31.
Trumberg, Anders, 1976-
(författare)
Den delade skolan : segregationsprocesser i det svenska skolsystemet
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
In the beginning of the 1990s the responsibility for the compulsory schools shifted from the government to the local authorities, a freedom of choice was introduced, and several municipalities brought in a school voucher system. With these changes, the educational system in Sweden went from being one of the world’s most government dominated and unified, to one with a high level of freedom of choice. The overall aim for this study is to explore the interplay between the school choice policy in the compulsory school and the process of integration and segregation on a school level. The aim is also specifically to study to what degree the pupils’ choice of school reflect the schools’ composition, with regards to ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds between 1992 and 2004.The thesis is based on three different kinds of materials; registry data from SCB (Statistics Sweden), the municipality’s data surrounding the school applications, and interviews with civil servants, politicians, and head teachers. In conclusion, the study shows that a divide has emerged between different schools, the make-up of pupils is becoming more homogenous, and the school as a meeting place between different ethnic groups is affected in a negative way. The study also shows that the school choices have an influence on this segregation between the schools. However, there are a small number of exceptions. In certain schools, the ethnic mix of pupils is relatively fair.
32.
Uhnoo, Sara, 1976
(författare)
Våldets regler-ungdomars tal om våld och bråk
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Rather than adults’ indignation about today’s youth, the object of investigation in this dissertation is young people’s moral rules. Rules are flexible and formable, often unclear and ambiguous, which means that they need to be interpreted in order to be usable in concrete situations. The thesis analyses young people’s moral work when they talk about violence and fighting between youths. It proceeds by distinguishing which rules they create, recreate and negotiate, which repertoires of interpretation they use, and which societal discourses they refer and relate to. The dissertation’s empirical material consists of fifteen tape-recorded and verbatim-transcribed interviews (individual, in pairs or focus-groups), with 41 young people aged 15–21, about violence and fighting. In order to place the interviewed youths’ locally anchored moral work in a broader context and obtain a basis to contrast it with, the youth’s talk is related to more general adult-dominated and public societal discourses. A limited discourse analysis of documents such as daily newspaper articles has thus been carried out. The analysis of the interviewees’ moral work is summarized in the form of a typology of young people’s fighting and violence. It shows that youths’ talk about what one may or must not do to another young person is complex, ambivalent and equivocal, and that the rules of violence are negotiable and varies with the situation and the relationship (the relative power relationship, degree of social distance and whether it is a positive or negative relationship). It also makes clear that rules are actively referred to, produced, reproduced, and negotiated in the interviews. What is made morally relevant varies between different forms of fighting and violence. In a youth fight, the beginning is important, but also how the opponent reacts and when, whether, and how one may strike the first blow or return a blow. In the moral work on play fights and sibling fights, the relationship and the purpose are given greater weight. In talk about boys’ blows, kicks and sexual offences against girls, great importance is attributed to physical strength, but also to the character of the violence—whether it is constructed as sexual or as solely physical. The interviewees set limits on what is allowed or not allowed for a young person – stranger, peer, sibling and partner – to do. Their moral work shows that social control is exercised even in the absence of adults, and that young people control themselves and each other through a host of subtle, informal social rules for violence and fighting between young people.
33.
