Stories on the making of geography in Sweden

Anne Buttimer

pp. 191-223

in: Gary S. Dunbar (ed), Geography: discipline, profession and subject since 1870, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

"Geography we learn on the march", King Karl XII remarked in the late 17^th century, "history we make ourselves". The foundations of geography as a scholarly field in Sweden can clearly be traced to the expansionary ethos of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, particularly to the reign of Gustav II Adolph (1611–1632) and the daring deeds of his Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. Enlightenment themes have also left their mark on 20^th-century practices and on the alternating tides of exploration abroad and inventory and planning at home through the 19^th and 20^th centuries. As a university discipline, geography in Sweden dates from the early 20^th century, and its preferred styles of practice, substantive foci and scale of endeavour still shape and are shaped by the changing priorities of Swedish society.