Undesirable citizens: Education, care and control of the “Feeble-minded” in the Swedish Province of Malmöhus, 1900–1950
This paper contains the main results of a recently completed historical research project about the situation of persons cate- gorized as“feeble-minded” in Sweden. In this study, the case of Malmohus province constitutes the microhistorical core. Here, educational and care institutions such as schools, asylums and working homes were particularly established in the first half of the 20th century. The motives behind these foundations will be discussed and the working routines in those institutions will be analysed in terms of teaching and after-care of the inmates and their exclusion justified by social constructs such as “uneducable” or “moral imbecile”. This paper aims at demonstrating how feeble-mindedness was perceived as a social problem, and how close the efforts of education and care were connected to eugenic ideology and control. Thereby, the history of the feeble-minded will be interpreted as a striking example of the contradictions of modernity. The coincidence of social inclusion and exclusion was a characteristic of the situation of an undesirable group of citizens in the Swedish society under the era of modernization. This outcome is of high relevance for understanding the early historical development of the Nordic welfare state.
Folkhälsa : Det svenska projektet fran 1900 till 2:a världskriget
The turn of this century has been characterized as the era in which the features of modern social life firts became apparent in Sweden. In this context, public health was considered a key issue in the Swedish debate, emphasizing simultaneously the nation's need, in trying to uphlod its interests on the international market, for a strong and healthy population, and concerns about the problems that industrialization, urbanization and modern life might pose for health. With the advancement of biological and social sciences, new visions were created regarding not only the possibility of eliminating disease, but changing man and controlling social life as well. A distinguishing trait of moderns public health ideology was the scientific view of man and society, making health policy part of a progressive social vision based upon science, rationality, equality and harmony. From this point of view policy-making related to public health is analized on three parallel levels : the medical, the political and the popular
The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences
In The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences eleven scholars widely known for their interdisciplinary work investigate one of the most striking developments in the intellectual world today: the return to history by a wide range of academic disciplines. From new historicism in literary theory, to ethnohistory, to historical sociology, these new approaches have resulted both in more works of historical analysis and in a more self-conscious attempt to locate the human sciences in their own histories. The essays in The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences--eight of them published here for the first time--take stock of these changes from the perspectives of some of the disciplines most deeply involved: anthropology, sociology, political science, law, literary studies, and history itself. Many of the authors have played a crucial role in producing the historic turn in their own disciplines. The volume as a whole, therefore, goes significantly beyond a mere inventory of these changes to ask how and how much history can make a difference; how the practice of history is affected by post-structural and other theories; and what is left of both unproblematized history and social science after the historic turn. Taken together the essays give a sense both of what these various turns to history have in common and what sets them apart. This comparative dimension distinguishes the volume from those that have analyzed the impact of history on a single field or have assayed its effects without including historians themselves. In the wake of the historic turn neither the historical actor nor the historical analyst will ever again be seen as a colossus striding over the pages of history.This volume explains in an extraordinary thought-provoking and challenging way why this must be so. Terrence J. McDonald is Professor of History, University of Michigan.