This thesis covers the history of the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre by creating a chronological historical timeline of some of the most catalytic titles. It also delves deeper into the dynamic between modders and companies and how that dynamic changed as the genre evolved. All of this is analyzed through a political economy lens, to see how the power structure and monetization plan for the games in the genre has changed over the years. The research was conducted by piecing together relevant academic papers, with popular sources to construct a credible thesis on the MOBA genre's evolution. One of the key points from this research is how monetization has changed from the beginning of the genre to how it is today. Roughly 20 years ago, when the genre first started, monetization was more straightforward, a one-time purchase for the game. Today, most games in the genre are free-to-play, while containing in-game purchases such as cosmetics and character unlocks.

For the majority of the estimated 70,000 industrial chemical substances available on the European market today there is not enough information to enable a reasonably complete assessment of the risks that they might pose to man and the environment. Any strategy for the generation of additional data for these substances should aim at making testing as efficient as possible taking into account environmental and health protection, time, monetary cost and animal welfare. To achieve this, appropriate priority setting rules are needed. The main criterion currently used for regulatory priority setting for testing of industrial chemicals is production volume; the higher the production volume, the more information is required. This was also the main criterion in the former legislation, preceding REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals). The aim of this thesis is to evaluate other priority setting criteria and their implications for risk management, in particular classification and labelling. The first paper in this thesis includes a study of the efficiency ratio for some of the tests required for the notification of new substances, i.e. the ratio between the likelihood that the test will lead to a classification, and the monetary cost of performing the test. The efficiency ratio was determined for the standard tests for acute oral toxicity, irritation, sensitisation and subacute toxicity using data from 1409 new chemicals notified in Europe between 1994 and 2004. The results of this investigation suggest that, given limited resources for testing, it is more efficient to perform acute toxicity tests on a larger number of substances rather than to perform additional subacute toxicity studies on the substances already tested for acute toxicity. The second paper included in this thesis, reports the results from a comparative study of the bioaccumulating properties of substances being (a) classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and/or toxic to reproduction (CMR-substances), or (b) classified as acutely toxic or (c) unclassified. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate potential consequences of prioritising bioaccumulating chemicals for evaluation and testing, as this is one of the strategies prescribed in REACH. The results of this study suggest that bioaccumulating substances are neither over- nor underrepresented among the CMR-substances. This result lends support to the use of the bioconcentration factor for priority setting. The studies reported in this thesis utilize existing data on classification of substances as an indicator of the outcome of the risk assessment process, relating priority setting methods to the risk management measures that they give rise to. To the best of my knowledge there are still only very few studies published that address the issue of priority setting in chemicals control using this approach, and in my view there is need for more studies of priority setting methods and a further development of priority setting strategies that are science-based. / QC 20101115

Dramatic improvements in renewable energy and small-scale distributed generation (DG) technologies have been made in the last twenty years. Nevertheless, they remain underutilized in the American electric utility system. Despite the immense environmental, technical, and financial promise of renewable energy systems and DG technologies, such generators still constitute a very small percentage of electricity generation capacity in the United States. This relative neglect occurs despite remarkable gains in their technical performance and reductions in their cost of producing power—the result (in part) of dramatic government support for several decades. Moreover, the technologies often demonstrate great environmental benefits that appeal to policymakers and consumers. At the same time, they offer ways to enhance strained distribution and transmission networks. This project attempts to answer the apparently paradoxical question: why do new energy technologies that offer such impressive benefits also find the least use? The dissertation emphasizes how the history and culture of the community of electricity producers and users helps explain why the new technologies have seen little use. Going beyond technical explanations of alleged low capacity factors and high capital costs, it focuses on the social nature of decision making among participants in the electric utility system. The approach not only helps us understand the glossing over of renewable energy and distributed generation technologies, but also suggests ways of overcoming the barriers faced by their advocates. / Ph. D.

