Föreliggande uppsats handlar om den svenska postmodernismen under 1980-talets senare hälft. I undersökningen analyseras debattinlägg och kritik i svensk dagspress där postmodernismen diskuteras. Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa hur termen postmodernism konstruerades och brukades i svensk dagspress i den allmänna kulturella diskussionen.                       I undersökningens första del visar jag på hur den mediala diskussionen rörande postmodernism fungerar som en slags konstruerande process där den massmediala bilden av postmodernismen skapas. Kulturella aspekter av begreppet synliggörs där moderniseringsprocesser och teknologiska framsteg blir viktiga för att förstå vilken roll postmodernismen fick i sin samtid. Jag visar hur postmodernismen diskuterades utifrån två skikt, det rörde sig inte enbart som en estetisk kategori utan även om en kulturell förändringsprocess. I den andra delen konkretiseras och kontextualiseras den första delen genom en analys rörande den postmoderna konstdebatten där de kulturella aspekterna av begreppet blir tydligare. Jag argumenterar för att de två skikten av postmodernismen är sammankopplade på en implicit grund, där de kulturella aspekterna av begreppet konstrueras i relation till de estetiska diskussionerna. Jag lanserar därför två begrepp för att åskådliggöra begreppets två skikt, den estetiska postmodernismen och den kulturella postmodernismen. Skikten fungerar som ett åskådliggörande verktyg för att visa på hur begreppets användning bör tolkas som något större än enbart en benämning för ett estetiskt uttryck.

This thesis aims to study notions of the USA in Aftonbladet and Expressen, the two major Swedish evening papers, during the American presidential elections of 1984 and 1996. This thesis examines how the predominance of Ronald Reagan's neoliberalism in the 1980s, the US victory in the ColdWar and the success of Bill Clinton's New Democrats in the 1990s affected the notions of the USA expressed in the a forementioned Swedish newspapers. In 1984 the notions were widely different between the two newspapers. Aftonbladet (socialdemocratic) had a very negative view of the USA. American politics was described as fundamentally corrupt, while the American society was seen as violent and harsh. Globally the USA was a destabilizing force and was primarily to blame for the escalating tensions with the Soviet Union. Expressen (liberal) had a more positive notion of the USA. American politics was seen as modern but shallow and callous, the last trait made even worse by the politics of Reagan. USA had a tremendous potential to do good in the world, but lacked the progressive leadership needed to do so. By 1996 the notions of the USA were interchangeable between the two papers. Both papers described American politics as shallow, unsympathetic and pandering to the middle-class. Neither corruption nor violence were mentioned. Under the leadership of Bill Clinton the USA was seen as a guardian of peace in the world.

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Since 1902 conscientious objectors in Sweden could apply for civil military services without arms, based on religious convictions. A new law in 1966 gave legal ground to apply for non-military service also based on ethical convictions. The number applicants increased much more than authorities expected. In the 1960s the political left also began involve themselves in pacifistic issues which has been quite studied before. But with the change of the new law, the number of applications with a religious (Christian) conviction also multiplied.With this background, this thesis set out to study two historical problems. First, it asks how the conscientious objectors from the nonconformist-churches were looked upon by the authorities. Secondly it enquires about the discrepancy between the pacifistic convictions found in the men doing non-army service from Pentecostal churches, versus the non-existing public support on a national level in the Pentecostal movement for their pacifism.3 (31)The study spans 1960-1976 and uses a comparison between four different narratives - the national military narrative, the individual-ethical narrative, the pacifistic-political narrative and the nonconformist-churches pacifistic narrative - as a method to explore different views. The thesis shows that the largest number of conscientious objectors came from the non-conformist churches and the Pentecostal movement. However, while the majority Pente-costals on grassroots level stayed true to an historical pacifism, the prominent leader, Lewi Pethrus, had a more nationalistic view accepting a militaristic narrative. This discrepancy was never publicly debated and while the Pentecostals exercised a strong pacifistic practice they never developed any formal doctrine for it. The thesis shows how grassroots pacifism was hindered to become a wider peace-vision in the Swedish Pentecostal movement.

