1.
Dahlkild-Öhman, Gunilla, 1945-
(författare)
Att börja tala med barn om pappas våld mot mamma : Radikalt lärande i arbetet med vårdnad, boende och umgänge
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis explores the scope for children’s voices offered to children in court mandated investigations regarding custody, residence or contact. The focus is on children who have been exposed to their father’s violence against their mother The aim is to study how the legislators’ intentions concerning children’s participation in this area are implemented in work groups. The assumption is that implementation can be seen as collective learning. Implementation may in this case challenge established relations of power like age and gender orders. Professional discourses on violence have to shift from gender neutral to gendered discourses and discourses on children have to include a participation discourse. Learning which includes a shift in discourses and challenges established power relations is defined as radical learning.The approach is social constructionist and draws on group interviews with social workers specialized in family law.The thesis analyses which discourses of violence and of children are accessible and used at group level. This can be seen as a discursive opportunity structure. The discourses in question are: gender violence, child protection, treatment and family law discourses as well as care and participation discourses. The conclusion is that all these discourses are accessible to the professionals and the effects of the different discourses are discussed regarding the possibilities for creating a safe situation for mother and child during the investigation.The thesis furthermore analyses the organisation of the work groups. These characteristics can be seen as an organisational opportunity structure. The analysis shows different patterns in the groups when it comes to structure and stage of learning process. One group seems to be at the stage where the members are prepared to start talking to the child about the father’s violence.The final chapter presents a discussion of radical learning and the possibilities for radical social change when established power relations are challenged.
2.
Mjöberg, Jessica, 1977-
(författare)
Innerlighetens tid : En sociologisk undersökning av intimitet och senmodernitet
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Due to a recent increase in usage of the concept of intimacy within social scientific research, the overarching aim of this work is to investigate its meaning and significance in contemporary social life. The first part of the thesis reviews research on intimacy. Intimacy is perceived as being vaguely defined as a concept, leading to insufficient discussions concerning the significance of intimacy both as a social concept and as a social phenomenon in contemporary western society. In order to become more clearly defined as a social concept to use in future research, intimacy needs to be investigated as a social phenomenon. The second part explores and analyses intimacy as a social phenomenon by way of three partly phenomenological and partly theoretical analyses: the phenomenology of intimacy, the arithmetic of intimacy and the dark sides of intimacy. The three analyses result in a definition of intimacy understood as a kind of sociality, or mode of social being, characterized by an oceanic experience, mutual and complete directedness between the ones being in relation, an experience of mental as well as physical closeness, and an experience of time as “durée”. The third part discusses the proposed definition of intimacy as sociality in relation to contemporary social theory. In relation to an understanding of contemporary western society as late modern or radicalized modern, intimacy as sociality is discussed as a radicalization of a rational sociality, characteristic for modern society. The discussion takes the form of a dialectic critique of modern dualistic theories, proposing a triadic (dialectic) alternative for understanding basic forms of sociality and social relations. The vague notion of intimacy as a concept suited to characterize social life in contemporary western society is supported by this proposition.
3.
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.
4.
