Att konstruera ett vardagsliv : en studie av representation, urval och samhällsideal i Börje Hanssens intervjumaterial från 1940-talet om arbetarklassen i Helsingborg under industrialiseringen

Sammanfattning

Constructing Everyday Life : A Study of Representation, Selection, and Social Ideals in Börje Hanssen’s 1940s Interview Material on the Working Class in Helsingborg During the Industrialization. This study examines how working-class everyday life in Helsingborg is portrayed in Börje Hanssen’s interview material from the 1940s, produced within the project Svensk stad: Liv och stil i svenska städer under 1800-talet. The material consists of 494 machine-written interview cards describing living conditions during industrialization and the early twentieth century. The study aims to analyze how working-class everyday life is represented and how the material’s selection, thematization and representation relates to the social ideal, political climate and documentation practices of the 1940s. The study combines quantitative and qualitative methods and approaches the interviews from a source-critical perspective, treating them as products of their own time rather than neutral descriptions of the past. Schema Theory is used as the theoretical framework. Through thematic analysis, the study examines which aspects of working-class life are emphasized or marginalized, as well as the norms and values reflected in the material. The analysis shows that everyday life is mainly portrayed as disciplined, work-centered and shaped by thrift, care and social order. Home, family and work ethic are given central importance, while conflicts and more socially sensitive topics are largely absent. Norms concerning morality, gender roles, rationality and social discipline are especially visible in the documentation. The findings also indicate that the material reflects the social ideals connected to the construction of the Swedish People’s Home during the 1940s, where the emphasis on overcrowding, poor hygiene and harsh working conditions function as a contrast to the modern welfare reforms. The study therefore argues that Hanssen’s interview material should be understood as a representation shaped by the values and documentation practices of the 1940s.