Scandia : Tidskrift för historisk forskning
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia
<p>Scandia is a history journal dedicated to central themes within historical research in the Nordic countries. The emphasis is on Nordic and European history, on theory and method, and on historiography. The journal is issued twice a year. Scandia is classified as a level 1 journal according to the <a href="https://kanalregister.hkdir.no/publiseringskanaler/Forside.action;jsessionid=FYeAYoYs8CStSPzXpNmLSiPt.undefined?request_locale=en">Norwegian Register</a>.</p>Stiftelsen Scandiaen-USScandia : Tidskrift för historisk forskning0036-5483Membership Organization Between Majesty and Citizens? Representation and Power Through Agricultural Societies During the Early 19th-Century Societal Transformation
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25792
<p>This article investigates the functioning of organizations in the grey zone between the private and public sectors during a period of rapid societal change. The focus is on the first half of the nineteenth century, a formative period in Swedish history when an old order was challenged by demands regarding decentralization and democratization. The establishment of new organizations may be linked to these demands, and this article investigates <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> as a characteristic example of these. The paramount aim of <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> was to promote agriculture, while they actually covered many aspects of social and economic life. <em>Hushållningssällskapen</em> constituted, and still constitute, a nationwide organization with strong regional and local roots. They were linked to the government but relied on membership and election procedures. Thus, a new arena emerged for interactions between actors interested in rural spaces and activities.</p> <p>This article presents a new theoretical and empirical approach with the aim of filling a knowledge gap regarding the importance and functioning of <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> in the process of societal change. Drawing on research concerning rural governance, <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> may be considered an example of a governance arrangement. The membership composition is investigated in relation to the activities of the organization with regard to geographical differences and changes over time. Two regional branches of the organization are compared: Malmöhus county and Västerbotten county.</p> <p>The results show that the composition of members and activities varied geographically and changed over time in tandem with regional economic characteristics and societal transformation. The representation of old elites such as the nobility and clergy decreased in favour of the relative elites of a new societal order, namely bureaucrats, professionals, and wealthy farmers. Furthermore, the vitality of <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> appears to have benefitted from strong ties to the county administrative board, especially when <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> provided opportunities for having an impact on the implementation of state policies. In summary, <em>hushållningssällskapen</em> could play an important role as a governance arrangement. They bridged a gap during a period when a modern bureaucracy and democratic institutions did not exist or were in the making.</p>Magnus Bohman
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25792Learning to see embryologically: Collection objects in research and education, 1870-1920
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25793
<p>In 1899, August Hammar, professor of anatomy at Uppsala University, taught a summer course on the development of the chicken in the egg. The participants – who were schoolteachers – learned about fetal development through a range of teaching aids: fetal preparations, sketches, and wax models, but also by preparing specimens themselves. The course took place at a time when a biological view of life started to gain influence in broader society. This paper analyses how the embryological view of development was established in Sweden by examining the formation and uses of the embryological collection at Uppsala University in the second half of the 19th century, as well as studying how it was introduced to wider audiences in the early 20th century. The paper shows how Hammar communicated embryological knowledge about “the fetus” to audiences who had not studied at university via educational publications and summer courses offered under the heading of health education. Furthermore, the study highlights that embryology was formally included in the school curriculum, where embryological practices were used in the teaching. Moreover, the uses of embryological knowledge by various actors for different purposes are also highlighted. By utilizing sources such as collection objects, educational/research publications and images, as well as archival texts, this study demonstrates how a biological view of life was established at Uppsala University and in broader society.</p>Helena Franzén
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25793“One of the best means in our propaganda”: The Bicycle in Swedish and Danish Political Culture During the Interwar Period
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25794
