Abstract
On 1 July 1991, the Swedish government grant system for popular education underwent yet another change that has lasted to the present day. The detailed regulations on subsidies – used to ensure certain patterns of behaviour – were replaced with a few overall objectives in a new popular education ordinance. Distribution of grants was no longer to be overseen by two government agencies, the National Board of Education (Skolöverstyrelsen, SÖ) and the Swedish Arts Council (Statens kulturråd), but by a new institution, the Council of Adult Education (Folkbildningsrådet), set up as a non-profit organisation with delegated powers to allocate resources to popular education organisations. Because the new Council was populated by representatives of the popular education sphere, in effect the Riksdag no longer decided how funding was to be divided between, for instance, folk high schools and study associations. The power to distribute government resources was delegated to a government-created entity. We return to the 1991 reform later in this chapter and discuss it as an example of a legacy of the governing strategies of the capitalist state apparatus in our time. We believe, however, that autonomisation and its companion bureaucratic rationalisation have continued with the new system of 1991.
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Notes
- 1.
Prop. 1990/91:127; SFS 1991:977.
- 2.
Burchell, “Peculiar Interests”; Dean, Governmentality, chs. 5, 6; Joyce, State of Freedom, ch. 1.
- 3.
See Chapter 1. See also Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, 263.
- 4.
Kumar, “Civil Society,” 377–78; Hageman, “Civil Society Gendered”; Rose, Powers of Freedom, 180–81.
- 5.
Quoted in Joyce, State of Freedom, 6. See also e.g. Lash and Urry, End of Organized Capitalism; Green, Education, Globalization and the Nation State, ch. 2; Evans, Embedded Autonomy, 5–6, 10–17.
- 6.
Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, 263.
- 7.
See esp. Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, 263. See also Steele, Knowledge is Power, 41–66. For the case of Sweden, see esp. the summaries in Edquist, Nyktra svenskar, 26–30; and Edquist, Folklig historia, 32–36. For the Finnish case, see Stenius, Frivilligt jämlikt samfällt. The importance of the rise of labour associations is emphasised in I. Johansson, Bildning och klasskamp. The links with democratisation have, for example, been discussed in Gustavsson, Bildningens väg, and Lundkvist, Folkrörelserna. On the connection between popular education, libraries and class formation, see Leffler, Böcker.
- 8.
On the importance of different kinds of resource mobilisation, see e.g. McCarthy and Zald, “Resource Mobilization”; Banaszak, Why Movements; Jonsson and Neunsinger, Gendered Money, 3–10. See also Berg, “State and the Rise”, 52–55.
- 9.
See esp. Dean, Governmentality, 269–70. On the transformation of government since the 1960s and 1970s, see also Rose, Powers of Freedom, ch. 4.
- 10.
Evans, Embedded Autonomy, 10–13, 228.
- 11.
J. Jansson, Manufacturing Consensus.
- 12.
Esping-Andersen, Three Worlds; ch. 4
- 13.
On the general history of the rise of neo-liberalism, see esp. Harvey, Brief History of Neoliberalism.
- 14.
Prop. 1987/88: 100 bil. 15; Prop. 1987/88:150; Rskr. 1987/88:169; Ringarp, Professionens problematik, 39–68; Jarl, Skolan; Lundgren, “Ramfaktorteori”, 37; SOU 2014:5, 51–53.
- 15.
See also SOU 1988:39, a government inquiry report on general government support to non-governmental organisations.
- 16.
SÖ, Förändringens villkor, 12–14; see also Jämtlands läns bildningsförbund, “Idéer om och utveckling av Folkbildningsarbete i Jämtlands laän” (31 May 1988), dnr 3246/88, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA).
- 17.
SÖ, Studieförbunden inför 90-talet; SOU 1990:65, 12–13, 35, 109, 162, 169, 188–89, 194–97, 204–11. See also Mot. 1987/88:Ub355; Bet. 1987/88:UbU18.
- 18.
SÖ, Studieförbunden inför 90-talet, 58–65, 70–78.
- 19.
Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan, response 22 December 1989, p. 9, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA); ABF, response 28 December 1989, p. 10, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA). For more optimistic reactions, see Medborgarskolan, response 24 September 1989, p. 8, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA); and to some degree: Studiefrämjandet, response 4 January 1990, pp. 9–10, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA). A joint report in the summer of 1990 from all the study associations suggested that detailed regulation should be reduced, but that the basic structure, such as subsidies based on the number of study hours, should be retained: FBF, Studieförbunden under 90-talet, 21–24.
- 20.
KFUK/KFUM, response 1 December 1989, p. 3, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA).
- 21.
Nykterhetsrörelsens Bildningsverksamhet, response 20 December 1989, p. 4, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA).
- 22.
See e.g. Minnesanteckningar 2–3 November 1989, p. 2, F1A:1, SÖ: VUX: SF (RA).
- 23.
Alvar Svensson, “Folkbildning, målstyrning och utvärdering” (Memo 17 April 1990), quote p. 2, dnr 1497/90, E1A:3380, EU: H2 (RA).
- 24.
“Upprop för svensk folkhögskola” (31 January 1991), dnr 2468/90, E1A:3380, EU: H2 (RA). See also ABF, response 28 December 1989, pp. 2–3, dnr 4282/89, E1A:3379, EU: H2 (RA); Bosse Bergnéhr, letter 17 October 1990 to Göran Persson, dnr 3142/90, E1A:3381, EU: H2 (RA); Kent Jakobsson, letter 30 October 1990 to Göran Persson; dnr 3362/90, E1A:3381, EU: H2 (RA).
- 25.
Prop. 1990/91:82, 7–8, 12–17, 40.
- 26.
E.g. Power, Audit Society.
- 27.
Prop. 1990/91:82, 11, 16, 40–43.
- 28.
Bet. 1990/91:UbU 18.
- 29.
Cf. Lindgren, “Folkbildningsrådet”; Petersen, Marknadsorientering; Hållén, “Folkbildning”.
- 30.
Cf. Nordvall, “Folkbildning som mothegemonisk praktik”.
- 31.
The sea-change narrative is, for example, present in Dean, Governmentality, 175–87; Rose, Powers of Freedom, ch. 4. See also our discussion in Chapter 1.
- 32.
Cf. Joyce, State of Freedom, 334–35, who also makes the case for highlighting the continuities rather than the sharp breaks in governmental strategies in twentieth-century Britain.
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Berg, A., Edquist, S. (2017). Conclusion. In: The Capitalist State and the Construction of Civil Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52455-9_6
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