| 1. |
- Svensson, Malin, 1976
(författare)
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Hoppet om en framtidsplats. Asylsökande barn i den svenska skolan
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis explores how accompanied refugee and asylum-seeking children experience everyday life in Sweden. During the asylum process, as part of a policy for promoting ‘normal life’, these children have the same right to education as permanently resident children. An ethnographic approach brought out data from combining interviews with participant observation and visual material produced by children. Methodological inspiration was sought in the new sociology of childhood and in its potential to make an eclectic analysis of the empirical data. Study I explores how spatial and temporal dimensions theoretically may guide dialogue with refugee children and interpretation of their visual material. The findings point to how children negotiate opportunities for the future where everyday life takes place, and how conditions for education are perceived in relation to their future prospects. Inquiring into the meaning of school, Study II explores the sense of possibility as perceived by asylum-seeking children, and shows how school is a social place that provides structure, a sense of belonging and a learning environment. Paradoxically, schools’ limited attention to the children’s predicament risked accentuating the ambivalent social position of being an asylum seeker and thus weakening the benefits of their right to education. Study III examines the challenges teachers face, as street-level bureaucrats, in catering to the needs of asylumseeking pupils and demonstrates how conflicting goals of education policy and asylum policy conditioned teachers’ work and risked undermining the compensatory pedagogical task. In sum, through analyses that encompass how an unsecured residence permit does not prevent children aspiring to their futures, as envisioned in the present, creating a home can be understood in terms of hope. While the asylum process conditions ideas of the future, the thesis contributes to an understanding of how it also shapes how children and teachers, as social actors, construct what is considered to be ‘normal life’ during the asylum process.
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| 2. |
- Ekström, Veronica, 1975-
(författare)
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Det besvärliga våldet : Socialtjänstens stöd till kvinnor som utsatts för våld i nära relationer
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I avhandlingen analyseras hur våldsutsatta kvinnors behov tolkas, omförhandlas och anpassas för att kunna hanteras inom socialtjänstens organisation. Avhandlingens övergripande frågeställningar fokuserar på insatser och behov, betydelsen av socialtjänstens organisering och betydelsen av socialarbetarnas handlingsutrymme. Avhandlingen baseras på kvalitativa analyser av statliga propositioner, intervjuer med socialarbetare och med kvinnor som varit utsatta för våld i nära relationer. Det teoretiska ramverket bygger bland annat på Frasers (1989) teoretiska perspektiv som tar sin utgångspunkt i samhällets tolkningar av människors/gruppers behov av stöd, nyinstitutionell teori och teorier om gatubyråkrater. Avhandlingen visar att socialarbetares tolkningar är centrala aspekter av förhandlingen om hur våldsutsatta kvinnors behov och rätt till stöd ska förstås. Ett viktigt resultat i avhandlingen är att stödet till våldsutsatta kvinnor blir så pass olika. Avhandlingen ger inga svar i kvantitativa termer på hur olikheten är fördelad, men den ger exempel på hur olikheten tar sig uttryck. I kommuner där specialiseringen innebär att socialarbetarna på socialkontoret i första hand utreder behov och fattar beslut om insatser, måste det också finnas adekvata insatser att besluta om. Saknas det så erbjuds inte heller något stöd. Stödet till kvinnor som utsatts för våld i nära relationer blir också olika eftersom socialarbetare ställer olika krav eller sätter upp olika trösklar för att kvinnor ska få stöd. Avhandlingen visar att både gemensam kunskap och gemensam syn på sociala problem är centralt för att samarbetet inom den specialiserade socialtjänstens ska fungera och i längden också för vilket stöd människor kommer att erbjudas.
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| 3. |
- Otto, Opira
(författare)
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Trust, identity and beer : institutional arrangements for agricultural labour in Isunga village in Kiryandongo district, midwestern Uganda
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the role and influence of institutions on agricultural labour transactions in Isunga village in Kiryandongo District, Midwestern Uganda. It primarily focuses on how farmers structure, maintain and enforce their labour relationships during crop farming. The study is based on semi-structured interviews of twenty households and unstructured interviews with representatives of farmers associations. These interviews show that other than household labour, the other common labour arrangements in the village include farm work sharing, labour exchanges and casual wage labour. Farm work sharing and labour exchanges involve farmers temporarily pooling their labour into work groups to complete tasks such as planting, weeding or harvesting crops on members' farms in succession. This is done under strict rules and rewarded with 'good' beer and food. Against this background, the study asks what institutions really are, why they matter and what we can learn about them. Literature suggests that institutions influence labour transactions by their effects on transaction costs and the protection of contractual rights. However, literature does not suggest which institutions are best for agricultural labour transactions. Taking institutions to be the 'rules of the game', with farmers as 'players' who strategically use these rules to their advantage, the study focused on the interaction between institutions and farmers. The major findings of the study are: (a) farmers' choices of institutions are influenced by the characteristics of transactions, the costs of using institutions for handling labour dealings, the fairness and predictability of the outcome of contract enforcement mechanisms, and socio-cultural factors such as kin/ethnic status, morality and affection, (b) formal institutions in Isunga are either weak, ineffective or absent. So, farmers rely heavily on institutions embedded in social norms and networks to structure their transactional relationships, to ensure the performance of the respective parties, and to settle disputes if they arise. The study concludes that agricultural labour transactions in Isunga involve judgements of personal characteristics and social roles expressed as reputation and trustworthiness.
