This article explores how socio-cultural, cultural-historical and activity theory approaches to education and psychology have traveled to Greece over the last three decades. It explores the history of introducing these approaches in the Greek context while identifying key dimensions of the process, such as: diverse interpretation of original works, key actors in academic teaching and research and linkages with educational policy and activism beyond the university spaces. Greece with its specific history of military dictatorship, constitutional change, varied struggles for democracy within the university, European integration, and current crisis and neoliberal reforms is seen as a sample case; taking this case as a point of departure, the authors develop a meta-theoretical frame on how to discuss the various ways in which socio-cultural-historical approaches have traveled across socio-cultural, historical, institutional, political, regional, and also, increasingly globalized contexts of education.

Development is the intentional, multidimensional process concerned with using resources to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities and countries (Girvan, 1993, p. 30). The discourse surrounding the decolonisation of Development continues its critique of Development's colonial ideologies rather than uplifting proposed alternatives and solutions. This mixed-method study used qualitative and quantitative data to examine and determine what, if anything, Afro-Caribbean Philosophy can contribute to Development in the context of Jamaica. Data sources included eight (8) Afro-Caribbean texts—including a speech, a song, four (4) poems, two (2) books—and 77 responses to an online questionnaire geared towards Jamaicans in the diaspora. Data analysis of the Afro-Caribbean texts revealed that the primary function of Afro-Caribbean philosophy is liberation—that is, the “significance of human freedom and agency” (Henry, 2000, p.168) and the struggles for independent nation-state construction and decolonisation. Under this primary function of liberation are five identified sub-themes of sensitisation, history, collectivism, self-production, and Spirit. By uplifting these findings, and deploying Afro-Caribbean philosophy as a viable alternative to the Western philosophy of modernity, this study will indicate that there are several ways Afro-Caribbean philosophy can contribute to effective Development in Jamaica.

What can a lecture on sex from the 18th century inform about contemporary sexuality education? 

One of the earliest accounts of sexuality education in formal education is provided by no less than the famous naturalist and botanist Carl von Linné (Linnaeus). In the lecture, Collegium Medicum - Om sättet att tillhopa gå [Regarding the way to come together] from the 1700s, Linnaeus allegedly provided a lively account on human sexuality. While sexual reproduction is necessary for all animals, Linnaeus distingued the human from other anthromoporfa species by the Greek motto Nosce te ipsum [know thyself] (Hoquet, 2014; Müller-Wille, 2014). Thereafter, he divided humankind into four racialized sub-groups. Over the course of 23 years and ten editions, Linneaus work and develop his classifications of man in Systema Naturae (1735-1758) and while his “races” sometimes shifted order, they remained (Linnaeus, 2023; Müller-Wille, 2014).

In this presentation I aim to address the normative force of sexuality education by engaging with Linnaeus lecture on human sexuality and reproduction and his racial account in Systema Naturae. Reading Linnaeus work in paralell with his lecture is key, for while his classifications in Systema Naturae are restrained, his lecture on sex offers vivacious explanations of the “natural” sexual constitution of the homo sapiens. To guide my readning, I ask how and what Linnaeus lecture on sexuality and human reproduction can inform about the “thyself” that the homo sapiens ought themselves to “know”?

Based on Müller-Wille (2014) epistemological understanding of “races” as mental tools, Linnaeus work and lecture are considered to be functional objects - anchoring points from which values, judgements, and consequences follows. I argue that Linnaeus sexuality education operates as a normative force as it provided a foundation for a particular biologization of the human body that naturalised distinction in both flesh and sensation. 

References

Hoquet, T. (2014). Biologization of Race and Racialization of the Human. Bernier, Buffon, Linnaeus. In N. Bancel, T. David, & D. R. D. Thomas (Eds.), The invention of race : scientific and popular representations. Routledge. 

Linnaeus, C. (2023). A General System of Nature. In G. G. Harpham (Ed.), Theories of Race. An Annotated Anthology of Essays on Race, 1684⁠–⁠1900. Geoffrey Galt Harpham. https://www.theoriesofrace.com/7 

Müller-Wille, S. (2014). Race and History: Comments from an Epistemological Point of View. Science, Technology & Human Values, 39(4), 597-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243913517759 

My doctoral project aims to provide new knowledge about Swedish women’s writing between 1940 and 1955. I ask questions about how novels, short stories and chronicles depict women’s citizenship and produce ideas about the Swedish national community. I also ask questions about what conditions are required for women to be writers and in what ways a selection of texts written by working-class and middle-class women can contribute to new perspectives on the history of Swedish literature.

