Folkets hus

Photographer Lina Haskel has since 2006 travelled to every province of Sweden, visiting 66 of the country's People's Community Centres. These meeting places, which have meant so much for the development of Swedish society, have given her a feeling of "a kind of collective consciousness". Afterword by historian and author Henrik Berggren. Folkets Hus (Swedish People's Community Centres, literally: The People's House) is a national phenomenon in Sweden, well-known to next to every inhabitant. Swedes have several personal associations connected to the concept - from festivities and movie matinées to study circles and labor union meetings. Right there, in this broad spectra of activities, I found the core of my interest in Folkets Hus. Folkets Hus origins from the late 19th century, when the Swedish Labor Movement's need of meeting places first came up. Since the labor unions, and their attempts to have meetings, were opposed, the workers themselves solved the problem by building their own meeting places - Folkets Hus.