Demarcating Popular Education with Government Subsidies: Sweden 1911–1991

Authors

  • Samuel Edquist Södertörn University and Uppsala University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36368/njedh.v2i1.45

Keywords:

popular education, non-formal adult education, economics of education, cultural politics, Sweden

Abstract

By analysing the regulating mechanisms of state subsidies to Swedish institutions generally considered mediating “popular education” during the twentieth century, it is argued that a tension has been developed between two parallel notions of popular education. A narrower ideal popular education—emphasising non-formality and independence—has been discursively nurtured along with a broader organisational popular education, denoting the de facto institutions that have received government funding, primarily the folk high schools and study associations. It is argued that the organisational popular education is a reality in itself, spanning over border zones between, for example, non-formal and formal education. Furthermore, an argument against using “popular education” as an analytical concept is put forth, since it is overly contested. Rather, it is promoted as a discursive construct that has formed real organisational structures with their own logic, which cannot be denoted by words such as non-formal adult education.

Author Biography

Samuel Edquist, Södertörn University and Uppsala University, Sweden

Associate Professor in Archival Science and History

Downloads

Published

2015-04-30

How to Cite

Edquist, Samuel. 2015. “Demarcating Popular Education With Government Subsidies: Sweden 1911–1991”. Nordic Journal of Educational History 2 (1):73-96. https://doi.org/10.36368/njedh.v2i1.45.

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2015): Special Issue: The History of Educational Finance

Section

Articles

License

This is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles featured in the journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with definition of open access as formulated by the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). All authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the NJEdH the right of first publication. The work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows others to share and distribute the work as long as it is attributed to the author and its initial publication in the NJEdH is acknowledged.
  2. Authors are encouraged to distribute the work themselves with information on its initial publication in the NJEdH, e.g. upload it to open repositories linked to their personal website or institutional affiliation, or publish it in a book.

The NJEdH is permitted non-exclusive distribution of the work, with attribution to the author, e.g. in a print book themed anthology.