(Inter)nationalist Popular Education: Security Policy, Nationalism and Advocacy in the Swedish Folk High Schools’ Action on Development Issues 1950-1969
Folk High Schools in Sweden have a long history of engaging internationally, especially as regards courses on development studies (u-landslinjer) that emerged in the late sixties. The purpose of this article is to track some of the discourses about internationalisation, development and aid that preceded those courses, as well as to scrutinise ideas of the role of the Folk High School (folkhögskola) in the emerging field of development aid. Analysing material from Tidskrift för svenska folkhögskolan (Journal of the Swedish Folk High School) between 1950 and 1969, the study shows that the discourse on internationalism takes its starting point from an already established nationalism and nordism. National security also arises as an argument for engaging in development issues. The analysis also shows that there is a shift in the role of the Folk High School in the evolving development work; from “helping” to “advocating.” The results raise questions about how we can understand today’s Folk High School courses on global development against the background of the debates of the fifties and sixties.