1.
Goldschmidt, Tina, 1988-
(författare)
Immigration, Social Cohesion, and the Welfare State : Studies on Ethnic Diversity in Germany and Sweden
2017
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Can social cohesion and solidarity persist in the face of large-scale migration? One particularly contentious hypothesis states that native majorities will be unwilling to support the provision of government-funded welfare to those whom they do not consider to be part of their own sociocultural ingroup, especially when sociocultural or ethnic otherness and socioeconomic disadvantage overlap. Consequently, majorities’ willingness to accept disadvantaged immigrant groups as legitimate and trusted members of the welfare community is central to the social cohesion of societies diversifying through migration.The dissertation consists of a comprehensive summary, followed by four original studies addressing the interplay between migration-induced diversity and social cohesion through the lens of majority attitudes and the micro and macro contexts within which they are embedded. The studies focus on Sweden and Germany, two European societies that host strong welfare states and large immigrant populations. Together, they seek to answer two central questions:First, does social distance between native-born citizens and immigrants lead the former to withdraw support from all redistributive policies, or are some types of welfare more affected than others? Second, how does the migration-induced diversification of societies come to matter for majority attitudes toward the welfare state and, as they are closely related, for majority attitudes toward the trustworthiness of others?Looking at the case of Germany, Study 1 shows that the conflict between diversity and welfare solidarity is not expressed in a general majority opposition to welfare, but rather in an opposition to government assistance benefiting immigrants – a phenomenon sometimes referred to as welfare chauvinism.Study 2 turns to the case of Sweden and investigates three pathways into welfare chauvinism: via the first-hand experience of immigrant unemployment and putative welfare receipt in the neighborhood context; via exposure to immigrant competition at the workplace; and via negative prejudice against immigrants. We find that the direct observation of immigrant unemployment in the neighborhood increases natives’ preference for spending on other Swedes over spending on immigrants, while competition with immigrants at the workplace does not.Using the same Swedish data, Study 3 hypothesizes that ethnically diverse workplaces imply trust-fostering inter-group contact. Yet, like in Study 2, we find a negative relationship between majority Swedes’ exposure to certain immigrant groups in the neighborhood and their trust in neighbors, while diverse workplaces neither seem to increase trust nor to affect the negative neighborhood-level association.Both Studies 2 and 3 show that negative attitudes toward immigrants increase welfare chauvinism and lower trust, even disregarding majority Swedes’ actual experience of immigrant presence or unemployment. Study 4 thus turns to a social force outside the realm of first-hand experience and explores German online news media debates on the welfare deservingness of various sociodemographic groups – among them, immigrants (as refugees in particular). However, rather than observing the persistent and particular stigmatization of immigrants as undeserving recipients or untrustworthy abusers of welfare, we find much more nuanced descriptions in our vast corpus of news stories.
2.
Pauletto, Franco, 1968-
(författare)
L’ordine sociale a tavola : L’interazione tra genitori e figli in famiglie italiane e svedesi
2017
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation examines mealtime conversations between parents and children in eight Swedish and eight Italian middle class, dual-earner households, exploring the ways in which children are engaged in the cooperative construction of social order. The study is part of an international project (cf. Aronsson & Pontecorvo, 2002), coordinated with prior work in the US (cf. Ochs & Kremer-Sadlik, 2013).Study I explores how children’s accounts work during family dinner conversations. So called proto-accounts (laments, multiple repeats, want-statements) and varied verbal accounts are analyzed in relation to age class or prior language socialization experiences.Study II focuses on the use of endearment terms in directive sequences between parents and children. The findings show an asymmetrical distribution of endearment terms, in that only parents make use of them when interactional problems – children’s non-compliance with parental requests in particular – arise. Study III examines the ways in which Italian parents deploy the discourse marker dai (‘come on’) in directive sequences. This is a flexible linguistic resource that is employed by parents as a cajoling token when children fail to comply with parental requests, hindering the advancement of the in-progress activity.This thesis describes family mealtimes as parent-directed activities where sociality, morality and local understandings of the world (Ochs & Shohet, 2006) are collaboratively re-created and enacted. This confirms the crucial role of everyday family meals as rich cultural sites (Ochs & Shohet, 2006) for reasserting moral attitudes of the family: participants learn moment by moment how to be competent actors that are able to choose between alternative courses of action and that can therefore be held accountable for their actions (Bergmann, 1998: 284). From this point of view, a dinner is paradigmatic of the deep moral sense that permeates the making of a family.
