TIK9015 – Dokuprax: Document analysis and document work in democracy, politics and bureaucracy
Course content
Documents are everywhere. Whether physical or digital, large or small, loud or invisible, they permeate our societies and individual lives, past and present. Some documents are outright celebrities, such as the UN Assessment Reports on Climate Change; others, such as passports, can open doors and borders - or keep them shut if yours is not accepted. Indeed, documents quickly pile up as empirical materials in our own research projects. So how to make use of this rich resource? How to analyse documents as part of your PhD project?
This PhD course brings together a varied set of methodological approaches to demonstrate and discuss how we can analyse documents as both texts, artifacts and social practices. Building on the textbook Doing Document Analysis, the course introduces the method of ‘practice-oriented document analysis’ (Asdal & Reinertsen, SAGE Publishing, 2022).
During the course, we will introduce and explore the methodological moves developed in this book for working with documents as research materials: How documents can be approached as sites, how they can be analysed as tools, how we can examine ‘document work’ and ‘document texts’, how documents are involved in the making of societal issues, and what we can learn from analysing how documents move.
The course draws upon a rich source of document studies in science and technology studies (STS) and across the humanities and social sciences more broadly and will also introduce you to the theoretical underpinnings that have inspired our practice-orientation to documents.
Particular to the course offered in autumn 2025 is that it has been further developed in cooperation with The Norwegian Research School on Digitalization, Culture and Society (DIGIT) and that we will give special attention to the role of digital documents in democracy: How documents are key components in democratic procedure, how bureaucrats and other document-workers handle documents, how documents equip actors with capacities to act and take part in democratic politics, and how digital formats and work processes transforms both documents and democracy. The course invites document-workers from public government into the course so that we can learn from them, simultaneously as we will present and discuss the practice-oriented method.?This part of the course is co-organised with the SPARK Social Innovation project DOCUPRAX.
Learning outcome
Be familiar with analysing documents as your research material.
Be familiar with the practice-oriented method for analysing documents.
Learn how documents can be made visible and worked upon in combination with other forms of empirical material.
Learn sound and ethical practices for handling documents in research.
Be familiar with a rich international literature on documents across the humanities and social sciences.
Be trained in writing your PhD with documents as your research material.
Admission to the course
This PhD course is open to PhD candidates from any institution. Admission to a certified PhD program is required for participation.
Please note that the course will only be offered in Norwegian in 2025. You are not required to speak or write Norwegian yourself, but you need to be able to follow lectures and discussions in Norwegian.
The application must be submitted digitally and include:
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A completed?application form?with the following attachments:
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A letter outlining your PhD project, your motivation for attending the course, and examples of document materials you will be analysing in your PhD (max 500 words).
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For applicants outside UiO: A letter confirming your enrolment in a PhD program.
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Accepted applicants will be expected to submit a memo in advance of the course week describing three examples of document materials you will be analysing in your PhD (max 1000 words).
Application deadline: 1 September 2025.
Teaching
The course will consist of lectures and writing exercises where you will be able to work on and with documents, and especially with the document material that is a part of your thesis. During the course week, all participants will actively take part in giving and receiving feedback on each other’s work.
Teaching dates: 3 - 7 November 2025.
Venue: HF-12, Niels Treschows hus, Blindern Campus
Examination
You should be prepared to work on a draft article/chapter during the course week where you will explore some of your document materials. Note that it is no prerequisite that documents are your sole material, it can also appear in combination with other data, such as interviews and ethnographic materials. The documents you work on can be digital materials just as much as physical materials.
After the course week, you will develop and submit a paper based on the course readings and exercises. This might be the draft chapter/article you started on during the course week. The paper must be accepted for you to pass the course.
Deadline for submission of course paper: 30 January 2026.
Paper length: 4000-5000 words.
All participants will receive a short comment on the course paper from the course leaders within three weeks of submission if it is submitted within the deadline.
Language of examination
The course paper must be submitted in English or a Scandinavian language.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- How to use AI as a student
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.