21.
Larsson, Susanna, 1983-
(författare)
We bang our heads, therefore I am : subculture as laboratory of identity – the case of heavy metal
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Subculture is a structure against which identities are both created and guarded. These identities are often socially and practically negotiated against an idea of individual authenticity. The thought of nurturing ones uniqueness while striving to fit in is a common duality and a clear cause of friction within subcultures. The fourty year old heavy metal subculture is no exception. It has proven an arena for boundary drawing, exclusivity and alienation, but also for fierce loyalty and a sense of self-fulfilment.This thesis studies how young adults construct their identities in relation to subcultures in general and in relation to the heavy metal subculture in particular. This is brought to the for in four articles concerned with the construction and reproduction of subjective and intersubjective authenticity, the stigma and self-determination surrounding alienation, the practices of different levels of rituals and the construction of female gender identity in a male-dominated subculture.The thesis finds that heavy metal fans construct their identity in relation to the subculture through a life story. This life story is spun around a number of arguments on self and identity, which all aim to position the individual as a long-term, authentic, knowledgeable, self-determined and practically involved heavy metal fan. Furthermore, identity is constructed through a number of practices of which the narration of the subculture and the use of instruments exemplify both abstract and concrete rituals. Alienation is an important aspect of identity creation, especially where heavy metal fans, following an initial feeling of alienation, position themselves and their culture in what is considered a self-chosen manner against an outside society. Alienation can especially accompany the experiences of the female heavy metal fan, both within and outside the subculture. However, endurance and knowledge helps sustain a sense of a self-made identity, which can earn her respect from other heavy metal fans.
22.
Lindström, Jonas, 1971-
(författare)
Drömmen om den nya staden : Stadsförnyelse i det postsovjetiska Riga
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this thesis is to shed light on Post-Soviet urban renewal and people’s perceptions of changes that recently occurred in both the city of Riga and Latvian society more generally since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. More specifically, this study examines how these perceptions are manifest in Riga’s ongoing renewal. Through applying aspects of continuity and discontinuity, I illustrate how the urban renewal of Post-Soviet Riga uncovers imaginary and emotional aspects of the city and how these are interpreted in relation to the past, present and the future. This study introduces the concept “urban postperestroika” and one important difference between this concept and the more common concepts post-socialist, post-communist or post-Soviet is that the former highlights a process while the latter ones largely highlight the state. The starting point is how urban phantasmagorias – contemporary dreams of the future of the city – elucidate urban renewal processes in general and urban postperestroika in particular. In Riga’s ongoing renewal processes I identify three main trajectories in relation to aspects of the past, present and the future: de-Sovietization, globalization and Lettification. Together, these three trajectories constitute an engine that produces urban phantasmagorias.The dissolution of the Soviet Union has given rise to notions that everything is “back to normal” again, and these notions of normalcy have influenced urban renewal processes. The dilemmas, as shown in this thesis, concern the Soviet period and its remaining psychical structure which give the impression of being too conspicuous to eliminate and too contradictory to assimilate. The study illustrates the difficulties of building new urban and societal structures on the remains of pre-existing orders. Such difficulties of course lead to contradictory and ambiguous world views and to new dysfunctional situations that have to be managed in the future.
23.
