Malmö möts

Sometimes it is difficult to uphold children’s rights: this may concern children who find themselves alone in hospital, or children’s right to information and freedom of expression in the digital world. Should human rights be part of all university courses? Is it only humans who have rights – or do nature and other living beings have them too?

In a polarised world, universities have an important role to play in championing knowledge of, about and for human rights. This is achieved through research and education in dialogue with society. The Human Rights College at Malmö University brings together researchers from across the university, and their first book is now being presented.

Rebecka Lettevall, Professor of History of Ideas and Chair of the Human Rights College, Malmö University, will begin by explaining why the Human Rights College is needed now. This will be followed by a discussion about the book among some of the contributing researchers.

Commentator

Sara Bondesson, Lund University of Technology

The discussion is organised by Malmö University’s network focusing on the field of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights within the Total Defence Campus.

Lecture and discussion: Two democracy fighters from civil society tell their story of resisting authoritarianism and defending democracy under threat.

Once a beacon of reform and democratic development in the region, Georgia is now sliding toward a Russian-style autocracy. Two young leaders of Georgian civil society explore how the nation became one of Europe’s fastest-declining democracies.

George Melashvili and Shako Chkheidze are the founders of the Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI), a leading Georgian hybrid civil society organisation. Established in 2015 and built from the ground up by its founders, EGI has developed an extensive portfolio of successful campaigns and educational programs. However, following the enactment of several repressive, Russian-style laws targeting civil society and Democracy, the organisation’s influential work has made it a primary target of the current regime.

We will hear how the ruling party leveraged the war in Ukraine to attack civil society, and how the struggle to defend democracy became a daily reality for Georgians after 2024.

The speakers will share their first-hand experiences on the front lines of this democratic struggle.

George and Shako began their collaboration with Malmö through the Swedish Institute Academy for Young Professional in Malmö University. This connection deepened through the EGI partnership with Malmö University and the Swedish Institute. These relationships have fueled several significant initiatives in Georgia, including the translation and promotion of the Swedish educational floor game "Electionville," as well as the integration of social auditing into the high school civic education curriculum.

This session is organized by Malmö University's network for the field of knowledge Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights within Campus Total Defense.

Commentator

Derek Hutcheson, Professor, Malmö University

Drop by, give it a go, or pick up a set of creative discussion materials on hope and grief in uncertain times. A collaboration between the Academy of Change, ABF, SMHI and Malmö University.
The discussion materials “Hope and Grief in Uncertain Times” aim to facilitate open and exploratory conversations in the age of climate change. The materials are aimed at small groups (4–7 people) who wish to explore climate-related anxiety, hope, grief, relationships, meaning and agency together. The programme consists of three guided sessions featuring discussions, exercises, texts and audio tracks, and can be used by, for example, associations, workplaces, parents on parental leave, study circles or groups of friends. The aim is to lower the threshold for conversations about climate-related emotions and to strengthen community and engagement at a time that demands both transition and adaptation.
The material has been developed in collaboration between the Academy of Change and the research group Design Beyond Progress at Malmö University, with funding from the National Knowledge Centre for Climate Adaptation at SMHI.

A Room for Hope is a participatory workshop where people share dreams for the future through words, sound, and conversation, creating a live collective soundscape that lets many hopes exist together.

A Room for Hope is a half-day workshop about community, shared imagination, and hope, built around conversation and live, communal sound-making.

Participants are invited to bring a dream, wish, or future they care about – something that is personal, local, or collective. It might be practical, ambitious, unresolved, or still vague. We will work with these possibilities not as private goals, but as things that shape how people relate to the future and to each other.

Through guided prompts and small-group conversations, participants will put these dreams into words, short phrases, or simple sounds. These participatory fragments will be recorded and gradually mixed into a live soundscape that builds in the room over the course of the session.

As we go along together, the space will fill with different future directions at once… overlapping, sitting side-by-side, perhaps pulling in different ways. The point isn’t for us to agree or arrive at one vision, but to experience how many hopes can exist together.

We will end with a shared listening moment and a brief reflection/conversation on what it means to treat thinking about the future as something we do together in everyday life, not just in policy documents or expert spaces.

Limited number of participants.

