Lars E.F. Johannessen
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larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Lars E.F. Johannessen
@larsjohannessen.bsky.social
3.1K followers 870 following 400 posts
Sociologist and Prof. in Knowledge, Expertise and Professions at Oslo Metropolitan University • Fellow at Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University • Digital culture • Qualitative methods • Theorizing • Microsociology • STS
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Reposted by Lars E.F. Johannessen
dollyeldritch.bsky.social
i've only skimmed this so far but it looks really interesting. comments on things i've raised in the past regarding EMCA's relation to autism that need addressing. but i saw this endnote (first pic) and would like to use it as a prompt to re-up my own EMCA work on autism (the other three pics).
screenshot of the abstract of my paper in Disability Studies Quarterly. Text reads: "Autism, Autonomy, and Touch Avoidance Abstract Touch is an important component of many social experiences for many people. Autistic children commonly avoid social touch more than non-autistic peers. It is generally thought that this is due to autistic individuals experiencing hyper- or hyposensitivity of touch. While this is undoubtedly the case at least some of the time, studies of touch and autism have often involved decontextualised experimental settings or post-hoc reports on touch by autistic people or their common social interactants (i.e., parents). As such, there is very little research that looks at social touch in interactions involving autistic people and studies how it naturally occurs and how it is managed in the moment. Using multimodal Conversation Analysis, I analyse a collection of cases of social touch in the form of parents' cuddles or embraces with their autistic children. I demonstrate here what these cuddles can look like, how they can unfold over time with both autistic children and their parents mutually participate in building intimate sensorial moments. I also show more problematic moments where the child resists, abandons, or misunderstands a cuddle from their parent (or attempt to secure one) demonstrating that, in these cases, the trouble for the autistic children was not touch sensitivity but the prioritisation of courses of action that social touch would impede. As such the children display that the social touch is avoided or negatively evaluated due to its social nature, not its physical/sensational one. In demonstrating this I argue that not everything that might look like a sign of sensory difference is one. Keywords: Autism, Conversation Analysis, Touch, Embodiment, Action" screenshot of the name and abstract of my paper in Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders. the title is "Autistic children's explanations of their own behavior". Text reads: "Abstract Purpose: This article reconceptualizes theory of mind (ToM) and perspective-taking as a practical accomplishment in social interaction, and analyzes how, and when, autistic children produce explanations of their behavior in ways that address how other people do, or may, understand it. Method: Three families with autistic children collected video recordings of themselves interacting at home. From 5 hours of video, a collection of 45 instances of accounts produced by autistic children was made, transcribed, and subjected to conversation analysis. Results: Accounts occurred in both initiating and responsive turns. Accounts produced in initiating turns addressed the potential characterizations of this and themselves their interlocutors might make. Their accounts in second position addressed actual characterizations in interlocutors’ preceding turns. As well, two of the children produced accounts which constructed their behavior as the result of internal causes. Discussion and conclusion: These analyses demonstrate the children's practical reasoning about how other people observe, recognize, and understand their behavior. Despite autism being linked to difficulties with ToM and perspective-taking, these autistic children manage perspective-taking through the provision of accounts in multiple sequential positions. These findings challenge the emphasis on ToM deficit based explanations of autism, while suggesting a stronger research focus on local, situated perspective-taking in social interaction." screenshot of the abstract for my paper in Research on Children and Social Interaction. The title is "Deontics at Bedtime". Text reads: "Abstract Directive trajectories are common in parent–child talk as parents attempt to engage their children in household activities. Previous research on families with autistic children has reported that parents have difficulty engaging their children in household activities. The current study analyses the strategies a parent utilizes in negotiating an activity contract with their autistic child. The analyses show that the parent negotiates stances towards autonomy, category-membership-tied activities and social obligations, as well as used embodied conduct. The analyses also show how the child is sensitive to these strategies and actively participates in the directive trajectory. The findings show that both parent and child are active co-constructors of the social relationship in directive trajectories and that the child can strategically counter the variety of directive resources the parent uses."
October 19, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by Lars E.F. Johannessen
sijournal.bsky.social
New on Early View: "Rethinking Face-to-Face Interaction: Lessons from Studies of “Autistic Sociality”" by Lars E. F. Johannessen doi.org/10.1002/symb... #sssi #sociology #interactionism #autism #sociality
Rethinking Face‐to‐Face Interaction: Lessons from Studies of “Autistic Sociality”
Face-to-face interaction is a foundational concept in microsociology. This article surveys the social experiences of autistic people, who are commonly known for having a strained relationship with in...
doi.org
August 22, 2025 at 10:38 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
✨ New publication ✨

Face-to-face is often treated as the “gold standard” of interaction. My new article shows how autistic sociality complicates this view, revealing alternative ways of connecting.

