1.
Bromark, Kristina, 1973-
(author)
The user as a key actor in user participation : Exploring knowledge production in personal social services with a participatory approach
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The concept of user participation in social work is frequently debated. In Sweden, users are supposed to be active and involved in matters concerning them, a stance which is regulated in policy and law. The involvement of users in practice can be considered a form of knowledge production that can strengthen and develop users as well as the organizations. In practice, however, research shows that actual engagement, education or activation of users is difficult to attain and can be understood as a devaluation of user knowledge. The aim of this dissertation is to increase knowledge of how to understand and enhance the conditions for user participation in personal social services. To study this question, the dissertation focuses especially on young people’s participation in the context of out-of-home care. To explore user participation in personal social services, a participatory approach was applied. Data was gathered with young people and staff using participatory techniques as well as qualitative interviews. To explore challenges and possibilities with user participation, a future workshop was held with staff in personal social services (study I). This was followed by a co-design process in which staff, young people, and researchers collaborated on a support tool (study II), later to be implemented in practice (study III). The implementation process was explored by interviewing both staff and managers as well as a user representative (from a youth council). The co-design and implementation processes are problematized and discussed in the dissertation from a researcher’s perspective (study IV). The theoretical framework for understanding how users can be devalued as knowers is epistemic injustice. The assumption is that the role of a knower can shift, depending on social power and the structures in a context. The findings in this dissertation show that user participation is contingent on the distribution of power and responsibility and on perceptions of knowers and knowledge in practice. Although the general attitude towards user participation is positive, a reluctance in practice is revealed. It appears to be a challenge for staff to acknowledge the expertise of users, despite the fact that the users’ have the capacity and are willing to contribute with their knowledge. Work with user participation is identified as a team effort that requires actions at all levels of the organization as well as increased resources, leadership and a coherent understanding and agreement of the concept. A participatory approach to knowledge production with users is identified as a possible way to enhance epistemic justice and the inclusion of all relevant actors in activities and processes. The dimensions important to user participation can be acknowledged. For the dynamics to be maintained in a wider sense, however, an organizational infrastructure, with routines and methods, is necessary. To sustain epistemic justice in the implementation of user participation, a participatory culture with a solid and coherent understanding of user participation in practice is encouraged. A realization of user participation in practice requires a critical exploration of power and positions, systematic changes to infrastructure and transparency about roles and responsibility.
2.
Härd, Sofia, 1992-
(author)
Knowledge in practice : The feasibility of recovery capital in Swedish alcohol and other drug treatment
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The recovery model, endorsed by various governmental bodies, emphasises the integration of a recovery perspective into alcohol and drug policy, with a focus on post-treatment interventions such as housing, employment and education needs. In an effort to enhance the utility of the recovery perspective in treatment, the concept of recovery capital (RC) has been used as a foundation for operationalisations used to measure treatment needs and progress. While other countries have embraced the recovery model and RC in alcohol and other drug (AOD)-related policy and treatment, the treatment setting in Sweden has not undergone a comparable transformation. This dissertation aims to explore the feasibility of implementing RC in Swedish AOD treatment. It examines the transferability and applicability of assessment tools and considers the challenges of translating research into practice. This involves delving into the complexities of knowledge transfers, production and use in order to bridge the gap between research findings and practical implementation. The feasibility study involved qualitative interviews with AOD treatment professionals to gather their perspectives on the applicability of an RC-based assessment tool (Papers II and III). Insights into feasibility were also obtained from a quantitative study assessing treatment progress in individuals residing in a recovery residence in Florida, USA, using an established RC-based assessment tool (Paper I). To further evaluate the target setting for the feasibility study, the use of a locally developed assessment tool was explored through a deviant case analysis (Paper IV). The dissertation’s theoretical framework is built upon conceptualisations of standardisations and professions that emphasise their interconnected nature and thereby underscore the significance of their relationship in the analysis of knowledge production and use, thus situating the study within a broader theoretical discourse on the interplay between standardisation and professionalism.The findings confirm the applicability of the RC concept in Swedish AOD treatment by highlighting its unique benefits in exploring diverse recovery pathways to address individual challenges and strengths. However, it is evident that certain elements of its conceptual framework are already implemented in the treatment facilities visited in the study. Furthermore, whether or not to use standardised assessment tools to implement RC in Swedish AOD treatment remains unclear. The dissertation also emphasises the importance of collaborating with professionals during the development of assessment tools as a way of ensuring that these tools align with the cultures and structures of the social work profession, presenting this collaboration as an approach to bridging the gap between research and practice. It also identifies a significant knowledge gap in locally produced knowledge, urging further research to map its extent and evaluate its impact on current and future knowledge production and use in social work. Lastly, the absence of client participation is acknowledged. The need for future research to explore the client perspective is emphasised, given the potential adverse effects of recovery-oriented interventions on clients.
