Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Nordeuropa-Institut

Seit dem 18. Jahrhundert sind die wichtigsten intellektuellen und künstlerischen Impulse zur Konstruktion einer norwegischen Nationalidentität aus Deutschland gekommen. Zu diesen Impulsen gehört nicht zuletzt das Vorhaben, großer Taten und Helden der Vergangenheit durch Konstruktionen aus Stein oder Stahl zu gedenken. 1846 schlug der Dichter Henrik Wergeland vor, auf Eidsvold, dem Ort der Reichsversammlung von 1814, ein Nationalmonument zur Erinnerung an die Entstehung der norwegischen Konstitution zu errichten. Heute kann jedermann dieses Denkmal mit eigenen Augen betrachten, allerdings in Bøverdalen, einem eher abgelegenen Tal am nordöstlichen Rand des Jotunheimengebirges. Wie ist das zweifellos wichtigste, seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts geplante und im 20. Jahrhundert endlich realisierte Nationaldenkmal Norwegens hier gelandet? In diesem Vortrag gehe ich auf drei Nationaldenkmäler ein, deren Geschichte und Stellung in der norwegischen Öffentlichkeit auf verschiedene Weise durch die Erfahrungen mit dem Dritten Reich beeinflusst worden sind.

Helge Jordheim, Universität Oslo, ist Germanist und hat über den deutschen Staatsroman promoviert. Die Dissertation erscheint diesen Herbst bei Niemeyer. 2001 erschien sein Lesningens vitenskap: utkast til en ny filologi.

The lecture will be discussing the origins and the different forms and locations (historically and geographically) of what might be called the dream of the north. Is it primarily associated with any particular nationality, and is it connected to any other cultural phenomena that might help us better understand it?

Peter Fjågesund is professor of British literature and civilisation at Telemark University College, Norway. His publications include The Apocalyptic World of D.H. Lawrence (1991) and (with Ruth A. Symes) The Northern Utopia: British Perceptions of Norway in the Nineetenth Century (2003).

Stein Rokkan (1921-79) has been called "the statesman of the social sciences". Rokkan came from the Northern Norwegian periphery and gained notoriety as an avid network builder and internationalist.

Rokkan started as a philosopher (dissertation on David Hume). But encounters with American social science (Rockefeller scholar 1948 and scholar at the LSE 1951) turned him into a student of elections and party systems. His first published work was a UNESCO-sponsored semantic analysis of the meaning of 'democracy', ("Democracy in a World of Tensions", 1951) He is most famous for his books "Party Systems and Voter Alignments" (1967) and "Citizens, Elections, Parties" (1970). These are works devoted to his "model of Europe": an attempt to trace the historical origins of variations of suffrage extensions and fully fledged party systems ("mass politics") across Europe. Rokkan was especially interested in theories of nation-building and state-formation and also tried to locate Norway within a broader trajectory of European history, what he called "a typolocial-topological map of Europe". Towards the end of his life he wrote extensively on processes of popular mobilization and European regionalism ("the politics of territorial identity"). Rokkan combined sociological theory-building with deep historical knowledge. He collaborated broadly with German scholars (cf. Peter Flora's book, "State-formation, Nation-building and Mass Politics in Europe: The Theory of Stein Rokkan", Oxford U.P. 1999). After his death the interest in his macro-sociological and historical theories have gained in influence. The European Consortium of Political Reasearch has named a prize after him and there is a Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute in Florence.

Bernt Hagtvet (1946) was Stein Rokkan's student at Yale and at the University of Bergen. He has in particular been interested in applying Rokkan's theories of nation-building to the rise of European fascism.

As a field of organised academic research, human rights is a very recent phenomenon, in Norway as elsewhere. "Human rights" indicates a strong "political", "normative", and "practical" orientation which is also reflected in its development as a field of research. Whereas the end of the cold war brought with it a tremendous optimism on behalf of human rights, particularly in Europe which was opened up across the old divide, the 9/11 attacks and the "War on terror" has driven the human rights agenda on the defensive. Concurrently, whereas the 1990´s saw the breakthrough for the establishment of human rights institutes and research centres, this trend has been weakened over the last few years and overtaken by security concerns. There are signs now, however, that human rights might be on the verge of regaining some of the momentum lost after 9/11.
The lecture will discuss these developments with Norwegian human rights research as an example.

Taking as its empirical point of departure findings from the recent Power Studies in Denmark and Norway (2003), as well as the European Citizenship Survey, the lecture will draw up some important trends in the development of citizen autonomy and citizen power. Citizen autonomy refers to individuals' ability to take responsibility for their own life course, whereas citizen power relates to their capacity to influence actions of other citizens or social groups. The main guarantee of both autonomy and power for citizens is anchored in the political institution. But to be meaningful these concepts reach beyond the political sphere, into citizens' life world, comprising civil society, working life and welfare state institutions. On the background of changes in political participation, the empirical discussion will concentrate on the position of citizen participation in decision-making in working life and health care in Denmark, Norway and Germany. Finally, the relationship between these aspects of the life world and the political sphere in a narrow sense will be discussed.

Fredrik Engelstad was Head of The Institute for Social Research, Oslo, from 1986 until 2007. From 2008 he is Professor of Sociology at The University of Oslo. He has authored and co-authored many books in social science and political theory. He has also written on literature, including a study on Ibsen and power.