Malmqvist, Karl, 1982
(författare)
Offentlighetens gränser: Fem kultursociologiska studier av kontroverser kring litterära självframställningar i Sverige, 1976-2008
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation deals with normative boundaries in the Swedish literary public sphere between 1976 and 2008. One aim of the study is to map changes and continuities in the boundary between public and private as defined, defended, and contested by literary critics, editors, publishers, writers, journalists, and various other participants in public discussions of literature. A further aim is to suggest a sociological explanation of the normative changes that are discerned in the course of analysis. Thus, the dissertation not only focuses on normative boundaries between “civilized” and “uncivilized” literary self-expression, but also on the contextual boundaries of participation in literary debates. On the contextual level, the literary public sphere is conceptualized as an establishment or “good society”, held together and separated from outsiders by common norms of civilized literary expression but subject to varying degrees of pressure from below. Increased contacts between established critics and new media participants – enabled by tendencies of media convergence, a feminization of the journalism and literary criticism professions, and a “demotic” turn in media culture – are hypothesized to contribute to an increased pressure from below, leading in turn to dissociations from the established civility norms and contestations of these norms from the standpoint of a radical ideal of authenticity. Such a normative shift, it is argued, might be conceptualized as informalization. The dissertation’s empirical focus is upon debates over controversial autobiographical literary works in Swedish metropolitan newspapers from 1976 to 2008. Five cases of debates are identified and analyzed in chronological order. The analyses of the debates are built on a qualitative computer aided text analysis of 169 explicitly evaluative articles published in the culture sections of Swedish metropolitan newspapers. Though the results of the study by no means indicate dissolution of the normative boundary between public and private in the literary public sphere, the analyses suggest certain tendencies of change on the normative level. On the one hand, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the normative boundaries of civilized literary self-expression were mainly drawn in aesthetic terms; in order to be seen as civilized, literary autobiographies had to conceal the inappropriate bodily needs, desires, and emotions of the author by means of aesthetic form. In the studied cases from the 1990s and early 2000s, however, these aesthetic demands seemed to face increasing competition from a moral concern with the integrity of others depicted in the autobiographical works, a concern increasingly expressed by literary critics and lawyers calling for stricter moral boundaries in literature. This moralization tendency is interpreted as a move from aesthetic “rules of precedence”, exempting literature from general moral norms, to moral “rules for all”, making no distinction between literary and other kinds of publicness. On the other hand, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, authentic openness about emotional experiences in literary self-expression had been acceptable only if it was held to be of common concern (for instance if it provided opportunities for positive political identification). In the cases from the late 1990s and early 2000s, however, the ideal of authenticity in literary self-expression was radicalized; direct authentic self-expression was seen increasingly as an anti-elitist action, a popular disclosure and confrontation of the duplicity of the cultural establishment dominating the official literary public sphere. This ideal of anti-elitist authenticity was most clearly expressed by actors who were closer to the margins of the literary public sphere, for instance blog writers, editorial writers recruited from the blogosphere, or popular media figures. All this indicates a demotic informalizing pressure from below, enabled by a general tendency towards convergence between literature and other media.
24.
Nedoluzhko, Lesia, 1969-
(författare)
Demographic Journeys along the Silk Road : Marriage, Childbearing, and Migration in Kyrgyzstan
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis contributes to the limited demographic literature on Central Asia – the region through which led the great Silk Road – an ancient route of trade and cultural exchange between East and West. We focus on Kyrgyzstan and countries in its immediate neighborhood: Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We analyze the dynamic interplay between marriage, childbearing, and migration, and examine fertility intentions and intentions to migrate as predictors of demographic outcomes. The thesis consists of four co-authored and one single-authored paper connected through a common theme of ethno-cultural differences in demographic behavior. In the first three studies, we explore the link between migration and family formation. We demonstrate that increased fertility of recent migrants is attributable to marriage-related resettlements. In paper four, we provide an analysis of intentions to move abroad. Our results suggest that ethnicity plays a significant role, independent of other factors, in determining migration plans and preferences, and detect ethnic-specific effects of marriage, childbearing, and social capital on the inclination to migrate. In paper five, we compare the fertility and fertility intentions of ethnic majority and minority groups in three neighboring countries of the region. We explain fertility differentials between ethnic groups in terms of the combined effects of their status in society, country-level differences in institutional settings, and historical and cultural factors.
25.
Selberg, Rebecca, 1982-
(författare)
Femininity at Work : Gender, Labour, and Changing Relations of Power in a Swedish Hospital
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Gender scholarship has identified how paid care work reproduces male dominance and reinforces women’s subordination, but also how labour and workplaces provide a critical space for women through the development of new forms of identity and struggle. In this ethnographic study of Swedish nurses’ work, the concept of normative femininity is used in order to explore gender, labour, and changing relations of power in the context of the neoliberal transformation of the Swedish welfare state.The study shows how nursing has undergone dramatic changes in terms of work intensification and new forms of subordination and class boundaries. At the same time, the nursing profession has embraced nurses’ new role as adjunct managers in running clinics and taking on new responsibilities offered by New Public Management.Gendered subjectivities are at the level of the work place produced and reproduced through notions of femininities that shape and are shaped by the labour process. The study is located within the emerging field of ethnographies of neoliberalism and offers an empirical analysis of change and continuity in the relationship between femininity and care work among nurses employed in a Swedish hospital.
