The aim of this thesis is to analyze debates and discourses about the public library in Swedish media from the 1970s up to and including 2006. The empirical material is derived from TV, radio and the daily press and by using discourse theory and methodology a number of debates are problematized. The result of the analysis showed similarities but also differences between dominant discourses during different decades. One discourse, termed the book discourse, recurs during all the decades of the study. The book discourse is primarily associated with concepts such as printed books, good quality fiction and popular education. The 1970s is dominated by a discourse called the community centre discourse. It called for public libraries to become community centers for various kinds of cultural and political activities. The information mediation discourse appeared first in the 1980s and was present during the 1990s and the following decade. This discourse argues that public libraries should prioritize new technology and engage primarily in mediating information, irrespective of the format in which it is presented. The analysis as a whole also revealed that authors often had a prominent position in and exerted substantial influence over the content of the debates. Librarians, however, did not participate to any great extent in the debates. In the conclusion I argue that there are important aspects of the public library that does not appear in the material. The role of the library as a meeting place is one such absent theme. Another is the importance of the library to ensure integration. I argue that this invisibility is a result of the book discourse dominating the debate. If the public image of the library is defined from the viewpoint of the book discourse, the result can well be that the institution is equated with a specific media format - printed books. Because of significant changes in media consumption and the ongoing digitization of information, this focus could in the long run mean that the library risks loss of legitimacy. Describing the library as a cultural institution, as a community centre or as an information centre depends on different discourses that aim to further different wills and interests. By highlighting the political, professional and institutional interests articulated in dominant discourses on the public library in Swedish media during a period of almost 40 years, this study suggests that the media debates must be widened and opened up for more actors.

A Journey from the Wordless is a study of the development of the author’s own professional knowledge.  After an introductory chapter on theory and method, there are four chapters treating of the author`s academic training as an artist (Ch. 2), a presentation and analysis of his own exhibitions (Ch. 3), a chapter on a cooperative effort entitled Pompeii in Time and Space (Ch. 4), and a concluding discussion of the nature of personal knowledge (Ch. 5). Questions are addressed concerning artistic knowledge; how it is built and transferred and how it is developed and transformed. Since the author`s own professional knowledge is the object of the research, special perspectives on personal experience emerges that otherwise would be difficult to articulate. The thesis is also a contribution to the debate surrounding artistic research in the visual arts, focusing on the importance of reflection and analysis in art education and creative art work. / QC 20100824

Uppsatsen tar upp frågan om döden inom den epikureiska filosofin. Det visar sig att frågan kan delas upp i flera frågor. Dessa delfrågor kring döden är kopplade till olika rädslor. Uppsatsen tar även upp hur frågan kring döden blir bron mellan metafysiken och etiken inom den epikureiska filosofin. Uppsatsens huvudpunkt är utredningen av Lucretius, De rerum natura. Uppsatsen följer Lucretius argumentation kring naturen, världen och universums uppbyggnad , gudarnas förehavanden och till slut döden som en icke-händelse och därför inget att frukta. För att förstå Lucretius bör man även studera Epikuros originaltexter. Frågan är om Lucretius argument tillför någonting nytt inom den epikureiska filosofin, eller om Lucretius endast omformulerar och ger nya liknelser kring det som redan står att finna i Epikuros originaltexter. Uppsatsens slutsats blir att Lucretius egentligen inte tillför någonting nytt och att Epikuros argument om döden som en icke-händelse står sig bra. / The purpose of this essay is to examine the question of death within the epicurean philosophy. The main question can be divided into part questions. These part questions are connected to different fears. The essay also discusses how the question of death becomes the bridge between metaphysics and ethics within the epicurean philosophy. The essay’s main focus is the examination of Lucretius, De rerum natura. The essay follows Lucretius argumentation about the construction of nature, the word and universe, the whereabouts of the gods and finally death as a non-event and therefore nothing to fear. To understand Lucretius one also has to study the original texts written by Epicurus. The question is if Lucretius argument adds anything new to the epicurean philosophy, or if Lucretius only rephrases and comes up with new metaphores about what already is found in the original texts by Epicurus. The essay’s conclusions are that Lucretius doesn’t add anything new, and that Epicurus original argumentation about death as a non-event is strong.

No description available.

