Open AccessKlass i begåvningsreservens tidevarv: Taxonomiska konflikter inom och genom svensk utbildningsforskning, ca 1945–1960
Author(s) -
Carl-Filip Smedberg
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
nordic journal of educational history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2001-7766
pISSN - 2001-9076
DOI - 10.36368/njedh.v8i1.208
Subject(s) - framing (construction) , politics , taxonomy (biology) , sociology , social science , population , social class , political science , gender studies , geography , biology , law , ecology , demography , archaeology
Class in the age of the pool of talent: Taxonomic struggles in and through Swedish education research, c. 1945–1960. 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.