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Mass-Schooling and pre-industrialisation in Northern Sweden: Relations between Olofsfors Ironworks and Nordmaling parish in the organization of Elementary schools in the 19th century decentralized school system

Mass-Schooling and pre-industrialisation in Northern Sweden: Relations between Olofsfors Ironworks and Nordmaling parish in the organization of Elementary schools in the 19th century decentralized school system. From the mid-nineteenth century, Sweden went through a transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society which led to new demands on the parishes. With the First Elementary School Act in 1842, Sweden’s school system was formalised. The decentralised system formed by the First Elementary School Act, stated that every parish should establish at least one school in every parish. At this time, half of Sweden’s parishes already had some form of public schools, which were run by parishes, private organisations, donations, or pre-industrial companies, as for example Ironworks. Regardless of who ran the school, the parish was responsible and were the one who would report school results to the bishop’s office, so the relationship between the private actor and the parish was important. In this article we study how the relationship between Olofsfors Ironwork and the local parish, Nordmaling developed during the nineteenth century, and how these turbulent times affected the relationship. This is discussed in relation to earlier research and has been analysed through discourse analysis.