| 1. |
- Aronsson, August, 1980-
(författare)
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Löfte, tvist och försoning : Politikens spelregler i 1300-talets Norden
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to explain how politics in 14th century Scandinavia were structured by a set of rules or norms of conduct – rules which were neither codified nor enforced by any outside agency, yet had a very real impact on the patterns by which political action was conducted. Taking inspiration from historical anthropology, the study sets out to analyze the ways in which political tensions and relationships, primarily within the royal elite, were negotiated in various situations. The source material – mainly letters of treaties, but also contemporary literary sources – are treated as remains of political communication within a common discursive framework.The findings of the study go against some established notions about politics in the 14th century that are prevalent in current Scandinavian research. On the whole, patterns of political behaviour during the period show great similarities to those of the earlier Middle Ages, despite the discontinuity implied by the idea of the 13th century as the era of "state formation" in Scandinavia. Rather, the kings and princes of the 14th century appear to have been ruled by quite similar norms of behaviour to those of their predecessors, albeit on a more complex scale.The concepts of peace and justice are shown to have been central to the way that political action was legitimized. No functional difference can be shown to have been made between "feudal" or personal relations, and those of the state. Peace was conceived as a state of harmony, which could only be achieved through the establishment of mutual positive bonds, and an active striving for justice. The latter was achieved, both with the aid of mediators and negotiators, and through the demonstration of force, in patterns largely similar to the practice of feuding. Likewise, acts of supplication and reconciliation are shown to have played an active part in the way that political relations were reified during the process of ending an armed conflict.
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| 2. |
- Erlandsson, Susanna, 1970-
(författare)
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Window of opportunity : Dutch and Swedish security ideas and strategies 1942–1948
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The period treated in this thesis is one which is often characterized as a transition between World War II and the Cold War. By approaching it instead as a window of opportunity – a period in which the governments of small states perceived both an unusual space and an urgent need to reevaluate security – the security policies of two small northwestern European countries, the Netherlands and Sweden, are subjected to a critical reappraisal. Through a systematic comparison of the security ideas and strategies in two countries that ended up with different positions on alignment/non-alignment during the Cold War, this dissertation sheds new light on the reasons for the development of those security policies as well as on their significance. Not only does it uncover a number of concrete security strategies that were remarkably similar regardless of different circumstances, but it shows that the Swedish and Dutch governments formed similar ideas about the needs for future security in spite of different war experiences. Both concluded that small states could no longer survive in isolation and instead aimed for a better functioning system of collective security, built on the close cooperation of regional groups. This thesis argues that the different choices regarding security in 1948, when the Dutch signed the Treaty of Brussels and the Swedish reclaimed a policy of non-alignment, were in fact motivated by the same wish to maintain as wide a margin for manoeuvre as possible for the cooperation envisioned during the war, seeing this as the best guarantee of peace and independence.
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| 3. |
- Gustafsson, Jörgen, 1972-
(författare)
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Historielärobokens föreställningar : Påbjuden identifikation och genreförändring i den obligatoriska skolan 1870–2000
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis sets out to address the question: How is Swedish history put forward as expected identification in history textbooks for the years of compulsory schooling and how did this change during the period 1870-2000? This question is legitimate since the writing of history is a form of meaning-creation that is built through the merging of different components (place, time, actors, objectives, etc.) into a coherent narrative. The writing of history is therefore a form of power.The study include a quantitative total enquiry into all published history textbooks in Sweden between 1870-2000 aimed at compulsory schooling, as well as läroverk and gymnasium. In aim to map out and analyse the framing patterns displayed by the genre in order to answer questions about its characteristics and find out which have been the dominant history textbooks. These have formed basis for the qualitative investigation. The genre has its own clear inherent components such as images which are used over a very long time and found in book after book and publisher after publisher. The genre of history textbooks has an independence in relation to current research in academia and equally The only time there is a fundamental change is after the 1950s and then the whole school system had been recast, but after a while the greater part of the elements under study returned. The results of the thesis point to the consumer side as being what largely upholds the tradition of the genre.A clear change is the significantly increased female representation during the 1990s. When the female representation is portrayed, it is more connected to traditional female values such as family than ever before. I argue that this is a consequence of the gender system’s logic of separation. When there is more space given to female representation, it becomes increasingly important to mark the boundaries between the female and the male.
