I use tools from anthropology and cognitive science to make sense of how humans interact with technology. I consider this work as a contribution to 'technoanthropology', a complementary project where anthropological insights – on the one hand – can inform the development and use of new technology, and where the technology – on the other – offers fresh perspectives on foundational issues in anthropology.

The Department of Social Anthropology is my alma mater, and I am fortunate to have an adjunct affiliation here through the ASMOG Collaborative Project, where I am engaged in an exciting case study of maritime onshoring.

My other work centers on technology in healthcare, through my work at the Department of Health Science in Aalesund at NTNU.

I am also interested in the epistemic and cognitive foundations of simulation-based education in healthcare (https://www.ntnu.no/ihb/prosim).

Another interest revolves around novel forms of collaboration with municipal healthcare (Universitetskommune Ålesund).

My recent book, A Cognitive Ethnography of Knowledge and Material Culture: Cognition, Experiment, and the Science of Salmon Lice, was awarded the 2021 Society for Anthropological Sciences Carol R. Ember Book Prize.

Other recent work can be found here: https://app.cristin.no/persons/show.jsf?id=45321 

Guiding framework

Naturalistic theories of cultural transmission and the toolkit of the cognitive sciences offer exciting avenues for research on how communities of practice create and use knowledge. In particular, I'm exploring how the framework of distributed cognition can help us understand the orchestration of coupled human-technological systems in healthcare, and the practices of the experimental life sciences.

This framework pushes cognitive science toward a view of cognition as a property of systems that are larger than isolated individuals. This extends the reach of cognition to encompass a wider cognitive ecology, which includes people’s interactions with each other, as well as their relationships with technology, and other material resources for thinking and action.

I consider rigorous anthropological research to be crucial for the development of cognitive science. One way anthropologists can capture the fine micro-details of multimodal interaction in activity systems, comprised of humans and their technology, is through systematic analysis of digital video (cognitive ethnography). 

Background

My PhD investigated knowledge-making and technological innovation in marine science, by studying how a group of molecular parasitologists designed and developed a novel experimental system to discover tools for managing salmon lice (a persistent threat to salmon farming in Norway). My alma mater is the University of Bergen.

From March 2017 to March 2018, I worked on improving the conditions for local democracy and citizen-participation through novel enabling technologies, in the five municipalities that will constitute the new Ålesund municipal government from 1.1.2020. This work was done in close collaboration with politicians, administrators, and municipal executives.

In 2012, I was as an advisor at the Data Protection Official for Research, at Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD). See: http://www.nsd.uib.no/nsd/english/index.html.

My masters degree from 2011 was on the management and politics of forest conservation through protected areas in post-war Lebanon. I did my first ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon's Shouf Mountains.

Before entering academia, I trained as a chef's apprentice, and worked in the culinary arts for some years as a professional cook.

Interview

• Solberg, Mads; Gramvik, Simon (2024). Vil roboter endre det kjønnsdelte arbeidsmarkedet? Fire robotforskere forteller om robotikk, kjønn og omsorg, og belyser hvordan kulturelle normer og stereotyper former teknologien. . (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2018). Helseinnovasjon tema på Innovasjonsfestivalen – Må jobbe sammen for nye løsninger . (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2018). – Må akseptere at ikke alt fungerer på Helsehuset. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2018). Roboter inn i omsorgstjenesten - Pepper krydrer hverdagen. Roboten Pepper er lett å like, men er det robot-omsorg vi virkelig ønsker oss i framtida?. (external link)

Poster

• Mork Hove, Katrin; Tarberg, Anett Skorpen; Vasset, Frøydis Perny et al. (2024). Kreftomsorg i kommune- og sykehus: pasientpespektiver på samhandling for og med pasienter i pakkeforløp for kreft. (external link)
• Ryan, R.; Wolfenden, Luke; Shepperd, Sasha et al. (2023). Why we need a new Cochrane Thematic Group on Person-centred care, Health Systems and Public Health. (external link)

