Bo Stråth

Professor

Bo Stråth (Curriculum Vitae) was 2007-2014 Finnish Academy Distinguished Professor in Nordic, European and World History and Director of Research at the Department of World Cultures / Centre of Nordic Studies (CENS), University of Helsinki. 1997-2007 he was Professor of Contemporary History at the European University Institute in Florence, and 1991-1996 Professor in History at the University of Gothenburg. He is a member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Research projects

Research projects, Curriculum vitae

IAPASIS

Development paths are constructed by
historians when they in retrospect, analyse what has happened. Cultural and historical heritages play a role but in what direction they affect actions is an open question. With a focus on politics and practices of immigration, the project explored the role of culture and traditions in the meeting with the immigrats, comparing how four national administrations developed practices in response to the same problem and the same rule-setting framework.

Research projects, Curriculum vitae

The Transformation of the Idea of a Full Employment to a Flexibility Discourse in European Comparison

This project studied the dissolution of the full employment convention in the 1990s. The approach was centred on the conceptual and interpretive adjustment of societies in Europe to the dramatic structural changes taking place in the labour market since the 1970s. Questions dealt with how the historical and cultural heritage of the full employment convention has played in different national settings. Additionally, the redefinition of the obligations of the state, employer organisations and trade unions were examined.

Research projects, Curriculum vitae

CONDIS: Continuity and Discontinuity in the Scandinavian Democratization Process

A point of departure for the CONDIS project, Bo Stråth's first major project, was the bias in modernisation theories dominant among comparative social scientists not long ago that economic growth is the ultimate cause of welfare state development, where all states were thought to be caught up in a universal and evolutionist logic of industrialisation. Such theories pay insufficient attention to the political structures and cultural/ideological processes through which highly varied responses to industrialisation come about. During the research process, a critical view of its own historical, sociological point of departure was developed, questioning perspectives of path dependency and intrinsic driving forces in historical processes.

Publications

  • Monographs
  • Anthologies
Creating Community and Ordering the World
A European Memory
A European Memory?
European Solidarities
European Solidarities
Reflections on Europe
Reflections on Europe
The Economy as a Polity
The Economy As a Polity
A European Social Citizenship
A European Social Citizenship?
Representations of Europe and the Nation in Current and Prospective Member States
States and Citizens History Theory Prospects
States and Citizens
Homelands
Homelands
The Meaning of Europe
The Meaning of Europe
From the Werner Plan to the EMU
From the Werner Plan to the EMU
Europe and the Other and Europe as the Other
Europe and the Other and Europe as the Other
Myth and Memory in the Construction of Community
Myth and Memory in the Construction of Community
AFTER FULL EMPLOYMENT European Discources on Work and Flexibility
After Full Employment
Enlightenment and Genocide Contradictions of Modernity
Enlightenment and Genocide, Contradictions of Modernity
Department of History and Civilization Nationalism and Modernity EUI Working Papers
Nationalism and Modernity
The Postmodern Challenge Perspectives East and West
The Postmodern Challenge
The Cultural Construction of Norden
The Cultural Construction of Norden
Comparativ Wohnungsbau im Internationalen Vergleich Heft 3-1996
Wohnungsbau im internationalen Vergleich
Language and the Construction of Class Identities
Language and the Construction of Class Identities
Idylle oder Aufbruch
Idylle oder Aufbruch?
Democratisation in Scandinavia in Comparison

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