Kim Esmark
Roskilde University, Culture & Identity, Faculty Member
This book explores the practical and symbolic resources of legitimacy which the elites of medieval Scandinavia employed to establish, justify, and reproduce their social and political standing between the end of the Viking Age and the... more
This book explores the practical and symbolic resources of legitimacy which the elites of medieval Scandinavia employed to establish, justify, and reproduce their social and political standing between the end of the Viking Age and the rise of kingdoms in the thirteenth century. Geographically the chapters cover the Scandinavian realms and Free State Iceland. Thematically the authors cover a wide palette of cultural practices and historical sources: hagiography, historiography, spaces and palaces, literature, and international connections, which rulers, magnates, or ecclesiastics used to compete for status and to reserve haloing glory for themselves. The volume is divided in three sections. The first looks at the sacral, legal, and acclamatory means through which privilege was conferred onto kings and ruling families. Section II explores the spaces such as aristocratic halls, palaces, churches in which the social elevation of elites took place. Section III explores the traditional and novel means of domestic distinction and international cultural capital which different orders of elites-knights, powerful clerics, ruling families, etc.-wrought to assure their dominance and set themselves apart vis-à-vis their peers and subjects. A concluding chapter discusses how the use of symbolic capital in the North compared to wider European contexts.
Research Interests: Legitimacy and Authority, Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Medieval Ecclesiastical History, Medieval Archaeology, and 15 morePapacy (Medieval Church History), Political Legitimacy, Medieval Scandinavia, Elites (Political Science), Political Elites, Cultural Capital, Pierre Bourdieu, Scandinavian history, Elites and Society, Charismatic leaders, Distinction, Symbolic Power, Cultural Capital and Habitus Theory, Representation of the Royal Power in the Middle Ages, and Scandinavian Medieval History
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Elites and social bonds – how Nordic were the Nordic medieval elites? by Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Kim Esmark, and Hans Jacob Orning The afterword has a twofold aim: to sum up some main results of the studies in the volume, and to expand... more
Elites and social bonds – how Nordic were the Nordic medieval elites? by Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Kim Esmark, and Hans Jacob Orning The afterword has a twofold aim: to sum up some main results of the studies in the volume, and to expand the scope of the endeavor by drawing on a wider European context, partly by discussing interaction between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, and partly through comparison of similarities and differences between Scandinavia and wider Europe, including intra-Scandinavian variations. It does so by discussing the key themes of elite networks and social resources, the “Nordicness” of the Nordic elites, and, finally, the issue of historical transformation. Under the title ‘Fuzzy families, flexible friendships: the strength of social networks’, it discusses and compares kinship and horizontal and vertical bonds both in the Nordic world and Western Europe. Next, it deals with the questions how interconnected Nordic elites were with one another, and to what degree we can draw a division between the Nordic elites and elites outside Scandinavia. Lastly, the Afterword assesses and compares transformation in Scandinavia and Western Europe in the high Middle Ages, here defined as a gradual development towards more institutionalized (impersonal, routinized) forms of lordship on the one hand, and Verrechtlichung of social relations on the other.
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Research Interests: Sociology and Philosophy
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With and against Max Weber. Bourdieu's first outline of a sociology of religion: The concept of field was first constructed by Bourdieu in the 1960s in the context of a critical engagement with Max Weber's sociology of religion.... more
With and against Max Weber. Bourdieu's first outline of a sociology of religion: The concept of field was first constructed by Bourdieu in the 1960s in the context of a critical engagement with Max Weber's sociology of religion. At this time Weber's work was still only marginally ...
Research Interests: Philosophy and MoD
The first recorded social revolt in the history of Denmark took place in the summer of 1086 when peasants and magnates rose against King Knud IV and killed him in a church. A few years after the assassination Knud was declared a martyr... more
The first recorded social revolt in the history of Denmark took place in the summer of 1086 when peasants and magnates rose against King Knud IV and killed him in a church. A few years after the assassination Knud was declared a martyr saint and a ...
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... 5 I centrum for den kristne kult stod påskens rituelle drama-tisering af Kristi sonoffer–den enestående begivenhed, der definerede historiens ... lå i di-rekte forlængelse af Jesu instruktion til disciplene, da han indstiftede... more
... 5 I centrum for den kristne kult stod påskens rituelle drama-tisering af Kristi sonoffer–den enestående begivenhed, der definerede historiens ... lå i di-rekte forlængelse af Jesu instruktion til disciplene, da han indstiftede nadveren: ” Gør dette til ihukommelse af mig”(Lukas 22.19; 1 ...