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This Element provides a pedagogical overview of the history of knowledge, including its main currents, distinguishing ideas, and key concepts. However, it is not primarily a state-of-the-art overview but rather an argumentative contribution that seeks to push the field in a certain direction – towards studying knowledge in society and knowledge in people's lives. Hence, the history of knowledge envisioned by the authors is not a rebranding of the history of science and intellectual history, but rather a reinvigoration of social and cultural history. This implies that many different forms of knowledge should be objects of study. By drawing on ongoing research from all across the world dealing with different time periods and problems, the authors demonstrate that the history of knowledge can enrich our understanding of past societies. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The willingness to defend the nation is high in Sweden. This thesis explores the links between the willingness to defend the country and perceptions of vulnerability. Utilizing a survey administered to members of the Swedish Home Guard, pertinent data was collected and analyzed. The findings of this study demonstrate a positive association between the degree of perceived threat and the sense of vulnerability experienced. Consequently, heightened feelings of vulnerability correspond with an increased willingness to engage in defensive actions and safeguard the nation. Moreover, regional disparities in geographical settings influence attitudes towards direct involvement in conflict; individuals residing in rural areas exhibit lower apprehension towards direct engagement and elevation in the willingness to participate in defensive endeavors, compared to their urban counterparts. These observations underscore the imperative for targeted dissemination of defense-related information to effectively enact positive societal change.

This article explores the functionality and character of the TimesMachine, the digital archive of the New York Times, as it relates to research in the history of knowledge and history of education. The TimesMachine was designed specifically to improve the accessibility and contextualization of digital newspapers. However, the fog of digitization still complicates how researchers can (and should) use these digitized newspapers as sources of knowledge. Using the TimesMachine as a case study, this article aims to contribute to current conversations regarding the possibilities and limitations of digital archives and to demonstrate the importance of digital literacy for historians. There are several takeaways from this article that can help researchers make informed methodological choices in their pursuit of history, including the re-centering of materiality in the digital space and the integration of interdisciplinary and digital methods in the history of knowledge.

Johannes Westberg’s chapter addresses nineteenth and early twentieth century primary school teachers. Examining them as multifaceted actors of knowledge, this chapter examines the various roles in knowledge production and distribution that their training and social position enabled them to take. Using the concept of knowledge broker as a conceptual point of departure, I suggest a preliminary typology of four roles that teacher took as knowledge actors outside of the classroom: the teacher as (i) private lecturer and teacher; (ii) author, researcher and journalist, (iii) administrative assistant, and (iv) politician. Although these roles have remained neglected in contrast to teachers’ work in classrooms, this chapter provide further inspiration for studies examining the multiple roles of knowledge actors. Teachers were not the only profession to combine their main employment with that of author, researcher, administrator or politician.

This book provides an overview of the history of knowledge, including its main currents, distinguishing ideas, and key concepts. However, it is not primarily a state-of-the-art overview but rather an argumentative contribution that seeks to push the field in a certain direction – towards studying knowledge in society and knowledge in people's lives. Hence, the history of knowledge envisioned by the authors is not a rebranding of the history of science and intellectual history, but rather a reinvigoration of social and cultural history. This implies that many different forms of knowledge should be objects of study. By drawing on ongoing research from all across the world dealing with different time periods and problems, the authors demonstrate that the history of knowledge can enrich our understanding of past societies.

During the twentieth century, a number of actors and institutions acrossthe global north set out to develop hierarchical social taxonomies of their national populations. Mainly used for the making of statistics, these divisions soon came to be influential in policy and public debates. Using mainly Swedish examples, this article offers new ways of understanding social taxonomies, thereby adding insights into an understudied research object within the field of history of knowledge. Social taxonomies connect mundane and practical aspects of knowledge in the making – in terms of how actors order empirical material to through these create statistics – with larger public debates on society. They are, moreover, linked to different epistemic and political projects. I argue that social taxonomies should be understood as difference technologies; that is, ways of ordering and studying the social by producing differences between and sameness within its classifications.

