In Sweden, common elementary schools (folkskolan) were introduced in the 1840s. As a consequence, children started walking to and from school several days per week. The school route, as both place and practice, impacted society and families; it created new ways and needs in everyday life. From a time-geographic perspective, the article investigates children’s mobility in everyday life in order to understand what walking to school encompassed. Moreover, whereas the common narrative of school routes in the past emphasizes distances and challenges of the journeys it often omits the adult world’s comprehension and involvement. The aim of the article is to increase understandings of the school route as a phenomenon and its meanings in everyday life from a historical perspective. Through qualitative analysis of memoirs and societal discussions, the authors focus on the difficulties (conceptualized as “weights”) that the school routes could entail and how the adult world tried to manage them (conceptualized as “reliefs”). One conclusion is that society and families were aware of, and tried to deal with, those hardships, and a second is that the school route was more than a distance. In this regard, variations in families’ geographical and socioeconomic positions and the physical landscape played crucial roles. 

Utifrån tvärvetenskapliga perspektiv och metoder, hämtade från etnologin och kulturgeografin, och med en empirisk utgångspunkt i tre kulturmiljöer som förvaltas av Statens fastighetsverk (SFV) i Sverige, analyserar artikeln historiebruk i form av kulturarvsproduktion och föreslår ett applicerbart normkritiskt samt i förlängningen normkreativt angreppssätt för att möjliggöra alternativa, varierade och mer inkluderande historieskildringar kring kulturmiljöer. Genom att utveckla och integrera dessa synsätt och verktyg vill artikeln argumentera för att man får tillgång till nya berättelser om platsen; berättelser som går utöver den traditionella, „normala“ historien om staten, enskilda byggnaders materiella utformning och den sociokulturella och ekonomiska eliten. En långsiktig effekt blir att det möjliggör ökad mångfald och inkludering både i fråga om förmedling och representation av platser som komplexa rumsliga och sociokulturella helheter.

It is well recognised that there can be strong emotional bonds between people and the properties where earlier generations have farmed and lived. These relations outrun economic reason and affect how individuals act, plan and relate to these places today and in the future. But what about the bonds and acts regarding a second home, a leisure place that mainly is a consequence of our modern, urban society? Many second homes are being shared within families and several generations may jointly use second homes. This chapter examines second home usage within families and over generations. It analyses second home users’ enactment, including their thinking, feeling and acting, of their second home in relation to existing or future shared usage/ownership and generational change. Four different materials are used: a questionnaire survey of second home users, interviews of second home users, media discourse, and a survey. The results show that the bonds to the second home property are strong but vary between owners, the bonds being stronger among owners who inherited the property as compared to owners who had bought it. Conflicts between family members often start when the authority over the second home is being transferred between generations. It is not only those who live today that have to be taken into consideration when making decisions, but also those who had lived before and those who will come after are significant.

This thesis investigates the reclamation of mires (fens and bogs) in Sweden with a focus on the early modern period. Today, the mires are valued natural habitats and their cultivation is controversial. International research describes wetland reclamation and the related knowledge transfer between European countries already from the 12th century. In Sweden, despite some early records of reclamation of mires in the 17th century, has earlier research focused on reclamation during the 19th and 20th centuries. The aim of the thesis is to study the landscape, actors and driving forces behind the early reclamation (before 1800). Understanding the early reclamation can provide a new perspective on current views on wetlands. It is also an interesting example of how the landscape is changed constantly by people with different goals through history. The subject is studied through a multimethod approach using sources such as historical maps, diaries, 17th- and 18th-century literature and place names. The main conclusions of the study are that reclamation of mires is seen already in 17th-century maps, with local wider distribution during the 18th century. The crown and scientists expressed a growing interest in reclamation of the mires from the early 18th century. Links to Europe, in particular Holland, can be seen within this discourse. In both literature and the experimentation that took place, the Swedish migrant group, the Dalecarlians, played a key role. They shared with the early Dutch groups the practical knowledge needed in major reclamation projects. Furthermore, this study shows that a number of actors assumed at various times the role of mobile innovation spreaders. Dutch farmers and experts, labour migrants, landlords and scientists all acted to spread knowledge of mire reclamation. Ample resources, networking and geographical mobility appear to have been prerequisites for all actors, from peasants to landlords, but they had different underlying motives for the practice.