My research focuses on institutional language use, examining its role in interactions between organizations and individuals. My work is grounded in text and discourse analysis, as well as rhetorical studies. My expertise lies in language and communication within the fields of financial economics and business discourse, structured around two central themes.
In the area of financial economics, I explore how increasing demands for individual financial literacy are reflected in various text genres and persuasive strategies. This includes studies on the historical development of banks' marketing rhetoric.
The second theme centers on how large corporations use language and communication to demonstrate and legitimize different forms of responsibility toward stakeholders and business objectives, such as in annual reports or other regulatory documents.
Between 2022 and 2025, I am primarily engaged in the research project The Market Language: Studies in the Discourse about Markets from Medieval to Modern Times. This multidisciplinary collaboration brings together scholars in the history of ideas and linguistics from three universities—University of Gothenburg, Linnaeus University, and Södertörn University. Funded by the Marcus & Amalia Wallenberg Foundation, the project is based at the University of Gothenburg. Its primary aim is to analyze and trace the usage and development of the concept of "the market" over time, from the Middle Ages to the present, by employing computational linguistics on a broad corpus of texts from diverse societal contexts.
Additionally, I am involved in two smaller projects. One focuses on the concept of "budget" in business contexts, while the other examines how banks and other companies have used advertising posters for marketing from the 20th century onward.
I am also interested in the physical and socio-economic transformation of urban spaces, with a particular focus on the role of shop windows in contemporary urban environments. This work applies theories and methodologies from Linguistic Landscape research.
Another area of interest is multilingualism, especially from a language policy and socio-economic perspective. I am actively engaged with the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Migration Encounters and was previously part of the Platform Migration network. Since the formation of Migration Encounters in 2023, I have been a member of its management team and lead a subproject investigating language as a key concept in contemporary integration efforts in Sweden.
Links: Google Scholar, Academia.edu, Researchgate
My research groups
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Centre of Language for Specific Purposes Centre of Language for Specific Purposes (CLSP) gathers researchers from the departments of Language and Swedish. Our linguistic and multilingual environment…
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Linnaeus University Language, Cognition and Culture Lab (LiLa Lab) Linnaeus University Language, Cognition and Culture Lab (LiLa Lab) was opened in 2019. The ambition of the lab is partly to create…
My ongoing research projects
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Project: Following the budget - an exploratory study of language use surrounding the concept of budget in texts and practices The project focuses on analyzing concepts with significant societal…
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Project: Images of Security and Dreams. A Historical Analysis of Argumentation in Personal Finance Advertising This project examines the history of advertising and explores how banks over time have…
Publications
Selected publications
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Ohlsson, C., Salomonsson, J. (2023). Språket i valspråket : En undersökning om språk och integration i svenska valrörelser. Sakprosa. 15 (3).
Status: Published - Ohlsson, C., Wåhlstrand Skärström, V., Björck, H. (2022). The Market as a Concept in Swedish Parliamentary Records from 1867 to 1970 : A Mixed Methods Study. DiPaDA 2022, Digital Parliamentary Data in Action 2022 : Proceedings of the Digital Parliamentary Data in Action (DiPaDA 2022) Workshop, co-located with 6th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference (DHNB 2022), Uppsala, Sweden, March 15, 2022. 22-34.
- Ohlsson, C. (2018). Banken, kunden och pengarna : En diskussion av kritikens roll i en historisk undersökning av marknadsföringstexter och -diskurser. Kritiska text- och diskursstudier. Huddinge, Södertörns högskola. 179-199.
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Ohlsson, C. (2016). Finansutbildning i marknadens tjänst. Ord och bild. (2). 66-72.
Status: Published -
Ohlsson, C. (2012). The Rhetoric of Financial Literacy. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics. 24 (1). 55-75.
Status: Published -
Ohlsson, C., Tengblad, S. (2010). The Framing of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Globalization of National Business Systems : A Longitudinal Case Study. Journal of Business Ethics. 93 (4). 653-669.
Status: Published
Article in journal (Refereed)
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Ohlsson, C., Salomonsson, J. (2023). Språket i valspråket : En undersökning om språk och integration i svenska valrörelser. Sakprosa. 15 (3).
Status: Published -
Salomonsson, J., Ohlsson, C. (2019). ”Bussig häst, men... Hoppas det ordnar sig.” : En funktionell textanalys av dressyrprotokoll. HumaNetten. (43). 45-64.
Status: Published -
Ohlsson, C. (2016). Finansutbildning i marknadens tjänst. Ord och bild. (2). 66-72.
