Swedish Modernism

Swedish Modernism provides an in-depth, multilayered account of theprocess, and difficulties found, in the process of modernization. Thedebate is enriched from a diverse range of contributors includingarchitects, researchers and leading academics from across the globe. Following an introduction from Helena Mattsson and Sven-Olov Wallenstein,the book is divided thematically into three sections. The first section ofthe book explores the construction of the welfare state. The contributionsin this section analyze the peculiar modalities of this development fromthe point of view of sociology and political science, providing a morenuanced view of ‘Modernism' that shows to what extent it must alwaysbe understood on the basis of local context. The second section of Swedish Modernism delves into the importance ofconsumers and spectacles analyzed in relation to the wide range of‘state programs' from housing to national marketing programs. Thissection includes case studies highlighting the importance of consumptionfor the formation of subjectivity, both in the pre- and post-war period,and range from analyses of exhibition architectures and debates onstandardization to the Co-Op movement and the gendering of taste. One ofthe contributors looks, for example, at the exhibition Modern Leisure,1936, and explores how exhibitions were highly instrumental in theformation of the Swedish welfare state. And another contributor looks athow strategies of consumption are formulated in the political andarchitectural debates of the 1930s. The third and final section of the book deals with the problem ofhistoriography on a broad level. The section includes contributions fromRoger Jonsson and Sven-Olov Wallenstein, who draw on the work of MichelFoucault and delineate a genealogical model of analysis that focuses on howarchitecture can take part in the production of subjectivity. Contributors include: Hendrik Berggren, Yvonne Hirman, Ylva Habel, LIsaBrunnstrom, Thordis Arrhenus, Penny Sparke, Reinhold Martin, Eva Rudberg,Joan Ockman.