| 1. |
- Fjæstad, Maja, 1976-
(författare)
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Visionen om outtömlig energi : Bridreaktorn i svensk kärnkraftshistoria 1945–80
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The fast breeder is a type of nuclear reactor that aroused much attention in the 1950s and 60s. Its ability to produce more nuclear fuel than it consumes offered promises of cheap and reliable energy, and thereby connected it to utopian ideas about an eternal supply of energy. Furthermore, the ideas of breeder reactors were a vital part of the post-war visions about the nuclear future. This dissertation investigates the plans for breeder reactors in Sweden, connecting them to the contemporary development of nuclear power with heavy or light water and the discussions of nuclear weapons, as well as to the general visions of a prosperous technological future. The history of the Swedish breeder reactor is traced from high hopes in the beginning, via the fiasco of the Swedish heavy water program, partly focusing on the activities at the company AB Atomenergi and investigating how it planned and argued for its breeder program and how this was received by the politicians. The story continues into the intensive environmental movement in the 1970s, ending with the Swedish referendum on nuclear energy in 1980, which can be seen as the final point for the Swedish breeder. The thesis discusses how the nuclear breeder reactor was transformed from an argument for nuclear power to an argument against it. The breeder began as a part of the vision of a society with abundant energy, but was later seen as a threat against the new sustainable world. The nuclear breeder reactor is an example of a technological vision that did not meet its industrial expectations. But that does not prevent the fact that breeder was an influential technology in an age where import decisions about nuclear energy were made. The thesis argues that important decisions about the contemporary reactors were taken with the idea that they in a foreseeable future would be replaced with the efficient breeder. And the last word on the breeder reactor is not said – today, reactor engineers around the world are showing a renewed interest in this elusive reactor type.
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| 2. |
- Rodéhn, Cecilia, 1977-
(författare)
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Lost in Transformation : A critical study of two South African museums
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation Transformation, as understood in South Africa, is investigated in the ‘Natal Museum’ and the ‘Msunduzi Museum Incorporating the Voortrekker Complex’ in terms of socio-political structures, the museum as a place, its collections and displays. I have emphasised the ethnographical perspective and analysed it by using key concepts such as new museology, time, space and place. My research focuses on the perception and mediation by museum staff-members of Transformation which is compared and positioned against South African and international museological theoretical discourses. I further explore the political backdrop to Transformation of South African museums and discuss related problems and aspects such as reconciliation, nation-building and the African Renaissance. Socio-political structures, acts, reports and policy documents are analysed over a long temporal sequence, but focus on the period 1980-2007. The long temporal sequence is a tool to capture the development connected to the museums in space and time and aims to compare and present previous developments in order to investigate how Transformation positioned itself as against the past. I hold that Transformation should be treated as an ongoing process connected to other transformation processes across time. I also propose that Transformation started earlier than previously suggested and that it is not a question of one Transformation but of many transformation processes. The urban landscape and the concept of place and name are explored. My research examines the urban landscape from the establishment of Pietermaritzburg to study how the museums were positioned in the landscape and how this has contributed to associated meanings. The museums are treated as demarcated places in the urban landscape which are named and infused with meaning and ownership. The museums are constituted and acted out within specific socio-political structures. The dissertation suggests that the objectives of Transformation reveal themselves through negotiation and alteration of place and name. My research explores the history of the museum collections – how objects were acquired, classified and used to materialise the museums´ institutionalisation of time and what this brought about for heritage production. I investigate what did and did not change when the museums transformed and I deconstruct the new and old objectives and socio-political ideas of collections. I analyse displays as socio-political spaces, the agent’s appropriation, and the discrepancies within dominant socio-political structures. When Transformation materialises in displays it becomes visible for the public to see. The negotiated displays show how the museum tries to visualise Transformation to the public. The discussion analyses the discussed concepts of Transformation, the structures, place, name, display and collection, and relates these to the concept of time, and to how agents create time and make it visual. I also discuss how museological writing and political speeches shape and negotiate Transformation through their articulation and how they sometimes constrain and form discrepancies to actual reality.
