1.
2.
Boström, Magnus, 1972-
(författare)
Miljörörelsens mångfald
2001
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
In the thesis, the conditions, possibilities, and limitations for Swedish environmental organisations to influence other actors — state agencies, political organisations, enterprises and the Swedish public — are analysed. The focus is on their practice in the nineties, implying a context in which different actors, to a greater extent, have accepted the significance of environmental issues, demand knowledge of and solutions to environmental problems, and with new conflicts continously arising. Against this background, four main interrelated themes are developed. Firstly, focus is set on the diversity and internal relations of the movement itself. Heterogeneity, variation and internal relations are analysed through the use of concepts such as social movement, collective identity, and niche. The diversity of the movement is regarded as a source of strength even though it also produces limitations. Secondly, how environmental organisations act politically and in what political scenes they appear, are analysed through the use of concepts such as political opportunity structure, subpolitics, lifepolitics, risk definition struggle, and intermediary link. The use of combined strategies, as well as the relation between diversity and political action, are highlighted. Thirdly, the cognitive practice of environmental organisations is analysed. This entails analysing how they try to persuade other actors with the help of frames. The extensive use of frame bridgings as well as tendencies towards the use of more cooperative strategies — captured by the concept ecological modernization — provide opportunities but also imply threats against autonomy and critical distance. However, the study shows that the organisations have the capacity to preserve their cognitive autonomy. Fourthly, the importance of organisation for cognitive practice, autonomy, and resource mobilization is stressed, and variations in form are analysed. Certain organisational tendencies such as growth, routinization, and professionalization are highlighted. The study is based on intensive comparative case studies of five Swedish environmental organisations: Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, World Wide Fund for Nature, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Natural Step. Different kinds of data are used: interviews with keypersons in the organisations, analyses of different kinds of documents produced by the organisations, and different kinds of secondary litterature.
3.
Jukkala, Tanya, 1981-
(författare)
Suicide in Russia : A macro-sociological study
2013
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This work constitutes a macro-sociological study of suicide. The empirical focus is on suicide mortality in Russia, which is among the highest in the world and has, moreover, developed in a dramatic manner over the second half of the 20th century. Suicide mortality in contemporary Russia is here placed within the context of development over a longer time period through empirical studies on 1) the general and sex- and age-specific developments in suicide over the period 1870–2007, 2) underlying dynamics of Russian suicide mortality 1956–2005 pertaining to differences between age groups, time periods, and particular generations and 3) the continuity in the aggregate-level relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality from late Tsarist period to post-World War II Russia. In addition, a fourth study explores an alternative to Émile Durkheim’s dominating macro-sociological perspective on suicide by making use of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems. With the help of Luhmann’s macro-sociological perspective it is possible to consider suicide and its causes also in terms of processes at the individual level (i.e. at the level of psychic systems) in a manner that contrasts with the ‘holistic’ perspective of Durkheim. The results of the empirical studies show that Russian suicide mortality, despite its exceptionally high level and dramatic changes in the contemporary period, shares many similarities with the patterns seen in Western countries when examined over a longer time period. Societal modernization in particular seems to have contributed to the increased rate of suicide in Russia in a manner similar to what happened earlier in Western Europe. In addition, the positive relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality proved to be remarkably stable across the past one and a half centuries. These results were interpreted using the Luhmannian perspective on suicide developed in this work.
4.
Kravchenko, Zhanna, 1978-
(författare)
Family (versus) Policy : Combining Work and Care in Russia and Sweden
2008
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The twentieth century has witnessed a revolution in the ways in which the social division of labour is organised, and in terms of how waged work and caring for children are reconciled. This study explores family policy from the perspective of its capacity to manage the socio-economic risks emanating from combining the roles of breadwinner and caregiver which many parents are beginning to do in contemporary society. This study is focused on Russia and Sweden, countries which have a large share of their female population in the labour force and an institutionalised public policy directed towards meeting the challenges of childrearing in dual-earner families.In the first empirical stage of the study, I examine the establishment and development of family policies in these countries, and analyse their effects in terms of how they have attempted to reconcile the competing demands of work and family life in recent years, specifically, by focusing on three main components: parental leave regulations, the organisation of early childcare and education, and schemes of financial assistance and support for families with children (including their impact on poverty reduction, with the use of Luxemburg Income Survey data). The next stage, involved the exploration of the normative setting in which employment and parenting are realised. To do this I used survey data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), and its modules on Family and Gender Roles. In the final stage, by conducting in-depth interviews with families in Stockholm and St. Petersburg I was able to examine how decisions about using the available public means of assistance and support are negotiated within households, and which factors, other than public policy, influence such decisions. The results of these three empirical parts are juxtaposed in order to establish the relation between official inputs into family policy and the complex picture of its outcome in the two countries.
