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- Ilshammar, Lars
(author)
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Offentlighetens nya rum : teknik och politik i Sverige 1969-1999
- 2002
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study in contemporary history describes the transformation of the public sphere in Sweden during the period 1969-1999, and analyses the role of information technology and politics in the process. The overall aim of the study is to explain how, and why, the public sphere in Jürgen Habermas sense has deteriorated during a period of rapid technological and political change, when increasing attention has been given to information technology as a new tool for improving democracy and empowering citizens. Theoretical inspiration is drawn from two perspectives within the modern history of technology and sociology of technology; the LTS (Large Technical Systems) and STS (Science, Technology and Society) approaches, as well as from the regime theory concept within political science. This multidisciplinary framework provides the theoretical basis for the study, including terms as socio-technical systems, system builder, technification, interpretative flexibility, stabilization, closing and regime change. In addition, the analysis draws upon previous research in economic history, where focus often has been on the important role of institutions. The term path dependence is central in this tradition. The starting point for the study is the process of a mutual legitimization between citizens and political actors that traditionally has taken place within the public sphere. In return for citizens support and trust, political actors have granted format rights to the public space. Two aspects of this interdependence are addressed: Freedom of speech and citizen’s access to public information, and their access to arenas where an exchange of political ideas and opinions is taking place. In the study, the former is a question of the legal system and the limits to freedom of speech in new medias such as the Internet, while the latter concerns citizen’s technical means and possibilities to connect to electronic networks. Research interest is concentrated on the formal political system, focusing both actors and structural factors such as technological development, media convergence, ideological change and international integration in the transformation process. Four case studies of institutional changes during formative moments, within what is defined as the legal and the technical infrastructures, are conducted and represent the empirical base of the thesis. The case studies are centered on Swedish governmental commissions, on the government itself and on proceedings in the parliament, and concerns formation and transformation of computer law, as well as the deregulation and privatization of the technical infrastructure. In the latter process Televerket (Swedish Telecom) has been an influential promoter of competition and institutional separation between tele- and data communications, representing a major regime change in favour of market relations in the technical infrastructure. In the area of computer law, the Swedish regime dominated by SCB (Statistics Sweden) was incorporated into a joint European data protection regime, resulting in limitations of freedom of speech on the Internet. These regime changes have also transformed the role of the state, constituting a “net watchers state”. Another important finding is that promotion of democracy and improvement of access to the public sphere, never was on the agenda in the political transformation processes studied, although a parallel discourse on democracy and information technology existed throughout the period studied.
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| 3. |
- Alm, Maria
(author)
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Nationell kraft och lokal motkraft : En diskursanalys av konflikten kring SwePol Link
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Facility siting conflicts are increasing in our society. This is a study of a HVDC-link between Blekinge, Sweden and Slupsk, Poland called The SwePol Link. This link has transferred electricity between the two electricity systems since the year 2000 and the decision making process can be described as a struggle between conflicting interests. The aim of this study is to investigate where in the decision making process conflicting interests become visible, and how the actors involved have acted and argued in order to try to influence the process to benefit their respective causes. This aim is further developed through a discourse analysis of the variety of arguments, ideas and conceptions that in different situations of the process construct patterns and statements. The purpose of the discourse analysis is to identify and categorize patterns and statements that are expressed in three chosen practices; the concession practice, the court practice and the practice concerning the debate articles and editorials published in Blekinge Läns Tidning during the period 1996-2000. This practice is referred to as the mass media practice in the study. It is clear that the conflict deepens and that the system-builders and critical actors (including Blekinge Läns Tidning) started to distrust each other and their respective ways of acting during the process. Both supporters and critics used scientific and juridical enrolments in order to try to strengthen their positions in the conflict. Both scientifically and juridically formulated arguments were central patterns in the discourse. This was also the case with technically formulated arguments. These patterns of arguments were mainly expressed through academics, or experts, for or against the system and might thereby be looked upon as rather exclusive ways of arguing in the practices. One exception from this was, for example, when fishers argued against different scientific results on the basis of their experiences. This was, however, not a very successful way of criticizing scientific results. The study shows that there, for example, were conflicts around the meaning of a sustainable energy system, where a central system-builder pattern meets a peripheral systemcritical pattern and both sides held themselves as arguing for a sustainable energy system. Another result of the study is that the discourse varied depending on which practice it was expressed in. It became clear that holistic perspectives regarding a sustainable energy system or the landscape as such became peripheral in all of the “formal” practices, where the decisions regarding the system took place. These types of holistic patterns were mainly articulated in other practices like the mass media.