3.
John, Ben Malinga, 1988-
(author)
Union-Fertility Nexus and Fertility Variation in Sub-Saharan Africa : The Role of Marital Dissolution and Repartnering
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The role of marital dissolution and repartnering in shaping fertility patterns in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been largely overlooked, even though marital dissolution and repartnering are fundamental features of marriage dynamics in this region. This dissertation addresses this gap by using existing statistical and demographic techniques and developing new demographic methods to (i) examine the relationship between union dissolution and fertility at the micro level (Study I); (ii) assess the dynamics of union dissolution, including the levels of all-cause first union dissolution, the timing of first union dissolution, and the reproductive years spent outside of marriage due to union dissolution (Studies II & III); and (iii) analyze the influence of marital dissolution and repartnering on macro fertility patterns in SSA (Study IV). The analyses are mainly based on Demographic Health Survey data collected in 34 SSA countries since 1986. The findings show that marital dissolution is associated with reduced fertility at both the individual and the population level, and remarriage does not fully compensate for lost fertility at the individual level. The assessment of the dynamics of union dissolution indicates that union dissolution is common, it typically occurs at relatively early reproductive ages, and the number of reproductive years lost due to union dissolution is minimal. Furthermore, this dissertation documents that cross-country differences in union dissolution and repartnering rates account for 9.4% of cross-country fertility differences in SSA. In addition, the results show that changes in marital dissolution and repartnering rates and the fertility behaviour of women who experience these events mostly contributed to the slow pace of fertility decline in this region. For the SSA region (as a whole), fertility would have declined 1.24 times faster in the absence of such changes. These findings demonstrate that marital dissolution and repartnering are important drivers of fertility variation in SSA, and thus highlight the value of integrating these dynamics into the discourse on the union-fertility nexus and fertility variation in SSA and beyond.
4.
Joosten, Sjors, 1993-
(author)
100% Swedish : Working for recognition through Hip-Hop from the suburbs of Stockholm
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This dissertation examines the role of hip-hop in shaping identity, immigrant integration, and social belonging in the Swedish context. It discusses how Swedish hip-hop artists with immigrant backgrounds and from segregated suburbs use their art to translate personal narratives, communicate social realities, and imagine alternative conceptions of Swedishness. The research draws upon Civil Sphere Theory (Alexander, 2006) and Recognition Theory (Lamont, 2018, 2023), which focus on symbolic boundaries that are in play in the conception of who “we” are as a society and associated processes of inclusion, belonging, and recognition. The study investigates how hip-hop assists immigrant-Swedish artists to articulate their experiences, construct identities, and navigate processes of integration and instances of exclusion. By describing the impact of the work of hip-hop artists and other key actors in the hip-hop scene, the dissertation considers the implications of hip-hop for immigrant incorporation, social recognition, and belonging within Swedish society. The analysis is based on qualitative data, including interviews with immigrant-Swedish hip-hop artists and other stakeholders of the hip-hop scene related to the suburbs of Stockholm, observations of significant places and performances in the Stockholm hip-hop scene, analysis of lyrics, and interpretation of secondary sources like media coverage. Through the analysis of this data, the dissertation uncovers how hip-hop artists challenge territorial stigmatization, work against racialization and discrimination, and strive for a greater appreciation for cultural hybridity and the multicultural reality of Sweden. The findings provide a nuanced portrait of hip-hop as a site of both empowerment and struggle for immigrant-Swedish individuals and communities. While hip-hop offers a platform for artistic expression, economic advancement, and agency, it also confronts tensions between commercial success and social marginalization that can reinforce stigmatizing stereotypes and social exclusion or support recognition and integration. As hip-hop becomes more mainstream, artists appear on public TV shows, perform on national stages, and enter the finer rooms of the cultural landscape. Hip-hop from the suburbs has become more present and widespread. However, it continues to be seen as produced in symbolically excluded spaces by immigrant-others. A substantial factor in this is the disproportionate attention to gangster-rap, which emphasizes criminality and exclusion, undermining other hip-hop artists that try to convey messages that facilitate belonging and recognition. The dissertation clarifies