5.
Polanska Vergara, Dominika, 1980-
(författare)
The emergence of enclaves of wealth and poverty : A sociological study of residential differentiation in post-communist Poland
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Since the fall of communism, some crucial political, economic and social changes have been taking place in the former communist societies. The objective of the thesis is to examine the processes of residential differentiation taking place in the urban landscape of the Polish city of Gdańsk after the introduction of the capitalist system. The focus is on different forms of residential differentiation and the social, economic and historical factors behind these forms. The empirical material that forms the basis of the thesis consists of interviews, newspaper articles, a questionnaire, official (national and local) reports and documents.Study I examines the way in which different social, economic, historical and physical conditions coincide in the formation of space and the processes of decline in the period of transformation in Poland. The focus lies on a specific residential area in the center of Gdańsk and the lack of improvements in this particular area, which would stop its successive decline.Study II explains the emergence of gated communities in the post-communist urban context and discusses the reasons for their increasing numbers and popularity. The main argument is that the popularity of gated communities is tightly intertwined with the communist past, emerging in reaction to the housing conditions that prevailed under communism.Study III investigates how social class markers are constructed in the discourse on gated communities in post-socialist Poland. The “new” capitalistic system, with its inherent social divisions, is described in the discourse as creating demands for “new” forms of housing, where gates function as separators, protectors and class identifiers.Study IV concentrates on the support for the formation of gated communities in the legal and regulatory framework in Poland since 1989. The paper asserts that the outcome of liberal politics and legal regulation in the country is the neglect of spatial planning and imprecise urban policies.
6.
Löfmarck, Erik, 1974-
(författare)
Den hand som föder dig : En studie av risk, mat och moderskap i Sverige och Polen
2014
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This is a study of how mothers of young children relate to risk in everyday life, with an emphasis on the invisible risks associated with modernity in general, and with food in particular. It explores variations and similarities in how mothers deal with risk in two cultural contexts: Sweden and Poland. The study is based on twenty qualitative interviews with university educated mothers of small children in Stockholm and Warsaw. While risks more generally challenge how we “get on” with our lives, mothers of young children in particular have a special relationship to risk. During pregnancy and breastfeeding they are subject to all kinds of risk minimization efforts, and mothers are ultimately held "infinitely responsible" for their children's welfare by society. Women's transition to parenthood then makes for a particularly interesting case as to how risks manifest in everyday life. The theoretical framework draws on modernization theory, combined with insights from cultural theory. In addition, various contributions from sociological and psychological risk research, family sociology and research on parenting and motherhood are used to highlight contextual aspects and to interpret the empirical results. Two aspects of the mothers’ relationship to risk and food are examined in this study: firstly, their risk constructs, i.e. what they perceive as ‘risky’ with regards to food; and, secondly, their risk management strategies, i.e. how they deal with identified risks on a practical and cognitive level. The overall risk management depicted in this study is characterized by reflexivity, critical thinking, information retrieval, attention to scientific evidence, purposely transferred trust, confidence and the ability to make fairly sophisticated tradeoffs between risks and other aspects of life. Neither the Swedish nor the Polish mothers then conform to popular notions of ‘security junkies’ or ‘paranoid parenting’. Nonetheless, the comparative approach demonstrates how contextual differences, such as general trust levels and family policy, influence both the risk constructs and the employment of different risk management strategies.
7.
