“Source criticism” (källkritik) has become an essential part of the Swedish government’s activities against false information, deception campaigns, and propaganda, which are viewed as fundamentally destabilising forces that can potentially undermine the democratic system, the public debate, and political decision-making. The purpose of this article is to explore source criticism as a technology of government focusing on the Swedish Psychological Defence. I analyse the way in which source criticism is brought to bear on Swedish national security policy in the light of Foucauldian theories about modern governmentality and technologies of the self. Source criticism is seen as an example of a contemporary form of government that entails a redistribution of responsibility from the state to the individual, who is provided with certain “technologies of self” to master an unpredictable political environment. With this case study as empirical example, the aim of the article is to contribute to the research on the influence of humanistic knowledge in security and defence policy domains. This prompts further discussion about what happens with the democratic and critical potential of humanistic knowledge as it is enrolled in government operations.
Swedish defence research played a significant part in the development of the Swedish Total Defence. This article seeks to modify the bias of previous historical studies of the Swedish National Defence Research Establishment (FOA) that has been focusing on the natural sciences, technology, industrial relationships, and the development of weapons system. The article explores the use of knowledge that is commonly associated with the humanities. More specifically, it examines the use and impact of historical knowledge in relation to the efforts of establishing a Swedish civil resistance policy between the early 1970s and the early 1990s. However, instrumental advice could not be developed based on knowledge about the past. Historical knowledge rather supported conceptual development and learning. It was part of public information campaigns and the education of civil servants. It also addressed central security and defence objectives of the Swedish government. The engagement with civil resistance provided FOA with an additional arena for influencing policy that would potentially concern a large part of the Swedish population.
This chapter explores knowledge associated with the humanities that has been developed in practice-oriented research domains of the Swedish government to help solve societal challenges. I study the Swedish National Defense Research Establishment [Försvarets forskningsanstalt] (FOA). The concept of "borderline humanities" refers to research activities that did not abide by academic distinctions between the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. The study shows how knowledge on human culture, history, language, and beliefs developed in a research environment that drew on diverse fields of both research and practice. The chapter brings to the fore shared themes and concepts between different research fields and draws attention to how this affects the view of research impact.
This article contributes to the research on the expansion of the Swedish post-war road network by illuminating the role of tourism in addition to political and industrial agendas. Specifically, it examines the “conceptual construction” of the Blue Highway, which currently stretches from the Atlantic Coast of Norway, traverses through Sweden and Finland, and enters into Russia. The focus is on Swedish governmental reports and national press between the 1950s and the 1970s. The article identifies three overlapping meanings attached to the Blue Highway: a political agenda of improving the relationships between the Nordic countries, industrial interests, and tourism. Political ambitions of Nordic community building were clearly pronounced at the onset of the project. Industrial actors depended on the road for the building of power plants and dams. The road became gradually more connected with the view of tourism as the motor of regional development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.