Development Thinking—Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

Theoretically, Development Studies has been claimed to be moving out of its previous impasse. However, its policy implication has traditionally been rather weak, and on this account no large improvements are presently visible. A strong call for relevancy has emerged in the middle of the 1990s, from the same writers who claim that we are now moving beyond the impasse in development theory. Somehow this opens up a niche for development geography, if its strong background in field work can be combined in a dialogue based on theoretical issues. This paper illustrates how the teaching of development in the field can bring up new issues, to be discussed thoroughly within some kind of a dialectical dialogue. The teaching of development finds itself trapped in a controversy, that could be termed as a development crisis. However, existing contradictions in the debate can nurture the more intense probing into the nature of development. Combined with field work experience, this paves the way for a dialogue in which many of the axiomatic truths are turned upside-down. Matters—such as the conflict between modernization and traditional values, the meaning of development, and the role of various actors in the development process—are all focused in an intensive discussion.     

Subsidiary impact on host-country economies--the case of foreign-owned subsidiaries attracting investment into sweden

This paper examines the impact of foreign-owned subsidiarieson their surrounding host-country economies, focusing particularlyon investment attraction. To explain such subsidiary impact,we develop a LISREL-model including four interlinked constructs:(a) the dynamism of the host-country business environment withinwhich the subsidiary unit is active; (b) the control strategiesof corporate headquarters; (c) quality of subsidiary competencies;and (d) the formalized mandate provided by headquarters forcertain subsidiaries to become centers. Based on the model,six hypotheses are formulated, and tested in a LISREL-analysison a set of data containing information on foreign-owned subsidiariesin Sweden. The results show that the dynamics of the host-countrybusiness environment positively impact on the foreign-ownedsubsidiary competence development and play a fundamental rolein deciding whether such units will impact on the investmentattraction in the host economy.     

Integration of use-wear with protein residue analysis – a study of tool use and function in the south Scandinavian Early Neolithic

This study presents research on how an integration of use-wear analysis with protein residue analysis can produce new results on prehistoric tool use and function. Thirty flint artefacts from an Early Neolithic TRB site in south Sweden were analysed for both use-wear and protein residues. The results show a positive correlation between the two methods. The Early Neolithic tools analysed were primarily used to process fish.     

The attraction of the rural: Characteristics of rural migrants in Sweden

This paper investigates the characteristics of rural migrants in Sweden divided into periurban and remote countryside using register data at the individual level. The results show that during the two years of investigation, 1987 and 1993, there was a concentration of the population in general but the periurban countryside gained migrants from the cities. In addition, the migration pattern had an aging effect on the population in rural areas. It is also shown that migration selectivity is relatively stable during the study period. The countryside is less attractive than urban areas to those with high income and high education but when the two types of countrysides are compared to each other the periurban is more attractive. Despite the renewed interest in rural living which has been reported in other studies, remote rural areas are less attractive to migrants than periurban areas in Sweden.     

Dating the Trollesgave site and the Bromme culture – chronological fix-points for the Lateglacial settlement of Southern Scandinavia

The Bromme culture belongs to the Lateglacial, the period when people settled in the recently deglaciated Southern Scandinavia. Until now there have been only a few imprecise fix-points relating to the chronological position of this archaeological culture. This situation can now be improved with the aid of research results from a Bromme culture settlement at Trollesgave in SE Denmark. Using pollen and plant macrofossil data, Lateglacial lacustrine deposits containing waste material from the settlement can be assigned to the end of the climatically mild Allerød period. A series of ¹⁴C dates establishes the age of the settlement as c. 10 826 ± 49 ¹⁴C years BP (12 871–12 590 cal yr BP). By correlation with climate data from the Greenland ice cores, the occupation can be assigned to the early part of the cold climatic zone GS-1, thus demonstrating that the global ice-core climate zones are not absolutely synchronous with the regional division into biozones.