1.
Liedgren Dobronravoff, Pernilla
(author)
Att bli, att vara och att ha varit : Om ingångar i och utgångar ur Jehovas vittnen
2007
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This dissertation seeks to describe and investigate the entering and leaving of a highly structured and hierarchical religious community, exemplified in this case by the Jehovah's Witnesses. The respondents in this study were chosen from both active members of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Sweden and those who have left the organisation for personal reasons. Repeated interviews with ten active members of the organisation have been conducted in the course of the study and compared to equal numbers of former members. The interviews have been semi-structured to deal with questions of how a person has come into contact with the organisation; how they retrospectively experienced the process of entry; the reasons for becoming a member. Questions have also been asked about life in the organisation. The group of "exiters" have also been asked about the experience of leaving, why they wanted to leave, and how this process was started and carried out. In addition to this I have analysed a four-year diary describing the time inside and the process of leaving the organisation. This has given me an extra psychological insight into the inner experience of someone who has gone through the whole process. The analysis has been done by categorising the content of the transcribed interviews. The analysis of the diary has involved thorough reading, resulting in a division of it into four different parts, where each part has been given a certain key-word, signifying the author's emotional state when writing it. A person converting as an adult has to pass six phases before being considered a Jehovah's Witness by the organisation. These are: Contact with the Jehovah's Witnesses, studying the bible with members of the organisation, questioning, accepting, being active as publisher (spreading the belief), being baptised. For a person brought up in the organisation, the process to full membership is much shorter: Upbringing in the organisation, taking a stand on the belief, being baptised. The exit process contains of seven phases: Different levels of doubts, testing of doubts, turning points, different kinds of decisions, different steps in executing the decisions, floating, a period of emotional and cognitive consideration of membership and its experiences, relative neutrality.
2.
Jakobsson, Mats, et al.
(author)
'Att blifva sin egen' : ungdomars väg in i vuxenlivet i 1700- och 1800-talens övre Norrland
2000
In: Sociologisk forskning. - Umeå : Umeå universitet. ; 37:3-4, s. 134-141
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The background to this study is that there is no studies on youth and their transition to adulthood in preindustrial Sweden. The main objective of this thesis has therefore been to analyze young peoples transition to adulthood during the late 18th and 19th centuries in a region of the northern part of Sweden. The social context of the region was mainly agrarian during the investigated period despite the fact that in the later part of the 19th and beginning of 20th century, a development of a growing forest industry had started. The main questions is: How and when in life did different social categories of young people establish an independent and adult life? Where there any changes in transitional patterns and was the establishment smoother or more troublesome at different times during the investigated period ? Where there any changes regarding social norms related to the establishment of adult life?The transition to adult life is studied from a life-course approach and four key-transitions; The First Holy communion, leaving home, marriage and parenthood are regarded as significant steps within the process to a independent social position. Individual data related to keytransitions is mainly collected from cathectical examination records and comprised 2206 individuals born in six different cohorts between 1770 and 1900. The selected cohorts represents individuals that had to deal with different social conditions during their youth and transition to adult life.The main results regarding the transition to adult life can be summarized in two words, complexity and variance. Usually it was a "long" transition but the number of accomplished keytransitions and the order between them varied, as well as ages when taking the first Holy Communion, leaving home, marriage and entering parenthood varied. Transitional patterns varied between different categories of youth. A dividing line existed between the sexes, those from households strongly rooted in the agricultural structure and those with background in social categories that didn't own or was in possession of land. Social norms related to keytransitons changed along this dividing line during the investigated period of time, and became less permissive within landowning or land-possessing categories and less prescriptive in other categories.Transitional patterns were also influenced by the social situation at different historical times. The need for labor, war and years of famine directly intervened in timing and sequencing of keytransitions. A long term development was that the transition to adult life became more problematic in the later part of the 19th century, especially among young people who were less integrated in the social context and among socially stigmatized youth. Finally, young people were active and reflexive in seeking social space to make the transition to adult life, actions that sometimes caused tensions and conflicts between generations.
