Transnational and Historical Perspectives on Global Health, Welfare and Humanitarianism.By E. Fleischmann, S. Grypma, M. Marten, I.M. Okkenhaug (eds).

Abstract

The essays in this collection were originally presented at a 2011 conference at the University of Bergen, entitled Humanitarianism, Nursing and Missions: How to Study Knowledge Exchanges in a Historical, Transnational Perspective . The collection explores transnational themes and methodological approaches that are related to global health, welfare, and humanitarianism. As a whole, the essays contribute much to a deeper understanding of the historical development of global charitable efforts, both within the structures of religious establishments and in the secular movements that have grown out of them. Indeed, as the editors point out, the essays reveal that humanitarian workers often demonstrated a type of ‘post-secular orientation’ that was bound neither to religion nor the nation state. Instead, they operated on the margins, grounded in a contemporary globalism or even (for certain Christian missionaries) in an anticipatory identity as citizens of a kingdom that is not yet . The volume contains eleven essays, presented in four parts. The first part, Globalizing Relief and Welfare , consists of three essays by Aeleah Soine, Inger Marie Okkenhaug, and Pirjo Markkola, in which the authors captivatingly consider the Protestant deaconess movement in Europe and its wider transnational impact. Soine’s essay, The Motherhouse and its Mission(s) Kaiserswerth and the Convergence of Transnational Nursing Knowledge, 1836-1865 , details the impact of the Kaiserswerth Deaconness Institute, which was founded in 1836 and whose holistic methods, integrating physical, spiritual and cultural patient care, influenced both Protestant and secular nursing efforts that would follow, and would lay the groundwork for effective cooperation between religious, humanitarian, and professional organisations. Okkenhaug’s essay, Norwegian Nurses, Relief and Welfare in the United States and Middle East, c. 1880-1915 , chronicles the development of contemporary transnational welfare efforts from their beginnings in the 19th century and as exemplified in the work of Lutheran deaconesses trained in Scandinavia. Comparing the work of these deaconesses in the USA and in the Ottoman Empire, Okkenaug illuminates the various veins through which humanitarian practice and methodology flowed. Finally, Markkola, in Deaconnesses Go Transnational: Knowledge Transfer and Deaconness Education in Nineteenth-Century Finland and Sweden , discusses the role of inter-Nordic knowledge exchanges between training institutions in Norway and Sweden. These exchanges shaped not only the expertise of the deaconesses themselves, but also affected social and health care efforts at a local level.