Teoretisk diskussion och praktisk tillämpning inom den svenska sinnesslövården under 1900-talets första hälft

THE ORIGIN AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF NORMALISATION IN SWEDEN. Normalisation can be seen as a key concept, both in disability research and in special education. In Sweden so far, the origin of this basic approach is connected to the time period after World War II. The purpose of this paper is to nuance this perspective. The existing Swedish historiography on normalisation, to some extent written by protagonists of the concept, will be discussed. We agree on the full effectiveness of normalisation based on a reform-oriented social policy from the 1960s. However, by means of historical research and based on hermeneutic methods, this study aims to demonstrate the concept’s origin and early development in Sweden already some decades before. For that purpose historical sources from contemporary Swedish litera-ture and reports from school authorities will be analysed. In particular the so called external schools for the feeble-minded had a certain impact on the emergence and spreading of the normalisation approach. As a result of our research, and by linking it to the development of the Swedish welfare state, normalisation can be contextualised historically. This outcome is of high relevance for understanding the history of a path-breaking concept. Finally, and with regard to the future, the question of adaptability and modernity of normalisation arises.

The Origin and Early Development of Normalisation in Sweden: Normalisation can be seen as a key concept, both in disability research and in special education. In Sweden so far, the origin of this basic approach is connected to the time period after World War II. The purpose of this paper is to nuance this perspective. The existing Swedish historiography on normalisation, to some extent written by protagonists of the concept, will be discussed. We agree on the full effectiveness of normalisation based on a reform-oriented social policy from the 1960s. However, by means of historical research and based on hermeneutic methods, this study aims to demonstrate the concept’s origin and early development in Sweden already some decades before. For that purpose historical sources from contemporary Swedish literature and archives will be analysed. In particular the so called external schools for the feeble-minded (externatskolor för sinnesslöa) had a certain impact on the emergence and spreading of the normalisation approach. As a result of our research, and by linking it to the development of the Swedish welfare state, normalisation can be contextualised historically. This outcome is of high relevance for understanding the history of a path-breaking concept. Finally, and with regard to the future, the question of adaptability and modernity of normalisation arises.

Högskolan i Borås är inne i en period av stark utveckling. Vi intensifierar och konkretiserar innebörden av vår verksamhetsidé som fångas av devisen ”Vetenskap för profession”. Högskolans utbildning och forskning präglas i hög grad av flervetenskaplighet och av breddat och fördjupat samarbetet med det omgivande samhället. Vi har förvärvat examensrättigheter på forskarnivå och närmar oss idealtillståndet: Det kompletta professionslärosätet. Högskolan i Borås blir innehållsmässigt alltmer Borås universitet – från HB till BU!

I denna artikel är det min avsikt att skissa på ett universitetskoncept som skulle kunna tjäna som stimulans i debatten om utvecklingen av svenska universitet. Universitetskonceptet Det samskapande universitetet tar en utgångspunkt i att universitetens uppgift är att bidra till kunskapsbildning och spridning/inhämtande av kunskap till gagn för en sund utveckling av individ och samhälle. Jag utgår även från att kunskapsuppfattningar kan avspeglas i utformning av ett universitet på motsvarande sätt som kunskapsuppfattningar kan avspeglas i utformning av pedagogiska miljöer. Ett antal filosofer och forskare har beskrivit viktiga skillnader i kunskapsuppfattningar. Min bild sammanfaller med flera av dessa beskrivningar.1 Sammanfattningsvis säger de att den analytiskt avbildande kunskapsuppfattningen under de senaste 100 åren sakta har fått ge vika för en samskapande kunskapsuppfattning där kunskap ses som skapade, användbara perspektiv under ständig utveckling.