3.
Grönberg, Anna Gunnarsdotter, 1967
(author)
Ungdomar och dialekt i Alingsås : Young people and dialect in a small town in West Sweden
2004
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis presents a study of sociolinguistic variation among students from five municipalities, all attending an upper secondary school in Alingsås, a town of 25,000, northeast of Göteborg, Sweden. The material consists of recorded interviews with 97 students. The informants are categorized according to social variables representing different aspects of background and identity: Sex, type of study programmes (vocational, intermediate, preparatory for university), demogeographical areas and Alingsås neighbourhoods (divided on the basis of urbanization and socio-economic factors), and lifestyle based on two-dimensional mapping (concerning taste, leisure, mobility, plans for the future, etc.). The lifestyle analysis both complements and includes traditional sociolinguistic variables. Eight phonological and lexical variables are analyzed. The variants are found to be associated with traditional local dialect, regional and supraregional standard, Göteborg vernacular, general and Göteborg youth language. Correlations with demogeographical area generally show a pattern going from southwest to northeast (along the E20 highway and the railway from Göteborg). One area does not fit into the continuum, in Sollebrunn (NW of Alingsås), where particularly female informants tend to use standard and innovations to a higher extent than informants in Herrljunga, which is situated the same distance from Göteborg (but NE of Alingsås). Gender is the second most important social factor, in two different ways. There are general differences in linguistic behaviour between sexes, but also differences between groups when gender is combined with study programme and lifestyle. There are major differences from one social group to another when it comes to expressing gendered identity through linguistic means.
4.
Pitkäjärvi, Tiina, 1980-
(author)
Mer än bara vara rosa : Bröstcancertematiserande kampanjer i Sverige (2015–2016) som social praktik
2022
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The thesis presents a study of how social engagement in breast cancer campaigns is realized in a media context in Sweden. The data collected in this qualitative study are from the years 2015–2016. The study has been led by the following research questions: How is the purpose of the analyzed practices constructed, interpreted and negotiated? How are the campaign practices legitimized? How is participation in them offered? The concept social practice, as formulated by van Leeuwen (2008) forms the basis for the study's theoretical and methodological framework. Aside from this social practice approach, the questions have been analyzed using van Leeuwen's (2008) legitimation strategies, which have been expanded with a performative perspective and by applying the concept affective practices (Wetherell 2012).The results of an initial analysis displayed heterogeneity in the purposes constructed and led the study further to three main themes, identified as Commodification of social participation and consumption, The individual's health and risk management and Norm criticism and image acts as emancipatory actions. The study shows that social engagement is often realized through the consumption of pink products, i.e., commodified. The fact that the researched practice is situated in a neoliberal market economy also provides an explanatory model for how the articulations of engagement in social issues regarding health are realized in the researched material. However, the possibility of being socially engaged is also enabled by the performative potential that participation evokes with the help of affective aspects. Representations of emotions are also a central component in how participation in the social practice is solicited. This suggests that the boundaries of representations of engagement and acts of engagement can often not be separated. The analyses of two private initiatives and at the same time medialized images show how actions with performative claims, aimed at de-dramatization and contributing to attempts to change norms, can be done visually.One overall result is that intertextuality appears to be central to how participation is facilitated in the campaign practices, e.g., by exploiting the connoted potential of certain social actors (companies) and their products. The analyses also show that there are material conditions for the socially engaging campaign practices and how they are made accessible.
5.
