Att skriva om folkets tankeliv - en historiografisk studie om Ronny Ambjörnsson och folkets idéhistoria

Sammanfattning: This paper gives insight into the historical research of the academic Ronny Ambjörnsson and his work in the swedish field of history of ideas. Applying an agent perspective it shows how Ambjörnsson constructed and aimed to show how an history of ideas that involves the broader communities of history, workers and farmers that constitutes ”the people”, could be done. The paper shows that Ambjörnsson based his work, not on earlier research in the swedish academic field of history of ideas, but incorporated the insights of mainly international historians. Writing an history of ideas that involves broader communities is a hard task because the sources an academic in the field mainly works with have been written in a scholarly environment. But what Ambjörnssons found was an exceptional source material: from the social movements that came into existence in Sweden towards the end of the 19th century. The result can be found in "Den skötsamme arbetaren, idéer och ideal i ett norrländskt sågverkssamhälle 1880-1930" (1988) where Ambjörnsson reconstructed the ideals, or a form of ideal type, ”the conscientious worker”, that could be found amongst workers of the swedish town of Holmsund.