Rötfeber (decay fever) was a category of fever illnesses mentioned frequently in Swedish district physicians’ yearly reports in the 19th century, but despite its frequency there is no real agreement on what rötfeber entails. In this thesis, I wanted to come to an understanding of how rötfeber could be defined and which people received the diagnosis. With the help of the physicians’ reports I examined how they discussed rötfeber and compared it to other diseases: Some physicians described it similarly to a common cold, while others meant it commonly resulted in death or acted as the worsening of a patient’s already terminal disease, such as cholera or typhus, or was synonymous with it. A lot of descriptions of rötfeber also coincided with descriptions of medical traditions based on one’s environment being the cause of disease, with polluted air or dirt often being named the transmitter of disease. While reading the reports, I noticed a pattern of rötfeber often being discussed in connection with a district’s poorer population. The physicians described how their way of living with unhealthy air and bad circulation, unhealthy foods, and lack of hygiene made them ill with rötfeber. The disease became a portrait of a poor person, and a rötfeber diagnosis could be used to further stigmatize already vulnerable people and survey them. Poor people were thus the people most often receiving the diagnosis and rötfeber itself was described to occur due to unhealthy living, which also defined the disease.

The Yuppie, the Young Urban Professional, is a social type closely linked to the popular historical conception of the 1980s. The type is characterized as a young person working in banking, media or finance with expensive tastes in consumption and an individualistic, vapid mindset. Considering the popular conception of the Yuppie as a sort of manifestation of all things 80s, this paper explores how the Yuppie was represented in Swedish newspapers in the period 1984 to 1991. Using Bourdieu’s concept of the classificatory struggle this study charts how the Yuppie was invoked in the social world of its day. Contrary to the mythic belief of the 1980s as the decade of the Yuppie, the social type is represented only as a culturally dominant type between 1985 and 1987 and becomes a historical concept by 1988. The Yuppie was channeled as opposed to the socially conscious Hippie-type of the 1970s and the traditional Swedish working class. Furthermore, the Yuppie was viewed by contemporary commentators as a sort of amalgamation of various social and economic trends that they meant characterized the 1980s, such as the growth and deregulation of the financial sector, rising prices of housing in central Stockholm, and the rise of new forms of labor starkly different from the traditional swedish industry. This contemporary ‘historization’ of the Yuppie attests to a view of history as a sort of pendulum of zeitgeists, where Yuppie replaces hippie, individualism replaces social conscience, seemingly of its own volition.

Poison has been a problem for doctors for a very long time. During the 19th centuary forensic medicine started to establish themself as their own institution. This essay includes three parts. The first part investigates how poison exist in many different forms, and how doctors during the 19th centuary defined and classified them. Both the definition aswell as the classification of poison varied from doctor to doctor. But with time both the definition and classification started to become standardized, and played a part with the professionalization of poison. The second part investigate the poison in the body, and what kind of methods doctors used in order to prove it was poisoning. Many of the methods used was deemed uncertain, and couldn’t always be used as proof. The methods used towards the begining of the 19th centuary was used a couple decades later, even if the result from them were uncertain. A common problem for the doctors was that the symptoms from the poison shared similarities with different diseases. The third part investigate the doctors role in the forensic medicine field. The doctors towards the begining of the 19th centuary had a problem with their oaths. They were split between two different oaths, that made them sometimes unable to perform their duties a neutral party. Towards the 1830’s there were many reforms that was passed in the medicla field, and with thoes reforms the doctor ended up with only one oath to follow. Which made them able to stay as a neutral party.