symbolic boundaries between the construction of a dominant and conventional 'lagom' Sweden and an immigrant-Swedish multicultural suburban 'orten' Sweden, and argues that artists often work towards new forms of belonging and recognition, potentially redefining these symbolic boundaries and contributing to immigrant incorporation on a larger scale. But this depends significantly on the artists’ ability to balance a mastery of knowing how to approach the wider audience through hip-hop and change-making in sharing messages to discuss redefining symbolic boundaries in favor of a more inclusive society. It can be concluded that Swedish hip-hop does not only work on an individual level for creating alternative forms of identities and routes to belonging but also adds to a social critique of how symbolic boundaries are drawn and can work towards imagining a multicultural and inclusive Sweden that is both 'lagom' and 'orten,' thus 100% Swedish. Ultimately, this dissertation contributes to research on immigrant incorporation, belonging, and recognition through the arts and music – specifically popular culture – and demonstrates the value of hip-hop for research on immigrant inclusion and belonging. This dissertation underscores the transformative potential of hip-hop as a catalyst for broader societal change, reshaping conceptions of Swedish identity and challenging existing boundaries of belonging. By identifying translation, communication, and imagination as the key actions of hip-hop artists and other cultural agents, the study contributes to theoretical advancements bridging Civil Sphere Theory with Recognition Theory. Contributing to the sociology of immigrant incorporation by clarifying the interplay between symbolic boundaries and music, the research offers new insights into how immigrant-Swedish artists and their communities navigate processes of integration and belonging.
5.
Jönsson, Elin, 1993-
(author)
Hardened Responsibility? : Contestations and Contradictions in the Regulation of Corporations
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Throughout the last decades, the social responsibility of corporations has undergone significant changes. From revolving around self-regulation, voluntariness, and soft law, the regulatory landscape has expanded to involve harder demands on corporations, such as mandatory sustainability due diligence. This thesis considers these changes as a hardening of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and explores such hardening as an outcome of contestation and struggle. In doing so, it echoes critical scholars’ call for criminology to direct attention toward the harms committed by powerful entities – in this case, large corporations in the global context – and the interests that frame the regulatory response to such harms. Three papers are included in this thesis, focusing on key actors that participate in the contestation and struggle under study: politicians (Paper I), corporations (Paper II), and non-governmental organizations (Paper III). The first two papers consider struggles for and against regulatory hardening, and shed light on the contradictory dynamics that permeate these struggles, while the third paper explores how organizations struggling for justice in the wake of corporate harm seek to alter the contours of the existing regulatory landscape. Taken together, the papers offer insight into how social actors articulate demands for change, or resist such change, and their underscoring interests or ambitions.This thesis situates these findings in previous research on the regulation of corporate social and environmental responsibility, considers the papers’ methodologies, and develops the theoretical lens through which the findings can be understood. The final analytical discussion considers the hardened regulations as solutions, with the problem at hand being the paradigm of self-regulation and voluntariness that has long characterized CSR. This problematization is interpreted as an articulation of internal critique, in which social actors strive for consistency between practices and normative expectations. Thus, new regulatory practices, which conform to these expectations, have been proposed. The analysis then traces this problematization, and the contestation around it, to fundamental contradictions. Drawing attention to the inherent contradictoriness of CSR as a social formation, it argues that this should be understood as the driving force behind contestation and thus the hardening trend itself. In addition, the analysis considers the transformative potential in actors’ struggles, suggesting that some may go beyond an adjustment of regulatory practices to an existing normative framework.All in all, the thesis contributes to criminological research on corporate responsibility by highlighting the dynamics of conflict and contradiction involved in contemporary regulation. Moreover, by understanding hardening as a solution to a problem, revolving around the shortcomings of CSR – which was itself introduced as a regulatory solution in the 1990s – the thesis situates the regulation of today in a historical development. By doing so, it draws attention to both continuity and change in this regulatory landscape.
