Browsing by Author "Larsson, Jesper"

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An Analytical Framework for Common-Pool Resource-Large Technical System (CPR-LTS) Constellations
(2013) Blomkvist, Pär; Larsson, Jesper
"This paper introduces an analytical framework for a special phenomenon: when a common-pool resource (CPR) institution and a large technical system (LTS) are connected and mutually interdependent. The CPR in this case is a node managed by its appropriators within a centrally planned and managed system; here named CPR-LTS constellations. Our framework is empirically derived from two historical investigations of CPR institutions within two LTSs, the agricultural-technical system and the road transport system of Sweden. By comparing similarities and differences it is possible to identify paths to successes and failures. To understand why one survived and the other disappeared we connect Elinor Ostroms theories about management of CPRs with Thomas P. Hughess theories about LTSs. We are proposing a framework that can bridge the gap between theories about management of CPRs and LTSs. By combining the two theories it should be possible to better understand how small-scale producers using bottom-up CPRs can be linked to top-down LTSs.We will argue that to fit within an LTS, a CPR needs alignment between different parts or components within the constellation/system and alignment with other systems and institutions in society. We propose three analytical levels to deal with the phenomenon of aligning a CPR project to an existing, large sociotechnical system: 1) Local alignment (CPR): How are CPRs organized and managed at local sites?; 2) Sociotechnical alignment (CPR-LTS): How are CPRs connected to the sociotechnical system?; 3) Contextual alignment: How are CPR-LTS constellations aligned with neighboring institutions and systems in society? Our work indicates that for successful management of a CPR-LTS constellation it is important that the CPR be included in legislation and that government agencies support the CPR in alignment with the LTS. Legislators must recognize the CPR-part in the CPR-LTS constellation so that its institutional body is firmly established in society. In this study, we have used the framework ex-post; however, we anticipate that the framework could be a diagnostic tool ex-ante for CPR-LTS constellations."
Changes in Property Rights in a Common-Pool Resource, 1600 to 1850
(2012) Larsson, Jesper
"The aim of this paper is to analyzing the development of property rights from the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century in an agricultural area in upland Sweden, where the use of common-pool resources for animal husbandry were important. We will follow the transformation of the parish's forest-covered outlying land in central Sweden from open access to a communal common-property regime and finally to a common-property regime conducted on private property, i.e. the commons were converted to privately owned land but animal husbandry was still conducted as a collective action. I will discuss how these changes happened and how they affected the peasants who used the forests for grazing their animals."
Commons and Crises in the Seventeenth Century: Hardship and Development in Northern Sweden
(2013) Larsson, Jesper
"The seventeenth century is known as the Age of Greatness in Swedish history. However in many ways the period can be described as a crisis for the peasants. The crisis had three main reasons; 1) wars; 2) increased taxes, and 3) a cooler climate. The consecutive wars affected the peasants in many ways, i.e. between 1620 and 1719, half a million men died in the wars. This corresponded to 30 percent of all adult men. The wars also caused increased taxes and peasants thus had to increase production. The Little Ice Age created a cooler climate and added to the crises since it affected agriculture. In this paper I will show how the peasants reacted to these crises and how important the commons became to create solutions in response to the crises. The crises could be turned into development because the peasants utilized the commons more effectively. The increased use of the common was a result of more collective action and it created new institutional settings and new organizations. It led to a shift in agriculture practice and a development of complementary businesses that produced commodities for a market. Many resources from the commons became increasingly important at this time, like firewood and charcoal and there was an expansion of a transhumance system, here called summer farms. The establishment of summer farms was a way to use the vast woodlands as grazing areas. The more intense use of the commons had impacts on institutions, organizations, labor division, land use and settlements. This created a use of the commons that lasted for more than two centuries and was essential for agriculture up to the beginning of the twentieth century. The self-governing of the local resources made it possible for the users to change production and create institution for its management."
Conflict Resolution Mechanisms Maintaining an Agricultural System. Early Modern Local Courts as an Arena for Solving Collective-Action Problems within Scandinavian Civil Law
(2016) Larsson, Jesper
"Rapid access to low-cost local arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators is one of the principles that characterise robust common-pool resource (CPR) institutions. In spite of this insight, we have little knowledge about how such institutions solved collective-action problems in early modern Scandinavia, when CPRs were an important part of production. Arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators range from informal meetings among users to formal court cases. This paper focuses on local courts, rather than laws and by-laws, within the Scandinavian legal origin and how these courts developed as arenas for CPR conflict resolution. Court rulings from Leksand Parish in central Sweden were the backbone for this study. The results indicate that access to a low-cost arena was more important to the peasants than rapid access to the courts. Successful conflict resolution could take years to accomplish and it was more important for the court to embed their decisions in people’s minds than to come to a quick resolution. Further, I demonstrate that the court laid the foundation for disputing parties to solve conflicts among themselves. Lay judges – peasants from the region – came to play an important role in conflict resolution. Thus, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the court played a central role in maintaining agricultural CPRs."
