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The stability of the human tendency to eat in groups is remarkable. We find it to be valued and mostly desirable across geographical locations, cultures, and historical time periods. Yet, there is a great deal of variety in how the practice is expressed, how individuals experience it, and how the sharing of meals is understood culturally. This chapter focuses on three facets of eating together that deserve more attention in the literature: the biology of eating together; the differentiation and cohesion of eating together; and the performativity of eating together. It ends with a postulation about carefulness with normative claims about meals in company or in solitude.

The article explores 'off the grid' representations in social media, with a focus on how these representations reproduce imaginaries of nature, place and gender. The analysis material consists of content produced by three influencers who left urban life for a simpler lifestyle in northern Sweden. We find that the social media content draws on numerous ideals: neoliberal ideals on digital entrepreneurship, anti-capitalist ideals on ‘escaping’ modern consumerist society and romantic (sometimes colonial) envisioning of northern Sweden as wild and empty land. We conclude that the ‘off grid’ social media representations and the various ideals they incorporate should be understood as expressions of a contemporary era of neoliberal romanticism: a trend that exists both online and offline.

In Sweden today, many different dances are practiced within distinct scenes, which all have their specific characteristics, norms and ideals. This thesis analyses two of these scenes, polska and lindy hop. They share a similar background of revitalisation and revival. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse meaning-making processes within the scenes formed around these dance forms. It includes descriptions of historical revival processes but above all analyses of practitioners’ understandings and practices. The main research data consists of interviews with practitioners, and observations on dance events and courses. Theoretically, the study is based on a view of dance and dancing as cultural expressions whose meanings and forms are constantly being created and recreated. The analysis draws on a wide variety of theories and concepts within the humanities and performing arts research. The findings show that beliefs about the past emerge as a framework for practice in the two scenes. In the data, tradition and authenticity are important themes, and there is a shared discourse of preservation. Nevertheless, how important history is for today’s practitioners, and how the past is enacted and what meanings are ascribed to it, differs between and within the scenes. Discourses about the past, as well as processes of authentication, are much more prominent within the lindy hop scene, as compared to the polska scene. This includes aspects such as clothing and the making of and expression of gender. A notable difference between the scenes is that learning to dance is formalised through workshops in the lindy hop scene, whereas it is more informal among polska dancers. The thesis adds to the growing field of studies of revivals of music and dance, and shows how scenes formed around revived dances bear traces of the revival processes while at the same time creating something new in the present.

As a consequence of cutbacks in the welfare sector, rural populations have reacted to their situation by taking over and operating activities that are threatened by closures, such as schools, grocery stores and health centres, for themselves. Such initiatives are often referred to as examples of rural resilience. Drawing on interviews, this paper explores participants' narratives about rural initiatives aiming to retain and develop local welfare and community services. It pays specific heed to how notions of resilience reside within the narratives – the ideological convictions and challenges they entail, and the practices they make (im)possible. The study shows that participants’ narratives about resilient villages and initiatives indirectly support the neoliberal rural policy focus on regional responsibility to create growth. It argues that, in order to understand the appeal of the neoliberal positions and practices that resilience thinking proved to entail, it is important to recognise the intersections of space and identity, and to explore the local spatial experiences and imageries in relation to which resilience practices appear desirable and necessary, as well as the specific rural identities that resilience discourse supports.

Just before the turn of the last century, the young and promising Swedish music ethnologist Karl Peter Leffler published Om Nyckelharpospelet på Skansen. In the writing, two detailed portraits are drawn of the fiddlers Johan Edlund and Jonas Skoglund, both of whom had been summoned from Uppland to contribute with folk music to the capital’s national project in Stockholm. The booklet has worked as the basis for several studies about the nyckelharpa, and folk music in general. The institution Skansen, is emerging as part of the Nordiska Museet under Artur Hazelius’ care. Here, the Nordic and the Swedish are being established during this national romantic era by bringing folk culture from all areas of the kingdom – to be displayed and brought to life at the capital’s outdoor museum. The current research project focuses on the constitution of the Swedish when it comes to folk music. Skansen has become significant for our knowledge of and how we understand Swedish culture. What kind of music was to become a part of the Swedish? One way to investigate this is to focus on a single fiddler – which in my case is one of the two fiddlers that Leffler highlights – Johan Edlund from the Roslagen parish of Harg in Uppland. The project, which is ongoing, tries to map the musical cultural geography of the 19th century and the Roslagen’s parish of Harg with the help of genealogical research using records of parish catechetical meetings, old maps, old national surveys from Nordiska Museet, photos, newspapers, and private correspondences. What was the musical life like for those who lived at this place at this time? What occasions, venues and contexts were music present in people’s lives? Where did the music stem from? How did they learn how to play and where did the instruments come from? The emerging picture around this fiddler, his playing and learning, shows, among other things, that it is not only Roslagen that brings music to the capital – musical influences also travel in the o

