1 Formal Information

Lovisa Nyman, PhD in systematic theology, researcher in systematic theology at Lund university.

2 Our project aims to reflect on values in school, pastoral care and other care contexts. What academic perspective do I bring to the project with regard to this focus?

My research area is Christian feminist theology, extending into philosophy and ethics. More specifically, I’m interested in interhuman dependence and the relationship between dependence, individualism, and agency. The Nordic countries, with their well-developed welfare state, constitute a special case of individualist societies that differ in many senses from for example Germany and USA. In my thesis I composed a conception of constructive dependence, as both a critique and a development of the Nordic individualist conception of the human being, departing from thinkers like Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero, Paul Ricoeur, Jörn Rüsen, Catherine Keller, Linda Martín Alcoff, and Ecclesiastes. In the coming collaboration project, I can contribute theoretical/philosophical/theological/feminist perspectives on values in general and on dependence, freedom, identity, and agency as well as on care as a practice.

In addition, I’m interested in the resurgence of asceticism in academic theology, Swedish church life, and educational philosophy. Concerned for climate change and social disintegration, many have come to regard individualism as the root cause of this and asceticism as the remedy. Therefore, I analyze what values and what conception of the human being that asceticism entails and what consequences it might have.

3 What content-related results and personal returns do I expect /hope for from the project?

I would be particularly interested in collaborating on the transmission and negotiation of values like dependence and freedom. I hope that the project will provide the opportunity to link my theoretical perspectives to more empirical research and that my own understanding will be deepened and widened by the empirical approaches by others, as well as by the other participants with a more theoretical approach. If an interdisciplinary research collaboration with some funding could come out of this, it would be wonderful.