Human food consumption has changed from the late 19th century to the turn of the millennium, and so has the need for resources to sustain this consumption. For the city of Linköping, situated in southeastern Sweden, the environmental imprint of an average inhabitant’s food consumption is studied from the year 1870 to the year 2000. The average consumer is the driving factor in this study, since changes in food consumption have a direct influence on the environmental imprint. This thesis analyses the environmental imprint of human food consumption from a historical perspective, by applying two different methods. An analysis of the average Swedish food consumption creates the basis for a material flow analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as a study of the spatial imprint. Emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus into the hydrosphere have decreased over this period for the system of food consumption and production for an average consumer, while the input via chemical fertilizer has increased significantly. The efficiency of this system could be increased if for instance more phosphorus in human excreta would be reused within the system instead of large deposition and losses into the hydrosphere. The spatial imprint of human food consumption shows, given the changing local preconditions, that less space would be needed for regional production of the consumed food. However, the share of today’s import and thus globally produced food doubles this spatial imprint. The results of this study show not only a strong influence of the consumption of meat and other animal products on the environmental imprint, but also great potential in the regional production of food. In the context of an increasing urban population, and thus additional billions of people who will live at an increasing distance from the agricultural production land, concern for the direct effects of our human food consumption can be of decisive importance for future sustainable food supply.

This essay is a business history about the Swedish midsized tobacco company J A Boman & Co, previously Ferd Körner and Körner & Boman, which was part of the blooming tobacco industry in Sweden during the 19th century.  One purpose of the essay is to fill a gap within both business history in general and the study of tobacco companies in particular, since they both tend to favor studies on larger companies. The other purpose is to find a methodological way to study a smaller sized, older company with very few sources from the actual company. The essay seeks to answer questions about the company’s production history and how it changed over the years. The study takes use of both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the company and how it developed over time. It is not an essay deeply embedded in theory, it rather seeks to use different theoretical approaches. One approach is a micro level macro theory, that claims that a company only can be understood through the macro level and that the company, itself being the micro level, can deliver exciting new findings that creates a deeper understanding for the macro level. Throughout the essay, the company’s production statistics are examined, and combined with newspaper articles, letters and previous academic works within the field, the essay closes in on answers to the questions that were introduced in the beginning. The examination of the company finds that the midsized company managed to survive through adaptability to its time and circumstances. The company chose to sell their products through merchants instead of directly to the consumers, unlike most of the other tobacco companies at the time. The methodological problem, which was part of the essay’s purpose, was resolved by the combined method described earlier in the abstract, although the essay would admittedly have been better if there had been some papers left from the examined company.

This master's thesis studies Utländska biblioteket, a 19th century foreign literature subscription library in Karlskrona, Sweden. The aim of the thesis is to investigate Utländska biblioteket between 1835–1864. The material consists primarily of primary sources from the archive of Utländska biblioteket. The main primary sources are the library's accounts book, its minutes, and two book catalogs. Using analytical tools from Jürgen Habermas, feminist criticism of his ideas and from Pierre Bourdieu, as well as results from previous research on older library forms and female organization in the 19th century, the thesis answers questions relating to the library as a society, its members and its book collection. The investigation shows that Utländska biblioteket was a subscription library as well as a book circle. Based on its regulations, it should be viewed as a sort of public sphere, but in reality Utländska biblioteket was an exclusive group, consisting of a socially homogenous group of people who in large extent knew each other. Its members were in large part female and aristocratic. The reading of foreign literature and the focus on quality, can be viewed as an act of distinction. Utländska biblioteket was, compared to other similar libraries, unusual primarily because of its large female membership. This is in the thesis explained through the viewing of the library as a female organization, where the male members in part play a role as acting agents in the library's contact with for example book dealers. Also, the book collection shows proof of a certain female subject interest. Based on these facts, Utländska biblioteket can be viewed as a female counter public, where women created a space for themselves where they, through the literature and through the membership in a society, could reflect on their identities, as well as make claims on what a woman was and could do. This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2003.

Diss. Linköping : Univ.

This study, Death shadowed by life: Accountability in popular interpretations of suicide in Sweden 1850–1900, draws inspiration from the perspective of new cultural history, exploring ideas of accountability and the relationship between life and death in interpretations of suicide in late 19th century rural Sweden. The sources used in this study consist of records of popular belief and practice that were collected in the early 20th century. In historical writings suicide is often treated as an isolated act which was by default morally condemned. In this work the perspective is broadened, analysing the self-killing act in relation to understandings of the self-murderer’s earlier life as well as to related types of death. I argue that the definition of suicide, in the context here examined, had less to do with the intention and agency of the person who killed themself than with the context of the person’s earlier life. The main aspect when classifying deaths, both accidental and intentional, as suicides was the presence of sinful acts in the past. Furthermore, suicide was part of an even wider category of deaths caused by sinful acts in life. However, as opposed to these other kinds of death, suicide was understood as the ultimate proof of sinful behaviour. Finally, I suggest that sin in this context had a pragmatic facet that intertwined with, but did not depend on, moral judgment. This study thus sheds new light on the stigmatization of suicide.

