Latest news with #LarsTrägårdh
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What Is Swedish Culture? An Attempt to Answer Stirs Debate.
What is Swedish culture? Some obvious answers might spring to mind: Abba, the films of Ingmar Bergman, Pippi Longstocking, Ikea. It's an almost impossibly broad question — but one that Sweden's government is trying to answer. In 2023, the government began an initiative called the Culture Canon, with two streams: an 'experts' canon and a 'people's canon.' The first involves academics, journalists, historians and other authorities who will decide on 100 works or other items of cultural importance that have played a key role in shaping Swedish culture. The second will be made up of suggestions submitted by the Swedish public to the Culture Canon website, which can be drawn from the arts or can include everyday activities like the daily 'fika' coffee and cake break or ideas like 'Allemansrätten,' the Swedish right explore nature, even on private land. So far, suggestions include saunas and the plays of August Strindberg, the 1361 Battle of Visby and Björn Borg's five straight Wimbledon victories. A government committee will present a report to the two canons in the summer. Yet even the suggestion of such a definitive list is dividing opinion in Sweden. The Culture Cannon is a pet project of a party with far-right roots that supports, but is not part of the government. Many in the arts scene fear that the results will project a narrow view of Swedish culture, glorifying an imagined past and shutting out the cultural contributions of minorities. Lars Trägårdh, a historian whom the government appointed to lead the project, said in an interview that the Culture Canon would be particularly useful for helping immigrants integrate. Sweden combined a 'wonderful openness to immigration with a complete lack of policies that have been able to bring all these people into Swedish society,' he said. A canon, he added, would provide new arrivals 'with a map and a compass.' The project has its origins in a 2022 agreement between parties that allowed them to form a coalition government after elections held that year. The Sweden Democrats, once considered an extremist right-wing party, came second in the popular vote, and although it is not part of the coalition, it used its electoral success to leverage concessions from the governing parties, including an agreement to set up the Culture Canon. 'Most of the culture world is against the idea of a canon,' said Ida Ölmedal, the culture editor of the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet: 'It's being used as a populist tool to point out what is Swedish and not, and to exclude some people from the concept of Swedishness.' 'But even if it wasn't nationalist, it would still be wrong for politicians to point out what is important culture,' Olmedal added. 'We have a proud tradition of the government financing culture without trying to govern culture — and this is an exception.' Martí Manen, the director of Index, a contemporary art foundation in Stockholm, said the Culture Cannon was 'a tool for a specific political agenda.' In the interview, Trägårdh rebuffed such objections. 'They are not real arguments,' he said, adding that he had no cultural loyalty to the left or the right. 'I joke sometimes, I'm barely cultural at all,' he said, adding that he was brought in because he is a historian who works on issues of Swedish identity, such as in his 2006 book 'Is the Swede a Human Being?', which he cowrote with Henrik Berggren. 'My appointment is predicated on a complete autonomy,' he said. Trägårdh also rejected the idea that a cultural canon would exclude minorities from the concept of Swedishness. 'I don't do representation,' he said, 'I don't give a hoot in that sense, if there are the right number of women or minorities — the important thing is what has actually mattered for shaping Sweden.' Parisa Liljestrand, a member of the Moderate Party who is Sweden's culture minister, said the project had been set up to be independent from government influence and was now 'in the hands of the committee.' It was the committee's job, she added, 'to find out what fields we should have a canon in, and also to establish criteria for selection of works.' One criteria the committee has set for the expert part of the canon is that it can only include entries that are at least 50 years old. This has stirred fears that the results will downplay the importance of cultural output by immigrants, most of whom arrived in Sweden after 1975. 'It's a retrotopia thing,' said Mattias Andersson, the artistic director of the Royal Dramatic Theater, Sweden's national playhouse. 'It's about trying to speak about the Sweden from the '40s, or the '50s, when everyone had the same God, the same impression of what the family is, of how to live your life.' Trägårdh dismissed these objections, too. 'We can argue about whether it should have been 30 years, or 42 years, but the point is that a certain amount of time has to pass,' he said, 'because otherwise we will include things that, four years later, would make us look like idiots.' For all the Culture Canon's critics in the arts scene, there are also those who say it is too soon judge. Victor Malm, the culture editor of the Expressen newspaper, said he was reserving his judgment until he read the final report. If done properly, a defined canon could be a way to 'redistribute the knowledge of Swedish culture throughout society,' he said, by drawing attention to great works of art that bring 'cultural capital' and 'make your life easier.' Sweden is not the only country to attempt such a project: Denmark and the Netherlands, for instance, each established an official cultural cannon in 2006. In both countries, the proposition prompted similar debates as in Sweden about inclusion and the influence of right-wing parties. The canons are now part of the school curriculums there and their origins are not discussed much these days. Despite all the debate over Sweden's Culture Canon in the news media, the public does not seem very engaged. The canon website has received around 9,000 suggestions — a small number in a country of more than 10 million people. In a dozen interviews on the streets of Stockholm, many people had not heard of the project. Those who had said they took a dim view of it, either because they did not understand its purpose or because they viewed it as an initiative of the far right. Trägårdh said he hoped that the upcoming report would be something people could enjoy, rather than fight about. He pointed to a lighthearted promotional campaign from Sweden's national train company, SJ, suggesting places to visit based on suggestions already submitted to the Culture Canon website. 'I'm not bothered what the politicians say, and nor am I particularly bothered by what's going on in the cultural elite,' he said. 'I'm much more excited about this stuff.' 'It's also just kind of fun, right?' he added. 'And we have underemphasized that.'