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| 3. |
- Axelsson, Erik
(författare)
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Historien i politiken : Historieanvändning i norsk och svensk EU-debatt 1990-1994
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation the use of history in public debate in Norway and Sweden in relation to membership in the European Union (EU) 1990–1994 is examined. The purpose is to contribute with new knowledge about the relationship between politics and writing history, as well as describe the role of history in national and other identities. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. Historical narratives are re-constructed from the history used by the political figures when they argued for or against EU membership. The narratives relate to the political subjects which were in the limelight in connection with the question of EU, as well as preconceptions about Norwegian, Swedish and European identity. The dissertation shows that history is a multifaceted rhetorical tool in the political debate. In Sweden it was the policy of national security which was debated from a historical perspective. In it the debaters also used several examples from European history. In Norway, history entered the debate in connection with issues relating to sovereignty and democracy. In comparison with the Swedish EU debate, European history was drawn on less in Norway. Historical narratives of identity appearing in the EU debate show structural similarities, but at the same time differ in significant aspects. In a comparison the Norwegian national narrative seems unequivocal and well defined. It is retrospective due to its main component being the development of democracy in 19th century Norway. The Swedish national narrative is very clearly based on a notion of progress and continuous development, both as regards economy and democracy, and it is the history of the 20th century which stands in focus. In Sweden the constructions of the past separated according to party political lines, and the content of the national narrative was very much subject to debate.
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| 4. |
- Hjertman, Martina
(författare)
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Afloat and Aflame. Deconstructing the Long 19th century Port City Gothenburg through Newspaper Archaeology
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In line with the international historical-archaeological discipline, this study aims to increase knowledge of marginalising processes and disenfranchised groups in the past and to contribute to the recognised Swedish need to augment the know-how of researching people ‘of little note’ in urban environments. The study aspires a theoretically engaged empirical alternative for developing new knowledge about urban places which are not possible to excavate or where archaeological data is insufficient, while evincing how digitized historical newspapers can step in as a multifaceted historical- archaeological source. By merging historical archaeology with digital history, the study has fashioned a newspaper archaeology, encompassing text-cavation and critical discourse analysis, and applied it to the empirical case, and fringe settlements of the port city Gothenburg, through local newspapers during the long 19th century. The suburbs have been hot topics discussed in, and by newspapers, and furthermore floating (signifiers), variously charged with meaning dependent on situation, correspondent, and text genre. By employing the concept of worldmaking, the study has recognised how inclusion and exclusion of people and spaces through text, encompasses international images, local events, notions of space and architecture, as well as actors − including newspapers and newspaper genres. The concepts of counter-voice and counter-narrative have acknowledged opposing perspectives which have shed light on inequal societal structures and grand narratives and displayed how people ‘of little note’ already from the late 1700s, took part in and reacted to what was printed, and negotiated values. Of the empirical chapters, chapter 6 demonstrates how the name Majorna was geographically floating, but the debate from the 1840s about the suburb Majorna’s integration with the city, anchored the name to a designated space, as well as ushered in a new sense of identity and attempts to fill this location with social meaning. Chapter 7 shows how from around the 1830s, newspaper genres and engaged citizens created in-groups and out-groups through the broadcasting of a mix of internationally spread notions of mariners and workers and bourgeois ideals, and how the space of the port district Majorna from the 1840s, intensifying from the 1860s, was intimately associated with deviant behaviour. Chapter 8 establishes how print representations of urban fires in the fringe had their own worldmaking effects on the creation of communities that bridged geographical and social borders and widened the urban landscape. Chapter 9 evinces how the genre of urban travelogues created othering and typecast representations of the suburb’s built environment and populace, by using internationally known tropes, sensual qualities, semiophores, characters, and narrative techniques, but also was complex and played a less-known role in upholding an informal donation culture. Newspapers as source may carry the only remaining information on erased landscapes, materialities, and social practices and newspaper archaeology can present us with voices from those ‘of little note’ and lesser means. The study demonstrates how newspapers are worldmakers and vehicles in the making of social and spatial inclusion and exclusion, with possibilities of steering debates and halting or accelerating urban change. Consequently, newspapers are not only a pertinent historical-archaeological source, but also affected the very society we study through the newspapers’ contents.