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| 4. |
- Lindström, Jonas, 1977-
(författare)
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Distribution and Differences : Stratification and the System of Reproduction in a Swedish Peasant Community 1620-1820
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation examines the character, conditions and change of peasant stratification in early modern Sweden. Wherever and whenever one looks, one finds that resources were unevenly spread among peasant households. In the literature, there are different, and conflicting, views compatible with this finding. In order to explain its character, this study places peasant stratification into a broader system of resource reproduction. Resource holding, families, and individuals are studied over time.The study is based on an extended family reconstitution comprising the landholding peasants in the Mid-Swedish parish of Björskog between 1620 and 1820. Data has been compiled from cadastres, poll tax registers, parish registers, court records, and maps, and has then been related to the information on resource holding as given by tax lists and probate inventories.Six elements and three general principles are identified as fundamental to systems of resource reproduction among peasants. Starting from these, the book argues that the resource holding of a Swedish peasant household was relatively independent of family demography; that wealthy peasants were able to retain large surpluses even during the period of high rent pressure in the seventeenth century; that the reproduction of poorer peasant households was imperfect whereas the reproduction of wealthier households was extended; that wealthy peasants dominated the local community; that economic inequalities within the class of landed peasants did not increase during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; that land accumulation and cyclical mobility became important features of peasant society, but not until the decades around 1800: and that the peasant community was characterized by a large degree of geographical and downward social mobility.
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| 5. |
- 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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| 6. |
- Dulic, Tomislav, 1968-
(författare)
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Utopias of Nation : Local Mass Killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1941-42
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study analyses the mechanisms of local mass violence perpetrated by the Croatian fascist Ustasha organisation and the Serbian nationalist Chetniks in Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1941–42. A theoretical and methodological model has been devised, that is based on an investigation the three “dimensions” of mass killing, namely intent, systematics and magnitude. Each of the dimensions are connected to the three phases of conceptualisation, implementation and realisation, which forms the “process of mass killing”.The conceptualisation phase relates to how the actors conceived their ideas of “ethnic purification” and exclusion, and how the ideology was mediated to the public. The analysis of the implementation phase aims at identifying the phases and levels of systematic destruction, and the social processes at work in the local communities, including how victims tried to cope and avoid perseution, public responses, and the motives for participating in terror. The third phase is dedicated to a statistical analysis in order to identify the magnitude of destruction, victim categories and the effects of policy changes.The empirical data is based on documents originating with the main belligerents, witness statements, memoirs, and statistical data. The conclusions are that the killings and persecution were well organised, although there were differences between the main belligerents. The study also shows that propaganda played a less important role for participation in mass killing than is frequently believed, while factors such as insecurity and the prospect of personal gain were more salient. The theoretical and methodological ap-proach proved particularly useful, since it showed that local circumstances significantly affect the destruction process. At the same time, the study identifies a strong correlation between decision-making on the political level and local mass killing.
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| 7. |
- Mispelaere, Jan, 1965-
(författare)
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Guldmynt eller äpple : Straffrättsligt ansvar för barn och ungdomar i Sverige och Nederländerna 1590-1800
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The principal aim of this dissertation was to examine the character in praxis of children's and youth's criminal responsibility in two particular European regions during the early modern period that, in comparison with each other, were marked by a number of substantial societal differences. The regions selected were the densely populated, market-oriented coastal district of the Netherlands and the sparsely populated agricultural society in Sweden during the period 1590-1800.Since there were substantial economic and social differences between the Netherlands and Sweden during the 1600s in such areas as the development of salaried work, urbanization, and the structure and character of the household, it was reasonable to imagine that the present investigation would reveal, among other things, that there were marked differences in views concerning children and youth as well. Upon the basis of what was written concerning the application of extenuating circumstances in respect to children, along with what was known about views concerning children in older legislation, previous research has emphasized that there were a considerable number of similarities within European legal praxis during the early modern period.In conclusion, one can state that early modern judges from the Netherlands and Sweden assigned criminal responsibility to children under twelve in quite similar ways, while the differences between them in this regard primarily concerned how youths were treated. There was roughly the same attitude concerning children throughout the period 1590-1799 in both regions, but the view concerning the criminal responsibility of teenagers was different in the Netherlands until the first half of the 1700s. Views concerning their criminal responsibility were quite clearly influenced by such factors as gender, competence, and age, but the effect of social changes was to a much greater degree visible in praxis for them than it was in respect to children under twelve. Different societies placed different demands on youths, and this was expressed above all in the age level for full responsibility and the application of adult punishment.The most striking differences between the Netherlands and Sweden concerned the application of age limits for full responsibility, the responsibility borne by youths who had been enticed into committing crimes, and the manner in which the law viewed the responsibility of boys and girls when the offenders were between twelve and eighteen years of age. All three of the most substantial differences thus involved the level of criminal responsibility that youths bore.
