Rasmus Törnblom has been a doctoral student at the Department of History at Lund University since the autumn of 2021. In his thesis, he examines how experiences and expectations of “consensus” (samförstånd) in Swedish society during the 20th century have contributed to shaping a great narrative about a Swedish “spirit of consensus” (samförståndsanda). His purpose is to explore how the concept of consensus during the 20th century has been formulated and temporalized – placed in the past, the present and the future – in the Swedish public sphere in order to try to interpret why the spirit of consensus has ingested its long and strong position in Swedish history and cultural self-image during the 20th century.

His historical interest is in a broad sense oriented towards the emergence of modern society with a special interest in notions of future in historical time, labor market history and environmental history.