Urban Lundberg holds an associate professorship (docentur) in history from Stockholm University. He is a lecturer of history and social science at Dalarna University and is the editor-in-chief for the Swedish review magazine and cultural journal Respons.
Lundberg work covers a broad spectrum of topics including comparative pension politics, the history of social policy, contemporary Scandinavian social democracy, citizenship and individual rights, the history of development aid, and higher education studies. His book Juvelen i kronan [Jewel in the Crown] about the 1994 Swedish pension reform was awarded the 2004 Rudolf Meidner Prize, given annually for distinguished research into the history of the Swedish labour movement. In 1997-2003 he assisted former Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson in writing his political memoirs in two volumes. Lundberg’s latest research project was financed by the Swedish Research Council and dealt with the formative years of the Swedish development aid program.
In 2017−2020 Urban Lundberg was stationed in Maputo where he was a Visiting Professor at the pedagogical faculty at the Eduardo Mondlane University.
Key publications
Lundberg, Urban, En svindlande uppgift. Sverige och biståndet, 1945–1975 Stockholm: Ordfront förlag, 2021. [with Mattias Tydén & Annika Berg]
Lundberg, Urban, “Fragmentering och kris? Humanioras status och ställning i samhällsdebatten speglad genom essäsidan Under strecket”, in: Johannes Heuman, Sten Widmalm & Jenni Sandström, red., Oumbärliga samtal. Humaniora och samhällsvetenskap i svensk offentlig debatt, Stockholm: Daidalos, 2020.
Lundberg, Urban, ’”Volksheim“ oder „Mitbürgerheim“? Per Albin Hansson und die schwedische Demokratie’, in: Tim B. Müller & Adam Tooze , eds., Normalität und Fragilität. Demokratie nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2015.
Lundberg, Urban, ’Olja och välfärd: Norsk pensionspolitik i jämförande belysning’, Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, 2015:4.
Lundberg, Urban, ”Das nordische Modell. Sozialdemokratisches Markenzeichen oder gemeinsames kulturelles Erbe?”, in: B. Henningsen, S. Jochem & S. Frech, eds., Das politische Skandinavien. Gesellschaft, wirthschaft, politik & kultur, eds. Schwalbach: Wochenschau verlag, 2015.
Lundberg, Urban & Mattias Tydén, “In Search of the Swedish Model. Contested Historiography”, in: Helena Mattson & Sven-Olof Wallenstein, eds., Swedish Modernism: Architecture, Consumption and the Welfare State, London: black dog publishing, 2010, 36−49.
Lundberg, Urban, Olli Kangas & Niels Ploug, “Three Routs to Pension Reforms. Politics and Institutions in Reforming Pensions in Denmark, Finland and Sweden”, Social Policy and Administration, 3:44 (2010), 265-284.
Lundberg, Urban, Sveriges historia, 1920−1965, Stockholm: Norstedts, 2012. [with Yvonne Hirdman]
Lundberg, Urban, Juvelen i kronan. Socialdemokraterna och den allmänna pensionen. Stockholm: Hjalmarson & Högberg, 2003.
Lundberg, Urban & Klas Åmark, “Social Rights and Social Security: The Swedish Welfare State 1900 – 2000”. Scandinavian Journal of History, 3:26 (2001), 157–176.