About
Tereza Østbø Kuldova is a social anthropologist and Research Director at the Work Research Institute, Oslo Metropolitan University. She is the author of, among others, Luxury and Corruption: Challenging the Anti-Corruption Consensus (co-authored with Jardar Østbø and Thomas Raymen, Bristol University Press, 2024), Compliance-Industrial Complex: The Operating System of a Pre-Crime Society (Palgrave, 2022), How Outlaws Win Friends and Influence People (Palgrave, 2019), Luxury Indian Fashion: A Social Critique (Bloomsbury, 2016), editor of Digital Technology, Algorithmic Governance and Workplace Democracy (with I.M. Hagen & A. Lloyd, Palgrave 2025), Policing and Intelligence in the Global Big Data Era, vol.1 and vol. 2 (Palgrave, 2024, with H. O. I. Gundhus, Ch. T. Wathne), Compliance, Defiance and 'Dirty Luxury': New Perspectives on Anti-Corruption in Elite Contexts (Palgrave, 2024, with J. Østbø & C. Shore), Crime, Harm and Consumerism (Routledge, 2020), Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs and Street Gangs: Scheming Legality, Resisting Criminalization (Palgrave, 2018), Urban Utopias: Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia (Palgrave, 2017), and Fashion India: Spectacular Capitalism (Akademika Publishing, 2013). She has written extensively on topics ranging from fashion, design, aesthetics, branding, intellectual property rights, philanthropy, India, to outlaw motorcycle clubs, subcultures, organized crime, corruption and anti-corruption. She is currently leading an international project titled: Luxury, Corruption and Global Ethics: Towards a Critical Cultural Theory of the Moral Economy of Fraud and funded by The Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO Young Talents 313004), while participating in several other international projects. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology as well as of the Algorithmic Governance Research Network.
Field of study
Labour Crime Material Culture Hierarchy Social Networks Social change Ideology Populism Social inequalities Consumption Artificial intelligence Design Sub-culture Materiality Philanthropy Art training in museums Digitalization Class analysis History of fashion Fashion and art Organisation and governance in education Social Role of Museums Ethics and leadership Responsible Managenent Historie Digital monitoring Norwegian and International Labour Movements Global governance
Research groups
Research projects
Ongoing research projects
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Insider: National Security through Private Sector Regulation? Critical Evaluation of Insider Threat Programs and Security Compliance in Current Geopolitical and Regulatory Context
INSIDER will map and analyse the fundamental tensions between national security interests and private sector profit motive, often disavowed by policymakers.
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Labour and Democracy Hub
A meeting place for research, dialogue, and debate on democracy, work, and freedom of expression – at a time when democratic values are under pressure. Together, we explore how democratic principles can be defended and strengthened, both in the workplace and in society.
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R-INSECURE: Responsible Internationalization, Inclusion, and National Security in Norwegian Research Organizations in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape
R-INSECURE addresses the evolving tensions between national security and internationalization and inclusion, in the Norwegian higher education and research sector.
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The Nordic Disinformation Resilience Network
Across Europe there has been a growing worry about the ways in which disinformation, AI-generated deepfakes, conspiracy theories and the information infrastructures are weaponized in local, national, and international conflicts.
Completed research projects
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Algorithmic Governance and Cultures of Policing: Comparative Perspectives from Norway, India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa (AGOPOL)
This project will produce knowledge on the ways in which advances in artificial intelligence shape policing in different cultural, political, legal and economic contexts.
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DigiWork: Digital Prism and the Nordic Model of Workplace Democracy under Pressure
Big data and artificial intelligence are radically transforming the ways in which we work, are hired and fired, managed and led. This project investigates the effects of digital transformation of work on the Norwegian model of workplace democracy and tripartite collaboration.
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Luxury, Corruption and Global Ethics: Towards a Critical Cultural Theory of the Moral Economy of Fraud (LUXCORE)
Why is corruption still increasing worldwide, despite universal recognition by all relevant international organizations that it needs to be fought?
Publications and research
Scientific publications
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
;
Hagen, Inger Marie
; Lloyd, Anthony
(2025).
Introduction: Digital Technology, Algorithmic Governance and the Nordic Model.
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø; Hagen, Inger Marie; Lloyd, Anthony (Ed.).
Digital Technology, Algorithmic Governance and Workplace Democracy: Interrogating the Nordic Model in Practice. p. 1-30.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02754-2_1
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
;
Hagen, Inger Marie
; Lloyd, Anthony
(2025).
Digital Technology, Algorithmic Governance and Workplace Democracy: Interrogating the Nordic Model in Practice.
ISBN: 9783032027535.
396 p.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02754-2
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
(2025).
Algorithmic Governance, Power, and Social Dialogue in White-
Collar Work in Norway: Negotiating the Impossible?.
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø; Hagen, Inger Marie; Lloyd, Anthony (Ed.).
Digital Technology, Algorithmic Governance and Workplace Democracy: Interrogating the Nordic Model in Practice. p. 187-223.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02754-2_7
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
(2025).
The state is overwhelmingly reliant on the private sector to effectively police art crime.
Lamb, John Bahadur; Hart, Max; Treadwell, James; Lynes, Adam; Kelly, Craig (Ed.).
50 Facts Everyone Should Know about the Police. p. 187-192.
Bristol University Press.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4449331
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
; Gundhus, Helene Ingebrigtsen;
Wathne, Christin Thea
(2024).
Introduction to volume 1: Algorithmic governance, policing and intelligence in the Global Big Data Era.
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø; Gundhus, Helene Ingebrigtsen; Wathne, Christin Thea (Ed.).
Policing and Intelligence in the Global Big Data Era, Volume I: New Global Perspectives on Algorithmic Governance. p. 1-25.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68326-8_1
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
; Gundhus, Helene Ingebrigtsen;
Wathne, Christin Thea
(2024).
Policing and Intelligence in the Global Big Data Era, Volume II: New Global Perspectives on the Politics and Ethics of Knowledge.
ISBN: 9783031682971.
211 p.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4816688
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
(2024).
National Security, Insider Threat Programs, and the Compliance-Industrial Complex: Reflections on the Platformization in Corporate Policing, Intelligence, and Security.
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø; Gundhus, Helene Ingebrigtsen; Wathne, Christin Thea (Ed.).
Policing and Intelligence in the Global Big Data Era, Volume I: New Global Perspectives on Algorithmic Governance. p. 27-84.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4769540
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
; Gundhus, Helene Ingebrigtsen;
Wathne, Christin Thea
(2024).
Policing and Intelligence in the Global Big Data Era, Volume I: New Global Perspectives on Algorithmic Governance.
ISBN: 9783031683251.
254 p.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/4149899
Millet, Audrey;
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
(2024).
Labour Migration, Crime, and ‘Compliance Washing’: A Tailor’s Odyssey from an African Workshop to European Luxury Fashion Multinationals.
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø; Østbø, Jardar N; Shore, Cris (Ed.).
Compliance, Defiance, and ‘Dirty’ Luxury: New Perspectives on Anti-Corruption in Elite Contexts. p. 409-456.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3147120
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø
(2024).
Philanthrocapitalism and the Compliance-Industrial Complex: Doing ‘Good’, Fighting Crime, and Foreclosing Alternatives.
Kuldova, Tereza Østbø; Østbø, Jardar N; Shore, Cris (Ed.).
Compliance, Defiance, and ‘Dirty’ Luxury: New Perspectives on Anti-Corruption in Elite Contexts. p. 91-121.
Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57140-4_4
