New Books in Economic and Business History Orsi Husz, "Bankminded: Banks As Intimate Agents of Everyday Life in Welfare State Sweden" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2025)
Mar 22, 2026
Orsi Husz, Professor at Uppsala University who studies the cultural history of personal finance, explains how banks became woven into everyday Swedish life. She discusses archival discoveries, the welfare state’s role in encouraging household banking, gendered marketing to housewives, the rise of credit cards, and how past bankification connects to today’s digital payments.
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Use Archives And Start Small
- Go to the archives and be open to surprising finds when researching financial history.
- Orsi Husz recommends starting with specific questions, publish shorter papers first, then expand into a book when patterns emerge.
Bank-Minded Captures A Cultural Shift
- Bank-minded meant more than willingness to use banks; it encompassed skills, know-how, and a mindset about everyday financial instruments.
- The term came from Swedish bankers in the late 1950s who framed a cultural project to teach people how bank accounts and transfers work.
Bankification Prepares The Ground For Financialization
- Bankification names the slow cultural and infrastructural process that made everyday life dependent on banks before full financialization.
- It links postwar welfare redistribution, micro-infrastructures like wage transfers, and mental shifts necessary for later neoliberal financialization.