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| 5. |
- Ludvigsson, David
(författare)
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The Historian-Filmmaker's Dilemma : Historical Documentaries in Sweden in the Era of Häger and Villius
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation investigates how history is used in historical documentary films, and argues that the maker of such films constantly negotiates between cognitive, moral, and aesthetic demands. In support of this contention is discussed a number of historical documentaries by Swedish historian-filmmakers Olle Häger and Hans Villius. Other historical documentaries supply additional examples. The analyses take into account both the production process and the representations themselves. The history culture and the social field of history production together form the conceptual framework for the study, and one of the aims is to analyse the role of professional historians in public life. The analyses show that different considerations compete and work together in the case of all documentaries, and figure at all stages of pre-production, production, and post-production. But different considerations have particular influence at different stages in the production process and thus they are more or less important depending on where in the process the producer puts his emphasis on them. In the public service television setting, the tendency to make cognitive considerations is strong. For example, historical documentarists often engage historians as advisors, and work long and hard interpreting visual source materials such as photographs. The Häger and Villius case also indicates that the influence exerted on programmes by aesthetic considerations grows as the filmmaker learns about the medium. Among general conclusions are that it is not always important that the producer be a trained historian. What is crucial is that whoever is to succeed in making fine historical programmes must learn both history and filmmaking, must learn to balance the demands of content and form. Previously, researchers have suggested that historical documentaries function as entertainment, orientation, and restoration; this study adds the functions of interpretation and legitimisation. Finally, the study submits that typically historical documentaries attempt to convey cognitive and moral insights about the past.
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| 6. |
- Åkerlund, Andreas, 1977-
(författare)
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Mellan akademi och kulturpolitik : Lektorat i svenska språket vid tyska universitet 1906–1945
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to analyze the establishment and development of lectureships in the Swedish language in German universities during the first half of the 20th century. Building on earlier research about the role of language teaching abroad for public diplomacy, the study sees the lecturer as a part of both the the academic and political fields in Germany and Sweden. The establishment of and changes in the system of lectureships in Swedish 1906–1945 are explained through an analysis of the actors involved and of the assets allowing the actors to control both the establishment of lectureships and the appointment of lecturers in Germany.During the Weimar Republic a number of actors were involved in the establishment of the lectureships. They included academics with a scholarly interest in Scandinavian languages and old Norse,, the German state, which worked to promote the study of foreign countries and international academic mobility as a way of breaking German isolation after World War I, and the Swedish organization for the preservation of Swedishness abroad for which the teaching of Swedish abroad was a way of increasing the academic status of the language. After the National Socialist takeover in 1933 the NSDAP and the Swedish foreign ministry also took an interest in the Swedish lectureships in Germany for propaganda purposes.The dissertation shows how a system for the appointment of Swedish lecturers to Germany was established through interaction between the actors. Central in this process were the control over economic assets, a social network which made recommendations of lecturers possible, and the control over communication between both the lecturers and universites and between the German and Swedish states. The study also shows that the uneven distribution of assets between German and Swedish actors resulted in an inferior position for the German state and organizations in relationship to their Swedish counterparts.
