Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A tese propõe uma linha de interpretação acerca da história do conceito de povo no debate político luso-brasileiro entre a segunda metade do século XVIII e últimas décadas do século XIX, sob uma perspectiva teórica que busca compreender o processo de historicização das linguagens e conceitos políticos como marca do mundo moderno. Procuramos traçar o processo de abalo e desmantelamento dos significados e usos tradicionais e a incorporação crescente da temporalidade histórica na semântica conceitual, fenômeno ocorrido em meio aos conflitos e debates políticos durante a formação, consolidação e crise do estado imperial brasileiro. Acreditamos que nestes anos houve uma acentuada historicizaçao do conceito de povo, processo que teve como marca seu crescente contingenciamento, isto é, sua maior fundamentação em diagnósticos da situação histórica presente, e também sua maior inserção em visões processuais e futuristas da história.

Denna studie tar avstamp i begreppet kris, då dess komplexitet och mångtydighet gör det intressant att studera utifrån en begreppshistorisk ansats. För begreppets fortlevnad har det historiskt sett utvidgats till att inrymma flera bakomliggande meningar som passar den aktuella verkligheten. Syftet med studien är således att urskilja hur begreppet kris förändrats utifrån Natos konceptdokument under årtalen 1968, 1991, 1999 samt 2010 med hjälp av begreppshistorisk teori och metod. Reinhart Koselleck är en av begreppshistoriens urfäder vilket gör att hans teoretiska ramverk samt metod fungerar som verktyg vid illustrerandet av den begreppsliga förändringsprocessen. Dessutom tillmötesgår den begreppshistoriska metoden det spontana intresset för språk och ordbetydelser, varför den bedöms vara som given för denna uppsats. Materialet som ligger till grund för denna begreppshistoriska analys består av fyra strategiska konceptdokument från Nato. Att studien genomförs utifrån ett Nato- perspektiv beror på att ett av alliansens huvudsyften är att hantera kriser av varierande grad. Dessutom fokuserar Natos konceptdokument på aktuella hot och utmaningar i vilka den begreppsliga förändringsprocessen kan skönjas. De slutsatser som presenteras är att begreppet kris förändrats i och med alla de nya hot och risker vilka återfinns som konsekvenser av bland annat globaliseringen och den teknologiska utvecklingen. Den begreppsliga förändringen tar sig uttryck i att det utvidgats till att innehålla fler bakomliggande meningar, såsom exempelvis cyberattack och klimatförändringar.

The aim of this thesis is to examine and analyse if it is possible to distinguish a new perception of time and temporality in the Swedish fashion magazine Magasin för konst, nyheter och moder, and in that case how it is expressed. To discover this, I have used the theories of the philosophers and historians Reinhart Koselleck and Marshall Berman. In their works they have pointed out and described how the early decades of the nineteenth century was a crucial time for our perception of the modern world, in the sense that we ever since then have experienced a gap between the past and the future where we cannot derive our expectations from our past experiences anymore. I have studied if this notion is communicated in the articles, and came to the conclusion that there is a new awareness of time articulated in the magazine. Mainly  there are three different understandings of time and temporality expressed within the magazine – first are those articles that shows a general new awareness of time in a constructive way, neither through a positive or negative perspective. Furthermore, there are also expressions for connections between the materialistic content in the magazine and the view on temporality, where the acknowledgment of a new temporality in fashion seems to also have an impact on a more ideological perception of time. Finally there are articles which portrays the discrepancy between expectation and experience as something with a negative significance for the future, but similarly puts this in a way that illuminates that the future is now something adaptable and possible to influence in a certain direction. This shows a new way of understanding how, in a Swedish nineteenth century context, material culture could affect people’s awareness of time and temporality and hence also their thoughts and outlook of the future even in more abstract issues. The upcoming becomes possible to interpret as something materialistic, and therefore also something more concrete and arguable.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A tese propõe uma linha de interpretação acerca da história do conceito de povo no debate político luso-brasileiro entre a segunda metade do século XVIII e últimas décadas do século XIX, sob uma perspectiva teórica que busca compreender o processo de historicização das linguagens e conceitos políticos como marca do mundo moderno. Procuramos traçar o processo de abalo e desmantelamento dos significados e usos tradicionais e a incorporação crescente da temporalidade histórica na semântica conceitual, fenômeno ocorrido em meio aos conflitos e debates políticos durante a formação, consolidação e crise do estado imperial brasileiro. Acreditamos que nestes anos houve uma acentuada historicizaçao do conceito de povo, processo que teve como marca seu crescente contingenciamento, isto é, sua maior fundamentação em diagnósticos da situação histórica presente, e também sua maior inserção em visões processuais e futuristas da história.

