The aim of this thesis was to examine the 1970s democratisation and antidemocratisation processes in Thailand, more specifically the 1973 Thai popular uprising and the 6 October 1976 massacre. Its point of departure was Erica Chenoweth’s 2023 research on how societal pillars, if incentivised by activists, can realise democratisation and the research gap on media reports affecting people’s perception of protesters which she also addressed.  It also investigated the fine line between uncontroversial and controversial subjects in the context of protests and how to overthrow a régime using its weaknesses.

The methods which have been used are a combination of a qualitative research approach, a congruence method, process-tracing and a case study. Popovic and Miller’s method of choosing an uncontroversial subject when protesting and Sharp’s ideas about the Achilles’ heels of a régime were used as supplementary analytical frameworks.

The 1973 case resulted in democratisation taking place, partially due to the protesting students having King Bhumibol’s full support, partially due to the disunity of the Royal Thai Armed Forces (henceforth RTARF) and partially due to the ruling military junta’s failed attempts to, through media, manipulate the masses into turning their backs on the students.

The 1976 case, on the other hand, led to antidemocratisation, because of the general dissatisfaction with the achievements of democracy, King Bhumibol’s support of authoritarianism, the influence of right-wing media on its consumers and the police, military and paramilitary alliance crushing the pro-democratic demonstration at the Thammasat University campus and the Village Scouts’ subsequent antigovernment protest.  

The study examines the occurrence of children born out of wedlock in four parishes belonging to the current Karlskrona municipality during the period 1875–1925. The parishes surveyed are Fridlevstad, Rödeby, Tving and Karlskrona city-parish. The period is divided into two parts where the first includes the years 1875–1890 and the second part includes the years 1910–1925. The proportion of children with unknown/known fathers, the mothers' occupations, the fathers' occupations, and the mothers' age are also used as survey variables.

The proportion of known fathers increases significantly between the study periods, which could be explained by a reduced internal social control, while the study shows that the introduction of a child welfare officer in 1918 resulted in an increased proportion of known fathers.

The mothers' occupational designations change between the periods, for example, the proportion of maids decreases while other occupations are added. In the city-parish, professions such as washerwoman and waitress are added during the second period. The proportion of women working in the industry also increases between the survey periods. The increased proportion of professions, especially in the city-parish, could be linked to the demographic transition. As more people settle in a city, new needs emerge and thus also new occupational categories. The age of the mothers decreases between the study periods.

When it comes to class affiliation, it can be noted that most of the fathers and mothers belonged to the working class. However, the proportion of fathers belonging to the middle class was higher than the proportion of mothers belonging to the middle class.

Concepts play a part in any scientific endeavour. They simultaneously serve as receptacles for previously attained knowledge, as vehicles of scientific and didactic communication, and as building blocks in the construction of new descriptive and explanatory schemes. In this sense, concepts are central to the cognitive organisation of scientific disciplines. But disciplines also differ from one another, and not just in terms of the stock of concepts deemed necessary for internal scientific communication but also, for example, in terms of the logic of conceptual change, the relative influx of connotations, and the degree of universal adherence to specific definitions.

One crucial characteristic of the social sciences is that they share part of their vocabulary with the lay people they study. In some cases, social scientific terminology has trickled into everyday speech; in other cases the social sciences have proceeded by refining and redefining locutions found in natural languages. The aim of this book is to study empirically, by means of a detailed case study, the mechanisms that shape concept formation in the social sciences. It focuses on the history of the concept of ‘mobbing’, with special reference to the interaction between science and lay conceptions. This condensed conceptual history shows that the public discourse, that was instrumental in the diffusion and entrenchment of the notion of mobbing in the early 1970s, significantly shaped the career, contents, and uses of the corresponding scientific concept.

This article discusses Marvel Comics’ 2011 crossover ‘event’ ‘Fear Itself’. It suggests that the event argues for national unity in a time of crisis by mobilizing America’s self-definition as a multicultural nation as well as civil religion. The article discusses ‘Fear Itself’s’ attempted construction of national myth through looking at the way it represents the media, US multiculturalism (in a generalized form that nominally includes non-white groups while frequently failing to account for them) and ‘sacralized’ civil religious aspects of US history. Especially salient in this connection is the event’s engagement with the Roosevelt years. In doing so, it is argued, ‘Fear Itself’ presents an Americanness that relies on an idealized and nostalgic notion of the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’, a tightly knit, self-sacrificing civil society that supposedly came into being during that period.

