I4R Discussion Paper 107 Abstract This study pushes our understanding of research reliability by reproducing and replicating claims from 110 papers in leading economic and political science journals. Th

Lorne L. Dawson: Reconceptualizing Lone-Actor Terrorists as Solo Public Mass Murders

Lorne L. Dawson, Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Canada. In public and expert judgements of whether an incident of mass violence by a lone actor is an instance of terrorism or simply mass m

Seminar with Lorne L. Dawson, Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, Canada. Register here > Abstract In public and expert judgements of whether an incident of mass violence by a lone actor is an

Venue: Institute for Futures Studies, Holländargatan 13 in Stockholm, or online. Research seminar with Daniel Waldenström, Professor of Economics and Director of the Taxes and Society research program a

Epistemic utility theorists have recently started addressing the question of how to compare epistemic states that differ in the number of propositions they have an opinion on. It has become apparent t

Selling pictures. Pictorial Economy and Commoditization 1820–2020

This project will place the current discussions concerning AI-generated images in a historical context, comparing it to two previous technological breakthroughs that have affected the use of pictures for commercial purposes. 

Anna Näslund

I am professor of Art History at Stockholm University and researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies. My research focuses on visual culture, picture theory and digitization.  The project Selling Pic traces the genealogy of contemporary AI-generated image hype over 200 years of promoting technologies for the production, reproduction, and circulation of pictures on a mass scale. It aims to understand the historical role of pictures not merely as commodities but as agents of commerce. The project focuses on emerging picture techniques in the 1820s, 1920s, and 2020s, examining iconographic and discursive patterns in pictures of mass reproduction (metapictures) and comparing vernacular picture theories—expressed in advertising copy and trade journalism—with canonical picture theories. Rooted in historical material practices, the project seeks to clarify and expand our understanding of how and why pictures play a central role in the work of selling in modern and contemporary societies.

The purpose of the project is to stimulate and discuss knowledge-based text production alongside the dominant academic formats, to contribute to more animated writing and readable texts by scholars, and thereby enlarge their audience.

FOCUS, a EU security research project (Foresight Security Scenarios – Mapping Research to a Comprehensive Approach to Exogenous EU Roles) will be arranging a final symposium on the 31st of January and

In order to reach the goals in the Paris Agreement on how to combat climate change, some aggressive policy changes need to be put in place. Apart from creating policies, policy makers also need to gai