1. |
- Andersson, Martin, 1988-
(author)
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How soldiers' women built early modern states : Stockholm 1544–1635
- 2021
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In: Bringing the People Back In : State Building from Below in the Nordic Countries ca. 1500-1800. - First edition. | New York : Routledge, 2021. | Series: Routledge research in early modern history : Routledge. - 9780367686963 - 9781003138662 ; , s. 162-180
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- To study soldiers' women forming military households as a form of state building is an attempt to expand ‘the below’-perspective beyond its inherited reliance upon studies of ‘the local.’ Early modern state building meant the creation of several new such socio-economic niches, of which soldier's woman was one. After some theoretical and methodological discussion, it first establishes when and how soldier's woman became a socio-economic niche in early modern Sweden, before exploring the characteristics of that niche and the women who lived in it. Compared to other urban settings, soldiers' women should thus be more common in Stockholm – which is why there is a sufficient volume of records available to be analysed to begin with. Viewing early modern military household formation as everyday politics of state building thus shows how its results could be unintended not just from below, but also from the very top.
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2. |
- Scherp, Joakim, 1968-
(author)
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The state conquers a feudal enclave : Ängsö 1690-1710
- 2021
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In: Bringing the people back in. - London : Routledge. - 9780367686963 - 9781003138662 ; , s. 215-230
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this chapter I analyze the process during which the Swedish early modern state abolished the feudal privileges of the Ängsö estate, situated in central Sweden. The privileges of the lords of Ängsö were very extensive by Swedish standards, and included judicial, clerical and fiscal advantages enjoyed by few, if any, other Swedish aristocrats. When these privileges were challenged by the Crown during the era of Caroline absolutism in the late 1600’s and early 1700’s the power relations changed dramatically on the estate. Even though the king’s officials were vested with great authority, they often needed help from subjects of Ängsö in order to claim the Crown’s rights. In some cases the confrontations were quite violent, as when the lord Sparre tried to evict the parson from the parish church of Ängsö. Nevertheless, his subjects supported their parson. The benefits for the subjects of the “conquest” seem to have been mixed, and many aspects of life on the estate stayed more or less the same.
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3. |
- Dørum, Knut, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Repertoires of state building from below in the Nordic countries, c. 1500-1800
- 2021
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In: Bringing the People Back In. - London : Routledge. - 9780367686963 ; , s. 3-22
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter argues that the concept of state building from below may be used as an analytical tool for better understanding of political and social relations in the era before industrialisation. In the Nordic countries, the discussion about the state building process in the 1980s and 1990s produced two conflicting narratives. The early modern period produced new repertoires for collective action and political agency. While this long-term perspective is perfectly valid, we argue that the concept of state building is more relevant for our focus on interactions at the micro level. Erling Sandmo has argued that early modern society should be analysed as a permanent public sphere, where ordinary people interacted with each other on a day-to-day basis. State territory was not a uniform entity but rather a fluctuating space full of ‘holes’ – places and spaces where central control was missing or totally dependent on local agents and institutions.
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4. |
- Linnarsson, Magnus, 1977-
(author)
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Contested customs : Swedish towns and the private customs company, 1726–1762
- 2021
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In: Bringing the People Back In. - Abingdon : Routledge. - 9780367686963 ; , s. 292-308
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article analyses the political contestation between the Swedish towns and the General Customs Lease Company, 1726–1761. It examines the agency of local groups, i.e. the towns, when they reacted and responded to policies introduced to them by the state, but pursued by a private company. The argument is that the introduction of the private Customs Company in 1726 altered the rules of political interaction. Usually, the conflict between the state and the localities can be described on the axis: local–central. In the case of the period of the Customs Company, the relation should rather be described as a triangle: local–private–central. This triangle, has implications for perceptions of how the state was supposed to function, and for questions about the common good. The introduction of the General Customs Lease Company, faced the towns with a fait accompli, and they were supposed to accept the new organisation. However, if the towns are regarded as political subjects, it is rather the start of resistance and contestation against the private company. Consequently, the example of the towns and the customs service illustrates how local and central politics became entangled with each other as a part of the early modern state building process. The contested customs in the eighteenth century is an example of the possibilities for the localities to have a say and gain support for their arguments in a specific question.
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5. |
- Nauman, Sari, 1981
(author)
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Statebreaking from Below: Recognizing the State in Wartime Rebellions
- 2021
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In: Bringing the People Back In: State Building from Below in the Nordic Countries ca. 1500–1800. Knut Dørum, Mats Hallenberg, Kimmo Katajala (red.). - New York : Routledge. - 9780367686963 ; , s. 76-90
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Previous research has shown how peasant rebellions were translated by local and central elite into institutional change. But not all state building measures were meant to build the state as we know it and states rarely moved in a single direction. In this article, I argue that historians, dealing with change and continuity, require a definition of the state that acknowledges and problematizes the transformational and unstable nature of the international order. I propose that the concept of recognition can be used to challenge the perception of states as sovereign and continuous entities and highlight challenges towards the state building process. Based on a case study in Sweden 1719, I show how states’ recognition of subjects’ political agency enabled negotiations during wartime rebellions. Furthermore, subjects could withhold or retract their recognition of a state. Their actions signalled the breakdown of the sovereign state, at least temporarily, and thwarted the state building process.
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6. |
- Neuding Skoog, Martin
(author)
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Pride of the communes : Social change in the military organization of 16th century Sweden
- 2021. - 1
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In: Bringing the People Back In. - Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge. - 9780367686963 ; , s. 91-106
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper aims to study the interconnections between the military-institutional transformation and social organization in local Swedish society during the course of the Sixteenth century. During this period, the emerging new Swedish state bureaucracy transformed the largely autonomous peasant militia into state-controlled regular army units. In this process the political status, goals and agency of the upper peasant strata are studied. This social group applied novel strategies in order to adapt favourably to changes. Through cooperation and continuous bargaining with the emerging new state, this group largely lost its age-old martial identity in exchange for a new beneficial political position in local society. Thus, changes in the military organization also accentuated an increased social stratification within peasant society.
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