Klass i begåvningsreservens tidevarv: Taxonomiska konflikter inom och genom svensk utbildningsforskning, ca 1945–1960

Translated title of the contribution: Class in the age of the pool of talent: Taxonomic struggles in and through Swedish education research, c. 1945–1960

Carl-Filip Smedberg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article studies conceptualisations of social class in Swedish education research, c. 1945–1960. The article follows knowledge produced about talent and class in state commissions and in the newly expanded social sciences, and how it in turn was interpreted and used in political debates and in the media. I show that the taxonomy of the population in social groups (Socialgrupper) was key for conceptualising notions of talent and framing education policy, beginning with debates around”the pool of talent” (Begåvningsreserven) in 1948. At the same time as becoming a standard tool for mapping social difference in Sweden, the social group taxonomy was criticised for being unscientific.

Translated title of the contributionClass in the age of the pool of talent: Taxonomic struggles in and through Swedish education research, c. 1945–1960
Original languageSwedish
Pages (from-to)59-79
Number of pages21
JournalNordic Journal of Educational History
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Carl-Filip Smedberg. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • History
  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Anthropology, Demography and Criminology)
  • History of Science and Ideas

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