Mats Hallenberg
About me
About me
I am professor of history and interested in Nordic political history, from the early modern period to the 1900s.
Teaching
I’ve been teaching history at Stockholm university since 2001 on undergraduate, masters and doctoral level.
Research
My main subject is the political history of the early modern period, in Sweden and Scandinavia. I focus on how rulers struggled to implement their policies, and how ordinary people met their measures with various forms of resistance. I have studied the relations between bailiffs and peasants in sixteenth century Sweden, tax farming during the period of the Thirty Years war, royal propaganda as well as war, masculinity and organised violence.
In recent years, I have broadened my research interest; investigating private–public relations in a long-term perspective. In the research project “Self interest versus the common good”, my colleague Magnus Linnarsson and I analysed political conflicts concerning the organization of the public services in Sweden from the early seventeenth to the late twentieth century. My part of the project focused on the capital city of Stockholm, and included case-studies of street lighting by contract in the age of liberty, public sanitation workers c. 1850, municipal tramways after the turn of the century 1900 and the privatisation of services for old people in the late twentieth century.
I currently work on two externally financed research projects: “Shifting Regimes: Representation, administrative reform and institutional change in early modern Sweden” address regime shifts in early modern Sweden and their impact on state administration and political representation, respectively. “Alternative Paths to the Welfare City: Public Services, Inclusion and the Common Good in Nordic Capital Cities 1870–1920” compares political discourses and analysse the incentives for investing in municipal public services.
I have also, together with Kimmo Katajala (Univ. of Eastern Finland) and Knut Dørum (Univ of Agder, Norway) initiated the Nordic research network ”State-Building from Below in the Nordic Countries, c. 1500–1800”. We have organised several workshops and conference sessions, and a joint volume was published by Routledge in 2021.
Research projects
Publications
A selection from Stockholm University publication database
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Nordic Welfare Cities: Negotiating Urban Citizenship since 1850
2024. .
Book (ed)Read more about Nordic Welfare CitiesThis 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 industrialization and urbanization. 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.
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Read more about An elected Dynasty of Sweden? Blood, Charisma and Representative Monarchy
An elected Dynasty of Sweden? Blood, Charisma and Representative Monarchy
2023. Mats Hallenberg. Dynasties and State Formation in Early Modern Europe, 109-133
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Read more about Stat
Stat: Politiska välden i en föränderlig värld
2022. Mats Hallenberg. Natur och kulturs globalhistoria, 303-343
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Bringing the People Back In
2021. Knut Dørum, Mats Hallenberg, Kimmo Katajala.
Book (ed)Read more about Bringing the People Back InThe formation of states in early modern Europe has long been an important topic for historical analysis. Traditionally, the political and military struggles of kings and rulers were the favoured object of study for academic historians. This book highlights new historical research from Europe’s northern frontier, bringing ‘the people’ back into the discussion of state politics, presenting alternative views of political and social relations in the Nordic countries before industrialisation. The early modern period was a time that witnessed initiatives from people from many groups formally excluded from political influence, operating outside the structures of central government, and this book returns to the subject of contentious politics and state building from below.
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The Shifting Politics of Public Services
2020. Magnus Linnarsson, Mats Hallenberg. Journal of Policy History 32 (4), 463-486
ArticleRead more about The Shifting Politics of Public ServicesThis article analyses the inherent conflict between public and private interest from a long time-perspective, using the example of Sweden from 1620 to 2000. The main argument is that there have been two equally decisive historical shifts in the political discourse on how to organize public services in the past: First, a shift from an early modern patriarchal discourse to a more expansive articulation of publicness during the nineteenth century. Second, a shift toward privatization and deregulation in the late twentieth century. Both these shifts must be considered to fully explain the changing forms of public organization up to the present day. Theoretically, the concept of “publicness” is used to explain the political discourses on the organization of public services. Drawing on three discursive chains, the argument is that the political development was affected by the politicians’ conception of the political community, the form of organization, and by perceptions of values such as equal access and modernity. Our results demonstrate how and why political arguments for or against private service providers have motivated profound changes in the way public services are perceived of and organized.
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Manliness, dedication and loyalty
2019. Mats Hallenberg. Revista de historia Jerónimo Zurita 94 (Primavera), 95-119
ArticleRead more about Manliness, dedication and loyaltyThis essay analyze military masculinity in Sweden during the Early Vasa period, c. 1560 – 1590. Masculine notions of violence and domination were essential both for the ruling Vasa dynasty and for the soldiers that filled the ranks of the domestic army. The investigation explores royal propaganda, the military experiences of peasant soldiers as well as protests and grievances from those who came back from war. The development will be analysed as a struggle for hegemony, while the military ideals that had traditionally been reserved for noble warriors was successfully appropriated by commoners, now sanctioned by the monarch.
