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Sociology in Norway developed in the years after the Second World War. After the science was pioneered by priest and researcher Eilert Sundt in the mid-nineteenth century, there were spread—and failed—attempts to establish sociology as a subject at Norwegian scientific institutions before the Second World War. After the war, sociology was established at the University of Oslo before spreading to other universities. Independent research institutions were formed as well.

Different trends in research field, method and way of analysis came and went. For some, sociology became an oppositional science, used to criticize different parts of society, for some the research was incorporated into state programs to form a knowledge basis for policymaking.

Early sociology
The term "sociology" was coined by Auguste Comte in 1838. It differed from "social thought" often employed by earlier philosophers, ranging as far back as Confucius. Sociology grew up in the nineteenth century, spurred by the Enlightenment and the Philosophes. Auguste Comte, French too, emphasized the scientific approach to society. Around the same time, science in general was emerging in Norway. The University of Oslo was established as the country's first university in 1811. It had faculties for law, medicine, philosophy and theology, and its purpose was to advance education of civil servants: jurists, physicians, educators and clergy. None of these fields are today associated with the University of Oslo Faculty of Social Sciences. However, an important forefather of social science in Norway had a background in theology. Eilert Sundt (1817–1875) was educated as a theologian, and worked as a research fellow in church history for some time. He has been called "the most important social researcher in 1800's Norway", and "the father of Norwegian social science", and according to professor Ragnvald Kalleberg (born 1943) it is "not unreasonable to refer to him as Norway's first sociologist". Sundt studied the "secluded society of the subordinated" and used such components as qualitative data and quantitative data in a statistical analysis. He was set out to improve the sub-societies he studied, and was therefore engaged in a form of action research. Sociologist Willy Martinussen (born 1938) writes that Eilert Sundt could have become known in the international scientific community, had he written in a larger language than Norwegian (the country had about 1.5 million inhabitants in 1855 ), and had he formulated a more comprehensive social theory.

Early attempts on consolidation
In 1887 Frenchman Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) founded the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux. In Norway, such an appointment did not take place in the 19th century. Henrik Ibsen's son Sigurd Ibsen (1859–1930) was a candidate for such a position. In a letter to the University in 1895, he requested that a professor be appointed. He was accepted as a candidate, and held sixteen lectures during the winter of 1896–1897. However, the commission that evaluated his performance, wrote that he had not been able to showcase the qualifications needed for a teaching position at the University. Ragnvald Kalleberg has remarked that sociology in general was seen as an "undeveloped" subject, especially among economists. At the time, no Norwegian had a formal education within sociology. The first was Ewald Bosse (1880–1956), who took the doctorate in Kiel in 1914 on the thesis ''Norwegens Stellung im internationalen Wirtschaftsleben vom 16. Jarhundert bis zur Gegenwart''.

Mid-20th century
A professor seat in sociology was suggested for Ewald Bosse by the Parliament of Norway in 1928 and created in 1935. However, Bosse was not found to have the appropriate competence, and the seat remained empty for the time being. Instead, sociology was taught at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo in the interwar period. Wilhelm Thagaard (1890–1970) was behind the tuition in "sociology for jurists". Arvid Brodersen (1904–1996) taught sociology for economy students, who were also a part of the Faculty of Law at the time. Brodersen worked as research fellow at the university from 1936 to 1940, and had taken his entire sociological education in Berlin, indluding the doctorate in 1931 with the thesis Lebensdrang und Lebensordnung der sozialen Gebilde: eine systematisch–soziologische Untersuchung der generativen Organisationsformen. A program for the mag.art. (magister artium) degree in sociology, a degree described as being between the master and doctorate level, was created in 1939.

The ascent of sociology as a formalized scientific subject in Norway can largely be attributed to a circle of people where philosopher Arne Næss (1912–2009) was central. Næss was appointed professor of philosophy in 1939, and during the 1940s he formed an informal group of students who would later become academics. The molding of this group was facilitated by World War II, the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany and the Norwegian resistance movement. Sociologists in this group include Vilhelm Aubert (1922–1988), Sverre Holm (1910–1996) and Kaare Svalastoga (1914–1997), although other group members such as Stein Rokkan (1921–1979) also influenced Norwegian sociology, specifically political sociology. The characteristic of this group has been summarized as problem-oriented empiricism. Arne Næss was a proponent of empirical research as well as logic and precision in arguments. Second, Norwegian society faced a number of problems, partly due to World War II, but there was a growing welfare state and a growing tendency to adress welfare issues as general societal problems. In 1947 Stein Rokkan described sociological research as a "fundament for all social engineering, all social technology, all rational planning. The social diagnosis and the social prognosis forms a foundation for a social prophylaxis and a social therapy". The group was also influenced by American sociology, which had thrived in the interwar period, North America being less marked by extreme ideologies than was Europe.

