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- Vikström, Hanna, 1985-
(author)
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Is There a Supply Crisis? : Sweden’s Critical Metals, 1917–2014
- 2018
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In: The Extractive Industries and Society. - : Elsevier. - 2214-790X .- 2214-7918. ; 5:3, s. 393-403
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While global metal production has increased almost exponentially over the last hundred years, actors have constantly worried about future scarcities. This article explores why state and business actors within a small country, Sweden, have perceived metals as critical and which strategies they have advanced to cope with potential shortages. It analyzes four reports and/or records of meetings from 1917, 1954, 1980 and 2014, years when the debate about resource scarcity flourished both in Sweden and internationally. The reasons why actors feared the future supply were largely connected to price increases, potential supply disruptions because of war or political instability, and soaring demand for technologies containing metals. Even Sweden, a neutral country, feared shortages because of political instability in foreign countries because of the transnational metal flows. The actors attempted to manage shortages by increased domestic production, technological development, stockpiling, international agreements and recycling. Tracing this issue over time, the article unpacks the importance of and concerns with metal flows in an age of rapid industrial, technological and geopolitical change.
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| 4. |
- Veraart, Frank, et al.
(author)
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Creating, capturing, and circulating commodities: The technology and politics of material resource flows, from the 19th century to the present
- 2020
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In: Extractive Industries and Society. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-790X .- 2214-790X .- 2214-7918. ; 7:1, s. 1-7
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Extractive resources are unevenly distributed geographically and our dependence on such resources is growing, which has led to ever increasing flows of resources across the world. This situation has caused concern for numerous actors. However, such worries are not new. Todays’ feel of a deeply interconnected, rapidly changing world with global grand challenges has striking resemblances with the nineteenth century mood in the industrializing countries. In this special issue we study the temporal dynamics and multiple geographies of resource flows, and how actors have attempted to shape and control them. In five articles by historians of technology and the environment from Sweden, Russia and the Netherlands, we aim to broaden the view on resource narratives and emphasize their non-static characters by showing developments of resources as they travel through time and space. This introductory article introduces and positions five themes that are addressed in the contributions of special issue. In this special issue scholars discuss (1) the social construction of resources, (2) the importance of resources to nation states, (3) resource flows as transnational practices, (4) technopolitics of resources, and (5) resource flows as global political power hierarches, of resources such as oil, metals, iron ore, uranium and stone.
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| 5. |
- Vikström, Hanna, 1985-
(author)
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A Scarce Resource? : The Debate on Metals in Sweden 1870–1918
- 2016
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In: The Extractive Industries and Society. - : Elsevier. - 2214-790X .- 2214-7918. ; 3:3, s. 772-781
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to explore the historical origins and meanings of metals scarcity in industrial society by investigating which metals were regarded as scarce by Swedish industrial actors from 1870 until 1918 and why. An analysis of material from the Swedish engineering journal Teknisk Tidskrift shows that the actors perceived twenty metals to be scarce during this period. Seven different factors could be identified in the scarcity debate: geological scarcity, technical difficulties in extracting the metals, the lack of substitutes, price variations, limited transport infrastructure, domestic unavailability and legal regulations. The article shows that actors and industries experienced troublesome shortages of metals even before World War I. However, they did not regard it as a geopolitical problem until the eve of the war.
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| 7. |
- Vikström, Hanna, 1985-
(author)
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Is There a Supply Crisis? : Sweden's Critical Metals, 1917-2014
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- While global metal production has increased almost exponentially over the last hundred years, actors have constantly worried about future scarcities. This article explores why state and business actors within a small country, Sweden, have perceived metals as critical and which strategies they have advanced to cope with potential shortages. It analyzes four reports and/or records of meetings from 1917, 1954, 1980 and 2014, years when the debate about resource scarcity flourished both in Sweden and internationally. The reasons why actors feared the future supply were largely connected to price increases, potential supply disruptions because of war or political instability, and soaring demand for technologies containing metals. Even Sweden, a neutral country, feared shortages because of political instability in foreign countries because of the transnational metal flows. The actors attempted to manage shortages by increased domestic production, technological development, stockpiling, international agreements and recycling. Tracing this issue over time, the article unpacks the importance of and concerns with metal flows in an age of rapid industrial, technological and geopolitical change.
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| 8. |
- Vikström, Hanna, 1985-, et al.
(author)
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Swedish Steel and Global Resource Colonialism : Sandviken's Quest for Turkish Chromium, 1925-1950
- 2017
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In: Scandinavian Economic History Review. - : Routledge. - 0358-5522 .- 1750-2837. ; 65:3, s. 307-325
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article analyses Swedish industry’s attempts to secure strategic raw materials in an era of global resource colonialism. More precisely, it tells the story of how Sandvikens Jernverk – a leading Swedish steel producer – set out to secure its need for chromium ore during the Interwar Era. Up to the late 1920s, Sandviken sourced its chromium from British and French colonies. However, the company feared the British Empire’s growing dominance in the global chromium ore market. In 1928, then, Sandviken joined forces with several other Swedish steel producers, forming a consortium that, with ample help from Swedish foreign policy actors, managed to establish an independent source of chromium ore in Turkey. This project, however, which took the form of an Istanbul-based mining company, made big losses and was abandoned after only a few years. The project failed because of changes in the world chromium market, the global economic crisis, conflicts with the company’s Turkey-based managing director and the Swedish reluctance to scale up mining in such a way that the chromium ore might compete with Rhodesian, New Caledonian and Baluchistani ore.
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| 10. |
- Vikström, Hanna, 1985-
(author)
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The Specter of Scarcity : Experiencing and Coping with Metal Shortages, 1870-2015
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In spite of an ever-growing supply of metals, actors have long feared metal shortages. This thesis – departing from an understanding that metals scarcity is not an objective geological fact, but an experience, a fear of a shortage – explores why business and state actors have experienced metals as scarce and how they coped with scarcity from 1870 to 2015.The underlying reasons for scarcity experiences originated in high prices, a lack of substitutes, domestic unavailability, limited infrastructure and increased demand. In the view of businesses and the state, a shortage of metals could hinder successful industrialization. Defining metals as scarce was a first step in their attempts to ensure access through exploration, recycling, substitution, and trade agreements.This dissertation presents five case studies which provide insights into three selected aspects of metals scarcity that have been overlooked in previous studies. First, while small countries experienced and coped with metals scarcity in a similar way to large nations, they were more vulnerable because of their dependence on transnational flows controlled by larger countries. Yet if they remained neutral in international conflicts, they could enjoy other opportunities to import resources than their larger rivals. Second, industries experienced metals scarcity before World War I; with the onset of the Second Industrial Revolution, at the very latest, new technologies were often dependent on metals which had never before been used commercially – there were not yet any extraction systems in place. However, once these metals began to circulate, state actors became aware of the international traffic and began to classify certain metals as critical. Thirdly, technological change has affected – and been affected by – metals scarcity. If a metal was scarce, manufacturers were likely to embark on a different path to production. Inversely, sometimes new technologies were able to alleviate perceptions of scarcity.
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