Forming an identity or a national identity is a long process every country in the world has gone through. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate how the Finnish identity has been portrayed in media between the years 1836-1893. The aim is to uncover how the Finnish epic, the Kalevala has influenced the creation of a Finnish national identity, which will be done through discourse analysis of five newspaper articles published over a timespan of about 60 years. The results showed that there were some changes over time in how the Finnish are portrayed in relation to the Kalevala. However, this difference was not applicable to all the studied categories. In conclusion, identity is something individual and through the individuality a common identity could be formed in Finland in the 1800s.

The purpose of this study was to create a deeper understanding of the identity and self-image of female Swedish emigrants of the 1880s-1920s with the help of preserved personal objects by answering the following questions with a microhistory approach: What significance did material objects have for the identity formulation of female Swedish emigrants in healthcare in America? And, What do the material objects tell us about the identity, self-image and experience of these unmarried female Swedish-American emigrants? To answer the questions material sources have been examined with the use of Wilhelm Dilthey's hermeneutic method of interpretation. A method where historical understanding is viewed as essential for our ability to interpret historical meaning. And with the use of material culture theory, grounded in the theoretical concepts of objectification, consumption and performativity resulted in the following conclusions:

The material objects had meaning in the identity formulation in such a way that they helped the women in this study to create and interpret their identities in relation to their material surroundings, the ideals of the time, their professional status and professional role. With clothes, personal items and documents, they created their identities according to the ideals of the time in relation to their professional status and professional role. The material objects have a lot to tell about the identities, self-images and experiences of the female Swedish American emigrants and about how they created a sense of belonging and a place for themselves in their new life. Through the material objects they use to portray their identity, they demonstrate their disposable income and legitimize and confirm their social, personal and professional success and status. Above all, the source material tells about the importance of their professional identity in shaping their identity and self-image, something that is reinforced in their expression over the years. Based on how they stage and create the image of themselves as successful, independent and with high professional status, we can also understand that this was a large part of their self-image.

The papers in this issue were first presented at the interdisciplinary conference “Applied Cultural Heritage: How telling the past at historic sites benefits society” held at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden, 17-19 November 2010. The conference was organised jointly by Linnaeus University, Kalmar County Museum and Bridging Ages, International Organisation in Historic Environment Education and Time Travels. The aim of the conference was to explore how cultural heritage and stories about the past benefit society today. Given the major changes of society in recent decades and a fast developing globalisation, we proposed that it is no longer self-evident which historic sites are meaningful (and to whom), which stories about the past should be told (and why), and how cultural heritage can best benefit society (and what that means). It was therefore time to ask these questions anew and explore them together with practitioners in the heritage sector from around the world.

This G-3 essay aimed to study how people on three American left leaning social medias appoint queer identities to historical people and the discourse around this appointment. This was studied through the theoretical lenses of queer theory and the use of history. The source material consisted of posts from Tumblr, Twitter and Reddit and it was studied both quantitatively and qualitatively through the method of conceptual history. The historical people examined were Queen Christina of Sweden and King James VI and I of Scotland and England.

This essay discovered that a wide variety of queer identities were appointed to the royals. However, all queer identities appointed were identities that matched the discoveries scientists have made about the royals’ lives. Furthermore, between one third and half of all posts used sources to justify the appointment of queer identities. The use of history in all posts were found to be either existential in nature – showing a desire to find connections with other queer people through history – or moral – using history to argue against current injustice against queer people. 

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Joseph Stephens, who was the owner of the Huseby Estate between the years 1867 - 1934, saw the foreign trade as an opportunity to build up the economy of Huseby bruk when he came back to Sweden from India during the summer 1869. The manor, which is located in the south of Sweden, was in a poor condition when he returned but from that summer, he could for the first time work fulltime with the manor he had bought. The source material of this study is from the Huseby archives in the Linnaeus University, which in my investigation consists of correspondents to his father George Stephens and business contacts who were located abroad. The source material is also consisting of accounts from the bookkeeping of the company. The correspondents show how Joseph Stephens is patient with abroad market and sees the potential in it, even if the market in Sweden is easier to make profits in at the moment and has cheaper transport expenses. It also shows that he is making up plans for selling his products to the international market, even if there are complications that makes the market hard to get profit from. According to the accounts of Huseby bruk, most of the trade abroad went to Copenhagen. Another important city on the market was London. However, it seems like the company did not export any products to India between the years 1869 - 1875. The products which dominated the export were iron and wood products.

