In this dissertation the construction of two coastal railways, the East Coast Line and the Bothnia Line, in the Norrland region of northern Sweden is used as a case study of how regionally based interest groups are formed, and how they gain access to decision-making processes on a national level. In periods when a number of preconditions were in place, a window of opportunity opened for the coastal railway that the regional elites could exploit. Among these was the ability to form a coherent regional interest group, through institutions that created platforms and power-bases that enable regional elites to co-operate and act on regional and national levels.The existence of an institutional framework that was adapitve towards regional railway promotion was also important. The study shows that the coastal railway had a very flexible role on the agenda, as it provided a fixed solution against which actors could pin a multitude of different problems. An important factor for explaining the development of the coastal railway question in Norrland was the ideological notion of the region itself. Being a vast, resource-rich and sparsely populated region, Norrland had almost always received special consideration in both public opinion and national policy making. It also created a remarkable stubbornness among the regional actors in working for the coastal railway. Regional interest groups had also learnt that linking their claims to Norrland's peripheral position had high legitimacy on the national arena, by claiming the need for regional fairness and/or the national importance of the regional export-intensive industries. This was instrumental in justifying the repeated exemptions from the national railway policy regimes that ultimately were decissive in making the regional elites successful.

This doctoral thesis explores the agrarian development in 20th Estonia and the role of family farming during three major agricultural transformations. It consists of four papers and an introductory chapter for which the common departure are the situation appearing in the Estonian farming landscape after the regained independence in 1991. The first three studies analyse comparative aspects on Estonia's interwar experiences with focus on land reform, agricultural co-operation, and agricultural export development. The fourth study focuses on the role of private plots during the Soviet period and the conversion of these into subsistence holdings after 1991. By merging the perspectives in these papers, the introductory chapter explores the impacts and legacies of previous transformations on the post-Soviet agricultural transformation up to 2004. The thesis specifically analyses the long-term effects of perceptions of markets and the role of agricultural production, changes in the agrarian property relations, organisation of agricultural production and co-operation. In analytical terms, this is discussed from the perspectives of continuity and discontinuity. Besides the several societal changes affecting the agrarian property relations in 20th century Estonia, the radical and decisive shifts have also affected markets, trade and economic integration. Since the end of the First World War, Estonia has been quickly thrown between different economic-political systems and legal environments. From the perspective of the small state’s dependence on trade and reliance on a few markets, the upheavals in the early 1920s, after World War II, and not least the fall of the Soviet Union, Estonia’s long-term economic development has been significantly affected. In this context the role of agriculture has changed. Most important, however, this dissertation shows how the idea of small-scale family farming survived throughout the planned economic period and became an indispensable production unit, even though it turned out to be a myth as soon as the Soviet system was dissolved and the exposure to international competition began after 1991.

This dissertation examines changes in the Swedish health care system during the period 1962-2000. During this period, three legislative changes affected the development of the health care system. Firstly, the Health care act of 1962 that increased the county councils responsibility for the health care. Secondly, the Health care act of 1983, which resulted in a new definition of concept health at the same time as it changed the hospitals responsibility for care and illness. Thirdly, from 1992 to 1995, three reforms changed the hospitals position in the health care system. Together with the general technological development of the health care sector, these three legislative changes have led to new way of producing care as well as it has created new jobs, new work specialities and it has also effect the gender division in work. Women have always dominated the work in the health care sector. The way of care production have however also created new jobs mainly consisting of technological work assignments that have better status than traditional care work with the patients. The new technological jobs are furthermore primarily occupied by men, which leads to a organizational development than reemphasizes the hierarchical structure of the health care sector, where women work in the lower position and men in the upper positions. This development is also evident when nurses begin to work with technology. This express a new gender system in which men dominate in curing and nursing work-assignments at care wards with high technological level, but not in the caring assignments. And at care wards with low technological level the situation is the opposite, women dominate in all three assignments e.g. curing, nursing and caring care work.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed new light on the theorizations discussing the economic benefits of geographical clustering in a space economy increasingly characterized by globalization processes. This is made possible through the employment of a plant-perspective and a focus on how the relative fixity and mobility of labour influence plant performance throughout the entire Swedish economy.  By means of the longitudinal micro database ASTRID, connecting attributes of individuals to features of plants and localities for the whole Swedish economy, the empirical findings indicate that both localization and urbanization economies produce significant labour market externalities and that such inter-plant linkages positively affect plant performance as compared to the partial effects of relative regional specialization and diversification. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that it is necessary both to distinguish how well the external skills retrieved via labour mobility match the existing knowledge base of plants and to determine the geographical dimension of such flows to verify the relative effect of labour market-induced externalities. Finally, it is demonstrated that whereas general urbanization is beneficial within close distance to the plant, the composition of economic activities is more influential at greater distances. In such cases the geographical dimension influences whether plants benefit from being located in similar or different local settings.  In conclusion, it is argued that the circulation of labour skills, created and reproduced through the place-specific industrial setup, is crucial for understanding the mechanisms creating geographical variations in plant performance as compared to other regional conditions often proxied as relative specialization or diversification. This is because the relative fixity of labour tends to create place- and sector-specific skills which by means of their mobility in space are likely to facilitate the recombination of local skills, make the acquirement of non-local skills possible and secure sufficient affinity between economic actors by strengthening other dimensions of proximity – all aspects regarded as crucial to facilitate interactive learning processes and contribute to sustained regional growth.