This book highlights the diverse roles of the humanities in the history of the Swedish welfare society. This society has often been seen as dominated by an instrumental view of knowledge that rewarded the social sciences, natural sciences and technology, but the contributions in this book show the significant role that the humanities played in the Swedish welfare state. Various forms of humanistic knowledge and knowledge actors were part of large networks and left a clear mark on the public sphere and society at large. A narrative of the marginalization and crisis of the humanities in the postwar period must therefore be problematized. This edited volume brings together some twenty scholars from a number of humanities disciplines (history, history of ideas, media history, literary studies, archaeology, education, etc.). Much of the current research on the history of the humanities conducted in Sweden today is brought together here and put in relation to international discussions in fields such as history of humanities, history of knowledge, etc. The book is a sibling to the monograph Humanister i offentligheten, which was published in 2022

The second issue of the yearbook History of Intellectual Culture (HIC) dedicates a thematic section to modes of publication. This volume addresses recent advances in publication studies and stresses the cultural formation of knowledge. By exploring and analyzing layers of presenting, sharing, and circulating knowledge, we invite readers to critically engage with questions of media uses and publishing practices and structures, both historically and in our contemporary digital age.The articles in this volume attest to the great variety of publication modes and perspectives, from the potential and limits of digitizing newspapers such as the New York Times to questions of positionality in building and using Wikipedia, from translation policies and female participation to the genre of university histories.

Inom Nationell Skalning Öppna Data (NSÖD) har vi både genererat kunskap men också analyserat dokumenterade erfarenheter och råd från genomförda projekt och andra organisationer. I denna rapport har vi sammanställt dessa samlade erfarenheter och gör rekommendationer till andra om hur resultatet kan och bör hanteras vidare. De två huvudsakliga tilltänkta mottagarna av resultatet från NSÖD är DIGG och projektet Nationell dataverkstad för kommunal och regional datadelning (Dataverkstad) som samordnas av Västra Götalandsregionen (VGR). Det finns andra mindre användare av resultatet (t.ex. enskilda kommuner) och det kommer troligtvis finnas ännu fler längre fram men det är också troligt att DIGG och Dataverkstaden då har utvecklat arbetet och stödet ännu mer. Den viktigaste anledningen till att DIGG är mottagare är att undvika “projektdöden”, d.v.s. att projektets resultat riskerar bli bortglömt samt oförändrat efter projekttiden (och med tiden därför blir allt mindre relevant). Genom att DIGG tar emot material från NSÖD och gör det till en del av sitt befintliga stöd kan det leva vidare och uppdateras (särskilt vägledningar och rekommendationer). DIGG och NSÖD har dessutom arbetat nära tillsammans kring flera viktiga projektleveranser så att resultatet direkt ägs och förvaltas av DIGG. Leveranserna från NSÖD har alltså varit anpassade för att enkelt kunna tas över och förvaltas av DIGG. Den främsta anledningen till Dataverkstaden som mottagare är att det projektet kan och bör fortsätta det mer praktiska arbete som NSÖD har bedrivit. Det finns praktiska lärdomar och erfarenheter som är direkt relevanta för Dataverkstaden. I viss mån finns också formellt stöd som VGR borde ta över och förvalta och utveckla. Det gäller framför allt vägledningar och specifikationer för hur specifika mängder av öppna data bör formateras och publiceras., Bilagor: A. Analys av befintligt stöd B. Undersökning deltagande kommunerUndersökning deltagande kommuner 2019 – analys och rapportUndersökning deltagande kommuner 2019 – tabellerUndersökning deltagande organisationer 2021-2022 – tabeller C. Utbildning arbetssätt och processer D. Workshop och utbildning öppna data32 E. Löpande utbildning öppna data F. Workshop öppna data för ledningsgrupp G. Rekommendation för grundläggande information om skolor H. Livsmedelsinspektioner – Presentation I. Livsmedelsinspektioner – Rekommendation J. Livsmedelsinspektioner – Teknisk specifikation K. Måltidsinformation – PresentationL. IT-arkitektur – IoT-metadatakatalogM. Rekommendation för att ta fram vägledningar och specifikationer för enhetlig datadelning