Södertörn Academic Studies – serie

From texts first published in 1972 up to her most recent work, this volume consists of seven articles that discuss Martha Nussbaum’s work focusing on her treatments of ancient philosophy, civic education and liberal humanism. The volume provides a general overview of these three aspects of Nussbaum’s philosophy and raises some concerns and critical questions about specific parts of her work. In addition, the volume is thematically organized; some articles deal with Nussbaum’s readings and uses of ancient philosophers—specifically, Heraclitus, Plato and Aristotle, respectively—while the others examine her views on liberal education, cosmopolitanism, human rights and aging. As one of our time’s most influential philosophers, Martha Nussbaum displays the relevance of philosophy for contemporary political and ethical concerns. Engaging with her philosophical work brings to light some of the most pressing questions of our time.

This anthology presents studies of Stalinism in the ethnic and religious borderlands of the Soviet Union. The authors not only cover hitherto less researched geographical areas, but have also addressed new questions and added new source material. Most of the contributors to this anthology use a micro-historical approach. With this approach, it is not the entire area of the country, with millions of separate individuals that are in focus but rather particular and cohesive ethnic and religious communities. Micro-history does not mean ignoring a macro-historical perspective. What happened on the local level had an all-Union context, and communism was a European-wide phenomenon. This means that the history of minorities in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s rule cannot be grasped outside the national and international context; aspects which are also considered in this volume. The chapters of the book are case studies on various minority groups, both ethnic and religious. In this way, the book gives a more complex picture of the causes and effects of the state-run mass violence during Stalinism. The publication is the outcome of a multidisciplinary international research network lead by Andrej Kotljarchuk (Södertörn University, Sweden) and Olle Sundström (Umeå University, Sweden) and consisting of specialists from Estonia, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States. These scholars represent various disciplines: Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History and the History of Religions.

Smärta är ett fenomen som alla är bekanta med. Smärtan har många ansikten. Kulturen arbetar ständigt med att uppfinna tekniker för att undvika och lindra smärtan, men den förblir en livets ofrånkomliga följeslagare. Inom medicinen finns en omfattande litteratur och forskning om smärta och smärtlindring. Men hur kan vi beskriva smärtan som filosofiskt och kulturellt fenomen? Vad är smärta, och vad är det att erfara smärta? Boken samlar nyskrivna bidrag från svenska och utländska forskare inom filosofi, litteratur och teologi, som alla på olika sätt och utifrån olika utgångspunkter reflekterar över detta på samma gång mest påtagliga och undflyende fenomen. Den avslutas med den tyske författaren Ernst Jüngers berömda essä från 1934 ”Om smärtan”, som för första gången översatts i sin helhet till svenska. Sammantaget vill boken visa på vikten av att ständigt reflektera över smärtan i en värld som i sin strävan att lindra den också tenderar att alienera sig från den, och därmed bidra till en vidare filosofisk förståelse av det som med Edith Södergrans ord ”… ger oss våra sällsamma själar och besynnerliga tycken”.

The establishment in Europe of a postal service revolutionized seventeenth century communications as well as the media landscape. Throughout most of Europe news, which rose sharply in volume, now traveled expeditiously. The comparative ease by which word could be sent helped new social and economic relationships flourish, intensifying the process of state-building. The consequences of this transformation for both postal workers and consumers alike permeate the work contained.

The Post’s historical role must be considered in the context of European society at large. Focus should move away from its organization and development as an institution in isolation. That is the perspective shared by the contributors to this anthology.

Vodka sadly is seen as the symbol of 20th century Russia.

Alexandr Nemtsovs book on alcohol in contemporary Russia is a landmark achievement expressing a unique point of view, highlighting failings in our understanding of Russias relationship with alcohol. Political events - Gorbachevs anti-alcohol campaign of the 1980s, the collapse of the Soviet system, the introduction of a market economy - have dictated drinking habits. The consequences have been horrendous. Deaths as a result of crime, Afghanistan and the two Chechen wars are dwarfed by those caused by alcohol in the 1990s.

Nemtsov presents statistics and reports not known about in the West, and studies from international medical journals little known about in Russia. His book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and politics of alcohol in Russia, and, moreover policy makers involved in alcohol issues in Europe and all over the world.

Russia’s political system has since the 1990s undergone a radical change, followed by economic and social crises in which the media system, too, has radically changed. This is in contrast to Sweden, where adaptation of media and society to global changes has taken place continuously in a context of relative economic and political stability.

