1.
Elsrud, Torun
(författare)
Taking Time and Making Journeys : Narratives on Self and the Other among Backpackers
2004
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This work addresses the phenomenon of long-term, so-called ‘independent’ travelling, or backpacking, often to destinations described as the ‘third world’. It regards backpacker journeys as arenas for identity work, for expressing individuality and a ‘strong character’. Rather than merely being a parenthetic detour in time and space a backpacker’s trip to the tropics can be understood as a creative effort by the individual to regain the control over time and space thought to be lost in places travellers call home. Yet, at the same time, backpacking reproduces structures of power, through (re)constructing the image of a ‘primitive other’ upon which much of a successful ‘western identity’ rests. The success is, however, not only dependent upon inventing and encountering ‘primitive’ others but also upon the gender of the traveller as well as the competence in mastering manifestations of adventure and risk. The work argues, for instance, that stereotype expectations of femininity (and masculinity) make female ‘adventurism’ into a challenge beyond the actual (or faked) ordeals encountered on the road. Adventurous women are forced to negotiate and balance between expectations placed upon them as (non-adventurous) females and as adventurous travellers. The arguments rest upon the ontological and epistemological conviction that individuals are creative, making the most out of the tools for identity work which society supplies them with. However, in the process of individual self-articulation, structures are both maintained and altered. Consequently, it is through studying individuals and their products/expressions (such as media texts or choice of clothing, food or ‘proper’ transport) that information can be gathered concerning individual thoughts and actions and the structures within which these are manifested. Such an undertaking has been accomplished within this project by means of a qualitative, ethnographically influenced approach, including interviews with backpackers, observations in backpacker areas and analysis of travel media.
2.
Granér, Rolf
(författare)
Patrullerande polisers yrkeskultur
2004
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Using ethnographical methods, this thesis examines the prevalence and character of an occupational culture among patrolling police in terms of frames of reference, conduct and attitudes, a culture which overrides or is in opposition to the official mandate of the police force. It is suggested that the occupational culture of the patrolling police should not be regarded as a homogenous culture but be seen as describing a continuum from a legalistic to a more autonomous perspective. The legalistic perspective is founded on the official social mandate of the police. The autonomous approach on the other hand is regarded as an independent social power with a clearly partisan interest in defending an often idealised segment of society loosely termed ”the general public” by fighting alleged troublemakers and criminals. This partisanship legitimises what from the autonomous perspective is considered ”real police work”. This primarily involves dealing with crime within the patrolling officers’ area of competence, with clear boundaries between right and wrong. The ”real police work” can be linked to another term within the autonomous perspective:”practical police work”. This includes procedures where immediate results are emphasised at the cost of legally and/or institutionally imposed working practices, a special ”police eye” for what can be seen as different (deviant) and therefore threatening, a relative independence in relation to the code of laws, use of repressive powers to maintain respect for the police and finally a mutual code of silence among policemen. You can also discern three sets of opposing attitudes in the taxonomy. The first one is an alienated ”tired” attitude as opposed to a dedicated ”hungry” attitude. The second one concerns a repressive tough attitude that emphasises the police as a violent power versus a helpful soft attitude that lays more stress on co-operative structures. Finally there is a distinction between a reflective, intellectual approach open to change and an automatic intuitive response where the individual officer tends to generalise the cognitive patterns of the immediate situations so far that it dominates his whole outlook on the surrounding world. This also comprises a general distrust of the surrounding world combined with a view of other people based on simple (facile?) categorisation. The study suggests that when police officers speak about police work more generally the autonomous perspective often dominates. In practice however police on the whole follow a legalistic perspective in terms of following police regulations. Departures from this are nevertheless recurrent and the factors that decide whether an autonomous perspective will prevail are on the one hand the police officers’ level of commitment to their task and on the other an appraisal of the risks of being personally punished for their actions.
3.
Turunen, Päivi
(författare)
Samhällsarbete i Norden : Diskurser och praktiker i omvandling
2004
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The dissertation deals with an inquiry concerning how the transformation of community work can be understood from a comparative perspective within the framework of social work in Scandinavia. Community work is examined by means of two main studies: an international literature review and an empirical study in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). The transformation is discussed in the light of theories of modernisation and discourse analysis. The results propose that the transformation is characterised by differentiation, both divergence and convergence. The discourses are far from constant, while the practices seem to remain the same. There are surprisingly many similarities between settlement work and contemporary community strategies across the globe. Since the 1980´s, they have expanded rapidly because of the political and ideological changes within welfare states – towards decentralisation and devolution. The concept of community work has been replaced by a plurality of community-orientated concepts. Within social work, it has converged into community social work. The transformation of Nordic community work has also moved towards a national and local diversity. The Nordic countries share similar phases of transformation of community work, but also have traits of their own. In general, community work has been carried out as projects. Denmark is characterised as the promised land of projects, Finland as the community land of minimal number of projects, Norway as the land of co-ordinated projects, and Sweden as the land of structural project-ideology. The transformation has also resulted in a polarisation – an increased professionalisation in academic communities and deprofessionalisation in practice. A constant problem with community work is its temporary nature, due to dependence upon recurring projects. There is a great need for sector transcending and integrating research, knowledge and practice development within the area of community policy and practice, including community work.
