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The article takes as its starting point Leo Tolstoy’s character Pierre Bezukhov. His passive presence at the battle of Borodino, in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, is contrasted with today’s climate activism, exemplified by the Swedish human ecologist Andreas Malm. In his book How to Blow up a Pipeline, Malm argues that global warming forces scientists and scholars to become activists, and activists to turn to violence. This analysis, the article argues, is based on a simplistic notion of action (”one acts or one does not”) and a strong conviction of being right. If this certitude is problematic, it is also typical of our time. Where, then, does this tendency to simplify the complicated, and replace all uncertainty with sureness, come from? One answer is that activism requires determination, which in its turn presupposes access to the truth. Another explanation lies in the binary operations of the digital media we all rely upon. At the most basic level, these operations exclude all approximation, all nuances, all doubt: the options are one or zero. Against this background, it becomes crucial to defend a research practice that refrains from simplifications. In Sloterdijk, the article finds an argument for interrupting the affective impulses that reach us constantly. From Popper, it fetches an understanding of research as an event. Via Marx’s well-known formulation that philosophers must change the world, not just interpret it, the text then moves to Adorno’s defense of theoretical thinking. The question is, however, whether critical theory has any edge left. Has it not just become a part of the academic apparatus it once reacted against? The article finds an answer in Lyotard, and his idea of a theoretical apathy. This idea reminds a lot of the starting point of the article: Pierre Bezukhov’s comic but clear-sighted passivity on the battlefield.

Många yrkesgrupper i samhället har en mer eller mindre stark och tydlig yrkesidentitet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur en yrkesgrupp med en, för de som befinner sig i den, tydlig yrkesidentitet påverkas när befattningar bemannas med personal utan motsvarande bakgrund som organisationens huvuddel. Vi har valt att göra undersökningen på poliser som har arbetat inom Polismyndigheten under ett antal år. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i vår forskning hämtas främst från det sociologiska perspektivet på begreppet identitet. Inom detta perspektiv kopplas begreppet identitet till det sociala livet där sociala positioner och kollektiv samhörighet utgör viktiga element för individers identitetsskapande. Ledordet i vår forskning har varit att förstå. Förstå något som i grunden är unikt, föränderligt och skapas av de människor som befinner sig i eller omkring organisationen. Ett induktivt angreppssätt och en iterativ process har präglat vårt arbete. Det vetenskapliga stöd vi har behövt nyttja oss av i form av referensram är främst inom den sociala konstruktivismen, social identity theory, tidigare forskning om polisidentiteter samt vissa delar ur fenomenologin. Resultatet av vår undersökning har gett oss en tydlig bild av att polisers identitet kommer påverkas negativ om man inte aktivt jobbar med den friktionen inom polismyndigheten kommande år. Att polisutbildningen utvecklas till att vara delad på olika inriktningar, att civilanställda utbildas till poliser eller att chefer inom polismyndigheten inte rekryteras ur de egna leden. Detta riskerar att skapa en förskjutning mellan vad poliser idag menar är en polis, eller närmare bestämt riktig polis, och vilka Polismyndigheten i framtiden kommer anse vara poliser. Resultatet av vår forskning har gett oss att Polismyndigheten framgent står inför någonting komplext att hantera när det kommer till polisers identitet och hur den utmanas. Genom att tidigt hantera frågan avseende Identitet, kan den tydligare profileringen, Many professions have a more or less strong and clear professional identity. The purpose of this study, is to investigate how a professional group with a solid professional identity is affected when positions are staffed with personnel of diverging background from the main part of the organization. We conduct the study on police officers who have worked within the Swedish Police for a number of years. The theoretical starting point in our investigation is based on the sociological perspective on the concept of identity. Within this perspective, the concept of identity is linked to social life where social positions and collective belonging are important elements for the forming of an individuals' identity. The key word in our investigation has been to understand. Understand something that is fundamentally unique, changeable and created by the people who are in or around the organization. The essay is a qualitative study with a hermeneutical approach. The empirical data is primarily from interviews with respondents – Police officers, employed in different roles or positions within the Swedish police. The scientific frame of reference in the study is mainly within social constructivism, social identity theory, previous research on police identities and certain parts of phenomenology. The empirical material shows, and the conclusion of our study is, that the identity of police officers will be negatively affected if the Swedish Police does not actively work with the social identity perspective during the coming years. The suggested development of the police training and the several different ways to be able to wear the police uniform tend to challenge the identity negatively. This could result in a shift between whom serving police officers in the organisation regard as a real police officer, and the type of police officer the Swedish Police authority will consider being police officers in the future.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between cultural attendance and all-cause mortality. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study over 36 years (1982-2017) with three 8-year interval measurements of exposure (1982/1983, 1990/1991 and 1998/1999) to cultural attendance and a follow-up period to 31 December 2017.Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: The study included 3311 randomly selected individuals from the Swedish population with complete data for all three measurements. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: All-cause mortality during the study period in relation to level of cultural attendance. Cox regression models with time-varying covariates were used to estimate HRs adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: The HRs of cultural attendance in the lowest and middle levels compared with the highest level (reference; HR=1) were 1.63 (95% CI 1.34 to 2.00) and 1.25 (95% CI 1.03 to 1.51), respectively. CONCLUSION: Attending cultural events has a suggested gradient, the lesser cultural exposure the higher all-cause mortality during the follow-up.

