During the past few decades, the arts and humanities in the West- ern world have been challenged by a strange contradiction between two very different stories about their raison d’être and value. The first story focuses on the expansion of universities, including the faculties of arts and humanities. The second story is dominated by a feeling of distress prompted by the constant questioning of the usefulness and applicability of the arts and humanities. As the con- tributions to this volume of Academic Quarter indicate, however, a third story may be about to emerge.
Sedan 1920-talet har det funnits montessoriskolor i vårt land och dessa har under tidens gång influerat såväl förskolans som grundskolan utveckling. Den första skrift som behandlar pedagogiken på svenska kom ut redan 1923 och utlöste då en livlig debatt. Därefter har det varit tunt med publikationer om pedagogiken på vårt språk. Det är därför glädjande att Christine Quarfoods bok Positivism med mänskligt ansikte har publicerats dock ifrågasätter recensenterna författarens underliggande tes.
Boken är en aktuell och mångfacetterad beskrivning av vårt pedagogiska arv och dagens skolverklighet. Viktiga frågor som rör utbildningens innehåll, form och mål har fått en särskilt framträdande plats. Kapitlet presenterar Montessoripedagogikens filosofiska idé och gör nedslag i den praktiska tillämpningen från förskola till grundskolans senare år.
In his natural philosophy, John Buridan reinterprets Aristotelian conceptions of necessity using a framework derived from his logical writings. After a discussion of Buridan’s account of varieties of necessity, in this paper I shall approach some interpretative uses of that account where two natural philosophical concerns are involved. The first is connected with the relationship of modality and time in a question from the first book of his commentary to De Generatione et Corruptione addressing a consequence from possibilities of alteration to possibilities of generation. The content of that question hinges on the metaphysical connection between alteration and substantial changes. In the third section, I shall explore a quasi-definition of causal necessity and contingency Buridan discusses in the second book of his commentary to the Physics. Buridan’s discussion of alternative descriptions of causal necessity and contingency in that context reveals competing pictures of the role of essences in causal explanation associated with Avicenna and Averroes respectively.
This study explores the ideological causes for restrictions on eating and drinking in Sweden during an approximate period from the year 1600 until 1720.Drawing on Michel Foucault´s theory of societal control in early modern Europe, a view on society is adapted, presupposing the control to be executed on grossly three levels: one national, one intermediary and one individual. The research material consists of normative texts, grouped into three sections, according to the position of their assumed receivers: in the first section are sumptuary laws, applying nationwide; in the second are texts giving instructions to heads of smaller communities on housekeeping and restraints; and in the third section are texts directed to individuals. In each group, statements of food and drink restrictions will be qualitatively analysed, with a focus on the ideological driving forces. The result of the study is of interest, since previous research exposes divergent opinions of reasons for consumption restrictions generally, and since food and drink is a category mostly neglected.
The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions and attitudes regarding death during the Spanish flu epidemic in Jämtland and Östersund (Sweden) 1918. The study asks what attitudes and perceptions were pronounced, how people attempted to make death meaningful, and how this can be understood in a wider historical context of changing attitudes toward death in Sweden and the west at the time. To do this, the study draws primarily upon newspaper articles, obituaries, and diary entries from August–November 1918, and works critically with theoretical and methodological aspects of history of mentalities, backed by cultural history. Historical research regarding death as well as the Spanish flu is extensive, but a more detailed study of the two combined appear so far lacking despite their connection. The study shows how death was made meaningful and understood through a multiplicity of perceptions and attitudes. Previous research has noted how the Spanish flu oftentimes were remembered as personal histories rather than through collective historiography. During the epidemic we see the foundation of this take form. People wish to preserve the memory of their loved ones, and attempt in diverse actions to make their deaths meaningful and understandable. For people in general, both religious and secular ideas toward death become clear. In light of suffering, death appears as an alleviation and a form of stillness, though was neither met with resignation nor apathy. Many instead dedicated themselves to a battle against the disease and its deadly consequences that became part of everyday life. Nurses became heroes going out into battle, and when they succumbed their deaths were described in heroic undertones. Not only do these insights allow us to understand perceptions and attitudes of humans’ historical consciousness, but aids us in our attempt to make death meaningful in times of epidemics and beyond.
