| 1. |
- Wejryd, Johan, 1978-
(författare)
-
On Consumed Democracy : The Expansion of Consumer Choice, Its Causal Effects on Political Engagement, and Its Implications for Democracy
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a thesis about expansions of consumer choice, their causal effects on political engagement, and the democratic implications that follow. For material and ideological reasons alike, consumer choices have expanded over the last decades and are likely to become even more present in citizens’ lives in the future. Scholars’ appraisal of this expansion of consumer choice ranges from, on the one hand, seeing it as a threat to active citizenship to, on the other hand, celebrating it as inherently democratic.The thesis accepts the assumed democratic potential of consumer choice as a means for conveying legitimate political preferences and affecting political outcomes. Yet the introduction shows that, from the perspective of normative democratic theory, citizens’ consumer choices are under most circumstances democratically inferior to civic engagement that addresses formal political decision-making. It is thus a pressing question whether there actually are elements in consumer choices that reduce citizens’ inclination to engage in conventional forms of political participation. This empirical question is addressed in the three essays.The essays tap the effects of consumer choices in different contexts, such as parents’ school choices for their children (Essay I), consumer choices that interact with citizens’ political motivations, i.e. “political consumption,” (Essay II), and consumer choices regarding plainly private consumer goods (Essay III). All the three essays account for causality and do so by means of experimental designs. In addition, the essays are similar in that their results point in the same direction: expansions of consumer choice reduce citizens’ willingness to conventional political participation.Given the democratic significance of conventional participation and the pervasiveness of consumer choice, the results are important both from a scholarly perspective and from a broader societal perspective. The results cast new light on a wide range of issues about the extension of consumer choices and their presence in citizens’ lives, including e.g. decisions about user choice in welfare services and advertising regulation. This thesis does by no means end the discussion about such policies, but demonstrates the significance of a certain outlook: issues about the extension of consumer choice are issues about democratic values.
|
|
| 2. |
-
Ovisshetens tid. Den nationella SOM-undersökningen 2022
- 2023
-
Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Vi befinner oss i en ovisshetens tid. Säkerhetsläget i omvärlden har försämrats. Det rasar ett krig i Europas östligaste delar. Oron för nationens säkerhet har fått svenska politiker att bryta en tvåhundraårig tradition av alliansfrihet. Parallellt har energi- och matpriser rusat, boräntor höjts och inflationen stigit till den högsta nivån på trettio år. Det har väckt osäkerhet om den svenska ekonomins styrka och oro för den egna plånboken. Nationellt slogs rekord i dödligt skjutvapenvåld, med allt yngre gärningspersoner. Samhällets insatser tycks ständigt ligga steget efter och det råder oenighet om vilka de rätta insatserna är. I samband med 2022 års valrörelser fick frågan om kärnkraftens bevarande ny energi. Efter valet deklarerade den nytillträdda regeringen en ny riktning för svensk migrationspolitik. Ovisshet föder osäkerhet och oro. Samtidigt kan ovissheten leda till beslutsamhet när gamla sanningar ses i ett nytt ljus. Ovissheten har många nyanser. Ovisshetens tid är SOM-institutets 82:a forskarantologi. Utifrån 2022 års nationella SOM-undersökning – nummer 37 i ordningen – analyserar forskare från olika discipliner vid svenska universitet och högskolor de senaste årens samhällsutveckling. Bokens innehåll berör på många sätt den ovisshet som präglar Sverige inom områden som rör (S)amhället, (O)pinion och (M)edier.
|
|
| 3. |
- Andersson, Ulrika, 1977, et al.
(författare)
-
Ovisshetens tid – inledningskapitel
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Ovisshetens tid. - Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet. - 9789189673540 ; , s. 11-24
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vi befinner oss i ovisshetens tid. Säkerhetsläget i omvärlden är påtagligt försämrat. Det rasar ett krig i Europas östligaste delar. Ingen vet hur länge det kommer att pågå, om fler länder kommer att drabbas eller hur omfattande förlusterna kommer att bli. Kriget pågår här och nu. Men det påverkar generationer framöver. Ovisshet och oro kring vårt eget lands säkerhet har bidragit till ett paradigmskifte där tvåhundra års alliansfrihet brutits i samband med att Sverige ansökte om medlemskap i Nato. När det svenska inträdet kommer att ske är oklart. Det har sagts att ovisshet ofta härstammar från en känsla av förvåning, och förvåning är nog en adekvat beskrivning av reaktionerna på Turkiets, och senare även Ungerns, rävspel kring ratificeringen av Sveriges ansökan. När känslan av förvåning hunnit pågå under en tid övergår den ofta i ovisshet. Och det är ungefär där vi står nu. I detta inledande kapitel riktar vi blicken mot hur den svenska befolkningen upplever utvecklingen i Sverige, både generellt och med avseende på den ekono- miska situationen. Allmänhetens oro för ekonomisk kris, ett nytt världskrig och inskränkningar i yttrandefriheten granskas, likaså i vilken mån och i vilka situationer det möjligen skulle vara befogat att begränsa det fria ordet. I kapitlet analyseras också förtroendet för våra politiska institutioner och för våra politiker; det senare med utgångspunkt i hur uppskattade olika partiledare är.
|
|
| 4. |
- Hansla, André, 1981, et al.
