| 1. |
- Alm, Martin
(författare)
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Americanitis : Amerika som sjukdom eller läkemedel : Svenska berättelser om USA åren 1900-1939
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to study Swedish notions of the USA and of things American and through them the Swedish self-image and the ideas about the Swedish future as seen in public debate in the period c. 1900-1939, when the USA was the subject of a good deal of discussion as an up-and-coming nation of great importance but was not yet recognized as an indisputable super power. It tries to demonstrate how notions of America were given meaning by inclusion in narratives that described, and often prescribed, what the American and the Swedish development would look like. Using these narratives, different debaters tried to find a form for a Swedish modernization and to formulate a Swedish national identity in a time of change. At the same time, the differing narratives all to some extent drew on a basic narrative of the relationship between things American and things Swedish, where that which was considered American was generally associated with a future that was identified with tendencies to an increased degree of equality and individualism and with technological advancement. Three empirical studies have been undertaken: one study of the great Swedish debate on the emigration to the USA in the beginning of the 20th century; one study of Swedish conceptions of the American economic system and of American technology and working methods in the interwar period; and one study of Swedish views of American culture and values and their influence on Sweden, also in the interwar period. Travel books, articles in periodicals, weeklies and newspapers, pamphlets, novels and parliamentary debates have been utilized as source material. Several narratives of a Swedish modernization have been discerned in the material. Common to most of them is an endeavour to find a formula for a renewal of society under orderly conditions, for a controlled modernization. Questions concerning the national self-image and modernization were often linked to conceptions of the relationship between what was thought to be American and what was thought to be Swedish. A great debate on these issues was going on for the entire period that has been studied here.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Irene
(författare)
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Kvinnor mot krig : aktioner och nätverk för fred 1914–1940
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how and why women established peace actions during World War I and the period between the wars. I have examined how women were mobilized, how the actions were carried out, what kind of opposition was awakened, and what happened afterwards. My startingpoint is collective actions based on individual standpoints and temporary mobilizations. Organizations are included only as recruiting networks for mobilizations. The following actions are included in the study: Women´s Peace Sunday (1915), which gathered about 88,000 women to meetings in 343 locations across Sweden; Women´s unarmed revolt against war (1935), where approximately 20,000 women participated in protests against a possible chemical war and a system of war that needed a civil defence at all; and lastly, the new action plans in 1937 and 1938 in connection with civil defence laws and the rallies in 1939 and 1940 at the outbreak of World War II. As policies of peace, these actions were not unique for their times. The manner in which they were formulated was not special, but their content was. The mobilizing message, which can be described as feministic anti-militarism, was based on the civil rights of women, the political and military isolation of women, mother´s right to say no to violence, and the support of an international female public opinion.
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| 3. |
- Bergenlöv, Eva
(författare)
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Skuld och oskuld : barnamord och barnkvävning i rättslig diskurs och praxis omkring 1680–1800
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The objective of this thesis is to analyse how judicial texts concerning guilty and innocent mothers were constructed during the period of c. 1680-1800. The two crimes of infanticide and overlaying have been examined. Source materials have primarily consisted of proceedings from the appeals court, courts of first instance, and parish meetings. The aim has been to survey the judicial discourse, that is to say the background ways of reasoning,values and moral outlook, which, alongside the law, governed the construction of portrayals regarding guilt and innocence. Sweden in the early-modern period can be characterised as a religious culture. Religion was interwoven with, and had fundamental significance for societal morality, norms, values and legislation. The institution of marriage had been bestowed with increased status following the Reformation and represented the foundation of societal order. Morality was rigorously controlled during the era of Lutheran orthodoxy and sexual offences severely punished. In my analysis of constructions of guilt and innocence, two contradictory images emerge - one an ideal, corresponding to the female optimum, or norm of the good, Christian motherhood, and the other its antithesis. The ideal character corresponded to the innocent infant overlayer; her antithesis to the beyond-all-doubt guilty child murderess. It should be added that in practice these images often were more composite and complex. During the 1700s the spheres of maternity care (obstetrics), child care (paediatrics) and, not least, post-mortem examinations were professionalized. The science of forensic medicine developed and gained influence in the judicial discourse, primarily in connection with infanticide. Alongside this transformation a masculinisation took place. Science was a male field, and those women who had earlier been responsible for child-birth assistance and examining the dead became marginalized. The gender aspect is very clear in this study. Society was patriarchal and women held a subordinate, inequitable position. Laws concerning infanticide and overlaying affected female criminals exclusively. Legislation, investigation and the administration of justice surrounding these crimes were a male sphere, while the accused were, in principle, women alone. I have ascertained that the value of a child, and that of life itself, which was based upon Christian ethics and morality, was fairly constant during a very long period of time. During the latter part of the 1700s, however, a change took place in the judicial discourse, whereby the child's value was expressed with more clarity. I interpret this as a consequence of utilitarian thinking and mercantilistic population politics, in co-operation with medico-scientific developments. The judicial rhetoric relating to infanticide was directed by a discourse characterised by the demand for publicization of pregnancy, as well as birth and death, good Christian motherhood, and the principle that children should be conceived within the marriage structure.
