The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the impression from a travel to Sweden of two travellers from distinct historical periods: Mary Wollstonecraft, who was an Enlightenment representative from Great Britain, and Gabriel Morris, a contemporary traveller and YouTube-filmmaker from Canada. The proposition is that there is no such thing as “an innocent eye”; that the nature of our perceiving the reality is a product (or a construct) of our social environment, upbringing, education, age, ethnicity, or nationality. For this thesis I read Mary Wollstonecraft´s Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and I watched Gabriel Morris´s videos from the journey to Sweden on his YouTube-channel. I have described the journey to Sweden of those two protagonists and put it later into context of their historical backgrounds. The main issue has been whether there are differences in their perceiving Swedish nature, people, and culture, and what these differences are based upon. On the other hand, what can be thought of as uniting these two travellers – based on a simple fact that they both were only visiting the country for a short time? The conclusion I made is that their historical background has affected their experiencing the country; while the common ground could be found in the nature of tourism itself.

Socialdemokraternas partistyrelse tillsatte 1989 en arbetsgrupp för att undersöka och presentera problemställningar och eventuella lösningar till dessa inför det svenska 90-talet. Genom denna arbetsgrupp skrevs debattboken 90-talsprogrammet som är huvudmaterialet för undersökningen. I 90-talsprogrammet placeras medborgaren som en viktig del av deras syn på mål och problemformuleringar. Inför 80-talet skrevs även då, en debattbok av relevans Det nödvändiga uppbrottet. Den bokens relevans används som en exemplifiering av yttradeåsikter under perioden innan 90-talsprogrammet. Med detta som bakgrund är undersökningens syfte att undersöka vilken syn 90-talprogrammets författare hade på medborgaren inom olika områden i samhället såsom arbetslivet och utbildning. Tidigare forskning och teorier om medborgarens roll i samhället utgör bakgrunden till undersökningen. Medborgaren som konsument och ett aktivt medborgarskap är de teman som lyfts inom den teoretiska utgångspunkterna. Till denna bakgrund kan man se en skiftning i synen på medborgarens ansvar. Genom att undersöka 90-talsprogrammet och analysera materialet utifrån teorin och genom att jämföra synsätt från olika perioder, kan man skapa en bild av hur socialdemokraternas syn på medborgaren sett ut och varit betydelsefull under denna period.

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This study explores the ideological causes for restrictions on eating and drinking in Sweden during an approximate period from the year 1600 until 1720.Drawing on Michel Foucault´s theory of societal control in early modern Europe, a view on society is adapted, presupposing the control to be executed on grossly three levels: one national, one intermediary and one individual. The research material consists of normative texts, grouped into three sections, according to the position of their assumed receivers: in the first section are sumptuary laws, applying nationwide; in the second are texts giving instructions to heads of smaller communities on housekeeping and restraints; and in the third section are texts directed to individuals. In each group, statements of food and drink restrictions will be qualitatively analysed, with a focus on the ideological driving forces. The result of the study is of interest, since previous research exposes divergent opinions of reasons for consumption restrictions generally, and since food and drink is a category mostly neglected.

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Uppsatsen är en studie av hur tre svenska resenärer till Ottomanska riket under 1700-talet framställer Orienten i sina skrifter och huruvida dessa framställningar kan sägas vara orientalism i Edward Saids bemärkelse. Michael Eneman reste på Karl XII:s uppdrag till området i början av 1700-talet. Hans reseskildring gavs ut postumt nästan tvåhundra år senare. Fredric Hasselquist var en lärjunge till Carl von Linné, vars reseskrift gavs ut av Linné efter Hasselquists död. Johan David Åkerblad tillbringade en stor del av sin ungdom på resa i Ottomanska riket. Han har inte efterlämnat någon reseskildring men väl brev och en anteckningsbok. Genom att studera de framställningar av Orienten som förekommer i dessa skrifter kan man se en tydlig skillnad mellan den närmast pietistiske Eneman, som ondgör sig över andra kristna inriktningar och deras irrläror, Hasselquist, som förhåller sig intresserat neutral till religionen och snarast betraktar religiösa föreställningar med en vetenskaplig blick som de naturalier han studerar under sin resa, och Åkerblad som är relativt ointresserad av religion och menar att det bibliska inte alls väcker samma starka känslor hos honom som de antika lämningar han ser. Det finns hos de tre resenärerna mycket få generaliserande och nedsättande kommentarer om de folkslag de möter och inte heller många jämförelser med Europa eller Sverige där de samhällen de besöker beskrivs som underlägsna. Därmed är det svårt att använda termen orientalism i Saids bemärkelse för dessa resenärer som kom från ett land utan koloniala ambitioner mot muslimska områden. Istället bör dessa resenärer snarast jämföras med samtida tyska orientalister vars huvudsakliga intresse för Orienten hade sin grund i religionen men senare även alltmer i historiska och filologiska problem.