With an understanding that the mass media plays a major role in the production of the imagined Swedish community, I study the production of women’s literature in relation to the dominant culture and the public (literary) sphere. By reading the texts both as mass media and as literature, I analyse the ways in which the texts (re)produce and negotiate the dominant national culture, and I highlight tensions and conflicts in and between the texts. Furthermore, I deploy a critical perspective when discussing the (re)production of myths about Sweden and citizen ideals. Another core point of departure is my understanding of how history is made and how the meanings of time and space are created through the selection, interpretation and valuation of texts. Additionally, the dominant culture becomes visible when marginalized texts, such as those written by female writers from 1940 to 1955, are read and the voices of these writers are heard.

Various notions of Swedish women and their citizenship are produced in my selection of texts found in the archives. Overall, these texts challenge the myth of the Swedish welfare society, where all citizens can live without discrimination and poverty. Women’s citizenship is portrayed as circumvented, and brutal insights are provided into what a limited right to abortion and limited rape legislation mean for women, as well as what a society planned from a gender-complementary viewpoint means for women’s social and economic rights. The texts make visible both the patriarchy and the class society’s naturalised defence of inequality. They show that the struggle for (more) equal citizenship requires that it be waged against discrimination and against unequal material conditions.

Furthermore, the texts also tell us that the myth of the Swedish community as homogenous, requires that conflicting narratives – like women’s novels and chronicles – be sorted out of the historiography.

Denna text utgör en sammanfattande bild av forskning om mindfulness i skolan som arena. Efter kliniska framgångar av mindfulnessterapi världen över har mindfulness på senare tid utvecklats för att införlivas och anpassas för barn, elever, och till viss del även lärare, i skolmiljö. Detta kan ses som ett svar på den ökade psykiska ohälsan bland unga grundat i ökade akademiska och sociala krav. Den svenska skollagen uttrycker att ett hälsofrämjande perspektiv ska genomsyra utbildningens alla delar och detta understryks av forskning som visar starka samband mellan hälsa och lärande. I denna text lyfts inledningsvis bilden av en ökad ohälsa bland barn och unga samt skolans ansvar för barn och ungas hälsa, för att sedan med hjälp av tidigare forskning, utforska hur mindfulness skulle kunna vara en hälsofrämjande skolinsats för ett ökat välbefinnande. Resultaten utgör en sammanställning av tidigare genomförda forskningsöversikter om mindfulness insatser i förskole- och skolmiljö för både barn, elever och lärare.

De viktigaste resultaten pekar på att

Majoriteten av forskningen och användningen i skolor använder sig av MBSR-liknande program (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). Skolan som arena har även gett upphov till en ny form av mindfulness-baserade interventioner som kombinerar MBSR-liknande metoder med innehåll och tekniker som hämtats från mer traditionella insatser för socialt och emotionellt lärande (SEL).

- Det är svårt att dra några generella slutsatser om mindfulness och dess effekter i en skolkontext. Dels för att det är ett relativt ungt forskningsfält, dels för att det finns stora brister och variationer i metod och design, vilket gör det svårt att jämföra [1]resultat mellan studier. Exempel på sådana brister är användandet av aktiva kontrollgrupper, användandet av självskattningsformulär och avsaknad av långtidsuppföljningar.

