Multiple Modernities

A Tale of Scandinavian Experiences

Gunnar Skirbekk

• Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9789629964870

Multiple Modernities approaches the concept of modernity through two historical phases of Norawy. The first study focuses on the interplay between Lutheran state officials and popular movements in the nineteenth century as an essential aspect of the growth of social democracy. The second examination of modernization centers on twentieth-century Norway after World War II. The book is balanced between theoretical remarks on conceptual issues, an assessment of modernization processes, and a study of basic epistemic and structural challenges that confront us in our time. Scandinavian countries are often noted as cases of successful modernization processes. However, these references to a "Scandinavian model" tend to focus on the mid-twentieth century after World War II. In Skirbekk's view, the uniqueness of modernization processes in Scandinavia, for instance in Norway, is better conceived historically, not least by focusing on the nineteenth century with a continuation into the twentieth century.

Table of contents

• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Processes of Modernization in Norwayin the 19th Century: 1814–1884
• 3. The Interplay of Persons and Institutions: 1880–1920
• 4. Modernization Processes under Democratic Parliamentarianism until WWII: 1884–1940
• 5. An Overview of Early Phases of Modernizationin Norway
• 6. Processes of Modernization in Norway Since WWII
• 7. Epistemic Challenges and Argumentative Rationality
• 8. Processes of Modernization in a Globalized World
• References
• Index