Unnatural discourse. ‘Race’ and gender in geography

Geographers’ long‐term involvement in the construction ‘race’ and gender has occurred through literally and metaphorically mapping out the world in ways that highlight, perpetuate and naturalize difference. This paper provides a critical analysis of the naturalization of these categories by revealing parallels in their social construction and in the ways in which they have been independently conceptualized. The focus is on the extent to which ‘race’ and gender as social constructs have been, and are, predicated upon biological categories. We argue for a conceptualization which, while eschewing notions of essentialism and determinism, integrates the biological and social, recognizing that distinctions between the biological and cultural are invariably socially constructed. We also highlight the extent to which social constructions are political constructions, sexism and racism being modes of thought which construct the body for ideological ends. We begin to chart the political strategies whereby dominant notions of the biological and cultural can be unnaturalized, thus challenging the ways in which ‘race’ and gender are used to create social identities and to maintain relations of domination. In an attempt to develop an alternative to strategic essentialism, we focus on the practice of unnatural discourse, of imposing disorder on dominant discourses through, for example, practices associated with the unnatural, the unnaturalization of everyday language, the unnaturalization of landscapes upon which gendered and racialized relations are played out, the questioning of our disciplinary codes and the unnaturalization of vision by developing new ways of seeing the racialized and gendered embodiment of subjects.     

Trade and markets in northern Fenno‐Scandinavia A.D. 1550–1750

Generally, two main opinions have been maintained concerning the age of the markets in northern Fenno‐Scandinavia: One asserting that the markets have their origins well before A.D. 1600, and possibly are dating from the Middle Ages; and the other suggesting that the markets may be constructions of the 18th century. The majority of studies relevant to the question of the markets have, however, been confined within strict geographical limits. Few efforts have been made to view the markets in a broader context, comprising the totality of the trade relations of northern Fenno‐Scandinavia. While giving the written evidence a critical and chronological sifting, the author of this paper stresses this perspective on the markets, as instruments of mediation between what is conceived as the three great trade systems embracing the northern part of Fenno‐Scandinavia.     

Bishops and Professionalization in Sweden,c. 1780–1880

This article investigates the concept of professionalization in terms of the bishops' role in the 19th-century Church of Sweden. Previous research has generally claimed that from the late 18th century until the mid-19th century, before the abolition of the Diet of Estates, the Swedish bishops amounted to secularized, conservative state officials who lacked the ability to effect religious reform. In this article, however, it will be argued that in the early 19th century, several decades earlier than previously assumed, the Swedish episcopate had begun to undergo a slow transformation that is best described as professionalization. It is posited that the bishops, inspired by Evangelical revival and Romanticism, became increasingly specialized in religion and theology in their education, thinking and practice. The episcopal profile also changed as the middle classes gained more influence from the early 19th century onwards, and this, in turn, prompted a higher standard of role performance.     

Positioning in the Cold War – Swedish and Danish History Textbooks and the Totalitarianism Doctrine. Historical Cultures in Comparison

The Nordic countries Sweden and Denmark have a long and intertwined history. The Second World War, though, formed different experiences in the two countries that led to diverging paths in the Cold War. Denmark became a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, while Sweden stayed non-aligned. Thus, it can be assumed that Denmark was more likely to adopt Western foreign policies and doctrines than Sweden. Or was it? On a programmatic political level this may have been the case, but what about cultural perceptions developed in Swedish and Danish ‘minds of men’? Is there a tension between les évenéments and les longues durées?

The underlying assumption in this article is that there is a contradiction and a tension between the programmatic political level and historically-inherited enemy images, and that this tension may be studied through the concept of totalitarianism and its position in the historical cultures of Sweden and Denmark in the post-war era. The totalitarianism doctrine was one of the main ideological weapons during the Cold War, serving as a basis for the Truman doctrine. It implies that Nazism and Soviet communism shared common features and may be subsumed under the same label. But would a Dane find it reasonable to view the Red Army, which belonged to the Allies which liberated his or her country, as of ‘the same kind’ as the German occupants? And would it make sense to a Swede to stay neutral to Soviet Russia, the historical enemy? The one who for a Swede is ‘the other’ might for a Dane appear as a historical ally.

The empirical sources are history textbooks for senior secondary school students, studied as artefacts of national historical cultures.     

Swahili Cosmopolitanism in Africa and the Indian Ocean World, A.D. 600–1500

Coastal peoples who lived along the Eastern African seaboard in the first millennium A.D. onwards began converting to Islam in the mid-eighth century. Clearly rooted in and linked throughout to an indigenous regional Iron Age tradition, they created a marked difference between themselves and their regional neighbors through their active engagement with Islam and the expanding Indian Ocean world system. In this paper I explore three ways in which interrelated cultural norms—an aesthetic featuring imported ceramics, foods, and other items, Islamic practice, and a favoring of urban living—created and maintained this difference over many centuries. These qualities of their identity helped anchor those who became Swahili peoples as participants in the Indian Ocean system. Such characteristics also can be seen to have contributed to Swahili attractiveness as a place for ongoing small-scale settlement of Indian Ocean peoples on the African coast, and eventually, as a target for nineteenth-century Arab colonizers from the Persian Gulf. This paper examines the archaeology of these aspects of Swahili culture from its early centuries through ca. A.D. 1500.     

Women’s sense of farming: ecofeminism in sustainable farming and local food in Vermont,U.S.A

Abstract

Women’s Sense of Farming is a qualitative study of women farming as part of the local food movement in Vermont, U.S.A. The study puts the lives of women farmers in conversation with ecofeminist theory in order to examine how women farmers simultaneously enact critiques of culture, while also mimicking dominant narratives. The study subjects’ narratives of their lives show how they navigate the reason/nature dualism (as articulated by philosopher Val Plumwood). The result of the study is a set of values and experiences that show the successes and challenges of local food farmers working toward social, environmental, and economic sustainability.