• De senaste årens forskning har fokuserat på att studera hur kvaliteten i forskningsdesign och rapportering av forskningsresultat kan stärkas gällande mindfulness-baserade interventioner i en skolmiljö.
• Begränsad forskning inom området gör att det är svårt att uttala sig om effekter av mindfulness i olika grupper (kön, ålder, behov av stöd, etcetera).
• För skolelever verkar mindfulness ha större effekt (mental hälsa, välbefinnande) på barn i övre tonåren, samt om interventionen sker över minst 4 veckor.
• Det finns få studier som studerat mindfulness och dess effekter i en förskolekontext. I detta fält dominerar studier från USA och de tenderar att ha ett patogent förhållningssätt (mindfulness som ett botemedel för ohälsa).
• Resultaten kan bero på vem som tillfrågas. Lärare i förskolan ser större förändringar än föräldrar och/eller barnen själva.
• Mindfulness-baserade interventioner i skolan kan utföras av externa instruktörer, eller av lärare i skolan. Den sammanlagda bilden visar att för en del utfall är effekterna större direkt efter interventionens slut när externa instruktörer utfört det sig att effekterna håller sig kvar längre när lärare utbildade i mindfulness utfört interventionerna.
• För att utvärdera effekterna av en intervention är det nödvändigt att detaljer såsom teoretisk bas, väldefinierade mål, tydliga riktlinjer, kompetensutveckling/utbildning och kvalitetskontroll samt tydliga steg för implementering är väl beskrivna.
• Det finns få empiriska studier som riktar sig till lärare. I de studier som finns har stress, ångest, utbrändhet, depression, upplevelse av mindfulness, psykiskt välbefinnande, känsloreglering, skolklimat, undervisningsmetoder och arbetsprestation varit i fokus. Effekter av mindfulness-baserade interventioner för lärare i relation till elevutfall (prestation, resultat) är underbeforskat.
• Interventioner för lärare visar positiva resultat och speciellt när det gäller känslomässig reglering. Kvalitativ forskning visar även att efter genomgången mindfulnessträning upplever många lärare att deras förmåga att hantera stress och konflikter ökar, samt att inkorporera mindfulness i undervisning ger en lugnare och mer fokuserad klassrumsmiljö.
• Det är oerhört viktigt att användningen av mindfulness för lärare inte tar bort fokus från andra faktorer i systemet (såsom arbetsmiljö, ledning och resurser) som påverkar lärare och elevers välbefinnande negativt.

More than a quarter of a century since Nelson Mandela became the country’s first democratically elected president, the racial categories of apartheid live on in South Africa. The proud vision of the “Rainbow Nation” is now being challenged by various forms of populism, with racial thinking as the common denominator. How can one advocate for non-racism and cosmopolitanism—in South Africa and the world—without being perceived as a defender of the privileges of the white minority? Oscar Hemer, Professor of the Arts at Malmö University, considers these questions in discussion with South African author colleagues Masande Ntshanga, Ivan Vladislavić and Bronwyn Law-Viljoen.

This paper explores Ted Chiang's novella "Seventy-Two Letters" and the way in which it combines genres, scientific and historical ideas in an effort to examine topics about life and creation. The combinations result in an intriguing representation of a history which is then made different and where Chiang can creatively challenge past ideas. Research by Foucault and Gillian Beer yielded insight into how historic and scientific concepts from biology in the nineteenth century became a culture's dominant understanding of life. Lakoff and Johnson argue that concepts are metaphorical in nature and Chiang skillfully incorporates metaphors to examine the creative force of language in the story. Darwin's theory of evolution is used as a conceptual framework and incorporated with older and outdated theories like preformation and recapitulation to speculate about how life can be created. The resulting effect is a layered and complex story that engages the readers' critical awareness of fictional and factual worlds alike.

My ambition in the midst of the myriad of conflicting views in Smith scholarship has been to examine Smith’s perspective on wage labour, as formulated in The Wealth of Nations, in light of previous research, the historical context, his moral psychology described in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, and his presentation of rights developed in Lectures on Jurisprudence. Therefore, the central question has been, “How did Adam Smith perceive wage labour?”

Since The Wealth of Nations was formulated in a specific historical context - which has come to be known as the Scottish Enlightenment -, it is necessary to approach the text with an understanding of these historical conditions in order to grasp Smith's economic theory. Thus, it has been crucial to situate him within the political, philosophical, cultural, and linguistic contexts in which he operated. In order to assess Smith's views on wage labour, I have not only familiarised myself with the historical contexts but also examined Smith's positions on issues that constitute his perspective on the matter. A crucial assumption for the fruitful application of the aforementioned method is that the political, philosophical, cultural, and linguistic contexts fluctuate depending on time and place, thus constructing a framework for what is practically possible to investigate, problematise, debate, etc. This characteristic is referred to as paradigm (Kuhn) or episteme (Foucault). The study has applied a synthesis of both concepts.

Throughout The Wealth of Nations, Smith assumes the existence of wage labour. However, beyond this fundamental assumption, his perspective on the issue is more complex. He indeed believed that an industrialised capitalist society based on private property rights, production for profit, and wage labour was better suited than any other economic-political system to generate growth and effectively address problems of poverty and inequality. The merits that Smith saw in wage labour were, in many respects, indirect, insofar as wage labour is a logical consequence of the free market and, to a lesser extent, division of labour. For Smith, the free market and division of labour were ultimate. Rather, any problems that might arise from them were expected to be resolved within the framework of these two immutable cornerstones.

However, the purpose of Smith's economic and political program was both economic and ethical in character. His analysis of the labour market and its actors was that "the labouring poor" - whose interests intersected greatly with those of society - were at risk of exploitation by employers - whose interests always differed from the general public's - but this could be prevented through full employment, as companies would then need to compete for workers instead of vice versa. However, this is only the lesser of the two problems that wage labour, combined with division of labour, gives rise to, according to Smith. The other being what is somewhat anachronistically referred to as alienation in Smith research. In particular, Smith placed his trust in education to free workers' minds from the monotony of work and prevent them from being dulled, allowing them to think about something other than their jobs and helping them form a realistic understanding of where their own interests lay - and how they harmonised with society's.

How then did Smith view wage labour? The short answer is that he saw it as something inevitable, inherent in the free market. However, he did highlight two serious risks associated with the free market and division of labour, namely the exploitation of the working class and alienation. While the former can be mitigated through full employment, the latter can be addressed through the education of the labouring poor.

Within intellectual history there has been a widening interest over the last decades in rediscovering intellectuals who used to be renowned when they were active, but who for various reasons have been more or less forgotten over time. The Swedish writer Ellen Key (1849–1926) was a famous intellectual who gained her reputation through books, pamphlets, and hundreds of lectures on topics such as pedagogy, peace, and women’s rights—topics that were at the top of a general intellectual agenda around 1900. I will focus on her idea of internationalism that was founded on an evolutionary life philosophy of development. Her engagement in internationalism was built on an idealist foundation of philosophical, religious, and humanitarian beliefs organized around peace and a problematization of the nation. Key advocated a kind of patriotism as her path towards developing internationalism. In this article, Key’s work is contextualized and conceptualized in the discussion of internationalism of her contemporaries.

This dissertation, a contribution to the history of ideas, is a study of Immanuel Kant’s 1795 monograph Zum ewigen Frieden (Perpetual Peace) and its effective history. The intention is to show how this particular work has been formed, read, discussed and interpreted for about 200 years. Considering the attention the work received on its bicentennial anniversary in comparison with the attention it had received before that, there is a good reason for studying it in a long perspective. This book consists of three parts. In part I, the focus is directed on the situation in which Kant wrote Perpetual Peace. The peace treaty tradition and the view of war and peace are dealt with as a background for the ideas and the reception of Kant’s peace treaty. The form and content of Perpetual Peace are discussed as well as its relation to Kant’s critical philosophy. Part II focuses on the principle ideas in Perpetual Peace: how a peaceful society founded on principles of rights is possible. Kant’s solution is to suggest a certain internal order in society, which should be complemented with an external. In my analysis of his republicanism, federalism, and cosmopolitanism, I emphasise Kant’s dependence on stoic ideals, but also on the French revolutionist Emmanuel Sieyès. Part III, finally, is an attempt to apply Gadamer’s concept of effective history on the large varieties of readings of Perpetual Peace over time. One of the interpreters was the German philosopher Karl Vorländer, who as an ideological advisor for the German socialist party tried to concretise Kant’s ideas of perpetual peace. His view of Kant is far from the ideals in Wilhelminian Germany, as well as from the cosmopolitan ideals appearing in the 1990s. These quite different interpretations of Perpetual Peace indicate that it makes sense to use such a concept as effective history. In my discussion all these aspects are of importance.

Cosmopolitanism is a value-loaded concept that seems to become popular in intervals. The latest cosmopolitan period started after the end of the Cold War and the breakdown of the Soviet Union and concentrated mostly on aspects such as “a new world order”, and often with reference to Kant. It might be questioned if the cosmopolitan period still exists. Here it is suggested that a historical understanding of cosmopolitanism together with experience from later social and political experiences might give a new perspective on the difficulties of creating a better world in a Kantian sense, including cosmopolitan education. Considering its history and taking concern of experience Kant’s cosmopolitanism still is relevant, not least in its broader sense.

Lettevall tager i artiklen fat på næste større fase i kosmopolitismens idéhistorie – den helt uomgængelige formulering den får i oplysningstiden og specielt hos Kant; ikke mindst i hans lille, men meget vigtige værk fra 1795, Til den evige fred. Lettevall diskuterer Kants begrænsning af kosmopolitisk ret til gæstfrihed, som han formulerede i en kritik af sin samtids kolonialisme. Hun viser også i en diskussion af Kants antropologiske forelæsninger, at kosmopolitter sagtens kan være snæversynede.