Abstract: Since the term ‘Silicon Valley’ was coined in the 1970s, the small region in Northern California has generated dreams of a prosperous high-technological future. The purpose of this project is to study how the model of Silicon Valley in the 1980s and 1990s came to influence Swedish society through innovations such as a small cap stock exchange (OTC-listan), private venture capital firms, and an influx of entrepreneurial management literature. The project is at an early stage and the presented text is a research proposal (currently under review). It has been developed through two RJ-financed workshops on the topic “Silicon Valley Knowledge” organized together with Pelle Snickars (professor of digital culture at Lund University). 

Bio: David Larsson Heidenblad is Associate Professor (docent) and Deputy Director for the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge (LUCK). His research is centered on the history of stock saving and the emergence of the knowledge society. Recent publications include the chapter “Wage-Earners, Taxpayers or Everyman Capitalists? The Making of a Mutual Fund Culture in Sweden” (with Orsi Husz & Elin Åström Rudberg, 2025) and The History of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2023) with Johan Östling. 

Register for the seminar here.