Review article of Henrik Bogdan and Olav Hammer (eds.), Western Esotericism in Scandinavia (Leiden: Brill, 2016. 698 + xviii pages).
The purpose of this study is to offer an approach to understanding the development of the idea of federalism during the process of European integration following the Second World War and its impact on the Brexit referendum. Quentin Skinner’s methodology for rhetorical analysis and the study of the meaning of political concepts as determined by their context and use is applied in order to describe the changes in attitude. This can also help explain why there is no consensus on whether the European Union is a federation or not. More specifically, significant persons and documents promoting or rejecting a European federation and depicting the British role in it are analyzed. Despite the importance of economic and immigration issues, the conclusion of this study is that the conflict between the idea of European federalism and British sovereignty was a primary factor determining the outcome of the Brexit referendum and may have far-reaching consequences in the future.
This chapter explores how Svenska Läkartidningen (SLT) in the 1930s and 1940s, by way of its publication of travel reports, could function as an agent of “brown” or pro-Nazi propaganda – at the same time as it kept on representing the Swedish medical corps as a professional and scientific collective. SLT hardly ever included any editorials – the one in first issue was a bit of an exception. The number of travel reports dealing with Nazi Germany that were published in SLT suffice to show a strong German inclination, especially when set in proportion to the number of reports dealing with other countries, and in relation to comparable collections of travel reports. Arguably due to its editorial bias, a disproportionate amount of travel reports from Germany were published in SLT during the Nazi era. The individual writers sometimes appear as active agents of propaganda, sometimes as more passive mediators of propaganda directed at them in Germany or its occupied territories.
An extra punishment: On felony as a ground for voting restrictions
Even today there are a number of countries where convicted felons lose their voting rights, including the USA. Until 1937 this was also the case in Sweden, where many criminals and former criminals had no voting rights. This loss of voting rights was linked to a special sanction, which constituted a modernized variant of older provisions on “defamation”, “loss of honour” and “loss of civic trust” that were associated with certain crimes. The sanction was finally abolished in 1937, due to a new, more prevention- and treatment-oriented view of correctional care that became dominant in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. It clashed with an older view of crime and punishment, where the shame of being convicted was seen as a supplementary part of the sentence. According to this new view, the public mistrust created by preventing previously convicted criminals from voting was regarded as an obstacle to the reintegration of former criminals to full citizenship and productivity.
Immature adults: On legal minority as a ground for voting restrictions
The last voting restriction to be abolished in Sweden was that which pertained to adults that had been legally declared to be minors. It was connected to meritocratic arguments about democratic maturity, rational thinking and sufficient knowledge as necessary conditions for suffrage, as well as to arguments that voters had to be independent. The restriction disappeared as a result of the fact that the possibility to declare people legally minor was abolished in 1989. Only then was the right to vote extended to all adult Swedish citizens.
Besvärliga människor är möjligen ett evigt problem. Vem som ansetts som besvärlig har däremot varierat över tid. Hur omgivningen har valt att definiera och handskas med besvärligheten har varierat ännu mer. I mellankrigstidens Sverige fungerade den psykiatriska diagnosen psykopati som ett kontroversiellt men kraftfullt verktyg för hantering av människor som inte lyckades leva upp till de medborgerliga idealen. Diagnosen byggde på föreställningar om ett brett spektrum av biologiskt grundade störningar i gränslandet mellan normalitet och egentlig sinnessjukdom. Störningarna antogs ta sig uttryck i exempelvis homosexualitet, hysteriska anfall, mytomani eller allmän hållningslöshet. En annan kontroversiell diagnos var kverulansparanoia, en sjukdom som kopplades till framväxten av den moderna rättsstaten, och vars främsta uttryck antogs vara ett omåttligt klagande över oförrätter. Här handlade det alltså snarare om ett överdrivet utnyttjande av ens medborgerliga rättigheter. Ett särskilt dilemma var att det slags beteende som vanligtvis låg till grund för diagnos och påföljande tvångsintagning på sinnessjukhus, nämligen idogt brevskrivande till myndigheter, också var det som krävdes för att ta sig ut. I De samhällsbesvärliga undersöker idéhistorikern Annika Berg hur patienter beskrivna som psykopater eller kverulanter kunde förhandla om utskrivning med läkare och myndigheter i 1930- och 40-talens Sverige. Det här var en tid då den psykiatriska vården byggdes ut kraftigt till följd av ett upplevt behov, men också skapades om till en mindre sluten apparat med möjligheter till försöksutskrivning och öppnare vårdformer. Det var också en tid då psykiatrin angreps från olika håll, och anklagades för att spärra in folk på lösa och oklara grunder. Mot bakgrund av detta, hur gick hanteringen av psykopater och kverulanter ihop med tidens tankar om medborgerliga frioch rättigheter? Hur betraktade patienterna sig själva? Och hur påverkades förhandlingarna i enskilda fall av föreställningar om exempelvis klass, kön och sexualitet?
