The development of youth leisure policies in Sweden

Abstract

This article presents the main themes in both the control and autonomy aspects of the early leisure policy debate in Sweden. It is based on the study of discussions in the Swedish parliament during the early period of open state intervention into the field of youth leisure. The analysis is concentrated on the leisure and moral development of children and young people. It is shown that liberals and conservatives have been concerned with the threat to moral order posed by the ‘depravity’ of the young and that they have supported measures aimed to instil in working-class children bourgeois values and norms.