Denna undersökning syftar att undersöka hur Dagens Nyheter använde sig av opinionsundersökningar från svenska Gallupinstitutet vid deras introduktion i Sverige under 1940-talet och hur man legitimerade användningen, med speciellt fokus på felprognoserna i valen 1948. Undersökningen visar att Dagens Nyheter använde undersökningarna för att politiska debatter kring frågor de ansåg vara av värde samt för tt skapa nyheter om mer vardagliga händelser eller problem. Genom sin publiceringsrätt kunde de kontrollera undersökningarna resultat genom att välja ut svar och göra tolkningar från dessa. Undersökningarna legitimerades genom betoningar om hur värdefullt det var att veta den allmänna opinionen och kunna visa upp denna för befolkningen och beslutsfattarna. Dagens Nyheter:s användning av undersökningarna legitimerades primärt genom att betona Gallups säkra valprognoser som direkt bevisade undersökningarnas trovärdighet. I samband med felen i Gallups valprognoser från 1948 sker det förändringar i legitimeringen. Gallup förlorar sin legitimitet och Dagens Nyheter ändrar därmed sin inställning till undersökningar som endast ansågs kunna visa samtiden effektivt men inte vad som komma framöver. Dagens Nyheter insåg värdet som opinionsundersökningar hade och använde Gallup som ett redskap för att skapa nyheter och debatter fram tills detta inte längre gick att legirimera till läsarna.

Att Acceptera eller inte – funktionalismens genombrott som mediehändelse 1931–1933. Uppsala Universitet: Inst. för idé-och lärdomshistoria, C-uppsats, Vårterminen 2022. Manifestet Acceptera utkom år 1931 av en grupp framstående svenska arkitekter, och brukar räknas som funktionalismens programskrift i Sverige. De idéer om modern och ändamålsenlig arkitektur som presenteras där, har fått stort inflytande som märks av än idag. Denna uppsats undersöker manifestet Acceptera som medial produkt, från lansering till reception. Vissa forskare menar att funktionalismens starka fäste i Sverige beror på de ambitioner som gjordes på 1930-talet då man ville skapa en folklig förankring i vissa frågor, och därmed integrera publiken och upprätta denna som ett kunskapsobjekt. I uppsatsen ställs därför frågan hur arkitekterna föreställde sig sin publik och vilka medel de använde för att nå ut till denna. Det framgår att manifestförfattarna föreställde sig en irrationell publik som behövde övertygas om att de lever i en modern tid, för att därmed själva kunna börja reproducera funktionalismens ideal. Publiken skulle styras med arkitektoniska hjälpmedel, och övertygas genom manifestet, som med sitt enkla, slagkraftiga och provokativa språk och uttryck syftade till att väcka känslor och tankar hos en publik som inte var insatt i dessa frågor ännu, så att de i förlängningen kunde styras i rätt riktning. I uppsatsen ställs även frågan om hur den faktiska receptionen såg ut i svensk dagspress, för att se hur manifestets idéer togs emot i sin samtid. Genom en närläsning av tidningsinlägg som diskuterade manifestet mellan åren 1931 och 1933 framgår det att den tilltänka publiken inte tycks ha varit involverad i frågan, utan diskussionen om manifestet fördes mest av en redan intern, införstådd grupp arkitekter och konstvetare. Mottagandet av skriften var dock mer delad än vad man idag kanske skulle föreställa sig då manifestet tilldelas sådan stor betydelse för Sveriges modernistiska tankegods. Key words: Acceptera, funktionalism, medborgerlig publik, socialreformism, arkitektur.

When childbirth was medicalized and institutionalized in the West during the early 20th century people raised concerns about the degree to which anesthetics were used. Within that context some obstetricians and midwives began advocating for childbirth without what they considered to be unnecessary anesthetics. They also advocated for obstetricians to start providing young women with fundamental knowledge about how the body functions during pregnancy. Obstetricians hoped that this knowledge would prevent unnecessary fear these young women might otherwise have felt during their pregnancies. This was a key element of their teachings as they believed that fear of childbirth was a contributing factor to labor pains.  In this essay I explore three books about pregnancy and childbirth from the perspective of medicalization and phenomenology. I wanted to combine these two theoretical tools since I saw that pregnancy and labor pains brought about a duality connected to medicalization; since pregnancy is medicalized even though it is not considered an illness.  Furthermore I explore the way the authors discuss childbirth without anesthetics, which methods they advocate for and how they relate their theories to a bigger narrative. I found that all three authors had strong ideas about gender, medicine, and what role they thought that medicine should play during childbirth. In addition, all authors expressed ideas about the importance of mind and body coherence and how the pregnant woman should work together with the natural flow of the body during labor.