Expertise
Kristina Tamm Hallström is Associate Professor in management and organization theory at Stockholm School of Economics and Stockholm centre for organizational research (SCORE). She is interested in how, why and with what consequences organizations and organizing among organizations become increasingly rationalized or even hyperrationalized, as well as expressions of resistance and countermovements to hyperrationalization. More specifically, she explores the role of expertise and various ways of constructing, mobilizing, ordering and legitimizing expertise in organized settings, to address questions about authority and responsibility in decision making. Her fieldwork includes studies of standard setting, certification and accreditation in areas such as quality and environmental management, historical studies of the emergence of various forms of product control, such as state laboratories for product testing and private certification, and the construction of expertise and use of consultants in contexts of competing knowledge claims in urban planning, with a focus on planning of urban land-use involving environmental aspects and climate change.
Kristina Tamm Hallström leads and participates in several research projects:
- The politics of testing. The changing role of the state in test laboratories and the dissemination of test results in Sweden, the UK and Germany 1940–2020 (funded by Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelse 2021–2026)
- Muddy terrains of environmental expertise: Ethnographies of changing and competing knowledge of wetland restoration in times of climate change (funded by Vetenskapsrådet 2025–2028)
- Regional governance and local translations into urban planning in times of climate change (funded by Region Stockholm 2026–2027, and Länsförsäkringars forskningsstiftelse 2026–2028)