• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• Publicationsclose
• 2018-2022close
• Open Access close
• Article close
• SE close
• Publikationer från KTH close
• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage close

This article discusses David Lowenthal's last book, Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, which was published posthumously by Routledge in 2019 (available in print from November 2018). The book is based on a series of lectures that he gave while a visiting fellow with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Environmental Humanities Laboratory in Stockholm in 2012. Aimed at a general academic audience, it is an erudite and passionate overview showing how ingrained bias towards unity or diversity shapes major issues in education, religion, genetics, race relations, heritage governance, and environmental policy. Quest for the Unity of Knowledge explores the Two Cultures debate, initiated by C.P. Snow, concerning the gulf between the sciences and the humanities. It covers areas such as conservation, ecology, history of ideas, museology, landscape, and heritage studies, aligning with Lowenthal's career-long research interests, and serving as well as a meta-comment to the emerging Environmental Humanities. QC 20220412

De senaste decennierna har ”digital humaniora” nämnts i otaliga sammanhang och kommit att påverka litteraturvetenskaplig utbildning och forskning – trots att begreppets innebörd alltjämt är omdebatterad. Är det en ny disciplin eller specialisering av forskning och undervisning som redan bedrivs? På vilka sätt hänger digital humaniora ihop med samhällets och universitetens datorisering? Är det ett svar på hur litteraturen kan förstås i en digitaliserad värld, eller en fingervisning om litteraturvetenskapens framtid? För att reda i begreppen bjöd TFL-redaktionen in till ett panelsamtal via videolänk, av och med Karl Berglund (Uppsala universitet), Oscar Jansson (Lunds universitet) och Lina Rahm (KTH). QC 20220607

QC 20220317

QC 20220318

As cities worldwide implement strategies to accelerate the transition toward a circular economy (CE), there is an increasing need for tools to monitor progress. However, a standardised metric for CE monitoring in urban areas is lacking. This study examines the potential of the EU Circular Economy Monitoring Framework (CEMF), an established indicator-based framework for measuring national- and EU-level circularity performance, as a monitoring tool for urban areas. For this purpose, available data sources that can support the framework's application at the urban level are mapped, and data quality is assessed following the pedigree matrix approach. Next, the CEMF indicators are computed for the urban area of Umeå, Sweden. The mapping showed limited availability of urban-level data, necessitating the downscaling of national-level data using proxy factors. Most available urban-level data are of high quality, while the quality of national-level data is reduced when used to compute indicators at the urban level. The application of the CEMF in Umeå indicates that there are areas where the municipality performs well, though further improvements are needed. We conclude that the CEMF has potential as a monitoring tool for urban areas. However, improvements in CEMF...s scope and data availability are recommended. QC 20221205

QC 20221201

Biopolitical preparedness: The impact of the behavioralscience research of the Swedish National Defense ResearchEstablishment (FOA) on Swedish crisis preparedness During the post-war period, major research investments were made to improvemilitary and defense capabilities both in Sweden and abroad. Muchremains undone as to exploring the impact of the Swedish National DefenseResearch Establishment (FOA) on Swedish state and society. Historians haveprimarily explored the development and impact of technological and naturalscience research and its connections with e.g. the military industry. Thisarticle provides new insights into the societal and political significance ofSwedish defense research by studying the human sciences at FOA. At thesame time, new insights are gained on the knowledge provision in Swedishpreparedness efforts. The aim of the article is to provide new knowledgeabout the influence of Swedish defense research on the Swedish civil defenseand crisis preparedness in the late 20th century. The purpose of the article isto explore the significance of behavioral science research at the Departmentof Human Sciences (FOA 5) in relation to a process at the end of the ColdWar in which crisis and preparedness were framed as problems pertainingto population behavior and risk awareness. The analysis is inspired bythe theory and research on biopolitics, originating in the works of MichelFoucault. I examine the influence of FOA’s behavioral science research inrelation to what I call “biopolitical preparedness,” which refers to an assemblageof research or knowledge about human life, health and behavior, andpolitical governance. Empirically, the article explores Swedish governmentalcommissions (statens offentliga utredningar) and FOA reports. QC 20220316 Humanities Knowledge in Swedish Defense Research: Human Sciences at FOA 5

