Det sammanflätade intresset

This article focuses on the interaction between the state and Swedish banks during the establishment of two institutes for small business credit, AB Industrikredit and AB Företagskredit, between 1958 and 1962. These institutes were established as intermediaries between the supplementary pension system and the credit market. We have been able to elucidate this process by the Swedish Bankers’ Association granting us privileged access to archival material on these negotiations. It is demonstrated that the strong ideological conflict characterizing the parliamentary debate on the supplementary pensions system did not spill over into the system being implemented within the financial sector as this was organized through the examined credit institutes. Instead, the banks and the state were able to negotiate through established channels and arenas for business-government relations in the financial sector. Even if the parties initially exhibited mistrust based on different historical interpretations of the market for small business credit, they also recognized the degree of change that would be brought on by the supplementary pension system with regard to the financial markets and capital formation as a whole. Hence, they downplayed ideological differences and strived to reach an outcomethat was mutually beneficial in its final form. A crucial indication of this consensus is that fifty percent of each institute was owned by the state while the other fifty percent was owned by the banks.

Thematic Literature Review: The Reformation in Sweden and Denmark

This research overview discusses two new anthologies about the Protestant Reformation in Sweden and Denmark by examining two common themes in these works: continuity and discontinutiy with the pre-Reformation era, and communal reformation. Reformation i två riken. Reformationens historia och historiografi i Sverige och DanmarkReformationen i Lund-Malmö-Köpenhamn

Recensioner

Recensioner av monografier, avhandlingar, antologier och urkunder Mindre uppmärksammade historiska jubileerTecknad av Fredrik Tersmeden

De svåruppfostrade barnen

Around the year 1900, there was an emerging scientific interest in man and human behaviour. Among other things, this interest involved a concern about the quality of the population, especially regarding children. A whole scientific movement, the Child Study Movement, emerged in both the Uni­ted States and Europe, revolving around this interest in children. Different experts were united in their concern about the state of the population of children and developed a variety of models and methods to improve the characteristics and health of children. One category concerned the experts in particular: the misbehaved. Drawing on a Foucauldian perspective on biopower, this article explores how psychiatry played an important role in sorting and categorizing schoolchildren in the early welfare state during the interwar years. Society demanded new ways of controlling the population, and biopower – which is about administering the population and maximizing vitality – became a central element of this governing. This article is a contribution to the history of biopower, and this topic is discussed with the emergence and establish­ment of child and school psychiatry during 1910–1955 serving as an example. In this article, it is argued that the involvement of psychiatrists occurred in three steps: as a part of creating and defining new categories of “problem children” within the school system, due to influence from the mental health movement with the establishment of advisory clinics and, finally, through hospitalization and specialization in the 1940s.

Recensioner

Monografier Die doppelte Katastrophe. Klima und Kultur in der europäischen Hungerkrise 1770–1772 Ett lapptäcke av källor. Kunskapsproduktion om romer och resande vid arkiv och museer In a Sea of Empires: Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean Ilska, desperation och lömska försåt. Våldsamma kvinnor i 1800-talets Sverige Vid världens ände. Sultanens sändebud och hans berättelse om 1700-talets Sverige Avhandlingar ”Må de herrskande klasserna darra”. Radikal retorik och reaktion i Stockholms press, 1848–1851 Gränslösa rörelser för fred 1889–1914. Aktörskap, strategi och begreppsvärld hos socialistisk och liberal fredsaktivism Taking the Language of the Past Seriously: The Linguistic Turns in Finnish and Swedish History Dissertations, 1970–2010 Antologier Önskad och ifrågasatt. Lantbruksvetenskapernas akademisering i 1900-talets Sverige Forskarliv. Självporträtt av samtida svenska historiker A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law Mindre uppmärksammade historiska jubileer. Tecknad av Fredrik Tersmeden

Scandia utblick: Var i hela världen befinner sig globalhistoria nu?

Denna 'Scandia utblick' diskuterar globalhistorias framväxt under 1900-talet, aktuell forskning och metodologisk kritik.

Till minne: Erling Sandmo

Minnesord över Erling Sandmo, norsk historiker och kollega.

Dynastisk centralisering i 1560-talets Sverige.

In a previous issue of Scandia (2019:2), historian Liesbeth Geevers argued that “new dynastic history” has emerged as a field within the discipline of history. This article elaborates on some of her suggestions discussing the fraternal conflicts in Sweden in the 1560s from the perspectives of dynastic centralisation and “the problem of the spare”. The conflicts between Erik XIV and his brothers, Duke Johan and Duke Karl, in the early 1560s and the rise of the dukes in 1568 are mainly studied through printed source material in the form of public speeches, libels and accusations exchanged between the brothers.

Den egensinnige från Kittelfjäll

This article is a sports biography of Bengt-Erik Grahn, a prominent figure in Swedish alpine skiing during the 1960s. By discussing representations of Bengt-Erik Grahn in the Swedish daily press and comparing these with his own life story and memories from his time as an elite alpine skier, the objective is to study the cultural identities that appear in relation to his sports career. Bengt-Erik Grahn grew up in a Sámi family in Kittelfjäll in the Swedish province of Västerbotten and spent his early school years at the Sámi nomad school in Tärnaby. Due to his Sámi background and position as a representative of the Swedish national alpine team, the article focuses in particular on how identity constructs such as “Swedishness” and “Sáminess” appear in the source material. For instance, it is argued that his Sámi identity served an important function when Bengt-Erik Grahn was depicted as a Swedish sports hero. In addition, his Sámi background, meager way of life, odd sporting outfit (a hand-knitted wool sweater and hat) and profession as a forestry worker were all characteristics presented in the press coverage as distinguishing the Swedish sporting identity of amateurism from what was perceived as a jet-set and playboy mentality represented by the professional Continental European alpine skiers. However, simultaneously with this idealization, Bengt-Erik Grahn’s Sámi heritage was also used as a stereotype to explain his aggressive and risky tactics, which often resulted in crashes in the most important competitions. Bengt-Erik Grahn’s own life story in several ways offers nuance to the perceptions of the daily press.In particular, it reveals the challenges facing Bengt-Erik Grahn in his youth as he chose to focus on a career in alpine skiing. For example, there were strong expectations that a Sámi skier should devote him- or herself to cross-country skiing, which was considered a traditional Sámi sport at the time. Alpine skiing, on the other hand, was perceived as modern and alien to Sámi sports culture. In that way, Bengt-Erik Grahn’s odd and independent way of skiing appears in his life story as a demonstration of empowerment. Despite the prevailing culture, he chose the sport and how to perform it entirely on his own.