Socken

This article is about the Swedish county subdivision. For the professor, seePaul G. Socken.

Ekers socken in Närke on a map of Örebro hundred

Socken(Swedish:[ˈsʊ̌kːɛn]or[ˈsɔ̌kːɛn])is the name used for a part of acountyin Sweden. In Denmark similar areas are known assogn,in Norwaysoknorsognand in Finlandpitäjä(socken).A socken is an rural area formed around a church, typically in the Middle Ages. A socken originally served as aparish.Laterit also served as acivil parishor anadministrative parish,and became a predecessor to today'smunicipalities of Sweden,Finland,NorwayandDenmark.Today it is a traditional area with frozen borders, in Sweden typically identical to those of the early 20th century rural parishes. The socken also served as a registration unit for buildings, in Sweden recently replaced by identicaldistrictsas registration unit. A socken consists of several villages and industrylocalities(company towns), and is typically named after the main village and the original church.

Sweden

History

Socken, inold Swedishsokn(compare:Danishandbokmålsogn,nynorsksokn) is an archaic name for the original country church parishes,kyrksocken.It also describes a secular area, asockenkommun( "rural area locality" ) or a taxation area, ajordbokssocken.In the Nordic countries a socken was an administrative area consisting of several villages or localities in much the same way as thecivil parishes in England,but the concept is not used in reference to towns. A socken had a socken church, it was governed by a socken council and it was the predecessor to modernmunicipalities

In 1862, thekyrksockens( "church socken" ) and thesockenkommuns( "rural area locality" ) in Sweden were abolished as administrative areas during municipality reforms. Thejordbrukssocken( "taxation area" ) remained in use until theFastighetsdatareformen( "Reform for registration of real property" ) 1976–1995 was complete.No further alterations to the sockens was made after this.

On 1January 2016, a new administrative division and area forstatistics,registration districtsor simply districts, was introduced in Sweden. Geographically, the districts correspond with theparishes of the Church of Swedenas of 31December 1999. About 85% of the old sockens corresponds with the new districts.

Even though the term socken is no longer used administratively in Sweden, it is still used for cataloging and registering historical archives (Swedish National Heritage Board),botany,dialectresearch,toponymyand by local historical societies. Socken is a convenient parameter for these purposes since it does not change with time.

Lists of sockens

Skåne, a place wheresockenis in use

Gotland, a place wheresockenis in use

Dalarna, a place wheresockenis in use

• List of sockens in Sweden on Swedish Wikipedia,sv:Kategori:Socknar i Sverige

See also

• Administrative divisions of Sweden
• Civil parishes in England
• Historical region
• Hundred (county division)
• Municipalities of Sweden
• Parish (Denmark)
• Parishes of the Church of Sweden
• Soke (legal)
• Swedish municipal reforms of 1862
• Townships of the People's Republic of China

Further reading

• Almquist, Johan Axel (1917–1923).Den civila lokalförvaltningen i Sverige 1523–1630: med särskild hänsyn till den kamerala indelningen.Meddelanden från svenska Riksarkivet, 99-0506720-5; 6 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedt.Retrieved16 June2014.

• Lagerstedt, Torsten (1973).Den civila lokalförvaltningens gränser 1630–1952: kameral redovisning, areell beteckning och gränsförändring.Meddelanden från Kulturgeografiska institutionen vid Stockholms universitet, 0585-3508; B 24 (in Swedish). Stockholm.Retrieved16 June2014.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Litzen, Veikko (1977). "Om socken".Historisk Tidskrift för Finland(in Swedish). Helsinki: 331–335.

• Svensson, Patric (1999). Peter Aronsson & Lennart Johansson (ed.)."Att skapa ordning och reda: administrativa förändringar på landsbygden omkring 1870–1940".Stationssamhällen(in Swedish). Växjö: Univ., 1999: 146–154.ISBN9789172661493.Retrieved16 June2014.

External links

• Swedish Tax Agency, Parishes in Sweden, historical–current.(in Swedish)
• Swedish National Heritage Board, List of towns and sockens.Archived2021-11-20 at theWayback Machine(in Swedish)