Wahlström, Mattias, 1978
(författare)
The Making of Protest and Protest Policing: Negotiation, Knowledge, Space, and Narrative
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The overall aim of this thesis is to advance our knowledge of the preconditions, processes, and consequences of the interaction between police and political protesters in contemporary Western democracies. Using qualitative analysis of interviews with police officers and political activists, activist Internet forum discussions, and documents produced by police and activists, along with direct observation of protest events and police training in policing tactics, the study seeks to capture the interplay between police and protesters as a continuous process, as opposed to a series of isolated incidents. A better understanding of the dynamics of this process is vital for facilitating vibrant, plural public spaces for deliberation and political representation in a democratic society. The four studies comprising this dissertation look at events and processes in Denmark and Sweden in 2001 through 2008 – a time period seeing a reform of policing tactics and an upsurge in protest activism in the two countries. Paper I analyses the communication between the police and activists, including explicit negotiations, both before and during the European Union summits in Gothenburg 2001 and Copenhagen 2002, examining in especial the protesters’ initial attitudes towards and subsequent evaluations of this communication. The analysis reveals that the possibilities for achieving sustainable agreements between the two parties were frequently constrained by a mutual lack of trust that made any commitments by the other party seem less than credible. Activists’ trust in the police was found to be heavily dependent on the recent history of police behaviour and something not easily influenced by the individual efforts of the negotiating officers. In addition, the different protest performances that various activist groups wanted to stage were found to be crucial in explaining their attitudes towards communication with the police. Paper II explores the way in which the Swedish police force works to improve its protest policing practices by trying to reform police knowledge through training and police officers’ individual interviews with activists and other counterparts. The discussion centres on the meanings that police officers confer on two organizing concepts framing the reform work – provocation and dialogue – and on the way in which police officers use “reality maintaining” strategies to comprehend activist perspectives without allowing these to fundamentally challenge their own points of view. It is suggested that the current policing style in Sweden, as used also in Denmark, is best conceptualized as proactive management of protests, which captures both the softer and harder aspects of this approach. Paper III draws upon Henri Lefebvre’s theory of production of space to explore how space is pro-duced through protests and protest policing, using a series of annual racist marches and counterdemonstrations as a case study. Conversely, the paper also considers certain key spatial aspects as explan-ations for how interactions between protesters and police unfolded in the cases concerned. It is argued that territorialization and deterritorialization affecting the boundaries of both physical spaces and the social order constituted the central spatial dimensions of this interaction. The case study, furthermore, illustrates how specific sites for protests can be used as ‘truth-spots‘ for movement claims. Paper IV explores how police provocation and subsequent violence by demonstrators are retroactively constructed in activist milieus in the aftermath of protests. Through an analysis of narratives about protest events as gleaned from interviews and Internet discussion forum discussions, the role of ‘provocation narratives’ in collective evaluation of protest tactics within activist milieus is examined. The analysis reveals how violence is accounted for by using distinct types of plot and particular characters to present the demonstrators as both victims and agents. Accounts of specific episodes of violence during demonstrations were found to theoretically bridge situational and cultural explanations of collective violence.
34.
Öljarstrand, Anneli, 1967-
(författare)
Den mångtydiga församlingen : Organisering, roller och relationer i spänningen mellan sekularisering och desekularisering
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Parishes of the Church of Sweden work under the influence of a religious and cultural tradition as well as a societal, individual and internal secularization (Chaves 1994). The organization therefore has to react to the requirements of change alongside the need to preserve its distinctive character. The aim of this thesis is to analyze experiences of how a secularized context and internal organizational requirements influence the parishes' organization of structure and activities, the role of the actors and the relations between them. The data consists of two empirical studies. The first study (carried out in 2007) is based on semi-structured interviews with 26 diocese employees at twelve of Church of Sweden's diocese secretariats. The second study (carried out in 2009) is based on semi-structured interviews with vicars and focus group-interviews with members of the faith ministry, employees and volunteers in four different parishes, in total 77 informants. Three different analyses of the material have been carried out.The first analysis, guided by new institutional theory, focuses on the parish’s organization in relation to a secularized context. Results show that the majority of the parishes have accepted a “market adapted organization model” in order to compete on the religious market, or perhaps most importantly, to retain their current members. The study concludes that the major challenge for the Church of Sweden’s parishes today is to find a balance between preserving traditions and adapting the organization to the ambient society's requirements of market adaptation and rationalization, which can result in internal secularization. The second analysis is guided by role theory and focuses on the actor´s (vicars, members of the faith ministry, employees and volunteers) different roles in the parishes, in the light of organizational change. Results show how the different roles are affected by the organizational structure as well as by the societal context. The study concludes that a role is not static; instead it is affected by ideas from society, the organization, and other actor’s expectations as well as the actor him/her self. The four investigated roles tend to be more and more complex and, despite role, intra- and inter- role conflicts seems to be common in the parishes.The third and last analysis is guided by network analysis and focuses on the relations between the four actor groups. The results show that the actors sometimes have difficulty in separating between formal and informal relations. The relations seem to overlap each other, be multiplex and have more than one content. This can be related to the parish ambiguity as well as the actor´s many different roles within the organization. The thesis concludes with a theoretical discussion there a modifying of the concept internal secularization is proposed.
