Words like pirates and anti-pirates are becoming common features in the cultural political debate of today, and the file-sharing phenomenon has become a more and more delicate and disputed subject. The fact that people are organizing in networks to swap computerfiles with each other has, among other things, led film and music companies from all over the world to initiate a number of anti-piracy organizations, assigned to protect the right to culture and information. The industrial organization Antipiratbyrån (the Anti-pirate Bureau) and the network Piratbyrån (the Pirate Bureau) have on several occasions been used to represent the prevailing conflict in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to apply a sociological perspective to the collective act of file sharing. Additionally, the purpose is to argue that the activity can be understood as a social movement, although it is rarely referred to as such. By focusing on the distinctly organized part of the file-sharing movement, the goal has principally been to answer how the collective action and the conveyance of knowledge, that is taking place within the movement, can be understood and which the fundamental ideas are. The study has its starting point in theories about the cognitive praxis – or core identity – of social movements. Among the methods used, interviews with representatives from Piratbyrån were valuable tools, but also other sources, like the Piratbyrån website and forum along with their participation in the media, have been the basis of the analysis. This led to a few conclusions worth considering. The most important result of the study is that it is relevant to talk about a new social movement. This movement is above all characterized by individual autonomy, expressed in a fundametal belief in the individual and some kind of “egoistic” solidarity. Closely connected to this is the everyday practice that makes the existence of the movement possible. The conclusion of the study is that the use of the technology is experienced as a political act, associated by the activists to a decentralization of power and control. Therefore, any restraint of the technology is also experienced as a restraint of man’s autonomy.

<p>Words like pirates and anti-pirates are becoming common features in the cultural political debate of today, and the file-sharing phenomenon has become a more and more delicate and disputed subject. The fact that people are organizing in networks to swap computerfiles with each other has, among other things, led film and music companies from all over the world to initiate a number of anti-piracy organizations, assigned to protect the right to culture and information. The industrial organization Antipiratbyrån (the Anti-pirate Bureau) and the network Piratbyrån (the Pirate Bureau) have on several occasions been used to represent the prevailing conflict in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to apply a sociological perspective to the collective act of file sharing. Additionally, the purpose is to argue that the activity can be understood as a social movement, although it is rarely referred to as such. By focusing on the distinctly organized part of the file-sharing movement, the goal has principally been to answer how the collective action and the conveyance of knowledge, that is taking place within the movement, can be understood and which the fundamental ideas are. The study has its starting point in theories about the cognitive praxis – or core identity – of social movements. Among the methods used, interviews with representatives from Piratbyrån were valuable tools, but also other sources, like the Piratbyrån website and forum along with their participation in the media, have been the basis of the analysis. This led to a few conclusions worth considering. The most important result of the study is that it is relevant to talk about a new social movement. This movement is above all characterized by individual autonomy, expressed in a fundametal belief in the individual and some kind of “egoistic” solidarity. Closely connected to this is the everyday practice that makes the existence of the movement possible. The conclusion of the study is that the use of the technology is experienced as a political act, associated by the activists to a decentralization of power and control. Therefore, any restraint of the technology is also experienced as a restraint of man’s autonomy.</p>

Current trends in housing development are economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable. Co-operatives may have an advantage with respect to the sustainable development of housing and housing communities. The research focuses on the ability of housing co-operative organizations to function as learning organizations to advance goals of sustainability. Drawing on literatures focused on housing co-operatives, learning organizations, community capital and sustainability, the investigation primarily focuses on a single strategic case: a housing co-operative that actively pursues goals of sustainability. The research also includes information gathered through personal participation and observation during three years of membership in another housing co-operative. The research methods employed include observation, documentation, and personal and group interviews. The intent is to understand the extent to which housing co-operatives can be learning organizations with regards to various aspects of community sustainability. The term community sustainability encompasses issues related to the viability and longevity of the community itself, as well as the adoption and implementation of more sustainable consumption practices by community members. The use and refinement of selected criteria for organizational and social learning facilitated the investigation of the ways in which a specific housing co-operative, and housing co-operatives more generally, may function as learning organizations.

Current trends in housing development are economically, socially and environmentally unsustainable. Co-operatives may have an advantage with respect to the sustainable development of housing and housing communities. The research focuses on the ability of housing co-operative organizations to function as learning organizations to advance goals of sustainability. Drawing on literatures focused on housing co-operatives, learning organizations, community capital and sustainability, the investigation primarily focuses on a single strategic case: a housing co-operative that actively pursues goals of sustainability. The research also includes information gathered through personal participation and observation during three years of membership in another housing co-operative. The research methods employed include observation, documentation, and personal and group interviews. The intent is to understand the extent to which housing co-operatives can be learning organizations with regards to various aspects of community sustainability. The term community sustainability encompasses issues related to the viability and longevity of the community itself, as well as the adoption and implementation of more sustainable consumption practices by community members. The use and refinement of selected criteria for organizational and social learning facilitated the investigation of the ways in which a specific housing co-operative, and housing co-operatives more generally, may function as learning organizations.

This thesis focuses on the political dimensions of aesthetic expression during the Long Sixties. The thesis deals with amateur theatre ventures both within and linked to the social democratic labour movement. ’Spelet om Norbergsstrejken’ (The Play about the Norberg Strike) had its première in 1977 in a small industrial village in the industrial region of Bergslagen. Similar plays appeared in many regions of the country and a wave of workers’ plays emerged and made an impact on the internal investments of the educational association ABF in amateur theatre. The empiricism of the thesis concludes in 1982 when a social democratic amateur theatre association was founded and after a breakaway from the social democratic movement was establishing a residential study centre in another small village in Bergslagen. Sixties radicalisation provides the social context of the study and the perspective of sociological social movement research is used and developed. Based on the perspective of cognitive practice and the concepts of cosmology and movement ideology attention is directed towards the theatre assets of performance hosts, expectation horizons and patterns of behaviour. The thesis argues for a deeper understanding of sixties radicalisation partly meaning that the periodisation needs to be extended backwards as well as forwards in terms of time and partly that the political dimensions of aesthetic expression should be focused on. Based upon the results of the thesis the concept of culturactivism was formulated which defines the specific approach that appeared in the space between political and cultural activism. This highlights the need for a concept that covers the cognitive free space that arose between aesthetic expression and political activism and which has not previously attracted the attention of historical studies about sixties radicalisation to any great degree.