Born in 1953

Front matter

STEN-AKE STENBERG

BORN N1953

THE STORY ABOUT A POST-WAR SWEDISH COHORT, AND A LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH PROJECT s o ct

Part I. Project Metropolitan

The dream of a Nordic collaboration 3 The project emerges 5 Organising the project 7 Project Metropolitan in Norway 9 Project Metropolitan in Denmark 13 Project Metropolitan in Sweden 17 The School Survey 18 The Family Survey 21 Documentation 23

The Swedish Data Protection Authority, the Data Act, and the Social Scientists 27

The Swedish Sociological Association takes astand 28 Further attacks on the social scientists 30

Jan Freese, the computers and the scientists 32 Protests from the Faculty of Social Sciences 33

The decision to anonymise the data 35

Catch-22 36

The key tapes and the third and final questionnaire 39

The Debate on Project Metropolitan 43 4,000 register excerpt requests 48 A national security risk? 51 Paper documents are destroyed 52 Bad data and dangerous researchers 54

Metropolitan 2018 63 Nobody was identified 65

A changed situation with the introduction of the Personal DataAct 65

Social Research Then, Now and inthe Future 71 New questions — new ethical review 75 Defining scientific research 77 Restrictions that cause complications 80

Part II. The Children Of 1953

Progress and a Belief in the Future 87 160 publications from Project Metropolitan 89 Cohorts, Generations and Other Concepts 92 Cause andeffect 93 Other surveys 95

Confinement and Being Born in 1953 99 Social class, ill health and life chances 99 Time spent on the postnatal ward 105 Regimentation, or security and naturalness 108 A time of transition 110 Views on child rearing 114 Social class and family 113

Adoptive Children and Foster Children 117 Anonymity as a matter of course 118 Foster children 120

Housing, Moving and Social Class 127 Migration tothe suburbs 128 Social stratification 129 Substantial differences 130 Housing, crime and mental health 131

Preschool and School Years 135 Choice of program and upper-secondary studies 136 The significance of social capital 138 Siblings and sibling position 140

The significance of childhood conditions for future prospects as adult 143

Choice of friends, friendship and life after school 145 The significance of friendship choices for adult life 147

Mods, Drugs and the Shift to the Left 153 Did the Mods go on to lead respectable lives? 154 The shift to the left 156

Dreams of the Future 163 What influenced the children’s predictions? 164 Anxious? Competitive? Indifferent? 167 Social mobility 169 The culture of conscientiousness 171 Downward social mobility 173 Occupational aspirations and gender segregation inthe labour market 174 Crime and Punishment 179 Who committed offences? 180 Drugs 182 The significance of school 184 Mental illness and crime 185 How did lifeturn out? 186 Effects across the generations 188 335 years in prison 191

Social Disadvantage, Violence and Ill-health 195 Welfare dependency 202 Suicidal behaviour —attepted and completed suicide 205 Violence against oneself and others 208 Anorexia 210

What are the Results of the Research? 213

Part III. On The Freedom, Utility And Responsibilities Of Research

Project Metropolitan and the Future of Social Research 219 The freedom of research andthe media 222 Politics, views of society and Project Metropolitan 225 Scientific methods 226

Endnotes 229 References 249

Swedish Government Official Reports (Statens Offentliga Utredningar, SOU) 263

English — Swedish names of organisations and sources 264

List of illustrations 267 Acknowledgements 271 Special Thanks 272