This anthology presents a group of articles based on quantitative and qualitative research performed within the project “The Role of Media for Identity and Democracy”. The project involves interviews with media experts in St. Petersburg and Stockholm, analyses of the media structure and media contents, as well as comparative analyses of two age groups – 17-year-olds and middle-aged people – in the two cities.

The project aims at illustrating the interplay of society and media, onthe one hand, and, on the other, people’s media use and preferences, their leisure, consumption and cultural identity, their work activities, social background and poverty-welfare, and their perceptions of societal institutions and democracy.

Projektet ”Förmoderna kustmiljöer” handlar om samspelet mellan kustmiljöernas förändring och människornas liv huvudsakligen under de senaste 1 500 åren. Projektet ställer naturprocesser mot samhälleliga förändringar i ett försök att förstå samspelet mellan människa och miljö. Kustens resurser bildar en fond mot vilken vi försöker förstå människornas verksamheter, strategier och tänkande. Naturens utmaning möter människors kamp och anpassning, och i den processen skapas landskap och miljöer. Förändringarna är ofta smygande, nästan omärkligt gradvisa, men ibland också kortsiktiga, tillfälliga och dramatiska. Projektet strävar efter att belysa utvecklingen ur båda dessa tidsperspektiv, i ett försök att se historiens riktning, upptäcka brytpunkter och eventuella ”systemskiften”.

I uppsatsen "Frågan om tekniken" från 1952 utvecklade Heidegger tanken om hur tekniken i moderniteten omstöpt hela vårt erfarenhets- och handlingsrum. Inom det mångförgrenade fältet teknikens filosofi har den kommit att spela en central och omstridd roll. Den fenomenologiska teknikanalysen har samtidigt kritiserats för att den inte beaktar teknikens samhälleliga funktion och för att den är oförmögen att tänka medialiseringens verklighet. I en serie nyskrivna uppsatser av ledande internationella och svenska forskare inom teknikens filosofi, diskuteras det fenomenologiska arvet, från Husserl över Heidegger till Derrida och Stiegler, med särskild tonvikt på Heidegger. Här upprättas nya linjer mellan kritisk teori, dekonstruktion, fenomenologi och medieteori, som sammantaget ger en unik ingång till samtida teknikfilosofi.

Historikern Samuel Edquist studerar hur skandinavernas vikingafärder i österled beskrivits av svenska forskare igår och idag. Vi får följa utvecklingen från 1800-talets besatthet vid att finna ursprunget till våra tiders nationer i forntiden, och hur denna nationalism genomsyrade forskningsresultaten, till våra dagars försök att göra upp med vetenskapens nationalistiska förflutna. Studien avslutas med en diskussion om tänkbara strategier för att förhålla sig till en så ideologiskt laddad företeelse som vikingatiden.

Eros manifests itself in multiple ways: as tragic eros and philosophical eros, as love, sexuality, seduction, care, desire, and friendship. Eros both defines us as beings and dislocates our existence. It breaks down our certitudes about selfhood and otherness, familiarity and strangeness. This volume gathers together contributions toward a phenomenological understanding of eros. The first part examines eros in relation to ancient philosophy and religion, the second part examines eros in relation to modern phenomenology. The analyses presented show how the question of eros brings us to the core of philosophy. Questions of time, desire, embodiment, intersubjectivity, and perception are all implicated in the phenomenology of eros.

The distinction between the secular and the sacred or holy seems at first to constitute a definitive line, the establishment of which also defines Western modernity. Yet this apparently strict demarcation is today not only questioned, but also increasingly difficult to maintain. In order to understand and conceptualize what is happening in the intersection between religion, politics, and aesthetics, we need to rethink the very meaning of the sacred in its full ambiguity, to explore again in thinking the vicissitudes and possibilities of this complex phenomenon, and to learn to move more freely through the category itself. The book contains contributions by researchers from many different fields, philosophers, theologians, political scientists, and literary historians, who also comment on each other. It establishes new connections and trajectories for mapping and understanding the nature and meaning of the sacred both as a social, an aesthetic, and a religious phenomenon.

The public realm is a space of paradoxes. While on one hand it seems to be shrinking due to commercialization and to be losing its position as a forum where different agendas can meet, it can also be said to be expanding through social media and thus merge with traditional “private” areas. The contributions in this volume range from philosophical and political takes on the idea of the public to texts that understandthe current situation from the point of view of the art scene. Thinkers such as Chantal Mouffe, Jürgen Habermas and Giorgio Agamben meet, for example, with local Swedish graffiti, the international digital world and multicultural New Delhi. All offer perspectives on what the public-and the private-realms might mean today.

