PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to Expertise and emerging technologies: A working and organizing perspective 

Description:

The accelerated technological developments, particularly in the areas that directly touch on skilled and knowledge work, has rejuvenated social, economic, ethical, and humanistic questions regarding “expertise”. Here, there it is essential for researchers and academics to engage in in-depth, qualitative understanding of expertise and how it is developed, enacted and worked, critically examine the intended and unintended consequences of technologies for how expertise, and creatively contribute to the assumptions, debates, decisions, and actions through their scholarly work. This PhD course aims to engage our future scholars in such a process, providing them with the knowledge, methods, and skills to investigate and contribute to engaged scholarship in this area.

The course focuses on the following themes and questions:

• Deep dive into expertise: past, present and future
• Technologies of expertise: a historical and phenomenological analysis
• Interactions of technologies and expertise: (emerging) configurations of technology and experts at work
• Developing expertise in relation to emerging technologies (novel expertise, destruction of expertise, and new modes of learning and knowing)
• Organizing expertise through emerging technologies: within and across organizations (coordination, market of expertise, control, and      jurisdiction)

Learning objectives

• Understanding how expertise is developed, exercises, and organized through classic academic theories;
• Developing a critical, informed understanding of the broader scheme of technological developments (including but not limited to artificial intelligence, robotics, …) in relation to the development, exercising, and organizing expertise
• Gaining experience on how to investigate the impacts of technologies on development, enactment and organization of expertise as a form of in-depth, engaged scholarship
• Being able to analyze and synthesize their research findings in relation to theoretical debates and develop insights for understanding and practice.

Prerequisites

• No formal prerequisite, but preferably a basic familiarity with qualitative research methods

Programme:

See PhDMoodle for programme. 

Teaching methods:

The course consists of

• Dialectic lectures: Where we engage in critical reflection on the readings, and collective discussions, we use multiple forms of plenary discussions, peer-discussions, and interactive exercises.

Mini-ethnographic investigation: to gain a first-hand experience of the reality of expertise and practically learn how to investigate it, students will perform a mini-ethnographic examination of a domain of expertise (per their choice) in the period between the first and the second part of the course (see the schedule below) and produce a research essay, which will be presented at a final symposium

Programme outline:

A critical essay, maximum 5,000 words on a specific area of expertise (students’ choice)

Format: a standard academic paper

To be presented in the symposium (online

Organizer: Kasper Trolle Elmholdt

Lecturers: 

Kasper Trolle Elmholdt, Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University (elm@dps.aau.dk)

 Dr. Mohammad H. Rezazade Mehrizi, Associate Professor, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (m.rezazademehrizi@vu.nl)

There will be a selective group of guest lecturers (Dr. Davide Nicolni) for specific sessions.

ECTS: 5

Time: 22, 23, 24 September 2025

Place: Copenhagen Campus

City: Copenhagen

Number of seats: 25

Deadline: 1 September 2025

Key literature:

Mandatory literature: An approx, 300 pages compendium will be created based on extracts from books below:

●       Abbott, Andrew. 2014. The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. University of Chicago Press.

●       Barley, S. R. (2020). Work and technological change. Oxford University Press, USA.

●       Barley, S. R. (1996). Technicians in the workplace: Ethnographic evidence for bringing work into organizational studies. Administrative science quarterly, 404-441.Collins, H., & Evans, R. (2019). Rethinking expertise. University of Chicago Press.

●       Eyal, G., & Medvetz, T. (2023). The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democratic Politics. Oxford University Press.Eyal, G. (2019). The crisis of expertise. John Wiley & Sons.

○       Pasquale, F. A. (2023). Battle of the Experts: The Strange Career of Meta-Expertise. In The Oxford Handbook of Expertise, edited by Gil Eyal and Thomas Medvetz.

○       Huising, R. (2023). Professional Authority in The Oxford Handbook of Expertise, edited by Gil Eyal and Thomas Medvetz.

●       Heimstädt, M., Koljonen, T., & Elmholdt, K. T. (2023). Expertise in management research: A review and agenda for future research. The Academy of Management Annals.

●       Pakarinen, P., & Huising, R. (2023). Relational Expertise: What Machines Can't Know. Journal of Management Studies.

●       Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (Eds.). (2016). Expertise, communication, and organizing. Oxford University Press.

Suggested literature:

●       Susskind, Richard, and Daniel Susskind. 2015. The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts. Oxford University Press, USA.

●       Pryma, J. (2022). Technologies of expertise: opioids and pain management’s credibility crisis. American Sociological Review, 87(1), 17-49.

●       Sandberg, J., Rouleau, L., Langley, A., & Tsoukas, H. (Eds.). (2017). Skillful performance: Enacting capabilities, knowledge, competence, and expertise in organizations (Vol. 7). Oxford University Press.

Important information concerning PhD courses: 

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at phdcourses@adm.aau.dk When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.