Debating, defending and defining globalization: The international activism of Swedish business elites, ca 1960-2000

Description

In this project I study the international business diplomacy on behalf of economic liberalization (broadly speaking) by Swedish organized industry in the second half of the 20th I examine these actors and their initiatives in the light of their dual capacity: on the one hand as active contributors to the emergence of a variegated “neoliberal common sense” (Cerny) in global politics and governance since the 1960s, and as elite representatives of a small, democratic corporatist society with an established self-image of representing constructive industrial relations, liberalized foreign trade, and multilateral cooperation. It is the changing tensions, alignment and interpretations of these dual capacities – promoting “globalization” from within a self-described “small-state” institutional framework – that constitutes my main area of interest.

Empirically, I focus on the international activism of a small but highly influential circle of business actors, representing MNCs such as Asea, SKF and SEB, as well as organised national businesses associations – Swedish Employers’ Association and the Federation of Swedish Industries – in international organisations such as BIAC/OECD, the International Chamber of Commerce and the UN. The aim is to trace the international world-ordering of Swedish business elites as they pursued their interests within a free-trade friendly economy and played an active role in building and using multinational institutions to this end. I do so by using a series of different business archives which allow me to piece together a continuous history from around 1960 to the end of the 21st century. The project runs through 2025.

This project is part of the research programme “Neoliberalism in the Nordics: developing an absent theme”, led by Jenny Andersson at the Department of History of Science and Ideas.