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Marianne Rostgaard
Industrial paternalism as a modernization strategy.
The article discusses the scope and role of paternalism in industry during the coming of age of a modern industrial society in Denmark in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Industrial paternalism is seen as a strategy for social inclusion, based on construction and legitimation of a societal order with hierarchical social relations between industrialists and workers, specifying a set of duties and obligations for each of the two parties to meet. Industrialists were, among other things, expected to care for workers who were no longer able to provide for themselves due to illness or old age. The article discusses different schemes for taking care of ill and aged workers and shows that such schemes were relatively common around 1900. The discussion focuses on norms and practices, not effects. Whether the schemes actually resulted in lessened social tensions during the transformation to an industrial society in Denmark is left for future research to assess.
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