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| 4. |
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Alternativ till ekonomismen?
- 1997
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Editorial collection (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I föreliggande rapport återges de föredrag som hölls vid symposiet Alternativ till ekonomismen?, vilket anordnades vid Sociologiska institutionen våren 1997. Lars Ingelstam, professor vid Linköpings universitet, riktar i sin text skarp kritik mot ekonomismen – i synnerhet när den framträder som politik. Joachim Israel, tidigare professor vid Lunds universitet, gör en sociologisk analys av ekonomismen. Jonas de Geer, idéhistoriker i Stockholm, reflekterar över Tage Lindboms antiekonomistiska kritik av välfärdssamhället. Conny Mithander, idéhistoriker vid Göteborgs universitet, försöker i sitt bidrag sätta ekonomin på plats. Anders Persson jämför i sin text materialistisk och normativ ekonomism.
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Peter, 1959-
(author)
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Deregulation and Internet : New challenges to postal services in Sweden
- 2001
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The postal system is an old communication technology, now subject to internal competition from potential entrants and external from technological substitutes. This is a study of how the postal industry in Sweden responds to the dual challenge from deregulation and the Internet.The liberalisation process lasted throughout the 1990's. The role of actors for change is found to be crucial. The Post Office and the world's first new entrant on the postal market, City Mail, were the entrepreneurs working for change in the institutional framework. In the background were changing conditions in terms of increasing demand for postal services and a shift towards mass letters, technological improvements that made pre-sorting in computers possible and an ambiguous construction of the legal monopoly in Sweden. The most crucial issues after deregulation in 1993-94 have been access to common services and facilitates and the dominant incumbent's right to differentiate prices.The effects of the Internet and the use of e-mail on postal volumes are studied. Some substitution has already occurred and a further potential for it exists, particularly in certain segments like fmancial information. At the same time, communication in general is increasing, which appears to outweigh the negative effect on the demand for postal services. The evidence does not support the hypothesis of declining postal volumes.The effects on postal efficiency of the dual challenge are found to be positive but modest. The price structure has changed. The threat from the Internet has spurred some product innovation and strategic change whilst potential postal competition has been met by price adjustmentsand process innovation. The major effect is redistribution and the net effect on welfare is little. Owing to actual and potential competition, postal firms may not prosper in the future, but Post as a technology for communication probably will.
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| 7. |
- Ehliasson, Kent, 1963-
(author)
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Framtidsstudier i stora organisationers långsiktiga planering : analysmodell och fallstudier
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- People use a variety of means to orient themselves towards the future. A more organised approach to handling the future known as "futures studies" is often used in a variety of contexts including long-term planning within large organisations. In the effort to enhance the quality of such studies, there have been arguments for better methods (which makes sense), but methods may not be the most important aspect in the production of futures studies. Greater theoretical awareness in the substantive questions upon which the study is based is more important. To that end, the intent of this dissertation is to infuse a keener awareness of fundamental assumptions in futures studies and contribute to increasing their quality.One objective of the dissertation is to formulate a method or procedure to analyse the futures studies of large organisations, apply it to two empirical cases and thereafter analyse its strengths and weaknesses. The method I discuss and develop extensively in this work consists of an analytical framework that focuses on three aspects of each future study: its architecture, its relationship to a few of the key future issues of our time and its assumptions regarding our views on society, humanity and technology. A second objective is to systematically study future documents from two large organisations and attempt to clarify motives, orientation, methodology and distinguishing characteristics in their future processes. The cases I have chosen are the Swedish Armed Forces and the telecommunications company Ericsson, which were both in a period of transition around the mid 1990s.The dissertation shows how the method has been used to bring to the fore and clarify central ideas in futures studies, identify ambiguities and fuzzy thinking and to show and expose more covert assumptions. The analysis also illustrates that certain aspects of the model have been observed in the empirical material, other ideas are found to a lesser extent and certain perspectives are entirely absent. The paper stresses that the model developed has both strengths and weaknesses, but the overall assessment is that it was well-balanced and maintains appropriate depth in relation to desired efficiency. The study shows that the analytical method is relevant and adequate to understand and describe the direction and content of futures studies and in so doing enhance their quality.
