The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how Sweden’s bilateral economic relationship with South Africa has evolved between the years 1985-2018, from a Swedish perspective. The study has four research questions. The first question focuses on how Swedish policies toward South Africa has evolved over time, which is followed by two questions on how these changes has impacted trade and non-trade economic activity between the countries. The last question binds the study together with a discussion of the balance of Swedish priorities between humanitarian goals and domestic self-interests during this period. The existing literature is mainly focused on the economic relationship leading up to the fall of apartheid in 1994, and there is not much written on the subject since then. This study aims to contribute to the field by connecting the apartheid-era literature to the development of the post-apartheid bilateral economic relationship.  The study is based on a cross analysis of complementary data sources and methods to capture the complexity of the bilateral economic relationship between the two countries. The main bulk of data is derived through semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Swedish government, the civil society, and researchers with experience of this bilateral relationship. This is complemented with a content analysis of Swedish policy documents and illustrative quantitative data. The thesis is built on an analytical framework based on Embeddedness theory and a conceptualisation of Economic- and Soft Power, which highlights the interconnectedness between social, political, and economic relationships.

The thesis analyses how the system of oil and fuel storage was created, and applied in Sweden during the Cold War. The investigation focuses on the period 1938-1998 and considers the vital role of fossil fuel during a period when Sweden declared neutrality and independence. This period also includes a phase of divestment of some of the state-owned stores. The project is partly based on original research in several archives including the Swedish Geological Survey, the War Archives of Sweden, the archive of the city of Stockholm, and relevant state agencies. Fuel was a means to security of supply, and how current policies interacted, as well as the extent to which it was perceived as a vital part of the nation’s current security politics. In particular, how the storage of oil, on a large scale, demanded adjustments of the physical Scandinavian bedrock, which in turn required new technology is examined. The study follows the forthcoming of both an organisation and a new set of knowledge illustrating how the practice of storing oil, in itself an unstable fluid changing characteristics over time, created a surrounding social network. The thesis also reviews the environmental awareness and ensuing concerns relating to the stores. The oil storage created a whole range of new specialists and experts, as well as academic fields, which all converged around the storage of oil. The long-term storage required regulations and monitoring, resulting in creation of new areas of expertise both within the companies obliged to store oil, and also within relevant state agencies. In addition, supervising authorities developed, typically governmental agencies, of which one was also assigned to dismantling the stores. The thesis discusses the political climate motivating the dismantling of the stores relating to contingency planning and civil defence, tracing the discourse until today when stores are now being re-activated.

Digitalisation, and the related idea that digitalisation will cause a technological transformation that will lead to a “fourth industrial revolution” (Industry 4.0), is a global major topic with a huge impact on many parts of our life. Related changes in the labour market are to be expected, with implications for the working conditions of employees, for example due to the introduction of robots in production areas. Current research analyses how digitalisation can impact working conditions, however, there seems to be a gap in the research related to the impact of digitalisation on working conditions of women and older employees specifically. Therefore, my aim is to analyse how digitalisation changed and can change working conditions in the manufacturing sector in a way that promotes decent work and equality for women and elderly. Considering a theoretical background of the concept of decent work, gender equality and age-related issues at work, as well as a brief historical view of the impact of industrial revolutions on working conditions, I analyse the research questions for the case of Industry 4.0 in the German manufacturing sector. Methodologically, I combine expert interviews with qualitative content analysis of publicly available documents, to get a broad view of this case. My results indicate that digitalisation was, in fact, already able to improve working conditions and promoted the integration of women and older employees in a few selected areas, especially through reducing physical demands of labour by implementing assistive digital technologies. Correspondingly, digitalisation seems to provide the tools and opportunities to further change working conditions in a way that promotes decent work and equality for women and elderly. However, when it comes to key areas of inequality and discrimination in the labour market, the horizontal segregation of the labour market for women, as well as the lack of qualification of older employees, it remains uncertain whether digitalisation will actually improve these areas. The tools, however, seem to be there, and companies seem aware of them.