Institute for Social Research
Sverre Holm became the first professor of sociology in Norway in 1949. However, the sociologists in the group around Arne Næss regarded the possibilities within the university as too limited. In 1950, the Norwegian Institute for Social Research (Institutt for samfunnsforskning) was founded. Understandably, the Institute had a greater emphasis on research than on education and tuition; furthermore it benefitted from being multidisciplinary. It attracted several visiting scholars, especially from the United States. The first was Paul Lazarsfeld (1901–1976). Another famous sociologist with contacts in Norway was Robert Merton. Lazarsfeld would in 1972 describe the Institute as "in the early post-war years, [...] the most vigorous research center in Europe".

Department of Sociology
The Department of Sociology at the University of Oslo was decided established on 12 November 1949, and came to be on 1 January 1950. Administratively, it was a part of the Faculty of Humanities, until 1963 when the Faculty of Social Sciences was created. Physically, the Department of Sociology was not a part of the University of Oslo campus in downtown Oslo, nor of the campus Blindern in Nordre Aker. The department was localized in the premises of Halling School near the Royal Palace, before moving to the former Grimeland School near Victoria Terrasse in the summer of 1950. After some years here, the department moved to an adress in the street Niels Juels gate before finally moving to Blindern in the winter of 1967–1968.

The first professor Sverre Holm had few colleagues. Ørjar Øyen (born 1927) was hired as research assistant in 1956, and Odd Ramsøy (1924–2000) followed as research fellow in 1958. Ramsøy was promoted to lecturer in 1960. Sverre Lysgaard (1923–1994) became the second professor when he was appointed as such in 1965. Other staff in this early period include Johan Galtung (born 1930), who had degreed in both mathematics and sociology, and worked at the Department of Sociology from 1959 to 1960. The number of full-time administrative personnel also rose continuously, starting with the sole office clerk in 1963. In 1975 there were six professors.

The number of students at the Department of Sociology rose from 20 in 1960 to 61 in 1963, 112 in 1966, 428 in 1969 and 1,117 in 1993. Among the 1,012 sociologists with master's degrees in Norway between 1947 and 1993, 661 came from the University of Oslo. A master's degree named cand.sociol. was introduced in the 1960s, supplementing the mag.art. degree. Ragnvald Kalleberg has analyzed the cand.sociol. program as being more profession-like. It existed until the 1990s, when it was replaced by the cand.polit. degree. This degree had been used in political science, among others, as well as in sociology at the University of Bergen. After 2003, the Bologna process and the Quality Reform streamlined Norwegian higher education and removed most such Latin titles. A sociological study program equivalent to the bachelor's degree was created in 1963, having been preceded by sociology as a minor subject, which was introduced in 1957.

In addition to the professors at the Department of Sociology, the sociology of law was researched and taught at the Faculty of Law. The most notable sociologist of law was Vilhelm Aubert, who took his education at Columbia before being a research fellow, docent and professor at the Faculty of Law from 1948 to 1971. He took the doctorate in 1954 with the thesis Om straffens sosiale funksjon ("On the Social Function of Punishment"), and wrote the textbook Sosiology for jurister ("Sociology for Jurists", 1958), which was used by non-jurists as well. He transferred from the Faculty of Law to the Department of Sociology in 1971.

Sociologists working abroad
Ewald Bosse tried to establish an institute for social labour research in Oslo in the late 1930s, but the institute was hampered after only a few years due to the Nazi German occupation. After World War II Bosse returned to the University of Kiel to work as a professor there. Arvid Brodersen was a professor at the New School for Social Research from 1949 to 1974. Kaare Svalastoga was a professor at the University of Copenhagen. Jon Elster (born 1940), a philosopher with important contributions to rational choice theory as well as understanding of the classical sociology (e.g. Karl Marx), has been professor at the University of Chicago and Columbia University.

Other institutions
After the University of Bergen was founded as Norway's second university in 1946, the number of universities offering an education in sociology has grown. In addition to the universities in Oslo and Bergen, sociology as a bachelor's degree is now offered at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of Tromsø, the University of Stavanger, the University of Nordland, the Vestfold University College and the Nord-Trøndelag University College. The Lillehammer University College offers a one-year course in sociology. The University of Agder offers a bachelor's degree in "labour and welfare sociology", and Sogn og Fjordane University College offers "youth sociology".


 * Fafo Foundation
 * Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research
 * National Institute for Consumer Research
 * Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research
 * Norwegian Social Research
 * Norwegian Work Research Institute

Research may be funded by the Research Council of Norway, where a trained sociologist Arvid Hallén became director in 2004.

