In the years after WWII the Baltic Sea Area developed into an area strongly divided between East and West. Because of the tensions between the blocs, the coastal areas where strongly militarized and prepared for war. The new political situation after 1989 propelled an international military disarmament and closing down of bases, training areas around Europe. Since the Baltic Sea Area was one of the heaviest militarized part of Europe the question of disarmament here is of particularly great economic, social and cultural importance. This study is about the post-military landscape in the Baltic Sea Area with examples from Dejevo on the Estonian island Saaremaa, Dranske on the (East)German island Rügen and Fårösund on the Swedish island Gotland. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the process where the military landscape of the Cold War is transformed in order to be incorporated in the macro-regional endeavors for unity in the new Europe. I want to analyze the implications that planning visions have on the everyday life of people. A following aim is to shed light on the challenges that urban planning has to face in this transformation. Three research questions frame the study. The first question analyzes the process where the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea after the end of the Cold War are disarmed and transformed, from a landscape of production of military services and objects into a landscape of consumption for recreation and tourism. The second question takes its point of departure in the relation between planning visions and everyday life. The third question concerns the matter of the past and analyzes what aspects of the military landscape are emphasized respectively pushed aside in the transformation into post-military landscape. The study is based on interviews with inhabitants and local planners as well as macro-regional and local planning documents, articles and photographs.

[pt] Em 1917, músicos da Banda do Corpo de Bombeiros do Rio de Janeiro apresentaram o hino Soldado do Fogo. Os versos celebravam a sagrada missão destes voluntários que não temem da morte na sua batalha contra incêndios horrorosos e dantescos. A letra do hino condensava uma narrativa que, desde meados do século XIX, havia sido forjada institucionalmente, na intenção de consolidar o caráter heroico de integrantes comprometidos com a tarefa de proteger a vida e a propriedade, ainda que para isso tenham que perder a própria vida, com o cumprimento do seu dever. Essa versão idealizada do lugar social do bombeiro, elaborada e reelaborada pela Corporação, será questionada nesta tese em três argumentos principais. Primeiramente, através da análise das formas de recrutamento e do perfil dos agentes nos níveis mais baixos da hierarquia institucional, revelando dinâmicas relacionadas aos mundos de trabalho e aos conflitos laborais na virada do século XIX para o XX, que contrastam com a imagem de um voluntário empenhado no ofício de se sacrificar pela missão. Em segundo lugar, aponta para o Corpo de Bombeiros como uma instituição menos coesa do que aquela imaginada por seus comandantes, em grande medida fraturada por hierarquias e distinções que separavam, por exemplo, uma maioria de trabalhadores pobres dos militares de alta patente do Exército brasileiro. Por fim, a tese revela os limites de atuação dos bombeiros na execução das suas atribuições: seja pelas precárias condições de trabalho, seja pela carência de equipamentos à sua disposição. Enfim, esta pesquisa traz à tona um universo de trabalhadores lutando contra muito mais do que incêndios: por salários, condições de trabalho e possibilidades de ascensão social. / [en] In 1917, the Rio de Janeiro Fire Department official band performed the new hymn praising the Corporation: Fire Soldiers. The lyrics celebrated the sacred mission of those volunteer workers who did not fear death when in battles against the most awful and horrid fires. The verses condensed a narrative that had been institutionally forged since the mid-nineteenth century, aiming at consolidating the heroic character of its corps engaged with the task of protecting life and property as a duty to be fulfilled even if losing their lives while doing it. That ideal version of the firefighter s social place, elaborated and re-elaborated by the Corporation, will be questioned in this thesis in three main arguments. First of all, based on the analysis of the forms of recruitment and on the profile of the agents within the lower hierarchical levels, the study will reveal the dynamics related to different work spheres as well as occupational tensions by the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, which do not fit the image of a volunteer brigade ready to sacrifice life for the cause. Also, the research presents a Fire Department as less cogent than that ideal imagined by its commanders, greatly caused by distinctions and hierarchies that separated a great majority of poor workers from the high ranking officials in the Brazilian Army. Finally, the thesis reveals the limitations on firefighting attributions, due to very precarious working conditions or to lack of adequate equipment. The research also brings to the main stage a whole new universe of workers fighting not only a great number of fires but also for salaries, work conditions, and the possibility of social climbing.

The comparative experiences of the nineteenth-century British and American Army officer's wives add a central dimension to studies of empire. Sharing their husbands' sense of duty and mission, these women transferred, adopted, and adapted national values and customs, to fashion a new imperial sociability, influencing the course of empire by cutting across and restructuring gender, class, and racial borders. Stationed at isolated stations in British India and the American West, many officers' wives experienced homesickness and disorientation. They reimagined military architecture and connected into the military esprit de corps, to sketch a blueprint of female identity and purpose. On the physical journeys to join their husbands, and post arrival, the feminization of formal and informal military practices produced a new social reality and facilitated the development of an empowered sisterhood that sustained imperialist ambitions. This appropriation of symbols, processes, and rankings facilitated roles as social functionaries and ceremonial performers. Additionally, in utilizing dress, and home decor, military spouses drafted and projected an imperial identity that reflected, yet transformed upper and middle-class gender models. An examination of the social processes of calling and domestic rituals confirms the formation of a distinct and influential imperial female identity. The duty of protecting the social gateway to the imperial community, rested with a hostess?s ability to discriminate ? and convincingly reject parvenus. In focusing on the domestic site it becomes clear that the mistress-servant relationship both formulated and reproduced imperial ideologies. Within the home, the most intimate of inter-racial, inter-ethnic, and inter-class contact zones, the physiological trait of a white skin, and the exhibition of national artifacts signaled identity, status, and authority. Military spouses, then, generated social power as arbiters, promoters, and police officers of an imperial class, reaffirming internal confidence within the Anglo communities, and legitimizing external representations of the power and prestige of empire.