Mari Elken
marielken.bsky.social
Mari Elken
@marielken.bsky.social
Associate prof in higher education at University of Oslo @unioslo-uv.bsky.social. Side gig at NIFU @nifu.bsky.social.
#Highered stuff on org, policy and governance, but mostly distracted..
Nils Brunsson on the what and why of organisations. In Swedish. Fascinating historical take at the NEON conference.
November 26, 2025 at 12:47 PM
This is just.. insane.
Someone (Rubio?) is MEGA pissed at the Ukraine peace plan situation if they leaked a full on *recording* of this Witkoff call (with transcript, lol).
November 26, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Call for EOIs - Higher Education Research & Development is seeking expressions of interest from guest editorial teams for our 2027 Special Issue

Due date – 19 December 2025

More information → www.tandfonline.com/journals/che...
November 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
We are in a bizarre moment of diplomatic history. The purported "peace plan" that appeared a few days ago begins in Russian unreality and American weakness. Demanding everything of Ukraine and nothing of Russia, its purpose is imperialism and profiteering.
snyder.substack.com/p/russian-un...
Russian Unreality and American Weakness
Notes from a bizarre moment of diplomatic history
snyder.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:41 PM
And the consequences are probably vast...
A new digital era is emerging, and it’s even more anti-social than the last. Damon Beres reports on the false promise of AI companionship:
The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here
The social-media era is over. What’s coming will be much worse.
bit.ly
November 5, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Mike Johnson: ‘My Christian Faith Is More About Not Jacking Off Than Feeding The Poor’
November 3, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
📢 New publication! Who climbs the Ivory Tower?

It’s not just a coincidence, as @aresherman.bsky.social, @astridsandsor.bsky.social, and Nicolai Topstad Borgen observe, even in egalitarian Norway.

Read the full paper 👇
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Who Climbs the Ivory Tower? Social Origins of Academic Faculty in an Egalitarian Welfare State - Nicolai T. Borgen, Are Skeie Hermansen, Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør, 2025
Although there is an extensive literature on intergenerational mobility in education, including the completion of PhD degrees, far less is known about the trans...
journals.sagepub.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Well, they are funding the war in Ukraine. Nothing indirect about it.
German companies pay Russia €1.72bn in taxes, indirectly funding war
German companies have paid nearly $2 billion (€1.72bn) in taxes to Russia since the Ukraine invasion, funding the war effort. Critics urge immediate withdrawal.
www.euronews.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
If you are interested in Norwegian Education Policy, @marielken.bsky.social & I have a chapter in the new Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics (edited by great colleagues at @statsvitenskap.bsky.social) entitled "Searching for the Right Balance between Equality and Differentiation"
t.co/qHsCMXMgZT
https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/61540/chapter/537135514
t.co
October 30, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
October 5, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Mari Elken
KRONIKK: Husmorreklame i beste sendetid er god butikk.
Provoserende husmødre på NRK
KRONIKK: Husmorreklame i beste sendetid er god butikk.
www.forskersonen.no
October 1, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Dutch late night TV has its take
September 19, 2025 at 2:39 PM
How to feel old in academia, Vol.26: When students are genuinely surprised when you catch their Horizon Zero Dawn reference.

#highered #academia #academicsky
September 17, 2025 at 2:36 PM
2 weeks until deadline! :)
Want to hang out with the Norwegian organizational scholars and talk about temporality and spatial aspects of HE organisations? NEON conference in Kristiansand in November, with Siri Borlaug we are organising a track on higher education. Check out the call here (ours is in English!)

www.neonnet.no
Nettverk for organisasjonsforskning i Norge
www.neonnet.no
September 1, 2025 at 6:22 PM
The saga of trying to buy a bus ticket in Thessaloniki. Two days, still dont know how. Have been told to buy from bus driver (not possible), then inside the bus (no such machines existed) and now from a kiosk (two have said nope). Must be some secret bus ticket selling society somewhere.
August 28, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Conference time in Thessaloniki @ecpr.bsky.social. Curious mix of academic work, warm weather and a campus with a lot of eh.. identity?
August 28, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Somehow further validates South Park S27 E1... even more.
August 24, 2025 at 10:23 AM
About restaurants. And universities too.

youtu.be/3EwduM3pAyA
Uncle Jimmy's Warning - Scene | The Bear | FX
YouTube video by FX Networks
youtu.be
August 7, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Communist regimes insisted on a "propaganda of success," with the media daily and breathlessly reporting ever-higher quotas being met by the heroic workers and massive economic growth. Stalin sent the (few) authors of unfavorable economic reports to the gulag.

This of course is very different.
August 1, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Mari Elken
On June 16, Doctors Without Borders sent an open letter with a very clear message to EU leaders: The #EU can and must act now to stop mass atrocities in #Gaza.

www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/palestine-ms...
Palestine: MSF statement on the EU’s failure to protect people in Gaza again | Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF ...
The EU ignores calls to end Gaza’s siege, enabling Israel’s attacks on civilians amid ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
www.doctorswithoutborders.ca
July 24, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Not often I would post links to Twitter here, but here is e1 of s27 of South Park... launched a few days after they signed a new contract with Paramount, who owns CBS who cancelled Colbert.. This just deserves to be shared. I am looking forward to the fallout. x.com/timetravelje...
Nick on X: "South Park Full Episode season 27 https://t.co/DxHo9pk5p9" / X
South Park Full Episode season 27 https://t.co/DxHo9pk5p9
x.com
July 24, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Students and citizens in #Serbia are being arrested, beaten, and declared enemies of the state for opposing Vučić's authoritarian regime.

Academic colleagues anywhere in the world, please sign this petition in solidarity with them & spread the message.
International Academic Appeal Against Repression in Serbia
We, members of the Serbian academic diaspora and our colleagues from the international academic community, are raising our voices in strong condemnation of the escalating violence, repression, and int...
docs.google.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Mari Elken
Å peke på det problematiske med å bruke borgerkrigsretorikk og hundefløyter er en sånn gøy deltidsjobb jeg har hatt de siste fjorten årene uten å be om det, det blir liksom aldri gammelt men av og til så er det nødvendig å forklare enkle sammenhenger og synd for dere i dag er en sånn dag igjen.
June 27, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Want to hang out with the Norwegian organizational scholars and talk about temporality and spatial aspects of HE organisations? NEON conference in Kristiansand in November, with Siri Borlaug we are organising a track on higher education. Check out the call here (ours is in English!)

www.neonnet.no
Nettverk for organisasjonsforskning i Norge
www.neonnet.no
June 26, 2025 at 8:54 AM