Jewish Economic Activity and Stockholm's Transformation into a Modern Capital

The project studies Jewish contribution to the construction of the Swedish national identity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Swedish-Jewish economic activities are analyzed, particularly in relation to public institutions, social networks and cultural identities. From the emancipation in 1870, Swedish Jews could contribute to the capital's transformation. By investigating Jewish donations to the construction of public cultural institutions in Stockholm, as well as the social networks that ensured the economic process, economic questions are placed at the centre for Jewish cultural studies. In alignment with the development of the research field 'Jewish cultural economy,' the project understands economic activities as a conceptual door into an analysis of Jewish identity constructions. Based on spatial theory, and with hermeneutic, biographical and architectural methods, as well as network analysis, the Jewish role for the development of Stockholm's modern institutions is explored, as well as the role of Swedishness for the construction of the contemporary Jewish identity. The project analyzes five institutions, constructed between 1878 and 1928: University of Stockholm, the Nordic Museum, Stockholm City Hall, Stockholm's School of Economics, and Stockholm's City Library: all of them topographical symbols for Stockholm's development into a modern capital. 

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The project started in January 2021 and is jointly based at Centre for European Research (CERGU) at University of Gothenburg, and Department of History at Uppsala University. Dr. Mia Kuritzén Löwengart serves as principal researcher, and the project is fully funded by Torsten Söderbergs stiftelse.