| 1. |
- Sörnsen, Lars, 1973-
(author)
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De olika världarna av aktivering - ett komparativt perspektiv
- 2009. - 1
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In: Aktivering - arbetsmarknadspolitik och socialt arbete i förändring. - Malmö : Liber. - 9789147090754 ; , s. 225-249
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The book chapter compares activation policies in Sweden, Germany and the UK as three different welfare regimes. The analysis starts out from a broad perspective on activation as passive and active attempts to redesign unemployment policies with a focus on increasing the linkage between work and welfare. It is argued that activation policies differ considerably between countries, but also in regard to different groups of the unemployed according to their status within existing benefit systems. Regime differences are generally maintained, but there are signs of convergence with regard to the weakest labour market groups and welfare clients.
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| 2. |
- Brauer, Rene, et al.
(author)
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How to write a REF impact case study? Critical discourse analysis of evidencing practices
- 2016
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In: “Making an impact: Creative constructive conversations” International Conference, 19-22 July 2016, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper applies critical discourse analysis to scrutinize submissions to the “REF [Research Excellence Framework] 2014 Impact Case Study” platform. More specifically, it focuses on the rhetorical practices used within these submissions to evidence research impact as outlined by the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) within tourism studies. The evidencing practices used within the submissions to Panel 26 (Sport Science, Leisure and Tourism) included quantitative sources and measures (e.g. Google Scholar, citation counts, journal ranking scores, monetary value of research grants, value of policy investment, industry revenue figures, etc.) and implicated ‘high status’-end users (e.g. government bodies, the UN, industry, NGOs) as their main type of evidence. The evidencing of impact did not differ depending on whether the research was of quantitative or qualitative character, neither on the type of research impact claimed. Instead, the disciplining of the epistemic evidencing practices was enforced by the outlined guidelines for submission (verifiable evidence, word count, type of impact). Leaning on Collins and Evans’ (2007) notion of ‘expertise’ used to conceptualize evidencing practices, this paper discusses the implication of such evidencing for an evaluation practice that sets out to assess the quality of research impact. The rhetoric such evidencing evokes, however, is not necessary indicative of the impact claimed. Furthermore, the evidencing practices used within the REF marginalize so-called negative impacts (failures), despite their specific value for research and, consequently, for societal progress at large.
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| 3. |
- Yantseva, Victoria, 1991-, et al.
(author)
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Stance Classification of Social Media Texts for Under-Resourced Scenarios in Social Sciences
- 2022
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In: Data. - : MDPI. - 2306-5729. ; 7:11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this work, we explore the performance of supervised stance classification methods for social media texts in under-resourced languages and using limited amounts of labeled data. In particular, we focus specifically on the possibilities and limitations of the application of classic machine learning versus deep learning in social sciences. To achieve this goal, we use a training dataset of 5.7K messages posted on Flashback Forum, a Swedish discussion platform, further supplemented with the previously published ABSAbank-Imm annotated dataset, and evaluate the performance of various model parameters and configurations to achieve the best training results given the character of the data. Our experiments indicate that classic machine learning models achieve results that are on par or even outperform those of neural networks and, thus, could be given priority when considering machine learning approaches for similar knowledge domains, tasks, and data. At the same time, the modern pre-trained language models provide useful and convenient pipelines for obtaining vectorized data representations that can be combined with classic machine learning algorithms. We discuss the implications of their use in such scenarios and outline the directions for further research.
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| 4. |
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Anatomy of a 21st-century sustainability project: The untold stories
- 2020
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- What does a sustainability project look like in the 21st century? Not the glossy version, but the naked truth? Tired of manicured, over-theorised accounts of the ‘musts’ and ‘shoulds’ of sustainability transitions, we got to the bottom of things; actually, to the very bottom of the project hierarchy: the individual. Our point of departure is that projects are nothing but temporarily interconnected people. This means that if we don’t know what people do and what they think about their work, we will never be able to create a deeper understanding of the project, its rationale and future impact. Making use of the autoethnographic method, this book provides critical insights into what it’s like being part of a 21st-century project. Building on unfiltered first-hand contributions from 73 authors representing the five organs of a project’s anatomy – the brain (theoreticians), the skeleton (leaders), the limbs (strategists), the heart (local stakeholders) and the lungs (researchers) – the book covers all the important aspects of contemporary project-making: (1) projectification as a societal phenomenon; (2) sustainability as the main project buzzword; (3) transdisciplinarity as a hot working method; (4) economy as the invisible project propeller; (5) space as the contextual project qualifier; (6) gender and integration as the obstinate orphans of project-making; (7) trends as the villains of thoughtless project mimicry; (8) politics as the “necessary evil” of projects; and (9) knowledge production as the cornerstone of all project work. The book ends with an extensive critical analysis of what makes a project tick and how to avoid project failure. We infer that talking about project outcomes and impacts is just that… talking. What makes a difference is what can be done to the project in itself. Three important virtues – the ABC of project-making – emanate from this book’s 40 chapters: building good relationships (Affinity), having the guts to make a change (Bravery), and showing willingness to learn (Curiosity). These are the basis for the successful execution of future sustainability projects, where complexity, unpredictability and desperation will become a staple force to recon with. The original contribution of this book is to shed light on the silent triumphs and hidden pathologies of everyday project-making in an effort to elevate individual knowledge to a level of authority for solving the wicked – yet project-infused – problems of our time.