(författare)
-
Explaining voting behavior in the Gothenburg congestion tax referendum
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Transport Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0967-070X .- 1879-310X. ; 53, s. 98-106
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2016 Elsevier LtdThe Gothenburg congestion tax was introduced in 2013 and later subjected to a consultative referendum where the citizens, despite getting first-hand experience with the scheme, rejected it. This article explains voting behavior in the referendum using both self-expressed motives and five nested models to test various explanations suggested in previous research. Drawing on an extensive longitudinal study, we conclude first that although a majority voted against the tax in the referendum, attitudinal preferences have become more positive since its introduction – supporting previous findings and hypothesis of familiarity effects. Second, we present a model for voting behavior that explains significant portions of the variance, concluding that it is not the outcomes of the charges that are important, but rather if the charges are in line with basic values, if the uses of the revenues (in this case, infrastructure investments) are supported, and if the institutions and processes introducing the charges are perceived as legitimate, trustworthy, and responsive. The article ends with general policy recommendations on the basis of these findings.
|
|
| 5. |
- Andersson, Ulrika, 1977, et al.
(författare)
-
Västsvenska SOM-undersökningen 2016 - Uppföljning av Vision Västra götaland : SOM-rapport nr 2017:40
- 2017
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Som en del i utvärderingen av hur väl visioner och målsättningar för Västra Götaland uppnås, har den här rapporten fokuserat på en rad frågor som tillsammans speglar de vanor och attityder som finns hos invånarna i regionen. Med utgångspunkt i 2016 års västsvenska SOM-undersökning har medborgarnas demokratisyn, förtroende för politiker, utvärdering av Västra Götalandsregionens prestationer samt åsikter om infrastruktur och sjukvård kartlagts på detaljerad nivå. Vidare har invånarnas arbetsliv, livsstil och självskattade hälsa analyserats. Resultaten visar på många likheter i regionen men också på stora olikheter, varav många är direkt kopplade till socioekonomiska faktorer, utbildning och ålder. I detta avslutande kapitel sammanfattas och relateras rapportens resultat till Vision Västra Götaland – det goda livet.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Andersson, Klas, 1975, et al.
(författare)
-
Learning for the Future? Effects of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) on Teacher Education Students
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 5:12, s. 5135-5152
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Currently, politicians, university representatives, scholars and leading NGOs share a strong belief in the ability of educational systems to generate positive attitudes to sustainable development (SD) among citizens, with the idea of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as perhaps the most apparent expression of this conviction. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether ESD might have the intended effects on teacher education students. More specifically, we account for the results from a panel study on the effects of a course on SD held in autumn 2010 at the University of Gothenburg (n = 323) on teacher education students. The surveys consisted of questions about the students’ concerns about various issues, including issues related to SD, and their attitudes towards SD and views of moral obligations to contributing to SD. The study included a control group (n = 97) consisting of students from the teacher-training programme at University West, which had not and did not include ESD. We find positive effects of ESD on almost all attitudes and perceptions, including e.g., personal responsibility in relation to SD and willingness to contribute to SD, while there is no noticeable effect in the control group. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of our results for the idea of ESD in teacher training programmes at Swedish higher education institutions.
|
|
| 9. |
- Friberg-Fernros, Henrik, 1972, et al.
(författare)
-
Media and the power of naming: An experimental study of racist, xenophobic and nationalist party labels
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Ethnicities. - : SAGE Publications. - 1468-7968 .- 1741-2706. ; 17:5, s. 727-745
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Racism has been widely discredited in past decades, and opinions that are perceived to be in conflict with the anti-racist norm are considered improper. Therefore, the anti-racist norm arguably represents an obstacle for anti-immigration parties. They must ensure that their criticism is not perceived as racism since that threatens to delegitimize the party and thereby undermine its possibilities for electoral success. The idea of the study is that the existence of the anti-racist norm make descriptions of these parties by the media decisive: the stronger connection to racism, the more severe the parties’ violation of the anti-racist norm is perceived by the public, which make voters less inclined to vote for them. This hypothesis is experimentally tested by labelling a fictive party differently and the result supports the basic idea of the study albeit the ‘racist’ label itself surprisingly does not decrease support more than the label of xenophobia.
|
|
| 10. |
- Jakobsson Bergstad, Cecilia, 1967, et al.
(författare)
-
An experimental study on policy makers’ communication about a congestion charge, individual value preferences, perceptions of arguments and acceptability
- 2012
-
Ingår i: The 5th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology, Groningen, The Netherlands, August 29-31.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An important part of the implementation of controversial policy measures such as congestion charging is the communication between policy makers and the public. This is a web-based experimental study aiming at studying acceptability of a suggested congestion charge and different types of arguments. The arguments were either framed as environmental, stressing gains such as sustainability both locally and globally, or economic arguments stressing gains such as reduced travel times, improved health and the use of revenues for investing in roads etc. The aim was further to investigate the relationships between biospheric and egoistic value preferences and the assessments of the arguments quality. The final sample consisted of 503 participants divided into three experimental conditions (economic arguments, environmental arguments and combined) and one control group. A generally low acceptability of the suggested charge was found, but it was significantly higher in all the experimental conditions. The egoistic arguments yielded the highest mean acceptability, and 28 percent of the respondents supported a charge being implemented in their city compared to 14 percent in the control group. Biospheric values were related to a more positive evaluation of the arguments in the environmental argument condition and more negative when judging the economic arguments.
|
|