Martinussen's periodization
Sociologist Willy Martinussen has divided Norwegian sociology into four periods, with somewhat overlapping time spans. The four periods are characterized by four different "viewpoints" (paradigms). The periods are "systemic thinking" from 1945 to 1965 when functionalism marked Norwegian sociology; "condition thinking" from 1960 to 1980 when contextualism was on a high point; "choice-action thinking" from 1975 to 1995 when invididualism (rational choice theory, game theory) marked Norwegian sociology; and "social constructivist thinking" from 1990 to present when interactionism marked Norwegian sociology. In his chapter Martinussen refers to Gunnar Aakvaag.

Functionalism
According to Willy Martinussen, the golden age sociologists were functionalists. Functionalist sociology was also popular in North America. Norwegian sociological publications inspired by functionalists like Talcott Parsons include Odd Ramsøy's Social Groups as System and Subsystem (1962). In addition to 1954's Om straffens sosiale funksjon, Vilhelm Aubert wrote books like Rettens sosiale funksjon ("The Social Function of Justice", 1976). Johan Galtung and Nils Christie (born 1928) wrote theses that leaned towards criminology. Aubert also published within industrial sociology and sociology of organizations. Sverre Lysgaard's Arbeiderkollektivet ("The Workers' Collective", 1961) is a classic in these fields, describing social defence mechanisms among laborers. Lysgaard was originally an engineer by education but employed quantitative methods according to Kalleberg. Yngvar Løchen (1931–1998) Functionalist thinking also marked the anthology Det norske samfunn; which was based "in the idea of society as a social system, composed of social institutions".

The sociologists in this period were not necessarily quantitative researchers, in that they used observation and interviews. Martinussen has also argued that Paul Lazarsfeld's influence was not felt as strongly as that of C. Wright Mills, Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel. One reason that quantitative sociology did not break through immediately, was for technical reasons. Large-scale data harvesting was augmented first and foremost when computers became more common. Both Vilhelm Aubert, Johan Galtung, Sverre Lysgaard, Yngvar Løchen, social anthropologist Fredrik Barth (born 1928), sociologist of law Thomas Mathiesen (born 1933) and social psychologist Harriet Holter (1922–1997) used methods like observation and interviews coupled with their own experiences, while Stein Rokkan to a large degree employed historical methods with qualitative scrutiny of data. Barth differed somewhat from the rest in that he was an early critic of "systemic thinking".

Conditions of actions
Studies of the conditions of social actions became widespread in the 1960s. The Norwegian state developed an interest to fund research Studies were mainly empirical, especially with research on inequal distribution of resources and the consequences for social actions. Research on women's life also appeared.

A strand of research labelled as oppositional science arose.

Ottar Brox (born 1932) is known especially for his book Hva skjer i Nord-Norge ("What Happens in Northern Norway", 1966). Ottar Brox was also an active politician for the Socialist Left Party.

The empirical study of resources also gave way for research within the state.

Ragnvald Kalleberg recognizes two Norwegian Official Reports as having especially important sociological contributions: ''NOU 1984:13. Åpningstid og tilgjengelighet and NOU 1988:28. Med viten og vilje''. Both contributed to practical policy, led to results, and were reliant on sociological expertise. Sociologists were hired as civil servants.

Choice-action thinking
Neomarxist sociology was a challenger to both systemic thinking and condition thinking; to the first because the neomarxists thought that the conflict element in systems was downplayed. Others, most markedly Jon Elster, meant that intentional explanations of actions had been absent. This view could be coupled with a conflict perspective (Ottar Brox inspired by Fredrik Barth), but eventually led to individualist perspectives becoming more widespread. The game theory-inspired Gudmund Hernes was a central proponent here, especially because he led the richly funded Maktutredninga. Sociologists influenced by exchange theory include Fredrik Engelstad (born 1944) and Roar Hagen. Jon Elster is widely known for writing about rational choice theory

The more social philosophical tradition is first and foremost represented by Dag Østerberg (born 1938). He was inspired by Hans Skjervheim (1926–1999), a philosopher with certain connections to sociology; among others his essay Deltakar og tilskodar was originally published as stencils by the Department of Sociology.

Social constructivism
Social constructivism had existed for many years, but eventually won a breakthrough. Notable works are interactionist books by Stein Bråten (born 1934) and Dag Album (born 1948). Other works have been inspired by Jürgen Habermas, others by discourse analysis. Gender research was particularly strongly tilted in a constructivist direction, helped by the emergence of queer theory and the notion of "doing gender".

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