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| 5. |
- Almered Olsson, Gunilla, 1951, et al.
(author)
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Food systems sustainability - For whom and by whom? : An examination of different 'food system change' viewpoints
- 2018
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In: Development Research Conference 2018: “Rethinking development”, 22–23 August 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The United Nations identifies the food crisis as one of the primary overarching challenges facing the international community. Different stakeholders in the food system have widely different perspectives and interests, and challenging structural issues, such as the power differentials among them, remain largely unexamined. These challenges make rational discourse among food system actors from different disciplines, sectors and levels difficult. These challenges can often prevent them from working together effectively to find innovative ways to respond to food security challenges. This means that finding solutions to intractable and stuck issues, such as the food crisis often stall, not at implementation, but at the point of problem identification. Food system sustainability means very different things to different food system actors. These differences in no way undermine or discount the work carried out by these players. However, making these differences explicit is an essential activity that would serve to deepen theoretical and normative project outcomes. Would the impact and reach of different food projects differ if these differences were made explicit? The purpose of this initial part of a wider food system research project is not to search for difference or divergence, with the aim of critique, but rather to argue that by making these differences explicit, the overall food system project engagement will be made more robust, more inclusive and more encompassing. This paper starts with some discussion on the different food system perspectives, across scales, regions and sectors but focuses primarily on the design of processes used to understand these divergent and at times contradictory views of what a sustainable food system may be. This paper draws on ongoing work within the Mistra Urban Futures project, using the food system projects in cities as diverse as Cape Town, Manchester, Gothenburg and Kisumu as sites for this enquiry.
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| 6. |
- Viktorelius, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Energy efficiency at sea : An activity theoretical perspective on operational energy efficiency in maritime transport
- 2019
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In: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 52, s. 1-9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The mitigation of emission from shipping will require improvements in energy efficiency. In order to achieve this, sociotechnical changes are required, affecting all stakeholders within the shipping sector. Ship crews and their everyday work practices will play an especially important role in the transformation of the sector. It is therefore crucial to understand how new energy efficient technologies and practices are being introduced and enacted onboard ships. The case study reported in this paper investigates an attempt to improve the operational energy efficiency in a shipping company that was made by installing an energy monitoring system and introducing an energy saving policy onboard the ships in the fleet. The analytical framework in this paper is inspired by cultural-historical activity theory which is suggested as a novel and useful practice-based approach in energy studies. It is used in analyzing the contradictions and tensions in the work practices onboard the ships that preceded and followed the implementation of the energy monitoring system and energy saving policy. The empirical results revealed how the initial demand for operational energy efficiency and the subsequent introduction of the new monitoring system and policy gave rise to tensions in the existing activity systems onboard which crew members then tried, but did not always manage, to reconcile. It is concluded that a better understanding of the sociotechnical change processes, associated with organizational energy conservation and energy management, can be achieved if the situated paradoxes of practitioners’ everyday practices are examined.
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| 7. |
- Brauer, Rene, et al.
(author)
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Using topic modelling to analyse EU’s Rural Development policy
- 2013
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In: Symposium on Systematizing and Digitalizing Nordic Policy Studies: “Emergent perspectives within Swedish and Finnish research”, Aalto University, 27 November 2013, Helsinki, Finland.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Any social research at some point always touches upon issues dealing with the situatedness of the researcher. Policy analysis is no exception, and there have been many quantitative attempts to mitigate problems that arise from human biases. The general concern is that, for the most part, these methodological approaches remain fairly basic (e.g. word frequencies) in comparison to the semantic nuances a human reader would normally experience. In that light, the here presented approach explores the possibility of using topic modelling as a way to quantitatively assess policy without forgoing those finer nuances of human analysis. In this presentation, the material subject to topic modelling is EU’s Rural Development policy for 2007–2013 (RDP). It proclaims itself as the first European rural policy to in its conceptual framework cover aspects labelled as quality of life (QOL). In this paper, we treat this particular statement as a hypothesis, to which topic modelling is used to investigate if this really is the case. For any concept (not just QOL) to be incorporated into a policy and to retain its influence, it must be both mentioned and linked to other parts of that same policy, elsewise it could strike as merely a rhetorical strategy. Thereby, the hypothesis is that the more themes (topics) relate to a particular concept the more relative importance the policy allocates to that particular concept. In order to gauge this relative importance of QOL within RDP, we created a categorisation based upon: (1) the RDP’s own conceptual understanding of QOL, and (2) definitions provided by contemporary cutting-edge research dedicated to QOL. The analysis shows that only about 4 % of the topics found within the RDP relate to the issues of QOL. These particular topics only mention aspects of QOL without any explicit signs of implementation. This marginal position of QOL within RDP has been corroborated by other audits of the RDP using traditional qualitative techniques. Therefore, with further methodological development, this experimental application of topic modelling in policy analysis might represent one potential alternative to traditional qualitative methods.
