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Iron ore mining in the Norrbotten region of Sweden began in the early years of the twentieth century as a commercially uncertain and even dangerous proposition. But even before it began to generate profits, public debate began over the appropriate role of the state and of private capital (including foreign investors). This included whether iron ore should be exported for profit or retained for future processing in Sweden—even though the technology and infrastructure for such domestic industry did not exist. Tracing the evolution of this debate in the Swedish news media through to the First World War, this paper argues that the revenue generated by exports became more attractive than the promise of future domestic industry because that revenue could underwrite pressing political objectives. Although domestic iron ore processing remained linked to visions of future industrial prosperity, uncertain visions of future prosperity lost appeal as the capacity for export revenues to generate prosperity in the present became more potent.

School in the shadow: Private education in Stockholm 1735. During the early eighteenth century, private education was a more significant sector of the educational market than was public education, regarding the number of students and teachers, the presence of female students and teachers, the social background of the students, and the introduction of a more diverse and modern curriculum. Hitherto, little has been known of the actual scope or general conditions of private education, which has been over-shadowed by studies of public education. The article maps private education through the Stockholm Church Consistory’s (Stockholms stads konsistorium) thorough inventory of private teachers in the capital of Sweden during 1734–36, providing information of both suppliers and consumers within the private sector of the educational market, as well as of the practice and functions of private education in early modern time.

Denna uppsats är en studie av Blåsmarks bönhusförenings nedläggning och överlåtelsen avbönhuset till Blåsmarks DUF år 1947. Studien är begränsad till tidsperioden 1945–1948 föratt undersöka föreningarna innan och efter den händelse som är i fokus i uppsatsen och ärbaserad på de mötesprotokoll bägge föreningar förde under tidsperioden 1945-1948. Iuppsatsen undersöks föreningarnas arbete innan bönhusföreningens nedläggning 1947 samtorsakerna bakom dess nedläggning och vilka följder det fick för Blåsmarks DUF. Skeendetundersöks ur ett processperspektiv och följer den analytiskt-rationella modellen. Studiensresultat visade att bönhusföreningens nedläggning och överlåtelse av bönhus till BlåsmarksDUF var ett beslut taget främst på grund av att båda föreningarna bestod av samma medlemmar och arbetet med bönhuset redan till stor del utfördes av Blåsmarks DUF. Vidarevisade även studien att arbetet för Blåsmarks DUF föreföll sig detsamma efter övertagandetav bönhuset men att det utökades till att omfatta frågor gällande skötseln av bönhuset. Detframkom även i studien hur Blåsmarks DUF glädjes av att få ett eget bönhus och att beslutetfrån båda föreningar varit enhälligt och utan opposition.  This thesis offers a study of the closure of the Blåsmarks bönhusförenings and the transfer ofthe prayer house to Blåsmarks DUF in 1947. The study is limited to the period 1945-1948 toexamine the associations before and after the events in question and is based on the protocolswritten during both associations’ meetings between 1945-1948. The essay examines theassociations’ work before Blåsmarks bönhusförenings closure in 1947, the reasons behind itsclosure and what consequences it had for Blåsmarks DUF. The event is examined from a process perspective and follows the analytical-rational model. The results of the study showedthat Blåsmarks bönhusförenings closure and the transfer of the prayer house was a decisionmade mainly because both associations consisted of the same members and the work with theprayer house was already largely carried out by Blåsmarks DUF. Furthermore, the study alsoshowed that the work for Blåsmarks DUF is pleased to have its own prayer house and that thedecision to transfer it to them was unanimous and without opposition. 

This thesis is about the economic aspects of public procurement of services through auctionsin Sweden. It focuses on two different institutions, auctions used to find foste r-parents forboarded out children in the 19th century, and auctions of cleaning service contracts in the 20 thcentury. I n both cases, the contracting entity is the municipality or its representative, thelowest bidder wins the auction, and is paid in accordance with his/her bid.In the child auctions, c hildren were allotted to foster-parents by means of an open biddingprocess, the descending English auction, where the bids were given continuously to theauctioneer. In modern public procurement sealed bids ar e used in accordance with the firstprice,sealed bid auction. The first part of this thesis is about price formation in the childauctions and a study is made of the children who were auctioned several times, indicatingasymmetric information among bidders or adverse selection in this market. These subjects arestudied using field data on 601 child auctions held in Northern Sweden during the period 1863to 1889. The empirical findings in the first paper suggest that the foster-parents had a cleareconomic motive in these auctions. The child characteristics significantly affect the amount ofcompensation paid to the foster-parent. There is also evidence that farmers preferred older,more productive children. The second paper studies whether a re-auctioned child commandeda higher or lower price than a child that was not re-auctioned. The results indicate some formof asymmetric information because foster-parents demanded a higher level of compensationfor a re-auctioned child. The results also suggest that the probability that a child was reauctionedincreased if he/she was not healthy.The third paper in the thesis discusses a kind of "paradox". Although there is a competitiveeffect on the bids in the auction of cleaning service contracts, the contracting entity has anoption, given by law, to restrict the number of bidders. In th is paper, an implementation costis introduced fo r the contracting entity to justify such a restriction. The results, based onSwedish municipality data, indicate that contract and municipality characteristics, assumed toaffect the implementation cost, affect the volume of the procurement, and the number ofbidders, but not necessarily the choice of allocation mechanism. The final paper studiesregional differences in bids, costs, and competition in municipal procurement using the samedata as in paper [3]. The results show higher estimated costs for completing the contract, butlower estimated mean bids in the major city area of Stockholm compared with the res t of thecountry. This is explained by lower profit margins and higher operational costs in the majorcity area. An analysis is also carried out of why the lowest bidder is not always the contractedbidder. digitalisering@umu Härtill 4 delar.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian society faced a new reality. The new reality involved consolidation and transformation of collective identities. The reinvigoration of national identity led to a change in the emphasis on how the past was dealt with – many things which were regarded as negative by the Soviet regime became presented as positive in independent Ukraine. The war-time nationalist movement, represented by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), became one of the re-configured themes of history. While most of the studies of memory of the OUN and UPA concentrated on the use of this history by nationalist parties, this study goes beyond the analysis and scrutinizes the meaning of this history in nation- and state-building in relation to memory work realized on the small-scale regional and local levels. Moreover, this book focuses not only on the “producers” of memory, but also on the “consumers” of memory, the area which is largely understudied in the field of memory studies. Drawing on studies about post-colonial subjectivities and theories of remediation developed in memory studies, this book explores the changes in memory culture of contemporary Ukraine and examines the role of memory in producing new meanings under the rapidly changing conditions after the collapse of the Soviet Union up to 2014. The book contributes to the studies of memory culture in post-Communist countries as well as to the studies of society in contemporary Ukraine.

