This study examines stories from the 1800s about the Swedish folklore creature Näcken with the purpose to define what kind of view on gender they are presenting. The geographical area in focus is the Swedish south province Småland. The ambition is to see how the stories describe the thinking, acting and meaning about gender and authority. This will also be studied in relation to the norms and ideals of gender that dominated in the 1800s. Former studies has shown that the view of folklore and gender interacted and carried each other in the 1600s and the 1700s. There are also research that indicate that the creature Näcken maintained gender patterns in the 1800s. This research determines more general patterns concerning gender and has not done a more firmly analysis in relation to the change in the view on gender which took place between the 1700s and the 1800s, which this study intend to do by using Yvonne Hirdman’s gender system as a theoretical framework. The result has shown that the understandings of Näcken had a role to play in the context of social control, seeing as the understandings affected the behavior of people. The most clear message the stories expresses is that men had more capacity to act than women, which is in line with the 1800s ideals about gender that derived from a polarization norm. This can also be seen in the context in which the meeting with Näcken took place, namely the in the context of work and other activities, but not in connection to physical places in line with the polarization norm, in which the women should have met the creature closer to the farm and the men’s meeting should have more distance from the farm. The stories also expresses a valuing of characteristics which were highly valued as norms in the 1800s. The characteristics also have a moral dimension. Men with highly valued characteristics were more likely to succeed with their attempts and had bigger chances of escaping Näcken. Within the moral spectrum one can find a Christian motive as well, since warnings about neglecting the religion takes place. For women though, the stories’ moral dimension spoke about precepts and the negative consequences which could follow if the women did not practice restraint and carefulness. From the 1600s and 1700s to the 1800s Småland, there is also a continuity regarding sexual relationships between women and Näcken to be found. Those kinds of relationships are rare to find in the sources.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka de ideologiska motiven bakom frisläppandet av spannmålshandeln 1775 och 1780. Utgångspunkten är det funktionalistiska synssättet med handlingsaxiom inom det praxeologiska läran som komplement för att undersöka individernas situation. Tillvägagångssättet blir att undersöka böndernas och statens ekonomiska situation och syn på marknaden före och efter tidigare nämnda årtal.    Under tidiga 1700-talet var Sverige ett samhälle med starkt statlig kontroll av marknaden med inrikes tullar, premier och fördelar för vissa personer i samhället. Samtidigt under upplysningstiden träder tänkare som Adam Smith, Anders Chydenius och även fysiokrater fram och hävdar att en fri marknad skulle vara till fördel för både landet och individerna, något som Johan Liljencrantz delvis var influerad av. Resultatet av denna uppsats visar att upplysningstiden och fysiokratism låg bakom frisläppandet av spannmålshandeln då fokus centrerades till bondens positiva ekonomiska utveckling. / The main purpose in this essay is to research the ideological motives behind the extrication of the grain trade in 1775 and 1780. To do this research I have to see the Swedish state and farmers economic situation before 1775 and after 1775, but also what time Liljencrantz lived in and how relevant the time was to the reform. The starting point for this essay is using the functionalism analysis with action axiom of praxeology in mind to see the relationship between the state and the individual.    During the early 18th century, Sweden had a mercantile system where the industry had to be protected with high tariffs and a strong nobility owning them. During the enlightenment thinkers like Adam Smith, Anders Chydenius and to some extent physiocrats sought a society with free market that would have the result of more wealth, to the nation as well as to the citizen. The result of this essay is that Liljencrantz reform were the causes of his time and political view, the time of enlightenment and physiocracy to make the farmer more free and prosperous. It was also the start of the more liberal economy that would dominate the Swedish society in the 1800 hundreds.

Despite a situation of poor state finances 1848 marks the starting point of Sweden’s railroad history, as this is year when the country’s first railroad was proposed and approved in parliament. Not sufficient funds for the project was raised though, and a new motion was raised in parliament in 1851 with improved financial support from the state. This caused an intense debate which is the main subject of this essay. By analyzing the public discussion regarding railroads, as expressed in news media, during 1851 this essay aims to analyze the discussions about railroads in search of the 19th century’s overarching themes of modernity and nationalism. These terms are to be understood as rhetorical expressions, in accordance with Aguiars and Andersons interpretation of the terms. The performed analysis displays how nationalism is a theme present in both sides of the debate in 1851, though in different ways. Those skeptical of the planned railroad line argues about the nation being tricked into embarking on an expensive project that will never be financially viable by bought foreign interest. Those in favor argues rather that the project will bind together a fragmented Sweden into one nation. Arguments involving modernity though, are just to be found amongst those in favor. Here we find arguments about the promises that the future holds with railroads connecting the swedes and a pervasive optimism regarding the future. Less concern is displayed to current day problems, other than how it might threaten future railroad expansions.

