| 1. |
- Jakobsson, Håkan, 1977-
(författare)
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Dutch experts in the early modern Swedish state : Employment strategies and knowledge building, 1560–1670
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation investigates the role played by Dutch experts in various enterprises and organisations managed or administered by the early modern Swedish state. The work demonstrates how and why Dutch experts were introduced to Sweden, in what manner they were employed by the Swedish state and how their knowledge was utilised in state-controlled organisations. The overall results challenge the impression of an uncomplicated introduction, steered by the state. Instead, the research suggests that the development was multifaceted, where the role and function of state structures, international politics, networks, as well as concepts, including opportunism and pragmatism all played a part in the process which led to the employment of Dutch experts and use of Dutch knowledge. Underlying analytical tools used to demonstrate this include concepts such as collective knowledge, institutional memory, change agents, as well as strategies to minimise uncertainties and knowledge asymmetries in the recruitment process. The investigation consists of four empirical chapters. The first chapter focuses on some of the key Dutch individuals who settled in Sweden during the second half of the sixteenth century. It shows why a Dutch settlement took place, but also how a specific interest in Dutch trade expertise was developed by the Swedish political leadership. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how Dutch expertise was utilised to develop advanced long-distance trade. The second chapter follows the use of Dutch experts in the naval shipbuilding organisation in the first half of the seventeenth century. It shows how an almost complete reliance on Dutch experts and technical knowledge was established during this period. The chapter details how the Dutch introduction and utilisation evolved, when the naval organisation changed from being single-handedly steered by the king, to a situation where it was administered by an independent Admiralty Board. The third chapter investigates the use of Dutch experts in the foreign administration as well as in the administration and management of trade and commercial undertakings. It details how agents and diplomatic networks facilitated exchange and brought knowledge and experts to Sweden. The chapter also challenges an established notion that many of the trade enterprises that were established in Sweden up until the mid-1630s were failures. The results instead demonstrate how successive proposals to develop commercial ventures by Dutch experts created a necessary knowledge base in Swedish society, which in the long run led to the successful formation of advanced commercial enterprises. The final chapter focuses on the establishment of commercial fishing operations. It follows the introduction and growth of a Dutch model for how to develop advanced fishing, and explains why the model only led to a functioning enterprise towards the very end of the period of investigation.
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| 2. |
- Hallenberg, Mats
(författare)
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Kungen, fogdarna och riket : Lokalförvaltning och statsbyggande under tidig Vasatid
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The growth of the 16th century Swedish state is studied through the local organization created by Gustavus Vasa. The state is viewed as an organization, a collective agent, which may function as a formidable instrument of power for those who can control it. The inspiration comes from Max Weber as well as theories on how modern firms come to exist and expand their activities.The main issue is to explain why Gustavus Vasa and his successors created a wide-embracing local organization run by the state. In most parts of Europe, the princes tried to strengthen their positions by acting through noble officials on the provincial level. In Sweden royal bailiffs took over the responsibility for the tax collection in the entire realm. These bailiffs were the only intermediates between the king and his subjects. This flat, non-hierarchical structure meant that the Swedish nobility in effect was left outside the royal administration.In the first years of the reign of Gustavus Vasa mobilization of political support was given top priority, as the new regime needed to establish its legitimacy. The civil administration also performed important military functions. In the years around 1540, the local organization co-operated with the district courts in compiling records on the tax-base of the realm. As the political situation stabilized, and the central government gained access to information on local resources, the state expanded its activities into new areas. Under the entrepreneurial leadership of Gustavus Vasa the bailiffs took over operations that had previously been performed within civil society. As a result, the local administration had to grow. After 1560 this expansion stopped, and the state administration instead became more differentiated. But the local bargaining between bailiffs and peasantry was still of great importance. It added an important dimension of flexibility to the system.This study also addresses the relationship between the royal bailiffs and the peasantry. The bailiffs often used harsh methods, but peasants' complaints could prove worth while, and there was room for acting out conflicts within the system. From the reign of Gustavus Vasa, a line of communication was opened between king and peasants, which helped increase the legitimacy of state government while at the same time securing access to first-hand information about local circumstances. The Swedish state thus was able to mobilize resources and political support for its activities on a lower level in society than most of its competitors could. The significance of this state building in local society is strongly emphasized in this dissertation.
