| 1. |
- Rosengren, Anna
(författare)
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Åldrandet och språket : en språkhistorisk analys av hög ålder och åldrande i Sverige cirka 1875–1975
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyses how old age and ageing were manifested and understood in Sweden from approximately 1875 to 1975. It thus aims to provide historical background to current debate about for instance the retirement age and how to best care for the elderly. Encyclopaedia entries from both the beginning and the end of this period describe ageing as a medical process of physical decline. Since much current research also uses such a medical perspective on ageing, it is tempting to conclude that ageing always was (and is) seen as a medico-biological phenomenon of physical decline. But has this medical perspective always dominated? The three sources studied in this thesis show that this was not always the case. The sources were birthday notices for women and men aged sixty or more, application letters to private old-age homes and, lastly, legislative material related to reforms for elderly people. Rather than establishing certain a priori criteria before conducting the empirical analyses – methods often used in previous historical research – I approached old age and ageing indirectly by examining related expressions. The theoretical perspective of the thesis builds on the work of, among others, German historian Reinhart Koselleck and British historian Quentin Skinner. The approach relies on the assumption of a mutual relationship between language and reality, and on the agency of individuals. I call this perspective “linguistic-historical research” (“språkhistorisk forskning”) to underline its reliance on both language and historical context. The analyses show that old age and ageing tended to be linked to the body and to chronology, alternating and combining the two, with no apparent evolution in a specific direction. By contrast, it is possible to discern a trend from societal to more individual manifestations of old age and ageing. Furthermore, the sources more than once exhibit a correspondence between the manifestations of old age and ageing, and contemporary ideas and events. This thesis therefore suggests that old age and ageing have not had a single well-defined essence at any point in time. Rather, their understanding and manifestations have changed with time, situation and person. Returning to my initial question, the thesis shows that medical perspectives on ageing were clearly distinguishable only towards the 1950s. Finally, the sources shed light on two common hypotheses: that women were perceived to age earlier than men, and that retirement could be seen as a form of “social ageing”. The three sources do not support either hypothesis.
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| 2. |
- Jukkala, Tanya, 1981-
(författare)
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Suicide in Russia : A macro-sociological study
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This work constitutes a macro-sociological study of suicide. The empirical focus is on suicide mortality in Russia, which is among the highest in the world and has, moreover, developed in a dramatic manner over the second half of the 20th century. Suicide mortality in contemporary Russia is here placed within the context of development over a longer time period through empirical studies on 1) the general and sex- and age-specific developments in suicide over the period 1870–2007, 2) underlying dynamics of Russian suicide mortality 1956–2005 pertaining to differences between age groups, time periods, and particular generations and 3) the continuity in the aggregate-level relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality from late Tsarist period to post-World War II Russia. In addition, a fourth study explores an alternative to Émile Durkheim’s dominating macro-sociological perspective on suicide by making use of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems. With the help of Luhmann’s macro-sociological perspective it is possible to consider suicide and its causes also in terms of processes at the individual level (i.e. at the level of psychic systems) in a manner that contrasts with the ‘holistic’ perspective of Durkheim. The results of the empirical studies show that Russian suicide mortality, despite its exceptionally high level and dramatic changes in the contemporary period, shares many similarities with the patterns seen in Western countries when examined over a longer time period. Societal modernization in particular seems to have contributed to the increased rate of suicide in Russia in a manner similar to what happened earlier in Western Europe. In addition, the positive relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality proved to be remarkably stable across the past one and a half centuries. These results were interpreted using the Luhmannian perspective on suicide developed in this work.
