From Temporary Migrants to National Inclusion?

This article explores ways in which textbook content can reflect national identity over time via a case study of Swedish textbooks. To this end, it analyzes and contextualizes descriptions of Finnish labor migrants in Sweden in seventy-four compulsory school textbooks. The Finnish labor group emigrated from Finland to Sweden mainly from the 1950s to the 1980s. Initially, the Swedish authorities saw them as temporary laborers, but as time went by, the authorities had to realize that they had become permanent residents. In 2000, Finns were defined as an official national minority, “Sweden-Finns,” and their status changed. This article examines representations of Finnish labor migrants in Swedish history, geography and social science textbooks published between 1954 and 2016, tracing their journey from temporary laborers to a permanent national minority.

The Supply Challenges of the Swedish Army during the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743

This chapter discusses the maintenance challenges of the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743, arguably one of the biggest military catastrophes in Swedish history. Hatakka shows that maintenance problems were one of the root causes for the catastrophe. The war was declared without proper preparations, and the decision makers in Stockholm realised only too late that Finland lacked grain storages, mills and bakeries. The crown’s hastily attempts to improve the situation by building new infrastructure and outsourcing bread-making to civilians were of little avail, thanks to scarce population, limited resources, and transportation difficulties. Thus, the Swedish army had to use the critical first months of the war for solving maintenance problems instead of fighting, a fact that contributed heavily to its loss.

Archaeology on the Air: Radio and Archaeology in Sweden 1925-1950

This paper is an exposition of a rather unusual material in our discipline, the radio broadcasts on archaeology in the 1930s and 40s. They have been analysed using the criteria formulated by Carl-Axel Moberg for studying the mediation of our discipline; who, how, what, why and to whom. The results show that most speakers were well-educated men, and that four major themes can be distinguished in their programmes. Along with experts from many other disciplines, they joined in the huge modemization project of this period in Swedish history, in which the radio played an important part. Finally, it is argued that studies of the processes surrounding the mediation ofarchaeology are necessary for an understanding ofthe changing relationship between pro fessionals and the public. Such studies might also benefit future analyses of the use of arguments based on conceptions of prehistory in public debate.

Comparative chemical investigations of alum treated archaeological wood from various museum collections

From the mid-1800s to the late 1960s, conservation by alum salts (KAl(SO4)2·12H2O—potassium aluminium sulphate), using various recipes, was a common method to prevent shrinkage and to strengthen waterlogged archaeological wooden objects. This method was mainly used in Scandinavia. The alum method appears to have also been applied to highly degraded archaeological waterlogged wood in other countries, for example in the U.S and Germany. Today, many of the archaeological wooden objects treated with alum show extreme deterioration and very low pH, which are attributed to the effects of the alum-treatment. This study investigated the extent of the current levels of chemical degradation in wooden objects conserved with alum salts at different points in time (1880s, 1930s and 1905–13) in order to understand their current condition and whether extent of degradation was in any way related to time of treatment, in an attempt to understand the rate of degradation. It was also an opportunity to compare the chemical state of preservation of alum-treated wood from different collections, as only the Oseberg collection has been intensively studied in this way up until now. Samples from historical wooden objects from the following collections were investigated and compared: the Dejbjerg collection (National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen); the Oseberg collection (Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway); the Glimmingehus collection (Swedish History Museum, Sweden). Analyses of lignocellulosic polymers and of inorganic compounds were undertaken to evaluate the chemical preservation of the wooden objects. The investigations were performed using a multi-analytical approach which consisted of: pH measurements, analytical pyrolysis (Py-GC/MS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS). It was possible to link the extent of degradation with time, on a general level but we found a great variability in the state of preservation of the wood also within the same collection. It is clear, however that alum-treated wood is more degraded than archaeological wood not treated with alum.

