Jan Öhman - Voices from the North: New Trends in Nordic Human Geography

New Trends in Nordic Human Geography

Edited by
Jan hman
Kirsten Simonsen

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright 2003 Jan hman and Kirsten Simonsen

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Voices from the north: new trends in Nordic human
geography
1.Human geography - Scandinavia
I.Simonsen, Kirsten II.hman, Jan
304.2'0948

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Voices from the north: new trends in Nordic human geography / edited by Jan Ohman
and Kirsten Simonsen
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7546-3425-6 (pbk.: alk. papers)
1. Human geography--Scandinavia. 2. Scandinavia--Economic conditions. 3.
Scandinavia--Social conditions. I. hman, Jan. II. Simonsen, Kirsten, 1946
GF611 .V65 2003
306'.0948--dc21
2002028127

ISBN 9780754634256 (pbk)

Hans Thor Andersen , Ph.D, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Roger Andersson , Professor, Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Ann-Cathrine quist , Ph.D, Department of Social Sciences, rebro University, Sweden.

Bjrn T. Asheim , Professor, Department of Social and Economic Geography, University of Lund, Sweden, and Centre for technology, innovation and culture, University of Oslo, Norway.

Jrgen Ole Brenholdt , Associate Professor, Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Nina Gunnerud Berg , Associate Professor, Department of Geography, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.

Eric Clark , Professor, Department of Social and Economic Geography, University of Lund, Sweden.

Gunnel Forsberg , Professor, Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Sweden.

Jouni Hkli , Professor, Department of Regional Studies and Environmental Policy, University of Tampere, Finland.

Michael Haldrup , Ph.D, Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Frank Hansen , Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Hille Koskela , Ph.D, Department of Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Ari Aukusti Lehtinen , Professor, Department of Geography, University of Joensuu, Finland.

Anders Lfgren , Associate Professor, Department of Geography, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.

Anders Malmberg , Professor, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Peter Maskell , Professor, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.

Irene Molina , Ph.D, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Jan hman , Associate Professor, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Gunnar Olsson , Professor, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Kenneth R. Olwig , Professor, Department of Landscape Planning, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden.

Anssi Paasi , Professor, Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Finland.

Kirsten Simonsen , Professor, Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark.

Kirsten Simonsen and Jan hman

One widespread acknowledgement within contemporary human geography is about the contingent and contextual character of knowledge/s. As expressed in notions such as Haraways situated knowledges (1991) or Saids situated and travelling theory (1984), knowledge/s has to be grasped in the place and time out of which it emerges. Even though situated knowledges is not necessarily local knowledges, each author also the ones contributing to this collection is situated in many different ways, the social and cultural context of the production of knowledge do matter. This is not a claim on social theory and knowledge to be inescapably context-bound, but rather an acknowledgement of the way in which it always carries some particularity and some inherent assumptions from its place of origin. More than any other line of thought, postcolonial discourse has informed this acknowledgement, and it has provoked many authors to position themselves and reflect on their own situatedness. Given the concern of this bulk of work, it has primarily given rise to discussions on representations and power-knowledge relationships between the West and the rest of the world. From our point of view, however, it is important to acknowledge that the West is not homogeneous either; it is permeated by a multiplicity of axes of distinction, by difference in languages, traditions and cultural and political histories. In the current production of knowledge within human geography these differences are often blurred in hegemonic Western discourses in which British/North American particularities achieve the status of universals. Any interest in destabilising such power-knowledge systems calls upon interventions from other voices. It is against this background the aims of this book shall be seen. We want to reflect on the Nordicness of contemporary Nordic human geography, to fill in gaps in its Anglophonic circulation and to present (but not claim to represent) new trends in this discourse/s. In that connection, we want to explore the way in which these voices at the same time intervene in international debates and produce their own specificity/ies. That is, to pose and seek to answer the question: Is there a Nordic human geography?

Now, a designation like Nordic should of course be used with caution. When a historical scholar such as Benedict Andersson ends up defining a nation as an imagined community (Haraway 1991), doubt must necessarily be cast upon calling anything inherently Nordic. National as well as Nordic identities are phenomena of discourse, constructed at distinctive junctures in time, and for specific purposes. The invention of the Nordic can, in fact, be traced back to nationalist-Romantic movements of the nineteenth century. Alongside the spread of a nationalist discourse within the individual Nordic countries, a transnational ideology extolling a Scandinavian or Nordic spirit of communality arose. Interest in the uniquely Nordic past (e.g. the Vikings) was part of national as well as Nordic imaginations.