35.
Amberntsson, Pelle, 1973-
(författare)
The Past of Present Livelihoods : Historical perspectives on modernisation, rural policy regimes and smallholder poverty - a case from Eastern Zambia
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This study is an enquiry into the processes shaping rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The study is situated in the field of livelihood research and departs in the persistent crisis within African smallholder agriculture and in rural policy debates during the postindependence era. The research takes a critical stance to the way that people-centred and actor-oriented approaches have dominated livelihood research, thereby over-shadowing structural and macro-oriented features.The aim of this study is to, through a historical perspective on rural livelihoods and policy regimes, uncover the political and economic processes, with their discursive foundations, that shape contemporary rural livelihoods in peripheral areas. The analytical framework emphasises four key factors: ideas of development and modernity; the terms of incorporation into the global economy; rural policy regimes; smallholders’ ways of making a living. Inspiration is gained from critical political geography, world-systems analysis and different perspectives on rural livelihoods and development.The empirical study is based on fieldwork in Chipata District in Eastern Zambia, investigations at the National Archives of Zambia, the British National Archives and library research. The findings are presented in three parts. The first part looks into contemporary policies and the situation among smallholders in Chipata District. The second part examines the history of the area up to independence in 1964. The third part examines the post-independence period which links colonial experience to the contemporary situation.The findings suggest that smallholders’ livelihoods are shaped by long-term politicaleconomic- discursive processes, rooted in the terms of the study area’s integration into the world-economy in the colonial period. Colonial policies peripheralised the area through tax, labour, and market policies and the creation of native reserves, all of which have led to contemporary problems of food insecurity, soil depletion and a marginal role in agricultural markets. Since the inception of colonial rule, semi-proletarianisation has been a dominant process in the area. Current diversified livelihoods are more a contemporary expression of this semi-proletarianisation than a consequence of postcolonial policies. The households in the study area show preference for a farming way of life. However, the development goal of modernity has since long led to an ‘othering’ of smallholders, labelling them backwards and resistant to change. In the early twenty-first century this ‘othering’ has been played out through a development programme aimed at changing attitudes and mindsets among the farmers in line with individualistic and entrepreneurial behaviour. The ‘othering’ discourses of contemporary and colonial policymakers display striking similarities in this case.
36.
Andersson Trovalla, Ulrika, 1972-
(författare)
Medicine for Uncertain Futures : A Nigerian City in the Wake of a Crisis
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The Nigerian city of Jos used to be seen as a peaceful place, but in 2001 it was struck by clashes that arose from what was largely understood as issues of ethnic and religious belonging. The event, which would become known as ‘the crisis’, was experienced as a rupture and a loss of what the city had once been, and as the starting point of a spiral of violence that has continued up to today. With the crisis, Jos changed. Former friends became enemies, and places that had been felt to be safe no longer were so. Previous truths were thrown into confusion, and Jos’s inhabitants found themselves more and more having to manoeuvre in an unstable world coloured by fear and anger. Life in Jos became increasingly hard to predict, and people searched for different ways forward, constantly trying out new interpretations of the world. This book, which is inspired by pragmatism, analyses the processes that were shaping the emergent city of Jos and its inhabitants in the aftermath of the crisis. At its core are some of Jos’s practitioners of traditional medicine. As healers, diviners, and providers of spells to protect from enemies or solve conflicts, they had special skills to influence futures that were becoming more and more unpredictable. Still, the medical practitioners were as vulnerable to the changing circumstances as everyone else. Their everyday lives and struggles to find their footing and ways forward under the changing circumstances are used as a point of departure to explore larger wholes: life during times characterised by feelings of uncertainty, fragmentation, fear, and conflict – in Jos as a city and Nigeria as a nation.
