Kategoriarkiv: Publikationer

FFC 326: The Meanings of Enchantment

The Meanings of Enchantment: Wondertale Symbolism Revisited by Francisco Vaz da Silva

Read more about the publication here.

This study posits that the meanings of enchantment can be rationally described, but wondertales need to be elucidated in their own terms, as opposed to bringing preset external theories to bear on the stories.

The argument sets out to reveal the symbolic framework of wondertales as a genre. It underlines the stability of symbolic patterns in tales across space and time, as well as the adaptability of the myriad variants to specific historical settings—hence, the evolution of the texts in tune with their contexts.

Going beyond rigid distinctions of oral vs. literary vs. cinematic retellings, this book shows that the comparison of all sorts of variants is helpful to understand the tales. It would not be wrong to say that it proposes a mental ethnography of the wondertale—a cartography of its symbolic landscape—up to the present day. Along the way, it revisits a number of received ideas (such as the centrality of male protagonists, the inherent victimhood of feminine characters, and the immanent misogyny of the tales) in light of oral retellings and older literary strata of the wondertale tradition.

Kungar, sex och skandaler: en studie av skvaller och journalistik (2023)

Detta är en bok om tre kungar från olika epoker som hamnade i tre medieskandaler med sexuella förtecken.

Etnologerna Lars-Eric Jönsson och Mia-Marie Hammarlin undersöker hur medieskandaler byggs upp och utvecklas. Nyhetsjournalistikens samverkan med den läsande publiken, muntligt skvaller och digitala medier studeras, liksom romaner, kupletter och skillingtryck.

Oscar II (regent 1872-1907), Gustaf V (regent 1907-1929) och Carl XVI Gustaf (som firar 50 år på tronen 2023) var föremål för skvaller som skandaliserade dem och de älskare och älskarinnor som de påstods ha haft intima förbindelser med. Detta skvaller om skådespelerskor, unga män och kaffeflickor var tätt sammanflätat med journalistik och skapade roande, oroande, moraliserande och politiska berättelser med påtaglig livskraft.

Mia-Marie Hammarlin, docent i etnologi, och Lars-Eric Jönsson, professor i etnologi, är verksamma vid Lunds universitet.

Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences (2023)

Charlotte Engman disputerar den 5 maj 2023 i etnologi vid Umeå Universitet med en avhandling vid namn Desires of Decoloniality and Museal Logics: Encounters between the Swedish Museum of Ethnography, democratic ideals, and contemporary audiences. Opponent är Anna Rastas.

Tid: Fredag 5 maj, 2023 kl. 10:00 – 12:00
Plats: UB.A 240, Lindellhallen 4, Samhällsvetarhuset, Umeå

Avhandlingens abstrakt:

‘Decolonisation’ is a frequently used expression in museum contexts, and a growing museal practice. In ethnographic museums, such attempts are usually performed in the shape of projects that seek to establish new relationships with source– or diasporan communities. However, little research has been produced about how these practices relate to the political demands and expectations set on state museums, and how they are shaped in a Swedish context. By following the project Ongoing Africa at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, the thesis aims to explore how different museal logics condition activities, are reproduced, and relate to each other. The empirical data consists of interviews with museum staff and collaborators engaged in the project, observations of project activities, and written data such as policy documents and government publications.

The findings show that tension and ambivalence characterise museal decoloniality. Along with ideals of social inclusion, co-creation and decolonial agendas, the museal economy is being eroded and activities market-adjusted, at the same time as the museum is also expected to be educative and authoritarian. While museum professionals struggle with creating relevance for the museum and the collections, the latter has been discursively fragmented through contemporary investments in heritage justice and repatriation discourse. To external stake holders, the ethnographic collection symbolises ongoing forms of colonial violence and heritage items that contribute to diasporan identity formation. Furthermore, the public museum is today a place where contemporary anti-racist ideology manifest itself through silences performed in relation to racialisation, and knowledge is at the museum a contingent and relational practice.

Avhandlingen kan läsas i diva-portal.

Danmark set fra en togkupé (2023)

Boken Danmark set fra en togkupé är skriven av Martin Zerlang. Detta står att läsa om boken på Gads forlags hemsida:

”Denne bog skildrer togets og jernbanens kulturhistorie og beretter om, hvordan en af det 19. århundredes største opfindelser har sat sit præg på hverdagen og kulturen i det moderne Danmark.

Toget og jernbanerne har omskabt landskabet og byerne, ja skabt byer, hundredvis af stationsbyer, ligesom jernbanerne har omskabt tiden, så alle steder har stillet på urene og indrettet sig efter den samme tid. Selv menneskene omskabes af jernbanerne. Politik, økonomi, kunst, litteratur, musik, mentalitet, alt har taget form og farve efter jernbanedriften. Når tingene er ”på skinner”, når der er ”fuld damp på”, når alt bare ”kører”, så er alt også i orden. Køreplanen er model for alle andre planer. Modeltog er ikke bare miniaturemodeller af rigtige tog, men modeller for det gode samfund, hvor alt kører som det skal. Dvs. ”til tiden”.

