HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Institutions and Collective Action
Hotspots and hinterlands: peasant industrial entrepreneurship in premodern Sweden
Department of Anthropology; Department of Environment & Sustainability, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, United States
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Abstract
This article examines why and how peasant farmers participate in non-agricultural market exchanges, and the conditions that enable them to do so. The case, set in late medieval and early modern Sweden (ca. 1520-1800 CE), uses a collective action approach to highlight differences between how this period is theorized: the 'industrial revolution' of orthodox economists and economic historians, which assumes a state government and institutions based on top-down authoritarianism, versus the 'industrious revolution' of historical archaeologists and social historians which postulates a collectivized society in which agency and self-determination is widespread. Archaeological, ethnographic and historical data suggest that despite difficult environmental conditions, the collectivized sociopolitical setting provided ample motivation and pathways for peasants to improve their livelihoods and well-being. As knowledgeable actors, through three different kinds of entrepreneurial manufacturing activity, they targeted different kinds of 'hotspots' with production in primary, secondary and tertiary economic sectors. Far from being 'proletarianized' by the era's emerging capitalists, many were able to thrive despite the hardships of an increasingly encroaching state and life in a boreal subarctic zone.
Summary
Keywords
collective action theory, industrious revolution, Medieval and early modern, Peasant entrepreneurship, Pluriactivity, Rurality, Sweden
Received
22 May 2026
Accepted
03 September 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Thurston. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: TL Thurston
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