Status: Published -
Ohlsson, C. (2012). The Rhetoric of Financial Literacy. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics. 24 (1). 55-75.
Status: Published -
Ohlsson, C., Tengblad, S. (2010). The Framing of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Globalization of National Business Systems : A Longitudinal Case Study. Journal of Business Ethics. 93 (4). 653-669.
Status: Published
Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)
- Ohlsson, C. (2007). Folkets fonder? : En textvetenskaplig studie av det svenska pensionssparandets domesticering. Doctoral Thesis. Göteborg, Göteborgs universitet. 219.
Chapter in book (Refereed)
- Ohlsson, C. (2018). Banken, kunden och pengarna : En diskussion av kritikens roll i en historisk undersökning av marknadsföringstexter och -diskurser. Kritiska text- och diskursstudier. Huddinge, Södertörns högskola. 179-199.
- Ohlsson, C. (2016). Staten och kapitalet? : Att göra människor finanskunniga i dagens samhälle. Vardagslivets finansialisering. Göteborg, Centrum för konsumtionsvetenskap. 59-67.
- Rahm, H., Ohlsson, C. (2009). Klarspråksarbete, myndigheter och mottagare : Exempel från äldreomsorgen och Malmö stad. Medborgare och myndigheter. Uppsala, FUMS, Institutionen för nordiska språk, Uppsala universitet. 25-42.
- Ohlsson, C. (2007). Välgrundade val : Hur informerar PPM om premiepensionen?. Mellan folkbildning och fondrådgivning : Nya perspektiv på pensionssystemet. Stockholm, Institutet för framtidsstudier. 47-65.
- De Bakker, F.G.A., Ohlsson, C., Den Hond, F., Turcotte, M., Tengblad, S. (2007). Tracing the evolution of corporate discourse on corporate social responsibility : A longitudinal, lexicological study. Managing Corporate Social Responsibility in Action : Talking, Doing and Measuring. Gower Publishing Ltd.. 53-73.
- Tengblad, S., Ohlsson, C. (2006). När VD har ordet : Om förtroendeskapande kommunikation och att vara en etisk företagsledare. Värdet av förtroende. Lund, Studentlitteratur AB. 360-383.
Chapter in book (Other academic)
- Ohlsson, C. (2020). Market Language Over Time : Combining Corpus Linguistics and Historical Discourse Analysis in a Study of Market in Swedish Press Texts. Doing Digital Humanities : Concepts, Approaches, Cases. Växjö, Linnaeus University Press. 199-218.
Chapter in book (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))
- Gustafsson, E., Ohlsson, C. (2011). Om sociala medier i marknadsföringens läroböcker. Sociala? Medier? : En antologi om en ny tid. Malmö, Manifesto. 157-169.
Conference paper (Refereed)
- Ohlsson, C., Salomonsson, J. (2024). Språket som nyckel? : En studie av uppfattningar om svenska språket som förutsättning för integration. Svenskans beskrivning : Förhandlingar vid trettioåttonde sammankomsten Örebro 4–6 maj 2022, del III. 304-319.
- Virk, S.M., Ohlsson, C., Björck, H., Tahmasebi, N., Runefelt, L. (2024). Enhancing Swedish Parliamentary Data : Annotation, Accessibility, and Application in Digital Humanities. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Natural Language Processing for Digital Humanities, November 16, 2024. 280-288.
- Ohlsson, C., Wåhlstrand Skärström, V., Björck, H. (2022). The Market as a Concept in Swedish Parliamentary Records from 1867 to 1970 : A Mixed Methods Study. DiPaDA 2022, Digital Parliamentary Data in Action 2022 : Proceedings of the Digital Parliamentary Data in Action (DiPaDA 2022) Workshop, co-located with 6th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference (DHNB 2022), Uppsala, Sweden, March 15, 2022. 22-34.
- Tengblad, S., Ohlsson, C. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility and the Globalization of Business Systems : The Case of Sweden. The 8th EURAM conference, Ljubljana, May 14-17 2008. 1-35.
- Ohlsson, C., Tengblad, S., De Bakker, F., Den Hond, F., Turcotte, M. (2005). Corporate Social Responsibility : A Three Country Comparative Study of the Evolution of a Corporate Discourse Over Time. IABS 2005 Proceedings. 160-165.
- Ohlsson, C., Tengblad, S. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility : The Problem of Securing External Legitimacy in a Globalized World. 20th EGOS Colloquium July 1-3, 2004 : The Organization as a Set of Dynamic Relationships. Ljubljana University, Slovenia : Sub-theme 18 : Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Citizenship and Politics of Stakeholder Influence. 1-24.