Academic lecture

• Solberg, Mads; Sellberg, Charlott (2024). Debriefing as epistemic engineering: conversational remembering and socially distributed metacognition in healthcare simulation. (external link)
• Lervik, Wenche; Berg, Helen; Solberg, Mads et al. (2023). Facilitator's assumptions of feedback in simulation-based training for nursing students. (external link)
• Wiig, Astrid Camilla; Sellberg, Charlott; Solberg, Mads (2022). Tracing conceptual discussions of simulation-based learning in Maritime Higher Education. (external link)
• Giskeødegård, Marte Fanneløb; Solberg, Mads (2022). On the use of simulation in bachelor-level professional education in Scandinavia – the PROSIM-survey. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Giskeødegård, Marte Fanneløb (2022). Læring av hverandre - bruk av simulering som undervisningsmetode i tre ulike profesjoner. (external link)
• Giskeødegård, Marte Fanneløb; Solberg, Mads (2022). PROSIM deliveries - on the use of simulation in bachelor-level education in Scandinavia. (external link)
• Kirchhoff, Ralf; Solberg, Mads (2020). A framework for policy research on governmental trust and AAL-technology: a proposal. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2020). Symposia 12 - Conceptualizing trust and AAL-technology: Steps towards a comparative framework. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2020). WoZ, trust, and situated interactional maintenance in social robotics. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Kirchhoff, Ralf (2019). Robotteknologi og helse – en retrospektiv innholdsanalyse av norske avisartikler fra 2000 til 2018. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Bender, Andrea; Beller, Sieghard et al. (2017). Anthropological Contributions to Cognitive Science. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2016). A Cognitive Ethnography of Material Culture and Distributed Cognition in an Experimental System: The Case of Licelab. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2016). Epistemic Actions, Material Culture and Distributed Cognition Among Marine Molecular Biologists.. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2015). On the Co-Evolution of Aquaculture, Scientific Knowledge and Salmon Lice. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Dalvin, Sussie Trine (2014). Public perceptions of salmon farming and salmon lice in Norway, the U.K. and Canada. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2013). Towards a cognitive ethnography of marine science: multimodal interaction in a high-tech research environment. (external link)

Doctoral dissertation

• Shah, Syed Hammad Hussain; Hameed, Ibrahim A.; Solberg, Mads et al. (2024). Advanced Interactive Technologies for Group Functional Training in Eldercare: Design and Development. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Knudsen, Ståle (2017). Experiment, Cognition, and the Science of Salmon Lice: A Cognitive Ethnography of Knowledge and Material Culture in the Making. (external link)

Academic article

• Shah, Syed Hammad Hussain; Karlsen, Anniken Susanne Thoresen; Solberg, Mads et al. (2024). An efficient and lightweight multiperson activity recognition framework for robot-assisted healthcare applications. (external link)
• Giskeødegård, Marte Fanneløb; Berg, Helen; Tveten, Ann-Kristin et al. (2024). How instructors think about technology in simulation-based training: A survey of three programs for professional education. (external link)
• Sellberg, Charlott; Solberg, Mads (2024). Reconceptualizing Simulations: Epistemic Objects and Epistemic Practices in Professional Education. (external link)
• Sellberg, Charlott; Nazari, Zeinab; Solberg, Mads (2024). Virtual laboratories in STEM higher education: A scoping review. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Kirchhoff, Ralf; Oksavik, Jannike Dyb et al. (2024). Organizing visions for data-centric management: how Norwegian policy documents construe the use of data in health organizations. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads; Kirchhoff, Ralf (2023). Media Representations of Healthcare Robotics in Norway 2000-2020: A Topic Modeling Approach. (external link)
• Badawy, Abeer; Solberg, Mads; Obstfelder, Aud Uhlen et al. (2023). Together, at a distance: experiences with a novel technology for social contact among older people and their relatives in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic. (external link)
• Wiig, Astrid Camilla; Sellberg, Charlott; Solberg, Mads (2023). Reviewing simulator-based training and assessment in maritime education: a topic modelling approach for tracing conceptual developments. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2023). On why we still do not use social robots in care: insights from anthropological studies on language use. (external link)
• Shah, Syed Hammad Hussain; Karlsen, Anniken Th; Solberg, Mads et al. (2022). A social VR-based collaborative exergame for rehabilitation: codesign, development and user study. (external link)
• Badawy, Abeer; Solberg, Mads; Obstfelder, Aud Uhlen et al. (2022). Normalization of technology for social contact in a Norwegian care facility during COVID-19. (external link)
• Badawy, Abeer; Solberg, Mads; Obstfelder, Aud Uhlen et al. (2022). Improvised use of a digital tool for social interaction in a Norwegian care facility during the COVID-19 pandemic: an exploratory study. (external link)
• Blindheim, Kari; Solberg, Mads; Hameed, Ibrahim A. et al. (2022). Promoting activity in long-term care facilities with the social robot Pepper: a pilot study. (external link)
• Aroyo, Alexander; De Bruyne, Jan; Dheu, Orian et al. (2021). Overtrusting Robots: Setting a Research Agenda to Mitigate Overtrust in Automation. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2014). Patronage, contextual flexibility and organisational innovation in Lebanese protected areas management. (external link)