3.
Backlund Rambaree, Brita, 1977-
(författare)
Contextualising Constructions of Corporate Social Responsibility : Social Embeddedness in Discourse and Institutional Contexts
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) have become predominant frameworks connecting business to society that have spread across the globe. They comprise a shared set of ideas and practices, such as those promoted in global reporting standards and by international organisations such as the UN Global Compact. Nonetheless, both are constructed and reproduced by companies in relation to context-specific social institutions, including norms and conventions shaping company engagement in social issues. Using a neo-institutionalist theoretical framework, the thesis examines constructions of social responsibility in discourse and within institutional contexts, across regions that are not often compared in the research terrain: two West European welfare states (Sweden and the UK) and two emerging African economies (South Africa and Mauritius). The purpose of the thesis is to add to the literature on CSR and SRI with a sociologically informed perspective that is comparative and connects institutional theory with social constructionism and a Foucauldian perspective on power. The thesis analyses how perceptions of CSR and SRI are constructed in relation to the social institutions that encase companies’ engagement with social issues, such as national level welfare configurations and the institution of financial investments. The main argument in this thesis is that CSR and SRI need to be seen as contextually constructed, in discourse and practice, in ways that draw the boundaries and set the conditions for company engagement with social issues.The thesis comprises three articles. Article 1 is a content analysis of company self-reporting on CSR and the article examines how the content given to CSR relates to broader welfare configurations and as such differs in four national settings across the divide between emerging African economies and Western welfare states. Article 2 is a discourse analysis that examines interpretative repertoires occurring in company self-reporting across the same set of four countries. The interpretative repertoires are analysed as discursive practices where power intersects with the production of knowledge on CSR. Article 3 focuses on SRI and examines responsible investing as a form of institutional work that institutional investors engage in. Based on an interview study with institutional investors in Sweden, the article analyses institutional work as a process that has the effect of both institutional creation and maintenance and it connects these institutional processes to the construction of meaning on SRI. In its entirety the thesis contributes a sociological perspective on how prevailing understandings of corporate social responsibility come into being and are reproduced.
4.
Dahlberg, Johan, 1978-
(författare)
Parents, Children and Childbearing
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This doctoral thesis provides a set of studies of social influences on fertility timing. Swedish register data are used to link individuals to their parents and siblings, thereby allowing the study of impacts of family of origin, social background, and parental death on fertility. The Swedish Medical Birth Register is used to investigate the effect of mode of delivery on higher order births. The thesis consists of an introductory chapter with an overview of the consequences and predictors of the timing of childbearing, and a theoretical framework to explain these relationships. This chapter also includes a section where the contribution to existing knowledge, the relation of the findings to life course theory, and suggestion for further research are discussed. This chapter is followed by four original empirical studies. The first study applies sister and brother correlations to investigate and estimate the impact of family of origin on fertility. It shows that family of origin matters for fertility timing and final family size. The study also shows that the overall importance of family of origin has not changed over the approximately twenty birth cohorts that were studied. The second study introduces three dimensions of social background - occupational class, status, and education - into fertility research. It suggests that social background, independent of individuals’ own characteristics, matters for the timing of first birth and the risk of childlessness. The study also shows that different dimensions of social background should not be used interchangeably. The third study uses the Swedish Medical Birth Register to investigate the effect of mode of delivery on the propensity and birth interval of subsequent childbearing. It demonstrates that mode of delivery has an impact on the progression to the second and third births but that a first delivery by vacuum extraction does not reduce the propensity of subsequent childbearing to the same extent as a first delivery by emergency or elective caesarean section. The fourth study explores the effects of parental death on adult children's fertility. The findings reveal that parental death during reproductive ages can affect children’s fertility. The effects are moderated by the gender of the child and when in the life course bereavement occurs. The combined output of these four studies provides evidence that human fertility behavior is embedded in social relationships with kin and friends throughout life. Family of origin, social background, an older sibling's birth, and bereavement following parental death influence the adult child's fertility. These findings add knowledge to previous research on intergenerational and social network influences in fertility.
