Taking the establishment of Ice Age theory as its point of departure, the present dissertation examines aspects of geological, plant geographical and archaeological research on shoreline displacement conducted in Sweden during the period 1860-1930, and the significance of this research for the perception of "the Swedish landscape" and its post-glacial history. The research is analyzed on three levels under the rubrics "The Highest Shoreline and the Ancylus Lake", "The Question of Land Elevation", and "Charting Swedens Past", respectively. Taken together, these levels capture the varying perceptions and exchanges of opinion of the nature of shoreline displacement and the contexts in which they were applied. The present study is conducted via a theoretical and methodological approach where both the ideas and the practices of science are studied: activities in the field and at the various institutions (primarily the Swedish Geological Survey, its museum and the Geological Society of Stockholm); arguments and hypotheses presented in artides and handbooks, including visual images, diagrams and maps; social networks, career paths and controversies. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between science and nationalism, and comparisons are made with research conducted in an imperialist context. Ice Age theory helped initiate research whose purpose was to discover how the Swedish naturai and cultural landscape carne into being. The foremost task of geology became studying geographic evolution during the Quaternary epoch, how the land had "risen from ice and water". Plant geography studied how and whence plant life had migrated and how vegetation had evolved under the influence of biological, geological and climatological factors. In a similar manner, archaeologists studied the migration and dissemination of mankind during the StoneAge. When natural scientists primarily used "natural landmarks" as its source material, archaeologists relied on "archaeological finds", which were invested with scientific value but also became symbols of national collective memory. Through this survey, national identity was unifìed with the territory itself and its evolutionary history. Knowledge about shoreline displacement became significant for geology, plant geography and archaeology, which in turn encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration, but also locked the researchers into a similar way of thinking about the nature of shoreline displacement. According to this "thought style", the phenomenon was first and foremost the result of the vertical movement of the land rather than movement in the ocean surface. Up until the 1870s, the Ice Age was thought to have been followed by one single subsidence and elevation; during the 1880s, two such land oscillations; three during the 1910s and by the 1920s, five. Only toward the end of the 1920s did Swedish researchers begin to accept a multi-factor explanation, which succeeded in finally subverting the reigning thought style. According to this explanation, shoreline displacement was not solely the result of changes in the land or the sea, but of both. / digitalisering@umu

This paper has two objectives. First: the humanistic idea of knowledge, philosophically formulated by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), should be presented in relation to history of ideas. In the meeting with different kinds of cultural and social needs in Central Europe during the decades of the turn of the 20th century, Steiner developed his idea of knowledge into a singular Thought Style (Ge. Denkstil). A Thought Style can be described as a selective and aimed cognitive preparedness. The idea of knowledge and the Thought Style are here described as anthroposophical humanism. The second objective is to show how the Thought Style, in a historical way, was established in Sweden, and how it, until the mid 1980s, changed and was adapted to Swedish culture, i.e. how the style in various ways became Swedish. Organisations and movements that were influenced by the anthroposophical humanism were The Anthroposophical Society, the biodynamic movement, the movement for anthroposophic medicine, the medical pedagogical movement with special pedagogical institutions and social therapeutic homes for treatment, the Waldorf movement, the Christian Society, anthroposophic architecture and art practice etc. Since they co-operated with a common background, they formed a Thought Collective (Ge. Denkkollektiv). The anthroposophical humanism has its roots relating to history of ideas far back in the Central European Middle Ages. During the new humanism era, the idea of knowledge had a renaissance in German culture life. Rudolf Steiner remodelled the idea at the end of the 19th century and developed it into the singular Thought Style. When Steiner was a theosophical teacher he gave it an esoteric design. After the First World War, when Steiner was working as a social reformer, he gave it a humanistic design. Within The Anthroposophical Society, the double image of the anthroposophical movement, internationally and in Sweden, led to severe opposition and conflicts. Right until the mid 1980s, reorganisations were common in order to handle the two directions of the Thought Style when it came to differences in traditions, ideology and sociology. In Sweden, the anthroposophical movement has undergone four stages of development: the reception period 1890-1935, the conversion period 1935-55, the expansion period 1955-1985 and the integration period as from 1985. As from 1913, when The Anthroposophical Society was established, until 1985, the development of ideas in the anthroposophical Thought Style and the Thought Collective can be described as a wandering from Christian esotericism to an anthroposophical humanistic idea of knowledge, with a cultural education in the ideological focus of the Thought Style. The traditional development of ideas can also be described as an anthroposophical process of secularisation. There are mainly four things that have contributed to the expansion of the anthroposophical movement in Sweden during the phase of expansion: the post-war period economic expansion, the development of the educational system, the renaissance of esotericism in the late 1960s, as well as the need for an alternative to the post-war abundance consumerism and waste of resources. The Swedish development indicates similarities with the international development within those areas where different activities have been adapted to Swedish legislation, traditions and views, mainly through care and education.

