Account books of household expenses provide details of people's social and economic life. For Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth century few, if any, account books are as detailed as those of Lady Grisell Baillie of Jerviswood who lived from 1665-1746. Lady Baillie (nee Hume) is a well-known upper class woman in Scottish history, both in her own right and in relation to the tumultuous political careers of her father (Patrick Hume) and husband (George Baillie). A scholarly edition of the accounts, augmented by an 1822 biography written by her daughter, can provide insight into women's social history in eighteenth-century Scotland. The household accounts, in particular, provide the opportunity to examine what the everyday lifestyles were like for upper-class families in Scotland. These accounts include the expenses of raising and educating children, feeding a large household of family and servants and the extravagant costs involved in overseas travel. What makes Lady Grisell's accounts unique is their level of detail and organization spanning over forty years, from 1692 to 1746. In addition to the accounts the biography, written in the style of times, provides valuable information about the Baillies' marriage, family life and the Baillie girls' upbringing. These sources add to the understanding of the household and marital economy in Scotland during the long eighteenth century.

Account books of household expenses provide details of people's social and economic life. For Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth century few, if any, account books are as detailed as those of Lady Grisell Baillie of Jerviswood who lived from 1665-1746. Lady Baillie (nee Hume) is a well-known upper class woman in Scottish history, both in her own right and in relation to the tumultuous political careers of her father (Patrick Hume) and husband (George Baillie). A scholarly edition of the accounts, augmented by an 1822 biography written by her daughter, can provide insight into women's social history in eighteenth-century Scotland. The household accounts, in particular, provide the opportunity to examine what the everyday lifestyles were like for upper-class families in Scotland. These accounts include the expenses of raising and educating children, feeding a large household of family and servants and the extravagant costs involved in overseas travel. What makes Lady Grisell's accounts unique is their level of detail and organization spanning over forty years, from 1692 to 1746. In addition to the accounts the biography, written in the style of times, provides valuable information about the Baillies' marriage, family life and the Baillie girls' upbringing. These sources add to the understanding of the household and marital economy in Scotland during the long eighteenth century.

(Agro)pastoralism in Sahelian Niger, as elsewhere, operates through household enterprises. Katsinen-ko’en (Fulбe) households, interconnected within kin and community networks, utilize a range of flexible strategies to manage a variety of ecological and economic risks. This dissertation argues that (agro)pastoralist households and communities maintain or improve viability in risky environments first by employing various mobility patterns, among other strategies, and relying on the tightly knit interdependence between household and herd. Secondly, households that most successfully sustain a cooperative integrity (i.e. partnerships between husband and wife, or wives, and parents and children) to negotiate decisions and strategies best withstand adversities such as droughts. The continuance of vital links between household and herd helps the household enterprise more easily weather difficult times and profit during advantageous times. Thirdly, the transfer of endowments from parents to children of ecological, economic and political knowledges and socio-economic networks ensures the continuity of family livelihoods. This dissertation analyzes a range of household/herd mobility patterns on a livelihood continuum from sedentary agropastoralism to exclusive pastoralism, and the household decisions that lead to those mobilities. In this way, it adds to a growing body of literature that examines household strategies employed in very uncertain natural environments, contributing to pastoral studies and environmental anthropology. By folding household economics and political ecology into household ecology, it analyses resource and asset transfers within and between households, all under the influence of the natural and political-economic environments. Contributing to development anthropology, I argue that the most important buffer against the risks of unpredictable environments is a stable, undivided household, migrating with and managing its own herd. I conclude by showing how development research and projects should support household/herd integrity to enhance livelihood security. When government or development agencies institute policies and projects that remove children from the household, or separate households and herds, they endanger the integrity of the household and the reproduction of livelihoods that make essential contributions to national economies. Rather than urging pastoralists to modify their livelihoods to fit images held by ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION administrators, these organizations and agencies should help pastoralists to build on adaptations that already facilitate their management of risky environments.

