Naturliga medborgare : Friluftsliv och medborgarfostran i scoutrörelsen och Unga Örnar 1925-1960

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis has been to examine outdoor activities and camping, framed within the Scandinavian notion of friluftsliv, as methods for promoting citizenship in two Swedish youth organisations: the Scout movement and Unga Örnar (“Young Eagles”). What knowledge and abilities characterised ideal citizenship; how was instruction in citzenship for children conducted and more specifically, how were nature and friluftsliv employed as resources to accomplish training for citizens? The results of this study show that friluftsliv as an educational method in these organisations, most notably in the Scout organisations, reflected ideas about active citizenship understood as civic, everyday practice. Using the Foucauldian concept of (liberal) governmentality, outdoor life has been analysed as a technology of citizenship serving to shape behaviour and routines of its practitioners. This perspective has sought to explain instruction in citizenship as a practice of the scout movement, where scouts were taught to become self-reliant and self-regulating members of society by making themselves at home in nature. The construtcion of camps as ’miniature societies’ has been analysed using the concept of heterotopia. The organisation Unga Örnar also incorporated elements of self-reliance and self-regulation in its programme for citizenship education, but put more emphasis on citizenship as political practice. Consequently, camps were employed as arenas for instruction in democratic participation, for example by enacting parliamentary elections. Attention has also been given to changes in camp practices and citizenship training over time, especially the impact of the Second World War on friluftsliv and camping. While the process was multi-faceted, elements of practical and useful work (especially agricultural) were integrated in the daily routines of many camps during the years 1940–1945. After the war, ideals of citizenship changed in important ways. The scout movement put more emphasis on cooperation between boys and girls, and to a certain degree political participation. Unga Örnar continued to arrange camps and practice friluftsliv, but renounced romanticism of wilderness instead addressing contemporary social and political issues. Finally, this thesis has examined relationships between national citizenship and internationalism, highlighting that many camps were arranged as international spaces. After the Second World War, international cooperation was marked by an increasingly asymmetrical relationship. In conclusion, this study has engaged in the historiography of outdoor life and camping in addition to its empirical examination of citizenship as practice. By linking spaces of nature to habits of self-discipline and democratic participation, this thesis has explored practices of outdoor life as methods to promote active citizenship among children and youth.