Available open access in Symbolic Interaction:
#sociology #anthrosky #autism #neurodiversity
Rethinking Face‐to‐Face Interaction: Lessons from Studies of “Autistic Sociality”
Face-to-face interaction is a foundational concept in microsociology. This article surveys the social experiences of autistic people, who are commonly known for having a strained relationship with in...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 21, 2025 at 1:06 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Reading list:

Theorizing in Times of Crisis, Fragmentation and Disorder (2025)

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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journals.sagepub.com
August 8, 2025 at 8:55 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Reading list:

The promises and perils of AI for sociology (Au & Fong, 2025, published in Sociology)

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Abstract This article argues that in an age of artificial intelligence (AI), sociologists have not adequately thought about the challenges posed to their work and pedagogy. Drawing on examples from Hong Kong, we foreground the challenges that AI poses to sociological education, student success and working conditions, amid the marketization of higher education and broad shifts in funding toward STEM disciplines. We then suggest four tactical strategies for sociology to respond and live with AI: (1) incorporating computational training into sociological education; (2) incorporating AI into instrument design for sociological research; (3) incorporating AI into models of inference; and (4) incorporating AI into classroom and campus design. We contend that, in doing so, we may rethink the repertoires of professional sociology with new frontiers for AI applications and modalities of student education.
August 7, 2025 at 8:24 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Work-life (im)balance
A selfie of me trying to rock a dual monitor-setting in our couch while our new baby sleeps on my chest
July 31, 2025 at 12:30 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Optimal combo
First-person picture of our new baby sleeping on my chest while I'm reading a nice little book
July 3, 2025 at 8:24 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Time for day one of the Norwegian microsociology meeting! Look at this beautiful room of people 😍
30+ microsociologists in Trondheim
June 16, 2025 at 8:32 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
It's finally here: the second annual meeting of the Norwegian Microsociological Network! This year we're in Trondheim, with Gary Alan Fine and Iddo Tavory as special guests. The drinks reception is over; now we have two full days of talks to look forward to 🤠
Nice water view at 10 pm in Trondheim
June 15, 2025 at 8:04 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Reading list:

Monika Krause (2024): Theorizing from Neglected Cases

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
May 2, 2025 at 7:12 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Hartmut Rosa just gave the Vilhelm Aubert memorial lecture at the University of Oslo. The guy packed two auditoriums (!) and half of us had to watch on livestream.
My not so impressive view of the livestream
April 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Currently reading "Generative AI for academics" by @drmarkcarrigan.bsky.social It's a refreshing, sociological take on a topic dominated by self-help books, and Mark is particularly good at articulating his ambivalence towards GenAI and what it means for scholarship.
Generative AI for Academics
uk.sagepub.com
March 15, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Lars E.F. Johannessen
jilltxt.bsky.social
The list of words the Trump administration has banned from research grants is even longer than the lists I’ve seen online. Here are screenshots of the words confirmed by the NYTimes and listed in this article www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
March 8, 2025 at 8:33 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Isaac A. Reed gave a brilliant guest lecture at @oslomet.bsky.social earlier this week, discussing the balance between under- and overinterpretation when using theory in empirical social research. The lecture can be seen here: youtu.be/3vmmafrv9kY?...
#sociology #philsky
Isaac Ariail Reed: “Interpretation reframed: On theory and truth in the human sciences”
YouTube video by Norwegian Microsociological Network
youtu.be
February 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Fun fact: "Full professor" means "drunk professor" in Norwegian.
February 13, 2025 at 1:17 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
📢 New paper 📢

We bust 5 myths about face-to-face vs. remote interviewing and argue for "interview mode pluralism" as a more context-aware way of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different interview modes.

Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#Sociology #comsky #STS
Abstract New technology brings new methodological opportunities. While long limited to face-to-face interviewing, today’s interview researchers can choose from a plethora of options, including email, instant messaging, telephone, and video interviews. Consequently, the issue of interview modes and their relative strengths and weaknesses has received increased attention. In this article, we take stock of existing writings on interview modes in qualitative interview research. Drawing on key insights from more general theorizing about face-to-face and remote interaction, we identify and challenge five key assumptions in writings about interview modes: (1) that physical copresence ensures more and better data; (2) that interview modes have determinate effects on interaction; (3) that remote interviewing should seek to replicate face-to-face interviewing; (4) that interviews modes should be held constant within each study; and (5) that face-to-face interviewing is unmediated. We counter each assumption with a series of more productive methodological principles and advance instead a view we call interview mode pluralism, which offers a more nuanced and relational understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different interview modes. The article thus helps increase the methodological literacy of those conducting and evaluating qualitative interview research, enhancing the likelihood that researchers select those tools best suited for their tasks, and reducing the chance that evaluators dismiss research based on their methodological prejudice.
February 2, 2025 at 6:12 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Went skiing for the first time in 10+ years. Fell on my ass a handful of times. Met a horse. Good times.
Smug ski selfie Went off pist for a short while and left my mark in the snow A beautiful sunny day at Storefjell Random horse grassing (?) in the snow
February 1, 2025 at 11:11 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Got promoted to full professor today! AND I'm at a mountain resort for three days of sociological bliss. It's going to be one hell of a weekend!
Overall assessment Considering the submitted material and of the criteria for promotion laid down in the regulations, guidelines for assessment of competence in hiring and promotion at OsloMet, the Committee finds, based on the academic portfolio, education, academic degrees, scientific papers, participation in management of research and development projects, work experience, and pedagogical qualifications, that Lars Emil Fagernes Johannessen is highly qualified for promotion to the post of professor in knowledge, expertise and professions. The conclusion is unanimous and indubitable Mountain view from my hotel room at Storefjell
January 31, 2025 at 11:08 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Me navigating the icy streets of Oslo
a man and a woman are walking in the desert
Alt: The fremen walk from Dune
media.tenor.com
January 27, 2025 at 7:46 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
My department at @oslomet.bsky.social is hiring a postdoc for the project "Automating technologies and the future of work". Application deadline: 24 February 2025. Read more here: www.oslomet.no/en/work/job-...

#sts #commsky #philsky #sociology
Title: Automating Technologies and the Future of Meaningful Work When artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies change the content of people’s work, will people lose the link to what makes their work meaningful or will it free them up to do more meaningful work? The main objective of the AUTOMA project is to explore how AI and related technologies affect work and the opportunities and/or challenges this entails with regard to meaningful work. The project aims to develop a deeper philosophical understanding of the factors that make work meaningful, while also collecting new empirical data on how the perception of meaningful work is affected when tasks and skills that were previously reserved for people are digitalised to a greater degree. The AUTOMA project consists of two work packages: one aimed at a philosophical and normative analysis of ‘meaningful work’ and one aimed at an empirical examination of meaningful work in workplaces where AI and related technologies have been adopted.
January 26, 2025 at 8:18 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
This is too good to be true <3

"Many qualitative methodological approaches are already very vibey [...] In this article, I reflect on these approaches and outline some vibes-based methods. I discuss how vibes-based methods help us consider and work with the generative ambiguities of social life."
Vibes-based methods - Ash Watson, 2025
Vibes are having a moment and academics seem increasingly serious about understanding whatever the vibe is. Many qualitative methodological approaches are alrea...
journals.sagepub.com
January 15, 2025 at 6:07 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Looks like I ordered my White Christmas on Temu...
Fredrikstad's city center is painted white-ish by fog
December 25, 2024 at 7:34 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Throwback to last year's #DuvetKnowItsChristmas when I Harry Potter'd in my parent's storage room 🎅
larsjohannessen.bsky.social Lars E.F. Johannessen @larsjohannessen.bsky.social · Dec 28
Upping my #DuvetKnowItsChristmas game this year 🔥🔥🔥
December 24, 2024 at 7:59 AM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
This year's #DuvetKnowItsChristmas comes with a twist: we dodged an ongoing norovirus outbreak at my parents' house and went to my mother-in-law's instead ❤️
One crib, two inflatable mattresses, and one happy wife Blurry and goofy Christmas selfie
December 23, 2024 at 8:00 PM
larsjohannessen.bsky.social
Just realized that my Samsung Galaxy Tab can act as a second monitor for my Windows laptop 🤯🤯🤯
My laptop and a Galaxy Tab acting as a supporting monitor.
December 22, 2024 at 5:11 PM