Paper short abstract:

This paper analyze how comparison is used by medical professionals in their narratives about international mobility and especially about their return to Sweden. Based on 46 in-depth interviews we discuss how comparison is used as a narrative strategy when negotiating "returners' cultural jet-lag".

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this paper is to analyze how comparison is used by medical professionals in their narratives about international mobility and especially about their return to Sweden. We discuss how the interviewees use comparison as narrative strategy when describing what we call "returners' cultural jet-lag" after moving back from abroad (Öhlander, Wolanik Boström & Pettersson, submitted). The returners' cultural jetlag is a process of temporary estrangement and gradual, reflexive re-adjustment, generating new insights and knowledge. It is a milder form of temporary cultural incomprehension, which nevertheless enables a person to regard things from new perspectives and enhances a critical reflection about the order of things "there" and "at home" - with comparison as a main narrative strategy. When trying to adjust upon returning to Sweden after months or years abroad, the professionals use comparison as an everyday social and cultural practice. In our data, the interviewees compare their professional experiences, but moreover, everyday life, attitudes towards gender and equality and societal structures. Our point of departure are 46 in-depth interviews from three cases of mobile medical professionals; physicians working in international aid organizations in the Global South, specialized physicians involved in both research and clinical practice going abroad to other Western clinics/research centres, and medical molecular biologists. With these cases, we bring together social and cultural comparisons from work life, leisure, and migration. We examine the comparative practices in everyday life and the role of comparison in making sense of different modes and forms of mobility and transformations.

Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork at three Goth festivals, this paper seeks to demonstrate that comparison is a powerful communicative form that serves to reproduce the unwritten rules of the "scene". It conceptualizes comparison as a strategy that establishes specific cultural and social order.

Paper long abstract:

Scenes are complex forms of social networks. In the context of scene-specific events like festivals, members of scenes constantly negotiate aesthetic, social and cultural norms. Based on ongoing fieldwork during three festivals of the Goth scene such as the most important international festival in Leipzig (Germany), the paper seeks to demonstrate to what extent comparison is a powerful communicative form that serves to stabilize, reproduce and even to transform the unwritten rules of the scene. Focusing on the negotiation of aesthetics, this paper discusses comparison as a cultural practice that is embedded in specific performative and discursive context. The paper seeks to shed light onto the omnipresent practice of "bitching about others" - e.g. ways of dancing, looks and styles etc. - has relevant social functions. "Bitching about others", here, is an important culturally codified form of comparison. Through this comparison, members of the scene create common understandings about what the scene is or what the scene should be. As the paper will show, comparison is always linked to bodily and emotional experiences as well as to a specific set of material culture. Finally, on a more theoretical level, the paper conceptualizes comparison as a cultural technique or a strategy that establishes specific cultural and social order.

Paper short abstract:

This paper gives insight into the role of Baltic German song celebrations in the creation of a Baltic German sense of togetherness. It outlines the uniting power of comparison focusing on similarities between Baltic Germans living in the Baltic provinces Courland, Livonia and Estonia.

Paper long abstract:

Baltic German male choral societies and song celebrations played an important role in the mid-nineteenth century in the creation of a Baltic German sense of togetherness. By bringing together people from different social classes and the three Baltic provinces of Courland, Livonia and Estonia, joint singing was seen as an opportunity to overcome the isolation and disassociation emanating from social stratification and provincialism.

Due to societal, economic, political and cultural changes especially in the second half of the 19th century (e.g. Estonian/Latvian National Awakening, Russification) Baltic Germans had to reposition themselves on the one hand within the Estonian/Latvian-German-Russian triangle of tension and on the other hand between the German Confederation (later German Empire) and the Russian Empire. Class society gradually receded into the background giving rise to an ethnical sense of belonging. As Courland, Livonia and Estonia never constituted an administrative entity, the song celebrations had a wide sphere of influence.

The analysis is based on newspaper articles, (un)published descriptions of the song celebrations and archival material of the Baltic German male choral societies. Comparison plays an important role in the narratives as the aim of many speeches and songs was the accentuation of the shared language and heritage as well as the creation of a sense of togetherness. In the course of time, Baltic Germans emphasized the peculiarities of their Baltic Heimat, and as a result, dissociated themselves partly from the German Empire as well as from the Russian Empire.

Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the ways Estonians living or working in Finland narrate their modes of being-at-home in a place and discuss their future plans. Comparison allows to construct and make sense of belonging in relation to homeland, to current place of residence, and to different others.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on fieldwork material gathered during 2013-2018 among Estonian families moving between Estonia and Finland, I explore the ways different family members narrate their belonging, modes of being-at-home in a place, and plans regarding the future. I pay attention to the ways comparison is used to construct and make sense of belonging in relation to homeland, to places where people currently reside, and to different others.

Firstly, I analyse the ways interviewees narrate belonging to their current place of residence. This is partly done by comparing themselves to other groups residing in Finland. On one hand, interviewees have distinguished themselves from other migrant groups, stressing the cultural closeness of Estonians to Finns and cherishing an image of themselves as good or well-deserving immigrants. On the other hand, there are hierarchies and inequalities also among the group of Estonians themselves.