37.
Andrée Löfholm, Cecilia
(författare)
Multisystemisk terapi i Sverige : Evidensbaserad metod i nytt sammanhang
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation deals with the transferability of an evidence-based treatment method from one cultural context to another, with Multisystemic Therapy (MST) in Sweden as an example. The primary research question is whether the evidence-based treatment intervention MST can be transferred from the US to Sweden with retained treatment effects. This thesis is organized around four separate but interrelated studies. The first of these studies focused on the annual incidence and childhood prevalence of children and youth receiving child welfare interventions in Sweden. It showed that the annual incidence and childhood prevalence of child welfare services among adolescents were comparably high. The second study, a randomized trial, assessed the effectiveness of MST within the normally operating social service system for 156 youths who met the diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder. Youth were randomly assigned between MST and treatment-as-usual (TAU) groups. Assessments were conducted at intake as well as seven and 24 months after referral. The study presents the outcomes after 24 months. Results from multiagent and multimethod assessment batteries showed a general decrease in psychiatric problems and antisocial behavior among participants across treatments. There were no significant differences between the two groups. Although the results also indicate that it was possible to implement MST in Sweden with the same treatment effects as in the US, several possible explanations to the results were investigated including treatment adherence and socio demographical and systemic differences between the US and Sweden. The third study examined weather MST treatment adherence changed during the first six years among Swedish MST teams, factors that account for identified changes, and how treatment adherence was related to post-treatment outcomes. Fidelity data were obtained from 973 families receiving MST from 68 therapists in ten Swedish teams. Results suggested that more than a year of activity was needed to significantly increase therapist treatment adherence. The collective experience of MST within the MST teams seemed to be the variable of primary importance to treatment adherence. The results presented a modest correlation between high treatment adherence and preferable post-treatment outcomes. The fourth and final study was a review that addresses the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies which utilize TAU as a comparator. A meta-analysis suggested a striking heterogeneity in achieved results between the studies included, and the hypothesis that context may affect the outcome was not contradicted. Results highlighted the importance of paying attention to the conditions under which the method has been proven effective.
38.
Berg, Pernille
(författare)
The Reluctant Change Agent : Change, Chance and Choice among Teachers, Educational Change in the City
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation critically analyses the discourse on educational change. By placing educational change in the context of globalisation and innovation the author argues that the current discourse on educational change is un-nuanced and omits the important perspectives on change. The author has analysed an educational district in Sweden and one of its projects on competence development, named 'Striving for Action Teachers' in the dissertation. The project has involved 75 teachers and both pre-school, primary, secondary and special ed. schools. By interviewing some of the participating teachers and analysing their reflections on the competence development programme the author is able to develop four different types of categories of teachers and their perception on change and teaching. The four categories consist of the change agent, the reformer, the passionate pioneer and the dedicated teachers. These four different types of teachers are placed in the spectrum of top-down initiatives and focus areas encompassing teaching to the school as an educational organisation. By providing this research the author is thus able to elaborate on the research regarding educational change. By analysing the proposed four categories the author critically assesses the way in which top-down change initiatives may fallaciously assume that change can be brought about. The author presents different explanations to why change initiatives may be rejected and argues that when change is represented in a physical manifestation in one teacher supposed to be the vector of change, the teachers expected to assume this role of change end up rejecting this responsibility. In critically discussing the research on educational change and innovation the author situates the discourse on educational change in the growing research and discourse on innovation, especially public and social innovation. The author addresses similar concern when it pertains to innovation as previously purported in relation to educational change. The discussion illustrates the problematic tendency that the ambiguity inhibiting these debates leads to obfuscation. This obfuscation manifests itself in the way in which educational organisations address and respond to these demands. With the four categories of teachers the author argues for a further debate and nuanced perspective on innovation and educational change in order to continuously ascertain and critically assess the why’s, the who’s and the how’s behind each innovation and change. The dissertation is based in a cross-disciplinary field of theories: innovation, globalisation, sociology of education and organisational theories. Methodologically the dissertation is based within qualitative methods: observations, interviews and written materials.