Book review

• Solberg, Mads (2023). Review of classic. Edwin Hutchins: Cognition in the wild: MIT Press, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 402.. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2015). Book Review - Hallam Stevens' Life Out of Seqence: A Data-Driven History of Bioinformatics (2013). (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2014). Book Review - Terrence W. Deacon's Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged From Matter (2013). (external link)

Lecture

• Obstfelder, Aud Uhlen; Stokke, Randi; Solberg, Mads et al. (2023). Teknologiforståelse i helseprofesjonsutdanninger: Et pedagogisk innovasjonsarbeid i Digit,. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2022). Towards better data-use in municipal healthcare - preliminary notes from a pilot project. (external link)
• Forberg, Elisabeth; Solberg, Mads (2019). Kvalitet og relevans i praksisstudier - Tverrprofesjonell in situ simulering med studenter og ansatte . (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2019). Debriefing as epistemic practice: conversational remembering and distributed metacognition in healthcare simulation. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2018). Helseinnovasjon . (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2018). Åpen publisering og røvertidsskrifter - et par ting alle bør vite . (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2016). Innovasjon, kognisjon og materiell kultur i laboratoriet. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2015). Innovation, cognition and material culture in the lab: some perspectives from cognitive anthropology. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2015). Innovation, cognition and material culture in the lab: some perspectives from the cognitive anthropology of science. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2014). Towards a cognitive ethnography of marine science: the case of sea lice research. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2014). Towards a cognitive ethnography of marine science: the case of sea lice research. Lab meeting for Morana Alac's research group, Communication and Science Studies, University of California - San Diego, 10.03.14. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2014). Thinking about scientific knowledge: perspectives from cognitive anthropology. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2011). Skinnholisme og menneskelig mangfold: refleksjoner omkring det antropologiske prosjekt fra en student. (external link)

Report

• Solberg, Mads (2023). Velferdsteknologi for personer med demens: En oppsummering av kunnskap. (external link)
• Arntsen, Trude Jeanett; Berndtsson, Christin Høiberget; Dybvig, Dagfinn Døhl et al. (2023). Tjenesteinnovasjon i helse og velferd. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2021). Avstandsoppfølging som velferdsteknologi: En oppsummering av kunnskap. (external link)

Academic anthology/Conference proceedings

• Giskeødegård, Marte Fanneløb; Strand, Øivind; Lunde, Arnhild et al. (2023). Nyskaping : Fjordantologien 2023. (external link)
• Strand, Øivind; Giskeødegård, Marte Fanneløb; Lunde, Arnhild et al. (2023). Nyskaping – ein introduksjon. (external link)

Errata

• Badawy, Abeer; Solberg, Mads; Obstfelder, Aud Uhlen et al. (2022). Correction to: Improvised use of a digital tool for social interaction in a Norwegian care facility during the COVID-19 pandemic: an exploratory study (BMC Health Services Research, (2022), 22, 1, (136), 10.1186/s12913-022-07526-0). (external link)

Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

• Shah, Syed Hammad Hussain; Hameed, Ibrahim A.; Karlsen, Anniken Th et al. (2022). Towards a Social VR-based Exergame for Elderly Users: An Exploratory Study of Acceptance, Experiences and Design Principles. (external link)
• Shah, Syed Hammad Hussain; Longva, Bjørnar; Abdelfattah Abdelhameed, Ibrahim et al. (2021). Health Data Management for Nursing Practice: An Intelligent, Holographic Mixed-Reality System. (external link)

Academic monograph

• Solberg, Mads (2021). A Cognitive Ethnography of Knowledge and Material Culture: Cognition, Experiment, and the Science of Salmon Lice. (external link)

Popular scientific lecture

• Solberg, Mads (2018). Varme hender eller kaldt stål - skal robotene pleie oss i fremtiden?. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2018). Varme hender eller kaldt stål - skal robotene pleie oss i fremtiden?. (external link)
• Solberg, Mads (2013). Thinking about scientific knowledge: perspectives from cognitive anthropology. (external link)

Masters thesis

• Solberg, Mads; Knudsen, Ståle (2011). Managing nature, people and development. Patronage, Confessionalism and Market-Based Conservation in a Lebanese Protected Area. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Two upcoming conference events for this year: 

Vancouver, March 31, 2016: I'm presenting the paper A Cognitive Ethnography of Material Culture and Distributed Cognition in an Experimental System: The Case of Licelab, at the session on Current Directions in Research on Cognition and Culture arranged by Andrea Bender and Sieghard Beller during this year's Society for Anthropological Sciences/SfAA-meetings in Vancouver, Canada. 

