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Bridging Politics And Science, Carl E. Marklund

Carl Marklund

Dissertation Summary In this dissertation I have tried to map how the concept of “social engineering” has been used from its inception in the early 1890s to the beginning of its decline in the late 1940s. The study concentrates upon the 1930s. In particular, I have asked who used this concept, in what contexts, and against which adversaries. I have taken most of my material from Sweden and the USA since both of these countries have been seen as examples of successful “organization of modernity.” And social engineering is indeed often taken to be exactly that—an attempt at organizing modernity.