The aim of this study has been to examine six books about Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality during the years 1906 – 2003. I have been analyzing their descriptions about his sexual orientation and compared them to each other to see the changes through time. In order to see some clear changes the main focus was to choose time differences between the books. It was clear that the earlier writers had negative opinions and thoughts about his sexual deviation the way they described it. The writers from the older books focus on Oscar Wilde’s achievements more than his sexual orientation. The analysis was made through two theories, Michel Foucault’s theories about sexuality, power and knowledge, and the second Raewyn Connell’s theory about hegemonic masculinity. The theories have been fundamental for this study on the basis of the changes through time and how societies viewed masculinity and sexual orientations. They have also been important for the descriptions of Oscar Wilde’s feminine attitude and his addiction to his looks. My method for the essay has been a conceptual analysis. The choice of this method was not hard because it has been important to the comparison and the analysis for the writers’ usage of word descriptions of Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality. The results showed a large amount of resemblances and differences between the books, which can be seen against the background of the society and its view on homosexuality. 

Abstract

This study is about the female presence in the male institution of the academic world.Women got the formell right to study at universities in Sweden in 1873, but no further jobopportunities were available for them in the academic area. Elsa Eschelsson was one ofthe few who challenged this order. With a gender perspective, and the theoretical conceptof genders role, power relationships and control of the gender contract I have exposedhow media was used as a tool, from 1898-1906 (with an exception for an article from1995), to create a negative image of Elsa Eschelsson and thereby influence her fate. This study has shown that when Elsa Eschelsson got her doctor´s degree inlaw 1898 all was good, maybe because nobody thought that she would reach for aposition as professor at the university. But when she actually got the question to take overTrygger´s professorship, the resistance got way worse than anyone could have imagined.One of those who fought the most against Eschelsson was Winroth, who had the positionas professor in procedural law at Uppsala university. He turned to the press andthreatened to resign if she got the professorship. 

This is a study on the emigration from Blekinge County with a focus on Medelstads härad to Denmark and Germany, during the period 1870-1925. By measuring statistics on how many people emigrated from Medelstads judicial district 13 parishes to Denmark and Germany respectively the aim is. To get a new perspective on the less known emigration. From this the study can continue to examine female and male emigration from the parishes of Backaryd, Edestad, Listerby and Ronneby. Furthermore, the study will examine the professional titles and other titles that the emigrants had when they chose to emigrate. Based on the results of the first questions, it is possible to see which similarities and differences are found between the emigration to Denmark and Germany. The results indicates the a greater number of emigrants went to Denmark than to Germnay. The results between the male and female emigration indicates that the female emigration was moe extensive than the male emigration both to Denmark and to Germany. Regarding the occupational titles, it can be determined that it was occupations that belonged to the working class that most emigrants had when they emigrated from Medelstads härad. From these results, it is possible to find similarities and differences betwwen the migration to Denmark and Germany.

Kender du kvaliteten af dine læremidler, og hvilke former for viden de kan give? Der findes et væld af undervisningsmaterialer at vælge imellem samt ofte utilstrækkelige boganmeldelser i forhold til elevøvelser og opgaver, som ellers kan være centrale. Læs her om at kvalificere dit materialevalg ved at identificere og analysere forskellige typer af viden, som findes i opgaver og øvelser i historiebøgerne.

At a first glance at curricula, syllabi and textbooks, history teaching and its content in schools appear to be fairly unchanged over a long period of time. Selected subject matter, concentrated on political and social processes, war, peace, progress, and the objective to clarify changes, is in many respects the same. There are however aspects of history’s presentation that are seldom described or analyzed. One such aspect is how the relationship between the past and the student is approached. Connections between the past and the student in present time have the potential to make sense and meaning, and likely increase understanding of the past and of the student and society as interwoven in time.

The study is based on a comparison between Swedish history textbooks and curricula during the period 1905 to 2005. Textbook characteristics sometimes do not have their counterpart in the curricula and syllabi. The consistencies and discrepancies that exist during the different time periods provide nuances for the picture of how curricula and syllabi intentions were realized and expressed

In the last two decades, ethical values in the form of reconciling with the past and recognizing victimized groups in history, have become more common themes in history books and in history teaching, like a ‘moral turn’ in the writing of history. History didactics research points out that values issues and moral questions clarify issues and contexts, stimulating thinking over time and activating people’s historical consciousness. Previous research, however, often only states that there is a relationship. In this article, I describe and analyze on empirical grounds, first how values are approached, and have been approached, in Swedish history textbooks, and how history and values relate to each other. Thereafter, I describe how 15-year-old students in Sweden express the relationship between values and history. Central to the analysis is how the historical context can clarify values and at the same time, how values can function as an interface creating meaning and bringing together knowledge between the past, the present and the future.