Bengtsson, Åsa, 1967-
(author)
Nyktra kvinnor : Folkbildare, företagare och politiska aktörer. Vita Bandet 1900-1930
2011
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
In this thesis the female Christian temperance union the White Ribbon is in focus. The White Ribbon was founded in Stockholm in 1900 and it was part of the international organization World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU). The organization’s ambition was to create a temperate and moral society, running a variety of philanthropic institutions and adult education, as well as non-alcohol serving restaurants.The aim of the thesis is to study the White Ribbon’s social and political commitment and its ideological approach during the first three decades of the 20th century. The White Ribboners’ ideological approach and culture are problematized in relation to the prevailing and predominant view on women. The organization’s monthly journal has been closely studied and the ideas and practical social and political commitment have been analyzed in a theoretical perspective of social movement theory, according to the Swedish sociologist Håkan Thörn’s methodological framework. This theoretical approach is an instrument to analyze what the White Ribbon identified to be social problems; what was considered to be the reasons for these problems; and what strategy the organization regarded to be the best way to deal with them in order to reach the prognosticated change.The analysis shows that the White Ribbon identified the predominant gender system and the bourgeois view on women as a primary social problem. The organization’s strategy was to eliminate the patriarchal order of the gender system and to change the attitude of people through adult education, information and persuasion. The White Ribbon participated in public debate pursuing temperance and women’s suffrage, and was a lobbyist proposing motions and demanding legislative reforms. The White Ribbon’s ideological approach, as well as their philanthropic activities emanated from a bourgeois ideal of conscientiousness and cultivation, and from an interest in social politics. This was in contrast to the bourgeois view of what the ideal woman should do. From the White Ribboners’ point of view, society could only prosper when women had the same rights as men, and could participate the public sphere and become involved in politics.The study shows that the organization worked hard for equality and democracy, pursuing a feminist and liberal ideology. The White Ribboners regarded themselves, and also acted, as political agents. They introduced and increased women’s possibilities for adult education. They initiated and provided social protection for alcohol addicted women, and for poor and fallen women and girls. These activities must be seen as forms of enterprises and the White Ribboners as entrepreneurs, since these institutions were, in fact, innovations and models for solving problems in order to build a welfare system and to create a temperate and prosperous society. The thesis put forward arguments that the White Ribbon’s social and political work are political innovations and important elements in the process of democratization and, therefore, played an important part in this process.
6.
Borelius, Ulf, 1961
(author)
Om befrielseteologins uppkomst i Latinamerika. En sociologisk analys av religiös förändring. : On the Rise of Liberation Theology in Latin America. A Sociological Analysis of Religious Change.
2016
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The overall purpose of the present study is to contribute to our understanding of religious change and to an explanation of the phenomenon. The emergence of the theology of liberation is an important case of religious change in Latin America during the 1960s. Hence, the focus of this study is on how and why the theology of liberation emerged. The theoretical framework is primarily based on the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts of field, habitus and capital. This framework is used as an alternative to the dominant theories of religious change, that is, the secularization theory and the theory of religious economies. The data come from a variety of sources, including interviews, electronic and conventional letters, archives, books and articles. The most important conclusion is that Liberation Theology emerged within the Catholic Student Movement, as a product of collective work. More specifically, it arose as part of a reproduction strategy, aimed at defending the Church’s position in the national fields of power and at strengthening the Catholic Student Movement in the struggle for symbolic power at the universities. In the early 1960s, the Catholic Student Movement thought that the primary threat to the Church came from Marxism and Marxist groups. This threat was fought by means of involvement in the struggle for social change and development. Later, the commitment to development became a commitment to liberation. This commitment was shared with Marxist groups, but the Student Movement members simultaneously distinguished themselves from these groups as militant Catholics. The theology of liberation emerged when the Catholic Student Movement discovered new aspects of the Gospel as a result of its commitment to liberation, of its efforts to mobilize more Christians in the struggle for liberation, and of its pastoral care for radical Catholic students.
7.
