The aim of this paper is to discuss the connections between housing policy and family dynamics, and to show how and why housing policy can affect fertility. Since WWII housing policy has changed considerably in European countries. The general policy trend has moved away from ample state subsidies and state regulations of housing markets, towards free market solutions for housing and housing construction, sharply decreasing general housing subsidies and a shift instead towards appointed subsidies to low-income areas and low-income groups. In spite of similar trends in housing policies between European countries, there are temporal as well as spatial variations between countries. These differences offer a possibility to identify effects of housing market conditions on fertility and family dynamics. One result of the changing policy trends is higher general costs for housing at household level. Based on empirical research it has been shown that there are significant links between housing costs and family dynamics, as increasing costs for housing has led to decreasing rates of fertility. Most European countries today face declining birth-rates. Analysing the connections between housing policy and fertility may therefore be highly relevant in order to better understand the effects of housing policies on society, in particular, the consequences for population development and family dynamics. At present, however, such studies may be carried out at national levels, but, at European level, these analyses are challenging, since there is a lack of data infrastructure and the data bases required for such research approach. This paper therefore suggests how a European data base on housing policy and housing market could be designed, by discussing essential variables and indicators to include in such a data base.

This doctoral thesis analyses the role of historical urban agriculture in a long-time perspective, through a combination of overarching surveys of Swedish towns and detailed studies of one town – Uppsala in east-central Sweden. The study shows how agricultural land – town land – of various sizes was donated to towns repeatedly during medieval times and in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The study examines urban food production at three points in time, and concludes that grain production and, later, potato production as well was substantial in many towns, indicating high levels of urban self-sufficiency. This allows new perspectives concerning the interpretation of urban food provision, as urban dependency on countryside food production might have varied considerably between towns. In addition, the study shows how urban agriculture was connected to social welfare systems, in particular aiming at supporting urban widows. The results in this thesis provide an historical context to the increasing discussions about present-day urban agriculture globally, and identify a number of factors that may create or counteract opportunities for urban agriculture.  

This article examines the use made by heritage tourism of fiction, authenticity and historical knowledge with a view to augmenting interest in the Västergötland heritage. It takes as its starting point Jan Guillous story of the medieval Knight Templar Arn Magnusson. The series of Arn novels was published between 1998 and 2001, and two feature films were made in 2007 and 2008. Research in recent decades has clearly shown the medieval period to have been one of extensive international contacts and influences, a point which Gulliou highlights. One might therefore expect heritage tourism surrounding Arn to have been informed by narratives concerning the multicultural society of the Middle Ages. The present article investigates this aspect, or which stories have recieved prominence in heritage tourism and which have been rejected. The article shows how authenticity has been used in these connections. The source material is based on the websites of seven tourism providers, and the marketing of Arn-related tourism has been studied at two points of time, namely 2009 and 2011/2012. The article also discusses the use of history and how historically related tourism hepls to shape out view of history.

Marketed Arn tourism changed between 2009 and 2012, through the cutting back of experience-based authenticity in defence to a more object-based authenticity linked mainly to churches and monastic ruins. These historical remains, however, have not been used in heritage tourism as a means of describing the medieval network of international contacts, despite the pivotal role played by both churches and monasticism in these connections. As a result, the picture conveyed is founded on simplified stereotypes and affords a limited, partly inaccurate portrayal of medieval society. International influences and networks in that society could be used by heritage tourism for describing the dynamics of the medieval period, while at the same time indicating that societies have always been changed and developed under the impact of new influences.

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.