Åsa Jernudd: Movies and Entertainment in Örebro 1897-1908 This dissertation is a historical study of film exhibition in the context of emerging popular entertainment in Örebro, a medium-sized town in Sweden, 1897 to 1908. It argues that since 80% of the population resided in towns and rural areas around 1900, studying the impact of film culture in a town setting is essential for an understanding of early film culture in Sweden. The local press is used as primary source of marketing schemes, venues and programming policies as well as of cultural debate and conflict. Across Europe, theatres and fairgrounds were the preferred venues of traveling exhibitors of film shows. In Örebro, however, film exhibition preferably took place in the ‘respectable’ halls of voluntary organizations. Of special importance to local film culture were two working class societies: the liberal Arbetareföreningen (AF) and the labor-based Arbetarekommun (AK) ― albeit in different ways. AF, which embraced reformist ideals, owned the most popular venue for film exhibition and transformed their hall into a movie theater in 1907. AK encouraged the working class population to spend leisure time (and money) on popular forms of cheap entertainment by opening an amusement park in town and by frequently organizing bazaars, funfairs and variety shows. Socio-cultural conflict was concentrated to the fairground around the turn of the century and later turned to AK’s bazaars and funfairs. The emerging film culture influenced opinion in the big cities of Sweden, yet in Örebro it only received sporadic public attention. In stark contrast to the situation in the big cities, the transformation of itinerant film exhibition to permanent forms was a gradual and relatively inconspicuous process in Örebro that took place in the shadow of AK’s more obtrusive culture of cheap amusements. Three movie theatres opened in 1907 and were accepted by the town’s public with relative ease. / <p>Also affiliated to Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Cinema studies. Diss. Stockholm : Stockholm University, 2007</p>

Malingsbo Estate is a 18th century wooden building located in the small village of Malingsbo. Through the years, the estate has had a wide variation of usages. Today, almost 70 years since the last major renovation it is being utilized 6 weeks per year.   The following report, which has been made possible with the cooperation with the National Property Board (Statens Fastighetsverk) seeks to answer the following four questions. 1: What is the current climate inside the building 2: What are the resident’s views on the climate and the status of the building. 3: suggestions on how to, with the current building increase the period in which the inside climate is suitable for living. 4: Suggestions for lowering the energy usage for the building. These four points seeks to be answered with the following method: reports from Statens Fastighetsverk, surveys, field excursions and simulations in VIP-Energy.   The result of this report which should be especially considered is the following: At present time with no heating in the building, residents feel the climate during July to be acceptable to good, while during October most thinks it is to cold. For increasing the duration where the building meets a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius to 24 weeks’ installations of a 12500 W heating system is needed. For lowering the energy consumption without making large changes to the building two options should be specially considered: Insulation in the foundation with 50 mm insulation, and installation of window shutters during week 45 to 10. A larger installation suitable is solar panels for heating.

Följande uppsats kommer att undersöka huruvida expansionen av antalet studieplatser vid universitet och högskolor under 1990-talet i Sverige har påverkat möjligheterna för realiserad social rörlighet uppåt. Genom att jämföra respondenter för år 1991 med respondenter för år 2010 ämnar vi besvara frågeställningen hur social rörlighet och sannolikheten att uppnå en akademisk examen har utvecklats i Sverige. 1991 utgör mätpunkten före expansionen, och 2010 efter. Möjligheten definieras i denna studie av den realiserade möjligheten. Baserat på en klassindelning som utgår från individens yrkestillhörighet genomförs logistiska regressionsanalyser för att finna hur olika klassbakgrund påverkar sannolikheten för individer i Sverige att ha uppnått en högre klasstillhörighet än uppväxtklassen. Med utgångspunkt i både mikro- och makroteoretiska perspektiv skapar vi en analysmodell som appliceras för att undersöka sannolikheten att uppnå en högre klasstillhörighet än den man kommer ifrån, sannolikheten att uppnå en akademisk examen samt sannolikheten att vara stationär i sin klasstillhörighet. Vi kommer även presentera diverse tidigare studier som behandlar ämnet social rörlighet, social skiktning och utbildning. Studien som genomförs är deduktiv, och det teoretiska ramverket utgörs av teorier på främst mikronivå. Vi kan i vår studie finna att sannolikheten för social rörlighet samt sannolikheten för att uppnå en universitetsexamen är högre för 2010 än 1991, vilket leder oss till slutsatsen att högskoleexpansionerna har varit effektiva medel för en större jämlikhet när det gäller social rörlighet och högsta uppnådd utbildning i Sverige. Samtidigt kan vi finna en relativt hög grad av social reproduktion i Sverige, vilket skulle kunna indikera att en individs habitus har stor inverkan. Vi kan dock inte finna några statistiskt signifikanta könsskillnader. Dock finner vi att sannolikheten att uppnå en akademisk examen är högre för individer som spenderat huvuddelen av uppväxten utomlands, men att de samtidigt har ett lägre odds att hamna i en högre klass än föräldrarnas klasstillhörighet.