The aim of this study is to examine how the holiday Valentine’s day was introduced in Sweden during the 1950’s. The essay reviews the topic from the field of economic history, with focus on advertising history in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. Valentine’s day has roots in English medieval traditions and a Roman legend from 270 but has no evidence of being celebrated in Sweden earlier than 1956, when the company Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) launched its first collection of Valentine’s day cards to be put on presents to give to your loved ones. In that sense, the Swedish form of celebrating Valentine’s day stems more from American pop culture and customs, which makes the analysis of Valentine’s day in Sweden fitting in the discourse on Americanization of the European advertising industry and culture. The study uses the definition of Americanization provided from Harm G. Schröter (2005), and reviews advertisements and commentary found in newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet (1956–1971) from a narrative approach, described by Peter Hansen (2012). The research questions focus on how advertisements create meaning around the holiday Valentine’s day, and whether or not the introduction of the holiday in Sweden can be seen as a part of Americanization of the Swedish culture and advertising industry. The study found that advertisements for the holiday uses Swedish and European history, an emphasis on selling the feeling of gift giving and the strive for a modern lifestyle to create meaning around the holiday and a legitimate place in the Swedish calendar. The introduction of the holiday can also be seen as a part of Americanization of the Swedish advertisement industry, with examples as portraying the American celebration as an ideal and using American advertising techniques in the advertisements analyzed.

Sverige förväntas återigen gå in i en lågkonjunktur och det förekommer hög inflation samt kraftiga ränteökningar. Andra samhällsfaktorer såsom konflikter i Ukraina, globala utbudsstörningar och ökade energipriser bidrar också till förändringar i ekonomin. För fastighetsföretag innebär det svårare finansiering, ökade räntor och kostnader samt begränsningar i hyreshöjning vilket leder till att företagen behöver anpassa sin strategi för att bemöta de ekonomiska förutsättningarna. Syftet med studien är att undersöka svenska privata fastighetsföretags strategier inför en lågkonjunktur avseende strategisk planering, kostnadsbesparingar, diversifiering och investering. En kvalitativ metod har använts och empirin grundar sig på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter från fastighetsföretag med hyresbostäder. Det empiriska materialet har därefter sammanställts och analyserats med hjälp av den teoretiska referensramen. Resultatet visar att fastighetsföretagen inte antar en specifik förberedande strategi inför en lågkonjunktur, utan har anpassat strategin i samband med att de ekonomiska förutsättningarna ändrats. Med tanke på begränsningar i hyreshöjning så kan de inte kompensera de ökade kostnaderna med hjälp av intäkter vilket leder till att kostnadsbesparingar är en central aspekt vid utformandet av strategi. Kostnadsbesparingar görs främst på underhåll, energiförbrukning och investeringar samt att entreprenörer konkurrensutsätts. Dock förekommer nödvändiga investeringar, vilket gör att företagen prioriterar de av störst behov. Generellt sett använder sig företagen av en kärnstrategi vilket innebär att de håller sig på samma marknad oavsett konjunkturläget. Företagen tenderar att fokusera mer på det befintliga beståndet snarare än nyproduktion med tanke på svårare att få lån och ökade räntekostnader samt byggkostnader. Eftersom fastighetsföretagen anser att fastighetsmarknaden är statisk för tillfället så väger konkurrensrisken inte mer än den finansiella risken. / Sweden is once again expected to enter a recession and there is high inflation and sharp interest rate increases. Other factors such as conflicts in Ukraine, global supply disruptions and increased energy prices also contribute to changes in the economy. For real estate companies, this means more difficult financing, increased interest rates and costs as well as restrictions on rent increases, which means they need to adapt their strategy to meet the economic changes.The purpose of the study is to investigate the strategies of Swedish private real estate companies in an upcoming recession regarding strategic planning, cost savings, diversification and investment. A qualitative method has been applied and the empirical evidence is based on six semi-structured interviews of real estate companies with rental housing. The empirical material has then been compiled and analyzed using the theories presented.The result shows that real estate companies do not adopt a specific preparatory strategy for a recession but have modified the strategy in connection with changes in economic conditions. Given the limitations in rent increases, they cannot compensate for the increased costs with the help of income, which means that cost savings are a central aspect in the making of the strategy. Cost savings are mainly made on maintenance, energy consumption and investments, and that contractors are exposed to competition. However, there are necessary investments within the various aspects, which means that the companies must prioritize. Generally speaking, the companies use a core strategy, which means that they stay in the same market regardless of the state of the economy. The companies tend to focus more on the existing stock rather than new production because of difficulties regarding loans and increased interest rates as well as construction costs. Since the real estate companies believe that the real estate market is static at the moment, the competitive risk does not weigh more than the financial risk.

No description available.