How was the national agenda of a previously subordinated, ruling Latvian majority reconciled with established academic practices for appointments and enrolment – candidates judged on merit irrespective of ethnicity? Following the disintegration of the Russian Empire, the ethnic Latvian majority assumed power and used state resources to further their national project. Complex national issues arose when a new university, teaching in Latvian, was founded in 1919 – Latvian was a language previously regarded as a peasant vernacular wholly unsuitable for cultural or academic purposes. During the same period the Latvian state was a multi-ethnic parliamentary democracy containing several ethnic minorities, all with full citizenship rights. Some of these minorities, the Baltic Germans and the Jews in particular, possessed considerable cultural capita land experience of academia. The inherent conflicts and compromises in this double agenda are the main focus of Between National and Academic Agendas.

Critic, poet, and translator, Ivan Aksenov was a remarkable representative of the Russian avant-garde but his life and works long remained forgotten. This book of essays by authors from nine different countries sheds light on the writer's extraordinary contribution to Russian culture. The book contains 15 contributions - 11 in russian and 4 in english.

Translating Hegel: The Phenomenology of Spirit and Modern Philosophy contains the contributions from a symposium organized on the occasion of the first Swedish translation of the Phenomenology. Bringing together a group of eminent Hegel scholars who address questions of translation and interpretation in the broadest sense, from historical hermeneutics to the actual practice of textual translation, it reveals the continued presence of Hegel in modern thought. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit stands at the crossroads of modern philosophy. Taking us from the lowest and simplest level of sense-certainty through ever more complex forms of knowing and acting, Hegel’s monumental work eventually aspires to nothing less than a blueprint for absolute knowledge: a unity of subject and object, finite and infinite, man and world, a notion that has continually provoked new reactions and counterreactions throughout the course of modernity. Is Hegel’s work the consummation of classical metaphysics or the dawn of something new? Is he a fundamentally Christian thinker or does he herald the death of God? Should we read him as a precursor to modern phenomenology and hermeneutics, sociology of knowledge, pragmatism, deconstruction? In short: do we need to translate Hegel into some modern vocabulary to make him relevant to the present? And if so, what would such a translation imply for our reading of his texts?

Foucault’s work on biopolitics and governmentality has inspired a wide variety of responses, ranging from philosophy and political science to history, legal studies, and urban planning. Drawing on historical sources from antiquity to twentieth century liberalism. Foucault presented us with analyses of freedom, individuality, and power that cut right to the heart of these matters in the present.

”Fenomenologin får inte vara en metafysik, utan en kritik av all metafysik, av alla stelnade system.” ”Om vi vill nå fram till sanningen kan vi inte bara söka efter den i lågländerna och vi får inte låta oss fascineras av den ytliga harmonins stillhet; vi måste låta det oroande, det oförsonliga och det gåtfulla växa i oss, det som det vanliga livet blundar för, det som det förbigår till förmån for dagens ordning.” Inledning till fenomenologisk filosofi samlar de föreläsningar som den tjeckiske filosofen Jan Patočka höll vid Karlsuniversitet i Prag mellan 1969 och 1970. Det som står i fokus är fenomenologin och dess utveckling från Edmund Husserls första arbeten fram till och med Martin Heideggers analyser i Vara och tid. I dessa föreläsningar introducerar Patočka fenomenologin genom att framhålla både fenomenologins aktualitet och dess många kontaktytor med filosofihistorien. Dessa föreläsningar kan betraktas som en inledning till fenomenologins grundbegrepp, likaväl som ett utmärkt sätt att bekanta sig med viktiga dimensioner i Patočkas egen filosofi.

The title of this anthology, Regionality/Mondiality: Perspectives on Art, Aesthetics and Globalization, signals the regional dimension inherent in the globalization of the arts. Rejecting a comprehensive theory of globalization, the texts in this anthology instead circumscribe a situated understanding of the production and interpretation of the arts, which serves to condition cultural translatability. The texts of the anthology argue that cultural translatability should be considered through the concept of regionality, that is, the quality of being both territorially and relationally situated. Bypassing the abstract and politically charged category of “nationality,” regionality addresses human relations in and through the more tangible physical environment in and by which they are configured. As seen in the work on archipelagic thinking by the Martinican writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant, both the cultural and physical aspects of one’s immediate environment are used to articulate a form of self-understanding in the face of cultural and economic expansion, the particular character of which is indicated by the term mondiality. This concept derives from the French word for “world” or “people,” and thus affirms the fundamentally social and cultural character of experiences thought of as global. Each of the eleven contributions in this volume brings its own perspective on arts and aesthetics, producing world-views that still share a keen awareness of their partialness. The contributors are: Charlotte Bydler, J. Michael Dash, John Drabinski, Martin Svensson Ekström, Anthony Gardner and Charles Green, Christina Kullberg, Lisette Lagnado, André Lepecki, Patricia Lorenzoni, Cecilia Sjöholm, and Terry Smith.