För hundra år sedan lyckades arbetarrörelsen och kvinnorörelsen driva igenom sina krav på allmän rösträtt i Sverige. I första världskrigets slutskede gav högern – skrämda av revolutionära krafter i Ryssland och Västeuropa – till slut upp sitt motstånd mot demokratiseringen och 1921 hölls det första valet med så kallad allmän och lika rösträtt.
Men hur omfattande var den rösträtt som infördes 1918–21? I denna här boken tecknas rösträttens historia i Sverige efter den ”allmänna” rösträttens införande. Det visar sig här att rätten att rösta under 1900-talet inte alls omfattat alla befolkningsgrupper.
Fattiga, gamla och konkursdrabbade har tidvis exkluderats, värnpliktsvägrare, fångar och omyndigförklarade likaså. Åldersgränserna har varierat, liksom relationen mellan rösträtten och det svenska medborgarskapet. Dessutom har reglerna för hur röstningen rent praktiskt ska gå till gjort det svårt för vissa grupper, bland annat renskötande samer, att utnyttja sin rätt.
Den här boken handlar om den allmänna rösträttens föränderliga gränser och ställer frågor om demokratins räckvidd – i det förflutna och i vår samtid.
This chapter investigates and compares the concepts of folkhälsa and folkehelse (literally, ‘people’s health’ in Swedish and Norwegian, respectively) in the works of two highly influential twentieth-century medical actors in Sweden and Norway, Axel Höjer and Karl Evang. Both were key actors in the construction of the welfare states in their respective countries. Both served as Chief Medical Officer: Höjer held this position in Sweden from 1935 to 1952, while Evang held it in Norway from 1938 to 1972. They were also both involved in international health work: At the end of the Second World War, Evang was one of the initiators behind the World Health Organization (WHO), and in the late 1940s and 1950s both he and Höjer were prominent actors in that organisation, where they also cooperated strategically on certain issues. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Höjer also worked with health issues in the field in India and Africa, mainly for the WHO.
How did these two actors use and understand the concepts of folkhälsa and folkehelse in their publications? What were the historical roots of the concepts, and how did they evolve over time? How were they understood in relation to different national and international contexts? And how, if at all, did the Swedish and Norwegian conceptions of ‘people’s health’ differ from each other?
Both Höjer and Evang published extensively, and we have also been able to build on unpublished source material from their comprehensive personal archives.
The period saw the founding of the first Swedish employers´ associations as a reaction to the preceding decades´ growth of industrial trade unions. Conflicting ideas fought about supremacy. Not only was the fight carried out across the social dividing line separating workers from the bourgeoisie, but also between groups on either side: hawks versus doves among employers; revolutionaries versus reformers among workers.
The study uses an actor perspective, comparing three leading industrialists in their particular roles as employers. It analyzes the development of ideas over the period studied, using minutes from meetings, company memos, letters, speeches and newspapers as primary sources. In addition, it is action-orientated and analyzes major labour conflicts that were fought and agreements that were reached. It applies a split vision, taking into regard the contemporary views and actions of the labour unions. Its perspective moves between the individual, the company and the organizational levels, with the primary aim to see what changes in the traditional patriarchal employer policies that were considered and to what extent such changes were realized.
A major result is the evidence of the irreconcilable views on the subject of strike breakers/loyal workers -- two conflicting terms for one phenomenon that indicate a gap between two different sets of values. Differing views among employers on how to relate to this gap caused frictions in the years 1906-09. The outcome of the general strike in 1909 ended in a harsh employer organizations policy for more than the two following decades. It was replaced by the mutual spirit, later known as the Swedish Model, materialized in the Saltsjöbaden general agreements of 1938.
