Guarding the boundaries of belonging
The Church of Sweden, Gypsy mission and social care in the 1910s–40s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12528475 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ida Al Fakir (0000-0001-7244-8056, Research in Education & Movement Culture, Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Stockholm, Sweden, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 202-222 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Review of History Revue européenne d histoire (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-7486 • E-ISSN: 1469-8293 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13507486.2023.2284800 |
| OpenAlex | W4390507324 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 26 |
Historically, social welfare providers have defined social and ethnic minorities such as 'vagrants' and Romani people as non-deserving and thus excluded them from their work. Gradually during the nineteenth century, however, Christian actors and organizations across Europe were among the first to recognize Romani groups as legitimate targets of relief. The operations required boundary changes where previously undeserving categories were transferred to deserving, thus becoming legitimate targets of relief. The article discusses the Church of Sweden's social care for minorities, with a special focus on Romani groups from the 1910s to the 1940s. At that point, Protestant social work was permeated by conservative paternalism and focused on changing the individual through interventions defined as help-to-self-help, rather than challenging the unjust social structures in Swedish society. However, welfare measures were enacted differently depending on the majority/minority position of the individual; the recognition or rejection of minority rights affected the distribution and content of Lutheran social welfare. Examining church-led or church-endorsed activities, the contribution sheds light on the differentiation of social and ethnic subgroups and brings nuance to a field that has overlooked the Swedish state church as a welfare provider in the twentieth century. The instances of intersection between and sometimes confusion of social and ethnic boundaries serve as examples of the historicity of such boundaries and churchmen's contribution to establishing these
Ethnic group · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Social position · Social Welfare · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare state · Gender Studies · Law · Religious Education and Schools · Romani and Gypsy Studies · Social Work
Gypsies and Other Itinerant Groups
The Church as Nation? The Role of Religion in the Development of the Swedish Welfare State
The Age of Light, Soap, and Water
The 'Gypsy Question' and the Gypsy expert in Sweden
The “pure Gypsy” revisited
Evangelical ethnographers and English Gypsies from the 1790s to the 1830s
Rise up and walk!’ The Church of Sweden and the ‘problem of vagrancy’ in the early twentieth century
The Scandinavian ‘Gypsy friend’
Promoting Faith and Welfare. The Deaconess Movement in Finland and Sweden, 1850?1930
De historiska relationerna mellan Svenska kyrkan och samerna. En vetenskaplig antologi
The culture of local xenophobia
Migrants, Immigrants and Welfare From the Old Poor Law to the Welfare State
Ethnic Boundary Making
Consensus, Conflict, or Compromise? Church-State Relations in the Swedish "People's Home" During the 1920s and 1930s
The Swedish Sonderweg in Question
The Good, the Bad, or the Godless Society
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |