This book examines Nordic cities from 1850 and their transformation from traditional, oligarchic towns to modern, inclusive welfare cities.

In the contemporary world, the role of cities as hotbeds for progressive change has become increasingly topical. Historical studies on how Nordic cities addressed social and environmental questions a hundred years ago and how they eventually created new and inclusive policies for the future is a useful contribution to the current debate. The concept of the welfare city is addressed and elaborated upon to analyse the attempts by urban authorities to solve the problems following industrialization and urbanization. From the late nineteenth century, municipal public services promoted the integration of new groups in the urban community including workers, immigrants, women and children. The contributions in this book analyse various examples of welfare and public services that include infrastructure and transport systems, health care, housing conditions, outdoor life and entertainment. The chapters highlight the arguments and considerations promoting welfare policies, while also addressing differences between the Nordic countries. The evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions.

An important conclusion of this book is that the evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions. This chapter suggest that this development should be interpreted as a succession of different types of welfare cities with specific characteristics; the patriarchal, the economic, the social, the universal, and the neoliberal welfare city. The model covers the whole period from c. 1850 to the present, addressing municipal organization as well as political regimes. We also contend that it was not material infrastructure by itself, but rather the ongoing contestation and negotiation over a plethora of various welfare services that eventually contributed to a widening and strengthening of urban citizenship. The types of welfare cities suggested thus represent different outcomes from the ongoing struggle over material and cultural networks, involving paupers as well as politicians and professional experts.

The formation of states in early modern Europe has long been an important topic for historical analysis. Traditionally, the political and military struggles of kings and rulers were the favoured object of study for academic historians. This book highlights new historical research from Europe’s northern frontier, bringing ‘the people’ back into the discussion of state politics, presenting alternative views of political and social relations in the Nordic countries before industrialisation. The early modern period was a time that witnessed initiatives from people from many groups formally excluded from political influence, operating outside the structures of central government, and this book returns to the subject of contentious politics and state building from below.

This chapter argues that the concept of state building from below may be used as an analytical tool for better understanding of political and social relations in the era before industrialisation. In the Nordic countries, the discussion about the state building process in the 1980s and 1990s produced two conflicting narratives. The early modern period produced new repertoires for collective action and political agency. While this long-term perspective is perfectly valid, we argue that the concept of state building is more relevant for our focus on interactions at the micro level. Erling Sandmo has argued that early modern society should be analysed as a permanent public sphere, where ordinary people interacted with each other on a day-to-day basis. State territory was not a uniform entity but rather a fluctuating space full of ‘holes’ – places and spaces where central control was missing or totally dependent on local agents and institutions.

This essay addresses the relation between social stratification and state formation in early modern Sweden. I argue that the belligerent politics of Swedish rulers promoted the social and political rise of a smaller group of peasant freeholders. The state preferred to bargain with the landed peasants who commanded authority over the marginalised groups in local society. The freeholders could therefore shift the heavy burden of military conscription on to crofters, farmhands and day labourers.

The concept of class has relevance for this analysis, as it draws attention to the marginalised and dispossessed. However, focusing on class might also obscure the complexity of social relations in peasant society. Conflict was not restricted to the struggle between lords and peasants, or between husbands and servants. As historians, we must recognise the specific interests of various social groups as well as the capacity of the state to promote new forms of extraction.

Coronakrisen visar på ett stort behov av kollektivt ansvar, och röster höjs för tydligare gränser för den privata sektorn. Vi har sett det förr, skriver historikerna Magnus Linnarsson och Mats Hallenberg. 

Den pågående coronapandemin har bytt in en gammal bänknötare från avbytarbänken. Plötsligt ropar alla på staten. På bara ett par veckor har den politiska debatten i Sverige svängt från att handla om marknadskrafter och valfrihet till att helt och hållet domineras av en stark tilltro till det allmänna och krav på kollektiva lösningar.