The public space and informal accountability: Verdandi's study manual, the press and Uppsala University

This article is concerned with the introduction of new forms of accountability. Instead of studying political reforms in the present, it explores a process in 19(th) century Sweden where the university became informally accountable to the public. It focuses not on large-scale government interventions but on seemingly mundane educational documentation: the study handbook published by Verdandi, a fraternity at Uppsala University, in 1887. The study is concerned with the impact of the handbook on the infrastructure of control, transparency and agency of the university. It shows how the handbook rearranged the academic structure of agency and provided new venues of assessment. The handbook was the first of its kind and it received nation-wide press coverage. It provided the press and the public with an official point of reference to informally and publicly assess, question and judge university education. At the same time, students were enabled to strengthen their influence within and without the university. The study illuminates a dual process of agency and accountability that was arguably an integral part to the 19(th) century "modern" university emerging in relation to the public space and contemporary political and social developments.