Introduction: The Nordic Heritage

Abstract

Twentieth Century Sociology (1948), Gurvitch and Moore's monumental overview of sociology during the first half of the century, contains chapters on sociology in the USA, Germany, France, Russia, as well as in Poland, Italy and South America. There is no mention of Scandinavia or the Nordic countries. Such was also the case with the main reviews that followed during the next 20 years. This pattern of international invisibility was broken in the 1975. Handbook of Contemporary Developments in World Sociology (Mohan & Martindale). Among 22 national reviews of European countries, two related to Sweden and Finland. The Nordic situation was presented somewhat defensively: 'To say that Scandinavian sociology does not rest on national traditions of macrosociological speculations is not to say that sociology in these four countries is without historical roots' (Allardt 1975). Following this, it was pointed out that there was considerable empirical activity about subjects that today are 'the legitimate concern of sociology' (1975:107, 108). Similar points appeared in the Sociology in Europe review of 1993 (Nedelmann & Sztompka), also echoed in Nordic publications. In Johan Asplund's Sociologiska Teorier (1967) just two books by Nordic authors were mentioned, one by the psychologist Rommetveit, the other by Asplund himself. The 'invisibility' of Nordic sociology reflects the late establishing of sociology as an academic discipline in these countries. Finland was exceptional in this respect; Edward Westermarck was appointed associate professor in sociology at the University of Helsinki as early as 1890, but a permanent professorship was not established in Finland until 1926, at the Abo Academy. From 1927 there was also a professorship in sociology at the Helsinki University. Eleven years went by until the first professorship in Denmark, at Aarhus University in 1938 (Theodor Geiger). Sweden's first full professorship came in 1947, at Uppsala University (Torgny Segerstedt), and the first in Norway in 1948, at the University of Oslo (S ver re Holm). Iceland did not establish sociology as a university discipline until 1970. However, long traditions of social reporting preceded these seats in Academia. Based in Uppsala, Carl Linn?us and his disciples travelled extensively throughout the Swedish provinces as well as in neighbouring Norway, describing local customs as well as plants and landscapes. Another example of relevant pre-sociological traditions is the relatively strong position held by political science at Uppsala University during Sweden's period as a great power during the 17th century. Of course this was not modern, empirically based political science but followed the more normative principles of the time, e.g. grounding the constitution in accepted principles of philosophy and morality (Lindroth 1989:352-354). In 1741 a Dane, Johannes Peter Anchersen, developed a nation-wide database on the population, state finances, religious composition, etc., for comparative purposes (Allardt 1997:55). In Norway, Eilert Sundt (1818-75) studied developments in mortality, fertility, housing conditions, hygiene, etc. during the 1850s and 1860s. H? even carried out a level of living survey in 1855 in Christiania. Sundt had lively contact with researchers abroad, and two of his books were translated posthumously into English. At the turn of the century Finnish researchers such as Lilius and Gebhard investigated social conditions in the countryside (Allardt 1993:120, 1997:55-58), and were well acquainted with the theories and methods of Schmoller and Leplay. In Sweden Gustaf Steffen, and Joseph Davidson in Denmark, economists with strong interests in sociology, were already active within