In Absence of Representation:
Political Language and Participation in Times of Restrictions
14-15 June,
Workshop at Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
Ritarikatu 5 / Riddaregatan 5, Main hall
It is self-evident that parliaments and other organs for political representation are central for political life in a state. It can even be argued that a modern nation state has been formed through political representation. The way in which the language of politics and political participation has developed relates to the development of representative assemblies and vice versa. This workshop approaches this relationship by looking more specifically into cases in which representative assemblies have not been summoned, their publicity, constitutional status and powers have been restricted, or their constituency/geographical area has been contested in one way or the other. It asks what types of alternative channels for political representation and public debate were created, what kind political language was used to describe the absence or restrictions of representation (if this was indeed seen as something deviating from normality), and how the local representative models were compared to other places in Europe or outside Europe (bearing in mind also fictitious or utopian models)?
Wednesday 14 June
Session I, 14.00–15.15
Opening words
Maren Jonasson, Jussi Kurunmäki and Jani Marjanen
Jussi Kurunmäki (University of Helsinki),
Yrjö Koskinen, his history of parliamentary representation, and the state night metaphor
Kari Palonen (University of Jyväskylä)
Rhetorical genres of representation
Coffe and tea, 15.15–15.45
Session II, 15.45–17.45
Taru Haapala (University of Jyväskylä)
Parliamentary-style debates without national representation: The case of Oxford and Cambridge Unions in the mid-19th century
Markus J. Prutsch (European Parliament)
Constitutional monarchism in Vormärz Germany and the issue of representation
Dinner at 19.30
Thursday 15 June
Session III, 9.30–10.30
Ruth Hemstad (University of Oslo)
Scandinavianism, civil society and the public sphere – political articulation without representation
Anne Engelst Nørgaard (Aarhus University)
Moving towards representation? The case of the Danish peasant movement(s) in the 1840s
Coffee and tea 10.30–11.00
Session IV, 11.00–12.00
Susanna Rabow-Edling (Uppsala University)
Perspectives on political representation in pre-revolutionary Russia
Jani Marjanen (University of Helsinki)
Parliaments as breeding grounds for civic organisations and civic organisations as supplements to parliaments: Swedish and Finnish examples
Lunch, 12.00–13.30
Session V, 13.30–15.00
Maren Jonasson (Åbo Akademi University and University of Helsinki)
Agricultural meetings as a supplementary forum for political debate in Finland, 1847–1863
Onni Pekonen (Leiden University and University of Jyväskylä)
Why does Finland not have a ‘parliament’? Naming and conceptualizing the Finnish representative assembly, 1809–1919
Concluding discussion