What does an anthropologist’s archive look like? Where is it located? And is the anthropology of archives important for the understanding of anthropological thinking today? Here we answer these questions by analysing the various life histories of the archival fragments of one of the most puzzling and influential anthropologists in the history of Russian and Soviet anthropology: Sergei Mikhailovich Shirokogoroff (1887–1939). Shirokogoroff is credited as being one of the authors of the etnos theory — one of the main instruments of identity politics in Russia, China, Germany and also, in part, Japan and South Africa. The transnational life histories of Shirokogoroff and his wife Elizaveta [Elizabeth] Nikolaevna (1884–1943), and of their ideas, suggests a conception of the archive not as a single whole, but instead as a collection of forgotten, hidden, obliterated, or, on the other hand, scrupulously preserved fragments. These fragments are not centred in one place or organized around any one reading, but they nevertheless represent “partial connections”. Moreover, as we can see today with hindsight, none of these archival fragments lay inert. They have been intertwined in local political and social ontologies. Our text has an autoethnograpic quality. While illustrating separate episodes from the life of the Shirokogoroffs we also will tell of our search for the manuscripts through which we were forced onto strange paths and encounters. These greatly deepened our understanding both of the life of documents and their material links to the lives of researchers. Our article is an attempt to illustrate this complex picture which, in the end, will allow us to conclude that we have only just begun to understand the workings of the anthropologist’s archive in the history of anthropological thought. QC 20220530

Can walking trails be understood not only as routes to history and heritage, but also as heritage in and of themselves? The paper explores the articulation of trails as a distinct landscape and mobility heritage, bridging the nature-culture divide and building on physical and intellectual movements over time. The authors aim to contribute to a better understanding of the geography of trails and trailscapes by analysing the emergence of the Swedish-Norwegian trail Finnskogleden. The trail is situated in the border region spanning the former county of Hedmark in present-day Innlandet County, south-eastern Norway, and Värmland County in mid-western Sweden, a forested area where Finnish-speaking immigrants settled from the 16th century to the early 20th century. Archives, literature, interviews, and field visits were used to analyse the emergence and governance of the trail. The main finding is the importance of continuous articulation work by local and regional stakeholders, through texts, maps, maintenance, and mobility. In conclusion, the Finn forest trailscape and its mobility heritage can be seen as an articulation of territory over time, a multilayered process drawing on various environing technologies, making the trail a transformative part of a trans-border political geography. Rörelsearvet: stigar och leder i hållbar och inkluderande kulturarvsförvaltning

This article deals with the social-political tensions in late Habsburg Hungary by exploring the coercive conduct of the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie from its creation in 1881 up to the First World War. Through an analysis of narrative and statistical primary sources, the paper shows how the gendarmerie protected the dualist system from the perceived threats of nationalist and labour movements. It attempts to establish the situations in which the gendarmes resorted to physical aggression, how its dynamic changed over time, and the regions where the levels of force exercised by the gendarmerie were higher. Altogether, it argues that widespread physical violence was a central feature of social-political conflicts in pre-WW1 Hungary, with the gendarmes playing a crucial role. Cet article traite des tensions socio-politiques dans la Hongrie de la fin des Habsbourg en explorant des pratiques répressives de la gendarmerie royale hongroise de sa création en 1881 jusqu’à la Première Guerre mondiale. Une analyse qualitative et statistique de sources primaires montre comment la gendarmerie a protégé la double monarchie contre les menaces perçues des mouvements nationalistes et ouvriers. Cet article cherche à identifier les situations où les gendarmes ont eu recours aux violences physiques, les régions où les violences étaient les plus fortes et comment elles ont évolué au cours du temps. Il défend que le recours aux violences physiques, notamment sous l’action des gendarmes royaux, est une caractéristique clé des conflits socio-politiques dans la Hongrie de la Belle Époque. QC 20230731 Prewaras