Choosing futures: Alva Myrdal and the construction of Swedish futures studies, 1967-1972

International Review of Social History

Volumn 51, Issue 2, 2006, Pages

  Andersson, Jenny ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33746379883     PISSN: 00208590     EISSN: 1469512X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020859006002458     Document Type: Review

References (90)

1. Alva Myrdal, The Game of Disarmament (New York, 1976);
2. Yvonne Hirdman, Alva Myrdal: Något kan man väl alltid göra. Texter 1932-1982 (Stockholm, 2002)
3. Peter Wallensteen, Alva Myrdal in International Affairs (Uppsala, 2003).
4. SAP, Jämlikhet (Stockholm, 1969);
5. Tim Tilton, The Political Theory of Swedish Social Democrats: Through the Welfare State to Revolution (Oxford, 1990).
6. See H.W. Arndt, Economic Development: The History of an Idea (Chicago, IL, 1987);
7. Robert Ayres, Turning Point: The End of the Growth Paradigm (London, 1998);
8. Eva Friman, No Limits: The 20th Century Discourse on Economic Growth (Umeå, 2002).
9. Marquis de Childs, Sweden, the Middle Way (New Haven, CT, 1936).
10. Ole Waever, "Nordic Nostalgia, Northern Europe After the Cold War", International Affairs, 68 (1992), pp. 77-102;
11. Lars Trägårdh, "Welfare State Nationalism, Sweden and the Spectre of 'Europe'", in Lene Hansen and Ole Weaver (eds), European Integration and National Identity: The Challenge of the Nordic States (London [etc.], 2001).
12. Bo Stråth, Folkhemmet möter Europa, (Stockholm, 1992).
13. Bo Stråth, Idem, "Nordic Modernity: Origins, Trajectories and Prospects", Thesis Eleven, 77 (2004).
14. Wendell Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies: Human Science for a New Era, vol. 1 (New Brunswick, NJ, 1997).
15. Luisa Passerini, "'Utopia' and Desire", Thesis Eleven, February 2002, pp. 11-31;
16. Peter Wagner, "The Project of Emancipation and the Possibility of Politics", Thesis Eleven, February 2002, pp. 31-46;
17. Giovanni Statera, Death of a Utopia: The Development and Decline of Student Movements in Europe (New York, 1975).
18. Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (London, 1964).
19. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston, MA, [etc.], 1962).
20. In Futures Past Koselleck argued that in the Enlightenment the future became a sphere of fantasy, a utopia that could only be reached through imagination. In contrast, the rise of the idea of dystopia in the postwar period coincided with a turn in futures narratives towards narratives of science and rationality, or a narrative of will in contrast to earlier narratives of the future as faith, destiny, or teleology. See Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (London, 1985);
21. Georges Minois, Histoire de l'avenir (Paris, 1996);
22. and Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, vol. 2.
23. Bernard Cazes, "Les reflexions prospectives. Un essai de typologie", Futuribles, September 1991, pp. 29-40.
24. On the construction of facticity see Mary Poovey, The History of Modern Fact (Chicago, IL, 1998).
25. On social science and politics see Peter Wagner, Sozialwissenschaften und Staat, Frankreich, Italien, Deutschland 1870-1980 (Dordrecht, 1990).
26. Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, vol. 1, pp. 29-38;
27. Herman Kahn and Anthony Wiener, The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three Years (New York, 1967).
28. Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth (New York, 1976).
29. The Limits to Growth, Ibid.
30. Bertrand de Jouvencl, The Art of Conjecture (New York, 1967).
31. Stephan Schwarz, Knowledge and Concepts in Futures Studies (Boulder, CO, 1976).
32. Gazes, "Les reflexions prospectives", p. 31.
33. Gordon Rocca, "'A Second Party in our Midst', the History of the Soviet Forecasting Association", Social Studies of Science, 11 (1989), pp. 199-247.
34. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademin, Ett svenskt institut för framtidsstudier (Stockholm, 1967).
35. Björn Wittrock, Möjligheter och gräser. Framtidsstudier i politik och planering (Stockholm, 1990).
36. In 1971, Ingelstam also wrote a memo called "Socialdemokraterna och framtidsforskningen" (Social Democracy and Futures Research), Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 66f.
37. SAP, Socialdemokratisk politik för forskning. Förslag till forskningspolitiskt program (Stockholm, 1975), pp. 6, 20.
38. Wittrock, Möjligheter och gränser, pp. 35, 39.
39. Memo, 3 February 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-1.
