Biosketch: Professor Åsa Mäkitalo

Åsa Mäkitalo is Professor in Education and co-director of LinCS. From 2010 she is also head of the University of Gothenburg LETStudio, a strategic initiative for interdisciplinary research on learning.

Mäkitalo specialises in research on institutional communication from a sociocultural and dialogical perspective. Her research concerns what it implies to appropriate, collectively maintain, and develop institutional forms of knowing. One analytical focus is on categorization in text and talk, which is fruitful to analyse in terms of the sociogenesis underpinning institutional forms of knowing, but also in terms of how people coordinate and organise their actions and perspectives in situ. Mäkitalo also takes an interest in the immanent pedagogy of institutions in the encounter with citizens; particularly the activities institutions arrange in order to intergrate or activate individuals or groups to participate a normatively preferred community.

Current research activities

Mäkitalo is currently engaged in studies of academic, workplace and classroom settings, mainly in the following projects and research initiatives:

• LETStudio – The University of Gothenburg Learning and Media Technology Studio
• LINT - Learning, interactive technologies and the development of narrative knowing and remembering, funded by the Wallenberg Foundation, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation and the Swedish Research Council
• LinCS - The Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in contemporary Society. Funded by The Swedish Research Council
• NordLAC - Nordic Research Network on Learning Across Context, Funded by NordForsk

Recent and forthcoming publications 

Eriksson, A-M. & Mäkitalo, Å. (revised). Referencing as practice: learning to write and reason with other people's texts in Environmental Engineering education.

Mäkitalo, Å. (accepted). Categorization. To appear in C. Hall, K. Juhila, M. Matarese & C. van Nijnatten (Eds.), Analysing social work interaction: Discourse in practice. Routledge.

Mäkitalo, Å. & Reit, C. (accepted). Technology shift and its challeges to professional conduct: Mediated vision in endodontics. To appear in T. Fenwick and M. Nerland (Eds.) Reconceptualising professional learning in turbulent times: changing knowledges, practices and responsibilities. Routledge.

Mäkitalo. Å. (2013) Learning to make a case in law school. Categorizing events and actions in legal discourse. Psicologia Culturale, 2 (2/3).

Hall, C., Mäkitalo, Å., Slembrouck S. & Doherty, P. (2012). Pursuing trust in child protection meetings: familiarization and informality. In C. Candlin & J. Crichton (Eds.), Discourses of trust (pp.111-127). Basingstoke: Palgrave Mac Millan.

Mäkitalo, Å. (2012). Professional learning and the materiality of social practice. Journal of Education and Work, 25(1), 59-78.

Mäkitalo, Å. (2011). Minnande och responsivitet: att transformera information till argumentation. I R. Säljö (Red.), Lärande och minnande som social praktik (s. 338-360). Stockholm: Norstedts.

Säljö, R., Mäkitalo, Å. & Jakobsson, A. (2011). Appropriering genom argumentation: Kontroverser, mångtydighet och tillägnande av redskap för tänkande. I R. Säljö (Red.), Lärande och minnande som social praktik (s. 126-155). Stockholm: Norstedts.