BEGREBSANALYSE I POLITISK HISTORIE? NOGLE METODISKE OVERVEJELSER

Resumé

ABSTRACT

Conceptual Analysis in Political History?:
Some Methodological Considerations

On the shoulders of the so-called linguistic turn in the human and social sciences, has the field of conceptual history in recent years developed into an integrated part of historical scholarship in many parts of continental Europe. The discipline of conceptual history was developed in the 1960s and the 1970s, first and foremost by Reinhart Koselleck who continuously contrasted conceptual history to the study of social history (Sozialgeschichte), and from the late 1980s many authors have contrasted conceptual history to the study of intellectual history. This article poses the question if there is a place for conceptual-historical analysis in political history and argues that the study of politics might learn from conceptual
history in at least 􀏐ive dimensions: 1) in re􀏐inement of analytical categories; 2) in the study of ideology, 3) in the study of discourse, 4) in the study of rhetoric, and 5) in the opening of transnational and comparative perspectives on national politics.