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Swedish cultural policy has long been characterized by broad political consensus, partially because it has only drawn very limited attention as an arena for political conflict. There are now indica...

The Museum of World Culture opened in 2004, partially in response to the increased immigration of the 1990s. This article analyses the political process leading to the establishment of the museum, and of the government agency that administers it and three other museums. It also analyses one of its permanent exhibitions, and the recent examples of public criticism of the museum, and of the government agency. Using conceptual history and analysis of historical periodization to analyze understandings of culture, history, and the role of museums, I argue that the museum represents a museum-idea focused on current issues, understanding history in terms of flows and encounters, in contrast to a museum-idea focusing on particular cultures and historical contexts and on understanding these as distinctly separate and context-dependent. Debate about the museum has become intertwined with the debate about the history, and nature, of the Swedish nation, making the museum both, a symbol of, and an actor in, the ongoing debate about Swedish national self-identity. The museum can thus be understood as a national museum, in the sense that it institutionalizes a version of national self-identity, and acts as a focus for debates about it.

In the case of the Accepted Manuscript and the Published Journal Article, the Retained Rights exclude Commercial Use, other than use by the author in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works or to extend the Article to book length form or re-use by the author of portions or excerpts in other works. This article explains the role of noncredit-based leadership education in, or aimed at, civil society in Sweden, and it discusses the extent to which this role has changed over the last 100 years. Working from previous research, it explores the idea that the specific features of Swedish civil society—including the prominent role of popular movement organizations, and the system of government support for such organizations—have shaped the organization of such education in Sweden, giving a central role to the broad concept of knowledge and education as folkbildning. Examples suggest that as academic education has become more common among leaders in civil society, leadership education conducted within civil society organizations has become increasingly normative and often tailor-made to suit the needs and ideology of specific organizations. This partially explains why university- and credit-based education of civil society leaders and managers has remained comparatively limited in Sweden, while noncredit-based education developed in civil society has become comparatively prevalent. It also explains why it is based on a different approach than university-based education. As a secondary aim, this article seeks to highlight areas of further research that will increase understanding of the role of noncredit-based leadership education in, or aimed at, civil society in Sweden and to discuss the extent this role has changed over time.

This article provides a study of political positions concerning the role of religion in modern society in Sweden between 1920 and 1939. It aims to increase understanding of the Swedish secularization path, with special emphasis on issues related to heritage and national identity, by comparing the dominant perspectives on these issues in the Church of Sweden and in the Social Democratic Party during that period. It addresses how these positions have influenced policies during the period, as well as some of their implications for later path dependence. It explores relations between religious issues and the concept of national heritage, as well as how the fact that both were at that time commonly seen as legitimate tasks of the state came to influence the development of Swedish church-and-state relations and heritage policies. Special attention is given to the positions of the Young Church Movement, a movement within the Church emphasizing its role as a national church with a central position in national identity, as well as to the views of Arthur Engberg, the anti-clerical Social Democratic government minister responsible for church, education, and culture in the 1930s. peerReviewed

Secular and Sacred? The Scandinavian Case of Religion in Human Rights, Law and Public Sphere (van den Breemer et al. 2014) is an anthology concerned with the shape and development of secularism in ...

National Museums and Nation-Building in Europe 1750–2010: Mobilization and Legitimacy, Continuity and Change is a volume edited by Peter Aronsson and Gabriella Elgenius. Together with Stefan Berger...

This article analyses the strategies adopted by Ibn Rushd Study Association, a Swedish-Muslim faith-based organization (FBO), to establish itself as a representative of Swedish Muslims in relation to the national government, as well as one of the 10 recognized study associations that handles much of the government-supported adult education in Sweden. This road to acceptance is analysed in the context of the relation to religious denominations institutionalized in Swedish Government–civil society relations, which, it is argued, can be understood as part of a normative concept of secularization and of the relationship between the state and civil society. Such concepts now colour government attitudes to FBOs, but also the way FBOs are organized and understand themselves in relation to the surrounding society. This case study supports Jose Casanova's argument that certain paths of secularization are not only compatible with certain religious denominations increasing their role in public debate, but ma...

This article aims to increase understanding of how the institutional model of a (neo) corporative state meets new forms in a changing civil society. This objective is accomplished by analyzing two case studies of Swedish organizations entering into the field of government-subsidized popular education: one youth organization and one Muslim organization. The institutionalist concepts isomorphism, isopraxism, isonymism, packaging and translation are used to analyze these. Empirically the article is based on qualitative analysis of interviews, observations and written documents. It is concluded that the translation of popular education as an organizational concept in these cases is characterized by coercive and mimetic isomorphism, isopraxism and isonymism to an extent that hinders development in the popular education field. There are also examples of emerging packaging changing the relationship between state and civil society. That issue, however, requires further qualitative research, as does the influence of corporatism on civil society organization in general.

Recension av En mosaik av mening: Om studieforbund och civilsamhalle. Johan von Essen och Gunnar Sundgren (red.)