Milan, July, 2016: Together with Dr. Radu Umbres I'm convening a session on Cognitive Anthropology and Cultural Transmission: Legacies and Futures during this year's EASA-meetings (read more here: http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4249). I'm presenting a paper on Epistemic Actions, Material Culture and Distributed Cognition Among Marine Molecular Biologists. The panel will gather anthropologists interested in applying cognitive, evolutionary and other naturalistic frameworks in the study of a variety of cultural and social phenomena. Milan, Italy will hopefully provide a great environment to discuss these developments with like-minded colleagues over the summer.

-----------------------

Innovation, cognition and material culture in the lab: some perspectives from the cognitive anthropology of science. Molecular and Computational Biology Research School 2015; 2015-10-20

On the Co-Evolution of Aquaculture, Scientific Knowledge and Salmon Lice. American Anthropological Association 114th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado; 2015-11-19-20

Book Review - Hallam Stevens' Life Out of Seqence: A Data-Driven History of Bioinformatics (2013). Somatosphere: Science, Medicine and Anthropology, 2015.(http://somatosphere.net/2015/03/stevens-life-out-of-sequence.html)

Book Review - Terrence W. Deacon's Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged From Matter (2013). Somatosphere: Science, Medicine and Anthropology, 2014. (http://somatosphere.net/2014/06/terrence-deacons-incomplete-nature.html)

Thinking about scientific knowledge: perspectives from cognitive anthropology. Molecular and Computational Biology Research School 2014; 2014-09-09.

Towards a cognitive ethnography of marine science: the case of sea lice research. Lab meeting D-COG HCI-Lab, Dept. of cognitive science, UCSD; 2014-02-28.

Towards a cognitive ethnography of marine science: the case of sea lice research. Lab meeting for Morana Alac's research group, Communication and Science Studies, University of California - San Diego, 2014-03-10.

Solberg, Mads; Dalvin, Sussie Trine. Communicating and framing salmon lice on the web. SeaLice 2014, Portland, Maine. 2014-09-04.

Thinking about scientific knowledge: perspectives from cognitive anthropology. Molecular and Computational Biology Research School 2013; 2013-09-03.

Towards a cognitive ethnography of marine science: multimodal interaction in a high-tech research environment. ASFPG Postnormal science workshop 2013; 2013-09-18.

Panelist, Roundtable Disussion. 50th Anniversary of the department seminars, Department of Anthropology at UoB, 2013-05-30.

An introduction to cognitive anthropology. Invited lecture for undergraduates enrolled in RELV312: Religion, evolution and cognition. AHKR, Section for the History of Religions, UoB. Offered on two occasions: 2013-02-09 and 2011-02-28.

Skinnholisme og menneskelig mangfold: refleksjoner omkring det antropologiske prosjekt fra en student. Norsk Antropologisk Forenings Årskonferanse 2011; 2011-05-08.

Managing nature, people and development. Patronage, Confessionalism and Market-Based Conservation in a Lebanese Protected Area. Bergen: Institutt for sosialantropologi, Universitetet i Bergen 2011, 100 s.

Antropologien og det offentlige (‘Anthropology and the public’). With Eva G. Stokke-Dahl in Kula Kula, Nr. 1, 2011.

Mellom bygd og by: Et portrettintervju med Mary Bente Bringslid (‘Between the village and the city: a portrait of Mary Bente Bringslid’) in Kula Kula, Nr. 1, 2011.

Book review: Talking to the Enemy by Scott Atran (2010) in Kula Kula, Nr. 1, 2011.

Book review: The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature by Scott Atran & Douglas Medin (2008) in Kula Kula, Nr. 2, 2009.

Napoleon Chagnon - Antropologiens l'enfant terrible? Presentasjon i forbindelse med filmvisning av The Feast (1969) av Timothy Asch og Napoleon Chagnon. Arrangert av Fagutvalget for Sosialantropologi, UiB. Oktober, 2008.