The national project of Skansen was established at the end of the 19th century. Here, the Swedish is being created during a national romantic era by bringing folk culture from all provinces of the kingdom – to be displayed and brought to life at the capital’s open-air museum. The current research project focuses on the constitution of the Swedish when it comes to folk music. Skansen has, as an institution, become significant for knowledge production and the understanding of Swedish culture in several ways. Our contemporary understanding of Swedish folk music also originates from this time and the very event – the establishment of Skansen. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate how, and in what way, music becomes manifested and displayed at Skansen. One way to investigate this is to focus on a single fiddler – Johan Edlund from the Roslagen parish of Harg in Uppland, Sweden. Edlund, engaged as a fiddler 1896-1899, is portraited his first week at Skansen by the folk music collector Karl Peter Leffler. This book has, since its publication, been one of the oldest sources that later studies depart from. This research project, at hand, critically examines the origin of this manifestation of the Swedish. When it comes to Leffler’s transcribed music from Harg, it becomes clear that the music is not merely directly retrieved from the province to the capital. The presentation will show how national folk music is by far of a national origin but rather a conglomerate of international influences.

In Sweden today, many different dances are practiced within distinct scenes, which all have their specific characteristics, norms and ideals. This thesis analyses two of these scenes, polska and lindy hop. They share a similar background of revitalisation and revival. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse meaning-making processes within the scenes formed around these dance forms. It includes descriptions of historical revival processes but above all analyses of practitioners’ understandings and practices. The main research data consists of interviews with practitioners, and observations on dance events and courses. Theoretically, the study is based on a view of dance and dancing as cultural expressions whose meanings and forms are constantly being created and recreated. The analysis draws on a wide variety of theories and concepts within the humanities and performing arts research. The findings show that beliefs about the past emerge as a framework for practice in the two scenes. In the data, tradition and authenticity are important themes, and there is a shared discourse of preservation. Nevertheless, how important history is for today’s practitioners, and how the past is enacted and what meanings are ascribed to it, differs between and within the scenes. Discourses about the past, as well as processes of authentication, are much more prominent within the lindy hop scene, as compared to the polska scene. This includes aspects such as clothing and the making of and expression of gender. A notable difference between the scenes is that learning to dance is formalised through workshops in the lindy hop scene, whereas it is more informal among polska dancers. The thesis adds to the growing field of studies of revivals of music and dance, and shows how scenes formed around revived dances bear traces of the revival processes while at the same time creating something new in the present.

Just before the turn of the last century, the young and promising Swedish music ethnologist Karl Peter Leffler published Om Nyckelharpospelet på Skansen. In the writing, two detailed portraits are drawn of the fiddlers Johan Edlund and Jonas Skoglund, both of whom had been summoned from Uppland to contribute with folk music to the capital’s national project in Stockholm. The booklet has worked as the basis for several studies about the nyckelharpa, and folk music in general. The institution Skansen, is emerging as part of the Nordiska Museet under Artur Hazelius’ care. Here, the Nordic and the Swedish are being established during this national romantic era by bringing folk culture from all areas of the kingdom – to be displayed and brought to life at the capital’s outdoor museum. The current research project focuses on the constitution of the Swedish when it comes to folk music. Skansen has become significant for our knowledge of and how we understand Swedish culture. What kind of music was to become a part of the Swedish? One way to investigate this is to focus on a single fiddler – which in my case is one of the two fiddlers that Leffler highlights – Johan Edlund from the Roslagen parish of Harg in Uppland. The project, which is ongoing, tries to map the musical cultural geography of the 19th century and the Roslagen’s parish of Harg with the help of genealogical research using records of parish catechetical meetings, old maps, old national surveys from Nordiska Museet, photos, newspapers, and private correspondences. What was the musical life like for those who lived at this place at this time? What occasions, venues and contexts were music present in people’s lives? Where did the music stem from? How did they learn how to play and where did the instruments come from? The emerging picture around this fiddler, his playing and learning, shows, among other things, that it is not only Roslagen that brings music to the capital – musical influences also travel in the o