Tuberculosis was at the start of the 20th century one of the greatest diseases that afflicted the population in Sweden, as well as the rest of Europe. The industrial revolution had created a ripe breeding ground for the disease to spread as people moved from the countryside to the city. Most ended up living in poor, cramped, and unsanitary conditions. At the same time, Sweden was entering an era of social reform under a socialist government. The old and dirty was to be replaced with a new and clean modern society – a “people’s home” for every citizen. This essay explores how this new mentality, that highly valued cleanliness and health of both mind and body, affected those that were ill with tuberculosis and living at a sanatorium in southern Sweden. The source material used is a patients’ magazine from Fur sanatorium, that was published between 1932 and 1944. After selecting articles and poems published by patients and doctors in these magazines, a close reading allowed conclusions to be drawn regarding what the patients thought and felt about the ongoing social changes. Based on these results, it is apparent that the new, hyper-hygienic social norms put further pressure on the patients to conform in any way they could. They did not have a healthy body, so it was important that they had a heathy mind instead.

This essay is a study of the dental health and cranial pathologies of five individuals buried in Domkyrkoplan cemetery, Uppsala, in the 17th and 18th century. Domkyrkoplan was the only cemetery in Uppsala city during the 200-year time period. The cemetery was placed in the immediate surroundings of Uppsala cathedral. The 17th century is a breaking point between the late medieval society and the early modern era in Sweden as well as in Europe, and this was a period of change for the inhabitants of Uppsala city. The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper insight into the inhabitants’ health and life, as well as an overview of the town’s development over the course of the time period. The theoretical framework used in this essay is microarchaeology, and the results from the analysis apply only to the analyzed individuals. Although no attempt will be made to draw conclusions about the entire population of Uppsala during the early modern times, the results will be placed in a historical context. The historical context provided in this essay is the result of a literary analysis with three major focal points: demography and city planning, Uppsala cathedral and the cemetery, diet and health. The results of the osteological analysis have shown that the five individuals all suffered from malnutrition and/or iron deficiency at some point during their childhood. The individuals are believed to have belonged to the middle class in the early modern society, however, they seem to have lived through some sort of hardship which caused the malnutrition. The literary analysis concludes that Uppsala was subjected to a starvation catastrophe during the last years of the 17th century, as well as the plague shortly thereafter, in 1710. The osteological material analyzed in this essay is part of an ongoing archaeological investigation, which means that the dating and results used or concluded in this essay is preliminary and may differ from the final archaeological report, which will be released in 2021.

The aim of this master´s thesis is to study how some Swedish public libraries work with mediating poetry. I did a field study at Poesibazaren, which has been active since 2010, located at Stadsbiblioteket in Stockholm. I also did a minor study about the work with mediating poetry at Stadsbiblioteket in Uppsala. My research questions included: Which mediating strategies are used in Poesibazaren? Which mediating roles are used by the librarians? How does taste in literature affect the mediation? Which factors are important to be able to mediate poetry in a public library?            I used Jofrid Karner Smidts doctor´s thesis Mellom elite og publikum: litterär smak og litteraturformidling blant bibliotekarer i norske folkebibliotek as a theoretical outset. Karner Smidt uses theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu, such as literary field, habitus and literary taste to analyze her results. I used Bourdieus theories as interpreted by Karner Smidt, because she has adapted them to the context of the public library and the librarians view on literature. The method used was qualitative interviews and an observation at a poetry program in Poesibazaren. I interviewed four persons, one is a poet, one is a librarian and an author, and two of them are librarians. The result of the study shows that the librarians have a literary taste that lean against the high, avant-garde literature, which was a different result from Karner Smidts study, where the librarians had a taste in the middle, between the low and the high literature. My result also showed that the librarians in Poesibazaren adapt the form of the poetry programs so that they can fit people who are curious about poetry but not have poetry-reading as a habit, which has to do with the library’s democratic mission. Important factors for mediating poetry is support from leaders, co-working with collegues and an interest in poetry. This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Kloka Anna was a folkloristic figure with multiple reocurring tales connected to her. But at the core of these stories were two distinct historical women, both living in the south of Småland, both from poor backgrounds, both living during the 19th century and both well- known wise women who were believed to have immense knowledge in magic, healing and the supernatural. My essay is about these women, what was said about them and what we can actually know about them. At the same time it is about the collective legendary figure Kloka Anna. I will discuss these aspects by using terms and theories from oral history theory and  from folkloristic research.