This work describes how sociology as an academic discipline was introduced, established and pursued at Swedish universities during the period 1930-1955. The main purpose is to follow the establishment of sociology and call attention to dominating ideas of sociology, science and society, and also to reflect the relation between sociology and the demands and expectations of society. This academic institutionalization is considered a continuously changing process where centers and boundaries are formulated and reformulated in accordance with contemporary conditions and preferences of the actors. Expectations on the discipline are investigated, as they were expressed in official inquiries and other political settings as well as in common press. Changes in university structure that led up to the establishment of sociology as a discipline are studied, as well as the official investigations that directly preceded the set up. Institutional activities in the new discipline are dealt with; as are persons, curricula, dissertations and investigations. Internal debates and conflicts are studied and analyzed. The reception of sociology is considered, as well as the use of sociological knowledge in academy, industry and other domains. A main question is how sociology, when established, was understood and pursued. Soon, a clear conception was established in leading quarters. According to this conception, sociology was to be recognized as a specialized discipline alongside other disciplines of social science. The object of sociology was to study modern society and its social conditions, preferably in Sweden. The method of study was to be scientifically empirical, which, above all, meant quantitative field surveys. This study analyzes the formation of this idea of sociology. It was contested, but persons representing deviating conceptions were marginalized. The "boundary-work" that was carried out is therefore considered especially significant. The boundaries were about the implication of the concept of sociology, and conflicts and antagonisms revealed in the boundary-work are analyzed. It is argued that the polemical and dichotomizing rhetoric style used by the actors was of significant importance. By describing, defining and legitimating sociology in terms of opposites: empirical rather than speculative, American rather than continental, quantitative rather than qualitative, it was emphasized that the discipline of sociology was new, scientific and necessary for a modern and progressive community like Swedish society. / digitalisering@umu

