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.

This thesis describes and theoretically illuminates perspectives on the formation of a dance teacher education in Sweden during the period 1939–65. The process is explored mainly through the visions and activities of Svenska Danspedagogförbundet, SDF (The Swedish Dance Teacher Association). Particular attention is paid to specific instances which eventually could lead toward the establishment of a government-sponsored educational program. The work is both chronologically and thematically arranged in order to enlighten time specific turning points that also encompass three major themes which can be seen as initiation, expansion and establishment. These themes summarize the problems my investigation zeroes in on. The chronological framework is bounded by the foundation of the SDF in 1939, and the first year of classes at the new pedagogical section of Koreografiska Institutet, KI (the Choreographic Institute) in 1964–65. The study focuses on the intersection of aesthetic, educational, and professional transformative processes which also includes the international field of dance. More specifically the study explores the initial process gathering practitioners in a professional association, which could lead both to unionization and the establishment of an education. As far as professional and educational questions are concerned the process toward establishing a system of dance teacher education followed a general growth and organization of the Swedish educational system as a whole. The educational alternatives which evolved between 1959 and 1965 corresponded to both internal and external needs, especially by exposing the lack of a competent corps of teachers. The study examines how these alternatives collaborated and competed with one another for a relatively short time. Though lines of contention were drawn between leading actors this work also illuminates how the profession and the art itself acquired increased status in a broader cultural context. The vision of modernizing the art of dance along with its pedagogy is shown to be as much about pedagogic matters as about aesthetic ideals. Regardless of actual differences and approaches to aesthetics and education the process was guided toward the establishment of a dance teacher education.

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the political thought of Hinke Bergegren (1861-1936), Gustaf Henriksson-Holmberg (1864-1929) and Einar Håkansson (1883-1907), by focusing particularly on their articulation of anarchist ideas. The disseration follows these three Swedish left-wing thinkers closely, while specifically tracing ideological patterns in their published material, public discussions, speeches and other political activities. The study attempts to combine the perspective of intellectual biography with a contextualising approach on ideological analysis. Bergegren, Henriksson-Holmberg and Håkansson stand as illuminating examples of how anarchist ideas could take form at the advent of the twentieth century in Sweden. They were all connected to the working class movement, and participated actively in the public debate about anarchism and its various aspects. This larger political and cultural context is also presented, and put in relation to Bergegren's, Henriksson-Holmberg's and Håkanssons' actions and ideas. Thereby, the study examines certain lines of thought connected to the anarchist ideology, and at the same time find traits in the history of libertarian socialism in Sweden, as reflected in the ideas embraced by the three aforementioned historical actors. From the start Henrik "Hinke" Bergegren - the agitator, writer and journalist who is the principal character in the dissertations first major part - was highly controversial within the social democratic movement. From the early 1890's and up to his final exclusion from the Social Democratic Party in 1908, he was constantly being accused of leading and informal anarchist subdivision, which recommended acts of terror and strived for a social revolution. However, this study confronts and modifies that notion. It concludes that Hinke Bergegren's ideological position during the 1890's cannot be equaled to a clear anarchist conviction; rather, he criticized the party's strong focus on parliamentary tactics from a revolutionary socialist viewpoint. Einar Håkansson, on the other hand, based his critique of authorities, military power, parliamentary governance and private property upon anarchist principles. In several poems and short stories, Håkansson stated his anti-authoritarianism. He was also an early advocate for anarcho-syndicalism. Gustaf Henriksson-Holmberg, the anarchist theoretician, was always anxious to emphasize the importance of avoiding all forms of large-scale political and economical solutions. This position, along with a deep-rooted individualism and a willingness to integrate social theory and political propaganda, characterized Holmberg's political thought from the 1890's and onward. His antipathy against brutal revolutionary tendencies was as solid as his critique of ideological dogmatism. In conclusion, the anarchist lines of thought articulated by the three principal characters in the thesis intersects at several points. They all agreed that private property and capitalism must be abolished and replaced by voluntary forms of cooperation. Furthermore, they expressed a similar disbelief in parliamentary tactics, the military and party bureaucracy.

