Workers' Everyday Life Organized by Swedish Labor Movement at the Turn of Century

Swedish labor movement had developed activities for workers' and their families' everyday life at the turn of the century. These activities consisted of various cultural factors. Most of them came from traditional folk culture or bourgeois culture. These had been blended in the labor movement and transformed their forms and meanings. Swedish labor movement organized wholly workers' everyday life through such activities. Their everyday life was clearly divided between work and leisure in both time and space. Labor movement wanted to discipline its members and train them to "respectable" workers. Under the second empire German labor movement also had developed such activities. But these were segregated in German society. In Sweden many of these activities were not only for workers and their families but also for the other inhabitants in the local community. Public sphere of Swedish labor movement was not only for workers and their families but also for the other inhabitants in the local community. Public sphere of Swedish labor movement was open to society in contrast with isolated German labor movement. We should consider such openness when we think about why social democratic labor movement in Sweden could take over hegemony in public spheres and set on to build welfare state in 1930's.