From learned cosmopolitanism to scientific inter-nationalism : the patriotic transformation of Nordic academia and academic culture during the long eighteenth century

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of Nordic academia and its relation to the growing patriotic State. The dissertation examines how, why and to what extent Nordic academia transformed with to the rise of patriotism during the long Eighteenth Century as well as what consequences this transformation had for academic citizens, their institutional and academic practices and self-conceptions. Based on a composite methodology of quantitative and qualitative approaches, the dissertation examines this transformation by studying all 592 professors at the six Nordic universities through a transnational and comparative perspective. The dissertation argues, that the State’s increased interest in and need for science and education during the eighteenth century initiated a consolidation between the State and the University, and at the same time, the rise of patriotism and its stronger focus on the natural fatherland began a nationalisation process at the universities. Through an institutional and socio-cultural examination of the Nordic universities and their professors, this dissertation, firstly, demonstrates that Nordic academia was institutionally and culturally rooted in a centuries-old pan-European academic community and also shared its learned cosmopolitan notions. Secondly, the dissertation argues that it was these notions and practices of a cosmopolitan academia that were disrupted and transformed with the rise of patriotism and State power. It argues, that the State and the University consolidated in a shared patriotic purpose of prioritising the King, Country and fellow citizens above all other considerations. This new purpose changed both the universities’ institutional and academic practices overall, as national requirements and precedences were introduced, as well as the professors’ perceived scholarly and societal role, as they were no longer seen simply as scholars of the learned world but rather as State servants of the fatherland. Consequently, this new agenda and practices disrupted the cosmopolitan nature of the old academic community.