Vad studerade arbetare i Sverige och Storbritannien?

• Workers' education became an integral part of the labor movement at the turn of the twentieth century. However, few studies have compared study activities cross-nationally. In this article I analyze the subjects studied in the British tutorial classes arranged by the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), and the Swedish study circles arranged by Arbetarnas bildningsförbund (ABF) during the inter-war period. In Britain, humanities and social sciences dominated workers' education, literature being by far the most common subject studied. Economics and history were also popular subjects. Literature was also a commonly studied subject in the Swedish study circles but during the 1920s subjects which aimed at teaching the participants organizational and ideological skills superseded literature. Language courses were also very popular in Sweden. Comparing the course subjects, it seems that the British workers' education primarily focused on self-cultivation of the individual worker whereas the Swedish workers' education emphasized skills that would benefit the labor movement organizations.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

arbetarbildning

fackföreningsrörelsen

WEA

NCLC

ABF

organisationskunskap

Statskunskap

Political Science

Ekonomisk historia

Economic History

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)