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Most studies of emerging Swedish parties and politics have mainly focused on the Swedish Social Democrats and their struggle for democracy and political power, most as a prelude to the so called "Swedish Model". Competing parties have received attention from historians on the national level, but their local origin remains to large extent an open field. The aim of this study is to investigate how local political factors shaped the emerging liberal party organizations in two small Swedish towns. By a case-oriented comparison two towns are contrasted, Skövde in Skaraborg county and Filipstad in Värmland. This thesis suggests that the distinction between national politics and municipal government, based on the interests of economic elites, was transformed during the period 1880-1920. During this period local elections and local government became increasingly sites for political struggle between different parties, with new agendas. With a framework that considered parties in light of their functions rather than organizational types and theoretical concepts borrowed from the sociology of social movements, the thesis main results suggest that political mobilization and liberal party-formation was depending on the local political traditions. The theoretical framework made it possible to pinpoint both similarities and differences between the cases. The results of the study indicate that the historical tradition is central to parties to emerge and flourish. This suggests that it is more meaningful to focus attention on local and regional processes to understand the historical development than has previously been done. ; De svenska partiernas historia är relativt väl känd på nationell nivå, men deras lokala ursprung är mindre utforskat och inte minst gäller det borgerliga partier. I den här avhandlingen undersöks hur lokalpolitiska faktorer formade de framväxande frisinnade, eller liberala, lokalorganisationerna i Filipstad och Skövde. Avhandlingen visar att politisk mobilisering och politisk organisering i städerna i hög grad formades av lokala och regionala politiska traditioner. Den visar också att kommunerna var politiserade långt före att de nationella partierna tog hand om valen och kommunala frågor. Studien visar att det fanns en kontinuitet mellan äldre lokala partier och de lokalavdelningar av nationella partier som etablerades efter sekelskiftet 1900. Det var en kontinuitet som återspeglades såväl ideologiskt som organisatoriskt. Avhandlingens resultat pekar på att det är mer meningsfullt att fokusera uppmärksamheten mot lokala och regionala politiseringsprocesser för att förstå den generella politiska utvecklingen i Sveriges historia än vad som tidigare har gjorts. Anders Forsell är doktorand i historia inom Forskarskolan i regionalt samhällsbyggande. Det här är hans doktorsavhandling.

The municipal election of 1934 gave the Nazi party over 30 per cent of the votes in Tärendö municipality which led to six mandates in the municipal council and the chairmanship for the local Nazi politician. The Nazi party held its position as a municipal political force still until the end of Second World War with a popular vote of over 12 per cent in the election 1944 to the parliament. In comparison to other municipalities in the Swedish Tornio valley this was an exceptional political expression by the citizens. In the article we compare Tärendö toward Pajala from different perspectives of institutional, the mobilization of political movement and political leadership. The article tries to answer: how come that the Nazi party was successful in Tärendö but not in Pajala, despite the short distance and the cultural, social and market similarities between the two municipalities? The results show that institutional structure can only explain in margin the differences in Nazi voting. The main reason behind Nazi voting in Tärendö was the interaction between the mobilization of the political movements and the character of the local political leadership.

Why do people engage in high-cost political activities such as forming new political parties? Start-up costs are high. Moreover, rewards are unclear and uncertain. Since political parties are collective goods, people demanding new political parties face a collective action problem. It is therefore somewhat puzzling that new parties emerge. Drawing on theories from economics, sociology and political science, I argue that we, in order to understand the emergence of new parties, need to analytically move in on party-entrepreneurs to elucidate what motivates them. Methodologically inspired by the debate on bridging the gap between deductive and inductive strategies, I process-trace and compare three cases. The case studies identify individual level-mechanisms producing the decision toform a new party. People that voice demands within established parties, and face outright rejection, have experienced bad treatment from established politicians. These experiences contribute to disappointment, anger, and a sense of indignation - i.e. "intense emotions"- that mobilize entrepreneurs. Intense emotions create a lust for revenge, which becomes a psychological selective incentive, and is important for understanding why people engage themselves in high-cost political activities. ; Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

In 1870, political science was established as an academic discipline, attached to history, at the Lund University. In 1877, a chair in history and political science was created. Twenty-five years later, it was transformed into a chair in political science and statistics. In 1926, that symbiosis was put to an end and political science was awarded a chair of its own. Pontus Fahlbeck, professor from 1889 to 1917, was a historian who developed into a social scientist with broad interests: political science, statistics, economics, and sociology. Several of his books were also published in foreign languages and he had many contacts with colleagues abroad, particularly in France and Germany. However, the critical period in the modernization of political science in Lund happened just after the middle of the 20th century, with Nils Stjernquist, holding the chair from 1951 to 1983, at helm. The dependence of history and legal science waned; the influence of social science, especially in its American version, increased. The result was a modern political science department with broad interests and worldwide contacts. References.

