Näten på Limhamn. Sociala relationer i ett lokalsamhälle 1870-1914

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study is to examine, using the social networks as a starting-point, the way a local community is constructed in a specific historical context, namely the industrial community of Limhamn in southern Sweden at the time of the Industrial Revolution 1870-1914. In 1870 the Skånska Cement Company initiated a large-scale extraction of limestone in the area and soon had cement works built in the village, making Limhamn undergo a rapid urbanization. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts, the economical, cultural and social capital are being used as analytical tools, revealing the access to power and influence of different groups and individuals. The study comprises everything from overlapping memberships of different kinds of boards of directors and qualitative analyses of the interaction between these boards, to the studies of individual networks on the basis of diaries. The focus has been directed towards the networks of trade and industry, club activities, local politics, housing and family and the way these are interrelated. At Limhamn around 1900 it was obvious that the high value of religion as a cultural capital was linked with the fact that R.F.Berg, leader of the Skånska Cement Company, which wielded the financial as well as the political power in the local community, was himself a religious man. The managing director systematically chose reliable religious persons, placing them in positions where they could govern the companies and Limhamn. R. F. Berg tried to prevent the Labour Movement from gaining a foothold in Limhamn. His paternalistic attitude was a preventive strategy, an effort to create a hegemony by socializing the people of Limhamn into understanding the community and the world the way he did. The Labour Movement was a counter hegemony. The local federation of social democratic unions was the unions? move to confront the municipality, governed by the companies. In the social democratic discussion club other things were discussed and other interpretations made than was the case in the Lecture Society.