Four researchers from the Sustainable Digitalisation Research Centre at Malmö University share their perspectives in a panel discussion on democracy and digitalisation.

Frans af Malmborg, Lecturer, Social Work:

However you look at it, AI embodies various forms of norms and values; it can contribute to more efficient decision-making structures and democratic participation, but also to reduced transparency and the spread of misinformation.

Mareike Glöss, Senior Lecturer, Human-Computer Interaction:

We now take a much more critical view of the negative effects of digitalisation. Criticism is important, but it must not prevent us from exploring the positive role that digital technology can play in people’s lives. How can technology be improved and digitalisation done in the right way?

Per Linde, Senior Lecturer, Interaction Design:

Digitalisation can be a crucial driving force for sustainable transitions in society and industry. But the dynamics of such ambitions are complex, and it is important not only to focus on technical innovation but also to develop inclusive and democratic governance mechanisms that are in line with the sustainability vision.

Carolina Martínez, Associate Professor, Media and Communication Studies:

In the public debate on children and digital media, the focus is often on the risks. Through General Comment 25, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasises children’s right to the digital environment. When children’s participation in the digital environment is restricted, how does this affect their ability to participate in democratic society?

Moderator: Ulrika Sjöberg, Professor, Media and Communication Studies

Meet Malmö University’s Climate Research Group and explore the links between climate and democracy. View poster presentations, join in discussions and share your own thoughts on the society of the future.

Malmö University’s Research Group on Climate and Societal Transition invites you to open discussions on the relationship between climate and democracy. In the Niagara Atrium, we are presenting posters that highlight how climate change affects democratic processes and how democratic decisions, in turn, shape climate policy. Representatives from the Climate Research Group will be at the stand, ready to discuss, answer questions and highlight different perspectives. Here, you can also contribute your own thoughts. On a special poster, we’re collecting questions that spark curiosity and reflection, and you can drop a note in our postbox sharing your own views on the connection between climate and democracy. Together, we’re creating a space for dialogue, participation and new ideas for a sustainable and democratic future.

Certain public officials are required to report undocumented migrants to the border police. What are the implications for human rights and democracy?

At this seminar, you will meet Christina Johnsson and Jacob Lind from Malmö University, who are researching trade unions’ and professionals’ resistance to the informant law. They have conducted a study among government officials subject to the reporting obligation. Both researchers are active within the College of Human Rights.

Research presentations and discussions on vulnerability and sexual health among young people in compulsory care, LGBTQI+ issues in primary schools, and on sexual health, sexualised violence and migration.

Through three presentations and subsequent discussions, issues relating to social vulnerability, sexuality and rights will be explored. Ylva Grönvall and Robin Björkas will present research on sexual and reproductive health and rights for young people in compulsory care. Anna Arvidsson and Jack Lukkerz present research on LGBTQI+ issues in schools (Years 1–6), focusing on the perspectives of teachers and pupils. Marie Karlsson and Charlotta Holmström present research on women with a migrant background and sexual violence, with a particular focus on experiences, access to care and structural barriers in care processes. The focus of this programme item is how sexuality, vulnerability and rights are shaped in relation to social structures, social institutions and individual living conditions. Space is provided for dialogue on inequality in matters of sexual and reproductive health and rights, and on what the conditions for change look like and how they can be improved.

A lecture followed by a discussion on how teaching religious studies and human rights can promote democratic citizenship.

The lecture includes exercises on values and concluding discussion questions on the theme of how teaching religion and human rights can promote democratic citizenship in a post-secular society.
Participants: Bodil Liljefors Persson, Professor of History of Religion, and Emma Hall, Senior Lecturer in History and History Education, from the Department of Society, Culture and Identity, Faculty of Education and Society at Malmö University.

The Literacy and Inclusive Teaching (LIT) Research Centre and the Human Rights Network.

Panel discussion and participatory mapping activity on urban justice in Malmö with junior researchers from the Institute for Urban Research. The event will conclude with a networking session.

Led by moderator Jennie Gustafsson, we will discuss how urban justice and democracy are linked, what this means from the perspective of young people in Malmö, and what initiatives exist to promote justice in our city and others. A panel of four early-career researchers from the Institute for Urban Research (IUR) will present four different perspectives on urban justice. The panel draws on the IUR’s four research areas concerning urban justice: housing and welfare (Henrika Kangas), green and just cities (Ulrik Kohl), global urbanism (Claudia Fonseca) and urban humanities (Adam Lundberg).

