The dissertation deals with History of technology in Sweden before, during and after the industrialization. A theory that technical actors have a growing influence on state technology chiefly owing to the industrialization is presented. Five case-studies the Göta Canal 1806-1818, The railway-issue 1829-1848, The issue of motor traffic 1900- 1916, the issue of air transport 1912-1925 and the issue of nuclear power 1945-1972 are examined in order to test the theory. The principal results of the dissertation are as follows: The process of decision- making owing to state technology is dealt with not only by technical and political actors but also with technical/political actors. They are generally of two kinds; actors representing the technology in question and with an added political platform and politicians with an interest in technology and/or a profession with a relation to the technology in question. To this you can add a during time growing and more and more influential state bureaucracy. The possible decision on some state technical issue is framed by political actors. Inside this frame technical/political actors supported by the state bureaucracy are shaping the issues. Along with this it is apparent that technical actors with no or weak contact with political arenas take little part in the shaping- process. Owing to the study the process of industrialization and/or the professionalisation of technicians has no or a poor impact on the process of decision- making. Instead the agricultural political representation acts as a strong body with great influence on the state technical development up to the issue of nuclear power. The political representants of technology and/or industry on the other hand are not able to take advantage of the political structure in order to influence the technical issues. This depends to some extent on lack of political conformity. Another cause is however that technology when put into practice has a multiplex content which from time to time put technical actors in conflict with one another. This is apparent in the issue of air transport and nuclear power and to some extent in the choise between canal and railway. When technicians are not united the political actors, especially the ones representing agriculture, reinforce their influence on the studied state technical issues.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-61622 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Hamilton, Ulf |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Historiska institutionen, Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell International |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Stockholm studies in history, 0491-0842 ; 54 |
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