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| 4. |
- Bergman, Karl
(författare)
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Makt, möten, gränser : skånska kommissionen i Blekinge 1669–70
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The object of this thesis is to examine the incorporation of the former Danish province of Blekinge into Sweden after the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. This question has been analysed before but such studies have usually been coloured by the use of national ideas and notions born of a later age than the period under examination. This thesis analyses the so-called Transition Problem using theoretical models and ideas taken from the state formation debate which stresses such concepts as the conglomerate state, centralisation, homogeneity and a striving towards professional administration. The main sources are the archives of a Swedish Royal Commission, the Skånska Kommissionen, 1669-70. This material has made it possible to analyse how the inhabitants of Blekinge regarded their new rulers. In this context questions of identity are also discussed. A description of the interaction of authorities and subjects is central to the thesis and forms the basis of a discussion of integration. An analysis of the tenets of Lutheran Christianity has been deemed of great importance as these norms and values made possible a fruitful meeting between the groups involved. The thesis stresses the role of the inhabitants in the process of integration but also looks at the activities of Royal commissions and seeks to analyse their meetings with the citizens of the realm. A special chapter examines Blekinge's role in, and relationship to, the kingdom of Denmark in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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| 5. |
- Fagerlund, Solveig
(författare)
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Handel och vandel : vardagslivets sociala struktur ur ett kvinnoperspektiv : Helsingborg ca 1680–1709
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation deals with the social structure of ordinary life in an early modern Swedish town as seen from the perspective of women. The questions which are dealt with are: What kinds of social relations, in addition to those inside the family, were women in an early modern town involved in? How did these differ from the relations men were involved in and how did they differ with regards to the woman's social standing? To what extent did a woman's social relations change as a result of her civil status? What other factors could influence a woman's standing in the network of social relations upon which she was dependent, or influence the kind of network she tried to build? The focus of this study is centred on women from the craftsman guild as well as those located lower on the social scale. In order to discover both the differences related to social status as well as the differences related to gender, I have also included women from the upper classes in the analysis. With court records and church records as main sources, a quantitative network analysis has been applied to examine the participation of men and women from different classes in three different kinds of relations: the ritualised social ties between parents and godparents, economic ties such as trade and credit, and finally, conflict-filled relations as reflected by violent actions and defamation of character. The way that these different kinds of relations were connected to each other has also been taken into consideration. Through a more qualitative analysis of the social networks of a few individuals, it has been possible to shed some light on the function of the networks and how they changed over time. The meaning of honour from a gender perspective and women's social roles is also analysed.
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| 6. |
- Lerbom, Jens
(författare)
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Mellan två riken : Integration, politisk kultur och förnationella identiteter på Gotland 1500–1700
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Under the peace treaty of Brömsebro in 1645 the largest island of the Baltic Sea, Gotland, became a part of the Swedish Kingdom. Until then it had been under Danish control, and since the late fifteenth century the Danish authorities had pursued the economic, judicial, administra-tive and ecclesiastical incorporation of the island. This policy was continued, and its scope wide-ned, by the Swedish state after 1645 Both Danish and Swedish approaches to incorporation involved bureaucratization, including the regulation of the local administration, and the legal and tax systems, combined with a more professional corps of state servants. Written documents were increasingly used as an instrument of control. The main purpose of this dissertation is to study the process of incorporating Gotland viewed from ’below’. Central are the Gotland peasants’ own thoughts and patterns of political behaviour during a time of transition.
