/Экологическая маскулинность: ответ на социальные кризисы нашего времени”. Population. Vol. 23. No. 2. P. 61-71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/population.2020.23.2.
Anthology chapters
- Vowles, K., Ekberg, K., & Hultman, M. (2024). Climate Obstruction in Sweden: The Green Welfare State — Both Progressive and Obstructionist. In Climate Obstruction across Europe (pp. 124-150). Oxford University Press.
- Hultman, M. (2024). Rights of Nature. Ed. by Christine Overdevest. Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Sociology. Elgar publishing. Cheltenham
Selected radio and news paper articles
Radio
Science radio, Australien: Why climate change denial persists - ABC listen
News papers and journals
https://newrepublic.com/article/154879/misogyny-climate-deniers
https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-denialists-hate-activists-vulnerability-1461543
https://theconversation.com/green-with-rage-women-climate-change-leaders-face-online-attacks-123155
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20191107_04705683
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/11/25/smash-the-patriarchy-to-save-the-planet/
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2023/02/20/2003794674