Local Sweden
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
'Sweden has had a horrible time integrating newcomers'
This week's episode of Sweden in Focus Extra features an interview with Lars Trägårdh, the historian tasked with heading up plans for a Swedish cultural canon. Advertisement 'Everybody needs to understand this country to survive, to be successful and possibly even happy. And so you need a roadmap and a compass to manoeuvre in society. It doesn't mean that you have to like every bit, but you do have to understand how it works,' the author and historian Lars Trägårdh tells The Local's Nordic editor Richard Orange in a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation. In the podcast Trägårdh also talks about his ambivalence towards what it means to be Swedish criticism he has received from representatives for Sweden's national minorities his reaction to concerns that this is a nationalist project dreamed up by the Sweden Democrats how he thinks the canon could be used in schools and citizenship tests ....and lots more besides. Membership+ subscribers can listen to the full conversation in the latest episode of Sweden in Focus Extra, out March 26th. READ ALSO: Get Membership+ to listen to all The Local's podcasts Sweden in Focus Extra is a podcast for The Local's Membership+ subscribers. Sign up to Membership+ now and get early, ad-free access to a full-length episode of the Sweden in Focus podcast every weekend, as well as Sweden in Focus Extra every Wednesday. Please visit the link that applies to you and get a 40% discount on Membership+ Read more about Membership+ in our help centre. Already have Membership+ but not receiving all the episodes? Go to the podcast tab on your account page to activate your subscription on a podcast platform. If you prefer to listen on the site, you can find all episodes at the bottom of our podcast page.
Local Sweden
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Local Sweden
'To become a citizen, you should know something about Sweden's values'
Trägårdh is in some ways a strange choice to lead an inquiry into how to build a list formalising Sweden's cultural heritage. He only returned to the country in 2010, after 40 years living and teaching in the US, and he prepared the ground for his return with a best-selling book, The Swedish Theory of Love, which was provocatively titled Är svensken människa? in Swedish, meaning "Are Swedes human?". He has always, he says, been ambivalent about Swedishness. "I fled Sweden when I was 17, so how much more ambivalent can you get?" he exclaims. "Sweden is a really extreme society, and in an interesting way, right?" The main thesis of his book is that the Swedish welfare state, frequently seen as a collectivist enterprise, in fact expresses an extreme individualism, and is aimed primarily at freeing individuals from reliance on dependence on relatives and friends. But his mixed feelings about Sweden, he says, do not diminish the importance he gives to citizens of the country understanding its culture and unwritten rules. "We have a lot of people today that are foreign-born in Sweden, ranging from expats, who are doing very well in terms of their jobs, to refugee migrants who are in a more difficult position," he says. "Everybody needs to understand this country to survive, to be successful and possibly even happy. And so you need a roadmap and a compass to manoeuvre in society. It doesn't mean that you have to like every bit, but you do have to understand how it works." Fostering that understanding is his main mission, he claims. "That's really what drives me, in my work as an historian, as a public intellectual, and in this job with the cultural canon." READ ALSO: What do we know about the plans for a future Swedish cultural canon? A broader canon When the proposal to develop a Swedish cultural canon was included in the Tidö Agreement between the far-right Sweden Democrats and the three government parties, the inspiration came from Denmark, where the canon comprises 108 works of cultural excellence in eight categories: architecture, visual arts, design and crafts, film, literature, music, performing arts, and children's culture. But Trägårdh has from the start pushed against this, favouring a broader concept that will also draw on fields like history and engineering. "I'm sure some of them are surprised by my take. But I did warn everybody to begin with that I'm not just your sort of regular guy who runs a commission," he grins. "I did offer the advice to think twice before they offered me this job." Lars Trägårdh at the press conference launching his inquiry into a new cultural canon. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT 'A story about who we are' The plan is now to split the canon into two parts. "We have what we call the two sectors of the Swedish cultural canon, one which is about the arts, and the other which is society." The way he sees it, a cultural canon is nothing new. Swedes had a strong sense of a common cultural heritage from the early 19th century right up until the mid-20th century, with the first state-run schools educating young Swedes about their shared background, and "bringing them up to be both Swedes but also citizens". "It was based on a story about who we are, who we were, and who we might become, and that stuff was really important for creating a society that was democratic, and also, unusually, high-trust." Advertisement It was only after the Second World War, he argues, that the ideologies of modernism, internationalism and multiculturalism started to take hold, leading to this shared cultural understanding being swept away. "This had tremendous positive effects, but it also meant there was a gaze away from history and from Swedish culture. Swedes became post-national and anti-nationalist. You can applaud that, but there is a loss involved." The impact, he argues, has not just been on Swedes' identity and a sense of belonging, but also on the integration of immigrants. "This happened to coincide with an explosion of immigration, so just at the moment when