1st Edition
Histories of Knowledge in Postwar Scandinavia Actors, Arenas, and Aspirations
Histories of Knowledge in Postwar Scandinavia uses case studies to explore how knowledge circulated in the different public arenas that shaped politics, economics and cultural life in and across postwar Scandinavia, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.
This book focuses on a period when the term "knowledge society" was coined and rapidly found traction. In Scandinavia, society’s relationship to rational forms of knowledge became vital to the self-understanding and political ambitions of the era. Taking advantage of contemporary discussions about the circulation, arenas, forms, applications and actors of knowledge, contributors examine various forms of knowledge – economic, environmental, humanistic, religious, political, and sexual – that provide insight into the making and functioning of postwar Scandinavian societies and offer innovative studies that contribute to the development of the history of knowledge at large. The concentration on knowledge rather than the welfare state, the Cold War or the new social and political movements, which to date have attracted the lion’s share of scholarly attention, ensures the book makes a historiographical intervention in postwar Scandinavian historiography.
Offering a stimulating point of departure for those interested in the history of knowledge and the circulation of knowledge, this is a vital resource for students and scholars of postwar Scandinavia that provides fresh perspectives and new methodologies for exploration.
Introduction
Histories of knowledge in postwar Scandinavia
Johan Östling, Niklas Olsen, and David Larsson Heidenblad
Part 1: The environment and global crises
1. Nuclear fallout as risk: Denmark and the thermonuclear revolution
Casper Sylvest
2. Georg Borgström and the population-food dilemma: Reception and consequences in Norwegian public debate, 1950s and 1960s
Sunniva Engh
3. The emergence of environmental journalism in 1960s Sweden: Methodological reflections on working with digitalised newspapers
David Larsson Heidenblad
4. "Revolt from the center": Socio-environmental protest from idea to praxis in Denmark, 1978–1993
Bo Fritzbøger
Part 2: Economy, politics, and the welfare state
5. The Galbraithian moment: Affluence and critique of growth in Scandinavia, 1958–1972
Björn Lundberg
6. Welfare state criticism as elite criticism in 1970s Denmark
Niklas Olsen
7. The entrepreneur’s dream: Credit card history between PR and academic research
Orsi Husz
8. State feminism revisited as lieux de savoir: Fabrics of the Scandinavian knowledge society, c. 1960–1980
Eirinn Larsen
Part 3: Education, culture, and the humanities
9. The city, the church, and the 1960s: On secularisation theory and the Swedish translation of Harvey Cox’s The Secular City
Anton Jansson
10. Sex education and the state: Norwegian schools as arenas of knowledge in the 1970s
Kari Hernæs Nordberg
11. Mobilising the outsider: Crises and histories of the humanities in the 1970s Scandinavian welfare states
Hampus Östh Gustafsson
12. Revolting against the established book market: Book cafes as key actors within the counterpublic of the Scandinavian New Left
Ragni Svensson
Epilogue
Scandinavia: A Corporatist Model of Knowledge?
Johan Strang
Biography
Johan Östling is a Wallenberg Academy Fellow and the Director for the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK). Östling’s research encompasses the history of knowledge and modern European history. His recent publications include Humboldt and the Modern German University, Circulation of Knowledge and Forms of Knowledge.
Niklas Olsen is an Associate Professor at the Saxo Institute and Chair of the Centre of Modern European Studies, University of Copenhagen. His research interests address European history in the twentieth century. His recent publications include The Sovereign Consumer: A New Intellectual History of Neoliberalism.
David Larsson Heidenblad is an Associate Professor and a Deputy Director for the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK). He has an interest in the societal relevance of various forms of knowledge. His publications include Circulation of Knowledge and Forms of Knowledge.