Kisa Stationsamhälle : från kyrkoby till municipalsamhälle 1895-1905

The current field of research concerning the impact of railroads in Sweden beside from the State main-line network is relatively narrow. Including cultural impact to the area narrows the results even further. The purpose of this study is to open the field even more into the local societies and to what extent the impact of the introduction of railroad might have had on smaller county villages. Sweden holds a unique position concerning “station towns” or “railways towns” in terms of railway policy and the industrial development in towns that were affected by the railway, as the affected towns continued development were based on a hybrid between direct democracy and adaptations of city-law policies. This study takes place in Kisa, a small town in southern Östergötland that during the beginning of the 20th century turned into a municipal community due to the building of Östra centralbanan (roughly translated Eastern central-line). The aim has been to apply and compare earlier results concerning station towns in general research with local research on the town of Kisa.The tools for investigating the impact of the railroad in Kisa include demographical, industrial and criminal development of the town. Local letters sent to the district moot, in Swedish termed as kommunalstämma, as well as an insight to the local newspaper are also presented in this study. The conclusions of this study approves in many forms to the results of earlier research, but also opens questions for further research regarding the interacting relationship between sociology, voluntary sector and cultural differences in the early industrial station towns