Jernbanens og bogens første strækning er pionertiden ca. 1840-1870, som starter da lokomotivet Odin i 1847 ruller ud på sin jomfrutur fra København til Roskilde. Den anden strækning er gennembrudstiden 1870-1900. Den tredje strækning er storhedstiden 1900-1920, hvor byporte erstattes af banegårde, og hvor det hele kulminerer med bygningen af Københavns Hovedbanegård. Konsolideringstiden strækker sig fra 1920-1950, mens tiårene efter krigen, 1950-1970, er de store planers tid, ikke mindst Fingerplanen, hvor S-togslinjerne danner de fem fingre for forstadsudviklingen i København. Men det er også den tid, hvor motorvejene begynder at spænde deres asfaltnet ud over landet. I perioden 1970-2000 mister togdriften terræn til bil- og flytrafik, men med det nye årtusind er der åbnet for en renæssance for tog med broer, tunneller, letbane og metro – og med et stigende fokus på kollektiv transport og en grøn udvikling. ”

Kärlek och kärnfamilj i folkhemmet – längtan, lust och oro (2022)

Boken Kärlek och kärnfamilj i folkhemmet – längtan, lust och oro, utkommen år 2022, är skriven av Jonas Frykman och Orvar Löfgren. Detta går att läsa om boken på Gleerups förlags hemsida:

”Nittonhundratalet blev kärnfamiljens århundrade, men hur gick det till? Den här boken handlar om hur familjen – pappa, hemmamamma och (helst tre) barn – inte bara blev normen i svensk vardag från trettiotal till sextiotal utan även ett centralt verktyg i byggandet av folkhem och välfärdssamhälle. I boken får vi ta del av både forskningsrön och författarnas personliga betraktelser över en tid som format mycket av det som vi fortfarande ser spår av i dagens samhälle, ett bagage som ofta göms i det självklara och outtalade.

I trettiotalets Europa spred sig totalitära idéer. Det var en tid fylld av ängslan, men också av förhoppningar och reformiver. När barnafödandet föll drastiskt talade många om landets undergång. Nu måste ett nytt Sverige ta form och myndigheterna göra sig redo att rationalisera medborgarnas liv. Under efterkrigstiden kom fattigdom, trångboddhet och arbetslöshet att ersättas av ett snabbt växande välstånd, radikalt ändrade hemvillkor och en historiskt hög nativitet.

Boken tar avstamp i vardagens slit med att få hem och familj att fungera, i känslor av längtan och besvikelse, i hanteringen av alla nya ting. Det var här hemma folkhemsbyggarnas storstilade reformplaner omsattes i vardagen. Den avslutas i det sextiotal där kärnfamiljens roll börjar ifrågasättas, samboskap och bonusfamiljer blir det nya medan födelsetalen bara stiger.

Jonas Frykman och Orvar Löfgren är professorer emeriti i etnologi vid Lunds universitet. Boken är en uppföljare till Den kultiverade människan, en odyssé genom människors tankevärldar och upplevelser från 1800-talets slut och fram till första världskriget. ”

En recension av boken skriven av Helena Hörnfelt kan också läsas i tidskriften Kulturella perspektiv 2023 vol. 32.

Fremtiden er nå – Klimaendringenes tider (2022)

Framtiden er nå – klimaendringenes tider, utkommen 2022, är skriven av Marit Ruge Bjærke och Kyrre Kverndokk.

Om boken, från förlaget Scandinavian Academic Press hemsida:

”Klimaendringer handler om utslipp og tørke, om smeltende is og voldsomme stormer. Men når utslippene øker, er det mer enn bare klimaet som endres. Det gjør også vår forståelse av tid. Når klimaforskere bruker kunnskap fra geologisk fortid til å modellere fremtidens klima, politikere vedtar utslippsreduksjoner for å trygge våre barn og barnebarns fremtid og klimaaksjonister roper på øyeblikkelig handling, blir det tydelig at det inngår ulike tidsforståelser i hvordan vi snakker om, forholder oss til og forsøker å håndtere klimaendringene.

Fremtiden er nå undersøker noen av klimaendringenes rytmer, tempoer, tidsrammer og tidsskalaer. Boken tar også opp hvordan forestillinger om en klimaendret fremtid endrer forholdet vårt til nåtid og fortid, og hvordan ulike tidsforståelser kan påvirke hvordan vi forholder oss til klimaendringene.”

