http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a chapter published in Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University: 1964-2014. Citation for the original published chapter: Widgren, M. (2014) Department of Human Geography. In: Gudrun Dahl, Mats Danielson (ed.), Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University: 1964-2014 (pp. 145-174). Stockholm: Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published chapter. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-110076 Digital offprint of Widgren, Mats (2014) Department of Human Geography. In Dahl, G. and Danielson, M. eds Faculty of Social Sciences at Stockholm University 1964-2014. Stockholm University, pp- 144-173 144 Kapitelnamn In 1986, the facilities at Norrtullsgatan 2 were rebuilt and renovated. The Geo Library was moved from the Old Observatory and came to form an important hub for students and researchers alike. (Photo: Eva Wernlid) 145 Department of Human Geography Mats Widgren AMONG THE DIFFERENT factors that influ- versity as a whole. During the first years ence the character, the culture and the achieve- (1956–1971), the Department was internally ments of a university department, the intellec- dispersed at several addresses. It shared one tual and practical leadership is of course area of the city, Vasastan, with many other instru mental. During the first thirty years of depart ments of social science (see map in the Department of Human Geography, it was a Helmfrid 2001). Later on, we became internally one-professor department. The professor most concentrated but were left behind in the inner often also served as head of department. As city (1971–1997). Most other disciplines geo graphers, we also believe that space and moved to the Frescati campus. Our departmen- location matter. In the documentation from the tal premises were subject to a profound rebuild- early years, the obstacle that distance created is ing and reorganisation in 1986–1987, coinciding a current theme (Hannerberg 1965, Lundén in time with the appointment of a new profes- 1970, Helmfrid & Sporrong n.d.). Economic sor. In the summer of 1997 we finally moved to geography has shown that easy access to face- Frescati and were co-localised with the geosci- to-face contacts enables creative development ences and in convenient proximity to most other and is a force behind clustering and creative social sciences. cities. For the Department of Human Geogra- In the beginning of the spring term 1971, I phy, its locations over the last 50 years have lined up with other students in the stairways at offered qualitatively different possibilities for Kungstensgatan 45 and registered as an under- face-to-face contact within the Department, graduate in human geography after having with colleagues in physical geography and with studied statistics, political science and econom- other departments in social science and the uni- ics. This semester was my only direct contact 146 Department of Human Geography Kungstensgatan 45, now used by Folkuniversitetet. (Photo: Mats Danielson) with the first of the four phases I will describe dent, the active member of a successful research below. In 1973, I was employed as an assistant group on historical landscapes in the 1980s and started my doctoral studies. From my doc- and 1990s, and the professor (1999–) and head toral defence in 1983 and onward, I have been of department (2001–2007, 2013–2014). The employed in different positions at the Depart- following is based on my own memories, notes ment. Thus, the position of this text’s author and reflections, a browsing through 50 years of moves from the curious investigator of what university catalogues, some printed material on was prior to my own memories (pre-1971) to the history of the Department and a few archi- the perspective of the 1970s’ post-graduate stu- val documents. The history of the Department Faculty of Social Sciences – Stockholm University 147 until 1997, written by Helmfrid and Sporrong, the chairs in geography into physical and also serves as a base for my account (Helmfrid human geography had already started in the late & Sporrong n.d.). For the broader context of 1940s at other Swedish universities. At the time Swedish geography in the 20th century, the of the split in Stockholm, the professor of geog- works by Helmfrid (1999) and Buttimer and raphy in Stockholm, Gunnar Hoppe, chose to Mels (2006) form a background. Staffan Helm- specialise in physical geography. The Institute frid and Ulf Sporrong have read this manu- of Geography (Geografiska Institutet) from script at a preliminary stage and added import- then on had one professor in the Faculty of ant information and perspectives. A list of 78 Mathematics and Science (Hoppe) and one in dissertations published on the web provides an the Faculty of Humanities (Hannerberg). The insight into the themes researched during this two professors shared the directorship of the period. Much of the ongoing intellectual