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| 3. |
- Johansson, Dan, 1953-
(författare)
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Makt och Motstånd : Bönderna, örlogsflottan och den svenska staten 1522-1640
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The development of the Swedish state is studied through the central and local organizations that built, repaired, maintained and provisioned the Royal Swedish Navy. The state is viewed as an organization which bargained for resources with powerful social groups. Inspiration comes from theories of modern firm growth, powerholder-subordinate relations, and Charles Tilly´s theory of state formation. The statebuilding process has mainly been understood as a top-down process determined by negotiations between rulers and elites. In this dissertation, I argue for the relevance of another perspective, “statebuilding from below”. In 16th and early 17th century Sweden around 60 % of the land was owned by freeholders; freeholders who, with property rights and access to central and local representative assemblies, had influence over local political and economic issues. In the absence of a strong nobility and wealthy cities Swedish rulers, and the Swedish statebuilding process were dependent on freeholding farmers; both for their political support and the resources they represented in the form of taxes and labor. The main issue of the dissertation is to explain the different paths the organization supporting the Royal Swedish Navy took over a period of 120 years. From centralization, to decentralization, from state-organized to privately organized, and back.In order to demonstrate this “statebuilding from below” I investigate the organization’s provision of timber, labor and revenue, setting this in a context of power mobilization, conflicts and negotiations. Between 1523 and the mid-1540s the farmer’s met the states demand for resources to the navy with resistance, both open and violent. The state answered with coersion and repression. From the mid-1540s the state was forced to adapt to the reality of power relations between itself, the nobility and the tax-paying farmers. The result was a new way to interact and respond to farmers grievances. The system “the negotiating state” gave protection to ordinary people, against nobles, the authorities and famine, and stopped the open and violent protests. Negotiations and agreements between the king’s bailiffs and the freeholders were central for the state, and for the organizations ability to reach its goals.But as the navy and state power grew the system could not prevent an increased exploitation. To finance the production, shipbuilding was organized with local resources and decentralized to a vast number of local plants. In response the farmers combined the institutionally-sanctioned methods of protest with passive or hidden resistance; a resistance that grow with the states demands for revenue, ship carpenters and labor. In the first decade of the 17th century the king used the central parliament to mobilize greater resources for the armed forces and the navy. In 1611 the decentralized organization imploded. Instead of more coercion the state was again forced to adapt to the resistance from farmers and nobles. From 1615 the organization was centralized into three large production units. The earlier system with forced labor was abandoned. Centralization and an alliance between the king and the nobles changed power relations and created stability. However, despite the stronger position of the state, the freeholders’ actions compelled the development of a system with central and local representative arenas, where negotiations could take place and complaints heard. These steps were necessary for the creation of legitimacy and the necessary compliance with continued resource extraction. The freeholders’ influence on the early modern Swedish state building process was extensive and must be described as “state building from below”.
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| 4. |
- Neuding Skoog, Martin, 1980-
(författare)
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I rikets tjänst : Krig, stat och samhälle i Sverige 1450-1550
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the military institutions in late medieval Sweden, the military-political transition during the reign of Gustav Vasa and what consequences the military transformation had for the process of state formation. In previous research, the period after 1560 is often emphasized as the most important phase of military and political change. However, this study also considers the interconnections between warfare and political power during the preceding century, 1450–1550. This period was characterized by recurring military crises and an increasing geopolitical pressure in the Baltic Sea area, which incited military and institutional change.The primary objects of analysis are the military institutions of late medieval society, which are categorized according to a socio-economic division of nobility, bishops, burghers and peasants. Additionally, the rulers’ own retinues and the new companies of enlisted foot soldiers – and eventually also conscripted units – organized during the reign of Gustav Vasa, are also studied.The changing character of the state – from a coordinating to an organizing state – is central to the argument. The coordinating state organized the defence of the realm with resources borrowed from established institutions within local society, by reference to legal duties and by offering tax exemption in a continuous bargain process. Gustav Vasa (1521–1560), in contrast, persuaded the subjects to pay a tax in lieu of military service. He organized military units directly through the evolving state administration and dismantled or incorporated the military institutions of local society into one dominant military hierarchy. Thus, this is a study of the transition from one military-political system to another.The centralization of the military institutions also meant a consolidation of political power. The interconnections between warfare and state building, becomes clear through the argument of synchrony – the consolidation of political power occurred in concert with military institutional change. Furthermore, the process was directly preceded by a period of intensive and near constant defensive warfare. From an international perspective, arguably, the late medieval coordinating state transformed into an organizing state more rapidly in Sweden than in other comparable countries.