 

 

 

The Kink Community in Finland: Affect, Belonging, and Everyday Life (2023)

Johanna Pohtinen is defending her doctoral dissertation in ethnology at University of Turku, 25 February 2023 klo 12.00 – 16.00 (UTC +2). The title of the dissertation is The Kink Community in Finland: Affect, Belonging, and Everyday Life and it can be found here.

From the abstract:

This research explores the relationship between kink and everyday life, how affects are related to kink, and how community and belonging are important for kinky individuals. The main research material consists of themed writings, which deal with kinksters’ relationship to the community and their own kinkiness. The materials also include photographs of kink objects and homes, as well as participant observation and interviews on kink events. The materials are understood as dialogical: they are in dialogue with each other and with the researcher. The research methods are based on cultural analysis and draw on theories on affect, community, and everyday life.

Time Warps. Refugees and the Experience of Waiting in Rural Sweden (2023)

Time Warps. Refugees and the Experience of Waiting in Rural Sweden is a doctoral dissertation written by Rikard Engblom at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University.

From the abstract:

This thesis explores the ways in which refugees’ experience of time is warped when they come to Sweden. It is based on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Avesta, a small municipality in rural Sweden. Refugee reception and immigration control in Sweden is characterized by humanitarian ideals that exist in tension with practices and policies aiming to restrict immigration in the name of security and stability. Each chapter of this thesis documents a different combination of these ideals and concerns, examining how they generate particular configurations of waiting. For many refugees in Sweden, everyday life is characterized by waiting—waiting to have their asylum application processed; to receive a residence permit, which grants them the right to work; to be reunited with their families to find a place in Swedish society. This process often takes several years, during which the conditions for receiving residence permit may suddenly change or be made more difficult. The thesis is a contribution to the recent “temporal turn” in migration studies through its focus on waiting as a productive phenomenon in vulnerable circumstances. The increased presence of refugees has given rise to anti-immigrant sentiments in Sweden, but it has also generated welcoming, compassionate responses. By addressing not only how refugees cope with living in a continual state of waiting under precarious conditions, but also how bureacracies, civil societies, and individuals respond to this waiting, the thesis discusses the sociological and ethical implications of refugees’ waiting. Time Warps demonstrates the importance of unpacking combinations of humanitarianism and securitarianism when developing a deepened understanding of refugees experience of waiting in rural Sweden.

Moden i Danmark gennem 400 år (2022)

Från beskrivningen på Gads forlags hemsida:

”Moden i Danmark er en ny dansk modehistorie. Over to bind fortæller værkets forfattere, Marie Riegels Melchior & Mikkel Venborg Pedersen, om klædedragtens kultur- og designhistorie i Danmark og om, hvordan 400 års danskere har klædt sig, når de ville være med på moden – og hvorfor. ”

Boken har nominerats för två pris: Historical Book of the Year 2022 och The Weekend Newspaper Literature Prize 2022.

Läs mer här, där du också kan hitta en podcast om boken: Marie Riegels Melchior og Mikkel Venborg Pedersen om Moden i Danmark gennem 400 år 

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A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood (2022)

A girl can do: recognizing and representing girlhood is a new  anthology about girlhood inspired by the “Remembering American Girlhood” panel held virtually during the National Council on Public History’s annual meeting in 2020. Among other chapters it also contains a chapter from Swedish ethnologist Åsa Ljungström about a girl being brought up in Småland in 1890.

The book can be found here.

Summary from Vernon Press website:

”How do scholars research and interpret marginalized populations, especially those that are seldom recognized as marginalized or whose sources are believed to be rare?

Combining intersectional feminism and public history methodologies, ‘A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood’ reflects on how girlhood is found, researched, and interpreted in museums, archives, and historic sites. Defining “girl” as “self-identifying females under the age of 21,” ‘A Girl Can Do’ lays the groundwork for understanding girlhood, its constructs, and its marginalization while providing faculty, students, and working professionals with ten case studies on researching and working with girlhood.

Contributors include archaeologists, archivists, curators, educators, and historians who demonstrate how adding a girl studies lens fosters greater inclusivity and diversity in our work. Whether studying spatial techniques of marginalization in colonial Peru, the daybooks as records of girlhood in late-nineteenth century Sweden, or collaborating with self-identifying fangirls to produce a pop-up exhibition, the contributors demonstrate the variety of sources and methods that can be used to interpret this oft-overlooked population. Throughout, ‘A Girl Can Do’ petitions for collaborative and creative thinking in how we can reframe and reinterpret our sources – both traditional and overlooked – to shed new light on how girls have contributed to, and provide frames of reference for, human history and culture. ”

A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood, (ed.) Tiffany R. Isselhardt, Girl Museum, Kentucky, 2022: Vernon Press.