Creativity is a multifaceted concept which has seen an increased relevancy in the contemporary military debate. Creativity is often thought of as a desirable trait among leaders within military organizations, by viewing war as an art. Even though the concept has a stated importance in both science and doctrine, there is a noticeable shortage of explicit descriptive texts about the phenomenon. The US army has recently implemented a new design methodology, with the purpose of enabling and harnessing creativity. Creativity and its role within military organizations should not be seen as self-explanatory. The concept is allegedly barrowed from other scientific fields, such as sociology and psychology. This thesis aims to bring an understanding of military creativity and its construction in the US army context through Koselleck’s conceptual history analysis. This is done by studying contemporary and premillennial doctrines both synchronically and diachronically. The results show an increased overall value toward creativity as a concept and has been implemented on all levels of warfare. Military creativity revolves mostly around divergent thinking, though it also includes convergent thinking. This study suggests that part of the reason for its increased value is linked with the enhanced expectations of its importance in future, unknown conflicts, and environments.

How can things so old be so new? The revival of debates on the fate of the liberal international order has reproduced discussions about what arguably are philosophical and theoretical tensions that have existed for a very long time. Taking a point of departure in Reinhart Koselleck’s Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society, this thesis aims to contribute with an understanding of how the contemporary crisis can be understood in the context of deep historical tensions, and the implications for the current debate. To fulfil this aim, I ask the question of how Koselleck’s analysis of the structures emerging from modernity can cast light on the tension between modernity and the current crisis of the liberal international order. These structures are used, with an emphasis on the need for historical context and a critical stance towards the attempt to establish universal truths, to analyse selected material from oft cited and prominent scholars of the debate. By analysing their ideas in the light of these structures, I have found that some suggested solutions to these tensions reinforce what creates the tension from the start. Another finding is that the debate, in some ways, is constrained by dichotomies and underlying universal metaphysical principles, which potentially can limit the possibility for potential change. My conclusion is that a continued renewed interest in these historical tensions hopefully can be a pathway to move beyond some of the constraints the current debate revolves around.

This thesis investigates how the ambiguous concept of ‘structural racism’ has attained its popular status within Swedish social science during the incipient decades of the 21st century. Drawing on the analytical framework for conceptual analyses presented by Loïc Wacquant in his book The Invention of the “Underclass” (Wacquant 2022b), this investigation examines the use and understanding of ‘structural racism’ by agents in the social fields of journalism, politics, social science, and the state. It reveals that ‘structural racism’ initially became a tool among journalists to highlight and explain the heretofore unprecedented levels of marginalization and exclusion of Sweden’s immigrant population during the mid-to late-1990s. The ambiguous nature of the concept allowed it to be widely applied to all forms of inequities displayed among immigrants, so aiding in its dissemination. Journalistic usage brought attention to ‘structural racism’ of prominent politicians, who in turn utilized the powers of the state to combat it. It is argued that the state’s validation of ‘structural racism’ led to the wide acceptance of ‘structural racism’ among social scientists seen today. Additionally, it is also argued that ‘structural racism’ arose as a “counter concept” to ‘multiculturalism’ and its constituent element of immigrant marginality as being an issue of “cultural deficiency” on the part of the immigrants, to being an issue of structural barriers on the part of society. In conclusion, the study proposes that ‘structural racism’ be replaced with more precise conceptual tools. Additionally, social scientists are urged to be watchful of external powers, such as the state, which can steer academic interests to potentially faulty concepts.

