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I am Associate Professor in Media Studies at the School of Communication and Culture, Department of Media and Journalism Studies, Aarhus University, where I am also affiliated with the Centre for Internet Research.
My research explores the interplay between humans and technology – or more precisely, the relationship between social systems and communication media. I work within the fields of media theory, media philosophy, media sociology, and media history, with a particular interest in how interaction systems, organizations, and society are affected by technological change. Digital media and AI are of special importance in this context, and I investigate how these technologies alter the structural and communicative conditions for society’s functioning and self-understanding.
Empirically, much of my work has focused on how the digital media revolution is transforming upper secondary education – an institution originally designed for a very different media environment. Through fieldwork, interviews, and action research, I have traced how schools adapt to these shifts. I also actively engage in public debates about technology and education, contributing through books, research articles, op-eds, interviews, and debates across various media outlets.
I teach the core theory course Media, Culture, and Theories of Science, which spans two semesters and covers thinkers from antiquity to modern systems theory. The curriculum includes figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, Husserl, and Gadamer, and extends to Foucault, Luhmann, Bourdieu, Habermas, Butler, and Haraway. Consequently, my research and publications in this period have primarily focused on theoretical work. I have also previously taught organizational communication, emphasizing formal communication systems in institutions and corporations. This is closely related to my broader research on how interactive and organizational systems change with developments in media technologies. Today, both schools and enterprises must relate to platforms, social media, and AI – highlighting similarities between formal and informal forms of organization.
In 2018, I published Strategier til at analysere organisationskultur (“Strategies for Analysing Organisational Culture”), and in 2025 I presented my paper Luhmann and Organization Culture – A Systems Theoretical Analytical Strategy at the EURAM conference in Florence, underscoring my ongoing engagement with organizational communication.
My research is grounded in systems theory, particularly Niklas Luhmann’s theories of communication and media. In recent years, I have focused on developing system-theoretical concepts and a media-sociological understanding of AI, platforms, and algorithms. A key topic is the development of the concept of “algorithmic differentiation” – a new societal ordering that supplements or displaces the classical functional differentiation characterizing modernity. Related to this, I also work with the concept of the Anthropocene and have co-edited the Danish anthology Antropocæn: Menneske, samfund og dannelse i en ny tidsalder (“Anthropocene: Human, Society and Bildung in a New Era”) together with Michael Paulsen. You can also finde some English articles with Anthropocene as the topic in my publicationlist.
In our research on education and Bildung, Michael Paulsen and I developed the theory of the three waves to describe how schools attempt to navigate and integrate the digital media revolution. Together, we have published five books in Danish on digital education in upper secondary schools, and in 2022 we published a comprehensive English-language work: A New Perspective on Education in the Digital Age: Teaching, Media and Bildung (Bloomsbury Academic).
I serve as editor for media sociology in the Danish Encyclopedia of Media and Communication, am a member of the advisory board for the communications agency Vostok, and regularly participate in conferences, research centres, lectures, and public debate.
I hold an MA in Information Science and Organizational Psychology from Aarhus University and a PhD in Media Sociology from the IT University of Copenhagen, where I defended the dissertation Mediesociografi.
Short CV for associate professor, cand.mag., Ph.D. Jesper Tække
• 1969 born
• 1999 Cand.mag. in Information Studies and Organizational Psychology at AU.
• 2006 PhD defense of the thesis Media Sociography at the IT-University of Copenhagen.
Employment:
- 1998 External consultant in the EU project DAILY.
- 1999 – 2000 Teaching assistant at Humanistic Informatics at Aalborg University.
- 2000 External consultant on the research project Social Search at Mindpass.com in Aalborg.
- 2001-2 External lecturer, partly amanuensis at IMV at Aarhus University.
- 2003-5 Ph.D. student at IT-University of Copenhagen, Department for Digital Aesthetics and Communication.
- 2006-8 Amanuensis in organizational communication at IMV Aarhus University.
- 2008-11 Assistant professor in media studies at IMV Aarhus University.
- 2011- Lecturer (associate professor) in Media Studies at the Department of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University.
Research projects, leader of:
• 2011-14 Socio Media Education experiment: Action research in the upper secondary school’s use of digital media in teaching (see www.smee.dk), together with Michael Paulsen (SDU).
• 2012-15 BIT project: Follow-up researcher in a project to include IT in teaching at Randers HF and VUC, together with Michael Paulsen (SDU).
• 2017-18 Digitally Supported Bildung and General Education (DUFA project). Offered by the Ministry of Education (and STIL), together with Michael Paulsen (SDU).
Committees, memberships and posts (selective):
- 2000 – Member of Center for Internet Studies
- 2003 – Member in Sammenslutningen af Medieforskere i Danmark (SMID)
- 1999 – Founder of Skandinavisk Luhmann Forum
- 2019 – Editor Medie- og kommunikationsleksikon
- 2018 – Advisory board at Vostok
- 2017 – 2021 Member of the research network for pedagogical Information Technology, under Ministry of Children and Education.
