The emergence of the “worker”: Sweden 1750–1900

Time period:

1 January 2026 – 31 December 2030

Project leader:

Karin Hassan Jansson, Karin Hassan

Project member:

Anne Berg

Funder:

Swedish Research Council

Type of award:

Project grant

Total funding:

5,916,000 SEK

Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a sea-change in our knowledge of workers and work, globally as well as in the Nordics. The fields of social and labour history have made significant advances regarding the relations of labour and the history of work in early modern and modern Europe. However, while historians have made great leaps in knowledge regarding the economic and social history of work and workers, a corresponding leap has not occurred regarding the conceptual and cultural history of workers. This project is a step in that direction. The aim of this project is to analyse and explain the emergence and transformation of the concept of workers in Sweden circa 1750–1900. Our explanatory approach is based on the notion that semantic changes relate to political and social transformations with the emergence of new actors and changes in power relations. We will investigate how and why key actors – managers of workplaces, state authorities, middle-class intellectuals, and the labour movement – used the language of workers in practice from 1750 to 1900. The question of whom “worker” and related terms referred to is analysed from an intersectional approach, with the cross-section of aspects such as gender, marital status, ethnicity, age, access to land, and type of employment being considered. The project will be carried out by two senior scholars and a post-doc for four years.