In his essay ‘Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’ (1984b), the American literary scholar Frederic Jameson attempts to relate postmodern culture to broader economic, social and political developments. The main thesis is that postmodernism is nothing more than the cultural logic of late capitalism. Jameson analyses a range of contemporary artworks and cultural products and shows how they differ from the art of the modernist era. Where truth, the creative and the individual subject are questioned, concepts such as practices, discourses and intertextual games become important instead. While Jameson’s essay remains relevant as a contemporary diagnosis and for those who want to understand what the term ‘postmodernism’, means, it is interesting above all as a methodological model that shows the possibilities of historicising current trends.

In 2009, Lukas Moodysson’s motion picture Mammoth had its opening. The movie is set inthree different locations – New York, Thailand, and the Philippines – and follows severalcharacters and their individual life stories. In Swedish and Anglo-Saxon news media thereceptions varied to a great extent, but most of the critics described the movie in terms ofglobalization. Inspired by the ethnographic concept life-world, I discuss how it is possibleto analyse life-worlds in a fictional film. Using the concept of bohemian bourgeois, I stressthat the life-worlds of the privileged create spaces of opportunities most people do not haveaccess to. In Mammoth, the characters living in New York experience a sense of loss and alack of meaning. The beaches in Thailand and traditional religiosity create a contrast representingnascensy and continuity. The hierarchies and power relations that often are said tocharacterize a globalized world are analysed through the conceptual pair of centre and periphery. In the film, New York epitomises the centre and the Philippines with its poverty,mountains of waste and child sex labour depicts the utmost periphery. In analysing andunderstanding notions about contemporary processes of globalization, I argue that fictionalfilm is a fruitful point of departure.

This book addresses how historians produce knowledge throughthe act of contextualization. In eleven chapters, the authorsdemonstrate how they proceed to create, interpret, or reinterprethistorical, cultural, and societal contexts. The aim is to stimulatereflection and discussion about what contextualization meansand how it is done. As a practice, contextualization is a crucialelement of all historical studies, whether concerned with language, artifacts, actions, or events. Bringing the reader into the scholarly process of contextualization, demonstrating various ways oftaking on the task, the book invites students as well as established scholars to consider the possibilities contained in a seeminglyordinary aspect of the historian’s work. There will always be newways of making sense of history. This is why historical studies aresuch an important part of the knowledge base of our society.