| 1. |
- Olsson, Jenny-Leontine, 1979-
(författare)
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Kön i förändring : Den svenska könsrollsforskningen 1959-1979
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis analyzes Swedish sex role research between 1959 and 1979. The focal point of the analysis is how researchers reshaped ideas about sex/gender. This process is put in relation to the political context which affected and was affected by such ideas. The main purpose of the thesis is divided into three main inquiries: Which ideas about sex and individuality were contructed by sex role researchers? Which ideas about sex and power were presented in the sex role research? Which ideas about science and research were communicated by sex role researchers? The thesis shows that the Swedish sex role research had its peak during the sixties and seventies. The thesis puts previous notions of the transition from sex role research to women’s studies into question. There were collaborations, smooth transitions and fluent boundaries. Women’s studies and sex role research had been two parallel orientations of research. Sex role research influenced and colored debate and politics, the Swedish language and scientific terminology. The entire debate changed when the concept of sex roles was introduced and summarized new research findings about social sex. The researchers continuously related to those who desired reforms and also to a possible opposition. In the early sixties, the social criticism and ideas about sex, family and power were carefully and moderately phrased. Thanks to both the changes in the debate and the establishment of the sex role research, a more direct expression of ideas aiming to transform society became possible. At the end of the period sex role theory was ousted in favor of other theories regarding power and sex/gender.
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| 2. |
- Barrdunge, Mats, 1956-
(författare)
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Upplysningens ljus i Norrland : Om fyra aktörer vid Härnösands gymnasium under 1700-talet
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the occurrence of Enlightenment ideas in the central Northern part of Sweden during the 18th century, focussing on a carefully chosen set of characters: one bishop and three senior lecturers at the gymnasium of Härnösand, in the province of Ångermanland. This dissertation uses a perspective of circulation of knowledge, inspired by the research field of history of knowledge. The methodological approach in this study is to use a complex thematic definition with eight different components of Enlightenment in the analysis of relevant texts and writings by selected characters, supplemented with a contextual perspective.A center for the ecclesiastical culture of learning in Norrland was Härnösand, and the gymnasium was Norrland´s only higher education institution, north of Gävle, for 200 years between 1650 and 1850. During the 18th century, three senior lecturers were employed there, each working for the dissemination of Enlightenment ideas, through both writing and practical action: Magnus Stridsberg (1696–1772), Nils Gissler (1715–1771) and Pehr Hellzén (1744–1811). At the same time as these, the diocese was governed by Bishop Olof Kiörning (1704–1778), who was also the Supervisor of the gymnasium. He was influenced by Enlightenment ideas and showed a strong interest in advanced agriculture and contributed to the church taking greater part in the social and economic development. The first lecturer, Magnus Stridsberg, created new methods in agriculture concerning soil mixing, manure production and grain nurseries, but has mainly been remembered for his threshing machine which came into general use in central Norrland during the second half of the 18th century. The next lecturer, Nils Gissler, was Norrland´s first provincial physician and introduced a scientific approach to practical medicine in the region. With the dissemination of knowledge and a great deal of personal commitment, he showed interest in mental illness and treated his patients in his own home. He laid the foundation for an infrastructure for public health care in the province. He was a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences and wrote many scientific papers, and in modern times has received international scientific recognition for the discovery of the inverted barometer effect. The third lecturer, Pehr Hellzén, was a pre-industrial contractor in the sawmill and shipbuilding industry in central Norrland and founded the shipyard and shipping company Wifstavarf in 1798. Hellzén gave an important inaugural speech when the new gymnasium was built: Om uplysningens verkan på människors och samhällens sällhet (On the effect of Enlightenment on the happiness of people and societies), printed in Swedish 1794. He gave Härnösand a special role within the Enlightenment, described as a driving force behind the development of science, education and economic in the region.The Enlightenment that developed in Härnösand can be summarized as a Christian ‘utilism’ with clear Enlightenment traits such as reason, experience-based science, the dissemination of knowledge, humanity, social reforms, religious tolerance & religion of reason, and utility & virtue. It rested on an evangelical Lutheran foundation, it regarded the meaning of ‘utilism’ in a broader sense than just financial gain, and included central Enlightenment ideas.
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| 3. |
- Ek, Imelda Helena, 1982-
(författare)
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Erotic Insanity : Sex and psychiatry at Vadstena asylum, Sweden 1849-1878
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The early nineteenth century saw the emergence of institutional psychiatry across Europe. Aware that Sweden had fallen behind in this development, Parliament decreed in 1823 that a number of specialised institutions for the care of the insane were to be established. The Vadstena asylum, opened in 1826, was the first such institution in Sweden. The aim of this study is to examine medical interpretation of and responses to erotic behaviour in psychiatric practice at the Vadstena asylum in the period 1849-1878.The book places the theme of the erotic, a topical subject in nineteenth-century public debate, in the context of psychiatry as an emerging specialty in Sweden. The book explores how erotic behaviour was conceptualised as disease, and the nature of therapeutic intervention in erotic cases, in order to present a more nuanced image of nineteenth-century medical attitudes to sexuality. By highlighting the superintendency of physician Ludvig Magnus Hjertstedt, and linking his account of an 1845 study tour through Europe to medical practice at Vadstena, the study situates responses to erotic patients in a period when psychiatry claims authority over human sexuality. In methodological terms, the study applies critical questions inspired by revisionist scholarship to a body of empirical source material. Focusing on a single institution, and conducting in-depth readings of case notes – with regard to language, form, and function – allows the study to highlight the everyday practice of the asylum physician in his encounters with male and female erotic patients, including the use, importance and diagnostic integrity of the concepts nymphomania, erotomania and masturbation. Hjertstedt’s travel journal provides insight into the physician’s medical philosophy, informing the analysis of diagnostic and interpretive procedures, while connecting medical practice at Vadstena to its European paragons. The results indicate that while the use of specific diagnostic terms to describe erotic behaviour was infrequent, therapeutic and managerial intervention shows that sexual acts and expressions of desire were considered disturbing and dangerous symptoms in both male and female patients. The analysis thus makes visible a gap between psychiatric theory and asylum practice, emphasising uncertainties and complexities inherent in the latter. While erotic behaviour could be considered indicative of illness, it might also be interpreted as a lack of character or a result of insufficient moral instruction. The asylum’s regime of work and moral instruction was designed to restore health as well as sound values and appropriate behaviour in its patients, indicating a medical culture at Vadstena which was both curative and normalising.
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| 4. |
- Ekström, Sara, 1989-
(författare)
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Att styra genom känslor : Regeringskonst i tre gustavianska projekt
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The eighteenth century is sometimes referred to as the Age of Sentiment. Emotions were attributed great importance, both as driving forces for human behaviour, and as a moral compass. They were also important in political rule. This also pertains to Sweden and the reign of Gustav III. Gustav (1746–1792) became king in 1771. One year later, in 1772, he staged a coup d’état, reintroducing a strong royal power after almost half a century of parliamentary rule. Two decades later he was assassinated by political opponents. This dissertation analyses ideas of government and human nature that were actualized in this late eighteenth-century context. More specifically, it examines discussions about technologies of government and subject formation in relation to three royal projects, launched in different periods of the reign of Gustav III: the Order of Vasa (1772), the National Dress (1778), and the Swedish Academy (1786). In the analysis, I am inspired by Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality. I particularly draw on Foucault’s description of a historically specific breakthrough – starting in the mid-eighteenth century – for a type of exercise of power that can be called liberal. I also draw on the research fields of History of Emotions and National Identity. In the discussions surrounding the three projects, one can see expressions of a type of logic of government that I, based on Foucauldian theory, call liberal. By this I mean that the population was regarded as constituted by subjects whose self-interested driving forces in the form of emotions and desires could be put into play – activated and channelled by the state in order to achieve various objectives. As long as these goals were perceived as beneficial for the society, the inherent morality of people’s desires was considered of less importance. However, other and older ideas of the best way of governing self-interested emotions and desires, such as what I call virtue-oriented politics of emotion, were also at play, interfering with the new, “liberal” ideas in various ways. In claiming that Gustav III’s politics of emotions can to some extent be characterized as liberal, I do not imply that the king had a liberal worldview or that he believed that society should be structured in an egalitarian manner. However, this dissertation argues that Gustav III and some of the people surrounding him experimented with government according to a liberal logic. I claim that the king made use of enlightenment ideas not only as inspiration for reforms or as means of branding himself as an enlightened monarch, but also as tools for theorizing about effective governance of the population. This shift in focus complicates the picture of the emergence of liberal government in Sweden. My examples show that liberal government may sometimes be preferred purely on the basis of the idea that it is effective, and on that basis even an eighteenth-century sovereign could experiment with it. This dissertation thus contributes to a more complex picture of the rule of Gustav III, as well as to a refined understanding of the history of liberal government.
