Trädgårdens textur: Rumsliga, materiella och sociala perspektiv på den privatägda trädgården i Sverige cirka 1900-1930

The subject of this dissertation is privately owned gardens in Sweden circa 1900–1930 and aims to identify and make visible their meaning and impact on different societal levels. Sweden, like many other European countries, faced profound societal changes during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was in part due to a major increase in population, the development of new urban environments, a growing working class, and migration within and out of the country. The culmination of these circumstances had an impact on the development of society, more broadly, and on housing, in particular. Prior scholarly inquiries across multiple disciplines have studied the home as a locus for various social relations and expressions of aesthetic ideals. However, the outdoor space of the home has not been specifically included or emphasized in previous research. The focus of this dissertation is therefore to examine gardens within the private sphere – in physical form as well as in their conceptions – concentrating on spatial organization and material constitution within the social context of the time. The aim is to make visible the ways in which the garden acted as an important part of the construction of the ideal home, in theory as well as in practice. In so doing, gardens and garden practices of the early twentieth century are historically, culturally, and socially situated. The theoretical framework is built upon the concept of texture which combines the theoretical fields of spatial theory and materiality . The approach and the use of texture emphasize the material elements that are essential in the constitution of the garden (but not always considered meaningful in their own right), as well as the relationship between humans and their surroundings, particularly with regard to home-making and relating practices. It includes analyses of individual materials’ physical conditions and the way they are experienced with the senses. Furthermore, it highlights the material and visual merging of materials as a perceived whole and the relation of the parts to that whole. Finally, it elucidates the socio-cultural relations between objects and environments which are then experienced, used, and changed by human subjects. The dissertation demonstrates the various meanings of the garden and garden practices, based on a vast set of empirical sources selected on principles of geographical and demographical diversity during the selected time period. The result is pre