Nordic Welfare Cities Negotiating Urban Citizenship since 1850 Routledge Advances in Urban History Series

This book examines Nordic cities from 1850 and their transformation from traditional, oligarchic towns to modern, inclusive welfare cities.

In the contemporary world, the role of cities as hotbeds for progressive change has become increasingly topical. Historical studies on how Nordic cities addressed social and environmental questions a hundred years ago and how they eventually created new and inclusive policies for the future is a useful contribution to the current debate. The concept of the welfare city is addressed and elaborated upon to analyse the attempts by urban authorities to solve the problems following industrialisation and urbanisation. From the late nineteenth century, municipal public services promoted the integration of new groups in the urban community including workers, immigrants, women and children. The contributions in this book analyse various examples of welfare and public services that include infrastructure and transport systems, health care, housing conditions, outdoor life and entertainment. The chapters highlight the arguments and considerations promoting welfare policies, while also addressing differences between the Nordic countries. The evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions.

This volume will be of value to students and scholars alike interested in urban history, social and cultural history and European history.

1. The Nordic Welfare City: Urban Community and Public Services since 1850

Magnus Linnarsson

2. Negotiating Water and Citizenship in Copenhagen 1850–1950
Mikkel Thelle

3. Municipalization in Norwegian Cities c. 1850–1920
Knut Dørum

4. Theatre and the Making of the Welfare City: Gothenburg’s Performance stages, 1880s–1934
Christina Reimann

5. Municipal Services and Modern Citizenship in Helsinki in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Marjaana Niemi

6. A Tale of Two Tramways: Municipal Organization and Private Enterprise in Stockholm and Kristiania, c. 1900

Mats Hallenberg

7. The Rise of the Negotiated Welfare City After the Civil War: Inclusion, Welfare and Reconciliation
Kati Katajisto

8. Infrastructural Citizenship: The Everyday Politics of Slum Clearance in Mid-twentieth Century Copenhagen

Mikkel Høghøj

9. The Conflict-Filled Holiday Village: The Expansion of Summer Houses in the Copenhagen Metropolis’ Open Land 1918–1990
Henning Bro

10. Three Types of Welfare Cities: The Case of Sweden

Heiko Droste

11. The Nordic Welfare City – Types and Dimensions
Magnus Linnarsson and Mats Hallenberg

Magnus Linnarsson is associate professor of History at Stockholm University. His main research interest includes political history, focusing on institutional change, state formation and political conflicts. His latest book Problemet med vinster (2017) analyses political conflicts about the organization of public services from the beginning of the 17th century until the 1990s. He currently leads a research project about welfare cities in the Nordic countries, c. 1870–1920

Mats Hallenberg is professor of history at Stockholm university. His main research interest includes the political history of Sweden and Scandinavia from the early modern period up until the twentieth century. Published works address local administration in Sweden and Finland, the impact of tax farming, royal propaganda and military organization as well as municipal conflicts over the organization of welfare services.