Becoming the perfect swede: Modernity, body politics, and national processes in twentieth‐century Sweden*

Frykman, Jonas

doi:10.1080/00141844.1993.9981477

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…They were quickly criticised for their external bleakness and lack of sensitivity to their surrounding landscape (Vidén and Lundahl 1992), though generally not their internal design. The last could draw on a tradition of research into effective use of internal space begun at the start of the century as reformers responded to accommodation shortage (Eriksson 1998, Frykman 1993. The 9 For characterisation of American suburbs see, for example, Gans 1960, Jackson 1985, Popenoe 1977 earlier and the smaller post-war developments are usually rated more favourably.…”

Section: Care As Change: the Built Environmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Protestantism, Anxiety and Orientations to the Environment: Sweden as a Test Case for the Ideas of Richard Sennett

Stanworth¹

2006

Worldviews

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This paper examines how Protestant beliefs can influence orientations to the natural and built environment. Sweden is taken as a test case for a critical evaluation of Richard Sennett's American-focused claims that Protestant-induced anxieties encourage moves to create bland, neutralised environments in which temptation and contact with distractingly different others can be minimised. The paper documents ways in which Swedish environmental orientations fail to fit with Sennett's account and elaborates how Protestantism has the potential to generate a wider range of outcomes than he recognises. It then suggests that variations in the impact the same religion may have produced in the Swedish and American context might be linked to cross-societal differences in the relation between the individual and the collective, and in the role of the state.

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Section: Care As Change: the Built Environmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Protestantism, Anxiety and Orientations to the Environment: Sweden as a Test Case for the Ideas of Richard Sennett

Stanworth¹

2006

Worldviews

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“…Placing the cabin within the mid‐20th‐century context, one sees that what is particularly interesting about this period in Norwegian political history is the place of domesticity in forging a new modern society. While some refer to social changes experienced within European society during the inter‐ and post‐war period as a transition from traditional to consumer society (for a French example, see Segalen 1994), others refer to modernism in Scandinavia as the harbinger of ‘rationalisation of different aspects of economy, the labour market, [of] education …[and] family life’ (Frykman 1993: 260). In Norway this movement can be seen in new directives in social policy, chiefly driven by the Social Democrats who gained power in 1935, and is pertinent in a consideration of housing policy.…”

Section: The Modern Homementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering the cottage side by side with housing projects, variously codified under the term ‘modernism’ or ‘functionalism’, one can see that the cabin as a material form was curiously an absent presence in Norwegian domestic policy. As a leisure destination, its broad popularity came later, but the holiday cabin and particularly the outdoor life it promised was valorised in modernist architectural circles in the 1930s and beyond 3 (Findal 1995: 48; for a discussion of outdoor life see Frykman 1993; Löfgren 1999; Nederlid 1991; Pihl Atmer 1998). Looking at it less as a vehicle for outdoor activities, however, and more as a physical presence in the countryside or on city margins, one can see that the hytte throws light on ‘other’ forms of housing such as normative domesticity and everyday, routinised living.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Norwegian country cabin and functionalism: a tale of two modernities

Garvey

2008

Social Anthropology

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The mountain or shore-side cabin (hytte) represents a common leisure form for a significant proportion of the Norwegian population. Its roots can be traced to the decline of farming society, growing urbanisation and an emphasis on the outdoor life as part of 20th-century state modernising projects. Throughout this modern history, and through periods of accelerated social change, the cabin has represented an 'other' form of domesticity. This paper makes the argument that far from representing an escape from post-industrial consumer society, the hytte prompts evaluation, comparison or negation of normative domesticity for its occupants. Many priorities such as getting back-to-nature and living the simple life are achieved best, paradoxically, through their material manifestation. Routine and rupture, and discourse surrounding farming culture artefacts are central in evoking contrast.

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“…These are questions that a number of Swedish ethnologists have discussed. For a lucid case study of the nationalization of everyday life see Anders Linde-Laursen's study of how Swedes and Danes were taught different kitchen habits and standards (1993); for other examples see Arnstberg, 1989;Astrom, 1996;Bergqvist, 1996;Frykman, 1993;Lofgren, 1994. On the whole, the role of mass consumption as a force of cultural nationalization has been underestimated. The examples from Sweden and the USA also illustrate how nationalization and internationalization are not polarized developments but parallel and interdependent ones.…”

Section: Handy With Thingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scenes From a Troubled Marriage

Löfgren

1997

Journal of Material Culture

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Why did material culture studies take up such a central space in the development of European ethnology in Sweden and why was this field abandoned, only to return during the 1980s in the new form of studies of 'creative consumption' ? This paper looks at the changing ways in which the world of goods has been a research topic. Drawing on the Swedish experience it also discusses some ways of revitalizing the field, focusing on the materiality of everyday life, from the level of home-making to nation-building. Key Words ⧫ consumer skills ⧫ creativity ⧫ everyday life ⧫ material culture ⧫ national culture THE LOVE OF THINGS In Cathleen Calbert's poem The Woman Who Loved Things (in Howard and Lehman, 1995:31 ) , it is not only the woman who learns to love things things learn to love her too, resulting in 'the sweet suck of consenting molecules'. Reading her poem I was reminded how my generation of students learned how to stop loving things. In the mid-1960s we encountered the discipline of European ethnology rather as a big ocean liner with its engines shut off, still gliding through the water -but short of fuel. The ocean liner was the grand project of mapping out what was then seen as the traditional Swedish folk culture. Since the beginning of the century most ethnologists, from old professors to young students, had been united in this common task. The project was already evident when the first Swedish chair of European ethnology was occupied by

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Becoming the perfect swede: Modernity, body politics, and national processes in twentieth‐century Sweden*

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

Protestantism, Anxiety and Orientations to the Environment: Sweden as a Test Case for the Ideas of Richard Sennett

Protestantism, Anxiety and Orientations to the Environment: Sweden as a Test Case for the Ideas of Richard Sennett

The Norwegian country cabin and functionalism: a tale of two modernities

Scenes From a Troubled Marriage

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