1.
Andersson, Ewa, 1980-
(author)
Oberoendets praktik
2013
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The Independent PracticeDuring the last hundred years, the music industry has evolved with the record labels playing a central role. However, many argue that this situation is about to change as record sales have decreased during the last ten years. This imminent change in the music industry will not only affect the multinational record labels, but also the independent record labels. As record sales have decreased during the last ten years, the number of members in the Swedish Independent Music Producers Association (SOM) has increased and the association now includes 300 independent record labels which are responsible for around 30 percent of the music being produced in Sweden. However, they can be considered a dominated group within the music industry, since they only have around 10 percent of the total market shares when it comes to selling figures. Considering the changes in record sales, the domination of the major record labels and the somewhat fascinating growth of independent actors during turbulent times, this thesis will study how the Swedish independent actors relate to the practices and ideals relevant in the daily work of running an independent record label. The practices studied in this thesis are the practice of work, the practice of recognition and the practice of content production.The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how independence is constructed among the members of SOM. The thesis is based on material collected in a web survey as well as seven interviews with representatives of indie labels. The web survey was distributed to all members of SOM, and the interviewed informants were selected by snowball sampling, using a locator to find informants. The survey material was analysed with cluster and variance analysis, while the interview material was analysed using content analysis – searching for themes connected to the practices. All material is understood through the theoretical frame of the field theory.The main results of the study are that there are different ways of relating to practices among the Swedish independent actors, and that these ways of relating are closely connected to their position within the field. There are common ways of relating to practices such as always promoting DIY, the importance of music and the need to resist the dominance of the major labels. However, the independent actors are not consistent in how these commonalities work in practice. For example, DIY is not applied if it is not economically necessary, and the need to resist the major labels is only apparent when the independent actor has a weaker position within the field. The more established an independent actor is within the field, the lesser resistant he is against the dominating structures of the music industry. As a result of a weakening resistance against the major labels, the independent actors turn to struggle each other.
2.
Ekholm, Sara
(author)
Föräldraskap och klimatoro – betydelsen av omsorg
2023
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The aim of the thesis is to study the relationships between parenthood, care and worry about the consequences of climate change and how these relate to climate behaviour. The thesis is based on the argument that care affect the degree of worry for the person to whom the care is directed and that the social context surrounding the individual has an influence on their experiences and worries about risks, in this case climate risks. In relation to climate change worry, it addresses differences in care practice between parents and people who are not parents, and between mothers and fathers. Time and practice with caring responsibilities may differ between these groups and may therefore also relate to levels of worry. Care practice can thus be one of several aspects that can be significant for climate change worry. Four studies have jointly addressed the overall purpose of the thesis and a ‘mixed methods’ approach has been used where quantitative and qualitative methods have been combined. The studies have thus complemented each other through four different sets of empirical material: three sets of quantitative survey data with random samples and one set of qualitative interview data. The empirical context of the survey studies includes a regional and a national survey in Sweden and a European survey. The qualitative material is based on interviews with respondents from several regions in Sweden that are vulnerable to climate change. The results of the thesis as a whole show a recurring pattern, in a Swedish context, regarding the relationship between parenthood and worry about the consequences of climate change. They show that parents in general are more worried about climate change than people who are not parents (Articles 1, 2 and 3). So, this pattern is reflected in the three independent surveys mentioned above, conducted at different times over a six-year period. The results also show that women are generally more worried than men are about the consequences of climate change. Fathers, on the other hand, are significantly more likely to experience climate change worry than men who are not fathers, a difference that is not evident between mothers and women who are not mothers (Articles 2 and 3). One of the studies (Article 3) examine whether the role of parenthood, as well as the role of mothers and fathers, differs between three care regimes (Orloff, 2002), in relation to climate change worry. Regimes here refer to normative and regulatory systems that are not reduced to individual institutions in society (Hood, Rothstein & Baldwin, 2001). It is only in the care regime prevailing in Sweden that parenthood reveals a significantly greater degree of climate change worry, both between parents and people who are not parents and between fathers and men who are not fathers. One possible explanation for this may be the nature of care regimes and how they relate to the individual, including the regulation of care time structures for both men and women through parental insurance. The fact that climate change worry increases for men who become fathers may be about the development of “caring masculinities” (Elliot, 2016) that relate to men’s emotional experiences such as worry, here through their spending time with their children. This seems to be particularly evident for men who become fathers in contexts where men are given more time for care practice, as shown in the Swedish context. Parents’ worry about the impact of climate change thus appears to be linked to care practice. A term for this kind of worry is referred to in the thesis as care-worry (Article 4) and includes a worry rooted in caring for and having a responsible attitude towards other people, both towards the specific child being cared for, and a concern for people in general and for future generations. This is supported by van Manen’s (2002) argument that worry is part of caring. People’s care-worry is also shaped by the specific context of discourses about caring, worry and risk (see Lupton, 2013; see also Giritli Nygren, Olofsson & Öhman, 2020). Based on parents’ experiences of climate change, the concept of care-worry has been empirically explored (Article 4) and reveals four ideal types that can illustrate parental care-worry in different ways. These are the worrying type, the trusting type, the calculating type and the security-seeking type. Differences between the ideal types are evident in the degree of worry, sense of uncertainty about the future and desire for control or security, with the common link of taking responsibility for the climate situation. Parents’ different types of climate behaviour can also be related to their type of care-worry. The worrying type talks about the climate situation with others, while the trusting type cares about sustainable consumption and is confident that global climate action will solve the climate situation. The calculating type focuses primarily on a climate-mitigating approach, such as reduced energy consumption, and the security-seeking type on a lifestyle adapted to the climate by means of such things as sustainable housing. Parents’ care-worry thus seems to relate to practical action with climate behaviour that takes personal responsibility for limiting the impact of climate change on future generations. The overall conclusions and contributions of the thesis are thus essentially that parenthood is significant for worry about climate change in the Swedish care regime, i.e. that parents have greater climate change worry than those who are not parents. It is also the case that in Sweden fathers’ climate change worry is greater than that of men who are not fathers, a difference that does not appear in women who become mothers. Caring for children can thus increase worry about the consequences of climate change, i.e. parents experience care-worry in relation to future climate risks that their children and other people may face. A further conclusion is that care-worry can also be a motivating aspect to act on climate change by limiting one’s climate impact for the sake of future generations.
3.
Linnell, Mikael, 1976-
(author)
Scenarios we live by : Theorizing anticipatory practices for societal security
2020
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis explores and theorizes practices for generating knowledge and experience of possible futures in the present. Often, our unreflected everyday actions are clearly focused on the future. We plan future events into calendars, buy insurances, follow weather forecasts, and practice for performances of various kinds, all to reduce the uncertainties that the future brings. Various societal areas have developed specialized and systematic ways of generating knowledge in order for people to prepare for possible future events. A particular and extensive area is that involving societal security and preparedness for extraordinary events. The thesis explores various aspects of futures-making practices in the overall field of societal security, with a special focus on recent measures to strengthen the public's emergency preparedness. The overall aim is to deepen knowledge about the contemporary use of futures-making practices (such as imagination and enactment) and related techniques (such as scenario writing and simulations). Societal security and emergency preparedness have recently come to be recognized nationally and globally in ways that we have not experienced since the Cold War era. The empirical backdrop of the thesis tells about some major events that occurred during the first five years of the new millennium. During this period, a number of terrorist attacks and natural disasters occurred which greatly affected futures-making practices in areas related to societal security and preparedness. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, many actors in the security business began to implement new, or revived, ways of relating to the future. From previously focusing mainly on plausible events, interest now turned to possible and unexpected events. Following the criticized management of hurricane Katrina in 2005, a visionary work was initiated with the aim of creating an inclusive and all-encompassing culture of preparedness, a culture that would involve all sectors and actors of society, including the public. The examples may by from a unilateral American context, however the events can also be perceived as part of a global trend with local variations. A trend that includes new ideas about public participation in societal preparedness, as well as new ways in which we create preliminary representations of possible futures in order to prepare for them. In order to clarify different ways in which we relate to the future, I apply cultural geographer Ben Anderson’s (2010) classification of anticipatory practices. Anderson highlights three principal practices: imagination, calculation, and performance. The thesis explores how futures are imagined and enacted through the techniques of scenario writing and simulation, in four separate studies (articles I-IV). Studies I and II examine how imaginations of future emergencies are articulated in interviews with local safety coordinators and volunteers in Sweden, as well as in institutional exercise scenarios in the US. The first study shows how collaboration between the public and professionals is perceived as an ideal for managing societal stress and, furthermore, how various forms for organizing the voluntary public may facilitate for or interfere with fruitful collaboration. The second study investigates how governmental authorities has popularized emergency preparedness through a campaign aiming to prepare people for a possible zombie invasion. The study shows how the campaign makes use of a dynamic interplay between reality and fiction, realism and irrealism, and affirmation and distancing. Studies III and IV examine the meanings of spatiality, materiality, and affect in large-scale disaster simulations for the public. The studies are based on documents and observations collected and conducted in Japan and Turkey in 2014 and 2015. With the third study, I wish to contribute to existing debates on experience design and affective atmospheres in disaster simulation, while in the fourth study I explore enactment-based exercises and experience design through a lens of Foucauldian governmentality and spatial rationality. The four articles are given a common theoretical framework consisting of sociological perspectives on time and temporality, which highlight how the conditions for futures-making practices has evolved through changes in people’s relation to the future. The overall results in the thesis indicate that possibilities for the public to participate in enactment-based exercises are currently limited. However, when made publicly available, exercises are most often designed as entertaining, sensory, and affective learning experiences. Present imaginaries and enactments of negative futures are thus enmeshed with considerations regarding what is possible and probable, real and unreal, near and distant. Furthermore, facilities for public exercises are part of a complex apparatus involving political, economic, and educational perspectives, as well as aspects of entertainment, urban planning, educational technology, and public space.