This paper aims to reflect on the special character of the cultural field in relation to politics, policies and the political system. We usually talk about the notion of “autonomy” as one decisive feature in this relation. But what exactly does that mean? The fundamental research question may be posed thus; why is cultural policy such an awkward matter for the politicians? Drawing in the Swedish experience from the 1960´s and on this paper will try to rethink the relationship and to dig further into this problematic issue. The history of the Swedish cultural policy discourse will provide empirical input for a more principal and theoretical discussion. I am now in the process of finalizing an update of my book from 2005; Kulturen som kulturpolitikens stora problem [Culture as the big problem of cultural policy]. The update is caused by the fact that a new parliamentary decision on Swedish cultural policy was taken in December 2009. It is, therefore, high time to add a chapter on the period from 1996, when my first book stopped. The events during this last period make good reasons to rethink and reflect on what kind of difficult matter “culture” is for politicians and the political system, as compared to, e g infrastructure or economic policies.  Several questions will be addressed. Cultural policy is very slowly changed. Why is that? Are there special circumstances regarding the special case of the Swedish welfare state model? Or is this inertia to be accounted for by the “autonomy”? Can it be so, that there is a fundamental unruliness in the activities of the cultural field that makes it difficult for politicians to act? We have also the diverse and contested character of the concept of culture itself to reckon with in this context.  The research method applied in the paper rests on a thorough empirical investigation into the Swedish discourse on cultural policy during the last century (from my 2005-book and from the research done for the update). Obviously these empirical data will only provide the basis for a more abstract discussion in the paper per se which will be utilizing adequate and relevant theoretical concepts.  Hopefully this will lead to some new thoughts and ideas about this sometimes a bit precarious relation.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, effective handling of scientific information was identified as crucial for advancement and international competitiveness. Here, we study how the Soviet Union, through the founding of The All-Union Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI), developed its own grandiose system which served researchers and engineers throughout the USSR. By studying its inception, the way it was structured, and how it relates to similar grand visions of how to organise knowledge, we provide rare insights into a partly alternative history of how scientific information was organised in the latter half of the 20th century. Based on available sources in English and Russian, we consider the ideas behind this grand initiative for acquiring international literature, as well as how it was received and presented to a foreign audience. In this effort, we put particular emphasis on the first 25 years of VINITI (1952–1977) while at the same time focusing on central ideas in its organisation such as “enrichment”, “abstracting” and “pre-printing”. A key principle emerging from our analysis is how the notion of concentration becomes a fundamental principle for its operations. Overall, the activities of VINITI can today appear as both old-fashioned, bordering on the utopian, and as visionary and modern in its abandonment of journals and traditional forms of peer review. 

Den antologi som artikeln publiceras i bearbetar frågan om värderinger och led-kulturer (Leitkulturen) i Europa. Artikeln undersöker mot bakgrund av olika litterära verk hur begreppen 'skam' och 'skuld' bearbetas och under de senaste 200 åren har förändrats vad gäller valör och betydelse. Det visar sig att de har stor betydelse för en individs identitetskonstruktion, men att de förlorar sin betydelse pga en förandrad syn på just identiteten. I en värld där det finns en totalitet av sambanden och där allt befinner sig i ett allomfattande nätverk är individens gränser allt mer flytande, vilket korresponderar med att bl.a. moraliska begrepp tappar sin betydelse och kraft. Dagens värdedebatt är således inte bara konservativ vad gäller enskilda (moraliska) värderingar utan framför allt pga av att dessa värderingar kopplas till en föråldarad syn på individen där den inte uppfattas som splittrad och indragen i óändliga nätverk utan som avgränasad och överblickbar.

This article analyzes "happiness studies" as an emerging field of inquiry throughout various scientific disciplines and research areas. Utilizing four operationalized search terms in the Web of Science; "happiness", "subjective well-being", "life satisfaction" and "positive affect", a dataset was created for empirical citation analysis. Combined with qualitative interpretations of the publications, our results show how happiness studies has developed over time, in what journals the citing papers have been published, and which authors and researchers are the most productive within this set. We also trace various trends in happiness studies, such as the social indicators movement, the introduction of positive psychology and various medical and clinical applications of happiness studies. We conclude that "happiness studies" has emerged in many different disciplinary contexts and progressively been integrated and standardized. Moreover, beginning at the turn of the millennium, happiness studies has even begun to shape an autonomous field of inquiry, in which happiness becomes a key research problem for itself. Thus, rather than speaking of a distinct "happiness turn", our study shows that there have been many heterogeneous turns to happiness, departing in a number of different disciplines.

I början av september 2010 publicerade Sydsvenska Dagbladet en intervju med den då nytillträdde universitetskanslern Lars Haikola. Ställd inför frågan om betydelsen av stora förändringar inom högskolesektorn – såsom ökat självstyre för lärosätena, kårobligatoriets avskaffande och införandet av studieavgifter för utomeuropeiska studenter – svarade Lars Haikola att reformer som dessa kommer att leda till en mer ”adekvat högskola” – till en högre utbildning och forskning som är ”bättre anpassad till tidens krav”.

Med utgångspunkt i den så kallade domkyrkoaktion som ägde rum i Lund 1968, skisseras i uppsatsen vänsterkristna grupperingars åsiktsbildning och inflytande inom Svenska kyrkan. De vänsterkristna synsättens utbredning och småningom erövrade status som etablissemangsuppfattning inom Svenska kyrkan diskuteras i perspektiv av relevanta nationella och internationella sammanhang.