Johan Pries
Associate senior lecturer
Workers building the People’s Park: experiments in movement-made leisure spaces in 19th century
Author
Summary, in Swedish
Parks and other public spaces play an important role in working class formation. Yet, these places
were often provided for urban populations by philanthropic elites who in turn set the, often
unambiguously authoritarian, terms of use. In the Swedish city Malmö, the social democratic labor
movement acquired a public park run by the movement itself in 1893 and proclaimed it “The
People’s Park”, mimicking how elites created spaces for the popular classes. This experiment became
the template for early Sweden’s labor movement, with hundreds of People’s Parks built by social
democracy in the decades that followed as spaces where everyday leisure and class politics came
together in powerful articulation.
were often provided for urban populations by philanthropic elites who in turn set the, often
unambiguously authoritarian, terms of use. In the Swedish city Malmö, the social democratic labor
movement acquired a public park run by the movement itself in 1893 and proclaimed it “The
People’s Park”, mimicking how elites created spaces for the popular classes. This experiment became
the template for early Sweden’s labor movement, with hundreds of People’s Parks built by social
democracy in the decades that followed as spaces where everyday leisure and class politics came
together in powerful articulation.
Department/s
- Department of Human Geography
Publishing year
2023
Language
Swedish
Document type
Conference paper: abstract
Topic
- Human Geography
Conference name
Labour and working-class history association conference 2023
Conference date
2023-05-18 - 2023-05-21
Conference place
New Jersey, United States
Status
Published
Project
- Prefigurative platforms, public spaces, and planning phenomena: exploring the historical geographies of Swedish People’s Parks