This study analyses the history of a large hydroelectric scheme – the Great Ruaha power project in Tanzania. The objective is to establish why and how this specific scheme came about, and as part of this to identify the key actors involved in the decision-making process, including the ideological contexts within which they acted. Although the Tanzanian actors and the World Bank (IBRD) are discussed, main focus is on the Swedish actors on project level.Kidatu, the first phase of the Great Ruaha power project (constructed between1970-1975), became the first large-scale hydropower station in Tanzania. As such, it paved the way for Tanzanian entrance into the Big Dam Era and significant changes within the Tanzanian landscape. As well as the dry river bed at Kidatu, and the small reservoir that precedes it, the Great Ruaha power project also involved the creation of a huge artificial lake, the Mtera reservoir. The Kidatu hydropower station was the first large undertaking within Swedish bilateral aid, and implied the takeover of control of hydropower construction in Tanzania by Swedish enterprises, replacing the enterprises of the former colonial power. A hydropower plant is a complex technoscientific artefact. The construction of a hydropower plant is preceded by a large number of technological choices, scientific prestudies and estimations of costs and revenues. A hydropower plant is also a complex social creation, and is as such filled with social actors engaged in conflicts, compromises and power structures. The decision to construct Kidatu hydropower station was a result of negotiations and activities within what is called “development assistance”. This brings in yet another dimension, the political one, involving export and import of technology, foreign capital, and foreign influence in decision-making processes, as well as ideas about how to bring development and progress to a people supposed to be living in “poverty and misery”. The study is divided into three main parts. The first part analyses the context of Swedish development assistance in the support to the construction of hydropower plants. This part discusses Swedish state-supported hydropower exploitation of indigenous people’s territory within Sweden’s borders in the 20th century and the background of Swedish development assistance, from the 1950s to the early 1960s. The second part analyses the event of Swedish development assistance entering Tanzania and the Great Ruaha power project, with the main focus being on the period 1965 – 1970. The third part is an analysis of the technoscientific basis for the decisions taken to implement the Great Ruaha hydropower scheme. Main focus is on the period 1969-1974, discussed against the backdrop of precolonial and colonial studies. While focus is on the 1960s and 1970s, in both part two and three events in the 1980s and 1990s are discussed. The study shows that although Sweden was not a colonial power in Tanzania, colonial imagery, and relations to the colonial era, as well as Sweden’s background of internal colonialisation, exerted an influence on the decision-making process and the actors involved in the Great Ruaha power project.The study is mainly based on archival sources, complemented with oral sources from Tanzania and Sweden. Recognizing the complexity of large-scale hydropower and the attempts to control watercourses that large scale hydropower necessitates, in the specific context of decolonisation and development assistance that the decision-making process behind the Great Ruaha hydropower scheme reveals, the analysis of the actors involved is based on feminist and postcolonial perspectives. / QC 20100825

No description available.

Inna Sevelius: Psykiatrin som kulturell praktik: Bedömningen av patienter på Ulleråkers sjukhus år 1948. Uppsala universitet: Inst. för idé- och lärdomshistoria, masteruppsats, vårtermin, 2011.   Uppsatsens syfte är att bidra till psykiatrins historia genom en studie av hittills outforskade patientjournaler från Ulleråkers sjukhus i Uppsala. Frågeställningen är vilka konventioner – medicinska och kulturella – som läkarnas bedömningspraktik baseras på. Hypotesen är att konventionerna kommer till uttryck i de berättelser som läkarna återger om patienterna i sjukjournalerna. Materialet utgörs av 46 journaler för de patienter som år 1948 fick diagnosen psykogen sinnessjukdom. I analysen definieras och diskuteras tolv olika konventioner som framstår som återkommande kategorier i journalerna, nämligen hereditet, uppväxt och traumatiska upplevelser, somatisk sjukhistoria, psykiatrisk sjukhistoria, äktenskap, andra relationer, arbete, nuvarande insjuknande och specifika symtom, känslouttryck, sexualitet, religiösa upplevelser samt klinisk bild. En del av konventionerna kan kopplas till den medicinska vetenskapen och läkarutbildningen – som hereditet, uppväxt och tidigare sjukhistoria – medan andra inte ingår i skolningen utan handlar om kulturella förväntningar och föreställningar som påverkar bedömningen likafullt. Dessa konventioner rör bland annat mänskliga relationer, känslouttryck och arbetsliv. Avslutningsvis skisseras de generella berättelser om människan som kan anas bakom de konventioner som präglar läkarnas bedömning av patienter, för att peka på hur konventionerna återspeglar samtidens människosyn på olika sätt. Berättelserna om äktenskap, kön, känslor, relationer till andra, arbete, sexualitet och religion är intimt sammanvävda med berättelserna om sjukdom och normalitet, så att det i slutändan blir svårt att skilja dem åt. Så frammanas bilden av hur en fungerande eller frisk människa är, en berättelse som genomsyras av medicinska föreställningar om gränserna mellan friskt och sjukt, normalt och onormalt, men också av kulturella föreställningar som förväntningar om kvinnlighet/manlighet och hållning till arbete och relationer.

