The rise of integration: A historical institutionalist analysis of the emergence of the paradigm of integration in Sweden

The purpose of the project The rise of integration is to explain how and why the integration paradigm, as a dominant way of managing pupils with special pedagogical needs, arose and changed in Sweden from the 1960s to the 2010s.

To examine the conditions for the rise of an integration paradigm, the project examines how different institutions and interests groups in society have contributed to establishing and (re) producing the knowledge and ideas about problems and solutions on which integration and inclusion policies rests.

This distinguishes us from previous research that primarily is characterized by a top-down perspective.The project consists of three studies that focus on three different institutional arenas that we believe are important in explaining the establishment and change of the integration paradigm.

These are the level of the political institutions, the scientific field, and the level of social movements (civil society). Together, these three arenas can be said to form part of the wider welfare state governance structure during the 20th.

The methods of critical discourse analysis for studying policies will be used to study the data on which the studies are based. The material for the study consists of large amounts of text from the three arenas.

For example, parliamentary debates, special investigations, consultations and consultation responses, opinion formation in newspapers and scientific articles.