| 1. |
- Wisselgren, Per, 1967-
(författare)
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Samhällets kartläggare : Lorénska stiftelsen, den sociala frågan och samhällsvetenskapens formering i Sverige 1830-1920
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Using the Lorén Foundation (Lorénska stiftelsen) as a concrete empirical point of departure, the aim of this dissertation is to study the formation of a Swedish social science discourse in the historical context of the lengthy and broad-ranging discussions summarized in the formula "the social question". Established in 1885, the explicit aim of the Lorén Foundation was to promote the rise of Swedish social science and to contribute to the solution of the social question. Composing an heuristic case, the historical reconstruction of the Lorén Foundation and its activities thus comprise the basic thesis - that modern social science should be understood as an "answer" to the "social question" - while providing it with empirical substance and historical content.Emphasizing the contextual and conceptual aspects of the history of social knowledge, the "social question", the Lorén Foundation, and the institutionalization of social science are regarded as different components in an historical discourse centred around the social sphere as it took shape from the 1830s and onwards. In this broad, multifarious definition and articulation process, social science is understood not as a unique "answer", but rather as one attempt alongside others to regulate the social sphere. Focusing on the intimate interrelations between social science practice and realist and naturalist authors, as well as contemporary social reform efforts, the dissertation also emphasizes the historically changing boundaries of social knowledge and its inherent political, gendered and professional dimensions. The final part of the study discusses the role of social science in the Swedish welfare state in more general terms, employing a comparative, international perspective, and the historiographical construction of disciplinary identities characteristic of academic sociology after World War II.
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| 2. |
- Prestjan, Anna, 1971-
(författare)
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Att bota en drinkare : idéer och praktik i svensk alkoholistvård 1885 - 1916
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The focus for this thesis is the alcoholic care in Sweden from the establishment of the first alcoholic institution in 1885 and the years right after the compulsory care act was passed in 1913. In the thesis the practical activity at the four first alcoholic institutions is examined, but also the ideas concerning alcoholic care that were formulated by the men that were the institutions initiators and responsible for the activities.The research has its starting point in and also confirms care as a sociocultural phenomenon and not merely a medical issue, and that there is an agreement in terms of meaning between the ideals expressed by the medicine as well as other societal interests. Both idea and actual practice have been examined in order to answer the question how the alcoholic care was shaped as a result of the medicalization of the drunkenness problem, but also the consequences of this alcoholic care. Especially the American and the British research position has proved that conceptions about will and morals have been significant to the shaping of a care ideology concerning the alcoholism and its treatment. A second question the research has intended to answer is if, an if then how, such conceptions affected the care ideology and the actual care in practice also in Sweden.One of the results of this thesis is that the early alcoholic care in Sweden ideologically claimed to represent and originate from medical principles and knowledge, even though the treatment methods proposed and practiced originated from the conception about alcoholism as a willpower illness. The purpose with the treatment was primarily to affect the will and moral and consequently the traditional medical science and pharmaceutics were given a subordinated position compared to the medical methods that proceeded from a holistic view on the human, as for example hypnosis and water therapy. The treatment was also individualized according to a relation between the doctor and each patient.The examinations confirm the alcoholic care as a sociocultural phenomenon that aimed at and resulted in functions where medical interests coincided with those of the society in general. This is shown by the fact that treatment methods as well as the aim with the alcoholic’s treatment were the same at those kinds of institutions with a medical starting point as well as at the Floda colonies, in spite of the fact that the latter was an alcoholic institution that dismissed alcoholism as a medical issue.The first alcoholic institutions functioned as improvement machines, where alcoholics regarded as bad for the society were pressed in at the one end, to in the other come out as ideal men and citizens - hard working family men, self-controlled and physically powerful. With these ideals medical definitions of health coincided with social definitions of the meaning of being a worthy citizen.Among the foremost consequences of the first alcoholic care was the presentation of an alternative solution on the societal problem drunkenness and an optimistic belief in the alcoholic’s potential to be cured. Other consequences were the ones that concerned the individual – a state of illness will result in changes in the individual’s status in society and that the ill person has to admit to be the deviating one that is to be corrected. On the side of the therapeutical function, the first alcoholic care also had a normative function, though only within the social class that the heads at the institutions themselves belonged to. The alcoholic care was during this period accordingly not an expression for the upper classes’ social control of the lower classes, but rather a self improvement project by the middle class. Finally the alcoholic care during the examined period also had consequences for the later alcoholic care. During the period 1885 – about 1916 the practical experiences made lead to a revision of the care ideology. A private alcoholic care for volunteering patients was still the principle, but in reality an increased state involvement as well as force could be motivated.
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| 3. |
- Lundgren, Frans
(författare)
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Den isolerade medborgaren : Liberalt styre och uppkomsten av det sociala vid 1800-talets mitt
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the dissertation is to study the problem definitions and the governmental rationality of new activities aimed at reforming criminals, the poor and workers in Sweden during the mid-1800s. Three case studies analyse the solitary confinement penitentiary, the district visiting poor relief and the bildung-society for workers. A fourth case study analyses the introduction of crime statistics and prison photography.I argue that these different activities were part of the historical process that have been characterised as ”the birth of the social” and the new governmental rationality, ”liberal governmentality”. The initiators presupposed that civilisation had negative behavioural consequences among the lower classes. At the same time they expressed optimism regarding new fostering instances and how such could be integrated to a mutually supporting network. The aims of the new reformatory principles were regularly described as capacities for self-reflection, self-regulation and self-control among the lower classes.The dissertation shows that the new activities localised and defined a new set of problems and questions in terms of the social. ”Society” was what was to be protected as its ”inner” relationships were described as going through comprehensive historical changes. The ambition to lead, manage and organise the behaviours and values of the lower classes was even more far-reaching than was the desire to exert direct discipline. Order, well being and morals were integrated in a field of problems where effects on the lifestyles of the lower classes constituted the ultimate authoritative body.
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