Emergent farmers have rapidly increased in numbers on the sub-Saharan African continent during the last couple of decades. The main interest in this study lies in how emergent farmers have materialised as a class in a political economic context and historical process and what societal impact they have had. Emergent farmers as a class are understood as capable of reproducing their means of subsistence and creating surplus value without having to own their means of production. Mkanda Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Malawi has served as the empirical area for this matter. During the fieldwork, 31 persons were interviewed. The interviews gave insights into farmers' living conditions. An explorative survey was also conducted with 31 informants, of which 13 persons also participated in the interviews. The explorative survey provided an overview of farm characteristics in the area. In addition, two focus group discussions were held to gain perspective on shared experiences among farmer groups regarding the positioning of emergent farmers, how they and other types of farmers can be classified and how the relationship between farmers appear. The field work was combined with a desk study to investigate political, socioeconomic and environmental conditions through which emergent farmers have materialised. Emergent farmers in Mkanda EPA have materialised through inheritance and acquisition of property such as land; other natural resources; material assets and technology. They have grown through extension service and credit regimes; sales of cash crops and livestock; agribusinesses; incomes from employment and off-farm activities. They have advanced through family and class support; labour power control; strategic utilisation of volatile agricultural markets and income diversification. They have progressed through agricultural institutions, political favouritism and resource exchange with state representatives; traditional authorities; traders; investors; large-scale buyers and other farmer groups. Emergent farmers have contributed to and been shaped by the development of the capitalist mode of production during Malawi's postcolonial history. The farmer class has enabled increased capital investments and accumulation and contributed to new businesses; production methods; market directions and means of livelihood in rural areas. They have provided links between local production conditions; extraction of raw material; capital exchange; means of profit and growth opportunities. At the same time, emergent farmers have constituted a minority that has served certain class interests. While emergent farmers have influenced the socioeconomic and ecological dynamics in rural places such as Mkanda EPA, the class has maintained structures that have reproduced inequality among the population.

Coalition formation in a new municipal parliamentary landscape. Pragmatism in policy-related windows of opportunities Coalition building in Swedish municipalities has traditionally been dominated by two political blocks at the opposite sides of the ideological left–right scale (Bäck 2003; Wångmar 2006). The success of the Sweden Democrats in the last elections have challenged that pattern. Statistics on coalition formation since the 2014 election indicate that the traditional policy scale no longer dominates local government. Coalitions of parties closely situated next to each other on the left–right scale are not as common as before. Interviews with 19 leading politicians in five Swedish municipalities that formed majority coalitions, including parties on the left as well as the right block, indicate that neither the traditional left–right scale nor the GAL–TAN dimension played a decisive role in these coalition formation processes. Instead, the ability of political parties to cooperate within the coalitions and building on personal chemistry, was considered the most important factor in the coalition building process on the municipal level. ; Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

This thesis consists of three empirical case studies, originally published as MERGE- papers ('Papers on transcultural studies' published at MERGE, Centre for Studies on Migration, Ethnic Relations and Globalisation at the Department of Sociology, University of Umeå), brought together and framed by a lengthier introduction. The empirical studies examine Swedish refugee reception activities, including the experiences of refugees themselves, with a focus on organisational and inter-organisational matters, and, in this context, the suitability as well as problems, mechanisms and issues, of implementation. According to Swedish policy aims since the mid-70s, immigrants are guaranteed equality, freedom of choice and partnership in relation to social, political and cultural rights. Based upon this background, an ambitious institutionalisation of refugee reception and integration policy was initiated in 1985, implicating the setting up of a new reception system involving almost every Swedish municipality. However, this political reform came to meet with fundamental problems, such as the absence of clear political goals and a remarkably low priority in the work of local political bodies. As a consequence, the ability and the ambitions of civil servants to apply an integrated approach to the reception process, and to foster growing co-operation among relevant local institutions to improve services and opportunities for integration, have not materialised as intended. These deficiencies of local integration policies appear to be connected with implementation problems, issues and obstacles, such as a lack of developed inter-organisational co-ordination mechanisms, lack of a clear division of labour and responsibility among concerned parties, economic obstruction etc. In addition to this, the resources that local refugee receptions have had at their disposal have been a high degree varying and unstable, with the consequence that the reception's organisation, e.g. as immigrant bureaus, has been subjected to constant remoulding. Continuous initiatives for restructuring the reception procedures seem seldom have been well suited, and in addition to this, there has been a lack of opportunities for influence by the refugees themselves concerning conditions of reception and inroads into integration. The conclusion is, somewhat paradoxical, that many of the refugee reception's political-administrative problems are fabricated by and within the refugee reception system and immigrant policy itself. In the thesis, a general background for necessary improvements of the service for refugees is outlined, making possible a lot of reformistic suggestions. While the thesis lays bare the problems with refugee reception, its policy and implementation, it also acknowledges important positive achievements of Swedish refugee reception and its political-administrative ambitions and framework. The reason that the effects of these positive efforts and achievements haven't materialised in successful integration to a higher degree, is also due to 'external' factors, like exclusion from the labour market, social exclusion through segregation, marginalisation and discrimination, processes of racialisation etc. These kinds of ramifying 'external' factors can only to a limited extent be influenced by local actors alone. The conclusion is that a successful integration cannot be achieved solely through measures within the practical institutional setting of the local refugee reception system itself, but must be underpinned and enforced by a more generalised inclusionary or anti-exclusionary politics, a generally more decided political will and over-all more purposeful measures securing a higher degree of suited implementation. ; digitalisering@umu