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| 5. |
- Strand, Daniel, 1984-
(författare)
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No alternatives : The end of ideology in the 1950s and the post-political world of the 1990s
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the 1950s, scholars in Europe and the United States announced the end of political ideology in the West. With the rise of affluent welfare states, they argued, ideological movements which sought to overthrow prevailing liberal democracy would disappear. While these arguments were questioned in the 1960s, similar ideas were presented after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Scholars now claimed that the end of the Cold War meant the end of mankind’s “ideological development,” that globalization would undermine the left/right distinction and that politics would be shaped by cultural affiliations rather than ideological alignments.The purpose of No alternatives is to compare the end of ideology discussion of the 1950s with some of the post-Cold War theories launched at the time of, or in the years following, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Juxtaposing monographs, essays and papers between 1950 and 2000, the dissertation focuses on three aspects of these theories. First, it analyzes their concepts of history, demonstrating that they tended to portray the existing society as an order which had resolved the conflicts and antagonisms of earlier history. Second, the investigation scrutinizes the processes of post-politicization at work in these theories, showing how they sought to transcend, contain or externalize social conflict, and at times dismiss politics altogether. Third, it demonstrates how the theories can be understood as legitimizing or mobilizing narratives which aimed to defend Western liberal democracy and to rally its citizens against internal threats and external enemies. As the title of the dissertation implies, the end of ideology discussion of the 1950s and the post-Cold War theories of the 1990s sought to highlight the historical or political impossibility of any alternatives to the present society.
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| 6. |
- Forss, Charlotta, 1986-
(författare)
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The Old, the New and the Unknown : The continents and the making of geographical knowledge in seventeenth-century Sweden
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates early modern ways of looking at the world through an analysis of what the continents meant in three settings of knowledge making in seventeenth-century Sweden. Combining text, maps and images, the thesis analyses the meaning of the continents in, first, early modern scholarly ‘geography’, second, accounts of journeys to the Ottoman Empire and, third, accounts of journeys to the colony New Sweden. The investigation explores how an understanding of conceptual categories such as the continents was interlinked with processes of making and presenting knowledge. In this, the study combines approaches from conceptual history with research on knowledge construction and circulation in the early modern world.The thesis shows how geographical frameworks shifted between settings. There was variation in what the continents meant and what roles they could fill. Rather than attribute this flexibility to random variation or mistakes, this thesis interprets flexibility as an integral part of how the world was conceptualized. Religious themes, ideas about societal unities, definitions of old, new and unknown knowledge, as well as practical considerations, were factors that in different way shaped what the continents meant.A scheme of continents – usually consisting of the entities ‘Africa’, ‘America’, ‘Asia’, ‘Europe’ and the polar regions – is a part of descriptions about what the world looks like today. In such descriptions, the continents are often treated as existing outside of history. However, like other concepts, the meaning and significance of these concepts have changed drastically over time and between contexts. This fact is a matter of importance for historians, but equally so for a wider public using geographical categories to understand the world. Concepts such as the continents may describe what the world looks like, yet they can create both boundaries and affiliations far beyond land and sea.
