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"This presentation is based on an ongoing research where the aim is to study conflict solution in the local society in 18th century Norway. Three fields of conflicts are studied: Conflicts concerning natural resources, that is common property, conflicts about public duties, to a large extent conflicts between the local society and the central power, but also partly between groups within the local society, and the third field is about cultural conflicts, which also partly are conflicts between the local society and the central power. The method is microhistorical, and the research unit is the law district of Alen and Roros in the former Trondhjems Amt in Mid-Norway. This district has been a mining area for centuries. Copper ore was found in the 1640'ies, and from the mid 17th century onwards the local society underwent radical changes.
"The source material consists first and foremost of court records, licenses to the use of common property and correspondence between civil servants in different positions and at different levels. Most of the empirical material comes thus, according to the method chosen, from the above mentioned law district. A complementary methodical approach is the study of the institutional frames, i.e. laws and regulations and the administrative system on the one hand, and on the other hand the way things were carried out in practice in the fields of interest to this research. One main question is whose interests came in conflict and how the conflicts were solved. A byfocus is kept through the whole research on the persons responsible for the conflict solutions: The bailiffs and the local judges, the constables and the lawrightmen (a Norse word for the members of an assizes), i.e. the group of farmers representing the local society at court.
"In the following I will give a short presentation of the conflicts about natural resources; the legislation, the management and the view of common property and the view of common property in contrast to the view of private property." |
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