Merging the fields of institutional studies, the history of the welfare state, and the history of experience, the book focuses on experiences of institutions, from the late 1700s to the early 2000s. How were the institutions of the emerging welfare state experienced by the people who interacted with them? How did institutions as sites of experience shape and structure people’s everyday lives?
The contributions to the volume explore practices, performances, spatial settings, soundscapes, languages, and the embodied sensory elements of institutions. Furthermore, the contributions study varying socio-cultural patterns of experiencing institutional contexts as well as entanglements between care and control. Focusing on the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, the book sets out to explore not only experiences of walled institutions, but also of welfare provisions and other societal institutions producing welfare, such as the family.