26.
Uhnoo, Daniel
(författare)
Dunkla vanor. Om teori och referenspraktik i samhällsvetenskaplig forskning
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to study how social scientists use theoretical citations in scientific publications in research about organizations and the social services sector. This thesis can be characterized as being theory driven where examples from the research practice within the social sciences are used as departure points for discussion. The empirical material comprises 94 scientific publications about the social services organization published between 2000 and 2007. Based on bibliometric analyses of the 94 publications, a list of the most common international and national citations was compiled. The four most common international citations were chosen as a criterion for selecting a subsample comprising 48 publications. Finally, from the subsample six publications were selected with the purpose of studying the use of citations in practice. To identify the authors’ use of the four most common citations, the six texts were analyzed by means of close readings and qualitative content analyses. The analyses can be summarized as categorizing the placement of the citations, analyses of the authors’ argumentation and rhetoric as well as presence and character of reflections made by the authors. The results show a strong American influence. Out of the eleven most common citations, nine refers to texts written by American authors. This is regarded as an example of a theoretical monoculture. The results from the qualitative analyses of citing behavior identify cognitive as well as symbolic functions. Three are exemplified and discussed: translation, theorizing, and distancing. There are several symbolic functions identified. Citations may be used to legitimize interpretations and arguments or to indicate supporting statements in theory or prior research. They can also be seen as arguments in their own right. Two examples of critical approaches to citations and theoretical perspectives have emerged in this study. One builds on a deductive approach where a citation is made, more or less, as a representative for a hypothesis. When not supported by empirical evidence, it becomes a ground for a problematizing discussion. The other example has a theoretical discursive approach, evident by putting perspectives up against each other. A conclusion drawn from this is that an author who shifts perspectives will discover problems – similarities and differences between perspectives. By cross-tabulating interest with two ways of using citations; active and passive, four ideal types of researcher styles emerge: the problematizing, the explaining, the investigating, and the describing. Three theoretical questions are discussed in the concluding chapter. The first regards the implications of a theoretical monoculture which is labeled aspect blindness. The second question regards examples of factors that may be related to the expansion of a monoculture, labeled origins of aspect blindness. In a third question circumstances that may contribute to maintaining a monoculture, labeled force of habit are considered. Finally an argument is developed that this dissertation not only underlines the importance of epistemic reflection in several ways but also that it illustrates how it actually comes about in research texts.
27.
Westberg, Niklas
(författare)
Meddelanden från enskildheten : En sociologisk studie av ensamhet och avskildhet
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This study explorea and analyse how loneliness and solitude are constructed as problems and how they are explained by ”society” in different forms of texts and by people who themselves define their situations as characterized by loneliness or solitude. The latter forms a special focus and my ambition is to understand how they answer to a social situation that in different ways problematize them as persons and construct their life situation as an anomaly. Even if the situation is characterized by loneliness or a search for social distance the task of explaining the situation is not taking place in a social or cultural vacuum; as the situation is viewed as an anomaly society creates it’s own interpretations and discourses which influences individuals and groups understanding. Therefore two different kinds of empirical material have been used. First, texts from research and science concerning loneliness and solitude as well as representations from other textual genres. Second, texts written by self defined lonely people and persons who expressly seek solitude and these are collected from two ”places” on Internet. From a dating service specialised in lonely people and a community of people who strives towards solitude as a way of life. The main unit of analysis consits of the language in these texts and are interpretated by an textual analysis influenced by discource analysis. A major problem regarding loneliness and solitude is ”the social”. Even if solitude are about social inattention, discourses are often occupied by social life in different manifestations; mostly in form of a social dissatisfaction that motivates freedom from society and community. In loneliness discourses lack of social connection, naturally, represents a central theme. Because solitude is understood as motivated by the individual and loneliness as caused by forces that the individual usually doesn’t control, the individual in discourses of solitude appears as one of pride and agency while the individual in loneliness discourses appears as a shameful victim. Solitude and loneliness are deviances which are managed with help of explanatory ”accounts”: 1) Excuses in form of ”scapegoats” where other peoples deficiencies is singled out as cause or motive to both loneliness and solitude. 2) Excuses with reference to illness and psychological problems, which to a large extent explains loneliness. 3) Justifications of solitude with reference to freedom to self-realization and communion. Based on my analysis a composed situation appears wherein lonely people and people seeking a private space seems to have a lot in common: social dissatisfaction and alienation, designation of scapegoats, a longing for authenticity etc. It is even possible that they, to a degree, share a life-situation characterized by alienation and despair but ”choses” different vocabularies or discourses for rendering the situation as intelligible, which makes a shared situation into different ones.