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| 4. |
- Stepanova, Olga, 1981
(författare)
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Conflict resolution in coastal management: Interdisciplinary analyses of resource use conflicts from the Swedish coast
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Natural resource use conflicts at urbanized coasts and their analysis and resolution are the main themes of this thesis. Based on the analysis of four conflict cases from the Swedish coast, I explore the ways the local management of coastal resources may be connected with a broader notion of sustainable resource management. Two questions guide this study. The first one is in regard to the theoretical and methodological development of coastal conflict research. It asks whether and how coastal conflicts can be analysed in an interdisciplinary manner. In answer to this research question, I developed an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for the analysis of local coastal conflicts. This framework is an example of the form that methodologies for interdisciplinary knowledge integration can take in a natural resource management study. The framework combined and integrated knowledge from different discourses and disciplines of environmental conflict research with the knowledge from empirical conflict studies and allowed for more integrated and complex conflict analysis. The second question is practice and management oriented and concerns how practical conflict resolution can be improved with sustainable coastal resource management as a goal. The findings highlight the importance combinations of formal and informal resolution strategies have, the key role of practices of knowledge use and the importance of power imbalances among stakeholders for conflict resolution. By setting out to link together the analyses of conflicts and conflict resolution in the practice of resource management and policy with the normative aspects of sustainable resource management, I highlight that interdisciplinary analyses of resource use conflicts and integrated approaches to conflict resolution should be incorporated in sustainable resource management and planning as a necessary part.
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| 5. |
- Al Ghafri, Aziza, 1982-
(författare)
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"I Wanna Be Free" : On the Challenges and Coping Strategies of Women Entrepreneurs in Sweden
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Women's entrepreneurship is often presented as important for creating economic prosperity at the national level and is said to offer freedom, independence, and emancipation for women. The purpose of this study is to explore the conditions of women entrepreneurs who have different backgrounds in Sweden. To achieve this purpose, this study focuses on the challenges women entrepreneurs perceive and the coping strategies they employ to navigate these challenges. The study adopts an intersectional gender perspective, grounded in research on entrepreneurship, gender, and ethnicity. It draws on qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs in Sweden who have different backgrounds. The findings show that the challenges experienced by the women entrepreneurs included lack of support, being belittled, being excluded, having to work harder and be strong and having to adapt. The analysis discusses that these challenges can be understood as a result of gendered perceptions of entrepreneurship and processes of Othering. Ethnicity and race also play a role in shaping these conditions. The interviewed women deal with the conditions through four strategies: the assimilation strategy; the positive strategy, the ambiguity strategy, and the change strategy. The coping strategies are discussed in relation to empowerment and emancipation. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to developing concepts and conceptual relationships to capture how gender, ethnicity, and race impact women's conditions as entrepreneurs.
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| 6. |
- Vesterberg, Viktor
(författare)
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Ethnicizing Employability : Governing the Unemployed in Labour Market Projects in Sweden
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation analyzes labour market projects co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) targeting unemployed migrants and ethnicized groups. The analysis is qualitative, discourse-oriented and based on Foucault’s concept of governmentality. More specifically, it is highlighted how the target groups are ethnicized through discourses of employability and learning. The thesis consists of four articles. In the first three articles, focus is mainly on how the projects present themselves through their project descriptions in the ESF project bank and the fourth article is mainly based on ethnographic material. Overall, this dissertation highlights different aspects of inclusion work directed towards migrants and ethnicized target groups that can be seen as problematic and sometimes contradictory. Tendencies to individualize unemployment and thus positioning the unemployed project participants as responsible for their situation is interrogated in the thesis. Further, it is analyzed how culture and ethnicity is used in ways that are likely to strengthen the target groups ‘Otherness’ in relation to a ‘Swedishness’ that often become synonymous with what is perceived as normal and thus widening the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’ when the stated goal is the opposite. This dissertation can serve as a starting point to reflect on how inclusion efforts and labour market projects seeking to produce social inclusion and employability may be at risk to categorize people in different ways, which can sometimes be problematic in relation to what the efforts seek to achieve.
