Rasmus Rodineliussen PhD

Rasmus Rodineliussen is a social anthropologist whose research focuses on environmental change, democratic processes, and the relationships between science, civil society, and politics. His work examines how power, knowledge, and participation are shaped in processes of ecological transformation, with particular attention to marine environments and the role of the oceans in contemporary sustainability challenges.

In his doctoral dissertation and book Underwater Worlds: An Ethnography of Waste, Pollution, and Marine Life (2024), Rodineliussen analyzes how environmental change is understood and addressed in practice through ethnographic studies of marine scientists and trash divers in the Baltic Sea. The book follows both scientific efforts to measure and model changes in marine ecosystems and the hands-on, creative, and sometimes political interventions of civil society actors—such as underwater clean-ups and artistic installations—aimed at mobilizing public engagement and influencing environmental policy.

In his current postdoctoral project, Rodineliussen turns his attention to the deep sea and the rapidly expanding deep-sea mining industry. Through ethnographic fieldwork among civil society organizations, researchers, industry representatives, and political actors, he investigates how the green transition is advanced in a context shaped by scientific uncertainty, economic interests, and political priorities. He is particularly interested in how democratic processes are formed, constrained, or bypassed in decisions concerning the exploitation of deep-sea resources, and in how different actors compete to define what counts as sustainable development.

Overall, Rodineliussen’s research focuses on how environmental change and the green transition are shaped in practice—at the intersection of science, industry, civil society, and policy processes—and on how democratic ideals, justice, and participation are negotiated and developed within these contexts. His work contributes to strengthening research on environment, democracy, and sustainable transformation in both local and global marine settings.

Awards

• GAD New Directions Award. 2022. Group Category. Anthropology Book Forum, (editors: Emilia Groupp, Stanford University, and Rasmus Rodineliussen, Stockholm University).

Editorial

• Co-editor, Anthropology Book Forum. 2019 – (https://anthrobookforum.americananthro.org/volume-8/)
• Stockholm University Press, editorial board member. 2025 – present

Utvalda publikationer

• Rodineliussen, R. 2026. Environmental talk from the abyss: How scuba divers relate to coastal futures in Denmark. In, Coastal Futures, University of Toronto Press, eds. Ley, L., and Harm, A.
• Rodineliussen, R. 2025. Let Atlantis Sink: Underwater Ethnography, Waste Sculptures, and Multimodal Environmental Communication. Visual Anthropology.
• Uimonen, P., and Rodineliussen, R. 2025. Caring for ocean creatures. Anthropology Today, 41(3): 3.
• Rodineliussen, R. 2025. Caring and Killing: Human Jellyfish Relations. Anthropology Today, 41(3): 11–14.
• Rodineliussen, R. 2021. Caring for Water: Underwater Waste, Trash Diving, and Publicity in Stockholm. Kritisk etnografi: Swedish Journal of Anthropology, 4(2), 73-92.
• Rodineliussen, R. 2019(2017). Visual Methods to Study the Underwater World. Scuba Divers and a Sensorial Experience of Water. Vaneasa Online Journal, 5(2).
• Rodineliussen, R. 2019. Ethnographic Exploration of a Sensorial Underwater World. Irish Journal of Anthropology, 22(1).
• Rodineliussen, R. 2019. Syrian Refugee Stories of Torture: Ethical Dilemmas for Interviews and Writing. SAGE Publications Lts.
• Rodineliussen, R. 2019. Organising the Syrian Revolution – student activism through Facebook. Visual Studies, 34(3), 239-251.
• Rodineliussen, R. 2016. Syria to Sweden: Refugee Stories. Anthropology Now, 8(1): 37-45.

Rundabordsamtal och paneler

• Roundtable organizer and chair. Spectres of Academia: Demystifying the Book Publishing Process. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2025, New Orleans.
• Roundtable organizer and Participant. Sedimented Futures: Haunted Ecologies of Extraction. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2025, New Orleans.
• Panel Presentation. Paper: Caring and Killing: A Human Jellyfish Story. European Association of Social Anthropologists, 2024, Barcelona.
• Panel Presentation. Paper: (non) Life in (un)Clean Water: An Embodied and Sensorial Exploration of Stockholm’s Underwater Worlds. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2024, Tampa.
• Roundtable organizer and chair: The Anthropology Book Forum: Reviewer Meets Reviewed. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, 2024, Tampa.
• Roundtable organizer and chair: The Anthropology Book Forum: Perspectives and Reflections on the Book Review in Transition. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 2023, Toronto.
• Roundtable organizer and participant: Transforming the Role of the Fieldworker for Environmental Justice. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 2023, Toronto.
• Panel organizer and presenter. Caring for Ocean Creatures. Swedish Anthropological Association annual meeting. 2023, Stockholm.
• Panel organizer and presenter. Engaging the Gap between Policy and Practice. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 2022, Seattle, U.S.
• Roundtable organizer, Ecography Symposium, Stockholm, 2022.
• Panel presenter. Think Act Water Futures. SANT. Swedish Society for Anthropology annual meeting. 2022, Gothenburg.
• New Nordic Anthropology 2021 series. Digital roundtable.
• Roundtable presenter. Anthropology of the shelf redux. American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. 2021, Digital Roundtable.

Publika framträdanden

Etnografiska Museet. 2022. 19/2. Vatten: Renande, förorenat, ritualiserat (https://allevents.in/mobile/amp-event.php?event_id=200022082708423)Klimafolkemödet, Middelfart, Danmark. 2022. 2/9. (https://klimafolkemoedet.dk/hovednavne/)