I den følgende samtale forsøger tre af initiativtagerne til Nordiske digtere og kritikere at samle nogle af erfaringerne med projektets tre workshops. Indledningsvis beskrives rammerne for mødet mellem digtere, kritikere og forskere fra fire nordiske lande. Hvilke dynamikker gjorde sig gældende i samtalerne? Hvilke konsekvenser havde den meget åbne form? Hvad var fordele og ulemper ved at gå på tværs af den litterære institutions traditionelle arbejdsdeling og på tværs af nationale grænser? Samtalen udvikler sig herefter i to spor. Det ene angår det kulturkritiske potentiale i at føre en tværgående og ikke formålsrettet samtale om litteratur, det andet gælder udviklingen af måder at læse litteratur på, der ikke alene blander forfatternes, kritikernes og forskernes perspektiver, men tilmed inkluderer forfatterens egen opfattelse af sin tekst. Til slut konkluderes der med en omvending af en herskende magtlogik, der kræver dokumentation forud for praksis, her formuleret med hjælp fra Sara Ahmed: ”Det, vi har gjort med Nordiske digtere og kritikere indtil videre, er, at vi har indledt med at Do the doing – and now we need to do the documents.”, In the following conversation, three of the initiators of Nordic Poets and Critics try to gather some of the experiences from the project’s three workshops. Initially, the framework for the meeting between poets, critics and scholars from four Nordic countries is sketched out. Which dynamics prevailed in the conversations? What consequences did the very open form have? What were the advantages and disadvantages of crossing not only national borders but also the traditional division of labor within the literary institution? The conversation then develops in two tracks: One concerns the cultural critical potential of having a transversal and non-targeted conversation about literature; the other concerns the development of ways of reading literature that not only mix the perspectives of authors, critics and scholars, but even include the author’s own perception of his text. In the end, it is concluded with a reversal of a ruling logic of power that requires documentation prior to practice, here formulated with the help of Sara Ahmed: “What we have done with Nordic poets and critics, so far, is that we have started with Do the doing – and now we need to do the documents.”, Nordic Poets and Critics

Artikeln tar sin utgångspunkt i tre svenska debatter: om videovåldet (på 1980-talet), om ljudbokens konsekvenser och om gangsterrapen. Samtliga kretsar kring konstens autonomi, men det signifikativa är att autonomin förflyttas till subjekten som förväntas göra de distinktioner som är nödvändiga för att skenet av oberoende ska upprätthållas. Samtidigt finns en spridd uppfattning om att dagens konst ska vara ”berörande”. Detta kan tolkas som ett uttryck för att konst handlar om krafter. Artikeln fördjupar sig därefter i kraft-begreppet, via framförallt Christoph Menke, Bernard Stiegler och Gilles Deleuze. Till sist vänder den sig till ett par samtida litterära exempel för att illustrera kraft-begreppets tillämpbarhet. Den tentativa slutsatsen är att kraft-begreppet idag skulle kunna vara mer adekvat än autonomi-begreppet för att förstå litteraturens relevans.

