This article investigates an important but understudied phenomenon: the bureaucratic class division, which is analysed as a difference technology for envisioning, studying and managing the population. I examine a long-lived and widely spread taxonomy of the Swedish population into three social groups (Socialgrupper). Specifically, I look at how it influenced the production of statistics and knowledge about the voter during the first half of the twentieth century and higher education in the post-war welfare state era. The article understands the effects of the taxonomy as a ‘scientisation of the social’, using Lutz Raphael's term, in which fuzzy conceptual class boundaries were turned into exact classification, making it possible for different actors to act and calculate through them. The division was at the same time contested among social scientists and politicians. However, because of lack of alternatives and because it was well established, actors continued using it.

本文研究了一个重要但尚未得到充分研究的现象：官僚阶级划分，它被分析为设想、研究和管理人口的差异技术。我研究了一种长期存在且广泛传播的瑞典人口分类法，将其分为三个社会群体（Socialgrupper）。具体来说，我研究了它如何影响二十世纪上半叶选民的统计数据和知识的产生以及战后福利国家时代的高等教育。文章将分类法的影响理解为“社会的科学化”，用卢茨·拉斐尔的术语来说，模糊的概念类别界限被转变为精确的分类，使不同的参与者能够通过它们来行动和计算。与此同时，社会科学家和政治家也对这种分歧展开了争论。然而，由于缺乏替代方案，而且它已经很成熟，演员们继续使用它。