Historier Från Kulturvarelser : Sociala Band och Våldsbrott i det tidigindustriella Sverige

This essay investigates the social dimensions of Swedish workers’ assaults on superiors within the years 1870, 1880 and 1890. The study investigates court cases with hermeneutical methods with an aim to understand the workers’ social bonding at the time of their crime. The purpose is to create a deeper understanding of the social group’s life and put the findings into a pedagogical setting. Previous research shows that economy was the main motive of crime in the industrial cities during the late 1800s. The working class were overrepresented in the crime statistics, and coarse assaults were more dominant in the countryside than in the city. The results of this study show more dimensions to the aggressive assaults. One out of five assaults were economically motivated, but at large, the assaults were motivated through the interrelation between workers and superiors in relation to their hierarchical position. The pedagogical analysis after investigating the court cases shows that the historical practice of reading these cases stimulate a historical consciousness and help students view time as dynamic rather than static