This thesis examines the growth of the space elevator community in America from 1975 to 2010. It argues that the continued practical failures of the space elevator, a proposed technology for efficiently transporting payloads and people into space without conventional propulsion sources, resulted from a technological paradigm built around the rocket and supported by a traditional engineering culture. After its triumph in landing men on the Moon from 1969 to 1972, the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sought to advance novel concepts for further space exploration, but it fumbled in pursuing nontraditional notions of escaping the atmosphere such as the space elevator. Employing interviews with space elevator advocates Bradley Edwards and Michael Laine and other primary and secondary sources, this thesis also draws on concepts such as technological paradigms, engineering cultures, and the technological sublime. It concludes by demonstrating how success eluded the marginalized space elevator researchers who found themselves grappling with the vast social and technical system that supported the rocket's hegemony. / Master of Arts / This thesis examines the growth of the space elevator community in America from 1975 to 2010. It argues that the continued practical failures of the space elevator, a proposed technology for efficiently transporting payloads and people into space without conventional propulsion sources, resulted from a technological paradigm built around the rocket and supported by a traditional engineering culture. The technological paradigm of the rocket encompassed all of the people and practices that made the rocket work. After its triumph in landing men on the Moon from 1969 to 1972, the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sought to advance novel concepts for further space exploration, but it fumbled in pursuing nontraditional notions of escaping the atmosphere such as the space elevator. Much of this failure is owed to an engineering culture within NASA that looked down upon challenging the rocket. This thesis demonstrates how success eluded the marginalized space elevator researchers who found themselves grappling with the vast social and technical system that supported the rocket's hegemony.

Denna uppsats undersöker vilka föreställningar och tankegångar som varit framträdande i Sverige 1970–2010 och som varit bidragande till elbilens fördröjda etablering sett till att tekniken har funnits tillgänglig sedan början på 1800-talet. Drivmedelsfrågan var närvarande även i bilens tidiga historia men bilen kom att utformas för att använda fossila bränslen som drivmedel. Sedan bilens storskaliga spridning har den erbjudit människor nya möjligheter att förflytta sig och på många sätt blivit en central del av samhället, vilket även påverkat både infrastruktur och stadsplanering. Detta har dock inte varit helt oproblematiskt och det har funnits en vilja från samhället att även kunna påverkan bilen och dess utveckling.  Under 1970-talet var en stor samhällsdiskussion fokuserad kring att rationalisera och strukturera upp bensinhandeln för att underlätta stadsplanering. De fossila bränslena behöll dock sin dominans som drivmedel. På 1990-talet lades mycket fokus istället på bilars utsläpp speciellt i storstäder som ledde till större krav på att minska miljöpåverkan från trafiken. Utredningar om klimatpolitik öppnade upp drivmedelsfrågan och i början på 2010-talet började större förändringar ske.   Skiftet mot el som drivmedel är ett resultat av en förändrar syn på fossila bränslens roll i samhället och klimatförändringar. Uppsatsen belyser hur infrastrukturella förändringar, olika relevanta aktörer och sociala grupper samt föreställningar har lett fram till denna förändring som resulterat i elbilens etablering.

This doctoral thesis sets out to analyse the development of the unemployed movement in Sweden during the period 1920–34. The study is divided into two parts. The first is empirical and descriptive while the second is interpretive and explanatory, and seeks to examine why this phenomenon developed in the way it did. Mass unemployment in Sweden between the World Wars did not cause the same social tensions as in many other countries. This relative peace endured despite high and consistent unemployment and hard living conditions for the unemployed. These conditions served as sources for tensions present in the unemployed movement, and which some actors sought to take advantage of and even exacerbate. Andréasson argues that a major reason that society did not take a more radical turn in the period was that the reformist labour movement actively moderated these tensions. This was done by the Social Democratic Party (SAP) changing the environment of the unemployed organisations, for example by using local unemployment policy to polish off the rough edges of the national unemployment policy. More important was the crisis politics in the early 1930s that helped narrow the socio-economic gap between those who had and those who did not have a job. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) neutralised the movement of the unemployed by introducing changes within the unemployed movement itself, involving a variety of strategies. After 1933, the LO and SAP dominated and were able to direct the activities of most of the organisations that existed. Gaining control over the unemployed was as important for the LO and SAP as being able to exert control over other forces that might threaten to weaken their long-term strategies and aims. There was a conviction within the unemployed movement that mass unemployment was largely a consequence of technological developments in production. This argument had roots dating back to the early stages of industrialism in England when Luddites had attacked production machinery. The coalition of organisations of unemployed workers in Sweden during the 1920s and 1930s did not seriously consider engaging in machine-breaking activities. The movement’s criticism of technology did not extend into the Swedish model which envisioned the development of machinery as a way to prevent rising unemployment. / QC 20100628

