Claes Ohlsson

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. 

Publications in DiVA database

Links: Google Scholar, Academia.edu, Researchgate