The subject-matter of the following essay is to investigate the relationship between what is commonly called Deep Ecology or Biocentric Philosophy, as articulated by the co-founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess, and later proponents of the biocentric school of environmentalist thought. I contrast Naess’ concept of Self-realization as founded in his Ecosophy T to the ideas of american conservationist and co-founder of the radical green movement Earth First! Dave Foreman, and to the controversial finnish environmentalist and ecofascist Pentti Linkola’s ideological agenda of population-reduction respectively. According to some critics of the movement, especially the social ecologist Murray Bookchin and French liberal philosopher Luc Ferry, the Deep Ecology ideology is essentially misanthropic and totalitarian in structure. A central idea among deep ecologists is that ecosystems and natural entities have intrinsic value in themselves, even outside a human social context. This idea is thought of among deep ecologists to create a philosophically sound basis for counteracting the environmental global crisis. Both Bookchin and Ferry argue that this idea reduces the role of human reason and ethics in a fundamental way, especially in relation to questions concerning population-growth control. My aim is to show that the original intention of Arne Naess in his philosophy (Ekosofi T) does not resemble either Ferrys focus of critique, neither the controversial statements made by Dave Foreman and Earth First! nor Linkolas population-control agenda.

Undersökningen behandlar Rudolf Abelins författarskap från slutet av 1880-talet och fram till mitten av 1910-talet. Det finns en avsaknad av forskning, om Abelin, som tar hänsyn till samtidskontexten och samtliga av hans publicerade verk. Uppsatsen åsyftar att visa hur samtliga böcker skall uppfattas som en helhet. De böcker som studeras är främst mönsterböcker i trädgårdsskötsel, men där ventileras också ett större system av idéer och värderingar. Litteraturen placeras i kontexten av den kulturkris som uppkom­mer när moderniteten gör sitt intåg i Sverige.  Modernitetskritiska rörelser, som egna­hemsrörelsen och kolonirörelsen, jämförs med de idéer som presenteras i Abelins litte­ratur, för att på så vis försöka skapa en större förståelse för hur hans såg på sin samtid och framtid. Uppsatsen påvisar att det finns stora likheter mellan Abelin och de modernitetskri­tiska rörelserna, och att det är en utveckling som skett över tid. Det som gör Abelin till ett original, jämfört med andra hemideologer, är att han bakar in sin kritik i böcker som främst rör trädgårdskonsten. Vid studie av samtliga av hans böcker så bildas det en röd tråd, som uppvisar tankar om ett större, enhetligt, idealsamhälle där förhållandet mellan människan och naturen kännetecknas av vördnad. Det står i stark kontrast till den ex­ploatering av naturen som industrialismen – moderniteten – representerar. Resultaten i uppsatsen innebär en större förståelse för Abelins förhållande till samti­den, men också i hur han betraktar trädgårdarna ur ett annat perspektiv än rent estetiskt. Slutsatsen påvisar att det finns en rad områden där vidare forskningen kan gå vidare, för att kunna skapa en större bild av denna trädgårdens mästare. / Ifall eventuella läsare har kommentarer så går det bra att vända sig till Olof.nson@gmail.com

This essay investigates the feminist philosophy of Rosi Braidotti with particular focus on the alternative feminine feminist nomadic subject that she creates. I also introduce Braidotti’s theoretical inspiration from Gilles Deleuze and Luce Irigaray. I argue that Braidotti creates an alternative figuration for feminism through synthesizeing Deleuze’s concept of ”becoming” with Irigaray’s sexual difference-theory. Braidotti highlights the importance of understanding the concept of difference differently. She also argues for the difference between subjectivity and identity, for the materialistic foundation of the subject, for the fundamental asymmetry between the sexes and for the nomadic mode of thinking. Braidottis suggests that the way out of the phallogocentric system, which she means we are encapsulated in, consist in working through the images that patriarchy has produced of women, through mimetic repetitons, in order to create new representations of women. I argue that the feminist philosophy of Braidotti is both humble and subversive which makes it an interesting and useful alternative for everyone who is interested in alternative, complex and thrilling ways of theorizing female feminist subjectivity.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal