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- Östh Gustafsson, Hampus, 1989-
(författare)
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Folkhemmets styvbarn : Humanioras legitimitet i svensk kunskapspolitik 1935–1980
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study investigates how the legitimacy of the humanities was renegotiated in the context of Swedish politics of knowledge 1935–1980, a period that saw the establishment of a new regime of legitimacy based on rational planning. While higher education and research in general expanded and were turned into prioritised sectors of the welfare state, the humanities were not successfully integrated into the new regime. Using the perspective of the sociology of expectations, I demonstrate how the humanities were excluded from progressive narratives focused on material welfare. In contrast to other categories of knowledge, such as science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences, the Swedish humanities were described as traditional and elitist, and eventually depicted as exceptionally marginalised from a transnational point of view.Using a diverse range of sources from the borderland between science and politics – such as reports from university commissions, conference proceedings, and programmatic articles in the press – this historicising analysis of shifting alliances, negotiations and contests of legitimacy fills an important gap, since previous work on the history of the humanities lacks comprehensive empirical studies on the formation of the discourse of marginalisation. Transcending common interpretations of the so-called "crisis of the humanities" that either focus on the new left circa 1968, or the rise of neo-liberalism about a decade later, I demonstrate that the humanities encountered severe challenges at an earlier stage than is generally assumed, and also how they were marginalised in a context of increasing prosperity. The study illuminates how crisis rhetorics were eventually included in novel strategies of legitimation in the 1970s, as humanities scholars more actively attempted to improve their positions in contrast to previous generations who rather sought to adapt the humanities to the standards of the predominating regime of legitimacy.One of the most common claims for the value of the humanities in current debates stresses their particular function for democracy. This dissertation problematises this claim by using historical cases which emphasise a strained relationship between the humanities and democracy. Specifically, I show how the Swedish humanities struggled to adapt to the new egalitarian democratic society of the 20th century welfare state. In this way, the dissertation provides much-needed nuances to ongoing debates on the legitimacy of the humanities.
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| 2. |
- Bennesved, Peter, 1986-
(författare)
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Sheltered Society : Civilian Air raid shelters in Sweden — from idea to materiality, 1918-1940 and beyond
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2002, Sweden finally stopped producing air raid shelters for its population after over sixty years of continuous production since 1938. Judging from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, MSB, the Swedish Air raid shelter registry contain about 65,000 air raid shelters registered as being in use. This figure reflect a huge security infrastructure which, today, is said to provide shelter for around 70% of the Swedish population. By studying the interwar period and the origins of civil defence in Swedish history, this dissertation sets out to explain the origins of the Swedish air raid shelter and provide an explanation of how Sweden eventually became a “Sheltered Society”.In order to achieve this, this dissertation will study the interwar period up until the first year of the Second World War, 1918 to 1940, which can be said to be the formative years for aerial protection politics and air raid shelters. As a theoretical inspiration, the dissertation uses LTS theory, intertwined with a Multi-Level Perspective on technological transitions. Through the close reading of reports and articles, newspapers and archival materials, written by fortification officers, engineers, architects, politicians and journalists during these years, the study shows how the originally military bunkers and air raid shelters were conceptually transferred to civilian use during the interwar years by authors concerned about the technological and strategic developments in aerial warfare.This process was enabled by a careful navigation between militaristic notions of aerial protection and the politically neutral civilian use of air raid shelters. Key factors for the successful implementation was framing the shelters as a simple technical matter through the concept of “Construction-Technical Aerial Protection”, as well as removing all military involvement in building and organizing them, making them seem “civilian” rather than military. This eventually led to the ratification of the Air raid shelter statute of 1940, which could be said to be the origin of the Swedish air raid shelter system. While politicians, engineers and fortification officers launched this image of the air raid shelter, the contemporary press discourse also provided a means of interpreting the10newly introduced shelters as being culturally compatible with Swedish urban modernity, thus making the radical urban change appear less frightening and a natural part of the development of the burgeoning Swedish welfare state.
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| 3. |
- Halverson, Kristin
(författare)
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Tools of the Trade : Medical Devices and Practice in Sweden and Denmark, 1855-1897
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Nineteenth-century medicine is characterised by rapid technological change, new methods of diagnostics and treatments of disease, far-reaching developments in medical science, and professionalisation. This has led to great interest in the period and a large body of scholarly and popular research. However, much of this scholarship studies British, German and French contexts. There is a pressing need to study how knowledge and practice were transferred between regions and how medical technologies were adapted locally.In this study, I examine changes in medical practice in Sweden and Denmark by centring medical devices, as they were described and discussed in Swedish and Danish medical journals between 1855 and 1897. This is done by exploring the relationships between device, practice, and knowledge in four technological areas and how their use was explained in these journals. The four technological areas are lensed and mirrored instruments for examining the nose, throat, and eyes; orthopaedic treatment; antisepsis according to Joseph Lister; and asepsis. All four areas are well-researched internationally but entail a number of local particularities. These are significant in understanding local circumstances involved in their practical adoption.The analysis of these areas illustrates that, despite the international exchange of medical knowledge, knowledge was not always translated into practice seamlessly, in particular when involving the use of devices. Because of this, many of the articles exploring these technologies were instructional and attuned to local conditions. Practice unfolded in different ways, accounting for local circumstances. This thesis highlights the importance of examining the proliferation of nineteenth-century medical technologies on the local level and in practice, in order to better understand the practical predicaments involved in their use.
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