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| 7. |
- Kjellberg, Joakim, 1976-
(författare)
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Den medeltida stadens dynamik : – urbanitet, sociala praktiker och materiell kultur i Uppsala 1100–1550
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen utforskar arkeologiska källor till sociala praktiker och materiell kultur i det medeltida Uppsala. Ett stort antal föremål som insamlats vid tio av stadens större undersökningar mellan 1975 och 2000 har bearbetats i avhandlingen. Fyndmaterialet ger nya ingångar till förändringar i det urbana rummet och till invånarnas skiftande sociala identiteter. Den materiellakulturen ligger även till grund för en vidare diskussion om centralabegrepp och problem inom historisk arkeologi och stadsarkeologi.Genom ett föreslaget föremålsintegrerat och handlingsteoretiskt perspektivpå urbanisering, urbanism och urbanitet kan via den metod som presenterasi avhandlingen både nya och äldre undersökningsmaterial aktiveras. Därigenom kan också ett mer dynamiskt stadsarkeologiskt narrativ skapas om de medeltida städerna som särskilda rum, mötesplatser och livsmiljöer.
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| 8. |
- Karlsson, Martin, 1977-
(författare)
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Att projicera det förflutna : Historiebruk och historieförmedling i svensk skolfilm 1970–2000 utifrån de regionala AV-centralernas utbud
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Karlsson, Martin; Att projicera det förflutna. Historiebruk och historieförmedling i svensk skolfilm 1970–2000 utifrån de regionala AV-centralernas utbud [Projecting the past: Use and mediation of history in Swedish educational films 1970-2000] Department of Humanities, Mid Sweden University, SE-871 88 Härnösand, SwedenISBN 978-91-974902-8-8Swedish text with a summary in English This dissertation analyses a significant element of Swedish historical culture, namely how history was used, communicated and (re)constructed in films with historical themes, available to Swedish schools from 1970 to 2000. Another important purpose is to analyze the debate among teachers and educators that preceded the large scale use of film in Swedish schools in the 1970s that followed the establishment of the large regional audio-visual centers (Läns AV-centraler). The main material for this thesis consists of historical films of Swedish film centers, tasked with supplying schools with educational films, the majority of which are educational or documentary films. At this time these film centers, in particular the larger regional ones, were the main legitimate suppliers of educational films to Swedish schools, which make these films vital to study, considering their potential impact on Swedish school pupils as well as their role in historical culture in general. How history is depicted in these films is also contrasted against the in which teachers and educators envisaged that films would be used in schools before the establishment of the large regional film centers in the 1970s. How these visions of the potential of the medium contrast with actuality, here represented by how history is portrayed in the analyzed historical films, constitutes an important part of the study. On a theoretical level, I regard these educational films as products (or artifacts) of a historical culture that should be viewed as related to various institutional and societal frameworks or contexts, including the way in which history is used and communicated for various individual and societal purposes. The main focus of this dissertation is centered on four different themes or areas, namely the Holocaust, the Roman Empire, the Industrial Revolution (and, to a lesser extent, industrialization and modern industrialized society in general) and the portrayal of the early modern Swedish King (and national father figure) Gustavus Vasa. The shifting portrayal of these subjects during the 30-year-period is analyzed in detail and contrasted against the portrayal of history in the analyzed educational films as a whole during the time period in question. This qualitative analysis is complemented by a quantitative overview of the material, primarily focusing on what themes, time periods and geographical areas that are emphasized (or deemphasized) in the material as a whole. One important conclusion is that the portrayal of the past shifts from a seemingly objective one that focuses on large societal structures and movements to a more ideologically colored depiction, to a great extent is centered on individuals. The type of historical films available to teachers goes through a substantial change during the examined time period. For the first twenty years, almost all the examined films are produced with an expressly educational intent, but during the final decade of the 20th century however, an increasing number of films, originally produced for other purposes, such as television, become available from the regional film centers.Another important conclusion is thus that historical culture and historical artifacts cannot necessarily be understood and analyzed merely in a narrow chronological perspective that does not take into account that old artifacts may live on in a historical culture well beyond the year they were produced. Organizations that mediate history may function as agents of change (by introducing or distributing new artifacts of historical culture) while simultaneously encouraging stability and continuity concerning how history is conveyed in the long term. Keywords: Historical culture, uses of history, history and film, history didactics, historical consciousness, 1970–2000, history and media, the Holocaust, the Industrial revolution, educational history.