The national project of Skansen was established at the end of the 19th century. Here, the Swedish is being created during a national romantic era by bringing folk culture from all provinces of the kingdom – to be displayed and brought to life at the capital’s open-air museum. The current research project focuses on the constitution of the Swedish when it comes to folk music. Skansen has, as an institution, become significant for knowledge production and the understanding of Swedish culture in several ways. Our contemporary understanding of Swedish folk music also originates from this time and the very event – the establishment of Skansen. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate how, and in what way, music becomes manifested and displayed at Skansen. One way to investigate this is to focus on a single fiddler – Johan Edlund from the Roslagen parish of Harg in Uppland, Sweden. Edlund, engaged as a fiddler 1896-1899, is portraited his first week at Skansen by the folk music collector Karl Peter Leffler. This book has, since its publication, been one of the oldest sources that later studies depart from. This research project, at hand, critically examines the origin of this manifestation of the Swedish. When it comes to Leffler’s transcribed music from Harg, it becomes clear that the music is not merely directly retrieved from the province to the capital. The presentation will show how national folk music is by far of a national origin but rather a conglomerate of international influences.

Måste vi idag antingen kontrollera eller aktualisera våra känsloliv för att kunna utföra våra arbetsuppgifter? Etnologen Daniel Bodén visar i denna artikel hur svenska myndighetsanställda numera får lita på sin intuition för att utföra sina arbetsuppgifter.

För många läsare kanske ord som byråkrati eller känslor upplevs som varandras motsatser. Medan byråkrati väcker associationer om styrning och objektiv rationalitet så anspelar känslor på idéer om något spontant och personligt. Man kan ju inte låta känslorna styra arbetet! Och inte heller styra känslorna! Eller? I denna artikel diskuterar etnologen Daniel Bodén hur den tekniska utveckling inneburit nya former av arbetsdelning, där känslor kommit att fungera så väl som mål och medel.

Vårt samhälle säger sig värna om individensfrihet, men friheten upphör varje gång vi stämplar in. Aldrig förr har arbetsgivare haft så stor möjlighet att idetalj styra sina arbetstagare. Men viljanatt kontrollera arbetskraften går som en röd tråd genom historien. I den här boken anlägger etnologen Daniel Bodén ett socialhistoriskt perspektivpå samtidens diskussioner om övervakning i arbetslivet. Han undersöker de tekniker som använts för att i allt högre grad kontrollera arbetet och vilka konsekvenser utvecklingen har fått. Resultatet är en kärnfull berättelse om Sveriges ekonomiska omvandlingar från sent 1700-tal till idag, om misstro och om en tilltagande minutjakt., Our society claims to protect individual freedom, but freedom ends every time we clock in. Never before have employers been able to control their employees in such detail. But the desire to control workers runs like a common thread throughout history. In this book, ethnologist Daniel Bodén applies a social-historical perspective to contemporary discussions about surveillance in the workplace. He examines the technologies that have been used to increasingly control work and what consequences the development has had. The result is a pithy story about Sweden's economic transformations from the late 18th century to today, about mistrust and about an increasing chase for productivity.

Touch mediates relations between self-other, writers, and readers; it is material and affective. This paper is the outcome of writing touch as a collaborative activity between eight women writers across different times and locals. In sharing experiences of touch during and beyond the pandemic, we engage with collaborative writing articulated here as colligere, involving the assembling of writing in a holding space. The meanings and feelings of touch arise from our distinct writer positionalities as we think, work, and write in and about life, research, organizations, and organizing. We suggest that writing that reflects on/through touch presents epistemic vulnerability and openness to unknowing in the nexus of intercorporeal relationships. Writing touch contributes to writing and doing academia differently, particularly by offering sensorial encounters that reframe the ethico-political conditions of academic knowledge creation.

Drawing on an analysis of autobiographical books written by female participants in extreme recreational sports races, this article offers an examination of self-presentations of athlete writers in relation to their serious leisure engagement in this type of sporting events that are often connoted with masculinity. The analysis centres on the authors’ constructions of various types of femininities, and how they challenge the subject/object dichotomy of the physical self in their narrations. A result of the examination is that the self-presentations enable negotiations of a position of being marginalized as average and ordinary women, who do extreme recreational sports and deviate from the male sports norm, but also enable experiences of empowerment through the physical activity and racing in the particular settings of extreme sports. This tension in the female racers’ self-presentations is analysed in reference to different social conditions that surround womens’ participation in extreme sports races.

Pehr Stenberg (1758-1824), bondson från Umeå landsförsamling, suderade i Åbo och återvände till hembygden för en rad anställningar som präst. Hans omfattande och personligt öppenhjärtliga levernesbeskrivning ligger till grund för denna antologi där hans försök att finna sig till räta med sin nya sociala status, som gift man och som intellektuell i landsorten diskuteras.