In recent years, ideas of conscience and the liberty of conscience have become ever more salient in public discourse. Historically, these concepts have been used to mark out a certain scope of freedom and protection in moral, political and legal conflicts. In our time, individual conscience is frequently used to legitimate objections to, for instance, military service and medical interventions like abortion and vaccination. So too in Sweden – a country widely described as one of the most modern and secularized societies in the world. In this volume, a group of researchers in history, human rights, law, ethics and sociology of religion address some of the most central issues around conscience and the liberty of conscience in Sweden from the middle ages to the present. By situating conscience and liberty in wider intellectual, social and political settings, the essays provide alternative ways of thinking about the most intractable problems surrounding these concepts – the relationship between law and morality, the tension between individual and collective freedom, as well as the role of religion in public affairs. This volume will create new avenues of research for scholars and students interested in challenges related to conscience and liberty: both those in ethics, politics and law seeking a historical perspective, and those in history who want to tie their studies to the present.

Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break with unsustainable norms, habits, practices, and structures, there is a need for learning for transformation, not only adaption. Based on a critical literature review within the field of learning for sustainable development, our approach is a development of the concept of transformative learning, by integrating three additional dimensions—Institutional Structures, Social Practices, and Conflict Perspectives. This approach acknowledges conflicts on macro, meso, and micro levels, as well as structural and cultural constraints. It contends that transformative learning is processual, interactional, long-term, and cumbersome. It takes place within existing institutions and social practices, while also transcending them. The article adopts an interdisciplinary social science perspective that acknowledges the importance of transformative learning in order for communities, organizations, and individuals to be able to deal with global sustainability problems, acknowledging the societal and personal conflicts involved in such transformation.

Economic and social conditions on Swedish farms have altered in recent decades, restructuring the sector, but the family farm is still the primary production unit. Sweden is often described as a role model in gender equality, but a gender-unequal situation in farming has been identified, posing a political challenge. This thesis critically assessed how gender inequalities are reproduced within Swedish family farming by analysing how the 'doing' of family farming, in terms of labour and material relations, is shaped and reproduced. This approach focused the analysis on relations of and in production, by placing labour and property at the centre. Other approaches yielded novel information. The theoretical frameworks of labour process theory, political economy, feminist standpoint theory and material feminism, provided conceptual space to examine the reproduction of gender inequalities. In mixed method research, two types of survey data, interviews with farmers and literature on occupational health and safety in agriculture were used to analyse gendered access to arable land and farming conditions; the Swedish agrarian structure and the gendered organisation of the labour process; the gendered understating of agricultural health and safety; and the temporalities of Swedish family farming. The results showed how gender inequalities are reproduced in the temporal and spatial organisation and structuring of the labour process and through unequal distribution of resources. Unequal access to arable land contributes particularly to the gendering of farm management, farm diversification and farm ability to provide household income. A spatial stratification was observed, with larger gendered differences in more productive areas. The farm labour process forms the diverse experience of time, space, economy and labour of men and women in family farming. The different spheres and socio-economic modes of the labour process puts men and women in unequal positions, with differing materialised experiences of family farming and farm work; its risks, problems and consequences. The findings highlight the persistence of family farming in the Swedish agrarian structure and the importance of gender mainstreaming in e.g. policy, education and risk prevention work. More research is needed on the gendering effects of renegotiation of the family farm concept and situated agrarian change.

