Purpose of the lecture series
DEPE lectures introduce novel ways of thinking about the history of political and economic thought. They situate political and economic thought in broader cultural, political and intellectual settings, hence going beyond standard canonical histories that have dominated these fields for too long. In addition, the DEPE lectures explore the possibilities of combining the study of history of political thought and the history of economic thought.
About the lecture
In recent years, environmental historians have highlighted how heavily enlightened improvers drew on theories of climate and history to plot and promote their projects. Historians are interested in how climatic zones and historical stages were combined in creative ways to support a wide range of tillage-, drainage-, acclimatization-, and colonization schemes; but little thought has been given to how the theories themselves were affected in the process. How did this use of history affect the understanding of it? How did enlightened improvers’ mobilization of history contribute to the temporalization of history so often associated with the 18th century?
These are some of the central questions I explore in my doctoral research. Inspired by Helge Jordheim’s assertion that the singular, linear, and progressive time of modernity did not emerge of itself, but was actively and meticulously made by historians, my research turns his analytical apparatus on the field of improvement and seeks to understand economic improvers as temporal actors: how they contributed to the making of historical time in modernity.
In this lecture, I will present some theoretical reflections on the way one might approach improvers as temporal actors. Select empirical case studies highlight 1) the temporal consequences of their work; and 2) how intimately intertwined the spheres of economic and historical knowledge production were in 18th century Denmark-Norway.
About the lecturer
Arendse Wenzel Måge is a Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo, where she is working on a dissertation about how climate theories shaped uses of the past and ideas of progress in 18th-century Dano-Norwegian improvement literature. She obtained a joint Master’s degree in History of Ideas and Religious Studies from Aarhus University in 2022, before joining the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas in Oslo in 2023 to pursue a PhD in affiliation with The Northern Enlightenment Research Group. Besides her doctoral studies, she serves as co-editor of the Norwegian journal for the History of Ideas Arr.
Funded by the European Union (ERC, DEPE, 101088549). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
