Tekniken som problem och lösning : föroreningsmotstånd och teknikval i 1900-talets svenska pappersmassaindustri

Sammanfattning: With the advent of environmental issues in the public debate, historians world-wide have shown an increased interest in studying environmental issues. In this field of study, phenomena such as industrialisation, as well as economic and technological progress, have often been understood solely as the causes of environmental degradation with few attempts to examine the more complex features of the technology-environment relationship. In the late 1990s, though, scholars in the fields of history of technology, environmental history and business history extended the focus of historical studies on the internal and external dynamic processes that shape industrial production technologies with severe impacts on the natural environment. This study analyzes the technology choices confronting business enterprises, which have been exposed to public concerns and legal claims concerning their polluting activities. The ‘company-focus’ of the study permits an in-depth analysis of the relationship between industrial production technology and the environment. In this study we analyze in particular the underlying motives that induce a company to implement environmentally benign production technologies, as well as the process of technology choice and development at the company level. The technology choice process must however not only be understood as an internal ‘businesshistory’, but also as a process heavily dependent on a large number of economic, social, technological, legal and scientific factors. The analysis in this study builds on Nathan Rosenberg’s conception of technology choice and development. Rosenberg argues that decisions about the design of the production technology are made under incomplete information about technical solutions and their costs. This implies that technology choices are often characterized by the search for knowledge that enables the company to implement existing but not yet developed technical potentials, rather than a choice between ready-made technical solutions. Empirically the study focuses on the technology choices of two Swedish pulp and paper mills, which both were subjects to conflicts concerning their pollution into water and air. These conflicts include the one concerning Örebro paper mill, 1904-1911, and the more recent Värö mill conflict, 1964-1972. A comparison of these conflicts – from two distinctly different time periods – permits an analysis of how technology choice processes are affected by increased knowledge about the pollution problems as well as by advances in the production of technology. We find that given the industry’s collective interest in solving the pollution problems, the pulp and paper industry initiated a large number of cooperative research undertakings aimed at developing cleaner production methods during the 1950s and 1960s. Thus, while the Örebro paper mill was a pioneer in initiating cooperation with its competitors, the Värö mill could benefit from previous advances in knowledge and implement – more or less well established – technological solutions. The result of the study suggests therefore that industrial cooperation within the environmental field does not necessarily have to be initiated by public organizations and institutions, but can also emerge as the result of the initiatives of a single company. The fact that the Örebro and Värö mills both faced a negative public opinion concerning their polluting activities, imply that the respective technology choice processes were influenced by the interests and motives of the opinions. The complainants in the two conflicts legitimized their arguments and complaints by referring (implicitly or explicitly) to existing laws and regulations, and by engaging the relevant scientific expertise. The two companies also engaged scientific experts, largely in order to learn more about potential technical solutions to the pollution problem but also to confront the arguments of the complainants and their respective experts. In both cases this type of setting resulted in what the sociology of science literature calls ‘scienitific controversies’. The analysis in this study provides support for the notion that these types of controversies are characterized by arguments and deliberations that are largely based on values and attitudes rather than on (scientific) facts. The study also illustrates how the controversies motivated the complainants in the respective conflicts to reframe their arguments, and, for instance, express their concerns in more general and definitive terms. The technology choice processes of both mills are clear examples of the floating distinction between technology choice and technological development. The search for technical solutions was not cost-free, especially not for the Örebro mill, which even had to initiate basic scientific research to solve the problem of the sulphate odour. Both mills had in the past invested in a lot of technology-specific human and physical capital, and they therefore faced strong incentives to direct the environmental activities toward technical solutions that could make as much use of this capital as possible. For this reason, the actual measures implemented as a result of the conflicts (and the related legal verdicts) were largely ‘end-of-pipe’-oriented rather than characterized by ‘radical’ changes in the underlying pulp production processes. Interestingly, although 60 years lapsed between the two conflicts, the measures undertaken to combat the emissions at the two mills were remarkably similar.