The panel will be followed by a participatory mapping activity led by Myrto Dagkouli and Mathilda Rosengren: Mapping the Margins – a seminar on the history, applications and challenges of counter-mapping. We will examine mapping as a tool for political and social claims through various examples. Depending on the participants’ interests, we will explore together the power but also the limitations of counter-mapping as a radical practice. We will also facilitate a short online discussion with the Gaza Soundmapping Project, focusing on the erasure of counter-mapping and the preservation of sound memory.

Many people want to involve citizens in climate policy decisions, but this does not always lead to greater fairness. Researcher Anders Melin has been working on these issues and will give a short talk.

There is currently growing interest in involving citizens in climate policy decisions in various ways. A key reason is that this is expected to lead to fairer decisions by giving citizens greater opportunities to influence them. However, research shows that citizen involvement can also have the opposite effect, for example by giving already well-off groups greater influence. The lecture discusses the conditions under which citizen involvement in climate policy can lead to fairer decisions. Researcher Anders Melin has worked on these issues both in practice and in theory and will share his experiences. He is active within the Swedish Institute for Human Rights.

Mathematical skills shape democratic participation. A lecture and discussion on critical mathematical literacy in relation to societal crises, disinformation and individual decision-making.

In a world where data, statistics and algorithms influence everything from electoral processes to climate policy, mathematical literacy is a key democratic skill. The lecture highlights how the ability to interpret, evaluate and critically examine quantitative information is not merely a matter for schools – but a prerequisite for citizens to be able to participate actively in society, resist disinformation and make informed decisions.

The lecture draws on research showing how mathematics and mathematical literacy are closely intertwined with social justice, critical citizenship, social cohesion and sustainability.
Critical mathematical literacy is crucial for individuals when it comes to understanding and acting in relation to phenomena such as pandemics, climate change and other societal crises – and to being able to participate in a democratic context in an informed manner.

Are you keen to find out more about human rights, or would you like to ask a researcher some questions? Come and have a coffee with researchers from Malmö University.

Without human rights, democracy risks losing its legitimacy, and without democracy, human rights risk being violated with impunity. But these are not simple questions! Malmö University conducts extensive research and offers courses on these issues, and a couple of years ago the Centre for Human Rights was established. Take the opportunity to ask questions or discuss topics that interest you. We’ll be there and are keen to hear what you’d like to discuss and learn about. And of course, we’ll be providing the refreshments.

Researchers from the Citizen Health Centre for Health Equity, residents, local health promoters, Malmö City Council and Save the Children will present research findings and discuss the future of our suburbs.

Over the past ten years, democratic co-creation with Malmö’s population – with a particular focus on Lindängen – has helped to strengthen local democracy, promote health equity and create a more inclusive local community. These approaches have also gained international recognition. What are the findings of the research, and how can democratised co-creation research also strengthen human rights globally?

Presentation of how the research processes:

• have contributed to policy decisions
• have strengthened local integration
• have been shaped in collaboration with residents and the city’s services

We also highlight how the experiences from Malmö and Jämlik hälsa are being applied in international contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The focus is on how participatory research can:

• strengthen human rights
• reduce global health inequalities
• contribute to local ownership of knowledge

Panel on how deepfakes affect elections with Malmö University researchers and students sharing tools for detection, digital literacy, and democratic resilience.

This event introduces the Deepfake Democracy Group, an interdisciplinary team of computer sciences, international relations, global political studies, media studies, communications, interaction designers and criminologist at Malmö University that studies how AI-generated synthetic media may inform European and Nordic democracies. Participants will hear inputs on the rapid growth of political deepfakes, why humans detect them only slightly better than chance, and how such content can damage reputations, voting intentions, and trust in news.

The session combines short talks from the research tracks, a moderated panel, and hands-on examples where visitors compare real and synthetic video and discuss how design, policy, and education can strengthen democratic resilience. Students from the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) “Deepfake Democracy Group” present case studies from Sweden and recent European elections and demonstrate EU policies and prototype detection. The aim is to give attendees a clearer understanding of deepfake threats and an accessible toolkit of questions, practices, and resources they can use in everyday democratic life in Malmö and across the Öresund region.