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| 8. |
- Dymitrow, Mirek, et al.
(author)
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Nutrition, health and climate : What have we learned so far?
- 2019
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In: Conference on Food Science and Nutrition: “Forum for food science and nutrition for a better tomorrow”, 25–26 February 2019, Rome, Italy.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Food and meals are central elements in our lives: a source of pleasure, a social activity and a bearer of culture. Our eating habits are also very important to health, which implies that the organization and content of meals is a prerequisite for well-being and learning. Schools, in particular, have unique opportunities to promote healthy lifestyles, help develop good eating habits and raise environmental and climate awareness among children and youths by embedding food in a wider context. Unsurprisingly, there is also an increasing interest in school meals and food-related education among researchers, many of whom agree that the quality of school meals can be seen as one of the most accurate indicators of the cities’ sustainability potential. Systematic quality work, however, requires shared targets and ambitions, regular quality checks and discussions on development and improvement. In that vein, the City of Gothenburg has launched the project Urban Rural Gothenburg, which assembles, develops, tests and implements new solutions for the city’s public kitchens. This involves climate-smart and environmentally sound perspectives and programs regarding meal planning, food procurement, food preparation and food-related teaching and learning. One important approach deals with the normalization of increased vegetarian consumption and greater awareness of food’s origins and travel from farm to table. Another approach deals with conscious choices of raw materials that are beneficial for both the environment and health. A third notable approach focuses on new ways of handling food waste to reduce climate impact. In line with the third Sustainable Development Goal, this presentation captures and reaffirms the fundamental assumptions and methods involved in Gothenburg’s work with food sustainability in public kitchens, with an emphasis on health and climate as cross-cutting issues that matter to us all.
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| 9. |
- Basic, Goran, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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War and challenges for contemporary criminology : an ethnography-inspired analysis of the narratives of unaccompanied young refugees with war experiences in institutional care in Sweden
- 2021
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In: <em>(Il)legal organizations and crime. Challenges for contemporary criminology. </em>21st Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology. - Bucharest, Romania : European Society of Criminology and University of Bucharest. ; , s. 203-204, s. 1-2
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study concerns young people who have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and been placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze power relations that contribute to the shaping of young people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatizations and social comparisons with different reference groups. The study’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan who have experienced war followed by placement in institutional care in Sweden. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) power relations and war, (2) power relations and escape from war, and (3) power relations and post war. The narratives on war and flight recounted by unaccompanied refugee minors describe the exercise of power in practice, in which wartime interactions (based on the exercise of power) are compared and related to peaceful interactions (in which there is no exercise of power). In this context, the interactive creation of contrasts and comparisons in relation to other actors reveals various categories of actor: victim, perpetrator, and hero.
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| 10. |
- Strindberg, Joakim
(author)
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”Why Do We Even Bully?” : Exploring the Social Processes of Bullying in Two Swedish Elementary Schools
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to explore and deepen the understanding of pupils’ experiences of bullying and their reflections on why bullying may occur and be maintained in school, despite pupils’ understanding that bullying is wrong. This aim is examined in four articles. The results highlight how pupils emphasise the importance of the social perception of individual pupils. Pupils may thus assume different participant roles in bullying situations to emphasise, maintain, or protect their own social position in the group, but also in an effort to reduce the risk of being bullied. The participating pupils raise the importance of social stigmatisation as a significant social process in bullying and highlight social stigmatisation processes as closely related to social perceptions of “normality” and “difference”. Social stigmatisation is, in turn, related to processes of inclusion and exclusion. The results point to the importance of the institutional constraints of the school setting in the occurrence and maintenance of bullying, not least in how pupils relate these constraints to social status, friendship, and bullying. In conclusion, the results of the dissertation highlight the importance of understanding bullying as a socially intertwined phenomenon and part of a social ecology. Not only do societal norms shape pupils’ perceptions of how pupils “should” be as a girl or boy in school, but the social contexts of schools and classrooms are also significant for what is socially valued or rejected. The results of the dissertation underline that the social ecology of bullying is closely linked to pupils’ experiences of social marginalisation, loneliness, and bullying.
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