In this essay I seek to examine how the Principle of Provenance can be discerned in the new activity-based wayof establishing an archival description. In which terms do authors of reports and works about archival descriptionspeak about provenance. Do they at all?In order to do so I have studied the history of the Principle of Provenance and what is to be its future – theregulation from the Swedish National Archives, RA-FS 2008:4. I have also read the referrel that was sent out toSwedish authorities, universities and other archival institutions. This to see how the referrel and the new ways ofarchival description was recieved, and also what was to be changed. To get a more extensive grip on the matter itwas necessary to read up on international standards on archival description, such as ISAD(G) and ISAAR(CPF),and standards for records management. How do they fit in to the activity-based archival description?

Swedish child-care institutions - day nurseries, kindergartens - did not until the 1930s become a concern of the Government. In 1943 the Swedish Riksdag for the first time passed a bill that gave child-care institutions a Government subsidy. This thesis deals with the Government's and the parliamentary commissions' attitudes to child-care institutions. Which type of institution ought to receive a subsidy? And for what reasons? The main argument for child-care institutions has always been that they could stimulate a sound development, for the child's own good and for society's. From the 1930s and into the 1950s most participants in the child-care debate stated that the kindergarten or part-time institutions for the pre-school child from the age of three and upwards was the preferable type. Day nurseries for children, even infants, of families were both parents had to work might be necessary but were to be seen as an emergency solution. From the mid-60s the attitu-de changed. Step by step full-time day nurseries became the institutions that were given priority by the Government. This change in attitude presupposes that the notion of the child changed as well. But it did not change in a vacuum. Borrowing an explanatory model from sociologist Johan Asplund, the thesis treats the child as a "figure of thought", placed between a super-structural discourse on child-care and society's basic, material conditions. Important changes at the level of discourse have been the attitude to modern, industrial society, e.g. the necessity of learning to live and work in a society which is complex, highly specialized and in constant change, and the debate on women's emancipation. At the level of material conditions, the most conspicious change is that more and more women have entered the labour market. The changing notion of the child can be understood as the effect of an influence from discourse and base on the "figure of thought". At the same time, the "figure of thought" in-fluenced the discourse. Thus, a child-care system for the benefit of child and woman and labour market could be established, and harmony could be created, at least in the discourse.

Syftet med föreliggande doktorsavhandling i teknikhistoria är att öka kunskapen om varför, men framförallt hur och under vilka villkor den första elektrifieringen av en statsägd järnväg genomfördes i Sverige. Arbetet med Riksgränsbanans elektrifiering pågick 1908-1917 och var på många sätt ett unikt pionjärprojekt. Två stora tekniska system skulle där komma att sammankopplas med varandra; artonhundratalets mogna järnvägssystem med nittonhundratalets nya elkraftsystem. Riksgränsbanan, den omkring 130 km långa nordligaste delen av Malmbanan mellan Kiruna och Riksgränsen, var världens dittills nordligaste järnväg att elektrifieras och det subarktiska klimatet ställde stora krav på utförandet av tekniska komponenter. Den geografiska lokaliseringen innebar dessutom att de långa avstånden till beslutsfattare inom statsförvaltning och företag måste hanteras. Därutöver genomfördes projektet i en tidsperiod präglad av protektionism, nationalism och internationella konflikter, yttre faktorer som alla också påverkade projektets utformning och genomförande. Att det var Riksgränsbanan som blev den första statliga järnvägslinje att elektrifieras i Sverige berodde på att staten 1907 gått in som hälftenägare i gruvbolaget LKAB och att nya avtal fastställde en ökad brytning och transport av järnmalm, från 1,5 miljoner ton årligen 1908 till 3,85 miljoner ton 1918. Denna mängd kunde inte transporteras inom befintligt system med ångdrift utan omfattande investeringar, vilket innebar att en systemomvandling till elektrisk drift ansågs vara ett bättre alternativ. I maj 1910 beslutade riksdagen anslå 21,5 miljoner kr till projektet som skulle drivas av Järnvägsstyrelsens byrå för elektrisk drift i samverkan med företagen Siemens och ASEA. Kontraktsskrivningen ställde hårda krav på företagen gällande prestanda och utförande och Järnvägsstyrelsen kunde när som helst, senast två år efter övertagandet av driften av banan, besluta att upphäva kontraktet och kräva att företagen återställde anläggningen till ursprungligt skick.Det var en mängd tekniska subsystem och komponenter som skulle färdigställas och sättas samman för att det tekniska primärsystemet ”den elektrifierade Riksgränsbanan” skulle fungera. Speciellt färdigställandet av loken och isolatorerna till ledningssystemet omgärdades av problem som kom att försena projektets färdigställande. Problemen var både organisatoriska och tekniska till sin natur men kunde efterhand åtgärdas genom att det utarbetades bättre rutiner vid korrespondens och annan kontakt mellan aktörerna samt genom att det togs större hänsyn till lokala klimatologiska förhållanden i samband med teknikutveckling. I sin roll som byrådirektör för byrån för elektrisk drift skulle Ivan Öfverholm visa sig vara en stark representant för beställaren och han spelade en central roll för projektets genomförande. Öfverholm kan i detta sammanhang kategoriseras som en offentlig systembyggare som med fast hand styrde projektet. Ibland innebar detta att Öfverholm hamnade i direkt konflikt med företagens representanter men ofta fungerade han också som medlare i de konflikter som ideligen uppstod mellan Byråns och företagens lokala representanter vid anläggningen. Den tvååriga garantitiden inleddes den 1 oktober 1915 och i slutet av 1917 hade nästan samtliga kvarstående arbeten vid anläggningen fullföljts och SJ kunde ta över anläggningen. Slutomdömet om Riksgränsbanans elektrifiering var överlag positivt och 1919 beslutade riksdagen att elektrifiera resterande del av Malmbanan, vilket var genomfört från Narvik till Luleå sommaren 1923. Det banbrytande arbetet i den norrländska ödemarken med att elektrifiera Sveriges nordligaste järnväg var därmed avslutat. / <p>Godkänd; 2012; 20120221 (roiwik); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Teknikhistoria/History of Technology Opponent: Dr Mats Fridlund, Institutionen för filosofi, lingvistik och vetenskapsteori, Göteborgs universitet Ordförande: Biträdande professor Kristina Söderholm, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 20 april 2012, kl 10.15 Plats: A1547, Luleå tekniska universitet</p>