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| 3. |
- McWilliams, Anna, 1975-
(författare)
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An Archaeology of the Iron Curtain : Material and Metaphor
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Iron Curtain was seen as the divider between East and West in Cold War Europe. The term is closely connected to the Cold War and expressions such as ‘behind the Iron Curtain’ or ‘after the fall of the Iron Curtain’ are common within historical discussions in the second half of the twentieth century. Even if the term was used regularly as a metaphor there was also a material side with a series of highly militarised borders running throughout Europe. The metaphor and the material borders developed together and individually, sometimes intertwined and sometimes separate.In my research I have carried out two fieldwork studies at sites that can be considered part of the former Iron Curtain. The first study area is located between Italy and Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia) in which the division between the two towns of Nova Gorica on the Slovenian side and Gorizia on the Italian side was investigated. The second study area is located on the border between Austria and Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) within two national parks. A smaller study was also carried out in Berlin as the Berlin Wall is considered of major importance in the context of the Iron Curtain. This research has resulted in large quantities of sources and information and a constant need to re-evaluate the methods used within an archaeology of a more recent past.This thesis falls within what is usually referred to as contemporary archaeology, a fairly young sub-discipline of archaeology. Few large research projects have so far been published, and methods have been described as still somewhat experimental. Through my fieldwork it has been possible to acknowledge and highlight the problems and opportunities within contemporary archaeology. It has become clear how the materials stretch both through time and place demonstrating the complex process of how the material that archaeologists investigate can be created. The material of the Iron Curtain, is also well worth studying in its own right.
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| 4. |
- Wolrath Söderberg, Maria
(författare)
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Topos som meningsskapare : Retorikens topiska perspektiv på tänkande och lärande geonom argumentation
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- De flesta teorier om meningsskapande som är moderna inom ramen för den högskolepedagogiska diskursen i Sverige idag utgår från en perspektivisk kunskapssyn. Det kan emellertid vara svårt att realisera en didaktik som tar många synsätt på allvar i klassrummet utan att landa i hållningslös relativism. Det är detta övergripande problem som motiverar denna avhandling som anknyter till den retoriska toposläran. Den utvecklades som en kognitiv verktygslåda för tänkande och argumentation i problematiska, föränderliga och mångfacetterade frågor. Den byggde på antagandet att en fråga skulle kunna hanteras genom att teman, skäl och resonemangssätt som fungerat tidigare i liknande frågor skulle kunna ställas mot varandra i debatt och på så vis erbjuda en mångsidig perspektivprövning. Det finns skäl att anta att den därför också skulle kunna vara värd att pröva i arbetet med att utveckla en högskolepedagogik för problematisk kunskap och för en dynamisk värld. För att en sådan didaktik ska vara intressant bör den emellertid vara förankrad i en genomtänkt teori om meningsskapande. Det mer konkreta syftet med avhandlingen är därför att undersöka förutsättningarna för en sådan teori. Frågan som ställs är: Hur kan vi förstå meningsskapande om vi ser det genom toposbegreppets lins? Utifrån en undersökning av toposlärans framväxt och historiska kontext och en rekonstruktion av dess bakomliggande kunskapsteori föreslås en utvecklad toposmodell. Denna används sedan för att komplettera och vidareutveckla ett sociokulturellt och dialogiskt synsätt på meningsskapande, inspirerat av Bachtin. Till sist prövas dessa tankar som utgångspunkter för design av högskoleundervisning i seminarieform.
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| 5. |
- Huss, Markus, 1981-
(författare)
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Motståndets akustik : Språk och (o)ljud hos Peter Weiss 1946–1960
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study explores how language is thematized in a selection of literary texts written in Swedish and German by Peter Weiss between 1946 and 1960. The textual interpretations seek to establish how Weiss’s literary work forms a multifaceted reflection on language and its cultural, historical and material preconditions. The various literary conceptualizations of language in Weiss’s texts are shown to be intimately linked to historical processes, where early postwar Germany plays a crucial role as a contextual framework. The study demonstrates how the texts explore an acoustic dimension of language, where non-articulatory sounds and noises oscillate between two poles: they either pose a threat to the narrator, or form a promise of a future emancipatory linguistic expression beyond a territorializing and violent language. Furthermore, the study argues that the sounds and noises permeating Weiss’s literary work form a soundtrack of past violence haunting the present. Finally, this soundtrack is shown to undermine a German postwar literary discourse that postulates a historical break after the Second World War (Stunde Null) as well as a new German literary language cleansed of Nazi contamination (Kahlschlag).The study draws its theoretical framework mainly from research concerned with mono- and multilingualism in literature, as well as from intermedial studies examining the interaction between literary texts and other artistic media such as the visual arts and music.The material examined in the study consists of six short stories in Swedish published between 1946 and 1953 in the literary journals 40-tal, Prisma and All världens berättare; the prose manuscript “Der Vogelfreie” (1947), later published as Der Fremde. Erzählung (1980); as well as the “micro novel” Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers (1960). Aside from these literary texts, Weiss’s documentary film Enligt lag (1957) and his feature film Hägringen (1959) are also analyzed.