6.
Peters, Steffen, 1989-
(author)
Who starts a family? : The prospective association between psychological factors and family formation processes
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The role of psychological factors for family formation processes has been underexplored in demographic research. However, psychological concepts such as personality, identity, or skills may have become increasingly relevant for family formation processes such as marital behavior, childbearing, or partnership dissolution, in particular in countries with high levels of individualism. This dissertation aims to address this research gap in various ways. First, the dissertation chapters examine the prospective associations between personality and family formation (marriage, fertility, dissolution) (chapters 1 and 2), identity and marriage (chapter 3), and leadership skills and family formation (marriage, fertility) (chapter 4). Second, the potential mediating role of socio-economic status indicators (income, education) for these relationships is explored (chapters 2, 3 and 4). Third, full siblings are compared to each other when applicable in order to control for shared background factors such as genetics or parental background (chapters 2 and 4). For these purposes, different data sources are used including large and representative survey data from Germany (chapter 1), Swedish register data (chapters 2 and 4), and survey data from Finland (chapter 3). Methodologically, a mix of widely used analytical methods have been applied such as event-history analyses, linear probability models, or Poisson regression models including individual and sibling fixed effects. The findings of this thesis suggest that psychological factors shape family formation processes across the selected European countries (Germany, Sweden, Finland) with high levels of individualism. Personality factors linked to social abilities (extraversion, social maturity, agreeableness) generally show positive associations with childbearing (chapters 1 and 2) and the probability to get married, and negative correlations with dissolution processes (chapter 2). Emotional stability is also positively associated with family formation processes (marriage, fertility), and negatively linked with partnership dissolution (chapter 2). However, these associations only relate to patterns for males whereas females do either not show clear associations (chapter 1), or had to be neglected based on data restrictions (chapter 2). Furthermore, certainty and commitment with future life plans (as indicator for identity) are positively linked with marriage risks over time (chapter 3). Regarding leadership skills (LS), as one specific type of skills, similar associations to personality effects from study 1 and 2 have been found, i.e. LS are positively correlated with marriage and fertility (chapter 4). The mediating effects of income and education, are relatively small for all associations so that future research may examine the role of other potential mechanisms such as intentions, attitudes, or health. Additionally, sibling fixed effects approaches do not show large difference compared to the patterns that are described above.
7.
Pinheiro Astone, Daniel Augusto, 1986-
(author)
Living as a commodity : Law, exploitation and the trade on human lives
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This dissertation investigates the role of the law in affording the conditions of possibility for exploitation to install and reproduce itself in the context of contemporary capitalism. It engages with the dialectical incompossibility of some of the key normative assumptions embedded in the law and the economy vis-à-vis their phenomenological consequences. With support from Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, the dissertation relies on two main examples – patents on essential medicines and labour exploitation – to examine the tension between expropriation and accumulation. It advances the novel concept of “ablegality” as a register for the remainder that every phenomenological-hermeneutic operation will inevitably generate as the potentiality that accompanies all phenomenological reduction. The principal contribution made through this dissertation lies in articulating the role of the invisibilised side of legal operations as drivers for exploitation and, ultimately, for injustice to manifest legally.
