De glömda verkstäderna : En studie av två familjeföretag på den uppländska landsbygden ca 1930 - 2000

Sammanfattning: The thesis studies two small family businesses situated in the rural area of Uppsala County. Both were active during the twentieth century (1933 and henceforth and 1936 – 1976 respectively) and had the agriculture surroundings and bigger industries as their principal customers.Workshops of this kind have existed in a great number. Despite this they are hardly mentioned in scholarly literature concerning the Swedish twentieth-century industrial development. This has concentrated mainly on large industries; the time period has also been characterized as “the highly industrialized epoch” with large-scale production and rationalization as its distinctive features.The overall purpose of the thesis is therefore to analyse and highlight the function of these workshops. Four related questions are in focus, each one discussed in a particular section: the production process; the relation workshop – family; the relation workshop – surroundings (i.e. customers and employees); the motives of the owners. The close connection with family members as well as with customers and employees are shown in various ways. It is also maintained that profits were not the prime mover of the owners.The thesis is based on interviews combined with a number of other sources. Among the latter are photographs and artefacts. By following a context gathering method, it is possible to use the most important product from each workshop as a guiding principle through their activities. Another important analytic method used is the analysis of how different work tasks in the family related to each other and to the workshop.