4.
Sparf, Jörgen, 1970-
(author)
Tillit i samhällsskyddets organisation : Om det sociala gränssnittet i risk- och krishantering mellan kommunen och funktionshindrade
2014
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Systemet för samhällsskydd och beredskap i Sverige har sedan 1990-talet genomgått en rad förändringar gällande juridik, organisering och ansvar. Framför allt har kommunernas ansvar inom området ökat och systemet har kommit att bli mer beroende av aktörer i lokalsamhället. Dessutom har den enskilde individen fått ett ökat ansvar och är idag en självklar aktör i systemet. De i området styrande principerna om ansvar, likhet och närhet föreskriver att störningar i kommunal verksamhet ska hanteras av de roller som bedriver verksamheten i normala fall. Det innebär att störningar eller kriser i en verksamhet som exempelvis den kommunala omsorgen ska hanteras och lösas av den ordinarie personalen. Systemets ordning i kombination med principerna gör därför att frågor om säkerhet och trygghet för den enskilda omsorgstagaren hamnar i gränssnittet mellan individen och organisationen. Avhandlingens syfte är att fördjupa kunskapen om relationen mellan funktionshindrade personer och kommunens organisation för samhällsskydd och beredskap gällande trygghet och säkerhet. Fyra separata empiriska delstudier från Sverige inkluderas. Den första undersöker kvantitativt vilka riskuppfattningar personer med funktionshinder har och om kan de förklaras av funktionshindret. Övriga tre delstudier är kvalitativa och studerar i tur och ordning: hur risk- och sårbarhetsfrågor manifesteras, erfars och hanteras av funktionshindrade; hur kommuner organiserar för samhällsskydd och beredskap på lokal nivå och vilken roll kommunen har på det lokala verksamhetsfältet för detta; hur en faktisk krisartad situation hanterades på olika nivåer av den kommunala vård- och omsorgen. De två studierna om funktionshindrade visade att tillit är central för hur riskuppfattningen formas och att den vardagsnära säkerheten är viktig. Personerna utvecklar strategier för att hantera sårbarhet genom att undvika vissa situationer, att visa eller dölja sina behov och att lära sig stå ut med att saker och ting tar lång tid. Detta formar ett interpretationsramverk för trygghet och säkerhet där kroppen speglas som objekt och social representation. Därmed kan kroppen likställas med andra sociala representationer och försvaras, riskförebyggas och skademinimeras. Den första kommunstudien visar att den lokala organiseringen av samhällsskydd och beredskap sker på liknande sätt över landet. Däremot har den kommunala funktionen för skydd och säkerhet att hantera olika organisatoriska relationer med distinkt skilda karaktärer. Relationen till den kommunala organisationen i stort är labyrintartad till följd av rationalitetsproblem inom ändamålsenlighet, mål, ansvarsförläggande och uppföljning är oklara eller helt enkelt saknas; relationen till de kommunala förvaltningarna präglas hierarkiproblem genom brist på auktoritet, legitimitet och exekutiv makt; relationen till externa aktörer uppvisar problem med identitet till följd av brist på resurser och tydlig organisation. Den andra kommunstudien visar att den tid-rumsliga inramningen av en störning i det kommunala dricksvattnet skilde sig åt mellan olika organisatoriska nivåer och att störningen hanterades genom en aktiv agens där tillit och handlingsutrymme var avgörande. Avhandlingens övergripande analys utifrån tillitsteori landar i att medan det tidigare systemet för samhällsskydd och beredskap präglades av en instrumentell tillit med vertikalt riktad makt och en problemlösningsförväntan, är dagens system mer beroende av en humanitär tillit med horisontell maktfördelning och med förväntan på att hantera sårbarhet. De tre teoretiska sårbarhetsformerna beroende, oförutsägbarhet och oåterkallelighet föreslås på den lokala samhällsnivån kunna reduceras med de tre tillitsmekanismerna autenticitet, legitimitet respektive transparens. Det är en typ av tillit som är bättre anpassad för det gränssnitt mellan den enskilda individen och organisationen där vi hittar mycket av ansvaret för trygghets- och säkerhetsfrågor idag.