8.
Bengtsson, Petter, 1976-
(author)
Buyers and Sellers on the Stockholm Housing Market
2023
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Buying and selling housing is for most a very important event that can strongly affect their financial situation. At the same time homes are recognized as places with great importance above and beyond financial matters and in everyday talk and in the previous literature homes are described as safe-havens, status symbols, influencing networks of friends and acquaintances, canvasses for projecting identity, tied to gentrification, segregation and much more. Previous literature tends to separate and focus on either economic/financial aspects or more symbolic values in housing, and/or separate its analysis to either owners of homes or buyers of homes. This study bridges the restricted focus in the previous literature by analyzing both buying and selling housing from an economical sociological viewpoint. The market and case is buying and selling housing in the County of Stockholm and since often the same household appear on both sides of the market close in time, a switch-role activity, the notion of switching and how the two roles relate to one and the same actor is central to explain. The explanation provided is further warranted in that this type of market, understudied in all types of previous literature, is a type of market which, not at least via internet platforms, is growing in volume. By ethnographic work, interviews and observations, buyers and sellers of housing are studied and analyzed. The theoretical concept of modes is used to create an understanding and explanation of housing buyers’ and sellers’ actions. The three research questions; what buyers and sellers do, how they do it, and why they do it are tied to the mode apparatus. Buyers are found to be disperse as their mode displays are plenty and varied. Some buyers are committed and certain of what they want in the future home and what the right price is, while some are eager to learn and find out what a good housing deal is. Others display modes of dreaming of future homes, play shop or try to learn what the proper way to buy housing really is or should be. Sellers are found to be much more coherent as group and as one mode display. The relatively set way in which sellers are provided a script on what to do and how to do it make them remarkably conformist. Sellers are found to show great trust in the institutional practice of the housing market. The lack of personal and subjective displays of identity and taste stand out. Sellers are found to display a general mode of involution, where culture and style tends to be ever watered down. Comparing the two sides of the market, buying and selling housing are therefore understood as two very different activities housed under one roof. Many actors appear on both sides of the market, as both buyer and seller close in time, but what the actor subjectively value as buyer and what influence their mode display, is not relevant when switching to selling. What is won for the buyer in the sense of having a distinct subjective mode is lost in uncertainty about what is the best deal on a unit of housing. Sellers on the other hand have little ability to display any real image and identity in their home for sale. However, what is lost in not having a distinct subjective mode display is then won in the certainty that following the script will secure the best possible deal. The study’s results point towards the value of further empirical work on switch-role markets to provide an extended knowledge of what is found here.
9.