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| 6. |
- Aasmundsen, Hans Geir, 1967-
(författare)
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Pentecostalism, Globalisation and Society in Contemporary Argentina
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In Argentina, Pentecostalism had a breakthrough in the early 1980s, and today more than 10 per cent of the population are Pentecostals. The revival coincided with a socio-political transformation of Argentinean society. After half a century of dictatorships and Peronism, democracy was restored, and structural changes paved the way for a certain “autonomisation” of politics, law, economy, science and religion. The "new" form of society that developed resembles what in this study is called a Western model, which to a large degree is currently being diffused on a global scale. This work examines the new religious sphere and how Pentecostals relate to society at large, and the political and judicial sphere in particular.Social systems theory and an idea of communication as constitutive of social spheres, such as religious, political and judicial ones, form the theoretical foundation for the study. Methods that have been used are fieldwork, interviews and analyses of written material. It is concluded that evangelisation and transformation are of major concern to Pentecostals in contemporary Argentina and that this follows a global trend. Evangelisation has always been important to, even a hallmark of, Pentecostalism. What has become as important is the urge for transformation, of the individual, the family and society. This leads to increased socio-political engagement. However, Pentecostals do not have a “fixed” idea of how society should be organised, i.e., they do not yet have a full-fledged political theology, a public theology or what could be called a Pentecostal ideology. This is mainly because they experience a lack of “compatibility” between the Pentecostal and the political communication. Their approaches to socio-political concerns seem to be based on an understanding of certain “values” as the fundamental building block of society.
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| 7. |
- Andersson, Linus, 1979-
(författare)
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Alternativ television : former av kritik i konstnärlig TV-produktion
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation analyses social critique, communication critique and aestheticalcritique in television produced by artists. Theoretically it draws on researchon alternative media, TV studies, especially genre analysis and narratology,and media aesthetics. It conducts a text-production study of three examplesof alternative television from the period 2004-2008: ContemporaryArt Center TV (CAC TV): A show produced by the CAC in Vilnius, Lithuaniaand aired on a commercial TV-channel; Good TV who aired video art ona local public access channel in Stockholm, Sweden; and Candyland TV, apirate transmission from an art gallery in central Stockholm.Empirically it builds on TV-texts, web sites and documents, as well asinterviews with participants. Through a study of form and stylistics, relationto conventional genres and modes of narration, it engages in a discussionabout the features of a critical, alternative media text.The study shows how these televisions work in a tradition of alternativetelevision and connects them to tactics and aesthetical forms as found inhistorical examples, but also how this type of formalist media critiquemight inform an understanding of alternative media. From the analysis ofrelations between social and formalist aspects of alternative television, adistinction between alternative as ”alternative worldview” and as ”alternativeexpressions” is suggested, a distinction that contributes to the developmentof theory in the study of alternative media.
