Meet INVI's new interns and get their tips for eye-opening reading material
INVI is expanding. Meet our new wicked interns. We've gone from one to three interns. The new additions recommend some reading material to equip us to tackle today's wicked problems.
Remember to scroll to the bottom! Find out more about them, what they bring to the table and what it's been like to start at INVI.
Here are the three interns: Mette Susgaard, Elisabeth Rebel, Sina Jæger.
Mette Susgaard recommends reading a Zetland article about using more question marks than exclamation marks
A few years ago, someone in my close family said that she had stopped reading the news and that she even turned off the TV during news broadcasts. It was simply too disheartening for her. I've wondered myself if media coverage of society's problems has made us more apathetic and anxious - or have society's problems just gotten wilder and worse?
As early as 1965, Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung warned that the emerging criteria for when something became news could lead to conflict, division and a dark image of the world. Galtung believes that the news media is still a great "image shaper" that offers us a way to talk about complex social problems. Most agree that news journalism plays a role in our understanding of and conversations about society's wicked problems. Whether the media's focus on sensation and conflict has contributed to increased polarization is still debated in media circles today.
In a 2019 article written by journalist Hakon Mosbech for Zetland, sociologist Galtung looks back at news trends and what he believes conflict does to us. And although his warning about the autonomy of news ended up becoming a recipe for news stories, we can still learn something from the advice that Galtung actually listed as a counterpoint to the dark picture of the world back in 1965. To tease a little, I can mention that news journalists should write about the trivial, write more about the positive, write less about the elite and more about the periphery.
Maybe you will realize, as I did, that I will remember to use more question marks than exclamation marks. I listened to the article recorded by the journalist in the Zetland app.
Read or listen here: 50 years ago, he warned the media against conflict and sensationalism. Then his warning became a recipe (zetland.dk)
Sina Jæger recommends The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff and Dear Fuckhead by Virginie Despentes
#1 On the slightly heavier, but very important end, I would recommend The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, which offers a detailed and razor-sharp analysis of the (un)democratic digital mechanisms we are all subject to today - consciously or unconsciously. It's long, but Zuboff is a skilled communicator who spices up the technical stuff with down-to-earth examples and personal anecdotes so that even a humanist like myself can follow along. The book is from 2019, but it is (unfortunately) still highly relevant.
#2 On the lighter side, I would recommend the epistolary novel Dear Fuckhead by Virginie Despentes, which with its potent title starts in an online hate correspondence, but develops and depicts an unpredictable friendship. A mishmash of French class society, film culture, feminism, parenthood, drug (mis)use and not least human misunderstandings. Chaotic, merciless and funny, as only French fiction can do it. I promise you, you'll be touched, moved, and not least wiser.
Elisabeth Rebel recommends The Gift of Anxiety by Markus Floris Christensen
In the essay The Gift of Anxiety, we are taken on a journey through a thematic portrayal of anxiety in Scandinavian literary history, with the works of August Strindberg, Inger Christensen and Karl Ove Knausgård standing out. Threads are drawn between their treatments of anxiety, such as the fear of dying, losing face or not fitting into a social context. Anxiety is boundless and can be experienced on both an individual and collective level. It can permeate every aspect of your life, be tangible and fear-based, and can permeate an entire society.
But Markus Floris Christensen points out that anxiety also gives. For Kierkegaard, it was a fundamental premise for existence and became one of the focal points for how one's inner battles fought the outer ones. I think anyone who wants to learn more about anxiety as a concept and how to gain a new perspective on anxiety through the lens of literary history. You should read this book if you want to try to look at anxiety as a spiritual driving force and not a stumbling block, both for yourself and for society in general.
Read more about Sina, Elisabeth and Mette here:
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What has it been like starting in INVI?
"Fast-paced, but really fun, educational and not least enjoyable. There are high ceilings, but never far from a good colleague. The whole team has very different professional interests and personalities, but what we have in common is that we take each other's perspectives and ideas seriously and insist on taking the time to understand them. In addition, we have just been on a study trip to Helsinki, which has been the perfect way to see INVI's project and raison d'être in a larger context and of course to be shaken together as a team."
Sina Jæger is a master's student at Aarhus University. She has a bachelor's degree in History of Ideas with a minor in Social Studies. She is particularly interested in democratic processes, the inclusion of otherwise overheard perspectives and voices, and global inequality. When she finishes her stay with us, she will write her master's thesis on the economic calculation of value and its impact on society. In other words, she is well versed in questioning the status quo, which is an important skill in the day-to-day running of INVI.
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What is it like to be a part of INVI?
"I feel the imposter syndrome growing on a daily basis because everyone is so insanely talented and brings different perspectives and exciting things in their toolboxes. It's so cool, and I just try to absorb as much knowledge as possible. I've only been exposed to wicked problems in a theoretical sense. So it's amazing to feel what it takes to work with them in practice, and what a team to get to try it out with!"
Elisabeth is a Master's student in Economics with a specialization in Politics and Economics at AU. She is completely new and green in the practical field, but comes with a broad toolbox ranging from Political Science to Economics, and understands their interdisciplinary interplay and constraints. During her studies, she has been interested in climate policy, social justice and economic effects of taxes and social investments. In INVI, she has so far tried her hand at a bit of everything. She has had a minor influence on the communication team, but will eventually also be part of the analysis team.
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Why did you apply for INVI as an internship?
"I've seen how difficult it is to design and roll out policies that adequately address intractable problems. That's why it's great to be part of a think tank that dares to experiment, get smarter and bite down on society's complex problems."
Mette Susgaard is a master's student in rhetoric at AU. Mette brings a lot of practical experience about the autonomy of wicked problems, especially from climate politics, where she has been a representative at UN climate summits as well as host and organizer of her own podcast about the parties' climate policy at the last general election. In recent years, Mette has worked with PR and communication in the consulting industry.Mette will therefore, among other things, contribute to INVI's communication, so her practical experience comes into play with us.