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| 7. |
- Hjorthén, Adam, 1984-
(författare)
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Border-Crossing Commemorations : Entangled Histories of Swedish Settling in America
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Different groups from both sides of the Atlantic have since the 1930s come together to commemorate histories of Swedish settling in America. They have celebrated the founding of the New Sweden colony in the Delaware Valley (1638–1655), and the mid-nineteenth-century arrival of Swedish pioneers in the Mississippi Valley. Border-Crossing Commemorations investigates this continuing practice in studies of the 1938 New Sweden Tercentenary and the 1948 Swedish Pioneer Centennial. It analyzes how histories of colonization, pioneering, and migration have been made functional and meaningful in these border-crossing commemorations. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the ways in which actors entangled historical representations in the 1938 New Sweden Tercentenary and the 1948 Swedish Pioneer Centennial. On a more general level, the study explores the question of what happens when different people, with different agendas, in different parts of the world, commemorate the same history, at the same time, in the same places. It proceeds from a critique of the national paradigm in commemoration research, and thus contributes to the emerging field of cross-border memory studies and cultural history. The study adopts entanglements as a way-of-seeing, influenced by the theoretical discussions on histoire croisée. Methodologically, this approach entails studies of interactions and the use of a wide range of source materials from the major groups involved in the commemorations, gathered from fifteen archives in both Sweden and the United States. By investigating both the planning and performance of the commemorations, the study analyzes the ways in which actors entangled history through the analytical concepts of modernity, race, and settler colonialism. These concepts provide an understanding of how actors made history meaningful in the present by, for example, emphasizing historical ruptures (through modernity), continuities (through racial genealogies), and significances (through claims that the settlers founded “civilization” in America). Empirically, the dissertation discusses why certain groups appropriated the histories of New Sweden and the Swedish pioneers as their own; which histories that the actors agreed to commemorate and how these histories were characterized by settler colonial claims; how delegations were framed as traveling in the footsteps of the past, and made to represent shared social, political, and technological progress; how community festivals were forums where Swedes and Swedish Americans could interact and manifest their, sometimes differing, ideas about Swedishness; and how dinners were forums for international political and commercial relations, promoted through teleological claims of historical friendship. The study demonstrates how actors during the 1938 and 1948 commemorations entangled histories of mutual modernities, of friendly relations, and of Swedishness. These histories were permeated by contemporary social, political, and commercial interests as politicians, businessmen, cultural leaders, and others, claimed that Swedish settlers had founded civilization in North America. The study shows that these historical representations have been resilient and malleable, and that they have continued to be circulated during the twenty-first century.
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| 8. |
- Sjöblom, Ingvar, 1968-
(författare)
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Svenska sjöofficerare under 1500-talet
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What was the expertise of a naval officer during the 16th century? How did the naval officers’ expand, and what was the power relations like? These questions asked initially in the dissertation, try to capture the essence of the actual purpose, namely to investigate the development, power relations and the competence of a naval officer in the Swedish Navy during the 16th century (1522-1595).There was a correlated relationship between the military strategic choice of the operational area, naval tactical choices vessel types for customized naval warfare and the need for naval officers. A naval officer was a person who was delegated the state power to lead all fleets or individual warships. The fleet was considered as a significant State organization. Periodically, it belonged to one of the most expensive items of expenditure, which each year would be maintained. Naval officers were only added to command if the ship was on a military missions. They were responsible for combat, maintaining lines of communication, carrying out trade war, transporting supplies, patrolling and customs duty. War regulated if the Navy was properly equipped and manned.Naval expertise was clearly evident in the Admiral instructions during the Northern Seven Years War. The instructions included military strategy, tactics and actions during sea combat. The court material shows that the naval officer should fight (bravely) and not dishonorably. A Naval officer should be loyal in terms of reliability, but also to exercise authority, implement and lead naval operations, and artillery and sea combat. He should also ensure that the supplies were distributed in a proper manner and that the Christian sermon should be conducted in accordance with current standards. The naval officer could even be responsible for recruitment, payroll and other administrative activities.Overall, this meant that the naval officer would be responsible for money, safety, discipline and legal issues, and be prepared to exercise the power of state force against the enemy. However, he did not need to navigate or set sail; it was instead the specialists further down the hierarchy chain who were responsible for navigation. In many ways, it was all about supply and demand when a naval officer was to be appointed. And this mirrored social hierarchy in general.
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