LiU Electronic Press

This paper will look into Samdok’s presentation of itself in books, reports and its regularly distributed periodical to understand how this network represents and materialises Sweden. It will tentatively argue that Samdok promotes societal and cultural, as well as scholarly and disciplinary, ideals of transformation and change. The network has re-invented itself over the years in order to keep up with transformations in the wider society such as globalisation, migration, and the move from industrialism to consumerism with the rise of the service sector. It has reinvented itself in terms of directions for collecting, and it has reinvented itself in terms of how it looks upon itself as an organisation by shifting from ideals of scientifc rationality to reflexive cultural analysis. As a consequence, looking at Sweden from within Samdok, means looking at a nation and a network in perpetual change.