During Monday afternoon’s session, Jakob Vogel and Alexander van Wickeren presented a group discussion question regarding Pierre-Yves Saunier’s approach to scaled histories. Saunier insists that traditional scaled histories are nested and hierarchical approaches which reinforce a ‘methodological nationalism’. He asserts that all historical scaling should be relational (hence, equitable) rather than hierarchical. Clearly, he supports transnational history at a micro, local, national or globe scale. But is Saunier also suggesting that local history simultaneously functions as global history? If so, this interpretation of scale accurately describes Dundee’s whaling efforts in the 19th century. This local industry operated within a transmaritime context with regard to geography as well as cultural, scientific, economic and environmental history. If Saunier is arguing for this point, then Dundee’s local-global whaling industry produced a subdued national scale of history.

Considering this, does Saunier’s scalar assertion necessarily fit all historical studies? Do instances exist in which a hierarchical local-national-global scale of history works more effectively than a relational perspective? What if there are instances in which traditional understandings of nationalism must be examined? For instance, take the issue of sport and Cold War politics in which countries like Czechoslovakia existed between two ideological superpowers. While an international game of hockey game was a local sporting event occurring in a specific arena and city, political authorities frequently appropriated results for propaganda purposes at any number of levels. Nationally, sports figures transformed into ideological heroes. At a transnational level, eastern or western blocs could leverage something as innocuous as a sport score to persuade people of the success of the victor’s own ideology and civilization and the failures of the other.

Tomas Vojacek & Matthew Ylitalo