Boel Berner


Boel Berner is a Swedish sociologist, historian, and editor.

Early life and education

Karin Boel Christina Berner was born 3 August 1945 in Helsingborg. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Lund University in 1967, and a PhD in sociology from Lund University in 1981.

Research and career

Berner became an associate professor in sociology in 1988. She has studied and done research several times in London and Paris. From 1991 she was a professor on the topic of technology and social change at Linköping University. She is a member of the international gender research network Mage, based in Paris. Berner's research has focused on four main areas, using historical analysis and participatory observation and interviews: medical technology and practice; the nature and social role of technical knowledge; gender and technology; and risk and uncertainty.
She served as editor of the magazine Zenit, for Sociological Research, for Acta Sociologica, and for Women's Journal of Science. Berner is a scientific editor of the Pandora series on Arkiv förlag, with a focus on science, technology and medicine in society.

Selected works

  • Skola, ideologi och samhälle
  • Utbildning och arbetsdelning
  • Teknikens värld
  • Kunskapens vägar
  • Regeln i undantaget. Om olyckor, kunskap och tekniska system
  • Från symaskin till cyborg
  • Sakernas tillstånd. Kön, klass, teknisk expertis
  • Gendered practices. Feminist studies of technology and society
  • Perpetuum mobile?Teknikens utmaningar och historiens gång
  • Manoeuvering in an Environment of Uncertainty. Structural Change and Social Action in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Suède: l´égalité des sexes en question
  • Constructing Risk and Safety in Technological Practice
  • Vem tillhör tekniken? Kunskap och kön i teknikens värld
  • Ifrågasättanden. Forskning om genus, teknik och naturvetenskap
  • Technology and Medical Practice. Blood, Guts, and Machines
  • Social Science Research 2004-2010. Themes, results and reflections
  • Vad är tvärvetenskap och hur kan den göras. Erfarenheter från forskningen om teknik och samhälle
  • Blodflöden. Blodgivning och blodtransfusion i det svenska samhället
  • Knowledge and Evidence: Investigating Technologies in Practice
  • Kön, kropp, materialitet: Perspektiv från fransk genusforskning
  • Strange Blood: The Rise and Fall of Lamb Blood Transfusion in 19th Century Medicine and Beyond, transcript Verlag Mat, misär och ett medicinskt mysterium: Historien om pellagra''