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| 9. |
- Ekerholm, Helena, 1981-
(författare)
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Bränsle för den moderna nationen : Etanol och gengas i Sverige under mellankrigstiden och andra världskriget
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigate Swedish policy-making concerning promotion of wood gas and ethanol distilled from fermented sulphite lye as domestic fuel alternatives in the Interwar years and World War II. With a departure point in the theories of social constructions of technology (SCOT), the sociology of expectations and Thomas P. Hughe’s socio-technical systems I analyse the measures that were undertaken in these efforts, the arguments put forward for and against the ethanol and wood gas projects and how the efforts turned out. I also investigate how the interpretations of ethanol and wood gas as fuel alternatives changed from the Interwar period on through World War II and what consequences this had for ethanol and wood gas policy immediately after World War II. Source material includes Parliament and Government records, cabinet meeting files, governmental commissions, authority archives, technical evaluations and handbooks and scientific medical publications.Ethanol and wood gas were promoted from a nationalist vantage point. The Interwar debate was imbued with visions of national techno-scientific prowess in a perceived ongoing global contest for technological and scientific advancement, of which achieving autarky, self-sufficiency on important raw materials and industrial products, was an ideal for some. Ethanol and wood gas were also promoted as means for creating a lucrative new market for the forestry industry, which also held a prominent position in nationalist visions of technology. Expectations of a new war also motivated the promotion of ethanol and wood gas as national fuels. Measures for promotion included tax exemptions, sales guarantees and legislation for mandatory ethanol purchase for all petrol importing companies and gasifier loan funds. Political conflicts mainly centred around the principles of free trade as opposed to protectionism, proper use of tax funds and whether the potentials of the fuel alternatives were rhetorically exaggerated. During World War II ethanol and wood gas in particular served as important petrol surrogates. The increased wood gas use led to negative interpretations of wood gas a fuel alternative due to its hazardous, dirty and time-consuming maintenance and the changed driving behaviour it required from its users compared to petrol or ethanol fuelled automobiles. Compared to wood gas, ethanol was appreciated for its socio-technical similarities to petrol, but production was after the war deemed difficult to maintain during wartime. Whereas wood gas remained an important stand-by surrogate during the cold war, Swedish politicians lost interest in ethanol of the kind that was promoted in the Interwar years.
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| 10. |
- Ekblom, Anneli, 1969-
(författare)
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Changing Landscapes : An Environmental History of Chibuene, Southern Mozambique
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyses the dynamics of environmental change and its embeddedness in the long term interactions of social history and rainfall variability through the building of an environmental history of the Chibuene locality, the coastal plain of southern Mozambique, 5 km south of the town Vilanculos, from 400 AD to present day. Land-use practices over time are discussed on the basis of vegetation and land-use history based pollen analysis, charcoal influx and diatom analysis. It is shown that the savanna vegetation is a long term feature of the Chibuene landscapes and that there have been several expansions of savannas and subsequent retractions of forests through time, linked primarily with rainfall variation. Written sources and archaeological material are drawn upon for a discussion on changing practices of environmental management and it is argued that as the Chibuene landscape is marked by a high degree of environmental insecurity, it is the competent management of resources that has enabled the continuous occupation of Chibuene from c. the 7th century AD, through management of natural resources, flexible farming practices and wide reaching social networks. The last two decades have seen a marked change in land-use patterns, reflected in a decrease in forests of the Chibuene area, the reasons for which are complex and needs to be further studied. Interviews with individual elders in the village community provide alternative ways of understanding environmental degradation as merely the loss of disappearance of forests, or the failure of crops due to droughts, but also as the erosion of local power, wars and social unrest. In a similar way, through a long-term perspective this study stresses that socio-political life, climatic variability and environmental dynamics are interlinked, highlighting the importance of the complimentarity of different forms of knowledge and ways of knowing the Chibuene landscape.
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