This thesis explores the narrow spaces between closely built houses in the over 300-year-old wooden town center of Mariestad, Sweden, and their potential as time capsules and sources of knowledge in cultural-historical building investigations. By interpreting well-preserved carpentry work on a facade in one of these spaces, the study aims to provide an example of how these preserved spaces can serve as a source of knowledge and understanding of craftsmanship and the history of the place. The thesis also addresses the municipality of Mariestad's work with cultural heritage, as well as maps out more of these potentially interesting interstitial spaces. Old Swedish wooden towns possess a high degree of uniqueness both nationally and internationally; nevertheless, they are subjected to relatively significant threats of demolitions and substantial changes, often in the form of many smaller restorations or changes over a long period of time. The focus of the case study is a window from the 16th or 17th century and the facade's old, hand planed wooden cladding.

The subject of religion in Swedish schools is the single most talked about topic in the curriculum. One explanation could be that it is the oldest subject in Swedish schools and the topic has undergone the biggest change through time. This process of change has been anything but undebated. The subject of religion within schools has met debates through almost its entire history, partly from the state and from the church, but also from the teachers and the students. Debates concerning the existence of Christianity in Swedish schools as well as the Swedish traditions constantly reoccur in today?s government debates and various media but in different versions.

During our teacher training, focusing on history and Swedish at further education level, we have noticed a discrepancy in the way history is portrayed in further education and higher education literature. Accounts of historical ideas, events and developments have often wrongly been depicted as non-gender specific, that is, of equal relevance to both men and women. To what extent is it made clear in further education textbooks that Rousseau?s treatise on education was exclusively aimed at the male gender, and how are the gender-specific aspects of his ideas described? What role and space are set aside for women in the accounts of the struggle for the universal right to vote in Sweden at the turn of the century in 1900, and how is the unions? initial exclusion of female workers portrayed? Focusing on the above historical events and developments, this study aimes to examine whether or not gender-specific issues are described as gender neutral in a selection of history textbooks for further education published in Sweden between 1982 and 2003..

Vi ville undersöka några svenska gymnasielärare i historias attityder till att låta sina elever arbeta kontrafaktiskt. Vilka svårigheter de ser med arbetet, hur de arbetar eller kan tänka sig att arbeta med det och om de såg några specifika för- eller nackdelar jämfört med mer traditionell undervisning? För att ta reda på detta utförde vi kvalitativa intervjuer med yrkesverksamma lärare. Vi hörde inte av oss på förhand om huruvida de arbetat kontrafaktiskt tidigare och vi väntade oss en viss skepsis mot arbetssättet. Men vad vi fann var att även om inte alla medvetet arbetat med det så var alla insatta i, och positiva till, metoden.

At the dusk of the Second World War, when the Red Army was approaching Tallinn and the second Soviet occupation of Estonia could be foreseen, almost a tenth of the population left the Estonian coasts to seek refuge in the West. About 30 000 of those ended up in Sweden, among which were some of the most prominent Estonian novelists and poets. Sweden would become the literary center for the worldwide exile Estonian diaspora. However, the fact that a few dozens of Estonian authors published some 2 000 titles in Sweden, where most of the authors as well as the main publishing houses resided, was and has remained unknown to most Swedes as it has gone fairly unnoticed to the field of Swedish Literary Studies. From the perspective that the exile Estonian literature written in Sweden is actually part of our history of literature, this thesis aims to find out what factors have had impact, and how, on the authors? opportunities to gain recognition by the Swedish literary establishment and eventually being included in the Swedish literary historical works.

A historical study of intervention for aphasia may provide information on how speech and language pathologists work with people with aphasia. Aphasia is seen as an umbrella term for symptoms of language disorders caused by aquired brain injury. The overall aim of the present study was to describe and analyze the development of intervention for aphasia during the periods 1990-1999 and 2000-2010.The study was conducted by analysis of 83 medical records from two hospitals in Sweden during a period of 20 years. These decades were compared to each other and yo current litteraturein search for differences and trends in aphasia intervention.The Results of the present study revealed that intervention mainly focused on recovering the linguistic ability in both the 1990s and 2000s. Intervention and literature focusing on communication seem to increase during the 2000s.