Bergman, Ann-Sofie, 1963-
(författare)
Lämpliga eller olämpliga hem? : Fosterbarnsvård och fosterhemskontroll under 1900-talet
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis is about foster family care in Sweden during the 20th century. In the beginning of the century many children lived in foster homes. Because of the law regulating state child care passed in 1926, children’s welfare boards were established in the municipalities. These boards were responsible for placing children with foster parents and for supervising foster homes. It was required of foster parents and foster homes to be suitable in order to be allowed to take care of a foster child. What was then meant by the term suitability? This was not clearly expressed; in the assessment of suitability there was room for discretion. The overall aim of this study is to describe and analyse dominant conceptions of what has been characterized as suitable foster homes and foster parents, through the examination of the child welfare practice. The study also deals with power as an essential aspect of how suitability is determined, as well as with the supervision of foster homes. Via a long-term analysis of foster care it is possible to describe patterns and trends, continuity and change over time. The study focused mainly on the children’s welfare board in the municipality of Växjö, and was also put into a broader context of foster care inspections in the county of Kronoberg and the debate on foster care in Swedish journals. Key concepts for this analysis have been discourse, professionalization, power relations, the clinical gaze, class, gender, normality and control.The discourse around the suitability of foster homes and foster parents changed during the 20th century. The greatest change took place in the early 1970s, when foster care began to be described in terms of treatment. This shift can mainly be understood in the context of: changes in what problems led to placement; deinstitutionalization; professionalization; along with the influences of psychology and psychiatry on social work. Focus shifted over time from material needs and physical health to social and mental health. However, the discourse also includes elements of continuity. The focus on foster mothers in the inspectors’ examinations and assessments has been persistent and strong, despite great social changes. The norm that foster children should grow up in a nuclear family has prevailed, and it grew even stronger over time. Sometimes conflicts arose between various actors in the foster care practice, due to differing opinions on what was suitable or unsuitable. When deciding upon this issue there could be negotiations or disputes between the involved children, their parents, foster parents and inspectors. Problems in the foster homes which captured the attention of the board, could lead to increased control or to the children’s relocation. Throughout the previous century there has been criticism regarding insufficient control. The idea that supervision should not only serve as control, but also as support has also been advanced. The focus on the inspector’s supporting role was strengthened over time during the century.
5.
Andersson, Catrine, 1982-
(författare)
Hundra år av tvåsamhet : Äktenskapet i svenska statliga utredningar 1909-2009
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of the thesis is to study the concept of marriage and discursive constructions linked to marriage in Swedish policy documents, SOU, 1909-2009. Focusing on marriage as a formal institution, and on form, rather than content – marriage is considered one of several ways of regulating intimate relationships, and the analysis is thus centred on the intimate and erotic aspects of marriage as an institution. Using queer and sociological theories on late modern intimacy, state regulation and concepts of norms, theoretical tools which make possible exploring historical discursive shifts of heteronormativity and coupledom are developed. Policy documents (SOU) are analysed using discourse analysis inspired by archaeology and history of concepts. In three chapters, each covering a part of the period 1909-2009, the discursive landscape of state intervention in marital and other coupled relations is traced. Three themes emerge in this analysis. Firstly, a discursive movement can be seen, from marriage, as a morally superior form of relation, to family, as one of several more or less encouraged forms of relations. Secondly, in using the theoretical framework of heteronormativity, it is suggested that heteronormativity is reshaped in paradoxical ways. The seemingly non-heteronormative, gender neutral marriage law introduced in 2009 was built discursively on a concept of love used from the 1980s in these materials for motivating extended civil rights for homosexuals. It was, however, a logic of love based on difference and essentialised homosexual identity. A non-heteronormative law was thus introduced on a heteronormative discursive basis, enforcing extended norms of coupledom in the process. Thirdly, the question of what discursive role marriage plays in relation to society is explored. By enforcing differentiation between sexual and non-sexual, reproductive and non-reproductive, coupled and non-coupled relationships, social order is maintained. For one hundred years, despite major changes, coupledom is constant.
6.