Histories of medieval astronomy have brought to light a rich textual tradition, of treatises and tables composed and computed, transmitted and translated across Europe and beyond. These have been supplemented by fruitful inquiry into the material culture of astronomy, especially the instruments that served as models of the heavens, for teaching and for practical purposes. But even now we know little about the practices of medieval astronomers: how they obtained and passed on their knowledge; how they drew up and used mathematical tables; how they drafted the treatises in which they found words to express their ideas and inventions for their particular audiences. This thesis uses a case study approach to elucidate these medieval astronomical practices. Long thought to be a holograph manuscript in the hand of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Equatorie of the Planetis (Peterhouse, Cambridge MS 75.I) has recently been identified as the work of John Westwyk (d. c. 1400), a Benedictine monk of Tynemouth Priory and St Albans Abbey. His draft description of the construction and use of an astronomical instrument, with accompanying tables, provides an opportunity to reconstruct the practices of an unexceptional astronomer. The first chapter of this thesis reconstructs Westwyk’s astronomical reading and understanding, through an examination of the other manuscript that survives in his hand: a pair of instrument treatises by the outstanding monastic astronomer Richard of Wallingford. I show how Westwyk copied this manuscript in a monastic context, learning as he annotated texts and recomputed tables. In the second chapter I discuss the purposes of planetary instruments such as equatoria, their place among other astronomical instruments, and the physical constraints and possibilities experienced by their makers. Through this discussion I assess the craft environment in which Westwyk came to write his own instrument-making instructions. Chapters three and four assess Westwyk’s language, explaining the basis for his choice to write a technical work in the vernacular, and analysing how his innovative use of Middle English furthered his didactic objectives. In the final chapter, I undertake a technical reassessment of the Equatorie treatise, an integrated analysis of the instrument with the somewhat neglected tables that Westwyk compiled alongside it. The thesis thus applies a range of methodologies to examine the practices and products of a single inexpert astronomer from all angles. It aims to show what an in-depth case study approach can offer historians of the medieval sciences.

<p>This thesis investigates how gynaecology was established as a medical speciality in Sweden in the 1860s and onwards. Gender, power, professionalisation and the production of scientific knowledge are central themes. While previous research has shown that gynaecology as a discipline depends upon notions of Woman as radically different from Man, I show how this was manifested within Swedish gynaecology, an initially all male environment. Of special interest is institutionalisation, early career-paths and the development of therapy methods and theory. I argue that gynaecology reproduced and contributed to notions of sex-difference and a gender complementary way of thinking. </p><p>While gynaecology was formed as a surgically interventionist speciality with strong manly connotations, an education reform aiming at opening higher education to women was simultaneously discussed and eventually carried out during the 1860s and 70s. The advocates of this reform portrayed women as especially fit for becoming teachers and physicians, particularly treating women and children. Thus, two opposing gendered professional ideals operated. By focusing an elite group of early women physicians, I outline how the gynaecological construction of womanliness related to women physicians and how women physicians engaged with this notion: what strategies they used to enter a profession as manly as gynaecology had become; and how women gynaecologists engaged with their men colleagues’ therapeutic methods and views on patients and women.</p>

This thesis investigates how gynaecology was established as a medical speciality in Sweden in the 1860s and onwards. Gender, power, professionalisation and the production of scientific knowledge are central themes. While previous research has shown that gynaecology as a discipline depends upon notions of Woman as radically different from Man, I show how this was manifested within Swedish gynaecology, an initially all male environment. Of special interest is institutionalisation, early career-paths and the development of therapy methods and theory. I argue that gynaecology reproduced and contributed to notions of sex-difference and a gender complementary way of thinking. While gynaecology was formed as a surgically interventionist speciality with strong manly connotations, an education reform aiming at opening higher education to women was simultaneously discussed and eventually carried out during the 1860s and 70s. The advocates of this reform portrayed women as especially fit for becoming teachers and physicians, particularly treating women and children. Thus, two opposing gendered professional ideals operated. By focusing an elite group of early women physicians, I outline how the gynaecological construction of womanliness related to women physicians and how women physicians engaged with this notion: what strategies they used to enter a profession as manly as gynaecology had become; and how women gynaecologists engaged with their men colleagues’ therapeutic methods and views on patients and women.

