Abstract

"Corporatizing the Welfare City? Education and Managerial Careers in Swedish Municipally Owned Enterprises"

Mathias Krusell, University of Gothenburg (mathias.krusell@gu.se)

This paper investigates the work experience and educational background of managers of municipally owned enterprises (MOEs) in Sweden between 1960 and 2000. By analyzing the social origins and professionalization of these managers, the paper contributes to research on managerial elites and business history (David & Westerhuis, 2014; Engwall m.fl., 2016; Fellman, 2000), while highlighting an overlooked dimension of the Nordic welfare state. MOEs occupy a hybrid position between municipal government and market enterprise, providing insight into how public ownership has been reshaped through managerial and organizational change.
Swedish MOEs originated as instruments for municipalities to provide welfare services—such as energy, water, waste management, and local transport—within a commercial framework. Over time, they evolved into key actors in urban development, cultural policy, and city branding. The study draws on evidence from Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö, tracing how the composition and orientation of MOE management changed during the late twentieth century. While the post-war decades were characterized by welfare-oriented administration, from the mid-1980s corporatization, privatization, and mineralization transformed the nature of local public enterprise (Genugten m.fl., 2023). My paper will show and discuss whether the educational and occupational profiles of MOE managers have shifted accordingly. Did they increasingly resemble those of private-sector executives?
Gothenburg provides a particularly illustrative case. From the mid-1980s to the 1990s, the city restructured its MOE sphere through the establishment of Göteborgs Hamn AB (1985), Göteborg Energi (1989), Göteborg Spårvägar AB (1989), and Göteborg & Co (1991). These developments reflected the city’s post-industrial ambitions and the broader transformation of municipal governance. By linking the evolution of managerial appointments and careers to changes in the organizational form of MOEs, the paper sheds light on how Swedish municipalities navigated the tension between public responsibility and market efficiency during the late twentieth century.