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| 9. |
- Ewertsson, Lena, 1964-
(author)
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The Triumph of Technology Over Politics? : Reconstructing Television Systems: The Example of Sweden
- 2001
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Based upon perspectives and concepts from social and historical research on technical systems, this dissertation describes and analyses events and processes relating to the dramatic change in television in Western Europe during the 1980s and early 1990s. In particular, it focuses on how Swedish television, conceived as a large socio-tecnical system, has shifted from a traditional 'public service' system to a more open and mixed system. In addition to traditional public television broadcasting, it has now come to encompass several commercial channels distributed through an expanding combination of technical and market alternatives, including satellite television. The study traces the multiple ways in which socio-historical processes and contingencies have shaped the television system in Sweden. The most detailed historical descriptions and analyses focus on the entrepreneurial activities of the Swedish firm, Industriförvaltning AB Kinnevik, documenting the introduction of the satellite channel TV3 in Sweden and the related expansion of the system. The entrepreneurial actions of Kinnevik in establishing the new satellite channel TV3 are analysed against the background of (1) the characteristics of the traditional Swedish radio and TV broadcasting system, (2) the development of cable television in Sweden, and (3) the broad history of satellite television.Emphasis is placed on how and why it was possible for a new actor to successfully challenge, gain access to, and help transform a well-established system that had remained relatively stable for a long time. This raises attendant questions of timing. How do we account for and explain the relative stability of this system for such a long period? Why did radical change occur at a particular time and not before or after? Whereas the empirical material concerning the activities of Kinnevik in relation to its entrance on the television market covers the period between 1984 and 1991, the study in general addresses developments throughout the twentieth century and, occasionally, even further back in history. The focus is thus on the system as a whole, rather than on only one of its components.A number of conclusions are drawn from the study concerning both the construction of new systems and the reconstruction of established systems. Two major conclusions can be mentioned here. (1) First, the historical material confirms the necessity of collective action in large-scale technology-based entrepreneurial action. (2) Second, the study also shows that there is nothing necessary or inevitable about the development of technologies/technological systems, even though they are subject to a high degree of path-dependence.
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| 10. |
- Gyberg, Per, 1971-
(author)
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Energi som kunskapsområde : Om praktik och diskurser i skolan
- 2003
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study concerns how energy is treated as an area of knowledge in the Swedish school. Energy is encountered in traditional subjects such as history, physics and social studies. Energy also has another entry due to its constant relevance in the world outside school, thereby obligating school to address and discuss energy within its curriculum. Energy is thus qualified to cut across subject lines in school and to connect strongly to problem issues outside school.The purpose of this book is to study how energy is handled as an area of knowledge in school. Viewing school as a practice implies that energy is handled within a specific social and cultural context. All meanings which are created construct and reproduce notions concerning the nature of reality. It is thus important to study the school's assumptions and methods for dealing with this area of knowledge.The analysis in the book is based on participatory observations, tape recordings of pupils engaged in group projects, educational materials and the pupils' own work. Three different energy-related projects are included in the study: (1) Two social studies classes which worked using energy as a theme. A number of different subjects were involved in this theme. (2) A natural science class which also worked using energy as a theme, although here the only subjects involved were physics and biology. All three of these classes were upper secondary college-preparatory school classes. (3) The study also includes two classes from the ninth grade. As in the case of the social studies classes, their work on energy involved most of the pupils' other subjects. The theme for the nine-year compulsory school pupils was "Man-Energy-Environment".This analysis has shown that school as practice has created certain forms which govern how energy is treated as an area of knowledge. The forms maintain and legitimise a particular view as to what is considered valid knowledge. The discourses which best live up to requirements regarding what was to be considered "valid" knowledge were the scientific discourse and the supply discourse.The scientific discourse was accorded high status as a result of its ties to a scientific conceptual world, and to approaches which are associated with the scientific method. The supply discourse must be considered to be the most dominant of the identifiable discourses.Other discourses were identified but did not nearly have the same bearing on school. The user discourse was most evident in the projects of the nine-year compulsory school pupuls, and was also implicated in goal documents for their assignments. The civilisation-critical discourses made their presence felt mainly during the group work, but otherwise had few points of correlation for school practice.
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