<p>This dissertation explores the transformation of the industrial relations regime in Sweden during the 1990s. Four areas are studied; industrial relations of the growing service sector, industrial relations of small enterprises, effects of re-regulation and introduction of competition on industrial relations in telecommunications service and internationalisation of industrial relations in the metal sector, showing that in the 1990s, the labour market regime of Sweden changed into a new regime, as a result of altered conditions caused by the third industrial revolution. The changes took place within a certain context and were governed by a strong path dependence. The internationalisation or Europeanization of the economy, foremost the upsurge in ingoing foreign direct investments, increased the Swedish industry’s dependence on non-national actors and economy. The employers and the trade unions had strong incentives to come to an agreement (the Industrial Agreement in 1997), to achieve international competitiveness. The increasing dependence on (Western/European) trade and investments caused additional adjustments of industrial relations. The Europeanization of the political decision making process (EU membership) had also an impact, to which was added liberalisation, abandoning monopolies etc, but the effect were not as substantial as that of (economic) internationalisation.</p>

This dissertation explores the transformation of the industrial relations regime in Sweden during the 1990s. Four areas are studied; industrial relations of the growing service sector, industrial relations of small enterprises, effects of re-regulation and introduction of competition on industrial relations in telecommunications service and internationalisation of industrial relations in the metal sector, showing that in the 1990s, the labour market regime of Sweden changed into a new regime, as a result of altered conditions caused by the third industrial revolution. The changes took place within a certain context and were governed by a strong path dependence. The internationalisation or Europeanization of the economy, foremost the upsurge in ingoing foreign direct investments, increased the Swedish industry’s dependence on non-national actors and economy. The employers and the trade unions had strong incentives to come to an agreement (the Industrial Agreement in 1997), to achieve international competitiveness. The increasing dependence on (Western/European) trade and investments caused additional adjustments of industrial relations. The Europeanization of the political decision making process (EU membership) had also an impact, to which was added liberalisation, abandoning monopolies etc, but the effect were not as substantial as that of (economic) internationalisation.

In this dissertation the construction of two coastal railways, the East Coast Line and the Bothnia Line, in the Norrland region of northern Sweden is used as a case study of how regionally based interest groups are formed, and how they gain access to decision-making processes on a national level. In periods when a number of preconditions were in place, a window of opportunity opened for the coastal railway that the regional elites could exploit. Among these was the ability to form a coherent regional interest group, through institutions that created platforms and power-bases that enable regional elites to co-operate and act on regional and national levels.The existence of an institutional framework that was adapitve towards regional railway promotion was also important. The study shows that the coastal railway had a very flexible role on the agenda, as it provided a fixed solution against which actors could pin a multitude of different problems. An important factor for explaining the development of the coastal railway question in Norrland was the ideological notion of the region itself. Being a vast, resource-rich and sparsely populated region, Norrland had almost always received special consideration in both public opinion and national policy making. It also created a remarkable stubbornness among the regional actors in working for the coastal railway. Regional interest groups had also learnt that linking their claims to Norrland's peripheral position had high legitimacy on the national arena, by claiming the need for regional fairness and/or the national importance of the regional export-intensive industries. This was instrumental in justifying the repeated exemptions from the national railway policy regimes that ultimately were decissive in making the regional elites successful.

This doctoral thesis explores the agrarian development in 20th Estonia and the role of family farming during three major agricultural transformations. It consists of four papers and an introductory chapter for which the common departure are the situation appearing in the Estonian farming landscape after the regained independence in 1991. The first three studies analyse comparative aspects on Estonia's interwar experiences with focus on land reform, agricultural co-operation, and agricultural export development. The fourth study focuses on the role of private plots during the Soviet period and the conversion of these into subsistence holdings after 1991. By merging the perspectives in these papers, the introductory chapter explores the impacts and legacies of previous transformations on the post-Soviet agricultural transformation up to 2004. The thesis specifically analyses the long-term effects of perceptions of markets and the role of agricultural production, changes in the agrarian property relations, organisation of agricultural production and co-operation. In analytical terms, this is discussed from the perspectives of continuity and discontinuity. Besides the several societal changes affecting the agrarian property relations in 20th century Estonia, the radical and decisive shifts have also affected markets, trade and economic integration. Since the end of the First World War, Estonia has been quickly thrown between different economic-political systems and legal environments. From the perspective of the small state’s dependence on trade and reliance on a few markets, the upheavals in the early 1920s, after World War II, and not least the fall of the Soviet Union, Estonia’s long-term economic development has been significantly affected. In this context the role of agriculture has changed. Most important, however, this dissertation shows how the idea of small-scale family farming survived throughout the planned economic period and became an indispensable production unit, even though it turned out to be a myth as soon as the Soviet system was dissolved and the exposure to international competition began after 1991.