In spite of an ever-growing supply of metals, actors have long feared metal shortages. This thesis – departing from an understanding that metals scarcity is not an objective geological fact, but an experience, a fear of a shortage – explores why business and state actors have experienced metals as scarce and how they coped with scarcity from 1870 to 2015. The underlying reasons for scarcity experiences originated in high prices, a lack of substitutes, domestic unavailability, limited infrastructure and increased demand. In the view of businesses and the state, a shortage of metals could hinder successful industrialization. Defining metals as scarce was a first step in their attempts to ensure access through exploration, recycling, substitution, and trade agreements. This dissertation presents five case studies which provide insights into three selected aspects of metals scarcity that have been overlooked in previous studies. First, while small countries experienced and coped with metals scarcity in a similar way to large nations, they were more vulnerable because of their dependence on transnational flows controlled by larger countries. Yet if they remained neutral in international conflicts, they could enjoy other opportunities to import resources than their larger rivals. Second, industries experienced metals scarcity before World War I; with the onset of the Second Industrial Revolution, at the very latest, new technologies were often dependent on metals which had never before been used commercially – there were not yet any extraction systems in place. However, once these metals began to circulate, state actors became aware of the international traffic and began to classify certain metals as critical. Thirdly, technological change has affected – and been affected by – metals scarcity. If a metal was scarce, manufacturers were likely to embark on a different path to production. Inversely, sometimes new technologies were able to alleviate perceptions of scarcity. / <p>QC 20171206</p>

. This thesis consists of an introduction and four previously published articles. The joint empirical focus is papermaking based on textile rags as fibre raw material. Furthermore the physical environment is central in the studies. The relationship between continuity and change is a prevailing theme. The thesis also pays attention to the use of different sorts of rags and to the connection between this kind of papermaking and the textile industry. The overall purpose is to throw new light upon the paper industry based on rags – a part of early industry seldom mentioned in historical surveys of the industrialization process in Sweden. The aim is also to question the prevalent Swedish historical writing commissioned by the branch, characterized by set divisions between different phases of technical and industrial development, from simple craft to modern industry. One of these borderlines has been drawn between papermaking by hand and papermaking by machine, with the 1830s as the selected transition period. By studying and analysing changes in the traditional and seemingly static papermaking as well as the opposite: the traditional that has lingered in the new, this thesis shows that the course of events was much more complicated than that. An outcome of the studies is that the industrialization of the rag based paper industry has been a complex, uneven and prolonged process. The first main part of the thesis consists of two Swedish regional studies centred on the province of Östergötland in a long-time perspective. The focus is mainly on the long continuity of papermaking by hand, which was carried out between 1628 and 1968. The study shows that a variety of types and sizes of mills regarding ownership, forms of production, location, paper qualities and techniques can be identified. Continuity was the dominating feature but within this framework technological and industrial change also took place. The second main part of the thesis has a Nordic perspective and deals with a shorter period, mainly 1830-1870. One study examines the introduction of the paper-machine and the establishment of the first machine-made paper mills in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland with special attention given to the Swedish mill Holmen in Norrköping and the Finnish Tammerfors mill, both situated in textile mill towns. A second Nordic study surveys hand-made paper mills founded during and after the time when the paper-machine technology had been established. As the studies show, two parallel development tracks were prevalent in the paper industry in the Nordic countries during the period 1830-1870 – papermaking by machine and papermaking by hand. The first paper machines were imported from Britain to some of the oldest and largest paper mills. The introduction of the new technology led to changes in for instance the paper mill buildings and the organization of work regarding the papermaking process. In the preparatory and finishing work manual methods remained, and as before it employed mostly women. At the same time, papermaking by hand continued to change and new hand-made paper mills were founded until as late as the 1890s. The study discusses possible explanations, among them growing markets for special qualities and combinations with other branches of industry. All the studies show a connection between hand-made paper mills and wool mills on one hand, and machine-made paper mills and cotton and linen mills on the other hand. The paper industry based on rags could in fact be characterized as a kind of textile industry / <p>QC 20101129</p>

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Aus der Einleitung: "Entstehung und Entfaltung des Militärisch-Industriellen Komplexes in den USA haben eine vielfältige Literatur in der amerikanischen Geschichtswissenschaft hervorgebracht. Dennoch ist es auffällig, dass die bisherigen Arbeiten sich auf die ökonomischen und technischen Aspekte sowie die Institutionalisierung von Netzwerken zwischen Militär, Staat, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft beschränken und dabei kulturhistorische Fragestellungen weitgehend außen vor lassen. Den Transformationsprozess der amerikanischen Ingenieurwissenschaften während und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, der hier untersucht wird, betrafen jedoch alle drei Dimensionen von Technik, die Historiker gemeinhin untersuchen: das Soziale, die Technik und die Kultur."