61.
Schön, Pär, 1971-
(författare)
Gender Matters : Differences and change in disability and health among our oldest women and men
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis investigates gender differences in health and how they have changed between 1992 and 2002 among very old people. It explores gender differences in the association between disability and health, and gender differences in care utilization among our oldest old people. The studies are based on nationally representative data of the population in Sweden aged 77 and older (SWEOLD). Results from Study I showed that women generally had more health problems than men. Analyses of change between 1992 and 2002 showed increased prevalence rates for both sexes, especially women. However, women’s reporting of poor global self-rated health did not increase. There were no gender differences and there was no change over time in activities of daily living (ADL). Several health indicators seem to be developing differently for women and men. Study II showed that associations between ADL disability and other health indicators changed between 1992 and 2002, with several health problems and functional limitations becoming less disabling over time. This trend was especially true for women, while for men, the findings were mixed. Study III found no gender differences in physician visits and dental visits, despite women’s worse health and dental status. Marriage was associated with more physician visits for men and dentist visits for women. Results imply that women and unmarried older adults may have unmet health-care needs. Study IV examined whether the increase in life expectancy at age 65 observed between 1992 and 2002 consisted of years with or without musculoskeletal pain. Results showed that total years without pain decreased for both women and men, but more so for women. Women also had more years with pain added to life. The results of this thesis suggest an increase of health problems, but not disability, in the oldest Swedish population. However, gender variations in the findings highlight the importance of analyzing health trends separately for women and men.
62.
Sjödin, Daniel
(författare)
Tryggare kan ingen vara : Migration, religion och integration i en segregerad omgivning
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Religion has greater importance in many immigrants’ lives after migration than it had before. The thesis examines why this is so. It also analyzes the social consequences of religious commitments and membership. More specifically, the chain of causal links between migration, religion and integration or segregation is explored, through the identification of social mechanisms on the societal, organizational and individual level. The findings of the study are presented as a theoretical model. On the individual level, migration is causing destabilization of habitus, relativization and a fragmentation of social networks. Religion compensates for these effects by being a social arena where new relations can be generated, by offering an objectified worldview, and by providing a link to the life before migration. The religious organizations in the study actively try to recruit migrants, for material and theological reasons. Especially Pentecostal and other protestant churches produce religious capital, that is, credibility for the belief system and sensations of a transcendental reality, by producing an integrated community in segregated surroundings. In turn, this makes them attractive to migrants. The Muslim congregation successfully attracts and integrates migrants from different nations, through a pared-down Islam adapted to Swedish circumstances. Over time, involvement in a religious congregation will generate faith in a belief system. However, this belief system exceeds conceptions of a transcendental reality and God. Above all, religious ideology concerns categorizations of self and other, and about the group, its boundaries and distinction. Every religious organization has a grammar of identity, a specific understanding and evaluation of internal cultural differences as well as differences transcending the boundaries of the religious group. The grammar of identity is consequential for internal integration or segregation. It is also consequential for stimulating an expansion or reduction of differences, as well as for encouraging or impeding durable relations across the boundaries of social categories. A conclusion is that the social effects of religion are depending on categorization processes on the organizational level. However, these processes are in turn situated in a context of structural and cultural factors on the societal level. The grammar of identity stands in a dynamic relationship to general schemata of stigmatization, ethnic segregation, and discrimination of migrants.
63.
Spånberger Weitz, Ylva, 1975-
(författare)
Ungas erfarenheter av skola, samhällsvård och vuxenblivande : En studie av fem livsberättelser
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Avhandlingens syfte är att fördjupa kunskapen om skolsituationen för barn och ungdomar i samhällsvård samt att fördjupa kunskapen om de processer varigenom de unga finner vägar genom skolan och samhällsvården mot ett självständigt liv som unga vuxna. Studien har genomförts i fem svenska storstadskommuner. Materialet består huvudsakligen av upprepade intervjuer med unga som själva har erfarenhet av att vara placerade i samhällsvård. Som en bakgrund genomfördes en kartläggande aktstudie gällande alla de ungdomar från dessa kommuner, som under 2003 hade placerats i samhällsvård. Intervjudeltagarna valdes ut från denna kartläggning. I analysen av intervjuerna användes en narrativ livsberättelseansats. Fokus i analysen har riktats både mot att förstå de ungas erfarenheter av att leva i skola och samhällsvård och mot att förstå hur de unga, genom sina berättelser, tolkar dessa erfarenheter och på så sätt skapar en meningsfull berättelse om sig själva och sina liv. Resultatet visar att livet i samhällsvård för de unga är präglat av utsatthet på flera nivåer. Socialtjänstakterna pekar mot ett samband mellan svårigheter i hemmet och svårigheter i skolan för de ungdomar som placerades i samhällsvård. Livsberättelserna synliggör hur skolan, familjen och samhällsvården utgör en komplex helhet i de ungas vardag och hur utsatthet inom någon av dessa praktiker därmed tenderar att spridas vidare i en process av överförd utsatthet. I sin kamp för att undkomma denna utsatthet navigerar de unga mot arenor där de kan finna hemmatillhörighet, det vill säga en upplevelse av att förstå och ”höra hemma” i en socialt delad vardagsverklighet. Ett viktigt redskap i de ungas strävan efter hemmatillhörighet är deras förståelsearbete, det vill säga det kontinuerliga tolkningsarbete varigenom de – inom ramen för socialt delade hemmatillhörigheter – knyter ihop sina erfarenheter till en sammanhängande förståelse av sig själva och sina liv.
64.
