Read more
Within the growing attention to the diverse forms and trajectories of modern societies, the Nordic countries are now widely seen as a distinctive and instructive case. While discussions have centred on the 'Nordic model' of the welfare state and its record of adaptation to the changing global environment of the late twentieth century...
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction Jóhann Páll Árnasonand
Björn Wittrock Chapter 1. Nordic Modernity: Origins, Trajectories, Perspective
Bo Stråth Chapter 2. The Danish Path to Modernity
Uffe Østergård Chapter 3. Denmark 1740-1940: A Centralised Cultural Community
Niels Kayser Nielsen Chapter 4. The Making of Sweden
Björn Wittrock Chapter 5. History, Ethics and the Path to Modernity in Pre-Revolutionary Sweden
Peter Hallberg Chapter 6. Shifting Knowledge Regimes: The Metamorphoses of Norwegian Reformism
Rune Slagstad Chapter 7. Alternative Processes of Modernization?
Gunnar Skirbekk Chapter 8. Nordic Modernity and Finnish Modernity: Similarities and Differences
Risto Alapuro Chapter 9. The Finnish Grand Duchy and the Paradoxes of the Finnish Political Culture
Henrik Stenius Chapter 10. Icelandic Anomalies
Jóhann Páll Árnason Chapter 11. 'The Time Will Come': Icelandic Modernity and the Role of Nationalism
Guðmundur Hálfdanarson Notes on Contributors
About the author
Jóhann Páll Árnason is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Visiting Professor at Charles University, Prague. His research interests focus on comparative historical sociology, with particular emphasis on the comparative sociology of civilizations. Recent publications include: Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions (Brill 2003); Axial Civilizations and World History (co-editor, Brill 2005); and The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (co-editor, Blackwell 2010).
Björn Wittrock is Principal of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), Uppsala, and University Professor at Uppsala University. He has published extensively, currently eighteen books, in the fields of intellectual history, historical social science, social theory and civilizational analysis. Recent publications include: Frontiers of Sociology (co-editor, Brill 2009) and Eurasian Transformations, Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries: Crystallizations, Divergences, Renaissances (co-editor, Brill 2004).