In this paper, I investigate changes in the job market composition during Sweden’s “Golden Age” between the end of WWII and the 1974 oil crisis to examine to which degree this reflects an earlier job polarization than previously thought and validates that era’s anxieties about automation. Drawing from individual income and occupational data from a representative sample of the Swedish population from the year 1940, 1950, 1960 and 1970 and using the Historical International Standard of Classification of Occupations (HISCO) to make the data sets comparable, I demonstrate a general decrease in the share of blue-collar professionals and a general increase in the share of white-collar professionals, as well as a transition from unskilled to semi-skilled and skilled jobs. This indicates skill-biased technological change as the underlying force in the Swedish economy at the time, refuting Gustavsson’s (2017) previous findings regarding an early Swedish job polarization as well as general claims about deskilling. Lastly, using Acemoglu’s (2017) framework for enabling and replacing technologies, I argue the degree to which the pervasiveness of enabling technologies helped shape the Swedish Golden Age has been underappreciated, carrying lessons for our current era of generation-defining technologies and contemporary discussions surrounding automation.

This thesis examines the decision-making regarding market-orientation within specific types of Swedish state-owned enterprises, namely the Public Business Authorities (Affärsverk, PBAs), during a period of institutional upheaval in the 1980s. It specifically focuses on the leadership groups – director general and board – of the Energy PBA (Statens Vattenfallsverk), the Postal PBA (Postverket), and the Tele PBA (Televerket). The thesis adopts a theoretical framework that integrates the perspectives of varieties of capitalism and the attention-based view of the firm, which posits that firm behaviour is determined by where and how attention is directed within the organisation. The thesis delineates two distinct leadership strategies for addressing market-orientation: the deliberative institutional change strategy, characterised by consensus-building through negotiation using existing modes of strategic interaction, and the entrepreneurial institutional change strategy, characterised by leveraging existing modes of strategic interaction to transcend them and forge novel paths towards new modes of strategic interaction. The former was applied by the Postal and Energy PBAs, while the latter was applied by the Tele PBA.

Sweden has long had the goal of phasing out its nuclear power. However, both public opinion and politics have shifted in response to the climate and energy crisis, which demands fossil-free energy production. At the same time, small modular reactors (SMRs) have begun to be developed, and several players in Sweden have started exploring this technology. SMRs are smaller versions of conventional nuclear reactors but built in a modular fashion. The advantage of modularity is that the reactors can be produced in series, easily maintained, and their smaller size allows for more flexible placement and lower initial investment. Based on the above, this study examines how current nuclear power actors in Sweden view the development of SMRs.  To answer this question, semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from Fortum, Sydkraft Sverige (Uniper), and Kärnfull Next, all of which are active in nuclear power in Sweden. The study shows that the actors see the biggest advantages of SMRs as their modularity, relatively low investment requirements, and more flexible placement, which enables more efficient utilization. However, they believe that the development of SMRs is heavily constrained by current legislation and licensing processes. These are designed to promote the limitation and decommissioning of conventional nuclear power, and according to the respondents, they make successful SMR development impossible. The consequence is that the regulatory framework is more restrictive towards SMRs and hampers the ability to leverage the advantages of SMRs over conventional nuclear power. Furthermore, the respondents believe that there is a skills shortage in nuclear power that will need to be addressed in order to successfully develop SMRs in Sweden. / Sverige har länge haft målet att avveckla sin kärnkraft. Däremot har både opinionen och politiken vänt i frågan och ändrat uppfattning i spåren av klimat- och energikrisen som efterfrågar fossilfri energiproduktion. Samtidigt har små modulära reaktorer (SMR) börjat utvecklas och ett flertal aktörer i Sverige har börjat utforska tekniken. SMR är en mindre version av en konventionell kärnkraftsreaktor men modulärt uppbyggd. Fördelen med modulariteten är att reaktorerna kan serieproducerads, lättare underhållas och dess mindre storlek möjliggör friare placering och mindre initial investering. Med bakgrund i ovanstående undersöker arbetet hur ser nuvarande aktörer inom kärnkraft på utvecklingen av SMR i Sverige? För att besvara frågeställningen genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter från Fortum, Sydkraft Sverige (Uniper) och Kärnfull Next. Samtliga företag är aktiva inom kärnkraft i Sverige. Arbetet visar att aktörerna ser de största fördelarna med SMR som dess modularitet, relativt låga investeringskrav samt dess friare placering, vilket möjliggör mer effektiv användande. Däremot anser de att utvecklingen av SMR kraftigt begränsas av dagens lagstiftning och licensieringsprocesser. Dessa är designade för att främja begränsning och avveckling av konventionell kärnkraft och enligt respondenterna omöjliggör det framgångsrik utveckling av SMR. Konsekvensen blir att den är mer restriktiv mot SMR:er och försvårar möjligheten att utnyttja de fördelar SMR har gentemot konventionell kärnkraft. Vidare anser respondenterna att det råder en kompetensbrist inom kärnkraft vilket kommer behöva hanteras för att framgångsrikt utveckla SMR i Sverige.

