Josef Taalbi
@jtaalbi.bsky.social
Associate professor in economic history, Lund University. Doing research on innovation, sustainability transitions, networks, history of technology. https://linktr.ee/joseftaalbi
It has been exciting and a privilege to follow the development of the Swedish Science and Technology Museum’s jubilee exhibition Drömlandet, premiere next week. A history of Sweden, technology, dreams of the future, crises and unexpected consequences that come with new technology. #tekniskamuseet
Drömlandet - Tekniska museet
Explore Drömlandet - an exhibition about how Sweden became a global innovation nation. Discover 200 years of technology, society and ideas.
tekniskamuseet.se
The economic fallout from the Strait of Hormuz isn't a hypothetical — it's already there. Most people in Europe and the US just can't feel it yet. A threat on our new @newstatesman1913.bsky.social article: what's heading our way, and why the burden won't be shared equally. 1/
New working paper from Philipp Jonas Kreutzer’s forthcoming PhD thesis. We find that collaboration networks are conducive for bioeconomy innovation. If policy makers want to stimulate bioeconomy innovation, they should focus on lowering general barriers to collaboration. arxiv.org/pdf/2602.05112
Synchrotron radiation has revealed a star map made by the ancient astronomer Hipparchus that was thought to be lost to time
Lost ancient Greek star catalog decoded by particle accelerator
Synchrotron radiation has revealed a star map made by the ancient astronomer Hipparchus that was thought to be lost to time
scientificamerican.com
A 400,000-year-old site excavated in England reveals signs of deliberate fires made using the mineral iron pyrite to produce sparks go.nature.com/4rVSTdi
Oldest known evidence of the controlled ignition of fire
A 400,000-year-old site excavated in England reveals signs of deliberate fires made using the mineral iron pyrite to produce sparks.
go.nature.com
New paper: doi.org/10.1093/icc/... Why do a few firms come to dominate technological progress? Can you predict what types of innovations organizations will make? Why do firms specialize in certain technologies? I try to explain these things in a new theoretical framework. #innovation
Long-run patterns in the discovery of the adjacent possible
Abstract. The notion of the “adjacent possible” has been advanced to theorize the generation of novelty across many different research domains. This study
doi.org
Most work out there argues that it doesn't pay off for center-right parties to move closer to the far-right. Using some of the best evidence yet, this paper shows that the same is true for center *left* parties. Crucial finding as these parties increasingly move in a nativist direction.
Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte@turnbulldugarte.com · last yr.Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...
New paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Patents contain a fantastic wealth of information and has become the go-to measure of innovation. But how well do they capture innovation? In a new study on Sweden I found that they at best capture about 15% of all information on innovation. (1/2)
link.springer.com
A study in Nature Human Behaviour finds that four-day work weeks without a reduction in income boost workers’ job satisfaction and physical and mental health, driven by enhanced work performance, lower levels of fatigue and fewer sleep problems. go.nature.com/3Um75MP #econsky 🧪
Had the great pleasure of introducing @cesifoti.bsky.social for his terrific keynote on Big Data and Machine Learning as a means of exploring economic history. If anyone missed it, it's up on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvF1... #wehc2025 #machinelearning #bigdata #collectivememory
WEHC Keynote 2. 28th of July 2025. 6pm. AF Borgen Lund.
YouTube video by Lund University
youtube.com
The 20th World Economic History Congress in Lund has started - with a keynote of Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk on Work, Race, Gender and Class, #wehc2025 #economichistory #lund #intersectionality
Astronomers using a space telescope have found signs of biological activity on K2-18b, a distant water-covered planet that is 8.6 times bigger than Earth. www.ft.com/content/0142...
Got to speak a bit on my research on the history of electric cars in RNZ's Saturday Morning. In short: (1) yes, we could've gotten electric cars 100 years ago, (2) No one knows the long-run consequences of technology, (3) tech development and how it's used is a question of democratic concern.
How the electric car almost became the norm, more than a century ago
There's been a huge uptake of electric cars in recent years, but more than 100 years ago, they were arguably even more popular.
rnz.co.nz
UNU-MERIT is hiring a Postdoc in AI Innovation Trajectories. Work within a multidisciplinary team to map and analyse AI innovation pathways using NLP—focusing on their societal impact, especially in sectors like agriculture. 🗓️ Apply by 13 April 2025 🔗 go.unu.edu/m93fc
Opportunities
go.unu.edu
In a new paper I investigate whether feminization of early 20th century EVs held back their development. Summarized here: theconversation.com/electric-car... Full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ei...
Electric cars were once marketed as ‘women’s cars’. Did this hold back their development over the next century?
An innovation expert looked at decades of car adverts to find out.
theconversation.com