Tidigmodern tid : Den sociala tidens roll i fyra lokalsamhällen 1650-1730

Sammanfattning: This dissertation examines how time-reckoning was used in Swedish courts in the early modem period. The theoretical foundation is that the need for people to coordinate in time becomes more important the larger and more complicated the social context is. Therefore, it is more important that one part in a communication is clear in its indication of time the less the other part shares its everyday life. A time-indication is formed by the situation of both sender and receiver, within the context of a society's system of measuring time.During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, contacts between local communities and central state institutions intensified through the state's increasing demands of influence over local authorities.Thereby, a situation arose in which it became more important for ordinary courts to be careful in theirrecord keeping with, among other things, time-reckoning. Terms for time are also formed by the context in which they are reckoned. As life is different in different types of local communities, there are also differences in the use of time in different courts. Therefore, the empirical study is a comparison of the Lagunda district court, the Uppsala city courts, and the Sala mining court, circa 1650 and circa 1730. Lagunda represents a rural environment, while Uppsala represents a preindustrial urban area. Sala silver mine is included in the study as an industrial environment. Also, the city courts of Sala have been studied to gain perspective on the comparison between Uppsala and Sala silver mine.The results show that both the chronological differences and differences in areas of investigation were important. During the 1730's, all courts were considerably more careful in time-reckoning than they had been in the 1650's. Also, the similarities between the areas were greater, which must be seen as a result of the fact that time-reckoning primarily was made for the sake of the central institution towhich the records were to be sent. The more interactive the state, the greater the precision of courtrecords and uniformity of local communities. The time-indications used are thus more a reflection ofthe need for understanding in communication between separate institutions than of organisation in thelocal community.The manifest differences between the areas are that while time in Lagunda and at Sala silver mine in different ways reflected the areas' economic foundation, time-reckoning in the towns was of a more varied nature. The results for the towns of Sala and Uppsala are more similar than those of the townof Sala and Sala silver mine, although the selection of people was practically the same at the mine andin the town. This indicates that the environment and the type of court played a greater role in deter-mining which results we obtain, than did the people's own concept of time. However, there were somesimilarities between the town of Sala and the silver mine. Therefore, one cannot rule out that the results also reflect peoples' relation to time, irrespective of the situation they are in.