activ- Institute. The formal split into two separate de- ity has not yet made a clear imprint in the form partments seems to have been made in 1965, of an identifiable group of dissertations from a one year after the establishment of the Faculty. specific research group or school in this list.1 The reason I use Swedish above is because There is usually a long delay between the estab- the term ‘kulturgeografi’ has been somewhat lishment of a research group and the finalisa- controversial in different periods of the intel- tion of an identifiable group of dissertations. lectual development of human geography in Sweden. It is also not intuitively well under- Positioning geography as social stood but often mixed up with cultural history, science cultural anthropology and, not least, with the Kulturgeografi was part of Samhälls veten- English term cultural geography, which is the skapliga fakulteten (the Faculty of Social subfield of human geography that deals explic- Sciences) at Stockholm University from the itly with culture (see Cosgrove 2000). Going birth of the Faculty. In 1956 David Hanner- through some documents and articles from the berg, then professor in Lund, had been sum- 1950s and 1960s, I have also realised that the moned to Stockholm to take up a new position term was seen as problematic already in the as professor of ‘Geografi, särskilt kulturgeografi 1960s. In a debate with Hannerberg, William med ekonomisk geografi’ and became a mem- William-Olsson wrote that the term was unfor- ber of the Faculty of Humanities. This split of tunate, and could give rise to any kind of inter- pretation. William-Olsson claimed that when 1 http://www.humangeo.su.se/publikationer/avhandlingar/ avhandlingar-för-doktorsexamen. the professorships in Sweden were divided into 148 Department of Human Geography physical and human geography in the 1940s, that term has also shifted meanings in the his- most of those that had qualifications in human tory of Swedish human geography. geography were specialised in the historical A reason why I also use Swedish for the name geography of the 16th century and hence spe- of the Faculty – Samhällsvetenskapliga fakul- cialised in what was then called kulturgeografi teten – is that I want to point out the difference (William-Olsson 1962:152). In 1968, Sven between ‘vetenskap’ and ‘science’. The differ- Dahl (as always meticulous with terms) in his ence between the German/Swedish Wissen- assessment of candidates for the successors of schaft/vetenskap and the English science has Hannerberg also considered the term unclear namely played a central role in the debates with- and discussed why the then current terms An- in geography. “Wissenschaft for a German is tropogeographie (German) and human geogra- any organized body of knowledge, not only phy (English) were not more directly translated what we call a science” wrote Fred K. Schaefer to Swedish (Dahl 1968, see also Dahl 1972).2 in 1953. Is geography a science? Yes, said Schae- But as Dahl also points out, the newer and wider fer, geography should be a law-seeking science, sense of kulturgeografi has since then become where the speciality of the geographers were synonymous with human geography. The issue “the laws concerning spatial arrangements” concerning the naming of our discipline has (Schaefer 1953:228). His article was an early come back now and then. Many human geo- clarion call for positivism in geography and for graphers today find the term samhällsgeografi’‘ the spatial paradigm that would then come to (lit. societal geo graphy) more appropriate, as it rule in geography for two decades or more, es- clearly conveys the idea of geography as social pecially in Sweden and in the English-speaking science. Nevertheless, as will be shown below, countries. Schaefer’s article was formulated as a direct critique against previous conceptions of 2 “Formuleringen ‘kulturgeografi med ekonomisk geografi’ synes icke ha varit helt lyckad. Den klassiska tyska termen geography as mainly a descriptive discipline, var ‘Antropogeographie’; på engelska har man ofta sagt ‘human where the ultimate goal was a synthesis in the geography’. Troligen av språkliga skäl har man i Sverige icke velat använda uttryck som antropogeografi eller män- form of a regional monograph. In present niskogeografi, än mindre human eller humanistisk geografi. Begreppet kulturgeografi vore å andra sidan utomordentligt Euro-English, the distinction between ‘Wissen- svårt att definiera, om därmed skulle mena något annat än schaft’ and ‘science’ is becoming more and more vad tyskarna avsett med uttrycket antropogeografi. Flertalet geografer torde numera uppfatta termen kulturgeografi som blurred. At our university, the confusion is man- liktydig med antropogeografi. Formuleringen ‘med ekono- misk geografi’ gör emellertid att man måste bli tveksam om ifested in the fact that we (in English) have a vad som egentligen i Sverige skall avses med termen kultur- Faculty of Science (natur vetenskap) and another geografi”.