Ullström, Anna, 1978-
(författare)
Styrning bakom kulisserna : Regeringskansliets politiska staber och regeringens styrningskapacitet
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis analyses one of the less explored areas of Swedish politics: the political appointees in the ministerial staffs of the Swedish core executive. The study draws attention to the everyday life of the ministerial staff in order to give an idea of their function: What do the political appointees do? How is the work of the ministerial staffs organized? How is policy coordinated at the political level? The main empirical focus of this thesis is the 2002-2006 term of office. The study contributes to an understanding of the role of political advisers in steering and policy making, and, in the light of this, their potential influence on the policy capacity of the government is considered. Political advisers occupy an ambiguous place within the political system. They play a vital political role, but their presence also challenges the traditional relationship between ministers and public servants. The study shows that political advisers certainly have a leeway to participate in the steering of the ministry's civil servants: they can be said to have a number of steering functions. At the same time, it is made clear that this does not mean that the political advisers are in the position to influence government policy to any great extent. In conclusion, it is suggested that the ministerial staffs do have importance for the government's policy capacity in the sense that they reduce the work load of both the minister and the state secretary and thereby make space for them to govern. The research questions are answered by means of empirical material gathered through a combination of methods, providing data with a range as well as depth and context rarely found in studies of core executives: a survey, participatory observations, focus groups and a series of interviews. The dissertation demonstrates that the ethnographic method is a useful tool for anyone who seeks to highlight and explain the relationships within political organizations.
65.
Wittrock, Hanna
(författare)
Säg inte mötesplats! : Teater och integration i ord och handling
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the notion of multiculturalism in relation to theatre and drama. In Swedish public discourse, culture and the arts are frequently referred to as a social glue which keeps society together. In this context theatre holds a particular position. On the one hand theatre is looked upon as a magic key capable of opening up all sorts of discriminatory structures. Theatre, and actors, stereotypically exhibit essential features for achieving success in late modern society. Examples of such features are charisma, creativity, and flexibility. On the other hand theatre, especially theatre as an established institution, is criticised for being discriminatory and conservative. Theatre thus inhabits a position of ambivalence in relation to society at large. It is encouraged, even obliged, by the state to reach out to new audiences beyond that of Swedish-born, middle-class spectators. This is done in several ways; by creating mixed ensembles, with professionals and amateurs, or by producing scripts based on documentary research and “real” stories, told by “real” people. While the work produced within theatre should reflect society, artistic expressiveness is often surreal and fantastic. In this capacity theatre is ascribed an almost “magical” function in moving publics and dissolving unwanted boundaries. The task is twofold. I start by trying to trace and describe systems of values and presuppositions underpinning multicultural theatre projects in Sweden. I then explore how such projects are launched, carried through and realized on a concrete empirical level. The observation was carried out primarily in 2006, in the setting of two theatre projects. One of them was a role play about refugees, A Journey Unlike any Other. The purpose of the project is to make teenagers understanding and sympathetic to the plights of refugees and immigrants. The other one was a version of the classical drama, Hamlet, transposed into a contemporary urban setting as Mohamlet. The play is an attempt to reach a new audience by placing it in a multicultural milieu; a falafel-restaurant reminiscent of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. These two productions are on opposit ends of the wide spectrum of late modern theatre dealing with multicultural topics. Theatre is thus referred to, in one instance, as key, and in another as a closed door. It is at one and the same time portrayed as a solution and as a problem. My aim is to articulate, to illustrate, and to explain this duality and the processes in which it inheres, both within and beyond the confines of theatre performances and settings.
66.
Zink, Eren, 1974-
(författare)
Flexible Science : An Anthropology of Scientists, Society and Nature in Vietnam
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Eren Zink explores the conditions of doing science in Vietnam. The scientists included in this study were engaged in local and international efforts to conserve nature, establish the fact of climate change, and carry out scientific research in Vietnam. In most instances they had received some of their higher education outside of Vietnam, and later returned to positions within Vietnamese government ministries, universities, research institutes or (to a lesser extent) nongovernmental organizations. Paying close attention to cultural and historical influences, the thesis reveals a politics of science whereby actors deftly navigate intricate webs of social and political networks. Partnerships amongst local and foreign actors become possible as a result of the ‘slippery spaces’ where misunderstandings are carefully cultivated and maintained. And, in combination with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and international development aid, these actor-networks support the arrival of climate change in Vietnam. Nevertheless, Vietnamese scientists are much more than intermediaries between local and foreign interests. Where the Red River meets the sea, scientists compete with national plans for aquaculture expansion in an effort to conserve an idea of nature that has roots in the rural villages of their remembered past. Meanwhile, in their own research institutions there are struggles over both the purpose of doing science, and the authority to practice it. With different degrees of success, the Vietnamese scientists studied here use the resources at hand to realize personal and professional ambitions, as well as to contribute to the (re)production of Vietnamese society. The study is based upon eleven months of anthropological fieldwork that took place in Vietnam during 2007 – 2009. Study sites included Vietnamese research institutions, universities, ministries, embassies, and non-governmental organizations, as well as shrimp ponds and national parks in the coastal zone.
67.
Åkerblom, Annika
(författare)
Children making sense of physical phenomena
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis concerns the activity of expressing understanding with words. The overall aim is to explore, analyse and describe how 64 children aged 6, 10 and 14 expressed their understanding of certain physical phenomena in reflective dialogues. In the dialogues, the children were asked to reflect over expressions which they had used to explain their conception of the problem. Four studies were conducted that concern different aspects of the activity of expressing understanding with words. Different parts of the interplay between language use and knowledge formation were analysed and described. The results indicate that the children used the same expressions with a number of meanings. They dealt with the ambiguity of meaning in different ways, as well as displaying varying degrees of awareness of how they used language to make sense. A variation also appeared in the ways that the children used language to approach content matter. In order to make sense of content matter and reflect over the function of language use, certain conditions appeared to be more critical than others. Drawing on the results of the investigation, implications for pedagogical practice are discussed.
