Funding Effects

Project Description

This project investigates the emergence of the public research funding system and the formation of the human sciences in postwar Sweden. Empirically, the study focuses on the Social Science Research Council (1947–1977), the Humanities Fund (1947–1959) and the Humanities Research Council (1959–1977). The aim is to analyze the establishment, practices, and effects of these funding bodies from 1947–1977.

Situated in the intersection of history of science and sociology of science, the project combines comparative and relational perspectives as well as qualitative and quantitative methods. It is designed as a three-year project and includes three integrated sub-studies. The first two analyze the discursive formation and evaluative practices of the research councils in domestic and international contexts. The third sub-study focuses on the performative aspects of the research councils, investigating their intentional and unintentional as well as direct and indirect effects, with special attention paid to the various ways in which epistemic norms were reformulated in this process.

By illuminating the “funding effects” of the emergent public research council system in this critical and transformative period of the human sciences, the project contributes not only to a novel relational approach to the common history of humanities and social science, but also to an historically informed understanding of their societal roles and institutional conditions today.