Based on primary sources pertaining to the village of Zhaitan, this thesis studied the economic transition of households in a village in the south of Anhui Province as they went through the revolutions, political movements and reforms of the twentieth century. The transition was divided into four periods, corresponding to four of the chapters of this text. The first period was from 1927 to 1949, on which I depicted the household economy in a village that had not yet experienced intervention by the powers of the state; the second period was from 1949 to 1962, during which the Land Reform and the cooperative movement were the most significant revolutions in the rural area. The third period was 1963–1978, when the commune system was adjusted in response to the failure of the Great Leap Forward and was continued stably from then on. The last period was the reform period which ran from late-1978 until 1992. During this period, the collective system was abandoned and state control on the rural economy was gradually loosened. In the course of transition of the household economy in Zhaitan, I focused on the conflict between the growing population and the limited resources of the village. Before the 1949, the solution was to go into businesses outside the village; in the 30 years after 1949, under the framework of the collective system and the control of the state command, the peasants managed to develop labour-intensive production to meet the needs of the growing population; in the reform period after 1978, with the overall withdrawal of state intervention in rural areas, the tension was finally released through the market and the development of industry. The experience of Zhaitan reveals that the change of land ownership did not make a difference to the economic condition of most households if the land area was much less than what was needed. It also shows that the collective system of agriculture, however, could promote agricultural production, and thus brought about positive effects on the condition of each household through centralised management of the labour force and the land. Last, but not least, the overall boost to rural household economy is relient on the development of the industry to complete the transfer of rural workforce from the agriculture.

This thesis explores the workings of co-operation. It proceeds by way of a two-case comparative study, where the units of comparison are local consumer co-operatives: the Newcastle upon Tyne Co-operative Society Ltd., situated in the north-east of England, and Konsumentföreningen Solidar in Malmö, in the south-west of Sweden. We get to follow the two societies through minutes from member meetings, and from several other data sources, from their dates of birth to 1970. This material is utilised for cross-case and within-case comparisons as we follow the interaction between the societies and their environments, between organisational structure and decision-making, and between different factions within the societies. The primary purpose is to charter, understand, and explain the complexities brought out by the empirical inquiry. But in doing so, we also discern more general underlying principles for variations in the workings of co-operation. While this makes the thesis into an exploratory endeavour, it also contains an attempt to map the historiography of co-operation in Britain and Sweden: themes and research questions are construed so as to make a contribution to both literatures. One such contribution is the description and analysis of two separate organisational logics, of their dynamics, conditions, effects, and development over time.

This study deals with the consequences for household economy in connection with unemployment. Various mechanisms that influence the relationship between unemployment and the reception of supplementary benefits are described and analyzed. The labour market, the social insurance system and the adjustment strategies of families are fields of particular interest to this study. The economic systems of support that have developed are dominated by the unemployment insurance. Those, whose unemployment benefits have ceased or who for some other reason are not covered by the insurance, have to resort to supplementary benefits. The differences in level between working, receiving unemployment benefits or supplementary benefits can be described in terms of a scale of income. The aspect of the scale varies strongly between different types of families. The empirical point of reference for this dissertation is the close-down of a pulp industry (Ncb in Köpmanholmen 130 km south of Umeå in the north of Sweden). The development of those made redundant has been studied with regard to reception of supplementary benefits, income and adjustment strategies. Data about income and supplementary benefits were collected from registers at the local tax charge office and the local administration of social services. 83 out of 444 households were interviewed about adjustment strategies. The close-down in question proved to be exceptional in many aspects. The expected "social catastrophe" never occured due to the economic upswing, raised unemployment benefits and ambitious labour market policy efforts, among other things. Only a very small minority of those made redundant have received supplementary benefits after the close-down. This has been the case although many of those made redundant have been removed from the open labour market with a subsequent lowering of their income level. Amongst those made redundant many different patterns of adjustment havè been observed. It appears that those who lack work after a couple of years after the close-down are often characterized by passivity, whereas those who have been employed are often characterized by activity. Finally the variation in patterns of adjustment can be seen as a social policy problem. Judging from the results a combination of the institutional and marginal social policy strategies would be desirable. Reform schemes can be suggested that are based on a wish to supplement the preventive and institutional social policy with selective features where the adjustment strategies of families should provide an important resource potential. / digitalisering@umu

