Carl Marklund is Associate Professor in Nordic Studies (University of Helsinki 2017) and holds a PhD in History (European University Institute 2008). Presently, he serves as Research Director at the Institute of Contemporary History, Södertörn University, where research activities are centered upon the recent geopolitical and socioeconomic changes in the Baltic-Nordic region and research-initiating witness seminars are arranged.
His research interests range from the conceptual and intellectual history of regional and social planning to the image management and public diplomacy of the Scandinavian countries in global circulation, especially the study of “Nordic models.” His publications cover topics such as the transatlantic history of the concept of social engineering, the political significance of ”happiness” as an objective of contemporary social policies and the role of ”openness” as an instrument in recent public administration reform. During 2020, within the scope of a three-year research project entitled ”Nordic Models in Global Circulations, 1970-2020” funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and based at Aarhus University (PI: Mary Hilson) he will conduct research on the ”modellisation” of the Nordic countries as an developmental alternative, especially in relation to the decolonizing Global South during the bipolar Cold War.
He will join the Neoliberalism in the Nordics-project in 2021, where his research will primarily address the origins and significance of broadly based welfare state criticism — especially criticism against alleged features such as centralisation, planning, surveillance and taxation — in contributing to neoliberal opinion-formation as well as calls for public administration reform and experimentalist governance in Sweden, with comparative outlooks to Denmark and Norway.
Key publications:
Journal articles and book chapters (Peer-reviewed):
Marklund, Carl, (2023). ”Krångla lagom! Välfärdsstatskritiken och byråkratiseringsdebatten”, in Andersson, Jenny, Husz, Orsi, Glover, Nikolas & Larsson Heidenblad, David (eds.),Marknadens tid: mellan folkhemskapitalism och nyliberalism, Nordic Academic Press/Kriterium (https://www.kriterium.se/site/books/e/10.21525/kriterium.54/).
Marklund, C., “Double Loyalties? Small-State Solidarity and the Debates on New International Economic Order (NIEO) in Sweden During the Long 1970s,” in Scandinavian Journal of History (2019). (Online first)
Marklund, C., “The Nordic Model on the Global Market of Ideas: The Welfare State as Scandinavia’s Best Brand,” in Geopolitics (2016), pp. 623–639.
Marklund, C., “From ‘False’ Neutrality to ‘True’ Socialism: Unofficial US ‘Sweden-bashing’ During the Later Palme Years, 1973–1986,” in Journal of Transnational American Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2016), pp. 1–18.
Marklund, C., “From the Swedish Model to the Open Society: The Swedish Power Investigation and the Power to Investigate Power, 1985–1990,” in Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2013), pp. 357–371.
Marklund, C., “The Social Laboratory, the Middle Way, and the Swedish Model: Three Frames for the Image of Sweden,” in Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 34, No. 3 (2009), pp. 264–285.
Edited volumes:
Götz, Norbert, and C. Marklund (eds.), The Paradox of Openness: Transparency and Participation in Nordic Cultures of Consensus (Leiden: Brill, 2014).
Marklund, C. (ed.), All Well in the Welfare State? Subjective Well-being and the Politics of Happiness (Helsinki: NordWel Centre of Excellence Publications, 2013).
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