The concept of “democracy” is highly emphasized in society as wellas in Swedish school curricula. This article analyses the “supply-side” of education – the textbooks. What various conceptions ofdemocracy do lower secondary pupils meet in history textbooksand how is democracy presented in these books? Have there beenany changes in how the concept of democracy has been introducedbetween the 1960’s and the 2000’s? The first purpose of this articleis to analyse the concept of democracy in lower secondary historytextbooks and confront these representations and interpretationswith political and philosophical theories about democracy. Sec-ondly, I intend to find out whether the textbooks describe andexplain democracy in a historical context that can be useful forlearning and understanding. A contested concept like democracymay also open a way for pupils to understand the historical proc-ess and stimulate their history consciousness.

Elever möter historia i en rad olika sammanhang; i media, i spel, i reklam, i filmer och i historiska faktaprogram på TV för att nämna några. Elevernas uppfattningar och kunskaper har därför sannolikt formats redan innan de möter skolans undervisning och därefter formas de som en parallell process. I skolans historieundervisning spelar läromedlen fortfarande en viktig roll. De används i olika utsträckning och på olika sätt, men de finns ändå där som en konstant. En intressant spänning kan därför uppstå mellan elevernas förkunskaper, deras förväntningar och den bild av det förflutna de möter i skolan. I denna presentation tar jag det inom historiedidaktiken tidigare svagt beforskade begreppet förväntning eller förväntan som utgångspunkt. Jag studerar vilka förväntningar eleverna har på, och vad de menar är viktigt och vad de vill lära sig om, en historisk epok som de ännu inte har studerat i skolan – kalla kriget. Elevernas förväntningar jämförs med läromedlens urval och beskrivning av epoken. Studien bygger på gruppintervjuer med svenska elever i årskurs 8 och en analys av historieläroböcker för årskurs 9. Resultaten diskuteras i ljuset av syften och innehållsbeskrivningen i den kursplan i historia som infördes i Sverige från 2011.

What do you know when you know something about history? What is important to know and how do you learn? Adolescents encounter history everywhere: at school, in the family, in media and society. But how do adolescents perceive history and in what ways do aspects of meaning and ethical values affect the encounters with history? This study discusses how Swedish adolescents and teachers encounter, communicate and define knowledge about history, analysing the process from curricula and history textbooks to the world of the pupils.

To travel in time can be described as an encounter between now and then. The time traveller experiences a constructed past interpreted in present time. At the same time the time traveller could use the past as a mirror to learn something about herself. These multidimensional relations between the past and the present could be perceived and interpreted in a variety of ways. In this presentation I will discuss a typology to chategorize and analyze time travellers’ perceptions of the past.

Ämnesspråk och historiska begrepp betonas i både historiedidaktisk forskning och i styrdokument/läroplaner för historieämnet i flera länder. Frågorna om eleverna kan använda begreppen, hur de använder dem och om de förstår begreppen behöver svar. Artikeln handlar om dessa frågor och de illustreras av autentiska elevsvar. Avslutningsvis diskuteras tankar om hur lärare och elever kan utveckla förmågan att använda historiska begrepp.

The concept of historical consciousness has been the epicentre of history didactics in continental and northern Europe since the 1980s. However the concept is contested and, by some, regarded as vague or meta-physical. A main objection has been that it is not obvious how a historical consciousness can be definitively identified, analysed or categorized.

In this paper historical consciousness is the theoretical frame when we present a matrix for analysing students’ expressions of temporal orientation by studying their reasoning on inter-relations between intrepretations of the past, understandings of the present and perspectives on a possible future. The matrix has been constructed by inter-linking two prominent theoretical models to analyse forms of historical consciousness, including Rüsen’s types of narratives and Chinnery’s strands of historical consciousness.

Through the matrix, we analyse a selection of Finnish and Swedish lower secondary school students’ answers to a questionnaire about historical and moral reflections after reading an excerpt from Christopher Browning’s book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (orig. 1992). The students have answered and discussed open-ended questions regarding if and how the narrative in the excerpt has a relevant message for themselves and for people today and also if a similar situation could appear in Europe today or in the future. The matrix provides tools for categorizing the students’ answers. The theoretical basis of the matrix and preliminary results are discussed in the paper.