you needed some really good efforts at transmitting fundamental knowledge, that was all gone, and we're paying a price for that. Sweden has had a horrible time in terms of integrating newcomers to the country." READ ALSO: What books and art can we expect to be have in Sweden's cultural canon? Advertisement Citizenship tests Trägårdh wants the canon to counter this and hopes it will be drawn on for future citizenship tests, will influence the school curriculum, and will even feed into special education programmes for foreigners who come to Sweden. "Citizenship is a social contract," he argues. "If you're going to become a citizen, you should know something about the laws and the values of the country that you're becoming a citizen of." He insists however, that if the canon is used in future citizenship tests based the questions should be relatively easy, as they are in the US, and not "onerous", as he says the questions prospective citizens have to answer in France tend to be. "I think it is important that you learn something about the culture. That seems to me to be highly useful and hardly controversial, but I think the test should be more along American lines than French lines," he says. "The point is not to punish people, but to celebrate something that we all now have in common." He doesn't see including the canon in citizenship tests as in any way exclusionary. "Underlying all of this is [the idea] that citizenship needs to mean something. It's not like, 'I'm a citizen of five different countries. It just gives me an extra passport in case I lose the other one'. There's an element of a social contract. We belong in a country. We have responsibilities towards each other. "The social contract idea, centered around citizenship and some notion of society where we actually live together seems to me to be hardly scandalous or exclusionary," he continues. "On the contrary, it's a way to include people." Lars Trägårdh photographed outside a school in Södermalm, Stockholm. Photo: Judit Nilsson/SvD Angry minorities Two of the groups Trägårdh has managed to anger since he was appointed to lead the inquiry last spring are indigenous minorities such as the Sami and Tornedalians, and immigrants to Sweden. After a meeting with Trägårdh in October, seven representatives of Sweden's five national minorities complained they had been informed that they would neither be given positions among the two expert groups who will decide on the two canons, nor any influence over the contents. "I have no gräddfil [ literally "sour cream", but meaning "special treatment" ] for either Tornedalians or Bandy fans," he told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, indicating that he didn't see ethnic identity as having any greater significance than membership of an association around a sport like bandy, a variant of ice hockey. "People don't understand the extent of my respect for voluntary organisations, which is an absolutely important part of Swedish society," he protests when The Local accuses him of being provocative. "And if you're going to suggest that people don't have any identity connected to sports, think again. These things are important." Advertisement Marlen Eskander, an Iraqi-born member of the inquiry team, resigned in October claiming Trägårdh had not been open to her suggestions, one of which was to include the Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Babylonian epic, in the canon as a gesture to the heritage to Iraqis in Sweden. Both of these conflicts, Trägårdh argues, stem from his opposition to identify politics or ethnic nationalism of any form, describing himself instead as a "civic nationalist", or "citizenship universalist". "Diversity is a wonderful thing, particularly in a voluntary society. But we also actually do need to take seriously the need for a common 'we'," he argues. "I think ethnic nationalism is very deeply problematic. I was doing a double critique, both of the Sweden Democrats and of the Sami, because both of them are subscribing to forms of ethnic nationalism, and I don't think that's the way to go forward. The only thing that can unite us in a modern society like Sweden is citizenship." He dismisses the criticism that members of the two committees now deciding on the canon all have an ethnic Swedish background, saying that they had been selected on the basis of expertise alone. "We were not trying to achieve representation. We were trying to achieve actual knowledge, and particularly a broad knowledge that will allow you to think not about this group or that group." Advertisement Sweden Democrat backing for idea While the impetus for including the canon in the government's programme may have come from the Sweden Democrats, Trägårdh pushes back at the idea that it is a far-right project. "There are a lot of political anxieties around this commission. People who are from the left think of this as a kind of a conspiracy from the Sweden Democrats to eliminate all kinds of diversity." The reality, he argues, is that it builds on a long tradition of popular education, or folkbildning , in Sweden, culminating in the book Medborgarkunskap ("Civic Knowledge"), by the Social Democrat educationalist Värner Rydén, which was published in 1922. The Liberal Party, he says, has been campaigning for a cultural canon since 2006, long before the Sweden Democrats began to push for one. At any rate, he says, politicians have kept what in Sweden is called a "double arms-length distance" from the project, and there has been no attempt whatsoever to influence him. Advertisement So what happens next? The two committees now have until the summer to decide on their two lists, while Trägårdh himself will work on the inquiry's conclusions, which will include thoughts on the idea of a canon, comparisons to other countries' systems, and recommendations for how the canon should be used. The inquiry is due to deliver its report on August 31st and despite the project's tempestuous start, Trägårdh is in no doubt that he will deliver. "We'll be ready by the deadline. There's no question about that."
