Artikel "Skötsamhetens nyanser: Kollektiva och individuella skötsamhetsstrategier bland arbetare i det tidiga 1900-talets Sverige"

Abstract

Conscientious workers: Strategies for security and social mobility in early twentieth-century Sweden

As Sweden industrialised in the late nineteenth century, the new working class faced unique chances and challenges. In the Swedish historiography of working-class culture, their evolving cultural attitudes have been grouped together as conscientiousness (skötsamhet), which Björn Horgby argues had both individual and collective elements. It has also been connected to the rise of the Swedish labour movement, which fostered the conscientious mindset. The culture of conscientiousness expected self-discipline from each worker in order to achieve his long-term goals.

In this article, we study the heterogeneity of the culture of conscientiousness by looking at workers’ strategies, whether individual or collective, at the household level. We also connect the various strategies to each household’s socioeconomic circumstances. To that end we have created a database of 207 households headed by workers or lesser officials, using the weekly reports from the official cost-of-living survey (Levnadskostnadsundersökningen) for 1913–1914. It was based on the participants’ household accounts, where they recorded income and expenditure for one year. We used expenditure to identify their strategies.

We find that while the trades unions were central to the workers’ collective culture, they did not matter as much to lesser officials. Therefore, having categorised them according to union membership and membership of other civil society organisations, we conclude it was the better-off workers who were the driving force behind collective conscientiousness. Whether they were members of trades unions or other civil society organisations, they were usually more skilled, had more disposable income, and were more likely to take out insurance than other groups. Thus, they used a combination of both collective and individual strategies to ensure a secure future. However, those who were members of trades unions did not invest as much in their children’s education as the non-union group who were members of other associations – mostly lesser officials with larger incomes. Individual strategies for social mobility were thus not commonly combined with collective strategies.