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In Sweden during the late 1800s, access to secondary education was not attainable for everyone. The school system separated pupils with parents who could afford to pay for tuition and boarding from those that came from less resourceful backgrounds.

However, in a society in the throes of industrialization, this system was rapidly changing. Among the new forms of educational institutions were the folk high schools. First introduced in the 1860s in rural areas of Sweden, they offered education to the sons (but not the daughters) of land-owning farmers. By the turn of the century gender-mixed education was introduced for students from the working class, and higher forms of education became accessible to new groups in society. This was utilized by the expanding popular movements, as they saw the folk high schools as a means for providing education for members and officials. 

By using a mixed methods approach, combining descriptive statistics with life- and microhistory analyses of prosopographical data from a range of sources, I examine the social mobility of students from three folk high schools between 1906–1921: Väddö (est. 1873), Hola (est. 1896) and Brunnsvik (est. 1906). 

My study shows that for a large segment of the students at these three folk high schools, a relatively brief course was part of a life characterised by upward social mobility. How that mobility was expressed, however, differed depending on the regional context and specific character of each school. Thus, I argue that a folk high school education was an important investment in an individual's human capital. It was also an investment in symbolic capital, as the networks reproduced at the schools often proved important for an individual’s opportunities. Moreover, I show that the individual’s investment often involved collective transfers of resources, either within civil society, from the public sector, or within the student’s families. The folk high school education became a product of collective efforts, which resulted in individual careers. 

To pursue your dreams, to leave your small home town and make it in the Big City. These arenarratives common to people living in the 21st century. But among some of the students at BrunnsvikFolk College in the early years of the 20th century, this individualistic approach was frowned upon.You should put your new knowledge to use in the class struggle, not pursue some romantic dream, orthink you suddenly had become better than the masses.As the Swedish labour movement grew stronger, the need for more theoretically skilled organizersbecame important. But access to education higher than primary level had not been attainable foreveryone in Sweden in the late 1800s. This was however changing rapidly. Among the new forms ofeducational institutions were the folkhögskolor (folk colleges, or folk high‐schools), started byorganizations in the civil society, or private persons for philanthropic reasons. They quickly becameimportant institutions as they opened up higher forms of education to new groups in society. One ofthese institutions was Brunnsvik.This paper examines the motifs of the students at Brunnsvik. What expectations did they have of theeducation? What expectations did their comrades in the local trade unions or political organizationshave, when they raised money to send one of their peers to attend the school? And how were thestudents received when they came home? An investigation of the students’ background will shedlight on who they were when they enrolled at Brunnsvik: their political background, educationalachievements, social class, and any previous occupations. How would they benefit from furthereducation and what were their future prospects? Did their time at Brunnsvik improve their lifechances? Was the education a tool for personal emancipation, or for the emancipation of the wholelabour movement?By using memoirs, letters, interviews, debates and protocols from local branches, this study will shedlight on some of these issues.

Ledare om gränskontroller mellan Sverige och Danmark, och om Rolf Edberg och den nordiska passunionen.

Temporary work agencies, and private placement agencies in Sweden have been regulated in some form since the 1730s with the institution Adress-contoiret with royal privileges, where servants could register for work in Stockholm. In 1935, in coherence with the ILO convention from that time, privately run job centres charging fees from job applicants were banned, as well as work agencies acting as employers offering staffing services to their clients. A few exceptions concerning agencies for musicians and specialist consultants were allowed, but the main political values within the workers’ parties were that workers should not be considered as commodities. This regulation was active until 1993, when the government deregulated this practice.

This paper will examine the process of legislation in the Swedish Riksdag concerning work mediation, placement agencies and temporary work agencies. Focus will be on the period from 1900 up to the two legislations of 1935 and 1942. During these formative years, the workers’ movement and their parties, the social democratic party and the communist party, were opposed to all forms of private agencies making profit from this practice. In parliament, motions against this practice were written by MPs from both workers’ parties. The paper is based on studies of parliamentary publications, reports from trade union archives and news paper articles.

There were different kinds of temporary work agencies active during these times, both non-profit and profit. Several trade unions and social movements ran their own non-profit practices, e. g. the bakery workers’ trade union or the Fredrika-Bremer-association concerned with women’s emancipation issues. These practices were not the target of the motions in parliament. Instead they concerned agencies making profit from job mediation. Some agencies charged the job applicants a small fee for enlisting, some added a finder’s fee when the contract was written with the new employer, and some acted as employers and let out their employees as staff to their different clients.

The issue at hand is that during the first part of the 20th century, the distinction between the parties concerned was between worker, mediator of work, and employer. MPs of the workers’ parties did not seem to make any legal distinction as to whether the workers were employed by the client they were offered to, or if the agency acted as the employer. They rather made a moral distinction and were more concerned with the level of exploitation of the worker than who had the legal responsibility as the employer – the temporary work agency or the agency’s client? This shows a different focus than what is prevalent today.

Ledartext om den eventuellt kommande bristen på tillgång till källmaterial för framtidens historiker.

This article attempts to give an historical overview of the regulations on temporary employment agencies in Sweden. Thus, the focus is on how the relationship between being employed by a temporary work agency and let out to this agency’s customer has been regulated over time. The article also problematizes the image presented by the sector’s employer organization in their historical description of the origin of temporary work agencies, and it seeks to vary the picture of a much debated area on the Swedish labour market. It summarises political decisions in the Swedish parliament on the historical forms for the mediation of work through fee-charging employment agencies.