Conflict Resolution Mechanisms Maintaining an Agricultural System: The Development of Local Courts as an Arena for Solving Collective Action Problems within Scandinavian Civil Law, 17th Century to the End of 19th Century
(2015) Larsson, Jesper
"Rapid access to low-cost local arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators is one of the principle’s that characterizes robust CPR institutions. In spite of this insight we have little knowledge about how such institutions solved collective action problems in early modern Scandinavia, when CPRs were an important part of the production. Arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators range from informal meeting among users to formal court cases. This paper will focus on local courts within the Scandinavian legal origin and how these courts developed as arenas for CPR conflict resolution. Court rulings from the parish Leksand in central Sweden are the main source material for this study. The results indicate that access to a low cost arena was more important for the peasants than rapid access to the courts. Further, I demonstrate that the court acted so that disputing parties could solve collective action conflicts among themselves without a verdict from the court. Lay-judges, peasants from the region, came to play an important role in conflicts resolution. Thus, in the seventeenth and eighteenth century the court had an important role in maintaining an agricultural system with strong reliance on commons. The court came to lose this role during the nineteenth century."
Labor Division in an Upland Economy: Workforce in a Seventeenth-Century Transhumance System
(2014) Larsson, Jesper
"The aim of this article is to analyze strategies families used to maintain a transhumance system in early modern Europe. The study examines an animal husbandry system in upland Sweden where women worked as herders and took care of the animals during the summer. By examining a late-seventeenth-century herder register of 1340 herders and combining it with demographic data from a defined area, it is possible to reveal the strategic choices that households had to make to create a workforce able to harness the vast forests with a transhumance system (summer farms). The work at the summer farms was performed as a collective action, and this study demonstrates that a prerequisite for this agricultural system to function properly was a labor market for herders. Most herders were household members or relatives, but maids represented 27% of the workforce and worked together with household members. Maids were usually young or older widows and unmarried women, many from poor households. These maids came to play an important role in knowledge transfer to new adolescent herders and were necessary to maintain the agricultural system. Compared with daughters and wives, the maids worked with other households’ assets. The results indicate that specialization and labor division were strategies for subsistence peasants to expand animal husbandry."
Reindeer, Fish and Game – Transitions in Early Modern Sami Natural Resource Management
(2019) Larsson, Jesper; Sjaunja, Eva-Lotta Päiviö
"The paper will discuss how long-term changes in socioecological systems and property rights are connected and how these rights are negotiated in a self-governing context. It will be done by investigating changes in natural resource governance in early modern Sami communities in interior northern Scandinavia. The empirical material is from Lule lappmark in Northern Sweden. Earlier research has mainly focused on the government’s role in property rights changes in a Sami context. The sixteenth and seventeenth century saw new trading patterns and Sami households became more involved in trade. This spurred the development of large-scale reindeer herding. By examining how users used different ecological settings, from 1550 to 1780, it is possible to show how an older property-rights system dissolved due to the emergence of large-scale reindeer nomadism. The paper will discuss property rights to three main resources within interior Sami economy: reindeer, freshwater fish and game. While all these three are considering common-pool resource the property regime differed among them. Fresh water fish and hunting were private rights rather than collective rights and these rights were more important for Sami using the boreal forests as their main habitat. When large-scale reindeer herding emerged, it required collective rights for grazing. The Sami that had access to summer grazing in the alpine region developed collective land-use regimes when the herds enlarged and they gradually gained formal rights to graze on private land in the boreal forests during winter. The change was largely a consequence of Sami self-governance."
Transition from a food extraction to a food producing economy – A Study of Institutional Change in Sami Reindeer husbandry
(2024) Larsson, Jesper
The transition from a foraging to a pastoral economy occurred independently and at different times in numerous aboriginal societies around the world. Among arctic and subarctic reindeer herding peoples in northern Eurasia it manifested, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, in a movement that implied a radical shift in economic focus. People went from living foremost on hunting and gathering, with small numbers of domesticated reindeer mainly for transports, to reindeer pastoralism with large reindeer herds. Although it was a massive transition, rather close to our time, remarkably little is known about what consequences it had on institutions for local governance and social relations for the groups involved. Northern Fennoscandia was one of the first to witness the transition to reindeer pastoralism, and the indigenous Sami of northern Sweden are an especially suitable case for addressing these gaps. The historical sources are exceptionally rich. Land used for foraging and by pastoralists are common-pool resources (CPRs): fresh water, hunting grounds, and grazing land. The transition these societies underwent was driven by concomitant self-governed responses to this transition. In the presentation I will outline the transition and present preliminary results on how the transition affected institutions for governance and social relations.