39.
Bolin, Anette
(författare)
Shifting Subordination : Co-located interprofessional collaboration betweenteachers and social workers
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the practice processes involved in colocated interprofessional collaboration. The study took place in a resource school where social workers and teachers collaborate on an everyday basis around children who are both in receiptof special educational support and interventions from social services. The research questioncentres on the division of labour and the explicit notions and implicit assumptions thatunderpin it. Further, the organisational conditions that influence the division of labour, theprocess involved in the selection of pupils, and the processes of maintenance anddevelopment of professional identities in a close collaborative context are all examined.The study is a qualitative case study of interprofessional collaboration. Through interviews with the teachers and social workers, and via participatory observation of their professionalpractice, empirical data has been generated. This has been used to examine processes ofcollaborative collaboration in accordance with a thematic analytical scheme. A theoretical framework based on theories of the sociology of professions (Abbot, 1988; Evetts, 2006b) and drawing also on the work of Hasenfeld (2010a) on human serviceorganisations and Lipsky (1980) on street level bureaucrats, in conjunction with Strauss’ (1978) theory of negotiations, has been used in analysing the empirical data.The results indicate that the intake process functions primarily to legitimise collaborationfrom an organisational and professional perspective. Further, the teachers and social workerscreate what are termed common and separate grounds for practice. The concept of common grounds describes the processes in which common collaborative relationships are created, such as, forexample, the construction of interchangeability and a common practice ideology. Separate grounds, on the other hand, involves situations in which social workers and teachers are engaged in defining and specifying their profession-specific roles in the context of their everyday work. Another means of maintaining and reinforcing a profession-specific professional identity in co-located collaborative contexts is the use of the spatial design. The results also point to three particular characteristics in the construction of co-located interprofessional collaboration. First, professionals are engaged in what can be termed a form of shifting subordination as a means of both legitimising and developing their professional identities. Shifting subordination is a strategy used to reduce and avoid professional conflict around roles and working tasks. Secondly, they are engaged in constructing a shared professional identity as a means to meet the organization’s imperative of ‘getting the job done’. Thirdly, there is the characteristic of interdependence which shapes the negotiation processes involved in the division of labour.
40.
Egard, Hanna
(författare)
Personlig assistans i praktiken : Beredskap initiativ och vänskaplighet
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Personal assistance is a user-directed service that was founded by a section of the disability movement, namely the American Independent Living movement, in the late 1960s. Today, the concept and ideology of personal assistance services (PAS) has spread worldwide, and constitutes a part of the support system for people with disabilities in many countries. The service differs from several other publicly financed services since users of personal assistance are given the opportunity to employ and supervise the staff providing the service. Organizing services in this way is presumed to enhance self-sufficiency of persons with disabilities and improve their chances of so-called independent living. This dissertation deals with personal assistance services (PAS) in the Swedish context. The aim is to illuminate and understand how personal assistance is carried out socially. To explore this, an ethnographic field study was conducted. The field study focused on face-to-face interaction of adult users with physical impairments and their personal assistants. Analysis and interpretation of the empirical material was primarily guided by Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective and concepts. Results show that the users and their personal assistants balance and shift between different modes of interacting with and approaching each other; by doing so they create and withhold definitions of the situations that are crucial for carrying out personal assistance services. “Preparedness” refers to their passivity, but also readiness, in situations when the users and personal assistants are idle. “Initiative” refers to their negotiations, but also agreements, concerning how the practical help of the personal assistance should be carried out. “Friendliness” refers to their small talk but also to the informal way of approaching each other.
