Science of Selection: Developing Social Technology in Educational and Vocational Field 1920–1940, Norway

This paper explores how creating the applied science psychotechnics redefined societies’ views on abilities and disabilities during the early twentieth century. The main empirical sources are textbooks, articles and political documents. It studies the making of applied psychology as two interrelated processes: first, the early experimental  laboratory developments of scientific knowledge and the new understanding of the relationship between body and mind, and second, the introduction of new quantitative techniques for measuring intelligence and aptitudes in schools, the military, and employment services – that is, for society in general. I name the first process ‘scientification’ and the second ‘politicisation of the new scientific techniques’. The two analytical terms point to how abilities and aptitudes were redefined due to scientific and political interests. This article first gives an overview of the international innovations that I term ‘social technologies’, and thereafter analyses how these technologies transformed the Norwegian system – first the special schools, then the vocational schools, and finally the employment services.