Allmännyttigheter, så som el- och vattennäten, skola och polis, vägnätet och lokaltrafik har en essentiellroll i vårt välfärdssystem. Frågan om hur finansieringen och förvaltningen av dessa allmännyttigheterorganiseras och struktureras har varit väsentlig inte bara för allmännyttigheterna i fråga, utan även variten inblick i hur vi organiserar och strukturerar hela vårt samhälle. Denna studie bygger vidare på tidigareforskning om allmännyttigheter, partnerskap och kommunal samverkan vid undersökningen av Stor-Stockholms avloppsreningshantering, där en lösning växte fram under mitten av 1900-talet. Enkvalitativ fallstudie av den nordöstra intressentgruppen, sed mera Käppalaförbundet, utfördes för attbesvara frågorna varför, och på vilka sätt, samverkan var viktigt för att lösa avloppsproblemet iStockholm, hur kommunalförbund kan ses som ett partnerskapsnätverk, samt vilka fördelar somkommunalförbundet gav, som ej kunde förses av strikt kommunala lösningar eller lösningar pålänsnivå? Fallstudien avgränsades till perioden 1945-1969, och syftade till att analyserahanteringen av allmännyttigheter i Sverige genom just kommunalförbund, en specifik typ avinter-offentligt samverkanssystem. Perioden valdes då det under 1950-talet både genomfördesen kommunalreform och den kommunala lagstiftningen ändrades. Genom att utnyttja Elanderspartnerskapsmodell, baserat på karaktärsdrag, tendenser och effekter av partnerskap, framgårdet att kommunalförbund kan analyseras med samma krav och villkor som ett offentlig-privatpartnerskap. Studien gör klart att samverkan varit ett nyckelord för skapandet av lösning föravloppsproblemet i Stockholm, vilket framgår i både i den regionplaneutredning somgenomfördes samt den generalplan som lades fram av länsstyrelsen. Partnerskapsmodellen gavett möjligt svar varför, då den visade att samverkan förväntades utöka de ekonomiska resursernaför de deltagande aktörerna samt skapa en synergieffekt hos aktörerna. Det framgår även attmedan en läns-täckande regionallösning möte flexibilitetsproblem, var förbundet tillräckligtlitet för att förhandlingar skulle övervinna problemet. Till sist framgår förbundet som ettutmärkt sätt att upprätta finansiell stabilitet, så väl som demokratiska värden, vilket är önskvärtför policynätverk inom den offentliga sektorn. / Public utilities, such as the electricity and water networks, schools and police, the road network andlocal transport, have an essential role in our welfare system. The question of how the financing andmanagement of these public utilities is organized and structured has been essential not only for the publicutilities in question, but also becomes an insight into how we organize and structure our entire society.This study builds on previous research on public utilities, partnership and municipal collaboration in theinvestigation of Greater Stockholm's sewage treatment management, where a solution emerged duringthe mid-20th century. A qualitative case study of the North-East stakeholders group, later known as‘Käppalaförbundet’, was carried out to answer the questions why, and in what ways, cooperation wasimportant to solve the sewage problem in Stockholm, how municipal associations can be seen as apartnership network, as well as what advantages the municipal association gave, which could not beprovided by strictly municipal solutions or solutions at a county level? The case study was limited to thetime-period 1945-1969 and aimed to analyze the management of public utilities in Sweden throughmunicipal associations, a specific type of inter-public cooperation system. The period was chosen since,during the 1950s, both a municipal reform was conducted, and the municipal legislation was changed.By using Elander’s partnership model, based on character traits, tendencies and effects of partnerships,it becomes clear that municipal associations can be analyzed using the same requirements as a public-private partnership. The study makes it clear that cooperation was a keyword for the creation of asolution to the sewage problem in Stockholm, which is evident in both the regional investigation thatwas conducted and the general plan that was put forward by the county board. The partnership modelgave a possible answer why, as it showed that the collaboration was expected to increase the financialresources of the participators and create a synergy effect among the actors. It also appears that while acounty-wide regional solution faced flexibility problems, the association was small enough fornegotiations to overcome this issue. Finally, the municipal association appears as an excellent means ofestablishing financial stability, as well as democratic values, which is desirable for policy networks inthe public sector.