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| 7. |
- Hasic, Tigran, 1969-
(författare)
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Reconstruction planning in post-conflict zones : Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international community
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The history of mankind has been plagued by an almost continuous chain of various armed conflicts - local, regional, national and global - that have caused horrendous damage to the social and physical fabric of cities. The tragedy of millions deprived by war still continues. This study sets out to understand the nature of reconstruction after war in the light of recent armed conflicts. It attempts to catalogue and discuss the tasks involved in the process of reconstruction planning by establishing a conceptual framework of the main issues in the reconstruction process. The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina is examined in detail and on the whole acts as the leit-motif of the whole dissertation and positions reconstruction in the broader context of sustainable development. The study is organized into two parts that constitute the doctoral aggregate dissertation – a combining of papers with an introductory monograph. In this case the introductory monograph is an extended one and there are six papers that follow. Both sections can be read on their own merits but also constitute one entity.The rebuilding of war-devastated countries and communities can be seen as a series of nonintegrated activities carried out (and often imposed) by international agencies and governments, serving political and other agendas. The result is that calamities of war are often accompanied by the calamities of reconstruction without any regard to sustainable development. The body of knowledge related to post-conflict reconstruction lacks a strong and cohesive theory. In order to better understand the process of reconstruction we present a qualitative inquiry based on the Grounded Theory Method developed originally by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967). This approach utilizes a complex conceptualization with empirical evidence to produce theoretical structure. The results of process have evolved into the development of a conceptual model, called SCOPE (Sustainable Communities in Post-conflict Environments).This study proposes both a structure within which to examine post-conflict reconstruction and provides an implementation method. We propose to use the SCOPE model as a set of strategy, policy and program recommendations to assist the international community and all relevant decision-makers to ensure that the destruction and carnage of war does not have to be followed by a disaster of post-conflict reconstruction. We also offer to provide a new foundation and paradigm on post-conflict reconstruction, which incorporates and integrates a number of approaches into a multidisciplinary and systems thinking manner in order to better understand the complexity and dependencies of issues at hand. We believe that such a systems approach could better be able to incorporate the complexities involved and would offer much better results than the approaches currently in use.The final section of this study returns to the fact that although it is probably impossible to produce universal answers, we desperately need to find commonalities amongst different postconflict reconstruction settings in order to better deal with the reconstruction planning in a more dynamic, proactive, and sustainable manner.
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| 8. |
- Wikström, Hanna, 1970
(författare)
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(O)möjliga positioner. Familjer från Iran & postkoloniala reflektioner.
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis is based on narratives by families originating from Iran, now residing in Sweden, Göteborg. The focus is the accounts of family, gender, relations, belongings (and class).Point of departure is a representation of “immigrant families” as problematic in the media and public debate. The overall aim is to deconstruct this image through the narratives of the families, and to suggest and present other and more complex accounts of families from Iran in Sweden. To reach the objectives of the study postcolonial theory, feminist post structuralism, deconstruction and discourse analysis are used as theoretical and methodological tools. Analytical focus are on doing family, gender, belongings and place. The empirical material consists of 31 interviews with 19 parents and young adults in seven families. The parents all have grown up in Iran before migrating to Sweden. The narratives are looked upon as accounts of discursive experience. The use of discourse in the narratives, in order to do oneself, family, gender, belongings and place, is presented as positions of the subjects. To inhabit a position is to “do identity”. Each family member uses a number of positions depending on theme, and how the narrative is situated. This is related to the theoretical notion of multiple subjects. The findings show that possibilities of differentiated positions and complex expressions, accounted for as an immigrant family, are severely restrained. However the narratives also show a large amount of creative, opposing, and radical expressions. The latter are considered as counter histories and becomes subversive manifestations. The positions occupied by the family members arrived at in accordance with a hegemonic discursive formation containing, on the one hand, “Swedishness”, modernity and democracy, and, on the other, “Iranianess”, tradition and oppression. This suggests that the family members position themselves and their families in relation to a notion of the Swedish, heterosexual, nuclear family as considered normal – and/or a notion of the Iranian, troubled family as subordinated. In a first position the family members do themselves and their families as “Swedish”, modern and democratic, while “Iranianess” is considered undesirable. This suggests being forced to choose either “Swedishness” or “Iranianess”. A second position implies that the family members position themselves and their families as both “Swedish”, democratic and modern and Iranian. The third position suggests rejecting the hegemonic discourse and placing oneself and ones family, as well as generalized notions of family, as neither “Swedish” nor “Iranian” and thus joining the struggle of defining discursive reality. The findings distorts the conception of “immigrant families” as victims of “cultural conflicts”. And thus, refutes the representation of families from Iran as “different” in comparison to “Swedish families” on the basis of national and “cultural” origins. In this discussion the perception of Iran is crucial. That is, if the concept of modernity is restricted to Western societies/practices, the notion of families from Iran in Sweden (or in Iran) will continue to be excluding and exclusive. This in turn implies being able to comprehend Iranian society, and families from Iran, as complex, and as a ground of differentiated expressions.