This dissertation examines changes in the Swedish health care system during the period 1962-2000. During this period, three legislative changes affected the development of the health care system. Firstly, the Health care act of 1962 that increased the county councils responsibility for the health care. Secondly, the Health care act of 1983, which resulted in a new definition of concept health at the same time as it changed the hospitals responsibility for care and illness. Thirdly, from 1992 to 1995, three reforms changed the hospitals position in the health care system. Together with the general technological development of the health care sector, these three legislative changes have led to new way of producing care as well as it has created new jobs, new work specialities and it has also effect the gender division in work. Women have always dominated the work in the health care sector. The way of care production have however also created new jobs mainly consisting of technological work assignments that have better status than traditional care work with the patients. The new technological jobs are furthermore primarily occupied by men, which leads to a organizational development than reemphasizes the hierarchical structure of the health care sector, where women work in the lower position and men in the upper positions. This development is also evident when nurses begin to work with technology. This express a new gender system in which men dominate in curing and nursing work-assignments at care wards with high technological level, but not in the caring assignments. And at care wards with low technological level the situation is the opposite, women dominate in all three assignments e.g. curing, nursing and caring care work.

This thesis analyses the development towards a mass market pornographic press. Sweden (in addition to Denmark) is often described as a forerunner in this development when the so-called “porn wave” hit most of the Western world in the late 1960s. The “porn wave” was the starting point of the contemporary pornographic press, which put sexually explicit pictures on the international market. Denmark was the first country in the world to decriminalize pornographic pictures in 1969 and Sweden followed in 1971. While previous research in Sweden often blames decriminalisation for the growth of the pornographic market, this thesis shows that the “porn wave” preceded the alteration of the Freedom of the press act and thus calls for a more multifaceted analysis of the development. Very few studies have been made about the development from an underground exclusive market of explicit pornography to a legal mass market. This thesis, however, makes a survey of all the Swedish publishers of pornographic magazines, their length on the market, and the market conditions. By analysing the regulation of pornography prior to 1971 and the legal cases leading to prosecutions of the publishers, the strategies used to challenge the regulation are traced. Special attention is also paid to how the monopoly on distribution held by Pressbyrån, a company owned by the Swedish press, affected the pornographic press. By cooperating and starting their own distribution channels, the pornography publishers managed to challenge Pressbyrån’s regulations. Great emphasis is laid on the discursive construction of pornography in mass media and in the parliamentary debates. This thesis argues that the antagonisms between the pornographic press and its critics are central in understanding how pornography was perceived and that these debates have decisively impacted the market conditions. Sensation-seeking articles in the evening papers, and the politicians’ liberal attitudes towards the pornographic press, made the market seem more open and lucrative. The resistance towards the establishment of a mass market and explicit pornographic press was strong during the whole period – but these critics used quite varying arguments. By analysing these arguments, this thesis shows how the pornographic press touched on sensitive cultural norms regarding marriage, young people’s sexuality, homosexuality, gender and love. The second half of the 1960s was a turning point in the development of the pornographic press, the discursive construction of pornography and in the political strategies used to combat pornography. In just a few years, the pornographic press grew substantially and started to publish explicit pictures of intercourse. In that same period, the construction of pornography went from a conservatively Christian understanding to a sexually liberal – and later to a feminist understanding of its problems. The government introduced a “porn raid” against the magazines, prosecuted many of them, and then paradoxically decriminalized pornography in 1971. Theoretically, the conclusion is made that pornography has to be seen in its historical context and in relation to its special market conditions. Since pornography continually has been a contested commodity, its controversial status has resulted in special regulations, marketing difficulties and lack of income from advertisements.

The purpose of this thesis has been to analyse the managing of risks, insecurities and transactions costs that deterred economic exchange during the 1930’s and the 1940’s, within the Swedish-German bilateral clearing system, from a Swedish contractual theoretical perspective. In this thesis it has been shown that the clearing agreement was put in practice in 1934, on initiative of Sweden. In the agreement financial issues associated with risks and insecurities were to be reduced by formalising rules for the economic exchange. The basic principle was that Germany regularly had a trade surplus in relation to Sweden. The surplus was used for re-building the Reichsbank’s monetary reserves, as well as payments on financial claims. The agreement was designed in an incomplete way, to be adjusted ad hoc in a trial and error process. As both parties had different interests, they had to make concessions in order to sustain the clearing system. This was also reflected in the design of the agreement, which evolved from an incomplete to a specific, detailed agreement, due to the increasing risks and insecurities that had to be dealt with. The clearing system was ideal for wartime conditions since it maintained trade flows. It also became a line of defence: specific agreements allowed the dominant Germany less scope to assert preferential rights of interpretation of the rules and regulations. When the war intensified it was difficult for Germany to carry out its commitments to Sweden, and the Swedish party found reasons to distrust the German economy, which was entering a recession. At the same time Allied forces strengthened their political influence, and the victors would become the leaders of the future international economy. Sweden made a gradual exit from the clearing system, delivering the agreed upon exports to Germany, while keeping the Allied negotiators informed of the process. The Swedish-German clearing system collapsed in spring 1945.