The governance of Indigenous people is in many contexts a combination of political ambitions to promote self-governance, and more traditional policies and governance practices. These combinations often carry unintended contradictions and exclusionary processes. In this article, we investigate the consequences of one such contradiction: the aspiration for self-determination and self-governance on the one hand and the aspiration for broader political influence in decisions about resources to Sámi sport on the other. Since legitimation of governance structures and practices is essential for their overall functionality, we constructed the research question: What strategies are used to legitimise the policy and governance practices of Sámi sport? To explore this research question, we employed Sámi sport in Finland as an empirical case. Results show that authorisation as a legitimation strategy is prominent and used at institutional and individual levels. Moral evaluation as strategy is based on authoritative actors' personal choice. Inclusion and integration in mainstream policy is seen as a rational legitimation strategy, which is supported by narratives where smallness and uniqueness are dominant.

The article explores 'off the grid' representations in social media, with a focus on how these representations reproduce imaginaries of nature, place and gender. The analysis material consists of content produced by three influencers who left urban life for a simpler lifestyle in northern Sweden. We find that the social media content draws on numerous ideals: neoliberal ideals on digital entrepreneurship, anti-capitalist ideals on ‘escaping’ modern consumerist society and romantic (sometimes colonial) envisioning of northern Sweden as wild and empty land. We conclude that the ‘off grid’ social media representations and the various ideals they incorporate should be understood as expressions of a contemporary era of neoliberal romanticism: a trend that exists both online and offline.

Pehr Stenberg (1758-1824), bondson från Umeå landsförsamling, suderade i Åbo och återvände till hembygden för en rad anställningar som präst. Hans omfattande och personligt öppenhjärtliga levernesbeskrivning ligger till grund för denna antologi där hans försök att finna sig till räta med sin nya sociala status, som gift man och som intellektuell i landsorten diskuteras.

I den här artikeln analyserar jag humor om känsliga och tabubelagda ämnen utifrån tre perspektiv: yttrandefrihet, berättigande och kontext. Yttrandefriheten, i form av rätten att skämta om allt, kan ses som en viktig princip i humordiskurser. I humordebatter är det vanligt att hänvisa till yttrandefriheten för att försvara humor som har blivit kritiserad. Men i mitt empiriska material artikuleras även en princip om berättigande, som handlar om att vissa är mer berättigade än andra att berätta vissa skämt, vilken strider mot principen om yttrandefrihet. Slutligen är även kontexten viktig för vad som går att skämta om. I vissa sammanhang anses det vara opassande att skämta om tabubelagda ämnen medan det uppmuntras i andra sammanhang. När ett komiskt uttryck spelas in och sprids via sociala medier till en annan publik än det ursprungligen var menat för finns det en risk att vissa individer och/eller samhällsgrupper tolkar det på ett annat sätt och upplever det som stötande., In this article, humour about sensitive and taboo subjects is analyzedfrom three perspectives: freedom of speech, entitlement, and context. Freedom of speech, in the form of the right to joke about anything, can be seen as an important principle in humour discourses. In debates about humour, it is common to refer to freedom of speech in defense of what has been criticized. In my empirical material, however, a principle of entitlement is also articulated that concerns what kind of jokes you have the right to tell depending on who you are. The principle of entitlement contravenes the principle of freedom of speech. Finally, the context of a joke is also important for what you can joke about. When a comical expression is recorded and spread through social media and/or streaming services to another audience than that it was originally meant for, there is a risk that some individuals and/or groups in society will interpret it in another way and perceive it as offensive.

In Sweden today, many different dances are practiced within distinct scenes, which all have their specific characteristics, norms and ideals. This thesis analyses two of these scenes, polska and lindy hop. They share a similar background of revitalisation and revival. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse meaning-making processes within the scenes formed around these dance forms. It includes descriptions of historical revival processes but above all analyses of practitioners’ understandings and practices. The main research data consists of interviews with practitioners, and observations on dance events and courses. Theoretically, the study is based on a view of dance and dancing as cultural expressions whose meanings and forms are constantly being created and recreated. The analysis draws on a wide variety of theories and concepts within the humanities and performing arts research. The findings show that beliefs about the past emerge as a framework for practice in the two scenes. In the data, tradition and authenticity are important themes, and there is a shared discourse of preservation. Nevertheless, how important history is for today’s practitioners, and how the past is enacted and what meanings are ascribed to it, differs between and within the scenes. Discourses about the past, as well as processes of authentication, are much more prominent within the lindy hop scene, as compared to the polska scene. This includes aspects such as clothing and the making of and expression of gender. A notable difference between the scenes is that learning to dance is formalised through workshops in the lindy hop scene, whereas it is more informal among polska dancers. The thesis adds to the growing field of studies of revivals of music and dance, and shows how scenes formed around revived dances bear traces of the revival processes while at the same time creating something new in the present.

