En förbindelse med en större värld: Postorder i Sverige under tidigt 1900-tal

This thesis examines mail order in early 20th-century Sweden from the perspective of media history. Its aim is to study the mediated encounter between the foremost mail-order company in Sweden, Åhlén & Holm, and its audience, in order to answer the question of what this mediated link meant for the living conditions and conceptual worlds of the contemporary audience, as well as for the advancement of a Swedish consumer society. Through a number of case studies, each focusing on a separate form of mediation used by the company, including advertisements, catalogues, agencies, and commercial activities, it is shown how Åhlén & Holm and its audience established contact and created meanings. Each case study calls attention to both how the company shaped its audience’s understandings and usage through their mediations, and how the audience experienced the encounter with the mediations and what consequences it had for their everyday lives. The main source material is company archives and an ethnological questionnaire sent out shortly before the demise of Åhlén & Holm’s mail-order branch. The study concludes that the mediated communication between the mail-order company and its audience, rather than the retailing or consumption, created a sense of community and unity through its depiction of a connected Sweden of commodity flows and a national audience. Furthermore, the active participation of the audience through agencies, competitions or the creative use of the catalogue spurred an understanding of the communication that was also shaped by the audience’s mental world. Thus, the thesis serves to question the notion of mail order as the spread of urban consumption patterns to the countryside, and the depiction of mail order as a one-way diffusion, reducing the significance of the audience. Finally, the study asserts that the mediated encounter between Åhlén & Holm and its audience generated commercial literacy in its audience – an ability to come in contact with, interpret and interact with commercial messages in everyday life.