Taxonomical lives : The making of social divisions in the Swedish press during the golden age of social democracy, 1945–76
(2023) In History of the Human Sciences p.1-22- Abstract
- This article investigates the media lives of a particular class taxonomy in the Swedish press from 1945 to 1976. Invented by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1911, the ‘social group division’ system was abandoned in the early post-war period. Around the same time, however, it gained popularity in Swedish culture and political debate. While earlier research has noted that such bureaucratic class taxonomies – as in several other Western countries – conditioned how actors understood and created new knowledge about the population, this process of wider circulation remains understudied. Using insights from literature on ‘the social life of methods’ and the history of knowledge, which underline that knowledge is transformed by and transforms... (More)
- This article investigates the media lives of a particular class taxonomy in the Swedish press from 1945 to 1976. Invented by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1911, the ‘social group division’ system was abandoned in the early post-war period. Around the same time, however, it gained popularity in Swedish culture and political debate. While earlier research has noted that such bureaucratic class taxonomies – as in several other Western countries – conditioned how actors understood and created new knowledge about the population, this process of wider circulation remains understudied. Using insights from literature on ‘the social life of methods’ and the history of knowledge, which underline that knowledge is transformed by and transforms the contexts it circu- lates in, I show that print media was an arena for circulating and producing new meaning around class taxonomies. Although editorials shunned the social group division for incorrectly representing Swedish society and creating artificial class boundaries, journal- ists used the taxonomy to explain social structures. Furthermore, by interviewing ‘typ- ical’ members of the different social groups, journalists made the system relatable and personal for their readers. In this context, the social groups were imagined as cultural communities, sharing cultural behaviours and preferences. Lastly, I analyse usages of the social group division in letters to the editor, which reveal that people felt they were being classified and wanted to offer their views of society, using the taxonomy in ways the experts had not intended. This study thereby contributes to the history of social taxonomies and class languages in the post-war period. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/7106293a-4493-4dcc-9afe-2bb21c110519
- author
- Smedberg, Carl-Filip LU
- publishing date
- 2023-12-27
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- media, history of class divisions, history of the social sciences, post-war Sweden, social life of methods
- in
- History of the Human Sciences
- pages
- 22 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85180645765
- ISSN
- 1461-720X
- DOI
- 10.1177/09526951231213512
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 7106293a-4493-4dcc-9afe-2bb21c110519
- date added to LUP
- 2023-12-29 13:29:38
- date last changed
- 2024-01-25 04:09:09
@article{7106293a-4493-4dcc-9afe-2bb21c110519,
abstract = {{This article investigates the media lives of a particular class taxonomy in the Swedish press from 1945 to 1976. Invented by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 1911, the ‘social group division’ system was abandoned in the early post-war period. Around the same time, however, it gained popularity in Swedish culture and political debate. While earlier research has noted that such bureaucratic class taxonomies – as in several other Western countries – conditioned how actors understood and created new knowledge about the population, this process of wider circulation remains understudied. Using insights from literature on ‘the social life of methods’ and the history of knowledge, which underline that knowledge is transformed by and transforms the contexts it circu- lates in, I show that print media was an arena for circulating and producing new meaning around class taxonomies. Although editorials shunned the social group division for incorrectly representing Swedish society and creating artificial class boundaries, journal- ists used the taxonomy to explain social structures. Furthermore, by interviewing ‘typ- ical’ members of the different social groups, journalists made the system relatable and personal for their readers. In this context, the social groups were imagined as cultural communities, sharing cultural behaviours and preferences. Lastly, I analyse usages of the social group division in letters to the editor, which reveal that people felt they were being classified and wanted to offer their views of society, using the taxonomy in ways the experts had not intended. This study thereby contributes to the history of social taxonomies and class languages in the post-war period.}},
author = {{Smedberg, Carl-Filip}},
issn = {{1461-720X}},
keywords = {{media; history of class divisions; history of the social sciences; post-war Sweden; social life of methods}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
pages = {{1--22}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{History of the Human Sciences}},
title = {{Taxonomical lives : The making of social divisions in the Swedish press during the golden age of social democracy, 1945–76}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/167576410/smedberg-2023-taxonomical-lives-the-making-of-social-divisions-in-the-swedish-press-during-the-golden-age-of-social.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1177/09526951231213512}},
year = {{2023}},
}