This document lays out the background for the research program “A promised land? Drivers, challenges and opportunities related to the (green) industrialization of Northern Sweden,” (nr. M22-0029) awarded by the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond’s in 2022. The document summarizes work in progress and may therefore be updated and republished in different versions according to the requirements of the program. This interdisciplinary program aims to understand the economic, social, and political challenges and opportunities of the ongoing industrial transformation in northern Sweden. A key element of the program is to identify drivers, obstacles, and preconditions in a historical, present, and forward-looking process-perspective.

Drawing on an analysis of autobiographical books written by female participants in extreme recreational sports races, this article offers an examination of self-presentations of athlete writers in relation to their serious leisure engagement in this type of sporting events that are often connoted with masculinity. The analysis centres on the authors’ constructions of various types of femininities, and how they challenge the subject/object dichotomy of the physical self in their narrations. A result of the examination is that the self-presentations enable negotiations of a position of being marginalized as average and ordinary women, who do extreme recreational sports and deviate from the male sports norm, but also enable experiences of empowerment through the physical activity and racing in the particular settings of extreme sports. This tension in the female racers’ self-presentations is analysed in reference to different social conditions that surround womens’ participation in extreme sports races.

This article analyses interviews with descendants of Polish migrants in Sweden using the lens of postmemory. The aim is to show how they narrated growing up with parents and grandparents who recalled traumatic experiences of the occupation of Poland during World War II and of the communist era, and to explore the transgenerational imprints of this recall. A number of less-explored aspects of postmemory are elucidated: postmemory related to less extreme abuse and violence than that experienced by Holocaust survivors; postmemory in both second and third generation; postmemory as narrated by those who grew up in a different country to that in which the trauma of their relatives is rooted; and the lived after-effects of trauma.

QC 20230615

With a specific focus on the presence/absence of interlocutors’ participation in the process, the chapter by Elin Wallner explores and exemplifies the undertaking of organising, analysing and writing ethnographic material, collected through in-depth interviews., Med ett specifikt fokus på närvaro/frånvaro av deltagarnas medverkande i processen utforskar och exemplifierar kapitlet uppgiften att organisera, analysera och skriva etnografiskt material insamlat genom djupintervjuer.

As a consequence of cutbacks in the welfare sector, rural populations have reacted to their situation by taking over and operating activities that are threatened by closures, such as schools, grocery stores and health centres, for themselves. Such initiatives are often referred to as examples of rural resilience. Drawing on interviews, this paper explores participants' narratives about rural initiatives aiming to retain and develop local welfare and community services. It pays specific heed to how notions of resilience reside within the narratives – the ideological convictions and challenges they entail, and the practices they make (im)possible. The study shows that participants’ narratives about resilient villages and initiatives indirectly support the neoliberal rural policy focus on regional responsibility to create growth. It argues that, in order to understand the appeal of the neoliberal positions and practices that resilience thinking proved to entail, it is important to recognise the intersections of space and identity, and to explore the local spatial experiences and imageries in relation to which resilience practices appear desirable and necessary, as well as the specific rural identities that resilience discourse supports.

Quality of care is determined not only by political decisions but also by how those policies are understood and managed by professionals when put into action. Home care services, the most common form of elder care in Sweden today, should include social support, which is very important for health and wellbeing. And yet, support for social participation seems to be lacking. Understanding prevalent social constructs and their possible impacts on focus and content of social practice in home care could reveal ways to address social support in home care. Therefore, this article highlights how professionals in home care provision talk about older home care recipients' loneliness and social needs, and how these repertoires are related to professionals' opportunities and obligations to support those social needs. The study included 22 persons from different professions in home care provision, from two municipalities in northern Sweden. Nine individual interviews and four group interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a discourse psychology approach. The results show two interpretative repertoires in which notions of otherness and likeness guided definitions and support regarding loneliness, social needs, and social support. This study reveals assumptions that underpin and structure the practices of home care. As the interpretative repertoires provided differing and partly opposing views on how to provide social support and combat loneliness, it seems important to also address the broader issues of professional identities and how loneliness is defined and approached.

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