The present study explores some of the mechanisms at work in the award of the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology during the period 1901-1950. In his will, Nobel mentioned three explicit criteria for the Nobel Committees, but an examination of the fate of German biochemist Carl Neuberg reveals how implicit criteria came to be added. For example, the Nobel Committees in Medicine and Chemistry were challenged by the emergence of new disciplines such as biochemistry, and in response began to rotate awards around different specialities.

Conceptions of time and space lie at the heart of many prevalent discourses on modernity and globalization. These conceptions are variably based on ideas of modern media of communication having developed as part of technological and other transformations throughout the modern era. One major aim of this essay is to scrutinize some of the literature that claims to establish historical links between modernity, globalization and the media. For one thing, it is asserted here that globalization is not simply a logical outcome of modernity. Depending on the chosen historical perspective, the relationship might be the contrary one - global interdependencies appearing prior to both early and late modernity. There is also a criticism of the spatialization turn in social and cultural theory. It does not capture the subtle dialectics of time and

space as these dimensions are reconstituted by the media, not least on the global level. In this context the author considers the critiques of media imperialism and postjournalism and their relevance for a grounded analysis of power and difference in a postcolonial, postcommunist global system.

According to the census, more than 100,000 foreign-born people over 65 years of age now live in Sweden. They represent nearly eight per cent of the elderly population, and come from over a hundred different countries. During the 1990s many ethnically and religiously based old-age and health-care services have been developed for this population. The experiences of these services and their importance in the planning of care facilities are discussed in the article; research and scientific evaluations comparing health and social conditions of the foreign-born and Swedish elderly populations are also reviewed.

This anthology utilizes the concept of encounters to investigate the linked constructions of identity and difference in modern European history. The articles use representations of others to ask basic questions about identity: how is the encountered group described, and what does this description say about the observer and about the cultural group and discourse that the observer represents?

The studies span 150 years and a wide geographical area (Germany, the U.S., Sweden and Russia). Importantly, they also demonstrate how descriptions of the “other” vary according to the media used. The form in which the representation is placed – in novels, travel literature, web sites, newspapers or World Fairs – affects the way in which its messages on identity and otherness are conceptualised and conveyed. These articles, thus, not only present insights into how the discourses of, e.g., race, Orientalism, educational, gender and class hierarchies affect concepts of “us and the others”. They also show how the medium functions as an integral part of that message.

The book is written by a range of authors ranging from advanced students to professors. It is, accordingly, aimed not only at experts in the field, but also those starting out in identity and cultural studies – serving both as a textbook, and as a work for seasoned scholars looking for recent and innovative investigations in the field of identity studies.