| 1. |
- Alatalo, Juha M., et al.
(författare)
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The Swedish system : The image cracking when taking a closer look
- 2014
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Ingår i: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 53, s. 82-83
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden has a high international profile regarding social issues and projects an image as one of the best countries in the world in terms of social indicators. Here we argue for a revised view as the reality is that Swedish system is very segregated, particularly in terms of (1) relative lack of women in positions of high influence, (2) it is the worst country in the EU28 regarding long-term unemployment for people born outside the country, and (3) it has a education system that after a number of reforms is involved in a "race towards the bottom" to profit from students. At the same time Sweden undervalues foreign academic qualifications and getting work largely depends on "who you know", not "what you know".
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| 2. |
- Cederlöf, Gustav
(författare)
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Energy as object and relation: Thermodynamics, space, and emergent energy geographies
- 2024
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Ingår i: Geoforum. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 150
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- A fundamental question in energy geographies is how the materiality of energy should be conceptualised. In the physical sciences, energy is a concept of thermodynamics, but this is a kind of materiality that has received little attention in energy geographies. This article engages with recent social-science energy research on thermodynamics to conceptualise a continuous, relational mode of materiality. This contrasts with the discrete, object-like material properties of resources and socio-technical systems that condition social practice. Energy, I argue, is a spatiotemporal relation that shapes the contexts in which object-like properties come to matter. First, the article introduces space as a keyword in a longstanding debate on the relationship between entropy and the irreversibility of time. When entropy, time, and space are understood as imbricated phenomena, unanswered questions of political economy emerge. Second, I review discussions in the history of the science of thermodynamics. These focus on the extent to which thermodynamics inscribes the spatiotemporal relations it defines with political content. The political implications of thermodynamic knowledge have to be studied through open-ended questions in a wide range of contexts. More research is needed, therefore, to nuance our understanding of energy’s materiality and thermodynamics. This involves the role of labour and the human body in infrastructural systems. It also includes the economic, political, and discursive work performed in sustaining the flow of energy in social practices.
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| 3. |
- Lindberg, Jonas, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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China’s belt and road initiative: The need for livelihood-inclusive stories
- 2021
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Ingår i: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 121, s. 138-141
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most ambitious global investment ventures in modern times, with the stated ambition to generate inclusive development processes through improved connectivity. Recent literature increasingly interprets the BRI as uneven, complex and dynamic, and there is growing focus on its environmental consequences. However, especially given the official narrative of inclusive development, surprisingly little attention has so far been paid to the livelihood politics produced where the BRI is implemented. This short paper critically reviews recent BRI literature on southern and eastern Asia. The main argument is that the current focus on economic and political dimensions of the BRI at national and international scales has left out an understanding of local issues. In conversation with recent calls for more grounded political understandings of the BRI, as well as attentiveness to its environmental consequences, we conclude by outlining some of the benefits of adding detailed livelihood analyses to the existing body of research on the BRI.
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| 4. |
- Westermark, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
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Human service siting conflicts as social movements
- 2018
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Ingår i: Geoforum. - : Elsevier. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 94, s. 107-109
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is deeply ironic that the social movement perspective has so far scarcely been utilised to analyse local protests against establishments of human service enterprises, as the perspective was originally formulated in just such a context. The social movement approach could inject new vitality into a field of research that has become increasingly marginalised and enable human geographers and other social scientists to reconnect to the key issues of socio-spatial exclusion that were raised 30–40 years ago, but now with theoretically informed perspectives. At the same time, social movement research has much to gain from returning to the study of protest movements opposing the establishment of human service enterprises: they are local and thus typical of most social movements, and their success or failure, which lacks the ambiguity so often noted in social movement research, can be studied from a lifecycle perspective.
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