This thesis analyses the development towards a mass market pornographic press. Sweden (in addition to Denmark) is often described as a forerunner in this development when the so-called “porn wave” hit most of the Western world in the late 1960s. The “porn wave” was the starting point of the contemporary pornographic press, which put sexually explicit pictures on the international market. Denmark was the first country in the world to decriminalize pornographic pictures in 1969 and Sweden followed in 1971. While previous research in Sweden often blames decriminalisation for the growth of the pornographic market, this thesis shows that the “porn wave” preceded the alteration of the Freedom of the press act and thus calls for a more multifaceted analysis of the development. Very few studies have been made about the development from an underground exclusive market of explicit pornography to a legal mass market. This thesis, however, makes a survey of all the Swedish publishers of pornographic magazines, their length on the market, and the market conditions. By analysing the regulation of pornography prior to 1971 and the legal cases leading to prosecutions of the publishers, the strategies used to challenge the regulation are traced. Special attention is also paid to how the monopoly on distribution held by Pressbyrån, a company owned by the Swedish press, affected the pornographic press. By cooperating and starting their own distribution channels, the pornography publishers managed to challenge Pressbyrån’s regulations. Great emphasis is laid on the discursive construction of pornography in mass media and in the parliamentary debates. This thesis argues that the antagonisms between the pornographic press and its critics are central in understanding how pornography was perceived and that these debates have decisively impacted the market conditions. Sensation-seeking articles in the evening papers, and the politicians’ liberal attitudes towards the pornographic press, made the market seem more open and lucrative. The resistance towards the establishment of a mass market and explicit pornographic press was strong during the whole period – but these critics used quite varying arguments. By analysing these arguments, this thesis shows how the pornographic press touched on sensitive cultural norms regarding marriage, young people’s sexuality, homosexuality, gender and love. The second half of the 1960s was a turning point in the development of the pornographic press, the discursive construction of pornography and in the political strategies used to combat pornography. In just a few years, the pornographic press grew substantially and started to publish explicit pictures of intercourse. In that same period, the construction of pornography went from a conservatively Christian understanding to a sexually liberal – and later to a feminist understanding of its problems. The government introduced a “porn raid” against the magazines, prosecuted many of them, and then paradoxically decriminalized pornography in 1971. Theoretically, the conclusion is made that pornography has to be seen in its historical context and in relation to its special market conditions. Since pornography continually has been a contested commodity, its controversial status has resulted in special regulations, marketing difficulties and lack of income from advertisements.

The purpose of this thesis has been to analyse the managing of risks, insecurities and transactions costs that deterred economic exchange during the 1930’s and the 1940’s, within the Swedish-German bilateral clearing system, from a Swedish contractual theoretical perspective. In this thesis it has been shown that the clearing agreement was put in practice in 1934, on initiative of Sweden. In the agreement financial issues associated with risks and insecurities were to be reduced by formalising rules for the economic exchange. The basic principle was that Germany regularly had a trade surplus in relation to Sweden. The surplus was used for re-building the Reichsbank’s monetary reserves, as well as payments on financial claims. The agreement was designed in an incomplete way, to be adjusted ad hoc in a trial and error process. As both parties had different interests, they had to make concessions in order to sustain the clearing system. This was also reflected in the design of the agreement, which evolved from an incomplete to a specific, detailed agreement, due to the increasing risks and insecurities that had to be dealt with. The clearing system was ideal for wartime conditions since it maintained trade flows. It also became a line of defence: specific agreements allowed the dominant Germany less scope to assert preferential rights of interpretation of the rules and regulations. When the war intensified it was difficult for Germany to carry out its commitments to Sweden, and the Swedish party found reasons to distrust the German economy, which was entering a recession. At the same time Allied forces strengthened their political influence, and the victors would become the leaders of the future international economy. Sweden made a gradual exit from the clearing system, delivering the agreed upon exports to Germany, while keeping the Allied negotiators informed of the process. The Swedish-German clearing system collapsed in spring 1945.

