Fruktansvärd, ospelad och nyskriven - kriser och konflikter kring ny svensk dramatik : från Gustav III:s originaldramatik till dagens beställningsdramatik

The issue of this thesis concerns a selection of historical debates in which new Swedish drama is under discussion. The studied debates take place in the cultural and political fields and within the fields of theater and literature and deal with a recurring assumption in Swedish theatre history – that new Swedish drama is insufficient. The primary object of this thesis is to find explanations to: why is the Swedish new drama so often described as defective? The following questions, guiding the analysis, are: How are the crises described? What are the stakes? How has the dramatic text been influenced by being judged either as literary product or a product for the stage? How is the playwright’s role described, and perhaps changed, in the crises? The aim of the analysis is to understand how traditions and conventions are shaping the debates and contribute to perpetrate the myth of the malfunctioning Swedish new play. In a historical perspective several attempts have been made to govern new Swedish drama by legislative and political power. New Swedish drama has, for example, been viewed as a possible expression of the nation, as part of shaping the Swedish Welfare state or creating interactive communication with the audience. Despite its many uses, new Swedish drama continues to be describes as flawed. The study starts with King Gustav III:s Swedish theatre where the purpose was to produce Swedish original plays. The study ends with an analysis of a new government grant for new Swedish drama, which was installed in 1999. The chosen debates are analyzed with the help of concepts borrowed from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, looking at each historical situation as a possible moment for the establishment of the field ”new Swedish drama”. The survey ends with eight interviews with playwrights, who are active today. The conditions for the new Swedish drama are the guiding line in this thesis. These conditions are found in the cultural, social and historical contexts that cooperate when a taste or convention is being shaped. They are part of the discourses in the field, where criteria for the new Swedish drama is formulated. In order to understand the significance of, for example, the expression, ”the newly written Swedish drama” research has been pursued in biographical material, historical surveys, and debates in the daily press and in professional journals. Without being a full bourdieuan analysis, the thesis is using concepts from Bourdieu. The work of British feminist theatre historian Tracy C Davis inspires the critical historic perspective.

Land, Power and Technology : Essays on Political Economy and Historical Development

Land Ownership and Development: Evidence from Postwar Japan This paper analyzes the effect of land ownership on technology adoption and structural transformation. A large-scale land reform in postwar Japan enforced a large number of tenant farmers who were cultivating land to become owners of this land. I find that the municipalities which had many owner farmers after the land reform tended to experience a quick entry of new agricultural machines which became available after the reform. The adoption of the machines reduced the dependence on family labor, and led to a reallocation of labor from agriculture to industries and service sectors in urban centers when these sectors were growing. I also analyze the aggregate impact of labor reallocation on economic growth by using a simple growth model and micro data. I find that it increased GDP by about 12 percent of the GDP in 1974 during 1955-74. I also find a large and positive effect on agricultural productivity. Loyalty and Treason: Theory and Evidence from Japan's Land Reform A historically large-scale land reform in Japan after World War II enforced by the occupation forces redistributed a large area of farmlands to tenant farmers. The reform demolished hierarchical structures by weakening landlords' power in villages and towns. This paper investigates how the change in the social and economic structure of small communities affects electoral outcomes in the presence of clientelism. I find that there was a considerable decrease in the vote share of conservative parties in highly affected areas after the reform. I find the supporting evidence that the effect was driven by the fact that the tenant farmers who had obtained land exited from the long-term tenancy contract and became independent landowners. The effect was relatively persistent. Finally, I also find the surprising result that there was a decrease, rather than an increase, in turnout in these areas after the reform.  Geography and State Fragmentation We examine how geography affects the location of borders between sovereign states in Europe and surrounding areas from 1500 until today at the grid-cell level. This is motivated by an observation that the richest places in this region also have the highest historical border presence, suggesting a hitherto unexplored link between geography and modern development, working through state fragmentation. The raw correlations show that borders tend to be located on mountains, by rivers, closer to coasts, and in areas suitable for rainfed, but not irrigated, agriculture. Many of these patterns also hold with rigorous spatial controls. For example, cells with more rivers and more rugged terrain than their neighboring cells have higher border densities. However, the fragmenting effects of suitability for rainfed agriculture are reversed with such neighbor controls. Moreover, we find that borders are less likely to survive over time when they separate large states from small, but this size-difference effect is mitigated by, e.g., rugged terrain.