- 2008 – 2018 Chairman for the SIG Society and differentiation Discourse, Field and System, under Nordic Sociology.
- 2013 – 2017 Chairman for Division 5 NordMedia: Media Literacy and Media Education.
- 2017 – 2018 Member of digitaliseringspanel nedsat af DLF, DM og GL.
- 2019 – 2019 Committee work The Agency for Education and Quality – Ministry of Education on digital noise in collaboration with Rambøl
Academic awards and honours.
· Communication and Media Studies International Award for Excellence
- Tække, Jesper, & Paulsen, M. E., 2021
· Walter Buckley Memorial Award on Excellence in presenting Sociocybernetics 2016
- Tække, Jesper 2016
See also:
Find me on SoMe
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/taekke.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taekke/
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Jeg er lektor i medievidenskab ved Institut for Kommunikation og Kultur, Aarhus Universitet – nærmere bestemt ved School of Communication and Culture, Department of Media and Journalism Studies, hvor jeg også er tilknyttet forskningscentret Centre for Internet Research.
Min forskning kredser om samspillet mellem mennesker og teknologi – eller mere præcist: samspillet mellem det sociale og kommunikationsmedier. Jeg arbejder teoretisk og historisk med medieteori, mediefilosofi, mediesociologi og mediehistorie, og er især optaget af, hvordan interaktionssystemer, organisationer og samfund påvirkes af teknologiske forandringer. Her spiller digitale medier og AI en særlig rolle, og jeg undersøger, hvordan disse medier ændrer de strukturelle og kommunikative betingelser for samfundets funktion og selvforståelse.
Empirisk har jeg især forsket i, hvordan den digitale medierevolution påvirker gymnasieskolen – en institution, der i sin oprindelige form blev designet til en anden medievirkelighed. Jeg har fulgt skolens udvikling gennem feltstudier, interviews og aktionsforskning og har bidraget aktivt til den offentlige debat om teknologi og dannelse, både gennem bøger, forskningsartikler, kronikker, interviews og debatter i en bred vifte af medier.
Jeg underviser i faget Medie, Kultur og Videnskabsteori – et centralt teorifag på medievidenskabsuddannelsen, som løber over to semestre og strækker sig fra antikken til moderne systemteori. Vi arbejder med tænkere som Descartes, Hume, Kant, Husserl og Gadamer, og frem til Foucault, Luhmann, Bourdieu, Habermas, Butler og Haraway. Som følge heraf er min forskning og publikation I denne periode overvejende af teoretisk karekter. Tidligere underviste jeg også i organisationskommunikation, hvor fokus er på formelle kommunikationssystemer i virksomheder og institutioner. Dette hænger tæt sammen med min forskning i, hvordan sociale systemer – både interaktive og organisatoriske – forandres i takt med medieteknologiske skift. I dag skal både skoler og virksomheder forholde sig til platforme, sociale medier og AI – og her er der mange ligheder mellem formelle og uformelle organiseringer. I 2018 udgav jeg bogen “Strategier til at analysere organisationskultur” og I 2025 præsenterede jeg på EURAM konferencen i Firanze mit paper: “Luhmann and Organization Culture – A Systems Theoretical Analytical Strategy” hvilket vil sige at jeg stadig er aktiv indenfor organisationskommunikation.
Min forskning er systemteoretisk funderet og tager udgangspunkt i Niklas Luhmanns kommunikations- og medieteori. I disse år arbejder jeg især med at udvikle systemteoretiske begreber og mediesociologisk forståelse af AI, platforme og algoritmer. Et centralt fokus er udviklingen af et begreb om “algoritmisk differentiering” – som en ny samfundsmæssig orden, der supplerer eller forskyder den klassiske funktionelle differentiering, som har præget det moderne samfund. I forlængelse heraf arbejder jeg også med begrebet antropocæn og har sammen med Michael Paulsen redigeret antologien Antropocæn: Menneske, samfund og dannelse i en ny tidsalder.
I vores forskning i skole og dannelse har Michael Paulsen og jeg udviklet “de tre bølger”-modellen, der beskriver, hvordan skolen forsøger at håndtere og integrere den digitale medierevolution. Vi har skrevet fem bøger på dansk om digital dannelse i gymnasiet og udgav i 2022 en samlet fremstilling på engelsk: A New Perspective on Education in the Digital Age: Teaching, Media and Bildung (Bloomsbury Academic).
Jeg er redaktør for mediesociologi i Medie- og kommunikationsleksikon, medlem af advisory board i kommunikationsbureauet Vostok, og deltager løbende i konferencer, centerarbejde, holder foredrag og deltager I samfundsdebatten.
Uddannelsesmæssigt er jeg cand.mag. i informationsvidenskab og organisationspsykologi fra Aarhus Universitet og ph.d. i mediesociologi fra IT-Universitetet i København, hvor jeg forsvarede afhandlingen Mediesociografi.
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