Egeberg Holmgren, Linn, 1979-
(författare)
IngenMansLand : om män som feminister, intervjuframträdanden och passerandets politik
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis explores constructions of gendered and gender political positions and practices of men identifying as ‘feminist’. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 28 men aged 20-34. At issue is how seemingly contradictory positions for men as feminists are made comprehensible in theory and practice. An introduction showcase theoretical discussions on gendered experiences and the possibilities of men being feminist, mainly from standpoint, radical feminist and poststructuralist radical constructionist perspectives. Men doing feminism emerge as an unresolved complex matter. This is followed by a critical discussion of state feminism, double emancipation and research on men and masculinities in the welfare state. The support for men’s participation, predominantly as white heterosexual fathers, in the Swedish gender equality project has consequences for the construction of men as potentially ‘new’, ‘good’ gender equal feminist subjects. In the construction of profeminist positions in interview performances, interviewees are located in-between the radical feminist, poststructuralist and gender equality perspectives on men, masculinity and feminism. Two themes involve an implementation of the concept of passing and introduce the analytical concept of co-fielding. Passing consists of the microsociological process of making radical and deconstructive profeminist positions authentic and yet being able to manage masculinity in homosocial contexts. Co-fielding refers to the conjoint interlacing of experiences, knowledge and meaning-making in interview interaction where relations of researcher-researched are characterized by discursive closeness and overlapping positions. Co-fielding practices affect the outcomes of co-construction of interview performances, the negotiation of gender and power relations and the reflexive use of (in this case feminist) knowledge in qualitative interviews. In analyzing the presentations of self, ambiguous meanings of profeminist positions emerge and the doing, undoing and redoing of feminism and masculinity appear multi-faceted. Radical feminism and radical constructionism seem intersected in making men’s feminist positions comprehensible. Such rebellious positions emerge as oxymoronic and, when critically brought into the gender equality context, located in a no man’s land out of place. In all, the thesis seeks to bring together theoretical, national and empirical locations of profeminist men, and in a concluding chapter also explore issues of ethics in feminist research and cross-gender interviewing.
7.
Lindquist, Bert, 1941-
(författare)
Deltagande integrerar individ och organisation : En teoretisk studie i integrationens former, mekanismer och processer
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of the present study is to clarify the nature of integration between the individual and the organization. I have utilized four analytical tools in this endeavor – forms of association, theoretical starting points, integrating factors, and principles of integration. The forms of association have been taken from Amitai Etzioni's model for describing the interplay between members' experience of an organization and organizational sanctions. These in turn provide us with three categories – coercion, when association is steered by constraint exercised by the organization; interest, when integration proceeds deliberately and voluntarily; and normative or institutional integration, when association is steered by a normative community. The starting point selected is important, and often decisive, for any effort to understand the connection between the individual and the organization. In the present effort to theoretically explain how a particular association between individual and organization emerges, I have deliberately selected human nature (the integrating unit) from the choice of two alternatives for the starting point. That is to say that the starting point for integration should be sought not in the organization, but in people. The reason for this decision is my contention that organizations have no organic form, and that they can be steered and influenced in a completely differently way than people. In order for the theoretical starting point to function as a explanatory factor, it should provide the location for an active element. I have chosen the individual's striving for development and maturity as the active element or integrating factor in this regard. The integration of individual and organization is fostered to the extent that the individual's striving for development is satisfied within the framework of the organization. I argue that participation is the principle of integration that serves this goal. In conclusion, participation promotes the integration of the individual and organization, and it drives the process of integration in respect to three forms of coordination – coercion, interest, and institutional integration. Submission (the absence of participation) leads to coercion. Negotiation (the preliminary stage of participation) leads to interest integration. Participation, finally, leads to institutional integration.
8.
Andersson Trovalla, Ulrika, 1972-
(författare)
Medicine for Uncertain Futures : A Nigerian City in the Wake of a Crisis
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The Nigerian city of Jos used to be seen as a peaceful place, but in 2001 it was struck by clashes that arose from what was largely understood as issues of ethnic and religious belonging. The event, which would become known as ‘the crisis’, was experienced as a rupture and a loss of what the city had once been, and as the starting point of a spiral of violence that has continued up to today. With the crisis, Jos changed. Former friends became enemies, and places that had been felt to be safe no longer were so. Previous truths were thrown into confusion, and Jos’s inhabitants found themselves more and more having to manoeuvre in an unstable world coloured by fear and anger. Life in Jos became increasingly hard to predict, and people searched for different ways forward, constantly trying out new interpretations of the world. This book, which is inspired by pragmatism, analyses the processes that were shaping the emergent city of Jos and its inhabitants in the aftermath of the crisis. At its core are some of Jos’s practitioners of traditional medicine. As healers, diviners, and providers of spells to protect from enemies or solve conflicts, they had special skills to influence futures that were becoming more and more unpredictable. Still, the medical practitioners were as vulnerable to the changing circumstances as everyone else. Their everyday lives and struggles to find their footing and ways forward under the changing circumstances are used as a point of departure to explore larger wholes: life during times characterised by feelings of uncertainty, fragmentation, fear, and conflict – in Jos as a city and Nigeria as a nation.