This study, a narrative analysis of it, deals with the term, home, its importance and the use of it by Child welfare investigators in the city of Malmö between the years 1930-1936. Commonly used and acknowledged, home stood for security and order while the term, street, had just the opposite meaning. Living in the countryside symbolized health and sensibility, while city life was considered to be cramped, dirty and immoral. The responsibility of achieving the liberals and conservatives ideal of a sunny, clean and orderly home was given to the woman of the house, as was the task of keeping the home morally correct, and providing the necessary atmosphere for proper upbringing of the children. Consequently, the basis of theory, using Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in regards to the conflicts between the upper and lower classes, and even theories of Jane Lewis of woman´s connection to home and family, have been the grounds for the study. The very detailed results show that home and morals play a major role in the investigations and prove above all, the intimacy between the home and woman.

This thesis at the Institute for Language and Folklore has as its purpose to lay a foundation for a continuinginventory work. The tasks I have performed during my time there was to create an archival description, anintroduction to the material and a process map showing the process of incoming delivery of documents. The aimwas never to finish the list of work, but to structure the material to get an insight into the material and to theproblems that existed within. The documents are of a very unique nature and require that the archivist is familiarwith and have knowledge of sign language. One of the problems I encountered was how fragmented the materialwas. The documents are divided between Stockholm and Uppsala, which means that provenance becomesparticularly significant for this material. By revoking parts of the material from the National Archives in Stockholm,the institute is trying to reduce the distribution part of the process. But this is a problem that affects all documentsand will therefore affect the entire inventory process. The Institute's goal is to digitizing documents and make itmore accessible for researchers.

The Scanian woodfences has been determined by two mainly elements: Scania's composition of tree species, with a large element of deciduous forest, and the local building tradition which has more in common with the European continent than the Swedish tradition. By examining responses from ethnological question lists deriving from the first half of the 1900s, combined with literature studies, I have been able to deepen and broaden the knowledge behind the various fencing design. In addition I ́ve constructed maps which could illustrate their historical geographic distribution. I have come to the conclusion that there was three main types of woodfences that was most common until the barbed wire was introduced in the early 1900s and later on replaced the elderly woodfences. Common for the three main types is that the base material was made out of Juniperus communis, this largely because of its durability against rot. The most timber demanding type are mostly made out of hardwood, sometimes in combination with spruce, which only existed in the northern provinces of Scania. The two other types made solely from Juniperus communis has been the ones more widely dispersed in Scania, except from the area of the open farmland in the south and west regions.