5.
Dunlavy, Andrea, 1979-
(författare)
Between Two Worlds : Studies of migration, work, and health
2017
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis aims to investigate the extent to which work-related factors contribute to the health inequalities often observed between foreign-origin and native-origin persons in Sweden. Four empirical studies using survey data and population-based registers assessed the health impact of different labor market adversities among groups of foreign-origin persons who were both in and outside the labor market relative to native-origin Swedes.Studies I and II examined associations between different measures of working life quality, including adverse psychosocial and physical working conditions and educational mismatch, and self-reported health among the employed. Adverse psychosocial and physical working conditions minimally contributed to the excess risk of poor health found among workers from low- and middle-income countries. Over-education had a stronger association with increased risk of poor health, most notably among foreign-born workers from countries outside of Western Europe. Under-educated women from these countries also demonstrated an elevated risk of poor health. There was no association between educational mismatch and poor health among native-born workers. Studies III and IV focused on the health implications of labor market exclusion, and examined relationships between employment status and risk of all-cause mortality and suicide. The majority of foreign-origin groups that experienced unemployment showed an elevated risk of both mortality and suicide. The magnitude of excess risk varied by generational status and region of origin. Variations in patterns of suicide risk were also evident among migrants by age at arrival and duration of residence. Yet within many foreign-origin groups, health advantages were observed among the employed.The health of migrants is affected by the confluence of several different pre- and post-migration factors. The extent to which health inequalities are found among persons of foreign-origin in Sweden is influenced by the degree to which they experience labor market adversities, as well as differential vulnerability to the negative effects of these adversities across foreign-origin groups.
6.
Elveborg Lindskog, Elina, 1976-
(författare)
Effects of violent conflict on women and children : Sexual behavior, fertility, and infant mortality in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis investigates the relationship between violent conflicts and sexual and reproductive health in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The aim of the thesis is to investigate how war affects demographic outcomes across individual life courses. The thesis contributes to the research field by linking macro level conflict data measuring the intensity and frequency of violent conflict with micro level data on women’s sexual and birth histories and infant deaths across time and place.The results show that war affects infants’ survival and women’s sexual and reproductive health and behavior. The first study finds an increase of premarital first sexual intercourse during the violent conflicts in Rwanda. The second study finds evidence of a delay in the fertility transition due to the Congolese war and the lingering conflicts in East DRC. The third study suggests that the Congolese war affects infant mortality, but only post-neonatal mortality.Despite consistent evidence that conflict affects the everyday life of women and children, the mechanisms that explain this relationship are largely unknown. This thesis identifies important gaps in the research that limit our understanding of the mechanisms at work.
7.