Gotland, Åland, Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Bornholm are five island regions in the Baltic Sea which constitute, or have until recently constituted, provinces or counties of their own. Combining perspectives from two disparate academic fields, uses of history and island studies, this book investigates how regional history writing has contributed to the formation of regional identity on these islands since the year 1800. The special geographic situation of the islands-somewhat secluded from the mainland but also connected to important waterways-has provided their inhabitants with shared historical experiences. Due to varying geographic and historical circumstances, the relationship between regional and national identity is however different on each island. While regional history writing has in most cases aimed at integrating the island into the nation state, it has on Åland in the second half of the 20th century been used to portray its inhabitants as a separate nation. Dramatic political upheavals as the World Wars has also caused shifts in how regional history writing has represented the relationship to the mainland nation state, and has sometimes also resulted in altered national loyalties.

The essays in this collection present research on national, class, and gender identities in the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe being conducted by researchers based at the Institute of Contemporary History, Södertörn University, Stockholm. The contributors focus on transnational flow as they explore Danish, Estonian, Finnish, German, Lithuanian, Moldovan, Polish, Russian, and Swedish instances, and the region at large. The studies examine fluid identities in a historical perspective and show how notions of identity have been naturalised in specific contexts. This book is issued in conjunction with the fifteenth anniversary of the Swedish Institute of Contemporary History. By bringing to the public the most current findings in Baltic and East European studies and offering an overview of work done by the institute’s researchers, it hopes to demonstrate the fruitfulness of opening contemporary history to broader regional and transnational approaches. Dr Norbert Götz is professor of history at the Institute of Contemporary History, Södertörn University, Sweden.

Polens förvandling från kommunistisk enpartistat till liberalt folkstyre var först och främst ett verk av landets demokratiska opposition och i synnerhet av den oberoende fackliga rörelsen Solidaritet. Men länderna i väst spelade också en roll genom sitt stöd till oppositionen. I det stödet tog Sverige en aktiv del. Den svenska fackföreningsrörelsen var tidigt närvarande i det polska dramat och lämnade under 1980-talet materiellt och moraliskt stöd, ofta i samarbete med polska aktivister i Sverige. Svensk diplomati odlade samtidigt livliga kontakter med den polska oppositionen och arbetade för att regimen skulle välja samförståndets och dialogens väg. Den ”svenska modellen” uppmärksammades både inom regimen och oppositionen och bidrog till att göra svenskarna till intressanta samtalspartners. Den svenska fackföreningsrörelsens och diplomatins insatser under 1980-talet har föga uppmärksammats i den historiska forskningen. Mycket skedde i det fördolda.

The idea of a limit of reason, a measure that defines reason and that it must not overstep, has been a constitutive part of philosophy since its beginnings in Greek thought. Placing itself in opposition to the madness of hubris, the excesses of tragedy, and the stories of religion and myth, philosophy expels its others just as much as it thrives on them. It begins and ends at the limit; it is drawn towards its outside, and exists as a perpetual attempt to find a line of demarcation that always ends up passing through its interior. The present collection analyzes the phenomenon of limit and excess, through readings that range from tragedy and Greek thought, through early Christianity and the Renaissance, to modern phenomenology and philosophy of language. Jonna Bornemark is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Lecturer at the Center for Studies in Practical Knowledge at Södertörn University Sven-Olov Wallenstein is Professor of Philosophy at Södertörn University

West European leaders had good reasons to oppose US Vietnam war policy. It threatened to alter the global balance of power while igniting unrest at home. Such turbulence led to a radicalized political atmosphere domestically. In this new environment, the “New Left” established a powerful foothold among the “68-generation”. In many West European countries the new radical left rejected the older Socialist and Communist parties in favor of more radical political alternatives. In Sweden the Social Democratic government struggled to maintain a workable relationship with Washington while at the same time placating domestic anti-war opinion – thus preventing this issue from being hijacked by the far left. How did the Swedish Social Democrats resolve this dilemma? Although this is the most written-about episode in Swedish postwar diplomacy, this is the first book to scrutinize the impact of Sweden's Vietnam War policy on its domestic politics.

