Inside the Internet Industry: The Importance of Proximity in Accessing Knowledge in the Agglomeration of Internet Firms in Stockholm

This paper deals with the question of agglomeration of economic of activities and the internet industry in Stockholm, Sweden. The paper discusses the importance of proximity, especially in the knowledge transmission, and uses a theoretical framework of localized and tacit knowledge. The empirical findings suggests that firms within the internet industry are located in close proximity to each other because of the importance of dense informal interpersonal networks, that facilitate the search for new customers and collaborators. The findings also stress the importance of proximity in creating these dense networks and being in the right place at the right time.     

Kuggmaren 1: the first cog find in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden

In 1998 a wreck in the Stockholm archipelago of the Baltic Sea came to the attention of the maritime archaeological community. It seemed to have cog-like characteristics, although opinions about its building tradition were initially divided. Subsequent survey and dating analysis not only established that this was a medieval, cog-like vessel but that it is relatively early. Its find spot, however, is consistent with medieval trading enterprise. This paper summarizes the results of the work to date and raises questions for future research.     

Maritime Durées: Long-Term Structures in a Coastal Landscape

The interaction between humans and the maritime coastal landscape must be one of the central theoretical questions for maritime archaeology. How should an academic discipline, which is defined by its studies in a certain physical milieu, avoid the trap of environmental determinism and still be able to argue for the special influence of the maritime factor? And how should this long-term relation to the sea be interpreted and described? In this article, based mainly on material from the central Swedish Baltic Sea coast, three examples of long-term structures regarding the relationship between people and the sea are discussed. The structures, here called “maritime durees”, which almost all coastal habitants in the analyzed area seem to have had in common are linked to: exploitation of marine resources, communication over water and the mental presence of the sea. In conclusion the actual meaning of these long-term structures for everyday life and for cultural and social change are discussed in comparison to more short term structures: the changing historical circumstances and possibilities for people to choose different strategies.     

Involutions of Materiality

The neo-materialist ontology outlined by the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Manuel DeLanda has several implications for archeology. This text primarily discusses their replacement of the general and the specific with universal and individual singularities which creates emergent properties. This is both a process of evolution and involution where materialities create multi-scalar assemblages. Causeway assemblages from two sites, Ichmul and Yo’okop in the northern Maya lowlands in southern Mexico, are used to operationalize this perspective. Rather than focusing on a human-centered perspective, the text sees the causeways as parts of technologies that can help us to reach an anorganic perspective where we can become-materiality.     

On the Social Costs of Modernization. Social Disintegration,Atomie/Anomie and SocialDevelopment

This essay presents a provocative and pessimistic picture of the human condition at the end of the twentieth century. Many societies are seen to be caught up in a process of destructuration and deculturation, heading for structurelessness and culturelessness — here defined as ‘atomie’ and ‘anomie’. This is accompanied by a collapse and corruption of institutions, an isolation of individuals and the growing predominance of purely egotistical motivation for action. In the cultural sphere, modernization seems either to have entirely undermined religious belief or encouraged an intolerant fundamentalist backlash. One way to reverse this apparent slide toward anomie might be to draw upon the connecting, unifying force of all tolerant and compassionate religions.