<p>Using empirical examples from Denmark and Sweden, this article discusses how the modern, mass-produced bicycle became an important tool in the hands of a new generation of political youth. During the interwar years (1918–1939), young people constituted themselves as a social group of their own. For the very first time in history, youth became key actors on the political scene, and they brought with them modern forms of propaganda methods inspired by international trends. This also came to shape the political culture in the Scandinavian countries during the tumultuous 1930s. Political youth mobilisation above all occurred in the urban landscape in the streets and city squares. In this context, the bicycle came to play a remarkable role in terms of how public urban space was utilised politically. The bicycle enabled young people to participate to a greater extent in contemporary political life by creating accessible mobility but also a new kind of spatiality. In this context, the bicycle was not merely a means of transportation; it was a tool in the struggle for public space that came to shape the political culture of the 1930s. Bicycles were used for parades, for disseminating propaganda and even large bicycle demonstrations through which youth activists could create not only the symbolic but also the social space for their politics. They utilised the bicycle as a means of spatial claim-making, resulting in bicycle propaganda becoming part of an ongoing conflict between left-wing and right-wing political youth in which they challenged each other’s claims to the streets, often leading to violent confrontations. Thus, the bicycle became an important tool in a new political culture emerging in the waves of the democratic breakthrough where the struggle for access to public space became more important than ever.</p>Charlie KrautwaldJohan A. Lundin
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25794Scandia debatt: The Peace not Remembered: The Peace of Westphalia and Swedish Historiography
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25795
<p>The year 2023 marks the 375th anniversary of the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia. Unlike in Germany, this anniversary hardly receives any attention in the (academic) Swedish culture of remembrance, from which this event disappeared in the course of the second half of the 20th century. This article seeks to find explanations for this lack of interest in the Peace of Westphalia in Swedish research. In addition, the article discusses the potential of a more intense focus on the Peace of Westphalia and other historical peace treaties in Swedish research on the early modern period.</p>Dorothée Goetze
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25795Scandia introducerar: Ontological Perspectives on History
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25796
<p>This article introduces current debates in history and anthropology regarding the possibilities and challenges associated with applying anthropological notions of ontology (or the “ontological turn”) but more specifically with regard to historical studies. After summarizing two historical interventions calling for an ontological turn in history – as a way for the historian to approach his or her subjects in a symmetrical way, more or less free from the constraints of analytical categories – I discuss the works of two prominent anthropologists and their ontological projects. First, Viveiros de Castro’s notion of perspectivism is presented as a way of posing questions to historical sources and as a way of enabling productive comparisons. Second, Philippe Descola’s theory of ontological grammar is put forth as a way of studying how people in the past have identified and related so-called “existants” in relation to one another and themselves, which makes it possible to see how historical subjects have composed their lifeworlds in a more fine-tuned way than a cultural perspective would have it. Finally, I argue that historical research could benefit from anthropological perspectives on ontology. Such an approach sheds new light on how people have structured their experiences of the world and acted in it. However, this perspective should be applied with caution so as not to run the risk of emphasizing difference over similarities.</p>Anton Runesson
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25796Reviews
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25797
<p><strong>Monographs</strong></p> <ul> <li class="show">Sartorial Practices and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century Sweden. Fashioning Difference</li> <li class="show">I apokalypsens skugga. Miljörörelser och industrikapitalism 1870–2020</li> <li class="show">Svensk idéhistoria. Forntid, medeltid, renässans</li> <li class="show">Kartans makt i krig och fred. Fältmätarna, det nya kriget och samhällelig utveckling 1805–1831</li> <li class="show">Sjömakt och sjöfolk. Den svenska flottan under 500 år</li> <li class="show">Fostran i purpur. De karolinska kronprinsarnas lärare och undervisning</li> <li class="show">Rase. En vitenskapshistorie</li> <li class="show">Elisabeth Beskow. Liv och berättelser 1870–1928</li> <li class="show">The World’s First Full Press Freedom. The Radical Experiment of Denmark-Norway 1770–1773</li> <li class="show">Tapetmakerskor. Självständiga yrkeskvinnor i 1700-talets Stockholm</li> <li class="show">Några ögonblicks förundran. Marknaden för ambulerande underhållning i Sverige 1760–1880</li> </ul> <p><strong>Dissertations</strong></p> <ul> <li class="show">Från Kingston till Göinge. Autenticitet, identitet och representationer av det förflutna i svensk reggaekultur</li> <li class="show">Mode och hushåll. Om formandet av kön och media i frihetstidens svenska små- och veckoskrifter</li> <li class="show">Sentiments of Segregation: The Emotional Politics of Apartheid in South Africa, c. 1948–1990</li> </ul> <p><strong>Anthologies</strong></p> <ul> <li class="show">The Cold War Through the Lens of Music-Making in the GDR. Political Goals, Aesthetic Paradoxes, and the Case of Neutral Sweden</li> <li class="show">Samvete i Sverige. Om frihet och lydnad från medeltiden till idag</li> </ul> <p><strong>Mindre uppmärksammade historiska jubileer</strong>.<br />Tecknad av Fredrik Tersmeden</p>-- --
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25797A Word from the Chief Editor
https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/article/view/25791
<p>The Editor in Chief discusses the current issue. A list of contributors can also be found here.</p>Wiebke Kolbe
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2023-11-292023-11-2989210.47868/scandia.v89i2.25791