Uppfostran, undervisning, upplysning : linjer i svensk folkundervisning före folkskolan

Sammanfattning: The present dissertation discusses changes in Swedish popular education from the literacy campaign conducted at the end of the 17th century to the institution of universal elementary education in the middle of the 19th century. The onus is laid on the intense period of reform around 1770-1820, when popular enlightenment became an issue of political debate and both the content and organization of popular education was transformed. Furthermore, the present dissertation intends to follow up Swedish historical research on literacy as far as concerns both the extent and function of writing skills and the function and content of popular reading. The first part of the dissertation, on the development of writing skills, represents historical literacy research in its most straightforward form, while the subsequent four essays in the second volume draw inspiration from the history of ideas, linguistics, the history of literature, the history of mentalities and ecclesiastical history, within the framework of the new cultural history.The investigation of writing skills revealed a high level of writing skill among freeholders in the earliest commercialized regions, where parish schools starting in the early 19th century equipped the sons of the peasants with a practical and economically-useful writing competence, which also implied status and acted as a symbol for the nouveau-riche, self-confident peasant class. The empirical and methodical results of this investigation give rise to a critical discussion of international signature research, which has considered the semi-literate Swedish environment as unique. A widespread popular reading culture with selectively distributed writing skills appears to have been a more general West European pattern, wherein Swedish literacy simply represented a more pronounced variant.During the 18th century, popular reading of religious texts in the ABC reader, the catechism and the Book of Psalms increased in scope. According to the evidence of ecclesiastical examination lists, this was particularly the case with Luther's Haustafel, which disseminated patriarchal norms for relationships within the church, society and the individual household. Toward the end of the 18th century, the Haustafel was steadily replaced by an ethical education based on the idea of natural law, which was intended to create ethical citizens and thereby stabilize society. This change can be linked to social, pedagogical and ideological factors. A study of the term "enlightenment" reveals that a sacred and a profane tradition were united in Swedish popular enlightenment in an effort to imbue the peasantry with accurate concepts in such subjects as would produce both useful citizens and ethically improved individuals. An analysis of the religious exemplary stories which were disseminated by tract societies shows how popular revivalism from the 18th century was a feature of this project for emotional control and in dividual ethical responsibility.In the conclusion, the changes in popular education are related to a general transition from external control to the internalization of norms characteristic of the 18th century, and the results are discussed in the light of theories of the civilizing process where increased emotional control is linked with power and disciplining aspects, while individualization, on the other hand, is linked with the liberal evolutionary model.