Bostadspriserna har stigit markant under de senaste åren och till följd av detta har hushållen varit tvungna att ta på sig stora skulder. Svenska hushåll tar därför ständigt större lån och fler bostadslåntagare uppvisar högre skuldkvot och belåningsgrad än tidigare. Stigande inflation och ökade räntor resulterar i minskade ekonomiska marginaler för låntagare samt sociala konsekvenser. Hushållen har även blivit mer känsliga för risker, såsom förändringar i räntenivåer. Denna studie har till syfte att undersöka hur hög belåningen i samhället är idag och vilka konsekvenser som kan ses på kort och lång sikt. Privata bostadslån i Sverige studeras med fokus kring problematiken med hög skuldsättning. Detta görs genom banktjänstemäns syn på hushållens skuldkvot med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien innefattar nio intervjuer med åtta svenska banker och en bankförening. Studiens resultat är relevant för svenska beslutsfattare, banker och hushåll, eftersom det ger insikt i vad som ökar riskexponeringen för de som tar bostadslån. Resultaten visar att Sverige ligger på rekordhöga nivåer vad gäller skuldsättning och att detta resulterar i flera konsekvenser. Hög skuldkvot leder till hög räntekänslighet och sårbarhet vilket kan strama åt hushållens ekonomi vid förändringar i penningpolitiken. Detta leder i sin tur till minskat konsumtionsutrymme, försämrad återbetalningsförmåga, minskad ekonomisk tillväxt, finansiell instabilitet, fler konkurser och högre arbetslöshet. / Housing prices have risen significantly in recent years and as a result, households have had to take on large debts. Swedish households are therefore constantly taking out larger loans, and more mortgage borrowers show a higher debt-to-income ratio and loan-to-value ratio than before. Rising inflation and increased interest rates result in reduced financial margins for borrowers and social consequences. Households have also become more sensitive to risks, such as changes in interest rates. The purpose of this study is to investigate how high the level of debt in society is today and what consequences can be foreseen in the short and long term. Private housing loans in Sweden are studied with focus on problems related to high indebtedness. This is done through the perspective of bank employees on households' debt-to-income ratio, using semi-structured interviews. The study includes nine interviews with eight Swedish banks and one banking association. The results of this study are relevant for Swedish decision-makers, banks, and households, as they provide insight into what increases risk exposure for those taking out home loans. The results show that Sweden is at record high levels in terms of indebtedness, and this implies several consequences. A high debt-to-income ratio leads to high interest rate sensitivity and vulnerability, which can tighten the finances of households in case of changes in monetary policy. This, in turn, leads to a reduced space for consumption, worsened repayment ability, reduced economic growth, financial instability, more bankruptcies, and higher unemployment.