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| 5. |
- Järvklo, Niclas, 1979-
(författare)
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Den nye mannen : Statlig maskulinitetspolitik i Sverige från 1980-talet till 2020-talet
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of the dissertation is to analyze the institutionalization of national masculinity policy in Sweden, focusing on idea and policy development regarding the issue of men and gender equality from the 1980s until the 2020s. Swedish national masculinity policy can be characterized as a delimitable area within gender equality policy that is specifically focused on promoting the development of gender equal men. The dissertation shows Sweden as pioneering in regard to this institutional invention promoting “the new man” and as active in disseminating these ambitions internationally. The main material consists of reports from Swedish governmental working groups and inquiries on men and gender equality during the period, as well as the gender equality policy bills and written communications submitted by the Swedish government to parliament.A methodological approach for an ideational policy analysis in historical perspective is outlined to study the institutionalization process of this policy area over time. The dissertation analyzes the discursive framework that the issue of men and gender equality has been embedded in, how the issue has been addressed at the political level, how it has been problematized in the working groups and inquiries, and finally formally institutionalized by the government. Based on Carol Bacchi’s method for policy analysis, the dissertation shows how policy problems regarding men and gender equality have been constructed and represented in different ways during the institutionalization process and what the discursive effects of different policy representations have been.In comparison to previous research on masculinity politics in various men’s groups or social movements, the dissertation shows the need to analyze “national masculinity policy” in relation to institutional factors and frameworks. The development of national masculinity policy is discussed in relation to theories of institutional change. The dissertation shows how ideas about men and gender equality that have been developed in research, social movements, and public debate have influenced politics, confirming the assumptions in feminist institutional research that emphasize the importance of ideas for institutional change. This development is described in terms of idea-based incremental institutional change. The dissertation also points to the importance of actors in problem representation processes, using the concept of interpretive repertoire to highlight how the actors who participated in the governmental inquiries on men and gender equality balanced the different perspectives found in their contexts (ideas in public debate, research, and policy).In other words, the dissertation studies the path from idea to formal institution when it comes to the question of the new man in Sweden.
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| 6. |
- Nordström, Kristina, 1979-
(författare)
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Det sanna snillet : Genus och geni hos Thomas Thorild
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the eighteenth century, the word genius acquired a new meaning – that of extraordinary endowment – and started to be used to denote a particular type of superior human being. Author and philosopher Thomas Thorild (1759–1808) introduced this new concept in Sweden. The present thesis examines gender aspects concerning this exclusive identity, with the purpose of analysing how gender interacts with social status, age and ethnicity in the construction of the concept of genius in the writings of Thorild. The thesis examines the extent to which concepts relating to masculinity and femininity are involved in the definitional conflicts regarding genius and the significance that other identity categories have in these contexts. My focus is on the Swedish word snille, the word most commonly used for genius during this period.The analysis shows that Thorild describes the genius as both manly and womanly. He relates to the different ways of understanding gender that were available in the transition from an older conception of gender and identity to a more modern one. When Thorild describes the genius as manly, he understands manliness in terms of ideal humanity and maturity. When he describes the genius as womanly, or rather resembling women, he relates to another, more modern way of perceiving gender by emphasising two different gender categories. There is a difference between the concept of manliness, where gender interacts with age, and the woman–man gender division, in which gender is constructed in relation to social status and ethnicity. The genius combines the classical manly virtue that emphasises autonomy, forceful action, civic duty and political responsibility with a new feminine moral ideal that prioritises peaceful, social coexistence in civil society. The concept of genius not only contributes to the establishment of a conception of the individual as an autonomous subject, but also relates to the ways in which this individual is expected to work for the good of humanity.
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