Wesolowski, Katharina
(författare)
Maybe Baby? : Reproductive Behaviour, Fertility Intentions, and Family Policies in Post-communist Countries, with a Special Focus on Ukraine
2015
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis studies different aspects of reproductive behaviour on the international, national, and local levels in post-communist countries. The main focus is Ukraine, where fertility rates are very low and the population is in severe decline. The studies contribute new knowledge about the applicability of a family policy typology developed on the basis of Western countries’ experience for post-communist countries, and about the influence of family policies on fertility levels in these countries. Moreover, the studies investigate whether and how macro-level influences impact on individuals’ reproductive behaviour. Four articles are included in the thesis:Family policies in Ukraine and Russia in comparative perspective analyses the institutional set-up of family policies in both countries and compares the findings to 31 other countries. The results show that Ukrainian family policies support a male-breadwinner type of family, while the benefit levels of Russian family policies are low, compelling families to rely on relatives or the childcare market.Family policies and fertility - Examining the link between family policy institutions and fertility rates in 33 countries 1995-2010 comparatively explores whether family policies have an effect on fertility rates across the case-countries. Pooled time-series regression analysis demonstrates that gender-egalitarian family policies are connected to higher fertility rates, but that this effect is smaller at higher rates of female labour force participation.To have or not to have a child? Perceived constraints on childbearing in a lowest-low fertility context investigates the influence of the perception of postmodern values, childcare availability and environmental pollution on individuals’ fertility intentions in a city in Eastern Ukraine. It is shown that women who already have a child perceive environmental pollution as a constraint on their fertility intentions.Prevalence and correlates of the use of contraceptive methods by women in Ukraine in 1999 and 2007 examines changes in the prevalence and the correlates of the use of contraceptive methods. The use of modern contraceptive methods increased during the period and the use of traditional methods decreased, while the overall prevalence did not change. Higher exposure to messages about family planning in the media is correlated with the use of modern contraceptive methods.
8.
Allelin, Majsa
(författare)
Skola för lönsamhet. Om elevers marknadsanpassade villkor och vardag
2019
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of the thesis is twofold: to explore the ways in which the transformation of the Swedish elementary school can be understood through Marxist theory; and, by ethnographic methods, understand the everyday lives of students and teachers in light of the transformation of the educational system. The ethnography has been conducted by observations and interviews during a total of six months at two different schools, Libera and Publica. While Libera is a charter school, owned by a private investment company, Publica is municipally administrated. The former is based in the central part of the city, while the latter is located in a more economically marginal and geographically peripheral area. At Libera, students plan their own schedules and work load and they also set their own goals. At Publica, the students are organized in a more conventional, meaning collective, structure. By discussing marketization, which includes private as well as public actors, scholars foreground the competition that exists between schools through the Swedish voucher-system as well as the transactional relationship that reshapes the relationship between students and teachers. To describe the market rationales by which the public schools must operate the already established concept of New Public Management has been used. However, still no terminology can be found to describe the private actors’ way of functioning. By returning to Marx’s concepts of formal and real subsumption, I offer new ways to conceptualize the shift in character of education and how privately-owned schools operate, meaning how surplus value is created in the everyday life of students and in their pedagogical relations. As my results show, more efficient and flexible ways to organize teaching and pedagogical practices have emerged as new scale logics are developed by private actors who are part of big investment companies. Due to the competition, both Libera and Publica adopt a strong market rationale in their organizational arrangements and pedagogical expectations. Besides conceptualizing schooling on an organizational level, I also seek to address the premises and effects of the learning situation for students in a milieu that is characterized by both flexible and standardized management. Despite the different characteristics of the schools, the market rationales, which dovetailed well with the result-based (state-arranged) management, tended to create alienating conditions for students and teachers in their daily work. Everyday school life was occupied with grade talks and very little time was given for pedagogical “detours”; the students were mostly trying to crack the code and the ones who could not manage the pace were systematically left behind (eliminated). In many cases, whether it was in more successful situations or during processes of (self)elimination, students were often left alone. The expectation of being self-propelled dominated the pedagogical relationship, which translated into the pressure of constant performance and little space to be “unskilled” or explorative. In a situation when school organizations are in competition with each other and are expected to present high numbers (in terms of grades and economic efficiency), the already motivated or skilled students appear as attractive and desirable. The results show how schooling continues to maintain, and in some ways accentuates, segregation and social reproduction.
9.
