He entered
Stockholm University in 1958 and received a degree in philosophy from Stockholm University four years later. He also studied at the
University of Colorado Boulder between 1955 and 1956. From 1959 to 1964 he worked as a sociologist at the Institute of Military Psychology (
Militärpsykologiska institutet) and from 1965 to 1966 at the
Swedish Metalworkers Union. He then worked as an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Stockholm University (1966–1968). He then worked as a professor of sociology at
Umeå University until 1969 until he returned to the previous university as a professor of sociology until 1972. Since 1972 and until his retirement he was professor of social policy. At the beginning, in the 1960s, when Korpi was at the Institute of Military Psychology, he focused primarily on attitudes and well-being in the military. Notable is the publication Social Pressures and Attitudes in Military Training, the thesis with which he presented himself when he graduated in 1962 in sociology. From the 1970s onwards, he focused largely on labour disputes and class struggle, and to a lesser extent on health care research. == Publications ==