In an age where visual media spreads faster than ever, media literacy is not just a matter for schools, but a matter of democracy. How can media production foster critical thinking and engagement?

In an age where social issues are increasingly conveyed through moving images, it is not enough to be able to read and write text. Young people encounter the world through news clips, documentaries, YouTube and social media. The need for media literacy is great, and to participate in a democracy we need more than just to consume content. We need to understand how images are created, framed and used to persuade. When pupils themselves work on film production in social studies, they move from being passive recipients to active producers of meaning. In this process, they develop not only subject knowledge, but also a deeper understanding of how visual media shape our view of society and our ability to influence it.

How can libraries, schools and universities work together to strengthen all pupils’ reading skills as a foundation for democratic participation? This is the overarching question for this lecture.

A lecture on collaborative efforts to promote reading between libraries and schools in two municipalities, as well as a presentation of a research school (FEELIT) aimed at strengthening teacher training. Collaboration to promote reading is discussed and highlighted initially, based on a research project being carried out in collaboration between Malmö University and Karlstad University. The project highlights how librarians and school leaders describe collaboration to promote reading in socially disadvantaged areas to support all pupils’ reading development and access to libraries. This is followed by a presentation of the FEELIT research school: Foundations for equitable and engaging reading and writing instruction in the early years of schooling. It is funded by the Swedish Research Council and constitutes a collaboration between four higher education institutions aimed at strengthening teacher training. The lecture concludes with a joint discussion.

Learning Swedish is crucial for migrants’ participation in society. This lecture describes the challenges of language learning for adult SFI participants who have not previously attended school.

For most people, learning a new language is a time-consuming and demanding task. Anders Agebjörn researches how second-language acquisition is influenced by linguistic, cognitive and social factors. In the ongoing project presented here, he uses quantitative methods to investigate the significance of adult migrants’ prior education and experiences of written language use for their development of both spoken and written Swedish. The findings contribute to an understanding of the specific challenges faced by adult migrants with limited schooling in acquiring the language they need to participate fully in Swedish society.

Live recording of Malmö University’s podcast Wiki 4-ever

The World Cup – the enemy of democracy? Is FIFA corrupt? Should more people have boycotted the World Cup? Why are there so few critical voices coming from the world of sport? How does global politics influence sporting events today? This highly topical subject is discussed in the midst of the World Cup with the following guests on the panel.

Caroline Jönsson: Legendary football goalkeeper with 80 international caps and a World Cup silver medal to her name. Now a sports psychologist specialising in the mental health of elite athletes and active in the Players’ Association (an interest group for professional footballers). She is also an honorary doctor at Malmö University.

Jesper Högström: Football-savvy author and journalist. He has written numerous pieces and articles on football, including for Offside magazine and Dagens Nyheter, and is the author of the books *The World Cup Book* and *Blågult: The History of the Swedish Men’s National Football Team*.

Kutte Jönsson: Philosopher and sports researcher at Malmö University whose research focuses on sports ethics. Among other works, he has written the book *The Match That Never Took Place*, which discusses sports issues linked to fair play, doping, nationalism and politics.
Presenter: Magnus Erlandsson, Malmö University

A conversation on art, radical imagination and hope, this talk with Geoffrey Mulgan is part of the FUTURES Thoughts talk series at Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-creating Futures (ICF).

Geoffrey Mulgan is professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London, UK and keynote address at Malmö Möts. The talk will be curated by Marika Hedemyr and focus on his work pertaining to art, radical imagination and hope as capacities for reimagining democracy.

In this talk, Mulgan will address the role of the arts in social imagination and shaping the future. How much is their role to warn, to testify, to spot emergent patterns or to make the present feel unnatural?  And how well placed are they now to do more detailed design, future visions and pathways? He'll look at the role of radical imagination, utopias and distopias, and why more prescriptive literature, film or art sometimes feels banal. He will argue that the idea of the arts as trailblazers or legislators is sometimes misunderstood. They contribute best at a tangent rather than head on, encouraging hope by showing the plasticity of the world, and contributing to explorations of possible futures and pathways more than precise blueprints.