Stickley, Andrew
(författare)
On Interpersonal Violence in Russia in the Present and the Past : A Sociological Study
2006
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
For much of the twentieth century researchers in the West knew little about the phenomenon of interpersonal violence in Russia as the Soviet authorities kept the vital and criminal justice statistics of violence secret. It was not until the Soviet Union was in its final death throes that these statistics were officially released for the first time in over fifty years. They showed that at least in terms of its level of lethal violence, Russia was one of the most violent countries in the industrialized world. Since that time, the sharp rise in violent mortality that has occurred in post-Soviet Russia during the transition period has attracted the attention of many researchers in both the East and West. The studies that have resulted have done much to enhance our understanding of violence in contemporary Russia. However, there are still many questions to be answered. For example, was Russia a violent country in much earlier periods of its history and are there particular social and/or cultural processes that have been important in explaining the occurrence of violence in Russia across time?To address these and other questions I have made use of the vital statistics data of homicide from tsarist and Soviet Russia, as well as individual-level survey data on violence from the contemporary period. By doing this it has been possible to show that there was a high level of lethal interpersonal violence in Russia throughout those periods of the twentieth century for which data exist and that Soviet Russia became comparatively more violent between the end of the tsarist and Soviet periods. Moreover, alcohol seems to have played an extremely important role in the occurrence of both lethal and non-lethal violence across time. In relation to this, I have focused on the particular drinking culture in Russia as a possible explanatory mechanism for the occurrence of violence, in conjunction with the Russian state’s dependence on the taxable revenue alcohol generated – which in both tsarist and Soviet Russia prevented any prolonged attempts to act against the deleterious effects of alcohol. The high level of violence in Russian society also highlights the problems that the Russian authorities had when trying to impose order on a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. This might explain why even by the end of the Soviet period, rates of lethal violence were highest in those places (i.e. Siberia and rural Russia more generally) where the state’s presence is likely to have been at its weakest.The consequences of interpersonal violence have become a serious public health issue in contemporary Russia. The lesson that ‘might makes right’ seems to be learnt at an early age by some men who may subsequently model their behaviour on what they have witnessed in their childhood homes, with alcohol acting to facilitate the occurrence of violence in some instances. Any attempt to address the issue of violence in Russia must therefore focus on the specifics of the Russian drinking culture, as it is likely that if this can be changed, a reduction in levels of serious interpersonal injury can also be achieved. However, it may be the case, that it is not only changes in the drinking culture which are necessary, but also perhaps, the way in which violence is seen in Russian society traditionally, both by the state and its citizens – as a means of resolving both relatively minor and more intractable problems.
10.
Svärd, Veronica, 1977
(författare)
Children at risk? Hospital social workers’ and their colleagues’ assessment and reporting experiences
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis explores factors that influence professional discretion in Swedish hospital professionals’ assessment of children who may be at risk of harm. It is based on two data samplings, interviews with fourteen hospital social workers and a questionnaire with 295 responding physicians, nurses, nurse assistants and hospital social workers. The theoretical frame consists of theories of professions, sociology of emotions and normativity. Although all professionals are mandated to report suspicions about children who may be at risk to social services, the findings show that a majority of the participants had never made a report. However, there were major differences between the professions: hospital social workers and physicians made most reports, while it was unusual for nurses and nurse assistants to report. This is explained by children at risk being everyone’s but no single profession’s responsibility within health care – which shapes an informal pattern of jurisdiction, split between physicians and hospital social workers. The professional group to which a person belongs was shown to affect how other factors influence assessment. The lower the status of the group, the less knowledge about the issue and the available organisational support its members have, and the more emotions influenced the decisions not to report. While hospital social workers are less strongly affected by emotions in decisions not to report, the deeper qualitative analysis shows that assessment tended to follow a ‘logic of normativity’ where their worries stuck to ‘warning signs’ associated with gender stereotypes or unprivileged groups of parents. Critical reflexivity could disturb this logic as well as the silence of normality, meaning that children from privileged groups may not be given enough attention. Hospital social workers were also found to take different positions in their inter-professional teams – active, reflective or passive – relating to three institutionalized norms of action – juridical, therapeutic and medical. A small number followed the medical norm, but that had the most dangerous consequences for children who sometimes were not dealt with appropriately despite severe signs of harm. The overall analysis in this thesis suggests that theories of professional discretion should take into account factors such as the context, inter-professional relations, emotions and normativity to enhance the understanding of what influences assessment and decisions.