In this thesis, I argue that the modern view on tattooing as a new trend and its former association with antisocial people is an old trope, in many ways constructed by the newspapers.  Tattooing is a practice with a long and multifaceted history. From Ötzi the iceman to the presumed tattoo-boom or tattoo-renaissance in the late twentieth century, it has waxed and waned in popularity but never fully got out of sight. The inhabitants of Sweden's capital city Stockholm are said to be the world's most tattooed people.  The Swedish word for tattoo: tatuering, was introduced in 1799 in an article about natives in the South Pacific. For about half a century, the newspapers mostly wrote about tattooing as a native practice in faraway countries. But, as far back as 1869, the Swedish newspapers started to report on a more western-centered tattoo interest. Approximately 30 years later, it was also reported as a trend attracting new target groups such as women and nobility in America and Britain. Since then, Swedish newspapers have repeatedly described tattooing alternatively as a new trend reaching out to new target groups, a practice on the brink of extinction, a danger to the health, or a stigmatizing mark. The tattooed person has been depicted as odd, self-destructive, an outcast, or incapable of making their own decisions. Authorities such as medics, scholars, social workers, and journalists have taken a right to interpret, discuss and judge the choices of other people. From researching Swedish Newspapers from 1799 to 1999, I conclude that the modern reports on tattooing as a trend, a danger, or a sign of deviance is a narrative with a long history. The view of tattooed people as odd, strange, and victims of self-destructive behavior is a discourse with an equally long tradition. Further, I argue that the tattooed person, when interviewed or depicted to this day, is constructed by old conceptions and stereotypes. The result is that people with an interest in tattooing internalizes prejudices as a self-image. This image is either promoted and self-encouraged, or the object of denial, and a wish to be seen as a whole person, not a stereotype or cliché.

This Master’s (60 credits) dissertation paper examines how three Swedish newspapers describe the political ideology called anti–Semitism in Germany, from the day it was born in end of October 1879 until January 1882 after the campaigns of persecution of Jews in Russia and Germany.Politically, the 1880s were formative years in Swedish history. A party system emerged slowly andseveral new political ideologies found their way into Swedish political life. Many of those wereinfluences from Germany: socialism, nationalism, political conservatism. But also anti–Semitism.This paper is a comparative study between the newspapers Dagens Nyheter (liberal), Nya DagligtAllehanda (conservative) and Stockholms Dagblad (conservative) and describe how the anti–Semitic political movement in Germany, and the ongoing atrocities against Jews in Russia andGermany, were being portrayed in the Swedish media. The survey in the essay shows that the newspapers describe the political ideology anti-Semitismvery differently. Liberal Dagens Nyheter was highly critical against the political form of hatredagainst the Jews, but so was also conservative Stockholms Dagblad, although the latter had a higherdegree of a neutral type of reporting than the former. Stockholms Dagblad leaned towards supportof a Bismarckian type of conservatism, (which at this time had not yet embraced hatred againstJews as an official policy). The newspaper of the three with the strongest support of the anti-Semitic political movement inGermany was the daily Nya Dagligt Allehanda, which very often expressed and reproduced anti-Semitic constructions and derogatory and racist views on Jews.However, the newspaper Nya Dagligt Allehanda did not embrace the most extreme and violent formof anti-Semitism which were being advocated by some German politicians in the 1880s, whichincluded the deportation or even mass murder of Jews.

No description available.

This thesis is about the economic aspects of public procurement of services through auctionsin Sweden. It focuses on two different institutions, auctions used to find foste r-parents forboarded out children in the 19th century, and auctions of cleaning service contracts in the 20 thcentury. I n both cases, the contracting entity is the municipality or its representative, thelowest bidder wins the auction, and is paid in accordance with his/her bid.In the child auctions, c hildren were allotted to foster-parents by means of an open biddingprocess, the descending English auction, where the bids were given continuously to theauctioneer. In modern public procurement sealed bids ar e used in accordance with the firstprice,sealed bid auction. The first part of this thesis is about price formation in the childauctions and a study is made of the children who were auctioned several times, indicatingasymmetric information among bidders or adverse selection in this market. These subjects arestudied using field data on 601 child auctions held in Northern Sweden during the period 1863to 1889. The empirical findings in the first paper suggest that the foster-parents had a cleareconomic motive in these auctions. The child characteristics significantly affect the amount ofcompensation paid to the foster-parent. There is also evidence that farmers preferred older,more productive children. The second paper studies whether a re-auctioned child commandeda higher or lower price than a child that was not re-auctioned. The results indicate some formof asymmetric information because foster-parents demanded a higher level of compensationfor a re-auctioned child. The results also suggest that the probability that a child was reauctionedincreased if he/she was not healthy.The third paper in the thesis discusses a kind of "paradox". Although there is a competitiveeffect on the bids in the auction of cleaning service contracts, the contracting entity has anoption, given by law, to restrict the number of bidders. In th is paper, an implementation costis introduced fo r the contracting entity to justify such a restriction. The results, based onSwedish municipality data, indicate that contract and municipality characteristics, assumed toaffect the implementation cost, affect the volume of the procurement, and the number ofbidders, but not necessarily the choice of allocation mechanism. The final paper studiesregional differences in bids, costs, and competition in municipal procurement using the samedata as in paper [3]. The results show higher estimated costs for completing the contract, butlower estimated mean bids in the major city area of Stockholm compared with the res t of thecountry. This is explained by lower profit margins and higher operational costs in the majorcity area. An analysis is also carried out of why the lowest bidder is not always the contractedbidder. / <p>Härtill 4 delar.</p> / digitalisering@umu