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| 7. |
- Lindberg, Anna
(författare)
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Experience and Identity : A Historical Account of Class, Caste, and Gender among the Cashew Workers of Kerala, 1930–2000
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the 1930s female cashew workers have constituted a majority of the registered workers in the South Indian State of Kerala and today number some 200,000. This group challenged the stereotypical view of Third World women because they were organized into unions, worked in the formal sector, and were literate. The background for this thesis has been the ?Kerala Model?, i.e., the political context of a state known for its radicalism, redistribution of resources, and high social indicators for citizens (men as well as women). How did the encounter of women of different castes at the cashew factory take place? How was the factory work structured with regard to gender and caste? How did membership in unions shape women's view of their own lives? How have marriage and motherhood influenced their identities? Why did females suffer more pronounced capitalist exploitation than males? At a theoretical level this interdisciplinary study engages in a dialogue with Marxist, Subaltern, postmodern, and feminist scholars. In the analysis, change and continuity have been considered not only with regard to material ?realities?, but also in terms of discourses and ideologies. Among the main themes traced over the period 1930-2000 are the organization of work in the factories, wages, trade unions, and marriage; and how elements in these spheres have interacted in the formation of identities based on class, caste, and gender. The limitations imposed upon female laborers by poverty and extremely unequal power relations between capital and labor alone cannot adequately account for the discriminatory treatment of female workers over males. Neither can women's lack of class-consciousness serve as a justification. The story of the Kerala cashew workers chronicles not only shameless, brutal capitalist exploitation, but also demonstrates that we have to go beyond economic structures to explain oppression and lack of empowerment: cultural and ideological factors must be incorporated in the analysis. Low-caste female workers have gone through a process of effeminization which has acted to curb their class-identity and limit their scope of action. The historical development traced shows a widening gap between femininity and masculinity, with a more dichotomized gender ideology visible among low-caste cashew workers. While it does not mean to imply a deterioration of living conditions for women, it should not be taken as idealizing a better and more gender-equal past; rather, it seeks to highlight the complexity of historical analysis. The thesis has striven to show that, once one takes a gender perspective, a polarization such as ?traditional? or ?modern? is seen as flawed. Capitalist forces were active in spreading a patriarchal, high-caste gender ideology among lower castes, who were seen to ?modernize? their gender relations by introducing male breadwinners and dependent housewives as the ideal. Union leaders themselves ?modernized? gender relations by supporting an internationally-acknowledged wage system which was institutionalized by the minimum wages committees in 1953 and 1959. This study shows that the radicalism of males turned to be built upon women's maintaining of the families-a reality which strongly contradicts hegemonic gender discourses and confuses gender identities.
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| 8. |
- Linderoth, Andreas
(författare)
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Kampen för erkännande : DDR:s utrikespolitik gentemot Sverige 1949–1972
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the early 1950’s the foreign policy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) towards Sweden and the other Western European states was dominated by a striving for diplomatic recognition. This thesis examines that striving through an analysis of the East German-Swedish relations from 1949 until 1972. The main focus is on the years 1954-1972. The thesis draws mainly on East German archival material from the ruling communist party SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) and the GDR foreign ministry. A starting point of the thesis is that GDR generally used all its contacts abroad to further its foreign political goals. GDR’s efforts to develop the relations with Sweden on seven different areas are investigated. An important aim is to analyse GDR’s political utilisation of areas, such as culture and traffic, that normally are not considered political or studied by traditional political history. The application of the concept of public diplomacy is central in this context. The analysis of the Ostseewoche (Baltic Week) is a significant part of the investigation of areas that traditionally not are considered as being part of foreign policy. The Osteewoche was a week filled with cultural activities and sport. The analysis of the inaugural ceremony and other activities of the Ostseewoche shows that even official East German ceremonies were used for purposes of foreign policy. However, GDR’s relations with Sweden on the normal foreign policy arenas such as diplomacy and economy are also analysed. Great weight is given to analysing the perceptions of the political elite and the foreign policy actors to understand why certain actions were taken and why certain elements were significant of the GDR foreign policy. The question of which political instruments were the most important to the East German efforts to improve the relations with Sweden is also investigated. An important result of the thesis is that GDR had a comprehensive strategy for the development of the relations with Sweden. The main elements of this strategy were in place 1958 and did largely not change since. The spreading of a positive GDR-image was a very significant element of the East German foreign policy. Sweden was one of the most important Western European countries to the GDR foreign policy during this period of time.