Secondly, I take a look at the nuanced relationship interviewees have to Estonia and to differences they have pointed out between Estonian and Finnish societies and cultures. While reflecting modes of being-at-home in a place and talking about their plans for the future, interviewees also position themselves vis-à-vis dominant attitudes and discourses in Estonia, dismantling their own and others' understanding of their relationship to place(s). Some have felt offended about the discourses related to "convenience migrants", and they do feel that the possible return to Estonia would entail challenges in both emotional and practical terms.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses how comparisons are used in climate change debate to regulate responsibilities and clarify questions of guilt, as well as to draw up options for action for a climate-friendly future.

Paper long abstract:

“From model pupil to sinner” was one of the headlines that covered Germany and German Politics in 2018. The background: Compared to other countries, Germany has been perceived as a pioneer in the field of climate protection for several years. Germany’s commitment to reduce 40 percent in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels sounds impressive at first glance. In the summer of 2018, however, it became obvious that Germany would fail to meet these self-declared climate targets. For such a radical transformation of the energy system to succeed, cars need to emit less, heating systems need to be climate-friendly, and the electricity sector needs to be powered by wind, sun and biomass instead of coal and gas. These targets will not be met in 2020. A worldwide comparison even shows that Germany is only in the midfield of the energy transition index. In the wake of this reporting and other global events – the hot summer of 2018, the climate change skepticism of some political figures in global politics, the so-called “diesel affair” – the discourse on climate change was also rekindled. Among other things, this discourse is also about establishing comparative values., e.g. in terms of a societal perspective: Is climate change man-made; and if so, are there communities that contribute more to it than others? These comparative values are also used to generate options for action and/or to clarify questions of guilt. In this context, comparisons form part of my PostDoc project, in which the following analytical categories are central: the “new” sociocultural world/climate/orders, new forms and formats of knowledge production, transfer and application in climate activism, and the current shaping of the climate future in everyday life. First results of the project will be presented in Santiago de Compostela.

Paper short abstract:

Based on a research project on orientations towards "good averages" and "happy mediums" in the spheres of work, leisure and dwelling, the paper asks for the role of comparisons and their affective and reflective dimensions.

Paper long abstract:

Occurrences of normative orientations towards an 'average' in diverse fields - such as debates on work-life balance and medium achievements in the workplace or goals to keep up with average performances in leisure sport - are increasing. Such orientations towards the middle are a form of social comparative. In contrast to competitions, they do not seek the best, but rather a medium position which is socially constructed and gains traction through its relation to relevant social categories: Instead of being defined by objective or neutral factors, they are placed in reference to situated criteria. Friends, family or colleagues serve as points of reference rather than objective scales. What is understood as the 'middle' is dynamically constructed and is contingent on personal living conditions. The 'middle' is flexible as it compares positions - in terms of income, housing situation, performance and other criteria - to the specific social context. Comparisons play a central role in this in at least two ways: (1) they include explicit reflections about subjective goals and standards of comparison and (2) they include affective dimensions influencing comparative categories and criteria. The paper aims to scrutinize the relation between both and asks for the interplay and overlaps between reflective and affective dimensions of comparison.

Paper short abstract:

In this contribution, I will focus on affective dimensions of comparison, mainly on fear as a particular trigger for the act of comparison, and their "invisible" or hidden ideological background.

Paper long abstract:

In this contribution, I will focus on affective dimensions of comparison, mainly on fear as a particular trigger for the act of comparison, and their "invisible" or hidden ideological background. I will try to elaborate that affective practices of comparison are not only socially and culturally produced or evoked, but are a part of larger affective politics' procedures, especially in the specific context of professions such as psychiatry. I will illustrate these reflections with examples from my current research project on beginnings of institutional psychiatry in late 19th century Croatia, which relies on comparisons of "normal" or sane versus "pathological" or insane. Although it would have been expected that such comparisons and their systems are based on scientific methods, I will try to show how and to what extent these methods and categories stem out of affective politics and intertwine with ideological projects of the "Age of reason".

Paper short abstract:

The qualification system of applied folk arts in Hungary is a special tool of comparison. It labels the artworks and indirectly the artisans on the basis of quality and aesthetic values, and schematizes the sectors of handicraft in the same time.

Paper long abstract:

The Applied Folk Arts Council in Hungary was established in 1953. Folk Art and Homecraft Cooperatives developed, intending to achieve a higher quality through the introduction of vocational training and a qualification system. The prestige and appreciation of craftsmen also increased, they become defined as folk artists. The assessment of phenomena that fall within the concept of folk art was related to contemporary ideological trends, cultural policy and economic ideas. The concept of applied folk arts has been disputed for decades, since it tends to force the more and more diverse heritage of peasant art work and small scale handicraft industry among the fixed frames of a definition. By an objective, anthropological research of the qualification system we receive a clean image about a guided (partly manipulated) cultural process, and about a proper method and language of art work-reading and -interpretation. The Folk Handicraft Strategy, published in 2013, introduced the modern category in the qualification system, which encourages many artisans to seek new ways. The qualification system means a kind of categorization, which is a special tool of comparison. The results (prizes, awards, titles) won in this system are often built in the creative identity of the artisans. However, this kind of categorization follows quite a different considerations than the ethnological researches do in the history of handicraft-industry and material folk art. As the qualification system labels only on the basis of quality and aesthetic values, it also schematizes in a sense the sectors of handicraft.