9.
Körling, Gabriella, 1980-
(författare)
In Search of the State : An Ethnography of Public Service Provision in Urban Niger
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This study explores public health and education provision in Niamey, the capital of Niger, by merging the ethnographic study of public services with an anthropological analysis of the state and of local politics. Based on anthropological fieldwork carried out in a group of neighbourhoods in the periphery of Niamey, the study highlights the political dimensions of public service provision in a local arena where international development interventions and national plans meet local realities and where a wide range of actors and institutions, dis-courses, meanings, and practices are mobilized in the offering of and the regulation of access to public services. It focuses on the political, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of public service provision, too often hidden behind contemporary buzzwords of development such as community participation and decentralization that dominate global debates about education and healthcare in developing countries. The study brings forth the strategies of urban resi-dents in dealing with daily challenges in the consolidation of service provision and in educa-tion and health-seeking trajectories. It shows that access to a satisfactory treatment of illness or a successful school career is premised on the ability to navigate on the medical and educa-tion markets, which are made up of a plurality of providers and of official and unofficial costs and transactions. Further, these public services engage different actors such as commu-nity committees, traditional chiefs, local associations, the municipality and elected municipal councillors, emergent leaders, NGOs, and international development aid. The study demon-strates that despite the uncertainty of state support in health and education provision and a widespread dissatisfaction with these public services, the image of the state as service pro-vider is reproduced on a day by day basis through local efforts at securing public services.
10.
Lundgren, Silje, 1978-
(författare)
Heterosexual Havana : Ideals and hierarchies of gender and sexuality in contemporary Cuba
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Drawing on two periods of ethnographic fieldwork in Vedado, Havana, in 2004–2007, this dissertation analyses the interconnections between gender, sexuality, and heterosexuality. With theoretical inspiration from the works of Stevi Jackson and Beverley Skeggs, it discusses how the logics underlying heterosexual relations also regulate hierarchical gendered ideals. It examines how gendered conceptions of sexuality confirm a position of heterosexual desirability, and traces a specifically heterosexual gender construction of men and women as oppositional forces, glued together in a relationship of eroticized complementarity.Moreover, the dissertation shows that the everyday negotiation of ideals around gender and sexuality is characterized by constant hierarchization. It explores how the emic concept of ‘cultural level’ is used in a process of othering to mark moral distance and create a position of superiority. It also suggests that in post-crisis Cuba, the body has become a new site on which to inscribe distinction and mark privilege, as a way of navigating in a context of new and unfamiliar differentiations.The dissertation demonstrates how female eroticism, male eroticized performances in street interaction, and the female body ideal are central sites for establishing an image of national particularity. In this historic moment, these have also become sites for marking difference and creating hierarchies. The dissertation argues that inclusive and unifying conceptions of ‘Cubanness’ are both delineated and reinforced through exclusion and the demarcation of difference within this collectivity.This notion of the nation carries gendered and sexualized inscriptions. It has been constructed through the historical exclusion of non-heterosexuality, which has been closely connected to the consolidation of a specific ideal of masculinity. The dissertation analyses the destabilizing potential of a shift in Cuban sexual politics during the last two decades and explores how this might imply a new configuration of the relationship between gender and sexuality.