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| 8. |
- Bartonek, Anders, 1977-
(författare)
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Philosophie im Konjunktiv : Nichtidentität als Ort der Möglichkeit des Utopischen in der negativen Dialektik Theodor W. Adornos
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study "Philosophie im Konjunktiv. Nichtidentität als Ort der Möglichkeit des Utopischen in der negativen Dialektik Theodor W. Adornos" (Subjunctive Philosophy. Nonidentity as the Place for the Possibility of the Utopian in the Negative Dialectics of Theodor W. Adorno) deals with Adorno’s utopian thinking and asks on what it depends and on what it is founded. Moreover, the study asks the question wherein the possibility of fundamental societal change can be found and on what it can be founded. This study develops an answer to these questions through the analysis of the concepts of the nonidentity and the nonidentical – central concepts in Negative Dialectics –, which in the theory of Adorno constitute a place at which thinking and human beings are not fully absorbed by and integrated in philosophical and scientific systems or in the structure of society. Within the nonidentical the subsuming identities of philosophy and society are broken up. Therefore, the possibility of the utopian appears in this break of the identical. Here, the emancipation of the nonidentical could be realized: an emancipation, however, which is made possible in the nonidentical. The utopian thinking and the possibility of the utopian on the one hand, and nonidentity and the nonidentical on the other hand, are – this is the main claim of the study – inseparable. In developing this answer the study also tries to solve a certain problem in the discussion of Adorno’s philosophy, namely the difficulty in connecting the critical dimensions of his thinking - which are dominating his work and directed against the tradition of philosophy (and science) and capitalist society - with its utopian motives, through which he is calling for change in different ways. Finally, it is argued that Adornos’s thinking, which attempts to realize the utopian and to transcend reality on the basis of nonidentity, must be understood as a subjunctive philosophy.
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| 9. |
- Blomqvist, Anders E. B., 1972-
(författare)
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Economic Nationalizing in the Ethnic Borderlands of Hungary and Romania : Inclusion, Exclusion and Annihilation in Szatmár/Satu-Mare 1867–1944
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The history of the ethnic borderlands of Hungary and Romania in the years 1867–1944 were marked by changing national borders, ethnic conflicts and economic problems. Using a local case study of the city and county of Szatmár/Satu-Mare, this thesis investigates the practice and social mechanisms of economic nationalizing. It explores the interplay between ethno-national and economic factors, and furthermore analyses what social mechanisms lead to and explain inclusion, exclusion and annihilation.The underlying principle of economic nationalizing in both countries was the separation of citizens into ethnic categories and the establishment of a dominant core nation entitled to political and economic privileges from the state. National leaders implemented a policy of economic nationalizing that exploited and redistributed resources taken from the minorities. To pursue this end, leaders instrumentalized ethnicity, which institutionalized inequality and ethnic exclusion. This process of ethnic, and finally racial, exclusion marked the whole period and reached its culmination in the annihilation of the Jews throughout most of Hungary in 1944.For nearly a century, ethnic exclusion undermined the various nationalizing projects in the two countries: the Magyarization of the minorities in dualist Hungary (1867–1918); the Romanianization of the economy of the ethnic borderland in interwar Romania (1918–1940); and finally the re-Hungarianization of the economy in Second World War Hungary (1940–1944).The extreme case of exclusion, namely the Holocaust, revealed that the path of exclusion brought nothing but destruction for everyone. This reinforces the thesis that economic nationalizing through the exclusion of minorities induces a vicious circle of ethnic bifurcation, political instability and unfavorable conditions for achieving economic prosperity. Exclusion served the short-term elite’s interest but undermined the long-term nation’s ability to prosper.
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| 10. |
- Cederberg, Carl, 1973-
(författare)
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Resaying the Human : Levinas Beyond Humanism and Antihumanism
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this reading a notion of the human is developed through an engagement with the work of French philosopher Emanuel Levinas. The argument is that, with the help of Levinas, it is possible for the idea of the human to be understood anew, for the notion to be ‘resaid’. This resaying of the human is performed in a critical appropriation of the philosophical tradition: Levinas’s work is shown not to be a new variation of the complacent ideology of humanism; the idea of the human is instead interpreted to be the bearer of the very movement of critique. This movement is articulated in terms of a transcendence of a discursive ‘economy of violence’. Critique does not establish a permanent position outside of violence, but is a movement that must constantly be renewed.Here Levinas is offered as a modern thinker of particular relevance for contemporary discussions surrounding the nature both of the political and of Human Rights. In addition one finds a systematic analysis of the major works of Levinas, unraveling how a notion of the human develops from within his philosophy.Levinas’s thought is placed alongside philosophical figures of his time, such as Heidegger, Sartre, Bataille, Lévi-Strauss, Althusser, Foucault and Derrida, as well as more recent political thinkers, for example, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Rancière.
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