Under 1940-talet påbörjades en omfattande utbyggnad av en offentlig tjänstesektor som ett led i att göra Sverige till en universell välfärdsstat. I samband med den offentliga tjänstesektorns utbyggnad ökade andelen kvinnor på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. En omfattande utbyggnad av sjukvården gjordes vilket resulterade i en kraftigt ökad efterfrågan på vårdpersonal, och då inte minst sjuksköterskor. Sjuksköterskors löner har varit omdiskuterade ända sedan 1900-talets början. Yrket har historiskt varit lågavlönat, vilket kan förklaras på en mängd olika sätt. I uppsatsen studeras om och hur institutionella förändringar på området har påverkat sjuksköterskeyrkets löneutveckling under perioden 1977 till 2017. De institutionella förändringar som har undersökts är främst politiska reformer och lagstiftning på hälso- och sjukvårdens område. Även reformer av sjuksköterskeutbildningen har undersökts, eftersom att professionalisera sjuksköterskeyrket sågs vara ett steg mot en förbättrad löneutveckling. Trots att sjukvården har genomgått stora reformer under perioden 1977 till 2017 har det haft en till synes liten påverkan på löneutvecklingen. Inte heller professionaliseringen tycks ha påverkat utvecklingen. Sjuksköterskeyrket var under 1900-talets början ett renodlat kvinnoyrke. Än idag består yrket till 90 procent kvinnor. Att sjuksköterskors löner är låga, liksom många andra kvinnodominerade yrkens löner, kan förklaras genom att det föreligger en värdediskriminering av vad som betraktas som kvinnligt arbete. Vid undersökning av sjuksköterskeyrket är det därmed viktigt att beakta yrkets genusarbetsdelning, vilket har påverkat, och än idag påverkar, yrket och dess löneutveckling. Yrkets genusarbetsdelning kan förklaras som ett informellt spårberoende. Ju närmare vår tid vi kommer ju mer har genusarbetsdelningen uppmärksammats både politiskt och inom forskningen. En följd av det är jämställdhetslagen som infördes 1979. Trots att värdediskrimineringen av det kvinnodominerade sjuksköterskeyrket uppmärksammats har det inte haft en synbar påverkan på lönerna.

The thesis is about what the buildings at manor estates, vicarages and farms looked like and how they changed during the agrarian revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Through new clearings, mechanisation, land partition, and increased work distribution and specialisation, production increased vigorously during the period, which generally caused an increase in prosperity and lay the foundation for the subsequent industrial revolution. The aim was to study how houses and outbuildings were affected by changes in agriculture, household composition and work organisation, an area which to date has been relatively unexplored. The study, which was based on conditions in Lagunda, a flat-country town in central Sweden, shows that there has been both change and continuity in building developments. The buildings became increasingly larger as arable land acreage and livestock numbers increased, and they were also gradually rendered more efficient to facilitate production. The increase in profit led in turn to an increase in the standard of living and both houses and outbuildings were increasingly lavishly built. However the increasingly larger and better buildings were not only a product of improved economy but also a response to the increasing need for manifestation felt by the manor owners, clergymen and farmers whereby they could clearly mark their positions in relation to each other and to a growing class of non-propertied people. The boundaries between family and employee, as well as between ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ functions, were all the more clearly demarcated, both indoors and outdoors. Even if the changes were considerable on the whole, there was a clear line of continuity. Household reproduction was the primary aim and providing for the family could not be jeopardised, which explains why most changes took place in small steps at a time.

Living conditions in periods of transitions. Changing working conditions of the log-driver during the 1930s. Petrus Forsgren, Economic History Bachelor Degree, Umeå University Autumn 2020. The working terms, salary and conflicts between the workers and the Umeå flottningsförening in log driving-district of Umeåälven has been studied between the period 1928-1939. Although it was a relatively few years that were studied, changes were observed especially for the working terms. The contracts went from hand-written to standardized and a orientation towards the new consensus for collective agreements in the work places occurred during the 1930s. Collective bargaining agreement were written 1935. The employers were expected to take more responsibility for the workers at the end of the period. A specialization of the workers and foremen occurred although no major changes happened to the log driving process. The working conditions in log-driving were still the same as in early industrialization. There was a diversification to hourly wages although they remained similar in the studied period. Conflicts occurred during the years 1933-34. The log drivers usually combined the work with farming, forestry or later also road construction. Other branches did the same transition but usually earlier such as railway workers during the 1910-1920s or forest workers during the 1960-1970s. This work gives a clue to why the changes happened relatively late in the log driving industry in Umeälven. The internal factors for change were weak due to the background of the workers, pull from other industries in the area and small extent of rationalization within the organization, but the external factors became more and more apparent during the studied period. The new institutional changes ignored the old industries which also lost influence but they were never the less affected indirectly by the changes and the Swedish economy as a whole.