Recensioner

Monografier Die doppelte Katastrophe. Klima und Kultur in der europäischen Hungerkrise 1770–1772 Ett lapptäcke av källor. Kunskapsproduktion om romer och resande vid arkiv och museer In a Sea of Empires: Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean Ilska, desperation och lömska försåt. Våldsamma kvinnor i 1800-talets Sverige Vid världens ände. Sultanens sändebud och hans berättelse om 1700-talets Sverige Avhandlingar ”Må de herrskande klasserna darra”. Radikal retorik och reaktion i Stockholms press, 1848–1851 Gränslösa rörelser för fred 1889–1914. Aktörskap, strategi och begreppsvärld hos socialistisk och liberal fredsaktivism Taking the Language of the Past Seriously: The Linguistic Turns in Finnish and Swedish History Dissertations, 1970–2010 Antologier Önskad och ifrågasatt. Lantbruksvetenskapernas akademisering i 1900-talets Sverige Forskarliv. Självporträtt av samtida svenska historiker A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law Mindre uppmärksammade historiska jubileer. Tecknad av Fredrik Tersmeden

Curating Viking objects through customized scrolling: How search engines personalize historical narratives

As museum objects circulate on social media, their narratives shift. This change is explored through social media methods that track the movement of objects from museums to YouTube search engine result pages (SERPs). Since the contents of SERPs are geared to individual Internet provider (IP) addresses, this platform integrates personalization. Social media methods are used to compare the narratives and meanings generated by personalized SERPs on YouTube with the preferred narratives and meanings produced by museums. This correlation is drawn through the case study of the Viking helmet at the Swedish History Museum. First, how narratives are connected to the helmet at the Swedish History Museum is examined in terms of the way that the museum’s exhibitions juxtapose visual and textual information, which is contextualized through communication materials. The stage is then set to examine how the juxtaposition of images, metadata and video content on YouTube further produces narratives related to the helmet. This narrative building, which incorporates personalization into the platform’s production of stories, is facilitated by scrolling, as per the platform’s business strategies. Continuous streams of thumbnails are searched on YouTube SERPs to identify ones depicting helmets, and then, the narratives are identified by analysing the selected thumbnails. Stories take shape through qualitative descriptions of each thumbnail’s helmet imagery in juxtaposition with its corresponding video title and content. The consequent narratives are then compared to those put forward by the Swedish History Museum. An example of a research finding is foregrounded to demonstrate that SERPs personalize narratives. The hermeneutic process underlying the methodological approach shows how personalization algorithms targeting user identities via IP addresses impact the narratives of objects that are mediated and commercialized via social media SERPs. This personalization challenges the social justice aims of museums: the stories that surround objects in museums are not curated to individual tastes and identities but are pitched to promote a plurality of perspectives in order to erode the rigidity of identity categories.

Music, mining and colonisation: Sámi contestations of Sweden’s self-narrative

Sweden’s dominant self-narrative has tended to marginalise its historical colonisation of Sápmi. This aspect of Swedish history sits uncomfortably with prevalent understandings of that self-identity. Indeed, there has been little emphasis on the historical subordination of Sámi people in political science scholarship on Swedish exceptionalism and internationalism. This article problematises this absence by centring the analysis on Sámi musician Sofia Jannok’s efforts to decolonise Sápmi through her music. The first part examines Sweden’s colonisation of Sápmi and the tensions between Sámi reindeer herding communities, mining interests and the Swedish state. This is followed by an exploration of the constitutive relationship between music, politics and celebrity, as sites of political communication. A two-step analysis follows, investigating the broad themes in Sofia Jannok’s personal narrative and the discursive markers defining her music and politics. The analysis shows how her narrative intersects with the discursive themes of her musical expression and other engagements.

14 empty airframes: public–private relations in the Swedish arms industry

In February 2013, the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration ordered 14 empty airframes in an effort to keep production lines open at the national arms producer Saab. This unusual example of state support is a reflection of the tight-knit relationship between state actors and the arms industry in Sweden. This article provides a case study of the political and economic factors that contributed to the order. It analyses the Swedish history of armed neutrality and military non-alignment as a driver of contemporary procurement and arms trade policies, and the formation of a “partially captive” Swedish arms market—where orders to Saab made up 60 percent of the Swedish arms procurement budget in 2018.