1.
Wide, Sverre, 1973-
(författare)
Människans mått : Om statistik, sociologi och världen som socialt vara
2005
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation should be understood as an effort to provide a kind of critique of statistical reason. “A kind”, since it has another focus as well: the question of sociality. It is argued that these two topics are closely interrelated, not only, as the short exploration into the prehistory of statistics shows, for historical, but also and mainly for systematic reasons.The first part of this thesis is concerned with methods; not, in fact, so much with different methods as with the idea of methods in general. The second part deals with statistics, its prehistory and structure. It is argued that statistics is inherently causal and always and only understands the world as means (for our power), as it is. The third part explores a socio-logic, a concept meant to capture both the essence of sociality and our understanding of this sociality. And sociality, in the last analysis understood as play or game, turns out to be what cannot be controlled or dealt with in a methodical manner; it can never be reduced to what it is. The fourth and final part discusses and tries to overcome the proposed antithetical relation between statistics (methods) and sociality, and discusses possible consequences of the analysis for the fields of sociology and social thinking.In sum: The dissertation contributes to our understanding of methods, statistics and sociality and their interrelations.
2.
Liedgren Dobronravoff, Pernilla
(författare)
Att bli, att vara och att ha varit : Om ingångar i och utgångar ur Jehovas vittnen
2007
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) 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.
3.
Forsberg Kankkunen, Tina, 1969-
(författare)
Två kommunala rum : Ledningsarbete i genusmärkta tekniska respektive omsorgs- och utbildningsverksamheter
2009
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this study is to describe and partially explain how management is shaped in female-dominated social care and education services and male-dominated technical services, and how this contributes to creating and reproducing a gender system in municipal organizations. This was achieved by interviewing male and female operative managers in social care and education services and technical services. The managerial work of operative managers was also problematized in relation to activities at other organizational levels – the operational versus the strategic. The theoretical fields used in the study are primarily those having to do with organization and gender. I describe how power structures like sex and gender influence the construction of management; for example, genderized environments generate managerial action patterns, resources, and organizational prerequisites. The analytical results show that managerial work in social care and education services differs in practice from managerial work in technical services. Social care and education services have poorer organizational prerequisites for social interaction among organization levels than do technical services. The discrete prerequisites for managerial work make it more difficult for operative managers in social care and education services to support and interact with staff at the operative level than it is for operative managers in technical services. Operative managers in social care and education services also find it more difficult to actively influence the decision processes than do operative managers in technical services. When operative managers in social care and education services are cut off from strategic decisions and prevented from showing and explaining their needs and activities, the gender system in municipal organizations can be reproduced in the shadows.
4.
Jegermalm, Magnus
(författare)
Carers in the Welfare State : On Informal Care and Support for Carers in Sweden
2005
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The general aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse patterns of informal care and support for carers in Sweden. One specific aim is to study patterns of informal care from a broad population perspective in terms of types of care and types of carer. A typology of four different care categories based on what carers do revealed that women were much more likely than men to be involved at the ‘heavy end’ of caring, i.e. providing personal care in combination with a variety of other caring tasks. Men were more likely than women to provide some kind of practical help (Study I).Another aim is to investigate which support services are received by which types of informal caregiver. Relatively few informal caregivers in any care category were found to be receiving any kind of support from municipalities or voluntary organizations, for example training or financial assistance (Study II).The same study also examines which kinds of help care recipients receive in addition to that provided by informal carers. It appears that people in receipt of personal care from an informal caregiver quite often also receive help from the public care system, in this case mostly municipal services. However, the majority of those receiving personal, informal care did not receive any help from the public care system or from voluntary organizations or for-profit agencies (Study II).The empirical material in studies I and II comprises survey data from telephone interviews with a random sample of residents in the County of Stockholm aged between 18 and 84.In a number of countries there is a growing interest among social scientists and social policymakers in examining the types of support services that might be needed by people who provide informal care for older people and others. A further aim of the present dissertation is therefore to describe and analyse the carer support that is provided by municipalities and voluntary organizations in Sweden. The dissertation examines whether this support is aimed directly or indirectly at caregivers and discusses whether the Swedish government’s special financial investment in help for carers actually led to any changes in the support provided by municipalities and voluntary organisations. The main types of carer support offered by the municipalities were payment for care-giving, relief services and day care. The chief forms of carer support provided by the voluntary organizations were support groups, training groups, and a number of services aimed primarily at the elderly care recipients (Study III).Patterns of change in municipal carer support could be discerned fairly soon. The Swedish government’s special allocation to municipalities and voluntary organisations appears to have led to an increase in the number of municipalities providing direct support for carers, such as training, information material and professional caregiver consultants. On the other hand, only minor changes could be discerned in the pattern of carer support services provided by the voluntary organizations. This demonstrates stability and the relatively low impact that policy initiatives seem to have on voluntary organizations as providers (Study IV).In studies III and IV the empirical material consists of survey data from mail questionnaires sent to municipalities and voluntary organizations in the County of Stockholm.In the fields of social planning and social work there appears to be a need to clarify the aims of support services for informal carers. Should the support be direct or indirect? Should it be used to supplement or substitute caregivers? In this process of reappraisal it will be important to take the needs of both caregivers and care recipients into account when developing existing and new forms of support. How informal caregivers and care recipients interact with the care system as a whole is undeniably a fertile field for further research.