In mid-eighteenth century Paris, two Benedictine monks from the Congregation of Saint-Maur – also known as the Maurists – started compiling a universal dictionary of arts, crafts, and sciences. The project was initiated simultaneously with what would become one of the most famous literary enterprises in Western intellectual history: the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert. The latter started as an augmented translation of Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, but it was constructed with another French dictionary as its ideological counterpart: the Jesuits’ Dictionnaire de Trévoux. While the Encyclopédie eventually turned into a controversial but successful best-seller, considered as the most important medium of Enlightenment thought, the Benedictines never finished or published their work. After a decade, the manuscripts were put aside in the monastery library, and were soon forgotten. For about two hundred and sixty years, the Maurists’ dictionary material has largely escaped the attention of researchers, and its history of production has been unknown.      This dissertation examines the history and characteristics of the Maurists’ enterprise. The manuscripts are compared to the Encyclopédie and the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, and the project situated within its monastic environment of production, the history of the encyclopedic dictionary, and the Enlightenment culture. The study has an interdisciplinary character and combines perspectives of History of Science and Ideas, History of Monasticism, History of Encyclopedism, and History of the Book. The research procedure is distinguished by a microhistorical approach, where the studied materials are analyzed in a detailed manner, and the research process included in the narrative.       The dissertation shows that the Maurists early found themselves in a rival situation with the embryonic Encyclopédie, and that the two projects had several common denominators that distinguished them from the predecessors within the genre. At the same time, the Maurists were making a dictionary unique in the eighteenth century, which assumed a third position in relation to the works of the encyclopédistes and the Jesuits. The study provides new perspectives on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert, the intellectual activities of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, as well as the editor in charge of the Maurist dictionary: Dom Antoine-Joseph Pernety, otherwise known for his alchemical writings.

<p>This thesis considers regional identity in early-modern Sweden, taking its case from the province (landskap) of Västergötland 1646–1771. The aim is to investigate verbal expressions of regional identity. A theory on the construction of regional identity is suggested from the research results, and typological categories of regional identity are established. Contrary to popular concepts of identity being constructed in relation to an outer “other”, it is argued that identity is formed from self-images. Identity is expressed in the first person (I, we), and includes an insider’s perspective of the place occupied. As the thesis shows, the theory of regional identity is substantiated by the duality of the patria-concept. Patria, Fatherland, was employed for the smaller home province as well as for the greater realm. The realm however, always could claim priority to amor patria, Love of the Fatherland. Thus, any construction of regional identity using the neighbouring provinces as a contrasting “other” would have been counter-productive to the construction of the overarching national identity. This manifold patria-concept is of Roman origin, and made its influence through the Latin language well into early-modern time. A great variety of sources in Latin and Swedish have been consulted, including orations and dissertations, minutes of the academic senate and West Geat student nation (Västgöta nation) at Uppsala University, topography, manuscripts and letters. An in-depth study has been made of the writing processes leading up to dissertations and topographical descriptions.</p>

<p>Genom att analysera domstolsmaterialet från rättegången mot fildelningssiten The Pirat Bay, i relation till en idéhistorisk diskussion om äganderätt, har uppsatsen funnit att den liberala tanketraditionen och dess juridiska institutioner står inför en betydelseglidning vad gället begreppsparet ”Egendom” och ”Stöld”. Det har visat sig att Lockes naturtillstånd, varseblivningen av ”det oändliga” på jorden, har skiftat plats; från ”naturen” ut till ”cyberspace”, vilket har resulterat i att fildelningstekniken skapat en ny matematik som omöjliggör tidigare egendomsdefinition.</p>

<p>This is a dissertation about Swedish liberalism as a political rationality and, more specifically, the conditions that made the transition from an exclusionary society to an inclusive one possible at the beginning of the 20th century. I have made a case study of National Association of Social Work (Centralförbundet för Socialt Arbete, CSA), an association that played a significant role in the institutionalization of social politics in Sweden. The objectives are threefold. Firstly, to analyze CSA as a liberal political rationality. Secondly, to analyze its political ontology. Thirdly, to examine its motives for defending an including society.</p><p>One of the main arguments in this dissertation is that the political rationality of CSA is characterized by a form of government that works in and through society, as well as through freedom. By using the concept of ”the state of suspension” I try to capture and analyze the ontological ambiguity of the individual in liberal thought; an ambiguity expressed in biopolitical categorizations of the population according to perceived capacities for rational thought. The inclusion of the excluded part, which I describe through the notion of “the social”, was possible due to a new political ontology, which considered the individual as being a product of social circumstances, and as someone possible to shape and govern in and through society. </p><p>I argue that the political struggle of the excluded not only served to revise the political ontology of CSA, but also provided the rationale for the efforts to create an including society with universal suffrage. CSA did not regard citizenship as a right, but as a political technology and as a solution. Furthermore, I argue that citizenship shouldn’t be seen as a prerequisite for the politization of the excluded. On the contrary, this part of the population was already, at least partially, politicized and they became political subjects through their participation in the struggle for political rights.</p>