1.
Arvidson, Markus
(författare)
Den fabricerande människan : Om bedrägeri som vardaglig interaktionsform
2007
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The present dissertation takes the multi-faceted phenomenon of deception as its point of departure. The aim is to make a case for deception as a social phenomenon, and to frame theoretically and define the skills and abilities that make deception possible.A theoretical model based on a number of ideal types is constructed. The purpose of the model is to differentiate particular aspects of deception, and the model is illustrated with examples of actions of more or less well-known impostors. The examples were collected from a variety of sources, such as autobiographies and television programs.As a first step, the legal definition of deception, i.e. fraud, and statistics on crimes of deception in Sweden are presented. Different theoretical approaches are also discussed; deception as a personality trait, and deception as communication and interaction.In order to illuminate the social dimensions, it is emphasized that deception constitutes a particular type of relationship between deceiver and deceivee. This particular form of interaction exploits elementary forms, and it is also asymmetrical in terms of the intentions of the parties involved.The concept of social competence is used to describe the skills and abilities required for successful acts of deception. It is argued that the social competence of deceivers consists of three types: strategic, normative, and dramaturgic competencies. The strategic competency involves being goal-rational and strategic, for example, the ability to predict the actions of the potential addressee. In the normative competency, norms and reference to norms are used strategically. The dramaturgic competency represents an operationalization and enactment of the two other competencies, and resembles the preparation and performance of an actor.The different contexts in which deception can occur are also discussed. A preliminary typology is presented, with the aim of demonstrating the difficulties in drawing clear lines between various types of deception. The extended approach to deception also means that it can be viewed as a part of everyday social interaction.Finally, some thoughts on deception in the light of societal changes are presented. It is argued that the increasing demands on people to promote themselves in various ways in today’s society can be perceived as an invitation to deception and fabrication. These demands can generate feelings of inferiority and a fear of eventually being unmasked as an impostor, or a phony.
2.
Nilsson, Thorbjörn, 1960-
(författare)
Den lokalpolitiska karriären : en socialpsykologisk studie av tjugo kommunalråd
2001
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis studies the combination of an actor's course of life with a field-specific career. The career is seen runs through a social room assuming an objective shape. It also runs through a field characterized by the competition for positions and resources.The field is of a relatively stable character and is closely attached to the social room. Emphasis is laid on the municipal commissioner career and the local political field. Becoming a municipal commissioner is not a matter of a superficial change in the work situation, but of acquiring and embodying a field-specific manner and perspective.Municipal commissioners are confronted with a range of paradoxes. The paradoxes are manifested in a structure of expectation, which permeates the entire field, and which is directed towards the position of commissioner. The expectation structure of the field creates the conditions for the commissioner career as a whole and consequently defines its framework.Within this framework the overall patterns emerge as a funnel-like process during which the career tapers off successively. Commissioners develop attitudes and actions to deal with the expectations and with the paradoxes involved. These actions and attitudes evolve through a field-specific career.This dissertation focuses the sociopsychological mechanisms involved in the career. These mechanisms include the way social meaning is externalized, objectified and internalized. Social meaning guides the actors and their interaction. Meanings are fundamental to a given social order by forming an essential part of the field-specific attitude embodied by the actor. The adhesive glue of the career consists of social meanings, which form the basis of the sociopsychological profile of the career. The aim of the study is to explain social meanings in career development in the local political field.The social meanings show what guides the handling of paradoxes and the linking of the actor's life and career. The field-specific meanings also reflect the expectation structures that define the career and its phases. By explaining the social meanings of the career it also becomes apparent in what way the life an actor is phased with the field-specific career.
3.
4.
Persson, Anders
(författare)
Maktutövningens interna dynamik : Samspel och motsättningar i skola och lönearbete
1991
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this work is to investigate the internal dynamics of power-exercising in compulsory school and wage labor. The exercise of power is structured by four interrelated power-practices: maintenance, that is the practice which produce and reproduce a power relation through, among other things, the enrolment of subordinates; acculturation, the alteration-of-man power that is exercised inside the power relation; relegation, the power resulting in the removal of subordinates out of the power relation; and justification, the construction of representations which aim at presenting power relations as reasonable and justified. The exercise of power is, further, described as a process through which four practises interplay and contradicts one another. The process is part of what is called the internal dynamics of power, which also contains how power and resistance conflict and coordinate and finally, how various ways of exercising power - coercing and the production of consent - interrelate. Inside this frame of interpretation, different phenomenons in compulsory school - the compulsory school attendance, the stress on the importance of education in the modern society and the pedagogical practices to be precise - is given a meaning. In a similar way phenomenons inside wage labor - the wage laborer´s economic dependency and labor market coercion, the social democratic reform-strategy and organizational- and management-practices - is given meaning inside the above mentioned frame of interpretation
