Carl-Filip Smedberg

Assistant Professor

I am an assistant professor of history. My research examines the intellectual history of class society, the emergence of the knowledge society, and issues concerning the future during the 20th century.

Assistant Professor of history

In my research, I am interested in social hierarchies and visions of the future in Sweden and Europe during the 20th century.

Since the fall of 2025, I have been an assistant professor of history at the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) and the Division of History, Arts, and Religious Studies (HKR) at Campus Valla, Linköping University.

I received my Ph.D. in 2022 from the Department of History of Ideas at Uppsala University with the dissertation Klassriket: Socialgruppsindelningen som skillnadsteknologi under 1900-talet. In 2023–2024, I held a research position at the Department of History, Lund University, where I was affiliated with the Center for the History of Knowledge. From fall 2024 to 2025, I was employed as a postdoctoral researcher in modern history with a focus on preparedness and culture at HKR.

Research

LiU hub for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic imaginaries

The LiU hub for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic imaginaries is a meeting point for a seminar series and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

En grupp människor som går längs en gata.

Constructing the Un/Educated

Describing society in terms of the division between “the well-educated” and “the less uneducated” is commonplace today, as present in social science research as in policy and broader media debate.

The Historical Studies Research Environment

How have people thought, felt, and acted throughout history? How have thoughts turned into actions, texts, and images, and how are these understood and used today? Our research focuses on humans as meaning-makers from a historical perspective.

Publications

2026

Carl-Filip Smedberg, Jonas Andersson, Klara Müller, Hampus Östh Gustafsson (2026)

Vad är kunskapssamhället för ett samhälle?: ett begrepp och dess historiska kontexter Sverige som kunskapssamhälle: historiska perspektiv på en förväntad samhällsomvandling, p. 27-52 (Chapter in book)

Carl-Filip Smedberg (2026)

Kunskapens skuggor?: den lågutbildades historia och kunskapssamhällets nyckelhierarki Sverige som kunskapssamhälle: historiska perspektiv på en förväntad samhällsomvandling, p. 53-80 (Chapter in book)

Carl-Filip Smedberg, Jonas Andersson, Klara Müller, Hampus Östh Gustafsson (Editorship) (2026)

Sverige som kunskapssamhälle (Collection (editor))

2025

Carl-Filip Smedberg (2025)

"A New Type of Aristocracy": Envisioning Educational Divides in the Swedish Conservative Party during the Birth of the Post-Industrial Society, ca. 1965-1972 History of Education, Vol. 54, p. 76-95 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0046760x.2024.2418384

2024

Carl-Filip Smedberg (2024)

Class Divisions in Use: The Swedish Social Group Taxonomy as Difference Technology, 1911-1970 Contemporary European History, Vol. 33, p. 1352-1364 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0960777323000413

Organisation

Division of History, Arts and Religious Studies (HKR)

We focus on how people think and act, how these thoughts are conveyed in texts, images, and artefacts in the past and the present, how they are understood and used, and how they are expressed in human actions, cultures, and politics.

Department of Culture and Society (IKOS)

At the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), social sciences and the humanities gather in environments where research and education work together.