40. Engstrp̈m to Palme, 14 February 1972, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-2.
41. Interview with Lars Ingelstam, 20 February 2002.
42. Palmstierna to Myrdal, 13 March 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol.5; 066-2.
43. Palmstierna to Myrdal, 5 March 1972, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-2.
44. Statsrådsberedningen, "Pressmeddelande", 4 May 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5:066-1.
45. Ibid.
46. "Whether for good or bad, the future is still the product of Man himself." Speech by Palme to IG Metall in Oberhausen, Germany, 11 April 1972, National Archives, Arbetsgruppen för framtidsstudier, vol. 5.
47. There was a seventh member, the economist Ingemar Ståhl, but he never concluded his work for the group.
48. The meeting was recorded and there are transcripts of the tapes in the Labour Movements Archives and the National Archives, Stockholm.
49. The Myrdals travelled to America in the 19305 and wrote enthusiastically on the progressive character of the New Deal.
50. Protocol, 18 May 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-1.
51. Ibid.
52. Katrin Fridjonsdottir, "Social Science and the Swedish Model: Sociology at the Service of the Welfare State", in P. Wagner, B. Wittrock, and R.P. Whitley (eds), Discourses on Society: The Shaping of the Social Science Disciplines (Cambridge, 1991);
53. Bo Rothstein, The Social Democratic State (Pittsburgh, PA, 1996).
54. Protocol, 18 May 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-1.
55. Birgitta Odén, Planering, värdestruktur och demokratisk participation, Ds Ju 1972:27 (Stockholm, 1972), pp. 9, 16, 32.
56. Gunnar Myrdal, Objectivity in Social Research (New York, 1969).
57. Arbetsgruppen för framtidsstudier, Att välja framtid, SOU 1972:59 (Stockholm, 1972), p. 12.
58. Myrdal to the members of the futures studies group, 21 August 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-2.
59. Protocol, 18 May 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066-1.
60. Arbetsgruppen för framtidsstudier, Att vs̈lja framtid, pp. 11, 13
61. Wittrock, Möjligheter och gränser.
62. Protocol, 18 May 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 066-1.
63. Odén, Planering, värdestruktur och demokratisk participation, pp. 18, 37.
64. Planering, Värdestruktur Och Demokratisk Participation Ibid., p. 28.
65. John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (New York, 1964).
66. Odén, Planering, värdestruktur och demokratisk participation.
67. SAP, Jämlikhet.
68. Kjell Östberg, 1968. Då allt var i rörelse (Stockholm, 2002)
69. Christina Florin and Bengt Nilsson, Something in the Nature of a. Bloodless Revolution (Umeå, 2002).
70. "Lyss till den almens sus, ni som sitter i stadshus och konselj. Det är kanske framtiden, som susar där"; Veckojournalen
71. May 1971, Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066i.
72. The song goes "Come senators, congressmen, Please heed the call [...]";
73. Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin" (1964).
74. The term pow-wow is a Native American term referring to a meeting of elders.
75. In Labour Movements Archives, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5: 066i.
76. OECD, The Brooks Report (Paris, 1971).
77. Jenny Andersson, Mellan tillväxt och trygghet (Uppsala, 2003)
78. forthcoming as Between Growth and Security (Manchester, 2006).
79. Torsten Hägerstrand, Om en konsistent, individorienterad samhällsbeskrivning för framtidsstudier, Ds Ju 1972:25 (Stockholm, 1972).
80. See also Hägerstrand's memo of 29 December 1971, Alva Myrdal's archive, vol. 5:066 g. The time budget drew upon a school of thought called time geography, which identifies the cognitive and physical reach of the individual as an organizing parameter of society's organization of time and space.
81. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (London, 1970).
82. Marianne Frankenhaeuser, Synpunkter på forskning om människan i framtiden, Ds Ju 1972:24 (Stockholm, 1972).
83. Hägerstrand, Om en konsistent.
84. Måns Lönnroth, Solar versus Nuclear: Choosing Energy Futures (Oxford, 1980).
85. Mårten Lagergren, Time to Care (Oxford, 1982).
86. Christina Florin and Torbjörn Lundqvist, Historia och framtider (Stockholm, 2003).
87. See Peter Beilharz, Labour's Utopias (London, 1993);
88. Keith Taylor, The Political Ideas of the Utopian Socialists (London, 1982).
89. These were the models for the future discussed in a parliamentary report on how to "turn around" the Swedish welfare state in 2002. Hur gör man? Ds 1999:37 (Stockholm, 1999).
90. Waever, "Nordic Nostalgia".