Gunhild Tøndel

Gunhild Tøndel is an Associate Professor in general sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Her academic journey at NTNU includes earning her PhD from the Department of Sociology and Political Science in 2014, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies from 2014 to 2017. Until summer 2025, she has held several leadership positions including subject group leader for sociology, study program leader for ÅSOS/BSOS/MSOS, and coordinator for the department's specialization within MORG (Organization, society, and change).

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Sociology and Political Science from NTNU (2014)
• Master's degree in Sociology (implied from her master's thesis "Diagnoser og forhandling. DRG-systemets interaksjon med den medisinske diagnosesettingen" from 2006)

Tøndel's research moves at the intersection of welfare, technology, and knowledge production, with particular focus on digitalization, governance, aging, and life within health and care services. She has maintained a longitudinal research interest in governance technologies and their relationship to knowledge formation within public services, primarily examining the welfare state-citizen relationship. Her work frequently employs qualitative research methods to explore how datafication, metrics, and technological solutions transform public service delivery, particularly in healthcare contexts.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on how digital technologies reshape care practices, governance mechanisms, and professional work in welfare services. Her research increasingly examines the implementation challenges of welfare technology, particularly social robots for elderly care, while critically analyzing how quality measurement systems transform healthcare work. A recurring theme across her work is the examination of how quantitative metrics and datafication processes alter professional practices and citizen experiences within the welfare state.

Professor Tøndel has been actively involved in several major research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway:

• CRIMKNOW - Digitalization and privatized knowledge regimes in criminal policy (2023-2027)
• AUTOWORK - Workers in transition through automation, digitalization and robotization (2020-2026)
• MASQ - Measuring quality: Exceeding the limitations of quality management in municipal health and care services (2020-2024)

She has extensive teaching experience across all study levels, covering qualitative methods, project design, sociological theory, health sociology, and microsociology. Her educational contributions include co-authoring textbooks on bachelor thesis writing and research methods, reflecting her commitment to student development and academic supervision.

Tøndel's research takes place at the intersection of several important societal developments, particularly examining how digital transformation affects welfare state institutions and citizen experiences. Her work provides critical insights into the implementation challenges of technological solutions in care contexts, with particular attention to how measurement systems and datafication processes reshape professional work and service delivery.