Economic history
Economic history has been part of History education in Karlstad for many years. The subject is offered as a component in independent courses and can also be included in the Secondary Education Programme with a specialisation in History as well as other study programmes.
What is Economic history?
Economic history as a subject concerns our economic and social history. In short, it deals with the ways in which people of all social classes and in all times have satisfied both their own basic needs and the basic needs of society. The discipline covers processes of change over time, and a number of phenomena, such as the epoch of industrialisation which fundamentally changed people’s living conditions and social life.
Why study Economic history?
We all need different perspectives on the present. This seems particularly true for modern society. Perhaps this is due to the rapid changes that characterise our world; not least when it comes to relations in the economic and social domain. One example is the current debate about how national interests can be incorporated in supranational forms of cooperation and how attempts to promote different types of political and economic collaboration should be related to the “third” world. Trying to answer questions like these is impossible without at least some consideration of the economic and historical background. The historical perspective is what allows us to generate knowledge about today’s society and its problems.