Recentemente, o mercado de sementes florestais têm se consolidado para atender demandas da restauração ecológica que são movidas por regulamentações. A produção de sementes se estabeleceu como um sistema de base comunitária e familiar com elevado potencial para promover um intrigante desafio, associar uso e conservação de ecossistemas com o desenvolvimento local. O presente estudo teve como objetivo geral avaliar a socioeconomia da produção de sementes florestais a partir das seguintes dimensões: (i) implicações das relações de cooperação no funcionamento da cadeia de valor; (ii) efeitos das técnicas de produção nos gargalos, inovações e custos financeiros; e (iii) impactos da participação no mercado de sementes nos meios de vida familiar. Para isso, a pesquisa envolveu como um estudo de caso a Rede de Sementes do Xingu na Amazônia brasileira. A coleta de dados foi conduzida por meio de observações participantes, entrevistas e oficinas com produtores de sementes de diferentes realidades socioculturais (indígenas, agricultores familiares e residentes urbanos) e técnicos que atuam na gestão da rede. O funcionamento da cadeia foi fortalecido pelas relações de cooperação entre os atores, principalmente em função do compartilhamento de valores. No entanto, os custos financeiros, a assistência técnica, a infraestrutura, os parâmetros técnicos e as legislações são os principais fatores que condicionam os processos da cadeia de sementes. Os atuais preços de comercialização das sementes seguem parâmetros empíricos que não dimensionam os reais custos de produção, demonstrando que os preços necessitam de reformulações. Por outro lado, as realidades socioculturais dos produtores exercem uma influencia direta nos sistemas de produção, o que promove a inovação de técnicas e tecnologias a partir de conhecimentos tradicionais e locais. Quanto à participação nos mercados, os grupos socioculturais estudados diferiram quanto às percepções sobre os impactos nos seus meios de vida familiar. As comunidades com algum grau prévio de organização foram mais susceptíveis ao fortalecimento do capital social, de tal forma que os grupos socioculturais menos integrados ao mercado apresentaram melhores resultados a partir da participação no mercado de sementes. / Recently, the markets of forest seeds have been established to meet demands for ecology restoration which are driven by regulations. The seeds production was design as a production system of the community and family groups with high potential to promote an intriguing challenge, associate ecosystem usage and conservation within local development. The overall purpose of the present study was to evaluate the socioeconomics of forest seeds production from the following dimensions: (i) implications of cooperation in the value chain operations; (ii) effects of production techniques in bottlenecks, innovations, and financial costs; and (iii) impacts of seed market participation in the household livelihoods. This research involved a case study of Xingu Seeds Network in the Brazilian Amazon. Data collection was conducted through participant observation, interviews and workshops with different sociocultural groups of seed producers (indigenous groups, urban residents and settler farmers) and staffs who manage the network. The value chain operation was strengthened by the relationship between the actors, mainly due to the common values between the actors. However, financial costs, technical assistance, infrastructure, technical parameters and laws are the main factors which constrain the seeds value chain. Current prices for seed marketing follow empirical parameters which do not measure the real production costs, which is requiring prices reformulation. On the other hand, the producers\' socio-cultural realities have influenced on production systems, which has lead into a promoting innovation of techniques and technologies by traditional and local knowledge. Regarding to market participation, the sociocultural groups showed different perceptions about impacts on their household livelihoods. Communities which are already organized are most likely to strengthen their social capital through participation, thus socio-cultural groups less integrated with the market achieved better livelihood outcomes through participation in the seed market.

<p>The principal purpose of this thesis has been to analyse the importance of women´s waged work with handicrafts for the household economy in the Swedish countryside during a period of rapid industrialisation and growth. The point of departure for the analysis has been a theoretical and methodological frame of interpretation on three levels. The levels that have been studied are the national institutional level of society, the level of the local society and the household level.</p><p>This thesis has shown that women’s ways of providing for themselves cannot be explained with reference to any one factor. The explanation for the gender division of labour must be seen as the result of the interplay of several different factors on different levels. By investigating how the conditions for making a living looked like on the three different levels, the thesis has shown that, together, factors on the national institutional and the local societal levels, as well as on the individual household level, affected women’s work and how it can be understood.</p><p>The thesis has described how the ideal of the breadwinner has changed during the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. By studying a traditional form of female wage work – handicrafts – during a period when women were not expected to be gainfully employed, the thesis has shown that this transition was a slow process that manifested itself differently on different levels and that the old agrarian gender order survived for a long time despite the fact that people’s means of making a living had changed in a fundamental way. Women’s handicraft work was a continuing feature during this transitional period.</p>

The principal purpose of this thesis has been to analyse the importance of women´s waged work with handicrafts for the household economy in the Swedish countryside during a period of rapid industrialisation and growth. The point of departure for the analysis has been a theoretical and methodological frame of interpretation on three levels. The levels that have been studied are the national institutional level of society, the level of the local society and the household level. This thesis has shown that women’s ways of providing for themselves cannot be explained with reference to any one factor. The explanation for the gender division of labour must be seen as the result of the interplay of several different factors on different levels. By investigating how the conditions for making a living looked like on the three different levels, the thesis has shown that, together, factors on the national institutional and the local societal levels, as well as on the individual household level, affected women’s work and how it can be understood. The thesis has described how the ideal of the breadwinner has changed during the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. By studying a traditional form of female wage work – handicrafts – during a period when women were not expected to be gainfully employed, the thesis has shown that this transition was a slow process that manifested itself differently on different levels and that the old agrarian gender order survived for a long time despite the fact that people’s means of making a living had changed in a fundamental way. Women’s handicraft work was a continuing feature during this transitional period.