<p>The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of the underlying conditions for the development of a domestic market for consumer goods by studying how the distribution of goods between the town and the countryside in the county of Hälsingland, Sweden, was organized during the first half of the 19th century. The thesis has analyzed the different kinds of persons involved in the distribution of goods, their functions and mutual relations. In order to examine how the trade was organized on the individual level, a case study of one Hudiksvall merchant’s trading business has been done. This has made possible an analysis of how the two-way trade carried on by the majority of the merchants in the region was organized. In broad outline, this trade involved the merchants purchasing linen goods in the countryside for further selling in Stockholm and other markets on the one hand, and on the other purchasing different kinds of consumer goods in these markets to sell in the countryside of Hälsingland.</p><p>The conclusion drawn from this study is that the conditions for distributing goods really were in a phase of change, where the possibilities of carrying out trade gradually increased, which meant that different kinds of trade and different kinds of traders operated side by side.</p><p>Furthermore, the trade was in many aspects less hierarchic and more horizontally organized than has been suggested by previous research. The individual merchant’s business depended on other traders, where the individuals involved in different ways played a very concrete role in the success of each merchant’s business. This means that the relationship between different traders was characterized by both competition and co-operation. Sometimes merchants engaged other merchants as middlemen on remote markets; on other occasions they took the middleman’s role in relation to other merchants. </p>

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an increased understanding of the underlying conditions for the development of a domestic market for consumer goods by studying how the distribution of goods between the town and the countryside in the county of Hälsingland, Sweden, was organized during the first half of the 19th century. The thesis has analyzed the different kinds of persons involved in the distribution of goods, their functions and mutual relations. In order to examine how the trade was organized on the individual level, a case study of one Hudiksvall merchant’s trading business has been done. This has made possible an analysis of how the two-way trade carried on by the majority of the merchants in the region was organized. In broad outline, this trade involved the merchants purchasing linen goods in the countryside for further selling in Stockholm and other markets on the one hand, and on the other purchasing different kinds of consumer goods in these markets to sell in the countryside of Hälsingland. The conclusion drawn from this study is that the conditions for distributing goods really were in a phase of change, where the possibilities of carrying out trade gradually increased, which meant that different kinds of trade and different kinds of traders operated side by side. Furthermore, the trade was in many aspects less hierarchic and more horizontally organized than has been suggested by previous research. The individual merchant’s business depended on other traders, where the individuals involved in different ways played a very concrete role in the success of each merchant’s business. This means that the relationship between different traders was characterized by both competition and co-operation. Sometimes merchants engaged other merchants as middlemen on remote markets; on other occasions they took the middleman’s role in relation to other merchants.

The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge and understanding of the early process of socialization and its influence on the choices in life, with the example taken from the agricultural family. The question is considering how the process of socialization within an agricultural family has influenced on the choices in life of four women. A qualitative method with a hermeneutic, phenomenologic perspective is applied and four interviews have been done with women who all grew up in an agricultural family. The results have been analysed through social constructive-, psychodynamic-, attachment- and cognitive theory. The results indicate that socialization is a complex process. The women have early been socialized in the discourse of work with distinct norms and set of values, which seems to follow them in their grown-up life. Not only the discourse but also the early relations within the families seems to have been influenced by the conditions of farming. We are of the opinion that the early relations within the families have influenced on the choices in life of these four women. Also, the commitment to a Free Church communion during the growth has been a strong factor of socialization to these women. Above all, we think that the decision of leaving the Free Church communion has had a great significance to these women, for example in their choice of residential area.

Understanding the class position of family owned small scale agricultural production units, which constitute a common feature of the rural context in the later capitalized countries, have been one of the major discussion points in the Marxist literature. The continual existence of such a form of production organization with significant non-capitalist features under the enlarging capitalist organization of production despite the initial assumptions of Marxist analysis that it was a transitory form which will soon differentiate between proletariat and bourgeoisie have prompted a number if attempts at explaining the survival of this category. These debates have strongly influenced the analyses in the field of rural sociology from 1960s onwards, providing the conceptual tools for sociological analysis of rural relations of production. This thesis engages in an attempt of re-appraising the theoretical debates within Marxist analysis of petty agricultural production organization together with considering the recent transnational reorganization of agricultural production. The neo-liberal retraction of state as a regulating force and loosening the protectionist policies has lead to the rise of the power of Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) in the field of agriculture in the past couple of decades. Contractual farming is defined as a major form of direct relationship TNCs establish with petty agricultural producers to exercise their determining power over the organization of agricultural production. Together with a case study of contractual farming, the thesis discusses how could we define the class positions of this segment and whether their relationship with TNCs have a significant affect over our definitions.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Göteborg, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation analyzes the cultural significance of land relations and caste/religious identity to understand political subjectivity in Punjab, Pakistan. The ethnography details the vicissitudes of a peasant land rights movement, Anjuman-e Mazarin Punjab (Punjab Tenants Association) that is struggling to retain land rights on vast agricultural farms controlled by the Pakistan army. The dissertation argues that land struggles should not only be understood in tropes of locality, but also as interconnected processes that attend to global and local changes in governance. To emphasize these connections, the dissertation gives a relational understanding of 'politics of place' that attends to a range of practices from the history of colonial infrastructure projects (the building of canals, roads and model villages) that transformed this agricultural frontier into the heart of British colonial administration. Similarly, the ethnographic chapters relate the history of 'place making' to the present day uncertainty for small tenant sharecroppers who defied the Pakistan Army's attempts to change land relations in the military farms. Within these parameters, this ethnographic study offers a "thick description" of Punjab Tenants Association to analyze the internal shifts in loyalties and alignments during the course of the protest movement by looking at how caste, religious and/or class relations gain or lose significance in the process. My research seeks to counter the predominant understanding of Muslim political subjectivity, which privileges religious beliefs over social practices and regional identity. Another aspect of my work elucidates the symbolic exchange between the infrastructural project of irrigation, railway construction and regional modernity in central Punjab. The network of canals, roads and railways transformed the semi-arid region of Indus Plains and created a unique relationship between the state and rural society in central Punjab. However, this close relationship between rural Punjab and state administration is not void of conflict but rather it indicates a complex sense of attachment and alienation, inclusion and exclusion from the state. / text