4.
Bunar, Nihad
(författare)
Skolan mitt i förorten : - fyra studier om skola, segregation, integration och multikulturalism
2001
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this dissertation is first to bring into focus and analyze how relations between schools and the local community are affected when negative economic developments in combination with stigmatizing public representations or portrayals segregate the area. The second aim is to lift up and analyze what role schools are expected to, and actually do, play when an area with a large proportion of immigrants and socially marginalized residents is to be integrated via a set of political-ideological proclamations and concrete efforts. The empirical material that I analyze in the dissertation has been collected in the following districts of Stockholm: Jordbro, Rinkeby, Tensta, and Husby. The heart of the dissertation comprises of four independent studies (chapters 5-8), as well as an introductory section (chapters 1-4), in which the dissertation's background factors, theoretical and methodological framework, and central concepts (segregation and integration) are delineated. Chapter 9 comprises of a concluding discussion of the central findings of the dissertation. My primary theoretical source of inspiration is the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's way of looking at the relations between individuals and structures. Against the background of his work I contend that it is first when positions, lived experiences, and representations are placed in relation to each other in a specific context - a field - that we can see the complexity that makes an explanation possible of why and how segregation of areas with high proportions of immigrants and their schools can be carried out and maintained. This is the framework that I operationalize in my dissertation. The role in integration that schools are officially expected to play in the local community, and that is accepted as legitimate and worth pursuing by the leadership in schools has, for the most part been unsuccessful. In some respects it never really started. The reason for this is the way that the negative socio-economic conditions and representations have impacted the relations between various actors in the schools and local communities. I have also been able to show that when these relations work relatively well, there can be positive benefits for both the school and its socio-economically deprived, predominantly immigrant catchment area. The positive effects for the schools are marked, with regard to reputation, status, an improved economic situation, pedagogic development, and higher grades among the students. The positive benefits for the local community come primarily in the form of higher status and reputation.
5.
Larsson, Bengt, 1966-
(författare)
Bankkrisen, medierna och politiken : Offentliga tolkningar och reaktioner på 90-talets bankkris
2001
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation is a case study of the Swedish banking crisis in the early 1990s. It also treats general theoretical questions of the relation between the economy and society. The aim of the study is to give an account of interpretations of the banking crisis in public discourse, and of the societal attempts to steer the credit market by way of public opinion, political-administrative and legal means. The dissertation is divided into two parts, corresponding to the two aims. The focus of the first part is on interpretive disagreements over crisis-definitions, causal explanations and policy-packages. The account is based on a computer-aided qualitative analysis of 342 editorials/articles published during 1990-1995, supplemented with secondary sources. The main conclusion is that five competing interpretive packages dominated the public debate. In the beginning the scope of the crisis and the critique against the banks were rejected in a downgrading package and a defence package, advocated by the authorities, experts and the banks. These packages were later replaced by a market-critical fairness/ moral package and two variants of a market-advocating efficiency/functional package. Advocates of the former were actors from the political left, framing problems, causal explanations, and policy recommendations in resonance with traditional social democratic policy and radical political economy. Behind the latter stood the political centre-right politicians/editors, the banks, and economists, framing their interpretations in resonance with neoclassical economics and political neoliberalism. The focus of the second part is on the reactions to the crisis among the public and the customers, and within the administrative, legal and political systems. The analysis is based on media documents, survey data, official reports and committee reports from the Swedish parliament. In conclusion, the reactions in the political system corresponded to the antagonisms of the debate, with the centre-right parties advocating a pro-market policy in conflict with a more interventionist stance from the radical left and green parties, and with the social democrats in the middle. The public reaction comprised a loss of confidence and an increase in consumer organisation, and the media representations of public opinion were articulated mainly through the market-critical stance with strong political and moral indignation due to a lack of adequate administrative and legal sanctions against the banks. The analysis also confirmed that the legal processes met with considerable difficulties, which gave rise to “legal-offensive” claims from politicians and authorities. These were met, however, by more “defensive” claims from the official commission investigating the legal framework of the credit market, advocating a system of enforced and supervised self-regulation. A central conclusion was that the conflicts concerned not only the political dimension left– right, but also the opposition between system-integrative functional perspectives and those representing claims based on the social-integrative principles of the “life world” (morals and solidarity).
6.
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.
