Cistas presents at Movements and Morality Conference

Anders Sevelsted presented at Movements and Morality, at Copenhagen Business School in Frederiksberg, Denmark:

Sevelsted, A. (2019). Translating Social Movements: Reformed Temperance in Lutheran Denmark (1890 ‐ 1930) . Abstract fra Movements and Morality, Frederiksberg, Danmark.

Abstract: 
The article argues that social movements do not simply ‘diffuse’ across cultural contexts, but rather are adapted to such contexts. This is shown empirically through a case study of the translation of the international temperance movement to Denmark ca. 1895 – 1938. Drawing on theoretical inspirations from the sociology of translation, combined with cultural sociology and field theory, and analyzing a large corpus of texts from the Blue Cross’ archives, the study shows how the Blue Cross temperance organization, established by a small group of Copenhagen evangelicals, managed to successfully translate theological schemas and organizational forms ofthe international movement to the national field of moral reform. These translations enabled the organization to form an alliance with one of the field ‘incumbents’, the Lutheran evangelical Home Mission. The translation of the temperance movement secured the Blue Cross’ long term survival.The article contributes theoretically to social movement studies by introducing a translational conceptual framework that emphasizes the active role of local translators in the adaption of social movements between cultural contexts.

More on the presentation here.