The important and exemplary role that Internet technology played in enhancing the publicity campaign of the Chiapas insurgents in their struggle for political reform in Mexico, is the focus of this thesis. By examining the Internet as an alternative distribution network for Subcomandante Marcos' communiques, it can be conjectured that the technology provided him with a space through which his voice could be heard in the international political arena. It was a space both external to Mexican government control, and through which Macros disseminated a powerful discourse representing the insurgents' political goals and grievances--one contrary to that being transmitted by the state-controlled media. Internet technology, it can be argued, generated the necessary national and international public consciousness, opinion, scrutiny and support for the Chiapas insurgents, that ultimately transformed their conflict with the Mexican government from a violent war of arms, to one of peaceful negotiation and dialogue.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-125). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 3, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-409).

Orientador: Bernardo Mançano Fernandes / Resumo: A gravidade do problema alimentar no mundo mantém em constante alerta movimentos camponeses, movimentos em defesa da alimentação saudável, instituições multilaterais e governos. Sua raiz está no desenvolvimento capitalista que, através do agronegócio, determina as políticas agrícolas para o monocultivo e exportação, transformando alimentos em commodities e a agricultura em negócio. Este modelo do capitalismo agrário desterritorializa o campesinato que é quem produz para a soberania alimentar. Isto tem gerado fome, miséria, migração, degradação do meio ambiente, perda da cultura e da história dos povos e o desaparecimento de muitas culturas alimentares e da própria vida camponesa. Diante de tal gravidade, a soberania alimentar aparece em escala global como construção contra hegemônica proposta pelos movimentos camponeses e outras organizações sociais, especialmente a Via Campesina, contra as políticas impostas pelo agronegócio. A soberania alimentar é fundamental para assegurar a produção de alimentos, por meio da agroecologia, para alimentar o mundo. Este trabalho procurou aprofundar o processo de construção da soberania alimentar desde os movimentos sociais e desde as instituições de governo na construção de políticas públicas no Brasil e Bolívia. Esta é nossa contribuição nesta construção contra hegemônica a partir das lutas das camponesas e dos camponeses. / Abstract: The seriousness of the world's food problem keeps peasant movements, advocacy movements, multilateral institutions and governments in constant alert. Its root lies in the capitalist development that, through agribusiness, determines agricultural policies for monoculture and export, turning food into commodities and agriculture into business. This model of agrarian capitalism deterritorializes the peasantry that produces food sovereignty. This has led to famine, poverty, migration, degradation of the environment, loss of the culture and history of peoples and the disappearance of many food cultures and peasant life itself. Faced with such seriousness, food sovereignty appears on a global scale as a counter-hegemonic construction proposed by peasant movements and other social organizations, especially Via Campesina, against the policies imposed by agribusiness. Food sovereignty is fundamental to ensuring food production, through agroecology, to feed the world. This work sought to deepen the process of building food sovereignty from the social movements and from the institutions of government in the construction of public policies in Brazil and Bolivia. This is our contribution in this counter-hegemonic construction from the peasant struggles. / Resumen: La gravedad del problema alimentario en el mundo mantiene en alerta constante movimientos campesinos. Movimientos en defensa de la alimentación saludable, instituciones multilaterales y gobiernos. Sus raíces están en el desarrollo capitalista que, atravez del agronegocio determina las políticas agrícolas hacia los monocultivos y la exportación, transformando los alimentos en commodities y agricultura en negocios. Este modelo de capitalismo agrario desterritorializa al campesinado quien es el que produce para la Soberanía Alimentaria. Todo esto ha generado hambre, miseria, migración, degradación del medio ambiente, pérdida de la cultura y de la historia de los pueblos y la desaparición de muchas culturas alimentarias y de la propia vida campesina. Ante tal gravedad, la soberanía alimentaria aparece en escala global como una construcción contra hegemónica propuesta por los movimientos campesinos y otras organizaciones sociales, especialmente Vía Campesina, contra las políticas impuestas por el agronegocio. La soberanía alimentaria es fundamental para asegurar la producción de alimentos, por medio la agroecología, para alimentar el mundo. Este trabajo intento profundizar el proceso de construcción de la soberanía alimentaria desde los movimientos sociales y desde las instituciones gubernamentales en el desarrollo de políticas públicas, especialmente en Brasil y Bolivia. Esta es nuestra contribución en la construcción contra hegemónica a partir de las luchas de las campesinas y d... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletrônico abajo) / Mestre