Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 235-250).

Natural economic orders are made and unmade. Industries such as telecommunications, rail transportation, and electricity distribution are prime examples. In the last two decades we have witnessed the widespread unmaking of these long established public natural monopolies. This study focuses its attention on the state-owned monopoly in Swedish telecommunications which became complete in 1918 and prevailed until the beginning of the 1980s. Given the present widely-held understanding that this was a natural monopoly eventually unmade by technological change, this study asks how this natural monopoly once emerged. The study concentrates on the creation and the technological and economic stabilisation of a national state-owned monopoly in telephony in Sweden during the period 1903 - 1930. At the centre is the termination of competition in telephony in Stockholm in 1918. The study is devoted to a detailed investigation into the various controversies whose eventual settlement led to the creation of the monopoly and the introduction of automatic exchanges, a central theme in the stabilisation of the monopoly. Focusing on techno-economic controversies, this study presents a perceptive approach to the inquiry into order and change in industries, allowing for an inclusion of how notions of the natural order and the inevitable change are made and sustained within such fields of economic practice. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 1999

Organising is the general process by which we structure our world. It is a process that goes beyond social ordering by involving also the technical and the natural realms. Further, it is a process which involves us all. All the time. This dissertation focuses on the organising of business enterprise, more specifically, the organising of food distribution. It is study of formative events in the history of ICA, a major Swedish food distributor. The study provides a detailed account of the development of Hakonbolaget, one of four purchasing centres that formed ICA. Primarily, it accounts for Hakonbolaget´s efforts to establish a modern, rational food distribution system in the 1940s and 1950s. The thrust of these efforts was directed toward three areas of rationalisation: internal operations at the wholesale warehouses, retail operations, and wholesale-retail interaction. Incidentally, these were also central themes in the public debate about the growing costs of goods distribution in Sweden at the time. Through its efforts, Hakonbolaget realised a number of new solutions and established something of a model for modern food distribution. A model that came to characterise operation within ICA from the 1960s and well into the 1990s. Drawing on work within the sociology of science and technology, a conceptual vocabulary is developed for analysing the process of organising. This vocabulary suggests that organising can be regarded as a framing process – as attempts to define and realise sociotechnical situations. The inherent instability of such situations makes stability rather than change a puzzling observation. Consequently, change processes should be regarded as efforts to stabilise situations. Such efforts are closely linked to the establishment of metrics and the generation of representations. In addition to traditional social aspects of organising, the vocabulary also directs attention to the whole heterogeneous materials that surround us. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2001

This thesis analyses how the Swedish forest industry has (re)acted regarding the energy transition and, in particular, regarding the reconstruction of the electricity and forest resources in Sweden during the 1989–2009 period. The thesis consists of four papers that analyse how the Swedish forest industry by means of energy management practices at individual pulp and/or paper mills, in corporate strategies performed by CEOs and boards of directors, and via its industry association, has dealt with mounting political and public demands for the industry to become ‘greener’. At the heart of the thesis are issues related to the industry’s substantial use and management of electricity and forest resources. This thesis focuses on the patterns of conflict and reconstruction that various forest industry representatives (e.g., CEOs) and entities (e.g., mills and resources) have experienced in relation to opposing and/or adjusting to the energy transition. The Swedish forest industry constitutes an illuminating case in a wider research context of how an industry (re)acts regarding increasing environmental and energy-related demands concerning its strategic resources. By using multidisciplinary theoretical concepts when analysing industrial change, this thesis demonstrates the industry’s wider embeddedness in science, policy, and material resources. / Den här sammanläggningsavhandlingen analyserar hur svensk skogsindustri (re)agerat beträffande energiomställningen och särskilt omvandlingen av elektricitets- och skogsresurserna i Sverige, 1989-2009. Avhandlingen består av fyra artiklar vilka analyserar hur svensk skogsindustri, genom energiledning i massa- och pappersbruk, i företagsledningars koncernstrategier, och genom branschorganisationen, hanterat de ökade miljökrav som politiker och allmänhet riktat mot branschen. I centrum för avhandlingen står särskilt frågor relaterade till branschens omfattande användning och hantering av elektricitet och skogsresurser. Mer specifikt fokuserar avhandlingen på de konflikter och förändringar som skogsindustrin genomgått som ett led i motståndet och/eller anpassningen till energiomställningen. Den svenska skogsindustrin utgör ett belysande fall på hur en energiintensiv bransch (re)agerar på ökade miljömässiga krav riktade mot dess energi- och naturresursanvändning. Avhandlingen kan därmed även bidra med kunskap om hur en bransch hanterar förändringskrav riktade mot dess strategiska nyckelresurser. Genom att analysera industriell förändring med multidisciplinära teoretiska begrepp tydliggörs branschens inbäddning i vetenskap, politik, och materiella resurser.