Die sogenannte „Gründerkrise“ ereignete sich in einer Zeit, in der die liberalen Parteien im Deutschen Kaiserreich die Parlamente und das liberale Denken gerade in Wirtschaftsfragen die öffentliche Meinung beherrschten. Mit einer Abfolge von Börsenpaniken im Jahr 1873 und dem bald darauf einsetzenden Wirtschaftsabschwung begann sich dieses liberale Zeitalter dann zu wenden: das Sozialistengesetz wurde verabschiedet, eine protektionistische Koalition gebildet und der moderne Antisemitismus kam auf. Die Geschichte, die in der bundesrepublikanischen Historiographie bislang von dieser Krise erzählt wurde, handelte stets von einem Niedergang des Liberalismus. Darin wird er letztlich auf eine Reihe zeitloser und in bestimmten Parteien beheimateter Ideale, etwa den nicht-interventionistischen Freihandel, den Rechtstaatsgedanken und die Toleranz, reduziert, anhand derer sein Niedergang in der Gründerkrise bemessen und ihre Konsequenzen – als Abkehr von diesen Idealen– zu einer antiliberalen Wende erklärt werden können. Diese Dissertation arbeitet dagegen im Anschluss an Michel Foucault und Reinhart Koselleck ein umfassendes, nicht-idealistisches Verständnis vom Liberalismus aus und macht es zur analytischen Grundlage einer neuen Geschichtsschreibung der Gründerkrise. Ausgehend vom Umgang der (klassischen) Nationalökonomie mit Wirtschaftskrisen, zeigt sie, dass die zeitgenössische Debatte um diese Krise von allen Seiten in einem vom nationalökonomischen Wissen strukturieren, d.h. liberalen Denksystem geführt wurde, das ihre Konsequenzen bereits als Möglichkeiten enthielt – und wie diese Debatte als strategisches Wechselspiel zwischen liberalen Regierungskünsten und Kritikformen zu diesen Konsequenzen führte. Mit Blick auf unsere Gegenwart erzählt diese Diskursgeschichte der Gründerkrise von der Entstehung einer ökonomischen Kultur der deutschen Nation – und zugleich davon, wie Krisendebatten in einem ausgehenden liberalen Zeitalter funktionieren und wozu sie führen können. / The so-called "Gründerkrise" (promoters’ crisis) occurred at a time when liberal parties dominated the parliaments in the German Empire and liberal thought dominated public opinion, particularly in economic matters. However, this liberal era began to turn with a series of stock market panics in 1873 and the economic downturn that soon followed: the Socialist Law was passed, a protectionist coalition was formed and modern anti-Semitism emerged. Up to now, the story German historiography told of this crisis has always been about – in one way or the other – the end of a liberal era and a decline of liberalism. Ultimately, this narrative tends to reduce liberalism to a series of transcendental ideals based in certain parties, such as non-interventionist free trade, the idea of the rule of law and tolerance, which allow measuring liberalism’s decline during the Gründerkrise and labelling its consequences – as a turn away from these ideals – an anti-liberal turn. In contrast, following Michel Foucault and Reinhart Koselleck, this dissertation develops a comprehensive, non-idealistic understanding of liberalism and makes it the analytical basis for a new historiography of the Gründerkrise. Starting from the way (classical) political economy dealt with economic crises, it shows that all sides of the contemporary debate about the Gründerkrise argued within a shared system of thought structured by the knowledge of political economy, i.e. a liberal system of thought that already contained its consequences as possibilities. – and how the public debate as a strategic interplay between liberal arts of government and forms of criticism led to these consequences. Against the backdrop of our own present, this discourse history of the Gründerkrise tells a story about the emergence of the economic culture of the German nation – and at the same time, it shows how crisis debates can function in a fading liberal age and what they can lead to.

Perversion är ett negativt laddat begrepp som används för att beskriva personer eller företeelser som avviker från normen, oftast den sexuella. Jag undersöker vad, vem och vilka som kallas perversa i tidningen Expressen år 1966, 1986 och 2016, med syftet att synliggöra hur begreppets användningsområde har förändrats. Min metod har sina rötter i den begreppshistoriska teorin och är utvecklad av Reinhart Koselleck. Genom synkrona och diakrona analyser granskar man politisk-sociala begrepp och sammanhangen de brukas inom. Resultatet visar att bruket av begreppet som ett icke-sexuellt, värdeladdat ord har varit konstant. Det har också åsyftat ett varierande antal sexuella läggningar och uttryck, varav några finns närvarande under alla årtal. Min slutsats blir att det perversa inte nödvändigtvis förblir perverst: ibland brukas begreppet impulsivt, som en reaktion mot det vi inte är vana vid. Begreppets associationer med det förbjudna och tabubelagda förblir dock beständiga.

Esaias Tegnér (1782-1846) var en stor kulturpersonlighet i 1800-talets Sverige. I dikten ”Det Eviga” proklameras det att våldet inte förmår skapa något evigt, utan det som våldet skapar blir ”vanskligt och kort”. Den följande undersökningen tar avstamp ur detta, och vill sätta våldet hos Tegnér under närmare betraktelse. Detta gör den via att utgå från Helge Jordheims ”nya filologi”, som sätter språkets relation till historien i fokus, med specifik inriktning på Reinhart Kosellecks begreppshistoria – en teoretiker som Jordheim presenterar. Med denna teoretiska bakgrund antar undersökningen följande frågeställningar: Vad är det som Tegnér avser med våld? Hur behandlar han begreppet? Vad har begreppet för dimensioner – är det en nyanserad eller en platt förståelse? Sker det någon form av utveckling av begreppet med tiden? I sådana fall hur och vad är det som förändras? Undersökningen sätter två perioder av Tegnérs diktproduktion i huvudfokus: den tidiga diktningen 1799–1807, och den mogna periodens diktning 1808–1825. Ur detta kan uppsatsen visa på ett återkommande våldsbegrepp, som knyter an till Tegnérs idealistiska åskådning. I den första perioden är våldet är tillfälligt, negativt och känsloladdat, samtidigt som det finns en vilja att sätta begreppet under reflektion. När Tegnér mognar som diktare utvecklas begreppet. Den reflekterande hållningen byts ut mot en proklamerande. Våldet blir meningslöst, ondskefullt, krigiskt och ensamt.