The development literature considers Romania from both the sociological and economic standpoints as a developing country with a large agricultural sector. Due to the specific nature of the structure of its economy and society Romania encountered a series of specific problems in its process of social and economic development, a process that began in the mid 19th century. A constant problem for the Romanian policy makers over the last century has been how to shrink the country's agricultural sector and develop the industry and service sectors to reach a level comparable to that of more advanced economies. Romania tried to solve this problem with various policies based on and inspired by a set of sociological and economic views, theories and models. Those policies were only partially successful and today the problem of underdevelopment and unsatisfactory economic performance is still largely unsolved. In the hypothesis of a rational policy making process (defined as conscientious relationship with past experiences based on a rational learning process) the post 1989 agricultural reforms should have been informed by the lessons provided by both the pre-communist and communist periods. Taking as a starting point this premise my study is constructed around the following hypothesis: If the policy process was a rational decision-making process, we would expect that the ideas, concepts, and theories that led to policy failure and mixed results in the past be rejected or correspondingly adjusted to the new context. In order to test this hypothesis the study develops a twofold approach: First, it identifies the main sequences of ideas - policies - results - lessons that characterized each of the pre-communist, communist, and post-communist periods. Second, it compares the ideas, policies, and lessons that could have been drawn from past experiences in regard to agricultural development with the actual ideas and agricultural policies that have been implemented in the post-communist period. The comparison reveals the extent to which the rational decision making model was displayed. In order to make this comparison operational the research design proceeds along the following lines: The key post-communist legislation regarding agriculture that was passed after 1989 is identified. By the detailed analysis of this body of legislation and of one of the most comprehensive reports on agriculture issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Romania in 1999-2000, the dominant agricultural policy paradigm of the period, the key ideas that were behind it, and the main consequences that followed for agriculture are distinguished. The major agricultural reform policies in the pre-communist and communist periods (1864-1948 and 1948-1989) and the basic concepts and theories that informed each of them are documented. Thereafter, an overview of the economic, sociological and structural consequences of these ideas and policies is provided and pinpoints the main lessons that could be eventually derived by looking in retrospect to each of the periods. In accordance with these objectives the study is structured as follows: Chapter 1 outlines the Romanian reform legislation between 1989-2000 and, in line with point one above, uses this legislation as a vehicle to reveal the key ideas, policies and consequences for agricultural development in the last, post-communist decade. Chapter 2 and 3 fulfill the objectives stated in point two above. More precisely, chapter 2 starts by looking at the policy reforms in the pre-communist period, while in parallel outlining the main ideas, policies, consequences, and lessons of the period. Similarly, chapter 3 describes the main policy reforms of the communist period and pays special attention to the lessons that could have been drawn from this period's policies and their consequences. The conclusions wrap up the analysis and discuss the extent to which the study's main hypothesis has been supported or infirmed. / Master of Science

This study of the former secretary-general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld’s Vägmärken (“Markings” or “Waymarks”) explores the influence of Meister Eckhart von Hocheim’s doctrine of the eternal birth in the formation of a life stance within Vägmärken. Hammarskjöld himself singles out this particular doctrine as being of paramount importance for his life, however without any explicit comments on the nature of the influence of this doctrine on his thinking. The purpose of this essay is therefore to discern and reveal the subtle ways in which the doctrine of the eternal birth is rendered and reflected in Vägmärken. A hermeneutic method of thematical close reading and a circular oscillating discussion of chosen passages of Vägmärken in relation to an account of the doctrine of the eternal birth, is employed in that attempt. The findings of this essay suggest the prominence, in Hammarskjölds thinking, of the idea of the eternal birth in the human soul as conveyed by the eckhartian metaphor of the chalice, which is emptied in order to be refilled by God with God’s own divinity through His word, which issues forth from the profound, dark and tranquil inner depths of the individual human soul. The findings are also related to the concept of bildung.