Gaston Backmans visuella gestaltning av människan som art och ras

Bilder av ras i svensk visuell kultur är en tvärvetenskaplig antologi om hur representationer av ras etablerats, omformulerats och kritiserats i Sverige under tvåhundra år. Författarna är forskare i genusvetenskap, historia, konstvetenskap, litteraturvetenskap, medievetenskap, musei- och biblioteksvetenskap samt språkvetenskap, och nedslag görs i material från flera tidsepoker: bokillustrationer från 1800-talet, reklamaffischer och rasbiologiska fotografier från 1900-talets första hälft, tv- och filmkultur samt skämtbilder från 2000-talet. Utan att ge en heltäckande bild av problematiken närmar sig författarna materialet med en bred uppsättning angreppssätt och perspektiv; det visuella materialet diskuteras utifrån begrepp som dekolonialitet, representation, stereotyp, makt, genus, vithet och bildbruk

From fact to fantasy : scientific illustrations and visual representations in the early work of Gaston Backman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics and functions of images in scientific practices and how scientific images differ to other types of representation (e.g. textual, numerical or artistic images). To address these questions, the study looks into the illustration practice of the Swedish researcher Gaston Backman, who wrote several books on the origin of the human species, human anatomy, physical anthropology and race biology in the beginning of the twentieth century. Design/methodology/approach A comparative and functional analytical method is applied to show how the images act in his writings and how rhetorical and technical circumstances affect the way the images communicate and document scientific facts and ideas. Theoretically, the study relates to ideas suggesting: images to be serious partakers and vehicles of representation in the practice of science; and the need for images to be schematic and more abstract in comparison to an iconic image in order to work in this practice. Findings The findings of this study show that Backman used both schematic and iconic images in his research writings, and that these different image expressions had different functions: where the former was based on facts and had an informative and scientific function, the latter was based on fantasy/myth and used to promote ideological values and ideas. Originality/value This study stresses the importance of images in the practice of science, i.e. how images alongside verbal or numerical expressions act as important information and knowledge carriers in the work of science. Even though images intermingle with verbal and numerical expression, they also have a unique and specific, a role that needs to be taken seriously and investigated further in the realm of information studies and document studies. The authors also need to be aware that images can have different functions in the scientific practice, and are not always there to carry scientific facts or ideas, but ideologies and fantasies

Gaston Backmans visuella gestaltning av människan som art och ras

Bilder av ras i svensk visuell kultur är en tvärvetenskaplig antologi om hur representationer av ras etablerats, omformulerats och kritiserats i Sverige under tvåhundra år. Författarna är forskare i genusvetenskap, historia, konstvetenskap, litteraturvetenskap, medievetenskap, musei- och biblioteksvetenskap samt språkvetenskap, och nedslag görs i material från flera tidsepoker: bokillustrationer från 1800-talet, reklamaffischer och rasbiologiska fotografier från 1900-talets första hälft, tv- och filmkultur samt skämtbilder från 2000-talet. Utan att ge en heltäckande bild av problematiken närmar sig författarna materialet med en bred uppsättning angreppssätt och perspektiv; det visuella materialet diskuteras utifrån begrepp som dekolonialitet, representation, stereotyp, makt, genus, vithet och bildbruk

The Construction of Whiteness in the Work of The Swedish State Institute for Race Biology

In 1922 a eugenic research centre, The Swedish State Institute for Race Biology, was founded in Uppsala, with the purpose being to survey and classify the Swedish people according to race. The data collected was intended to make a foundation for a rational population policy aiming at improving the Nordic (Swedish) race. This race was deemed superior in comparison with the other races living in Sweden– primarily the East Baltic (Finnish) and the Lappish (Sami) race. But due to miscegenation and a depraved urban lifestyle this Nordic race was under threat and needed to be rescued. In the scientific practice of this eugenic institute it was the external aspects of the humans, or the phenotype that decided what race a person belonged to. A vast amount of bodily data was therefore collected―bodies were measured and hair and eye colours determined to decide what race a person belonged to. Beside these records photographical portraits of the persons examined were also taken. The use of photography in the scientific practice of the institute is not surprising―with the focus on how people looked it was a convenient and efficient tool. The camera could not only rapidly produce a vast amount of photographical records but was also, in this period, deemed objective and reliable―just capturing the world as it was. But in the same time it is obvious when examine the photographs that they were most biased. The portraits exemplifying the Nordic race show young, healthy good-looking persons in prosperous environments while for instance the Finnish type often was elderly, shabby men in worn out clothes, in front of poor homes and surroundings. The photographs were used to promote the idea of the Nordic race as superior―they were far from objective but permeated by ideological beliefs

Knowledge organization in LAMs

Libraries, archives and museums are all based on collections, entailing needs for knowledge organization. However, the need and practice of knowledge organization differs in the three institutions. The aim of this chapter is to describe and discuss differences and similarities between knowledge organization in LAM’s. For instance, in libraries there are a distinct use of standardization and a focus on searching, in archives the principle of provenance is central, and in museums the emphasis is on interpretation of the collections. The chapter will, among other things, discuss LAM, and knowledge organization in relation to the development of technologies, the positions of expertise and participants, and to the role of mediation and power

The impact of digitalization on LAMs

Digitalization has permanently changed the environment in which LAM institutions operate. While these changes certainly bring about various opportunities, they also present the institutions, LAM professionals, and users with certain challenges. In this chapter, we discuss these opportunities and challenges from three angles: The impact of digitization on LAM institutions, on LAM professionals, and on users of LAM institutions. On an institutional level, we discuss how digitalization has changed the field of cultural production in which LAM institutions operate; on an occupation level, we discuss the changing working environment that LAM professionals are meant to navigate within; and lastly, we discuss changes in user positions concomitant with digitalization