What is an economic crime? Who is an economic criminal? How do we speak of the phenomenon and what does they way we speak mean? The immediate result of the study is that there is a stereotype image of the economic criminal that is produced within peoples speech. This image contains characteristics that bring the subject, the economic criminal, far away from the traditional crime subject, and brings it closer to a non-criminal subject. This motion render possible that economic criminals can talk of themselves as “not bad people”, “normal” and “like everyone else”. The analysis has made clear that economic crime and economic criminals are conceptualizations that are under negotiation, there is no determined definition of these ideas. A transformed society has also an impact on economic criminals and economic crime. Perhaps the debate about the definition of the economic criminal and economic crime is symptomatic for the postmodern society we share?

Bakgrunden till examensarbetet är att aktiviteter kopplat till den globala ekonomin samt tillväxt av denna har skapat en situation som i dagsläget inte uppfyller den ekologiska dimensionen av hållbarhet. Lösningar för att minska den miljöpåverkan som sker idag samtidigt som ekonomisk tillväxt sker har kritiserats och istället föreslås ekonomier med låg eller ingen tillväxt. Med bakgrund till detta har forskningsprojektet Bortom BNP-tillväxt startat och examensarbetet genomförs hos ekonomiska modeller som är ett av projektets arbetspaket.Syftet med examensarbetet är dels att utreda hur en eventuell hållbarhetsproblematik med en fortsatt BNP-tillväxt ser ut för att avgöra om en konflikt mellan ekonomisk och ekologisk hållbarhet existerar. Syftet går också ut på att simulera en neoklassisk jämviktsmodell för att studera hur en sådan reagerar för olika tillväxtscenarier (tillväxt, nolltillväxt och negativ tillväxt). För att avgöra detta studeras parametrarna BNP, konsumtion, investeringar, mängd kapital och mängd arbetade timmar. Tanken är att kartläggningen av en eventuell konflikt mellan ekologisk och ekonomisk hållbarhet i kombination med analysen av jämviktsmodellen ska kunna användas för att avgöra hur ekonomiska modeller som tar hänsyn till både den ekologiska och den ekonomiska dimensionen av hållbarhet ska kunna utformas.Huruvida en konflikt mellan den ekonomiska och ekologiska dimensionen av hållbarhet existerar utreds med hjälp av en litteraturstudie. Vidare ställs den neoklassiska jämviktsmodellen inte upp från grunden, istället används en redan färdig jämviktsmodell för den finska ekonomin som sedan utvecklas efter förutsättningar i svenska data. Modellen simuleras mellan 1990-2035 för scenarierna tillväxt, nolltillväxt och negativ tillväxt. Dessutom görs en simulering av nolltillväxt där arbetstiden successivt minskar.Litteraturstudien visar att en potentiell konflikt mellan den ekologiska och den ekonomiska dimensionen av hållbarhet existerar. Simuleringarna för den neoklassiska jämviktsmodellen ger tillförlitliga resultat för parametrarna BNP, konsumtion och mängd arbetade timmar. Modellens stora svaghet är dock investeringar som avviker i jämförelse med data, något som antagligen också är skälet till att mindre avvikelser uppkommer för mängden kapital.Jämviktsmodellen och litteraturstudien diskuteras sedan och slutsatsen dras att den största svagheten hos den neoklassiska jämviktsmodellen är att den inte tar hänsyn till naturresurser (inklusive energi) som produktionsfaktor samt hur föroreningar påverkar dessa. Ett förslag som i sin tur tas fram utifrån slutsatserna är att uppdatera ekonomiska modeller (exempelvis jämviktsmodellen) för att inkludera naturresurser som produktionsfaktor så att modellerna även tar hänsyn till den ekologiska dimensionen av hållbarhet. Resultatet av en sådan modell skulle sedan kunna användas för att kommunicera en optimal nivå på BNP och skapa konsensus mellan nationalekonomer, miljövetare och politiska beslutsfattare om hur en potentiell konflikt mellan ekonomisk och ekologisk hållbarhet kan hanteras. / The background to this master thesis is that the activities linked to the global economy and its growth has created a situation that currently does not uphold the ecological dimension of sustainability. Solutions to reduce the environmental impact of today while economic growth occurs has been criticized and instead economies with low or no growth have been proposed. With this in mind, the research project Beyond GDP growth have started. The master thesis is carried out for economic models which is one of the work packages within the project.The aim of the master thesis is partly to investigate the issue of sustainability with continued GDP growth to determine whether a possible conflict between economic and ecological sustainability exists. The objective is also to simulate a neoclassical equilibrium model for the Swedish economy to study its responses for different growth scenarios (growth, zero growth and negative growth). The parameters GDP, consumption, investment, amount of capital and amount of hours worked are studied. The idea is that the identification of a possible conflict between ecological and economic sustainability, combined with the analysis of the equilibrium model can be used to determine how economic models that take into account both the ecological and the economic dimension of sustainability could be designed.Whether a conflict between the economical and the ecological dimensions of sustainability exists is investigated with the help of a literature review. Furthermore, the neoclassical equilibrium model is not developed from scratch. Instead an already finished equilibrium model of the Finnish economy is used, which is then developed after prerequisites in the Swedish data. The model is then simulated in the time period 1990-2035 with scenarios for growth, zero growth and negative growth. Furthermore, a scenario of zero growth in which working hours are gradually decreases is simulated.The literature review indicates that a potential conflict between the ecological and the economical dimension of sustainability exist. The simulations of the neoclassical equilibrium model provides reliable results for the parameters GDP, consumption and amount of hours worked. The model's major weakness, however, is investments that differs in comparison with the data, which is probably the reason that minor deviations also occurs for amount of capital.The equilibrium model and the literature review are then discussed and the conclusion is made that the biggest weakness of the neoclassical equilibrium model is that it does not take into account natural resources (including energy) as a production function nor how pollutants affect them. A proposal which in turn is drawn up based on the conclusions is to update economic models (e.g. the equilibrium model) to include natural resources as a production factor so that the models also take into account the ecological dimension of sustainability. The result of such a model could then be used to communicate an optimal level of GDP and create consensus among economists, environmental scientists and policy makers about how a potential conflict between economic and ecological sustainability can be managed.