I den følgende samtale forsøger tre af initiativtagerne til Nordiske digtere og kritikere at samle nogle af erfaringerne med projektets tre workshops. Indledningsvis beskrives rammerne for mødet mellem digtere, kritikere og forskere fra fire nordiske lande. Hvilke dynamikker gjorde sig gældende i samtalerne? Hvilke konsekvenser havde den meget åbne form? Hvad var fordele og ulemper ved at gå på tværs af den litterære institutions traditionelle arbejdsdeling og på tværs af nationale grænser? Samtalen udvikler sig herefter i to spor. Det ene angår det kulturkritiske potentiale i at føre en tværgående og ikke formålsrettet samtale om litteratur, det andet gælder udviklingen af måder at læse litteratur på, der ikke alene blander forfatternes, kritikernes og forskernes perspektiver, men tilmed inkluderer forfatterens egen opfattelse af sin tekst. Til slut konkluderes der med en omvending af en herskende magtlogik, der kræver dokumentation forud for praksis, her formuleret med hjælp fra Sara Ahmed: ”Det, vi har gjort med Nordiske digtere og kritikere indtil videre, er, at vi har indledt med at Do the doing – and now we need to do the documents.”, In the following conversation, three of the initiators of Nordic Poets and Critics try to gather some of the experiences from the project’s three workshops. Initially, the framework for the meeting between poets, critics and scholars from four Nordic countries is sketched out. Which dynamics prevailed in the conversations? What consequences did the very open form have? What were the advantages and disadvantages of crossing not only national borders but also the traditional division of labor within the literary institution? The conversation then develops in two tracks: One concerns the cultural critical potential of having a transversal and non-targeted conversation about literature; the other concerns the development of ways of reading literature that not only mix the perspectives of authors, critics and scholars, but even include the author’s own perception of his text. In the end, it is concluded with a reversal of a ruling logic of power that requires documentation prior to practice, here formulated with the help of Sara Ahmed: “What we have done with Nordic poets and critics, so far, is that we have started with Do the doing – and now we need to do the documents.”

Förmodligen har ingen bok påverkat skandinavisk litteraturvetenskap mer, under de senaste fem åren, än Toril Mois Revolution of the Ordinary: Literary Studies after Wittgenstein, Austin, and Cavell. Den statusen gör det angeläget att reflektera både över dess styrkor och eventuella brister. Varför är det en viktig bok? Och vilka invändningar väcker den, fyra år efter utgivningen? Det var också ungefär så uppdraget löd inför det seminarium som först föranledde den här texten: peka ut något positivt, något oklart och något negativt i Mois bok! Eftersom den är så innehållsrik, och eftersom den handlar om frågor som upptagit mig under lång tid, var svårigheten snarast att begränsa sig.

There is a widespread narrative today that, due to climate change, we are living in the end of times. What does this apocalyptic narrative tell us about our relation to death? A peculiarity with the climate discourse is that “we”, i.e., mankind, are given a position that is both external and internal to the problems described. On the one hand, there is an all-encompassing apocalyptic mood, on the other hand, death appears as a scandal, something we had abolished. In order to capture this peculiarity, the article adopts the narratological concept of the “focalizer”. After comparing the way climate change is addressed by the philosophers Martin Hägglund and Roy Scranton, respectively, the article turns to Hermann Broch’s novel The Death of Virgil (1945). Here, another perspective on dying and the end of civilization may be found. In that way, Broch’s novel provides a much needed perspective on today’s apocalyptic narratives. With Broch, one may argue that the end of the world takes place all the time.