Engzell, Per, 1984-
(författare)
Intergenerational Persistence and Ethnic Disparities in Education
2016
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis consists of four self-contained essays in the sociology of educational stratification. Study I draws on newly collected survey data to assess the biases that arise in estimating socioeconomic differences in achievement when relying on parent and student reported data on social background. The main finding is that student reports on parental occupation overcome both the problem of misreporting that plagues other data collected from children, and the equally damaging problem of selective nonresponse among parents. Conditional estimates of ethnic disparities are relatively unaffected by these issues.Study II deals with student survey reports on the number of books in the home. A prominent string of authors has favoured this variable as a social background proxy over parental occupation or education based on its strong associations with educational outcomes. The paper applies various methods to large-scale student assessment data to show that these associations rest not on higher reliability as commonly assumed, but rather on two types of endogeneity. Low achievers accumulate less books and are also prone to underestimate their number.Study III uses survey and register data to study immigrant parents' education and its associations with children's achievement in recent Swedish cohorts. Two aspects of parental education are distinguished: the absolute years of schooling and a relative place in the source country's educational distribution. Parents' absolute education turns out to predict children's test scores and grades, whereas relative education is a better predictor of their educational aspirations. The result is of some consequence for studies seeking to assess ethnic disparities net of observed parental characteristics.Study IV extends the positional approach of Study III to understand immigrants' self-perceived social status and income satisfaction in European countries. Those higher educated by origin country than host country standards make more dismal assessments of their current situation than do other immigrants in otherwise similar circumstances. This is attributed to a social contrast mechanism and argued to be of relevance in understanding longer-term patterns of social and economic integration, including educational decisions made by the second generation.
8.
Kap, Hrvoje, 1980-
(författare)
Comparative Studies of Vocational Education and Training
2015
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The thesis consists of an introduction and three studies, which are comparative sociological and institutional analyses of a number of countries' publicly regulated vocational education and training systems at upper secondary and post-secondary level. Official regulation of programme content and curricula - the main empirical material - is interpreted, and focus is directed on aspects which distinguish between, among others, general and vocational elements of teaching, learning and training. The analyses employ concepts from educational studies, historical sociology and institutional sociology with the aim of conceptual elaboration and illumination of similarities and differences between cases.Study I compares upper secondary vocational education and training programmes in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The programmes are analysed and compared with respect to scope, sequence and selection of curricular units of subject matter and periods of training. Programmes combine general and vocational elements in various ways, thereby offering choices for obtaining both the occupation-related qualification, as well as higher education eligibility. The combination of curricular units with additional subject matter seems to, in some cases, lead to emerging learning aims.Study II focuses on vocational education and training systems at upper secondary level in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and seeks to identify differences and similarities by conceptualising features of ideal types along different dimensions. It furthermore develops a method of analysis and visualisation which enables more accurate understanding of how various learning aims are designed within educational programmes. Some of the results indicate that the resources necessary for attaining the full, intended educational qualification are not guaranteed in any of the three cases; however, this applies particularly to apprenticeship-based programmes, where it can be attained only after training contracts with status-like features, resembling parts of occupational jurisdictions, are seized within sheltered circumstances. In the school-based programmes, a larger proportion of resources are guaranteed, but training is shorter and less vocationally oriented. Vocational education and training programmes in all three systems orient learning not only towards vocational, but also general learning aims.Study III compares admission criteria to post-secondary vocational education and training programmes in Denmark and Sweden, focusing on the Danish erhvervsakademi and the Swedish yrkeshögskola. Options, as elements of life chances, for individuals holding upper secondary vocational education qualifications who wish to apply for admission to these programmes, differ in terms of scope between the two cases. In the Swedish case, options are wide and mostly structured by course-based admission criteria; while in the Danish case, options are more narrow and structured by qualification-based admission criteria.
9.