28.
Wikman, Sofia, 1971-
(författare)
Våld i arbetslivet : Utveckling, uppmärksamhet och åtgärder
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Over the past two decades, violence at work has become the object of an increasing level of attention. The objective of the thesis is to analyse how the development of violence at work as a social problem might be understood. The studies in the thesis examine trends in exposure to violence at work among different occupational groups (I), the attention focused on violence at work in trade journals (II), the measures proposed to combat the problem in trade journal articles (III) and in the occupational injury reports made by the victims themselves (IV).The first study shows that, according to victim surveys, levels of exposure to work-related violence have increased since the beginning of the 1980s. The increases are greatest in relation to the female-dominated occupations found in the care provision sectors. Study II presents a quantitative content analysis of trade journals from the period 1978–2004. The results show that there has been an increase in the amount of attention focused on violence at work. The results indicate that definitions of violence have expanded and that attention has become focused on new groups of victims and perpetrators. Study III examines the ways in which trade journals describe measures to combat violence at work. The results indicate that there has been a shift from viewing violence as a problem that should be resolved at the workplace as a health-and-safety issue, to increasingly viewing it as a problem that should be resolved externally with the help of the justice system. Study IV is based on an analysis of occupational injury reports from staff in the care sector who have been exposed to violence at work. Irrespective of the nature of the risk situation that preceded the violent incident, the staff who have been exposed to violence at work would prefer to see the problem resolved internally at the workplace.
29.
Öun, Ida, 1980-
(författare)
Conflict and concord in work and family : Family policies and individuals' subjective experiences
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Background This thesis explores the relationship between individuals’ subjective experiences and the welfare state setting. The research questions in focus deal with the outcomes of women’s and men’s increasing dual roles in work and family in contemporary welfare states. The studies analyse women’s and men’s subjective experiences of combining work and family, and their perceptions of fairness in the division of household work.Methods The thesis applies a comparative perspective where the unit of analysis is country and/or family policy model. A broad perspective with the aim to capture general patterns across a broad range of welfare states is combined with a narrower case-oriented approach. Multilevel analysis is used to analyse patterns at national as well as individual levels in the same model. Latent Class Analysis is used to capture patterns of latent dimensions with regard to the central concept of subject experiences.Results The results indicate that the introduction of policies aiming to promote dual roles among women and men and the articulation of gender equality can matter for individuals’ subjective experiences of work-family conflict. In dual-earner countries, the probability that a high level of conflict is counterbalanced by feelings of life satisfaction is higher than in other policy models. A class asymmetry is found when it comes to effects of policy on men’s and women’s levels of work-family conflict and work-family satisfaction; women in the working class and the salaried class are more similar when it comes to experiences of work-family conflict and satisfaction in Sweden than in Germany and the UK. The analysis also shows that perceptions of fairness in the division of housework are moderated by the institutional and normative context. The politicisation of gender equality increases the correspondence between actual share of housework performed and the perceptions of fairness in the division of housework. The effect of politicisation is more important for men’s perceptions than for women’s.Conclusion The thesis contributes to a deepened understanding of the relationship between policy and work-family conflict and the integration of the perspectives of role conflict and role expansion; knowledge about the ways in which both class and gender relations are structured concerning the patterns of work-family conflict and satisfaction in different policy contexts; and new knowledge about the relationship between policy and men’s – and not only women’s – perceptions of fairness in the division of household work.
30.