This article explores the manner in which the virtues and vices play a part in the representation of the social order in the work of Don Juan Manuel, with a particular emphasis on the Libro del cauallero et del escudero, and in reference to the configuration of chivalry in Alfonso X’s Siete partidas (2P, Title XXI) and Ramon Llull’s Llibre de l’orde de cavalleria. I discuss how Don Juan Manuel’s representation of knighthood and chivalry differs from that of his predecessors, the moral and ethical notions inherent therein, and its relation to conceptions of social order. The discussion concerns the motivations and aims of these diverging conceptions of chivalry and how they are legitimated and justified.
This article explores the scientific partnership between geology professor Gerard De Geer and his wife Ebba Hult following their marriage in 1908. De Geer was an influential participant in Swedish academia and international geology. Hult worked as his assistant until his death in 1943. The partnership was beneficial for both spouses, in particular through the semi-private Geochronological Institute, which they controlled. The article argues that marriage was a culturally acknowledged form of collaboration in the academic community, and as such it offered Hult access to geological research. However, the paper also argues that the gendered scientific institutions produced a fractured position. Partly, Hult managed to create her own role as researcher in geochronology. As a woman and a wife, however, she never moved out of her husband's shadow. Gender is understood as a relational category: Hult was an outsider who participated partially in standardized structures which gave great power to her husband and other men. The fact that she shared this status with other women in Swedish science at the time indicates the structural nature of their position. Nevertheless, they all had individual trajectories through academia. Indeed, the study of collaborative couples illustrates the multifaceted links between individual actions and the historical context of science.
This essay explores the gendered lifestyle of early twentieth-century physics and chemistry and shows how that way of life was produced through linking science and home. In 1905, the Swedish physical chemist Svante Arrhenius married Maja Johansson and established a scientific household at the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry in Stockholm. He created a productive context for research in which ideas about marriage and family were pivotal. He also socialized in similar scientific sites abroad. This essay displays how scholars in the international community circulated the gendered lifestyle through frequent travel and by reproducing gendered behavior. Everywhere, husbands and wives were expected to perform distinct duties. Shared performances created loyalties across national divides. The essay thus situates the physical sciences at the turn of the twentieth century in a bourgeois gender ideology. Moreover, it argues that the gendered lifestyle was not external to knowledge making but, rather, foundational to laboratory life. A legitimate and culturally intelligible lifestyle produced the trust and support needed for collaboration. In addition, it enabled access to prestigious facilities for Svante Arrhenius, ultimately securing his position in international physical chemistry.
Recontextualization: The creative construction of contextsThis chapter deals with ”recontextualization”. It argues that a core analytical function of any history writing is reflecting upon which context a source, actor, or other historical phenomenon is placed within. The chapter draws on the example of the early twentieth-century Swedish geographer Sven Hedin to indicate various contexts that his travels, publications and images can be placed in. Depending upon which context we as historians construct, different narratives about Hedin’s endeavors emerge. More importantly, the choice of context has repercussions on the object of study beyond Hedin as a concrete actor. Accordingly, the chapter indicates how it is possible to reread and recontextualize the work of the geographer as part of a much broader history of planetary scales, produced through travel narratives and imagery going back to the seventeenth century. While Hedin himself did not explicitly claim to be part of such a history, the historian is at liberty to construct such a broader context. Thus, Hedin is recontextualized, and important steps in historical analytical work can be produced.
This chapter studies the panoramic visions created by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin on a journey to Tibet between 1906 and 1909. It reads Hedin’s geographic images and texts through a broader nineteenth-century history of the panorama and indicates how his panoramic visions were part of a broader media culture of the century. Furthermore, the chapter claims that Hedin’s geographic images and texts contributed to the shaping of a modern regime of vision where the world in overview was a desirable object. Using intermediality as a method, I display how these visions emerged through a network of media formats, including photographs, hand-drawn panoramas, water-colour sketches, and texts. The article argues that these formats were combined through “descriptive layering.” They shared the panorama as a motif, yet they were also layered in a material sense: attached to, and interlaced with, each other. I argue that descriptive layering was a way of handling the vexed relationship between overview and detail, and it allowed the panoramic representations to move between knowledge-based and aesthetic experiences.