This book examines how a geopolitical grammar works in Nordic and Russian academic feminism and how understandings of a joint feminist “we”, of “Nordicness” and ideas of an “East/West-Divide” shape the formation of gender research fields. In three distinct chapters, each with a different approach to theories, methods and source materials, the book explores the implications of language, translation, and situated knowledges in the development of gender research as a geopolitical area and particular academic space during the mid-1970s until 2005, and considers feminist knowledge production as a field of power relations.

How should we understand post-war art? How were issues of cultural transfer and curatorial strategies dealt with in the extended 1960s – the era of pop? Art in Transfer in the Era of Pop juxtaposes issues and contexts approaching the concept and reception of Pop Art. Contributors from Europe and beyond weave a web that resists the notion of universialism, adding to art historian Piotr Piotrowski’s “horizontal” art history. This volume avoids the historiographic stance where the US—Europe relationship appears to be a one-way affair. Instead, the reader is drawn into the history of the circulation and cross-pollination of ideas, the aesthetic practices and the various contexts that influenced them.

Byggandet av Nya Karolinska Solna (NKS) är förknippat med en dröm från slutet av 1990-talet om ett sjukhus som ett nav i ett internationellt konkurrenskraftigt universitetssjukvårdssystem. Det skulle vara ett specialsjukhus för regionen och inta en central roll för utvecklingen av Stockholmsregionen till ett biomedicinskt kraftcentrum. 2008 fattades beslutet om att bygga det nya sjukhuset och fylla det med ett nytt verksamhetsinnehåll. Beslutsprocessen rörande verksamhetsinnehållet vid NKS har präglats av interimistiska beslut och utvecklats till en process som förändrat villkoren för andra beslutsprocesser med stora ekonomiska och praktiska återverkningar för hälso- och sjukvården i Stockholmsregionen. Här redovisas hur det gick till när besluten om vård, forskning och utbildning vid NKS fattades. Och framför allt diskuteras NKS-projektets otillräckliga beslutsunderlag och de utdragna beslutsprocessernas konsekvenser för det regionala vårdsystemet. Jan Öhrming är Senior professor i företagsekonomi vid Södertörns högskola.

Här presenteras en undersökning om grosshandlaränkor som tagit över sina mäns verksamheter i Stockholm och Åbo mellan åren 1750 och 1820. Den svenska lagstiftningen var fram till år 1864 olika för män och kvinnor, för borgare och bönder och beroende på om man var gift eller inte. Bland kvinnorna var det bara änkor som var myndiga. De näringar som krävde så kallat burskap var alltså bara öppna för kvinnor om de var änkor. Grosshandlarna var de förmögnaste handlarna och där var det ovanligt att änkan övertog näringen. Desto högre upp i den sociala hierarkin en yrkesgrupp befann sig, ju mindre vanligt var det att änkan övertog näringen. Men det fanns de som gjorde så. Bland dessa kvinnor fanns flera som lyckades mycket väl med sina affärer. Några var mer välbeställda när de själva gick bort än vad deras män hade varit.

The course of military operations determined Sweden’s role in Polish policy as an evacuation destination, a shelter for refugees, an important junction for communication with the Polish occupied territories and as a suitable partner in the process of the future economic restoration of Poland. Dreamers & Opportunists is based on a vast range of sources from Polish, Swedish, and British archives, the Swedish press and the Polish exile press providing a coherent picture of Polish–Swedish relations during the Second World War. It brings new dimensions in a debate concerning Swedish policy during the period.

Vad var reklam? Under 1930-talet var reklam ett nytt modernt fenomen som det fästes visionära förhoppningar vid. Reklamen skulle tjäna samhället och bygga framtiden, menade företrädare för den framväxande näringsgren som reklam var. Reklamen skulle skapa välstånd, men också lära människor trafikvett och den användes även för att lösa samhällsproblem som trångboddhet – även politik kunde det göras reklam för. I denna bok undersöks reklamen som påverkansform och hur den relaterade till andra former av påverkan under 1930-talet; ett decennium under mellankrigstiden, klämt mellan depression och krigshot, men också en tid av utveckling av näringsliv och reklam. Studiens perspektiv är att nå historien om reklamens utveckling från två håll: För det första genom att empiriskt undersöka hur reklamen förstods och brukades. För det andra hur denna utveckling språkliggjordes. Här undersöks relationen mellan reklam och fyra andra kommunikativa begrepp; propaganda, upplysning, agitation och information. Undersökningen har fokuserat på tre olika aktörer; den framväxande reklambranschen, Kooperativa förbundet och det Socialdemokratiska partiet.