The common denominator for my research is social settings and discourse analyses. My thesis dealt with the coverage of fiive major strikes in Swedish daily press 1879-1995, aiming at an understanding of the interplay between language, journalism and society. I have studied press texts of various types as well as commercial discourse.

Catharina Nyström Höög, Gøril Thomassen Hammerstad I and are editors for a coming publication on Nordic Sakprosa research titled Nordic Perspectives on the Discourse of Things. Sakprosa texts helping us navigate and understand an ever-changing reality: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-33122-0 

Since 2014 I cooperate with three researchers from Business Administration at Lund University– Alexander Paulsson, Niklas Sandell och Peter Svensson. The cooperation has resulted in common research projects, publications and a  research theme 2016-17 at the Pufendorf research institute  (http://www.pi.lu.se). The theme was called The Annual Report - Words, images, numbers and I was coordinator for the multidisicplinary research group: Alexander Paulsson, Niklas Sandell, Peter Svensson, Sanna Skärlund (Swedish Linguistics), Matthias Baier (Sociology of Law) and Åsa Thelander (Strategic Communication). As coordinator I contacted practicioners and researchers for guest lectures and workshops (e.g. staff from communications agency, laywers and researchers from linguistics, business administration, communication etc.)

The research deals with dreams and expections of the future of listed enterprises as they are formulated in good will formulations in  the annual reports (Rahm et al 2014 and Rahm et al 2020) as well as with intertextual relations in goodwill formulations (Rahm & Sandell 2016). Also, the legitimation of Nordic alcohol monopolies has been investigated (Rahm, Skärlund and Svensson 2019). The projects have been presented at international conferences.

I have continued the research theme on annual reports in two ways. One strand is a project 2019-20 on the ritualisation of the annual meeting of entreprises together with Alexander Paulsson, Niklas Sandell and Peter Svensson. During spring 2019 data was collected. The analysis are published in a book on corporate annual general meetings: Paulsson, Rahm, Sandell and Svensson (2023): Bolagsstämman. Ritualer, kultur, normer och språk as well as in Rahm & Paulsson 2204.

Another strand of research is my interest for the consolidated accounts of the Swedish state owned enterprises. The research group at the Pufendorf institute successfully applied for funding for compiling a corpus of the consolidated accounts 1981–2018. Sanna Skärlund compiled the corpus 2018/19. The corpus was basic data for an application in 2019 to VR, the Swedish research council, with Åsa Thelander, Sanna Skärlund and me. The application had the  title Talk for change Aspiration talk about SDGs as accelerator to sustainability and deals with the textual and discursive relations between Agenda 2030, sustainability goals, societal goals and financial goals. See Rahm & Thelander 2021, Paulsson & Rahm 2022.

Åsa Thelander and I also cooperate with Merja Koskela and Mona Enell-Nilsson from School of Communication and Marketing at Vaasa University on a comparative project called Narratives where economics, rherotics and politics meet - Consolidated accounts and annual reports in state owned enterprises in Sweden and Finland as a unique genre. The project has obtained seed money from foundations in Sweden and Finland. During spring 2019 I and Åsa Thelander conducted interviews with key actors at the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation and at a communications agency. See Enell-Nilsson & Rahm 2021 and Rahm & Enell- Nilsson 2024.

2022-24 I cooperate with Alexander Paulsson, Niklas Sandell and Peter Svensson in a project on constructions of economic crimes in Swedish court trials.

The research projet ESMOR: Emergency preparedness for Small MOdular nuclear Reactors (SMRs) will be pursued 2024-27 thanks to a grant from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority. Researchers in the project are Åsa Ek, Kristina Eriksson, Henrik Rahm, Christopher Rääf och Åsa Thelander.

The research project KOSMR: Communication on small modular reactors (SMRs) - Media reporting, public opinion and valuation of SMRs in Sweden together with Åsa Thelander. The project is financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and runs July 1, 2024-June 30, 2027.

Together with Ingela Johansson and Marianna Smaragdi, Lund and Carmen Sanchidrián Blanco, Málaga University I plan a project on Selma Lagerlöf's influnence on education and culture in Sweden, Spain and Greece.

I teach courses in discourse analysis and text analysis and supervise student theses.