This study examines what happens when contentious lay citizens harness the technical-ecological repertoire of experts as means of challenging nature conservation policy. The causes, manifestations, and implications of this phenomenon are elucidated through a critical discourse analysis. The case study is based on the wolf reintroduction project in Europe, with particular focus on Sweden, using illegal hunting discussions as a point of entry within the hunting community. It reveals the deployment of three topoi, which are defined as stock arguments situated within a discourse. Analysis shows how while some topoi often incur short-term gains in the debate because of their scientific guise, they are fundamentally relegated as folk science (or barstool biology) by government experts and, in some cases, contribute to the further marginalization of other knowledges. Acquiescence to this discourse is shown to greatly impede the debate. Finally, the study shows how lack of trust in the public dialog, which hunters openly recognize to be colonized by ecological expertise, results in increasingly noncommunicative forms of resistance toward policy.

Ecological challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss lead to a need for change, but the radical changes that are required seem not to come about. One hot issue debated is who has the power and responsibility to change. This discussion has many different dimensions (e.g., between countries, or technological fixes vs radical system change) but here I base my study on the discussion of agency or structure. To put it simply, do we need to focus on structural political changes or rather on the level of the individuals and their consumerist lifestyles. This thesis aims to contribute to this debate by providing a better understanding of the (im)possibilities of individual lifestyle changes in a society that is largely organized to accommodate consumerist lifestyles. It does so by focusing on the example of Voluntary Simplicity, a lifestyle movement that advocates for a post-consumerist lifestyle. With the help of practice theory, which is especially fit to analyze everyday practices and change, and a qualitative interview study with seven voluntary simplifiers living in Sweden, I answer the following research questions: What are the motivations and drivers for having a voluntary simplicity lifestyle?, what are the challenges and obstacles that voluntary simplifiers need to overcome?, and does life, in consequence, get more complicated by striving for a "simpler" life because it is against the grain of society? The analysis demonstrates a motivation among the simplifiers to live sustainably and to reduce material possessions, working hours and stress. Impediments include the struggle of wanting to be part of a community but at the same time being different from the mainstream society, inflexible work structures and time and labor-intensive activities such as self-sufficiency. The question if life got simpler could not satisfactorily be answered and is connected to considerations on what life is about. In the discussion, I argue to consider social norms and values because they seem to exacerbate change both for politics and individuals. Future avenues for study could be based on participatory observation, autoethnography or doing research in non-capitalist-consumerist societies. This study is relevant because it opened up and contributed to the debate about change by acknowledging the entanglement of social structures and individuals.

Heritage cereals, a group of cereals that have not been subjected to modern crop breeding, have been getting attention due to their generally high genetic diversity, traits like high drought and disease tolerance as well as high nutritional values. Knowledge about how consumers relate to heritage cereals in Sweden is limited, and therefore this thesis aims to, firstly, explore acceptance, awareness and preferences among a specific consumer group; students in the agriculture program at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and, secondly, quality perception in relation to heritage cereals among consumers, bakers and retailers, in a Swedish context. The thesis used a mixed-method approach, and is based on quantitative data from a survey to capture perspectives from the student consumer group and semi-structured interviews with bakers and retailers to gain additional perspectives about food quality. The findings from this study suggests that the awareness of heritage cereals is high among the specific consumer group. Bread and pasta make up the most preferred food products, and supermarkets were the most preferred shopping location. Gender had some influence on differences within the group, while high similarities were found between the different educational backgrounds. Results from the survey indicate that taste and Swedish food production are two very important food quality aspects for heritage cereals. Additionally, quality aspects like health, environmental impact, organic and local production were also found to be important to consumers, bakers and retailers. Consuming heritage cereals can also be seen as a tool to support sustainable food systems and different political discourses, avoiding risks associated with industrial farming and express belonging to certain cultural identities. These were also important dimensions of heritage cereal food quality. ; Kulturspannmål, en grupp av spannmål som inte genomgått modern växtförädling, har under de senaste åren fått allt mer uppmärksamhet på grund av ...

Purpose - The agricultural sector has undergone extensive changes in the 20-30 years since the peak academic debate on family farming. Still today, the understanding and concept of family farming has political implications in the processes of rural and agricultural policy. The purpose of this paper is to study the development of agrarian structure by analysing the gendered and family relations of family farming. Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines the concept of the family farm and its utilisation and diversity in the current Swedish agricultural sector from a gender perspective, using empirical data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. The paper operationalises a situated agrarian typology and examines the gendered position and temporalities of family farms in Sweden, based on patterns of labour use. Findings - A workable, fruitful typology of the agrarian structure suitable for future comparative studies is revealed. It also demonstrates the gendered time in the farm labour process, the different temporalities involved and their interconnection between gender, family and various spheres. The spatial and geographical implications, as well as the increased dependence on family and hired labour in different farm types, are emphasised. Originality/value - The focus of this study contributes to the understanding of spatial-temporal relations of family farm business and organisation in general and in Sweden particularly. It also provides empirical basis for developing and gender mainstreaming rural and agricultural policies.