5.
Svensson, Sven
(author)
Delad tillit : Studier av personalinhyrning
2015
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Under 1980-talet började det på olika sätt att talas om ett nytt arbetsliv karakteriserat av organisationers ökade behov av flexibilitet. Under 1990-talet kulminerade denna diskurs med teorier om gränslösa anställningar. Dessa beskrivningar och teorier har visat sig vara kraftigt överdrivna. En liten grupp på arbetsmarknaden, personal som hyrs in av ett kundföretag från bemannings- eller konsultföretag, förkroppsligar dock denna idé om gränslösa anställningar. Bakom idén om det gränslösa arbetslivet ligger ett ideal om fria och autonoma arbetstagare som slitit sig fria från vad som beskrivs som den traditionella anställningens bojor och organisationstillhörighetens ok. Samtidigt konstateras att personal som inte tillhör den organisation där de arbetar blir svåra att reglera och kontrollera. Managementforskningen har identifierat problemen och har föreslagit att tillit på olika sätt ska användas som en kontrollmekanism.I föreliggande avhandling konstateras det att organisationers koordineringsproblematik blir till krav som den inhyrda personalen måste hantera. Det konstateras hur inhyrd personal möter krav på personlig kontroll, förmåga till social anpassning i skiftande organisationer och krav på ett personligt ansvar för sin kompetensutveckling. Tidigare forskning har visat hur dessa krav förenas med en arbetssituation som kan göra det svårt att leva upp till dem. Med utgångspunkt i sociologisk tillitsteori kan det antas att en oförmåga att leva upp till sådana krav ger en låg grad av kontroll. Kontroll är i sin tur relaterat till tillit. Den sammantagna bilden tycks alltså ge vid handen att arbetet som inhyrd förutsätter tillit, samtidigt som anställningsformen i viss mån underminerar förutsättningarna för tillit. I avhandlingens empiriska delstudier analyseras den inhyrda personalens möte med de krav som de möter i sitt arbete. Olika aspekter av arbete, relaterat till tillit, analyseras.I den första delstudien analyseras det så kallade psykologiska kontrakt som inhyrd personal har med den kundorganisation där de arbetar. Det konstateras att kontraktet består av två dimensioner med inriktning på kompetensutveckling respektive socialt utbyte med kollegor i kundorganisationerna. Det konstateras även att gemenskapsdimensionen av kontraktet inte revideras i någon större utsträckning med arbetad tid i kundorganisationen men att uppfattade löften om kompetensutveckling i arbetet i någon mån avtar med tid i kundorganisationen.I den andra delstudien prövas ett antagande om att ett arbete som avviker från den traditionella tillsvidareanställningen (standardanställning) kan förväntas vara relaterad till tillit till andra människor i allmänhet (s.k. generalized trust). Resultaten ger stöd för antagandet. Arbetstagare med så kallat non-standard anställningar i allmänhet - och inhyrd personal specifikt - har en lägre sannolikhet att hysa tillit till människor i allmänhet. Resultaten kan delvis förklaras av en försvagad självtillit i gruppen non-standard.I avhandlingens tredje delstudie jämförs inhyrd personal med standardanställd personal avseende tillit till kollegor. Med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning prövas ett teoretiskt antagande om att den inhyrda personalen i mindre utsträckning uppfattar normer i kundorganisationen som kollektivt delade och att de i jämförelse med standardanställda kollegor inte uppfattar sig få lika mycket kompetensutveckling i arbetet. Det kan inte konstateras någon skillnad i upplevd tillgång till kompetensutveckling i arbetet mellan de respektive personalkategorierna inhyrd och direktanställd standardpersonal. Tvärt emot formulerade antaganden visar resultaten att den inhyrda personalen i större utsträckning än den direktanställda standardpersonalen uppfattar normer som kollektivt delade i kundorganisationen. För kompetensutveckling kan det inte konstateras någon skillnad. Detta beaktat visar resultaten ändå att den inhyrda personalen har en lägre sannolikhet att hysa stark tillit till sina kollegor.I den fjärde delstudien analyseras betydelsen av att uppfatta sig som frivilligt engagerad i arbetet som inhyrd och betydelsen av att uppleva sig få kompetensutveckling i arbetet (employability development) för tillit till den inhyrande