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| 9. |
- McCrory, Gavin, 1990
(författare)
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The unseen in between: Unpacking, designing, and evaluating sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We live in a time of compounding ecological and social change. Given its uncertain and urgent nature, contemporary forms of governance are experiencing tension between controlling the present and nurturing collective capacities to enact transformative change. Amidst a wave of interest in transitions and transformations in-the-making, labs in real-world contexts have entered the discussion. Labs have emerged as appealing, novel and highly complex entities that situate and localize engagement around complex sustainability challenges. Labs carry a systemic view of change; they comprise alternative and experimental approaches; they carry a normative assumption that research has plural roles; and they hold an explicit learning orientation that infuses knowledge with action. Given the unfolding of labs in the real world, my involvement in their design, and ongoing interests in treating both meanings and processes of sustainability, this thesis is organized around a curiosity. Its overarching aim is to investigate how sustainability-oriented labs could be unpacked, designed and evaluated in the context of sustainability transitions and transformations. Underlaboured by a critical realist philosophy of science, this thesis investigates sustainability-oriented labs by way of a qualitative-dominant, case-based research strategy. It does this across three overlapping research phases, culminating in four appended papers. In research phase one, we adopt a systematic review of sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts, exploring and classifying a global sample of labs according to their engagement with sustainability. In paper I, we identify and unpack 53 sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts. Through a mixed-methods analysis, we explore the distribution and diversity of these labs, discerning the research communities which conceptualize labs and the dimensions of their practice. In Paper III, we present an empirically grounded typology, arriving at six different types of sustainability-oriented labs: 1) Fix and control, 2) (Re-)Design and optimize, 3) Make and relate, 4) Educate and engage, 5) Empower and govern and 6) Explore and shape. In research phase two, paper II presents a qualitative case-based inquiry into Challenge Lab (C-Lab), a challenge-driven learning environment. Paper II conceptualizes challenge framing as embedded within an open-ended learning process, both on a level of practice and space. Experiences related to framing in C-Lab shed light on how students situate themselves and see their role within existing challenges, how they navigate limits to knowledge in complex systems, and how they self-assess their own sense of comfort and progress. In addition, we introduce three dilemmas that are not owned by teachers or students but emerge, as contradiction, within the learning space. In research phase three, paper IV presents a multi-case comparison of evaluation practices in various sustainability transition initiatives. We conceptualize and compare the role of evaluation as a tool that can enhance the transformative capacity of sustainability-oriented labs and its broader family of transition experiments. This thesis and its appended papers provide practical-experiential, empirical-conceptual and methodological contributions on the topic of sustainability-oriented labs in real-world contexts. In addition, it contains a layered account of an undisciplinary doctoral journey. I do this by (1) reflecting upon each research phase, (2) providing transparent accounts of positionality in relation to my research, (3) conceptualizing and reflecting upon undisciplinarity as a process of becoming, and (4) providing a mobile autoethnographic account of staying on the ground as part of a broader commitment to interrogate knowledge practices. Moving forward, I find myself motivated by three convictions: (1) transformations are needed, and labs are invitations in between dualisms, (2) invitations hold the possibility of flipping big assumptions and ethical practices, and (3) transformations presuppose fundamental change from within both research and education knowledge systems. They hinge upon the questioning of what both are, who they are for, and what they might need to become. In conclusion, they compel us to think big, start small, and act now.
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| 10. |
- Elfström Pettersson, Katarina, 1959-
(författare)
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Production and Products of Preschool Documentation : Entanglements of children, things, and templates
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The objective of the present study is to produce knowledge about how children, things, documents, computers, teachers, templates and other entities take part in and produce documentation in preschool systematic quality development work. The thesis asks questions about how and what is produced as quality in preschool documentation. Through a posthumanist agential realist approach, the study engages empirically in video recordings of preschool documentation practices from one Swedish preschool, and in documentation from four other Swedish preschools.The results, presented in four articles, show that documentation practice is complex and entangled with a variety of entities, human and non-human, and spaces and time. The study shows how children’s participation in production of documentation does not depend on which documentation method is used. In the study, objects such as computers, images and coloured labels, together with teachers’ attitudes and agendas, have an impact on the way that children are involved in producing documentation. The results also show that the products of documentation, intra-acting with a local template, with past and present preschool traditions and policies, produce rather than represent certain elements of quality such as teachers’ actions, children’s interests and thematic work. The thesis produces knowledge about how the focus of preschool documentation shifts away from individual children and towards teachers’ activities, and creates possibilities for what preschool practices and quality may become.
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