Hofvendahl, Johan, 1970-
(author)
Riskabla samtal : en analys av potentiella faror i skolans kvarts- och utvecklingssamtal
2006
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
In this thesis, conversation analysis (CA) is applied to study “risk strategies” in parent-teacher-student conferences in the Swedish nine-year compulsory school. The material consists of 80 conferences collected at two different points in time: 45 from the period 1992–93 (at that time called kvartssamtal, lit. “quarter of an hour conference”) and another 35 collected in 2004 (at the present time, and since the latest curriculum from 1994, called utvecklingssamtal, lit. “development conference”). All conferences in the material concern students in the 5th grade, i.e. when students are 11–12 years old.Each year, approximately 2.6 million student conferences in total are held in the Swedish compulsory school and upper-secondary school, involving about 5.5 million participants. Yet, we have virtually no knowledge of what actually happens in these conferences, i.e. how they are conducted. Hence, this study contributes to “filling the gap” and to meeting this want, the how of the student conference as a practical achievement.The aim of the study is to analyze conversational strategies in use to handle “risk”, i.e. a moment whose outcome is uncertain and that could possibly lead to a problem. Here, strategy refers to recurrent line of action and does not necessarily comprise speaker awareness. Strategies are part (and the materialization) of everyday cultural norms, rules of social behavior and habitualized “ways of practice”. They are used “for self”, “for someone else” or “for all” and should be considered in the light of Goffman’s notion of “face-work”, i.e. what the speaker does in order to counteract possibly face-threatening acts. The study is aimed at three particular situations of considerable analytic value: (i) the opening of the conference, (ii) the initiation of talk about trouble (problem), and (iii) the closing of the conference, or more immediately, the possibility for students and parents to raise their own issues.The results show that the conference opening is a coordinated achievement and to a great extent oriented to meet the possibility of the student being nervous. The conference is an “ordinary conference” and the opening questions are “what I ask any student”. When a speaker initiates talk about possible trouble, the pace decreases and utterances very often comprise “perturbations of delivery”, i.e. filled and unfilled pauses, mitigating expressions, abandoned turn beginnings and restarts, “repairs”, etc. These and other circumstances make it possible to forecast the action as (possibly) a trouble-initiating action. At the closing of the conference, students and parents are commonly offered the opportunity to raise their own issues. However, when analyzing the different ways of offering a prolongation of the conference, the study shows that the opportunity is strongly restricted, e.g. due to the design of the question.
8.
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10.
Söderman, Alexandra, 1983
(author)
Digital studentkultur. Om slutna grupper på Facebook som icke-formell arena i högre utbildning : Digital Student Culture. Closed Facebook Groups as Non-Formal Arenas in Higher Education
2022
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Sedan Facebook lanserades i Sverige 2006 har plattformen vuxit dramatiskt och utgör numer det dominerande sociala mediet även för svenska studenter. I tidigare forskning har fokus i hög grad riktats mot möjliga pedagogiska vinster med Facebook, eller Facebook som en alternativ lärandearena i högre utbildning. Denna avhandling tar istället avstamp i mediekritiska perspektiv och kultur- och utbildningssociologisk teori, inom vilken sociologen Pierre Bourdieus arbeten är centrala. Detta för att analysera den icke-formella studentkultur som tar form i studentorganiserade slutna Facebook-grupper. Det övergripande syftet är att bidra med fördjupad kunskap om varför digital studentkultur formeras som den gör i tre slutna Facebook-grupper kopplade till tre olika högre utbildningskontexter. I arbetet adresseras därför följande frågeställningar: Hur präglar studenternas dispositioner formeringen av de olika utbildningskontexternas digitala studentkulturer på Facebook? Vilka distinktionsmekanismer och andra dominansförhållanden kommer till uttryck i Facebook-grupperna och kring vilka värden och ställningstaganden formeras dessa? På vilka sätt formas Facebook som digital kulturell miljö av de tre olika högre utbildningskontexterna? De Facebook-grupper som ingår i studien studeras med etnografiska metoder och består av ett förskollärarprogram, ett statsvetarprogram samt en grupp för studenter på konst- och designutbildningar. Resultaten visar hur Facebook kommit att fungera som en första anhalt för nyblivna studenter, men också hur den studentkultur som tar form i dessa grupper är tydligt präglad av studentgruppernas sociala bakgrund. Därigenom framträder bland annat något som kan förstås och diskuteras som Facebooks inlåsningseffekt, eftersom studenternas dispositioner inte utmanas i de egenorganiserade slutna grupperna.