organisationen. Resultaten visar att personal som uppfattar sig som ofrivilligt inhyrd har en lägre tillit till kundorganisationen. En interaktion mellan ofrivillighet och kompetensutveckling visar att kompetensutveckling är positivt relaterad till tillit till kundorganisationen för gruppen ofrivilligt inhyrda. Sambandet mellan kompetensutveckling och tillit till kundorganisationen är inte signifikant för de som uppfattar sig som frivilligt inhyrda.I den sammanfattande kappan lyfts artiklarnas resultat till en diskussion om personalinhyrning som en form av arbetsdelning, och relationen mellan arbetsdelning och tillit. Diskussionen förs med utgångspunkt i Durkheims begreppspar anomisk och tvingad arbetsdelning. Durkheims teori om arbetsdelning på samhällsnivå tas med Williamsons transaktionskostnadsteori ned till organisationsnivå. Med teorin om det psykologiska kontraktet diskuteras betydelsen av att få det som förväntas i transaktioner och betydelsen av att reglera innehållet i transaktioner mellan kontraktsparter. Den sammantagna slutsatsen är att den inhyrda personalens förutsättningar att utveckla tillit står i relation till sådana resurser som ges i arbete i kundorganisationer. Det argumenteras därför slutligt för att personalinhyrning är en form av arbetsdelning som ger upphov till en uppdelning i kategorier av människor som ges olika förutsättningar att utveckla tillit, något som slutligt uttrycks som ett teoretiskt antagande om att personalinhyrning leder till en uppdelning av människor i kategorier med olika nivåer av tillit beroende på deras position i arbetsdelningen.
6.
7.
Hemmingsson, Olov, 1982-
(author)
Dynamics of a Risk Regulation Regime : the Case of Head Injuries in Swedish Ice Hockey
2023
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis explores the risk regulation regime related to head injuries in Swedish ice hockey, primarily by utilizing a corpus linguistic methodology. More specifically, three empirical studies were conducted. The first one aimed to cover the media narrative regarding head trauma and its potential long-term effects on the game of ice hockey, including whether and how this has changed over time. The method used a corpus-assisted discourse study, based on the media coverage of concussions in ice hockey from the Swedish media archive. The second study aimed to map information from the Swedish ice hockey community regarding long-term effects on athletes’ health related to head trauma, including possible changes over time. For this study, activity reports from the Swedish ice hockey association were analyzed using traditional quantitative content analysis. The third empirical study aimed to map the contexts surrounding municipal political records that explicitly mention the game of ice hockey. This was achieved through collocation network analysis, where linguistic networks drawn from municipal political records relevant to sports and leisure activities were analyzed. The thesis aims to make a methodological contribution by applying corpus linguistics to a given risk regulation regime, as well as a theoretical contribution by adding to the studies of these types of regimes.The results from the three empirical studies were analyzed using a theoretical framework, in which risk regulation regimes were the central analytical concept. Additionally, the concept of organizational legitimacy, as used in the general assumptions of neo-institutional theory, was used as a supporting framework. This was due to the nature of the risk, which could be assumed to be not only to lacking regulation, but even encouraged by public entities. The findings included increased coverage of the risk in Swedish media and an increased tendency to promote the positive societal effects of ice hockey among the ice hockey community. Additionally, the political contexts in which the game of ice hockey was mentioned were mostly related to economics. It was also found to be a crucial part of the general context of sports and other leisure activities for which the benefits are emphasized. This was thoroughly analyzed by applying the theoretical framework and focusing on the dynamics of the risk regulation regime. The applied methodology, mainly corpus-based methods, was deemed as working satisfactorily in relation to the specific research problem as well as for studying risk regulation regimes in general.