Carlsson, Erik, 1989-
(author)
Fertility Behavior and Preferences Among Immigrants and Children of Immigrants in Sweden
2023
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Similar to other Western European countries, immigrants and children of immigrants constitute growing segments of the Swedish population. Analyzing fertility patterns among immigrants and their children is important because (1) understanding potential heterogeneity in fertility preferences and behavior among population subgroups improves the understanding of fertility trends for the overall population, (2) fertility patterns can serve as an indicator of immigrants’ integration into the destination society, and (3) research can contribute with facts and nuanced perspectives to the emotionally charged political debate on immigrant and minority fertility. The dissertation consists of three studies that examine different aspects of immigrant fertility which have largely been overlooked in earlier research.Study I analyzes how the propensity to realize a short-term fertility intention varies between natives, immigrants, and children of immigrants in Sweden and Norway. Data come from the Swedish and Norwegian Generations and Gender Surveys from 2012/13 and 2007/08 together with their register-based follow-ups. Results show that second-generation women of non-Western origin are significantly less likely than native women to realize a positive fertility intention, whereas first-generation men of Western origin are significantly more likely than native men to realize a positive fertility intention. These results suggest either that the ability to realize childbearing preferences differ between population subgroups or that there are cultural differences in the meaning attached to a reported intention.Study II examines ethnic fertility differentials within the group of Yugoslavian-born immigrants to Sweden. The study uses Swedish population register data to compare transition rates to first, second, and third birth between native women, BCMS-speaking (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian) Yugoslavian-born women, and Albanian-speaking Yugoslavian-born women. Results show that transition rates to first, second, and third birth are considerably higher among Albanian-speaking women than both BCMS-speaking women and native women. The transition rates of BCMS-speaking women are relatively close to those of native women. The study demonstrates how analyses of immigrant fertility can benefit from disaggregating national or regional origin groups by subnational ethnicity, since this may uncover considerable within-group heterogeneity.Study III explores how religious affiliation relates to the ideal number of children, short-term fertility intentions, and the achieved number of children at age 40 among immigrants and natives in Sweden. Data come from the two Swedish Generations and Gender Surveys from 2012/13 and 2021. Results show that ideal, intended, and achieved fertility vary considerably by geographical origin within religious affiliations. Within geographical origin groups, Christians and Muslims often have similar ideal, intended, and achieved fertility, whereas the ideal, intended, and achieved fertility among non-religious individuals tend to be lower than those of Christians and Muslims. Results indicate that earlier analyses of the association between religion and fertility among immigrants that do not take immigrants’ geographical origin into consideration can be misleading, since group differences that are best explained as origin effects may be attributed to influences from religion.
10.
Doctrinal, Laure, 1987-
(author)
Old and Unequal? : An Institutional Analysis of Pension Systems' Driving Forces and Outcomes in Affluent OECD Countries
2023
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The growing privatization of old-age pension systems in many high-income countries in the late 20th century has raised serious concerns regarding their social sustainability. Compared to public pensions, private pensions tend to be associated with greater income inequality and less economic well-being. Yet, little is known regarding the role of pension privatization for trends in income inequality and economic well-being among the retired. This thesis comprises three empirical studies, which together aim at investigating the driving forces and the redistributive outcomes of pension privatization in a selection of high-income countries over the period 1980–2018.Study I assesses the role of partisan politics in shaping trends in pension privatization in seventeen high-income countries over the years 1980–2017. Results from time-series cross-sectional analyses reveal a negative association between left government historical legacy and trends in pension privatization. Contemporary left parties in government are associated with less privatization only in the context of a strong left-wing legacy. Thus, the findings show that partisan politics matter for pension policy also in times of welfare state restructuring.Study II asks to what extent the expansion of private pensions affects changes in income inequality among the retired. Decomposition analyses by income source of household incomes around 1986 and 2018 highlight an interesting paradox. While higher shares of private pensions in retirement incomes have had a substantial inequality-increasing effect, overall income inequality among the retired has not necessarily increased. Variations in the share and distribution of other income components, as well as in the distribution of private pensions, explain this paradox. This finding points to the relevance of considering the interplay of the different income sources to address income inequality in retirement, which implies to consider policies beyond the realm of pension policy.Study III analyzes the developments affecting economic independence among newly retired women and men in fifteen high-income OECD countries during the period 1986–2018. Results reveal the convergence in the proportion of newly retired women and men reaching economic independence. Results from time-series cross-sectional analyses show that trends in economic independence are not related to pension privatization among women, nor among men. Minimum public pensions are associated with increased economic independence of both newly retired women and men. Economic independence is also more common among newly retired cohorts of women with gainful work histories and parental leave duration in their prime working years.Taken together, the findings from the three studies highlight that partisan politics matter for changes in old-age pension systems, which in turn shape patterns of income inequality and economic independence among the retired. These findings contribute to nuance some of the expectations regarding the negative redistributive outcomes of increased pension privatization. Future research should further explore these dynamics, as some of the processes that came to compensate or outweigh private pensions’ redistributive outcomes are likely to even out in the years to come.