This dissertation investigates the role played by Dutch experts in various enterprises and organisations managed or administered by the early modern Swedish state. The work demonstrates how and why Dutch experts were introduced to Sweden, in what manner they were employed by the Swedish state and how their knowledge was utilised in state-controlled organisations. The overall results challenge the impression of an uncomplicated introduction, steered by the state. Instead, the research suggests that the development was multifaceted, where the role and function of state structures, international politics, networks, as well as concepts, including opportunism and pragmatism all played a part in the process which led to the employment of Dutch experts and use of Dutch knowledge. Underlying analytical tools used to demonstrate this include concepts such as collective knowledge, institutional memory, change agents, as well as strategies to minimise uncertainties and knowledge asymmetries in the recruitment process. The investigation consists of four empirical chapters. The first chapter focuses on some of the key Dutch individuals who settled in Sweden during the second half of the sixteenth century. It shows why a Dutch settlement took place, but also how a specific interest in Dutch trade expertise was developed by the Swedish political leadership. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how Dutch expertise was utilised to develop advanced long-distance trade. The second chapter follows the use of Dutch experts in the naval shipbuilding organisation in the first half of the seventeenth century. It shows how an almost complete reliance on Dutch experts and technical knowledge was established during this period. The chapter details how the Dutch introduction and utilisation evolved, when the naval organisation changed from being single-handedly steered by the king, to a situation where it was administered by an independent Admiralty Board. The third chapter investigates the use of Dutch experts in the foreign administration as well as in the administration and management of trade and commercial undertakings. It details how agents and diplomatic networks facilitated exchange and brought knowledge and experts to Sweden. The chapter also challenges an established notion that many of the trade enterprises that were established in Sweden up until the mid-1630s were failures. The results instead demonstrate how successive proposals to develop commercial ventures by Dutch experts created a necessary knowledge base in Swedish society, which in the long run led to the successful formation of advanced commercial enterprises. The final chapter focuses on the establishment of commercial fishing operations. It follows the introduction and growth of a Dutch model for how to develop advanced fishing, and explains why the model only led to a functioning enterprise towards the very end of the period of investigation. 

This article considers colonial rhetoric manifested in representations of early settlement in the mining town of Kiruna in northernmost Sweden. Kiruna was founded more than 100 years ago by the LKAB Company with its centre the prosperous mine on Sami land. Continued iron ore mining has made it necessary to relocate the town centre a few kilometres north-east of its original location to ensure the safety of the people. The ongoing process of the town’s transformation due to industrial expansion has given rise to the creation of a memorial park between the town and the mine, in which two historical photographs have been erected on huge concrete blocks. For the Swedish Sami, the indigenous people, the transformation means further exploitation of their reindeer grazing lands and forced adaption to industrial expansion. The historical photographs in the memorial park fit into narratives of colonial expansion and exploration that represent the town’s colonial past. Both pictures are connected to colonial, racialised and gendered space during the early days of industrial colonialism. The context has been set by discussions about what Kiruna “is”, and how it originated. My aim is to study the role of collective memory in mediating a colonial past, by exploring the representations that are connected to and evoked by these pictures. In this progressive transformation of the town, what do these photographic memorials represent in relation to space? What are the values made visible in these photographs? I also discuss the ways in which Kiruna’s history becomes manifested in the town’s transformation and the use of history in urban planning. I argue that, in addressing the colonial history of Kiruna, it is timely to reconsider how memories of a town are communicated into the future by references to the past. I also claim that memory, history, and remembrance and forgetting are represented in this process of history-making and that they intersect gender, class and ethnicity.

This study shows that upper secondary students’ historical writing maybe influenced by their use of sources from traditional archives versus theiruse of digital sources in databases. A qualitative approach, theoreticalperspectives, and historical empathy seem to be stimulated primarily byusing traditional archives and print sources, while digital archives andsources, in contrast, stimulate the use of quantitative data and a moresocial scientific approach. The results indicate a historiographical shift instudents’ historical thinking, which researchers of history education needto consider in a digital era. The results of this study call for reflections inhistory teaching to make it possible for students to learn and experiencethe double nature of history as part of the humanities and social sciences Media Places