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Kampen om det allmänna bästa
2018. Mats Hallenberg.
BookRead more about Kampen om det allmänna bästaVilka samhällstjänster bör vi gemensamt ta ansvar för? Vem ska sköta exempelvis skatte indrivning, kollektivtrafik och äldreomsorg för det allmännas räkning?
Motsättningen mellan egennyttan och det allmänna bästa har diskuterats under långa tider. I Kampen om det allmänna bästa utgår historikern Mats Hallenberg från Stockholmspolitiken och visar hur konflikterna om detta evigt aktuella ämne har tett sig under fyrahundra år.
I det förmoderna samhället var det självklart att kung och överhet skulle avgöra vad som var av allmänt intresse men de praktiska göromålen kunde skötas av olika utförare: anställda tjänstemän, privata entreprenörer eller medborgarna själva. Från 1800-talets mitt började politikerna koppla samman idéer om rättvisa och modernitet med behovet av en offentligt styrd organisation. Denna utveckling bröts först under det sena 1900-talet då individens valfrihet i sig själv kunde definieras som det allmänna bästa och allt fler välfärdstjänster fördes över i privat regi.
Boken sätter de politiska argumenten i centrum och ger ett historiskt perspektiv på de begrepp och tankefigurer som används i dagens debatt om vinster i välfärden.
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The quest for publicness
2017. Mats Hallenberg, Magnus Linnarsson. Scandinavian Economic History Review 65 (1), 70-87
ArticleRead more about The quest for publicnessThis article explores political conflicts about the organisation of public services in Sweden c. 1900–1920. The authors argue that political decisions play a vital role in shaping the political economy of public services. The case studies analysed are the political debates about the communalisation of the tramway system in Stockholm, and the nationalisation of Sweden’s last private telephone company. In both cases, the transfer of the service to public organisation was a lengthy process, ending in the late 1910s. This is explained using the concept of publicness. Drawing on three discursive chains, the argument is that the political development was affected by the politicians conception of the political community, the form of organisation and by perceptions of values such as equal access and modernity. In the case of the tramways, public organisation was seen as the best option to defend the public against corruption and self-interest. In the case of the telephones, free market competition was seen as a guarantee for an efficient and cost- effective service. The reason for this difference, is argued, was that the debate on the tramways articulated a clearer notion of publicness, where equal access and public opinion carried larger weight.
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Man ur huse
2016. Mats Hallenberg, Johan Holm.
BookRead more about Man ur huseDen svenska statens historia under 1500- och 1600-talen handlar inte bara om kungar och krig utan också om de undersåtar som tvingades bära stormaktsdrömmen på sina axlar. Genom mer eller mindre våldsamma protester lyckades bönderna tvinga de styrande att förhandla om den förda politiken.
Historikerna Mats Hallenberg och Johan Holm studerar de konflikter som skattekraven och rekryteringen av bondesoldater gav upphov till. Myterier, upplopp och förhandlingar skärskådas – vilka grupper stod bakom motståndet, varför protesterade de och vilket inflytande fick deras handlande på centralmaktens utveckling?
Författarna visar på sambandet mellan militarisering och bondeinflytande och problematiserar förhållandet mellan de besuttna skattebönderna och lokalsamhällets fattiga. Böndernas politiska agerande och de kompromisser som följde på förhandlingarna kom att få avgörande betydelse för den moderna statens utformning. Effekterna av dem ser vi än idag.
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Det förmoderna i det moderna
2015. Mats Hallenberg. Scandia 81 (2), 26-40
ArticleRead more about Det förmoderna i det modernaThe premodernity of modern times. Rupture, continuity and the longue durée
This essay discusses how the concept of ’premodernity’ may be used to encourage the study of long-time perspectives in history, a feature which has become much in demand in recent scholarly debate. I argue that premodernity should be understood not as a chronological description, but as an analytical tool by which to contrast, criticize and discuss modern as well as premodern societies. The notion of a rupture between the premodern and the modern, and the ability to identify important traits in different societies, Mats Hallenberg 37 Scandia 81:2 may provide historians with the means to confront what is neither old nor new, but essentially human. I argue that there are two important benefits of applying the concept of premodernity in historical research. First, it may incite more cooperation between scholars of classic, medieval and early modern periods. Second, it may help us formulate a critique of modernity from a historical perspective by exposing the reproduction of premodern structures, ideas and concepts in contemporary times. By critically addressing the presumptions of ‘modernist’ social theory, scholars of older periods may contribute to make history less “presentist” in the future.
Show all publications by Mats Hallenberg at Stockholm University