Silvi-kulturella möten: Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet och högre skoglig utbildning i Etiopien 1986–2009

Silvi-Cultural Encounters: The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Higher Forestry Education in Ethiopia, 1986–2009The article discusses the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences’ support to higher forestry education in Ethiopia, which took place between 1986 and 2009 in the context of Swedish-Ethiopian development cooperation. Against a growing historical interest in transnational encounters within the field of education, it analyses how Swedish forestry experts designed educational programs and taught in new environments. The concept of “silvi-culture” is introduced to signify that the tensions that arose within this aid effort related both to the technicalities of forestry education and to diverging academic and social cultures. The article is structured around three kinds of “silvi-cultural encounters” that describe the development of the project both chronologically and thematically. These encounters are used to demonstrate how the forest as a concrete, physical place was of central importance to the Swedish experts, as well as to show how they were guided by preconceptions developed within the framework of a Swedish silvi-culture that was only partially compatible with the conditions in Ethiopia.