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- Östlund, David
(author)
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A knower and friend of human beings, not machines : The business career of the terminology of social engineering, 1894-1910
- 2007
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In: Ideas in History. - 1890-1832. ; 2:2, s. 43-82
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The terminology of ‘social engineers’ and ‘social engineering’ has been used in divergent ways in different historical contexts. Against the backdrop of the predominantly negative usages of recent decades, not least in critical evaluations of the Swedish welfare state, this article brings out the application that originally turned the terms into common goods. The business career of the expressions started in 1894 with an essay by the relatively radical Dutch industrialist J. C. Van Marken, and received its last major impetus in a book by the moderate American social reformer W. H. Tolman in 1909 (in French 1910). The main idea was that there was a parallel function to fill, alongside that of technical expertise, within modern industry. Dealing with human beings, solving problems within (and perhaps around) the workplace, was just as important for private companies as handling materials and machinery, not least in terms of efficiency and profitability due to motivation and loyalty among the workers. Van Marken’s and Tolman’s approaches are compared, mirroring the encounter between social reform and business management within ‘the labour question’ of the era. The functional parallel introduced by them, stressing the non-technical nature of the social engineer’s professional qualifications, including the talents of the diplomat, is also contrasted with the original version of the usages revolving around the machine metaphor (still the conceptual core in latter-day pejorative applications of the terminology), which was popularized as a positively-charged rhetorical tool in a religious context in 1911.
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- Eriksson, Sören
(author)
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Näringsliv
- 2007
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In: Jönköpings kommuns historia. - Lund : Historiska Media. - 9789185507207
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Book chapter (pop. science, debate, etc.)
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- Lundström, Brita, 1971-
(author)
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Grundat 1876 : Historia och företagsidentitet inom Ericsson
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This doctoral thesis sets out to analyse the importance of history use in the modern industrial enterprise and its role in creating and transforming corporate identity. Both history use and corporate identity are concerned with creating and using a narrative or a self-image, and these concepts, accordingly, provide the starting point of the study. More specifically, the aim is to analyse how, at various points of time and in various connections, Ericsson, the Swedish telecom conglomerate, has produced and used its history and how that history has been used for creating a corporate identity. The theoretical premises are drawn from two separate fields of research, namely history use and corporate branding.The thesis comprises two parts, the first of which is a comparison over time, showing how history use has changed within the enterprise and focussing mainly on activities at head office/the main factory in Stockholm. The first of these three chapters deals with LM Ericsson’s relocation in 1940 to its newly built factory at Telefonplan in Stockholm, where history was used to show how new the new plant was. The second chapter deals with the LM Ericsson centenary in 1976. The planning and conduct of the centenary celebrations are studied to analyse the purpose of the centenary commemoration, which in this particular instance was very much aimed at strengthening relations with important customer groups. The third chapter covers the period between 2001 and 2004, during which the company celebrated the 125th anniversary of its formation and transferred its head office from Telefonplan to Kista. During this period the company passed through a financial crisis which impacted on the enterprise and on its manner of communication. On all three occasions, history was closely connected to communication and marketing, but the use of history assumed different guises at different times.Part II is devoted to a particular history product, namely anniversary and commemorative publications produced by various subsidiaries and divisions within the group. Here the perspective is broadened to include Ericsson companies both in Sweden and abroad. The publications are analysed in terms of genre and form, function and content. A hypothesis that the books contain a canon or basic narrative proves untenable. Instead what appears is a polyphonic history. The genre is studied both synchronously and diachronically. One diachronic difference is the increased importance of author selection, illustrations and design. One synchronous difference is the prominence of national narratives in the various publications.
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- Lundin, Per, 1971-
(author)
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Bilsamhället : Ideologi, expertis och regelskapande i efterkrigstidens Sverige
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During the 1950s the number of cars in Sweden increased almost fivefold and the country attained the highest level of car ownership per capita in Europe. The rise and establishment of mass motoring was dramatically illustrated by the violent encounter between the car and the city. Despite the fact that congestion as well as road accidents were well-known, everyday occurrences, they reached previously unimagined heights through the growth of mass motoring. In this doctoral thesis Per Lundin focuses on the emergence of a group of planning experts as the key advocates of the idea of the “car society” as the solution to these problems. By fully adapting society to the car it would be possible to eliminate congestion and road accidents, thus affirming the continuing advance of the car. This ideal, which originated in the United States, became the goal and the dream of these experts.The general question addressed by Lundin is to what extent the actions and the ideologies of the experts interacted with the advent of mass motoring and the extensive urban building during the post-war period. In order to answer this question Lundin analyzes, firstly how the planning experts laid claim to the problems of congestion and road accidents, thereby restating them as exclusive planning problems, secondly how guidelines and standards for a car-conscious planning of cities and communities were developed based on the formulation of this problem and thirdly how, and to what extent, the guidelines and standards concerned were implemented in the town planning process.In the thesis Lundin argues that the dreams about a post-war Swedish society entirely adapted to the car by and large were realized. One important explanation of the fact that the physical adaptation of cities and societies to the car could proceed so quickly, on such a large scale and in similar forms all over the country, is found in the planning rules developed by the experts. The rules were the embodiment of the untroubled and unreflecting dreams nourished by the planning experts of the 1950s and the 1960s. Through the rules these ideological conceptions were reinforced and disseminated in a manner almost unable to stop. As the rules quickly were integrated with the planning instruments of administrative bodies locally, regionally and nationally, they set the tone for the extensive urban renewal of the following decades.
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