The Northern Cosmopolite: Bildning and Education in Postwar Mondialism, from the 1950s into the 1960s

This article examines how the postwar cosmopolitan movement known as Världsmedborgarrörelsen (the World Citizen Movement) reappropriated the concept of Bildung to construct an emancipatory model of bildning and mondialist citizenship. Grounded in a critical interpretation of World War II and the emerging nuclear threat, mondialists mobilized transnational networks – publishing literature, organizing study circles, and promoting peace research – to cultivate morally autonomous, critically engaged individuals committed to pacifism, human rights, and world peace. Situated between utopian aspiration and dystopian crisis, they conceptualized bildning as both a personal and collective process of self-formation capable of transforming passive subjects into active world citizens. Moreover, they transcended traditional Swedish and Scandinavian ‘people's-home’ welfare ideals by advocating a cosmopolitan ‘world home’ that challenged nationalism, militarism, and the prevailing East–West ideological divide.