The essay aims to compare Swedish and Finnish decisions regarding refugee policies by tracing them back to the critical junctures when the policies were established, in order to explain why there are big differences prevalent today. The questions asked involve the motivations of the refugee policies and how they have changed over time.The theoretical framework employed is based on historical institutionalism and path dependency. By using a most similar system design and process tracing, material in the form of government declarations and government bills are studied and summed up in two analytical models. The results show that there might be a weak path dependency in the case of Finland. However it is more apparent in the case of Sweden, with frequent statements of a generous refugee policy that is characterised by humanity.

Aspen (Populus tremula) is a tree that is important for biodiversity. It is a pioneer tree that is favored by much light. It is possible that aspens that regenerated on agricultural land have a different importance for biodiversity than aspens that regenerated in forests, since their conditions have been different. By studying how the land use have changed you can see how many of today?s aspens regeneretad on agricultural land.

This thesis focuseses on archives and availability. The general public seem to have trouble finding their way tothe actual archives even though most archival institutions are easily accessed and provide interesting material.Maybe it is because archives are generally not as well known as other institutions within the ALM-area, eventhough the need to know ones history and identity is considered mainstream. Whether or not history takes off atthe archives is a complex question to answer. Archives, however, certanly contribute to our ideas of earlier timesand the concept of history.I have examined what archives do to make these contributions known to the general public and to whatextent they make their material avaliable. I have also looked into archival pedagogy since it is often connected toavaliability.

How can we use modern X-ray technology to raise awareness of the information that is hidden in historic upholstery? The materials and techniques add information to the history object in question and  about a profession that is sparsely documented in our country. The knowledge we have today has largely been obtained by studying damaged upholstery, or by removing the show cover and upholstery, a technique which involves high risk of damaging the upholstery. X-ray technology offers  a non- intrusive way to examine historical upholstery.Through case studies, I examined four artefacts. The artefacts went trough an inititial visual exam before being transported to The National Heritage Board in Visby where they underwent a thorough X-ray exam.

Recently, there have been intense discussions about the humanities and their role in society. Internationally, as well as in a Swedish context, the humanities have been regarded to be in a state of crisis. However, these discussions usually demonstrate a lack of historical perspectives based on thorough empirical research. The notion of a crisis needs to be historicized.In this study, a case is being examined where the relationship between science and society was renegotiated. In the context of World War II, a discourse has been identified in a borderland between science and politics through an analysis of Swedish journals and anthologies during the time period 1937-1947.

The purpose of this project is to examine the development of the upper secondary school physics course and from this get a better understanding why the course is organized the way it is today. The timeless argument for studying science in school will begin this essay. After that the reader will be aware of when important discoveries in physics were made. Then school history is presented. In this part we are told when the first school started in Sweden, but the focus lies on the upper secondary school and the physics course.

Recent studies show that manufacturing companies to a larger extent use historical cost accounting in their internal accounts, at the expense of calculated costs. The explanation behind this is claimed to be that firms are subject to careful scrutiny by the stock market. Consequently, top management stresses the need of evaluating all parts of the firm from external accounting. However, lower management levels express a general concern that the incentive to invest in machines will decrease. This master thesis aims to investigate whether or not there is an objective reason behind this concern.

The agricultural sector is currently highly dependent on fossil fuels, with diesel beingmost prominent. There are however both historical and modern alternatives thathave not been subject to enough evaluation to disregard them as suitable alternative.This report aims to theoretically investigate the feasibility of converting aconventional diesel driven tractor to run on electricity, delivered via a cableconnected to either the main power grid or on-site electric production, such asphotovoltaic. Delivering electricity to the machine via a cable is a method withhistorical roots in the early 20th century and in the present day mining industry.The economic and technological potential of the technique are evaluated, along withthe examination of several different motor powers, voltages, losses and constructionideas. The report finds the technique to be both possible as well as long termeconomically and environmentally beneficial. To realise this method however, somedeviations from the present methods of agricultural farming must be made,considering the more advanced driving patterns, the limited mobility and therequirement for extra driver awareness.

The purpose of this research is to examine some historical aspects of Robert Putnam?s thesisabout voluntary associations and social capital. According to a micro perspective theory ofsocial capital the trust and reciprocity required and created by associations is important toexplain the disparity between institutional performance and socioeconomic development ofsocieties. The social patterns governing this therefore set a precedent for the future. Using themutual sickness benefit societies in Sweden as variable for voluntary associations around1884, the essay discusses the possible links between social capital, associations and long termeconomic development.