Kjellsson, Sara, 1975-
(författare)
Sick of Work? : Questions of Class, Gender and Self-Rated Health
2017
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis examines two aspects of social inequalities in health with three empirical studies that are based on the Swedish Level of Living survey (LNU): The relationship between accumulated occupational class positions during adulthood and health and the class-specific nature of gender differences in health. Previous research continuously finds that there are health differences by class and gender, but less is known about the extent to which accumulated class experiences in adulthood are related to health or how gender differences vary by class. The overall conclusion in this thesis is that occupational class experiences matters for health, both as historical and current experiences. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of taking class into consideration when examining health differences between men and women, as the mechanisms that underlie the gender gaps in health are not necessarily the same for all classes. The studies can be outlined as:Study I: Class differences in working conditions is a mechanism that underlies class inequalities in health. The working class is generally more exposed to adverse working environments than non-manual employees, and when the wear and tear of these conditions accumulate over time, the length of this exposure may contribute to class inequalities in health. Thereby, accumulated time in the working class is studied as a partial explanation for class differences in health. The results suggest that the duration of time in the working class is related to a higher probability of less than good self-rated general health (SRH), given current class position. This association was also found among individuals who were no longer in working class positions and thus show that duration of experience matters, both as current and past experience.Study II: The study addresses the research gap of class-specificity in gender health inequality and seeks to further disentangle class and gender by studying gender gaps separately by class. The results show that there are class-specific gender gaps for both SRH and musculoskeletal pain, while the gender gap in psychiatric distress appears to be more general across class. Working conditions do not explain the between-class differences in gender gaps but contribute to specific gender differences in health within classes.Study III: The labour market has changed over time and has “upgraded” the class structure while at the same time the share of women in paid employment has increased. Therefore, female health may be increasingly influenced by occupational factors, such as working conditions. This study explores the class-specific nature of gender differences and investigates musculoskeletal pain and working conditions among employed men and women within classes during a time-period that spanned more than 30 years. There were class-specific gender gaps in health throughout the period. The gender gap has increased more, and is wider, among non-manual employees compared to the working classes. This development could not be explained by changes in working conditions.
10.
Kridahl, Linda, 1984-
(författare)
Time for Retirement : Studies on how leisure and family associate with retirement timing in Sweden
2017
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Retirement transition is a major life event in later adult life. Its timing is important for older individuals for economic, personal and family reasons, as well as for aging societies contemplating a comprehensive plan for population changes, including sustainability of the labor force, pension system, and welfare services such as eldercare. This thesis explores retirement timing in contemporary Sweden, which serves as an interesting case study because of its aging population, high labor force participation of men and women, universal pension system and generous welfare services. The overarching aim of the thesis is to investigate how relationships in the private sphere associate with retirement timing by focusing on leisure engagement, family relations and intergenerational ties.The thesis consists of an introductory chapter and four empirical studies. The purpose of the introductory chapter is to place the four studies in context by focusing on the Swedish population structure, labor force participation and pension system and by highlighting some of the central theories and empirical findings related to retirement transition.Study I addresses leisure engagement before retirement and retirement timing, and how engagement in leisure changes after retirement. The study finds that retirement timing varies by both the type of preretirement activity domain and the level of engagement. For instance, occasional or frequent engagement in dance and music postponed retirement compared to no engagement in these activities. The study also finds that patterns of leisure engagement after transition into retirement tend to be a continuation of the corresponding preretirement patterns.Study II investigates the association between grandparenthood and retirement timing. The results show that grandparents at different life stages are more likely to retire compared to non-grandparents, but there is also variation among grandparents, and the more complex the family situation, the more likely grandparents are to retire.In Study III, the focus shifts to the relationship between survival of elderly parents and retirement timing. The study finds that parental survival is positively linked to retirement timing and that the effects are stronger and more consistent for women thanfor men, in particular when only one parent is still alive. Additionally, women have a higher propensity of retiring in the immediate period after parental death, especially when the father is widowed. In contrast, men have a higher propensity of retiring when either the mother or father has been widowed for some years.Study IV examines married couples’ propensity to coordinate retirement. The study finds that the likelihood that spouses will coordinate their retirement decreases as their age difference increases but that age differences have a similar effect on retirement coordination for couples with a larger age difference. The study also finds that coordination is largely gender neutral in opposite-sex couples with age differences, regardless of whether the male is the older spouse.The thesis shows that, compared to wealth or health predictors of retirement, factors concerning the private sphere are also most relevant in non-trivial ways to large shares of retirees in Sweden. Increased knowledge of these relationships is important both for individuals’ retirement planning and for decision-makers’ and policy-makers’ planning and organization.