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| 9. |
- Persson, Bodil
(författare)
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Pestens gåta : farsoter i det tidiga 1700-talets Skåne
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study deals with Sweden’s last outbreak of the plague with focus on Skåne, where the epidemic raged for three years - from late autumn 1710 to late autumn 1713. This was a time of war, crop failures as well as other simultaneously occurring epidemics. The outline of this study can be summarised with the following points: This is the first regional analysis of plague in Skåne. All preserved burial records from the area have been systematically examined, not only for the plague years, but also for a number of years before and after (1704-1718). They have then been compared with different narrative sources – primarily correspondence within the local secular and ecclesiastical administrations as well as reports of the proceedings from district-court sessions and town courts. The occurrence and behaviour of the plague is compared with other simultaneous epidemics. The entire spectrum of disease for the period is included in the analysis, as far as the sources allow. Modern knowledge of epidemiology, medicine and medical history has been utilised in the analysis, not only in analysing diagnoses of the plague but also the other relevant diagnoses. This knowledge has been kept separate from what people knew then and how the initial stages of a plague epidemic were diagnosed. The investigation also includes an analysis of the transmission of the disease on a local level in two plague-infected parishes. In these parishes, the sources make possible a reconstruction of the relationship between individuals and households in the infected villages, as well as of the daily course of the epidemic. This reconstruction constitutes the basis for a discussion about the transmission of the plague within villages and families from an ecological perspective. What cultural customs made societies vulnerable to the plague? What kind of fleas and what rodents are likely to have been involved?
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| 10. |
- Reuterswärd, Elisabeth
(författare)
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Ett massmedium för folket : studier i de allmänna kungörelsernas funktion i 1700-talets samhälle
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As from 1686 it was decreed by law that all government regulations, orders, edicts and other information any government official wanted to make public, had to be read out to the people by the clergy from the pulpits of all churches in Sweden and Finland at the end of the sermon. The system of communication remained in full force until the end of the 19th century and was not finally abandoned until 1942. I have treated all such announcements as a type of mass media and the method by which they were transmitted to the public as a process of mass communication. It had been developed to serve the government, which needed efficient channels of communication for its commands and regulations. The public announcements were also used for propaganda purposes and to instil a sense of national unity and confidence in the king and his government. The general public also made use of the communication system and fiercely defended it when the clergy wanted to abolish it as from the beginning of the 19th century. Swedish landowning peasants had the right to influence many decisions at regional and local levels. Through the public announcements they gained information about dates and places where such negotiations were to take place. Auction sales, information about things lost and found, about missing persons, criminals at large, advice on how to cure or prevent diseases, new methods in farming etc were also announced from the pulpits. An important result is that the Swedish rural population received much more information about the government at central and local levels than has until now been known. All the decisions that the Swedish parliament (Riksdag) had reached were publicly announced, as were all the public complaints (allmänna besvär) from all parts of Sweden and Finland. Another result is that the number of announcements issued at regional and local level far exceeded those issued by the King in Council. The importance of the provincial governor becomes clear. The system for mass communication has been examined in its various historical contexts. It was first established during a period when the majority of the population lived in a society which was predominantly oral, while the government, the town dwellers and the élite were increasingly literate. These conditions lasted during a long transition period. When the whole of society had become literate the communication between government and subjects also changed in character. Modern massmedia took over some of the functions of the old system. Others became obsolete through changes in administrative practice. Paid government servants did the work that every citizen previously was expected to carry out within many public sectors such as transport, repairing roads, equipping soldiers etc.
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