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| 8. |
- Olofsson, Sven, 1967-
(författare)
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Till ömsesidig nytta : Entreprenörer, framgång och sociala relationer i centrala Jämtland ca. 1810-1850
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to analyse the mutual impact which social relations and entrepreneurship had in relation to the success of four actors in a rural area in northern Sweden at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Many Swedish scholars have studied the process of social differentiation, before the industrial revolution. However, we still know very little about the forces behind this process, why some peasant households became more successful than others, especially during the first half of the nineteenth century when the economic differences were increasing. To grasp this process, the notion of social position has been used as a tool to grade the population on a scale from low- to high-ranked households in an economic and political sense.The fact that households were more or less successful turns our attention to the ability among individuals and households to change their social position. A theoretical concept chosen to investigate such change is the notion of entrepreneur, which implies a focus on the actor working for personal profit in a changing economic world.The main question has been how important social relations connected to entrepreneurship are in order to promote success among peasant households in the pre-industrial society. The empirical investigation has been conducted on two different levels. The first level is a structural study analysing the physical landscape of the court district of Rödön, the economic stratification and the political activity of the population in the area and, finally, their economic behaviours as peasants and rural businessmen. The second is a qualitative study emphasising on four individual actors: the businessman Per Wikström in the town of Östersund and three of the most successful peasant households in the region.The four case studies reveal that the rural elite had a pragmatic and dynamic approach to choosing social relations outside the family. Many acquaintances grew persistent and embedded in family or kinship relations, whereas others were short-lived or sacrificed for a calculated economic gain.
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| 9. |
- Berglund, Louise, 1966-
(författare)
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Guds stat och maktens villkor : Politiska ideal i Vadstena kloster, ca 1370-1470
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Vadstena abbey was one of the most powerful religious institutions of Sweden in the Middle Ages. This thesis analyses two specific aspects of this position: the position of Vadstena abbey as an agent in the political space of the late Middle Ages, and the political ideals propagated by that institution.Sermons written for the feast days of Nordic saints constitute the central source material for this study. Sermons were the most efficient mass media of the medieval world and at an institution like Vadstena, preachers could hope to reach thousands of people from all social groups. Using the sermons I have analysed the political ideals propagated by the abbey. In the beginning of the period, the abbey taught an ideal close to that of Bernard of Clairvaux, an ideology of the supremacy of religious institutions over temporal ones, the priests as the lights of society and the unique authority of saint Birgitta. They berated the temporal powers for not following the dictates of the church and maintained that such behaviour would lead to ruin. Towards the middle of the 15th century a significant change occurred. The brothers began to teach that an evil king and tyrant was still legitimate, since his misrule was part of God’s plan.This change in the political ideals is related to a change in the position of the abbey in relation to temporal powers. After being relatively autonomous the abbey gradually became less so. This, I argue, is due to the strengthening of the institution of monarchy during a period otherwise seen as simply chaotic.
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| 10. |
- Henningsson, Börje
(författare)
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Det röda Dalarna : Socialdemokrater, anarkosyndikalister och kommunister inom Dalarnas Arbetarrörelse 1906-1937
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation investigates the internal struggles within the labour movement in Dalarna at the beginning of the twentieth century. I investigate Social Democracy, Anarcho-Syndicalism and Communism, the three major factions of the working class. I study the relationship between these organisations and their supporters in the complex socio-economic area of Dalarna.I have based my study on the three party programs and their answer to two central questions of the time: Will the conflicts of society lead to revolution? and How should politics and production be organised in the non capitalist society to come? Generally, anarcho-syndicalists argue that state power must be transformed to local government, social democrats hope to make different social interests compromise into political consensus. Communists want a proletarian state through social revolution. How were those ideologies received in Dalarna? In the beginning, anarchists fought social democrats: The opposition excluded from social democracy 1917 was also more influenced by anarchism than by communism. The opposition founded a party, witch towards the 1920´s turned from anarchism into communism, and the small farmers, that erlier had been attracted by the anarchist influenced rural propaganda, left and more industrial workers joined. Simultaneously, anarchists reorganised from a political party to a syndicalistic trade union, gradually mowing from the industrialised south to northern Dalarna. Communists, mainly left in the industrialised south, were shaken by two splits in the 1920´s and they lost their ability to compete with the social democrats in democratic elections. In Dalarna, social democrats, confronting anti-parliamentary anarchy and totalitarian communism alike, won the contest within the labour movement: At the end of the period, they dominated the area.
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