5.
Schön, Ulla-Karin, 1970-
(författare)
Kvinnors och mäns återhämtning från psykisk ohälsa
2009
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The overall aim with this thesis is to describe and analyze women’s and men’s recovery processes. More specifically, the aim is to determine what women and men with experience of mental illness describe as contributing to the personal recovery process. The point of departure for the studies was 30 in-depth interviews conducted with 15 men and 15 women. The selection of interview subjects was limited to individuals who had been treated in 24-hour psychiatric care and diagnosed as having schizophrenia, psychosis, a personality disorder, or a bipolar disorder. Four studies have been carried. Study 1 was a baseline article that examined what people in recovery from mental illness outline as facilitating factors to their recovery. The results that emerged from that study indicated areas for further analysis to condense the understanding of the recovery process. In study 2 the similarities and the differences in recovery described by women and men were examined. In Study 3 women’s and men’s meaning-making with reference to severe mental illness facilitate the recovery process were studied. The forth study explored how peer-support contribute to women’s and men’s recovery from mental illness. The results emphasize recovery from mental illness as a social process in which relationships play a key role in creating new identities beside the mental illness. For a majority of the participants meeting peers facilitated the recovery process. The participants described how peer support meant an end to isolation and became an arena for identification, connection, and being important to others. Throughout these recovery processes the impact of gender has been emphasized. The results from this thesis provide new insight into gender as an important factor in understanding the recovery processes. The results from the four studies emphasize the mental patient, the psychiatric interventions and the individual recovery strategies as being influenced by gender constructions.
6.
Strandberg, Thomas, 1965-
(författare)
Vuxna med förvärvad traumatisk hjärnskada - omställningsprocesser och konsekvenser i vardagslivet : en studie av femton personers upplevelser och erfarenheter av att leva med förvärvad traumatisk hjärnskada
2006
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The overall purpose of this study is to illuminate the changeover process experienced by individuals who as adults acquired a traumatic brain injury (TBI), to increase the knowledge and the understanding of this process, and describe the meaning of support in every day life.Persons who acquired a TBI as adults were administered a semi-structured interview covering six areas: consequences of TBI, family and social networks, working life and occupation, life-changes, support from society and everyday life. The interviews were qualitative and in-depth. A total of 15 informants participated, aged between 19-53 years when injured. Data were structured and underwent two phases of analysis. In the first phase, data underwent latent content analysis, underpinned by a hermeneutic approach, and in the subsequent phase, reanalysed within a framework derived from the theory of social recognition.Findings from the first phase of inductive analysis elicited key themes: (i) the meaning of care, a question of formal and/or informal support; (ii) the meaning of action, a question of activity versus inactivity; (iii) autonomy, a question of dependence versus independence; (iv) social interaction, a question of encounter and/or treatment; (v) the theme of changes, a question of process versus stagnation; and (vi) emotions, an oscillation between hope versus hopelessness. After the construction of the six themes each of them were, through a discursive analysis, connected with theories, earlier studies in the field of brain injuries and important interview quotations from the empirical material. During this phase, an interest developed to study the material from a new theoretical point of view. The second phase of analysis therefore involved the development of a framework derived from Honneth’s (1995) theory of social recognition. The central construct of ‘recognition’ was analysed from three different dimensions proposed by Honneth: the individual dimension, the legal dimension, the value dimension. Using this framework, the data were reanalysed. The scientific term for this process of re-contextualisation and re-description of data is abduction inference.Reported consequences were negative as well as positive. Significant others (e.g. next of kin) had an important function as a driving force for training and preparation for life-situation after injury. A majority of the informants were satisfied with support from society, such as hospital-care, rehabilitation and community support. Such support, initially, proceeded without problems but as time passed, the responsibility shifted to the person with TBI to take the initiative in arranging longer-term services. Long-term support which addresses physical, cognitive as well as psychosocial consequences of the TBI is important for outcomes. The majority of the informants had difficulties in returning to working life after the injury. The outcomes and recovery seemed to be a prolonged process, probably never ending, but which gradually over time becomes integrated as a part of life. The informants gave varying accounts of the extent to which they experienced social recognition.
