Magnus Linnarsson Professor
Contact
Name and title: Magnus LinnarssonProfessor
Phone: +468162021
ORCID0000-0001-6175-2909 Länk till annan webbplats.
Workplace: Department of History Länk till annan webbplats.
Visiting address Room D 965Universitetsvägen 10 D, plan 8 och 9
Postal address Historiska institutionen106 91 Stockholm
About me
Magnus Linnarsson is a Professor of History. His research examines the state and society in both early modern and modern periods and is primarily focused on political history in a broad sense. He has a particular interest in institutional change and political conflicts, with a more recent focus on urban history.
In an ongoing project, he studies the Nordic welfare city as an expression of how welfare services were established in urban settings before they were taken over by the state and incorporated into what later became the welfare state. He leads the Nordic research network “Nordic Urban Welfare, c. 1840–1940.” Findings from this network have been published in the book Nordic Welfare Cities (2024).
He has previously conducted research on political regime shifts in Swedish history during the period 1538–1810, examining how, and in what ways, these turbulent shifts in power influenced Sweden’s development into a modern democratic state. The results were published in the book Shifting regimes (2025), which challenges the established view of Swedish history as a continuous process dominated by consensus among political actors.
He has also studied political debates concerning private versus public provision of welfare services and how this issue has evolved from the seventeenth century to the present day. The findings were published in Problemet med vinster (2017). In addition, he has examined the establishment of the Swedish postal system as part of the organization of the Swedish state in the seventeenth century, presented in the book Postgång på växlande villkor (2010).
Linnarsson teaches at all levels of the history program and supervises both students and doctoral candidates. He also serves as Director of Studies at the department.
Complete list of publications in DIVA
Monographs and Edited Volumes
Hallenberg, Mats, Magnus Linnarsson, and Joakim Scherp. Shifting Regimes: Political Disruption and Change in Early Modern Sweden. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2025. 255 pp. ISBN 978-91-89936-22-5. ISSN 2002-2131 Kriterium (Online). DOI: 10.21525/kriterium.66.
Linnarsson, Magnus, and Mats Hallenberg, eds. Nordic Welfare Cities: Negotiating Urban Citizenship since 1850. Routledge Advances in Urban History 17. New York: Routledge, 2024. 240 pp. ISBN 978-1-032-45911-0. DOI: 10.4324/9781003379232.
Götlind, Anna, and Magnus Linnarsson, eds. År. Historiker berättar. Stockholm: Appell förlag, 2020. 288 pp. ISBN 978-91-985485-2-5.
Linnarsson, Magnus. Problemet med vinster: Riksdagsdebatter om privat och offentlig drift under 400 år. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2017. 312 pp. ISBN 978-91-88661-10-4.
Hallenberg, Mats, and Magnus Linnarsson, eds. Politiska rum: Kontroll, konflikt och rörelse i det förmoderna Sverige 1300–1850. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2014. 261 pp. ISBN 978-91-87675-09-6.
Linnarsson, Magnus. Postgång på växlande villkor: Det svenska postväsendets organisation under stormaktstiden. Diss., Lund University, 2010. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2010. 281 pp. ISBN 978-91-85509-42-3.
Articles and Book Chapters (selected)
Hallenberg, Mats, Magnus Linnarsson, and Pär Blomkvist. “Explaining the Welfare City: Publicness, Citizenship and the Expansion of Public Services in Nordic Cities, c. 1850–1920.” Urban History (2026), 1–16.
Linnarsson, Magnus. “The Nordic Welfare City: Urban Community and Public Services since 1850.” In Nordic Welfare Cities: Negotiating Urban Citizenship since 1850, edited by Magnus Linnarsson and Mats Hallenberg, 1–16. Routledge Advances in Urban History 17. New York: Routledge, 2024. ISBN 978-1-032-45911-0. DOI: 10.4324/9781003379232-1.
Linnarsson, Magnus, and Mats Hallenberg. “The Nordic Welfare City – Types and Dimensions.” In Nordic Welfare Cities: Negotiating Urban Citizenship since 1850, edited by Magnus Linnarsson and Mats Hallenberg, 209–221. Routledge Advances in Urban History 17. New York: Routledge, 2024. ISBN 978-1-032-45911-0. DOI: 10.4324/9781003379232-11.
Linnarsson, Magnus. “Radicalism in the Old Regime: The Challenge of Parliamentary Sovereignty in Sweden, 1769–70.” Parliaments, Estates and Representation 42, no. 3 (2022): 233–252. ISSN 0260-6755. DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2022.2133371.
Linnarsson, Magnus. “Contested Customs: Swedish Towns and the Private Customs Company, 1726–1762.” In Bringing the People Back In: State Building from Below in the Nordic Countries ca. 1500–1800, edited by Knut Dørum, Mats Hallenberg, and Kimmo Katajala, 292–308. London: Routledge, 2021. ISBN 978-0-367-68696-3. DOI: 10.4324/9781003138662.
Linnarsson, Magnus, and Mats Hallenberg. “The Shifting Politics of Public Services: Discourses, Arguments and Institutional Change in Sweden, c. 1620–2000.” Journal of Policy History 32, no. 4 (2020): 463–486. ISSN 0898-0306. DOI: 10.1017/S0898030620000184.
Linnarsson, Magnus. “Från bondestafett till järnväg: Postväsendet som exempel på infrastruktur och förvaltning i Sverige 1600–1870.” Temp. Tidskrift for historie 18 (2019): 62–78. ISSN 1904-5565.
Linnarsson, Magnus. “Farming Out State Revenue: The Debate about the General Customs Lease Company in Sweden, 1723–65.” Parliaments, Estates and Representation 38, no. 2 (2018): 175–191. ISSN 0260-6755. DOI: 10.1080/02606755.2018.1434999.
Hallenberg, Mats, and Magnus Linnarsson. “The Quest for Publicness: Political Conflict about the Organisation of Tramways and Telecommunication in Sweden, c. 1900–1920.” Scandinavian Economic History Review 65, no. 1 (2017): 70–87. ISSN 0358-5522. DOI: 10.1080/03585522.2016.1258007.
Hallenberg, Mats, and Magnus Linnarsson. “Vem tar bäst hand om det allmänna? Politiska konflikter om privata och offentliga utförare 1720–1860.” Historisk tidskrift 136, no. 1 (2016): 32–63. ISSN 0345-469X.
Linnarsson, Magnus. “Rayon för rikets försörjning: Kris, korporatism och beredskapspolitik, 1972–1983.” Historisk tidskrift 133, no. 1 (2013): 34–64. ISSN 0345-469X.