Under 1940-talet påbörjades en omfattande utbyggnad av en offentlig tjänstesektor som ett led i att göra Sverige till en universell välfärdsstat. I samband med den offentliga tjänstesektorns utbyggnad ökade andelen kvinnor på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. En omfattande utbyggnad av sjukvården gjordes vilket resulterade i en kraftigt ökad efterfrågan på vårdpersonal, och då inte minst sjuksköterskor. Sjuksköterskors löner har varit omdiskuterade ända sedan 1900-talets början. Yrket har historiskt varit lågavlönat, vilket kan förklaras på en mängd olika sätt. I uppsatsen studeras om och hur institutionella förändringar på området har påverkat sjuksköterskeyrkets löneutveckling under perioden 1977 till 2017. De institutionella förändringar som har undersökts är främst politiska reformer och lagstiftning på hälso- och sjukvårdens område. Även reformer av sjuksköterskeutbildningen har undersökts, eftersom att professionalisera sjuksköterskeyrket sågs vara ett steg mot en förbättrad löneutveckling. Trots att sjukvården har genomgått stora reformer under perioden 1977 till 2017 har det haft en till synes liten påverkan på löneutvecklingen. Inte heller professionaliseringen tycks ha påverkat utvecklingen. Sjuksköterskeyrket var under 1900-talets början ett renodlat kvinnoyrke. Än idag består yrket till 90 procent kvinnor. Att sjuksköterskors löner är låga, liksom många andra kvinnodominerade yrkens löner, kan förklaras genom att det föreligger en värdediskriminering av vad som betraktas som kvinnligt arbete. Vid undersökning av sjuksköterskeyrket är det därmed viktigt att beakta yrkets genusarbetsdelning, vilket har påverkat, och än idag påverkar, yrket och dess löneutveckling. Yrkets genusarbetsdelning kan förklaras som ett informellt spårberoende. Ju närmare vår tid vi kommer ju mer har genusarbetsdelningen uppmärksammats både politiskt och inom forskningen. En följd av det är jämställdhetslagen som infördes 1979. Trots att värdediskrimineringen av det kvinnodominerade sjuksköterskeyrket uppmärksammats har det inte haft en synbar påverkan på lönerna.

The thesis is about what the buildings at manor estates, vicarages and farms looked like and how they changed during the agrarian revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Through new clearings, mechanisation, land partition, and increased work distribution and specialisation, production increased vigorously during the period, which generally caused an increase in prosperity and lay the foundation for the subsequent industrial revolution. The aim was to study how houses and outbuildings were affected by changes in agriculture, household composition and work organisation, an area which to date has been relatively unexplored. The study, which was based on conditions in Lagunda, a flat-country town in central Sweden, shows that there has been both change and continuity in building developments. The buildings became increasingly larger as arable land acreage and livestock numbers increased, and they were also gradually rendered more efficient to facilitate production. The increase in profit led in turn to an increase in the standard of living and both houses and outbuildings were increasingly lavishly built. However the increasingly larger and better buildings were not only a product of improved economy but also a response to the increasing need for manifestation felt by the manor owners, clergymen and farmers whereby they could clearly mark their positions in relation to each other and to a growing class of non-propertied people. The boundaries between family and employee, as well as between ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ functions, were all the more clearly demarcated, both indoors and outdoors. Even if the changes were considerable on the whole, there was a clear line of continuity. Household reproduction was the primary aim and providing for the family could not be jeopardised, which explains why most changes took place in small steps at a time.