This article examines the historical and contemporary role of bildning within Swedish universities and its relationship to democracy. Initially central to civic movements and the development of the welfare state, bildning was understood as fostering critical thinking and active citizenship. Over time, university reforms prioritized labour market needs and scientific rationality, diminishing the humanities and the ideal of bildning. Considering the Magna Charta Universitatum (1988/2020), which reaffirms academic freedom while emphasizing societal engagement, the chapter traces this shift from Humboldtian ideals to mass universities shaped by globalization and marketization. It highlights key milestones, including the 1955 university investigation, the 1977 reform, and current challenges such as market-driven education, erosion of trust in expertise, and balancing autonomy with societal demands and raises questions about universities’ normative role. The article argues for reclaiming bildning as a critical, emancipatory process essential for democratic resilience and global responsibility.

När FN:s allmänna förklaring om de mänskliga rättigheterna antogs 1948 bar världen fortfarande spåren av två förödande världskrig. Dokumentet gav ett löfte om fred, värdighet och universella rättigheter. Sedan dess har mänskliga rättigheter fungerat som moralisk kompass i rättssalar, klassrum, politiska förhandlingar och civilsamhällets kamp för rättvisa. Men i en tid då demokratier krymper, rättsstatliga principer utmanas och människor förlorar sina grundläggande friheter, väcks frågan om rättigheternas möjligheter på nytt.

Denna antologi samlar forskare från Kollegiet för mänskliga rättigheter vid Malmö universitet och visar hur idéer om rättigheter formas, förhandlas och omprövas – i utbildning och professioner, i barns vardag och på institutioner, i teorin och i praktiken. Här möts historia och samtid, juridik och pedagogik, etik, kultur, politik och filosofi. Med nedslag i allt från FN:s tillblivelseprocess till dagens digitala utmaningar, från barns delaktighet till naturens ställning i rättighetsdiskurser, öppnar boken för samtal om vad mänskliga rättigheter är – och vad de kan bli. Vi vill inspirera till ett fortsatt samtal om värdighetens gränser och rättigheternas möjligheter.

Within intellectual history there has been a widening interest over the last decades in rediscovering intellectuals who used to be renowned when they were active, but who for various reasons have been more or less forgotten over time. The Swedish writer Ellen Key (1849–1926) was a famous intellectual who gained her reputation through books, pamphlets, and hundreds of lectures on topics such as pedagogy, peace, and women’s rights—topics that were at the top of a general intellectual agenda around 1900. I will focus on her idea of internationalism that was founded on an evolutionary life philosophy of development. Her engagement in internationalism was built on an idealist foundation of philosophical, religious, and humanitarian beliefs organized around peace and a problematization of the nation. Key advocated a kind of patriotism as her path towards developing internationalism. In this article, Key’s work is contextualized and conceptualized in the discussion of internationalism of her contemporaries.

Because of its rhetorical nature, the notion of cosmopolitanism is sometimes understood as having a fixed definition. As this is not the case, parts of this overstrained concept have been replaced by the concept of conviviality. In some discussions, Immanuel Kant’s understanding of hospitality as a cosmopolitan right has been criticised and, in some cases, this has resulted in a rejection of the idea of cosmopolitanism. This has not least been the case in recent debates about refugee arrivals in Europe. This chapter, however, argues that it is worth paying attention to the historicity of conceptual frameworks, and that cosmopolitanism should not be abandoned, but instead be read as a utopian idea—as a reflexive method for imagining better or alternative futures in time and space.

This chapter offers a discussion of the relation between patriotism and cosmopolitanism in a Swedish context. It takes its starting point in the refugee situation  of 2015, where Sweden together with Germany hosted Europe’s largest number of refugees in relation to its population. The cosmopolitan right of hospitality as defined by Kant used to have a relation to patriotism, while today the two concepts no longer seem to have that relation. Swedish intellectual Ellen Key shows a way to discuss this relation that opens for an alternative way to consider patriotism.