1.
Bromark, Kristina, 1973-
(author)
The user as a key actor in user participation : Exploring knowledge production in personal social services with a participatory approach
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The concept of user participation in social work is frequently debated. In Sweden, users are supposed to be active and involved in matters concerning them, a stance which is regulated in policy and law. The involvement of users in practice can be considered a form of knowledge production that can strengthen and develop users as well as the organizations. In practice, however, research shows that actual engagement, education or activation of users is difficult to attain and can be understood as a devaluation of user knowledge. The aim of this dissertation is to increase knowledge of how to understand and enhance the conditions for user participation in personal social services. To study this question, the dissertation focuses especially on young people’s participation in the context of out-of-home care. To explore user participation in personal social services, a participatory approach was applied. Data was gathered with young people and staff using participatory techniques as well as qualitative interviews. To explore challenges and possibilities with user participation, a future workshop was held with staff in personal social services (study I). This was followed by a co-design process in which staff, young people, and researchers collaborated on a support tool (study II), later to be implemented in practice (study III). The implementation process was explored by interviewing both staff and managers as well as a user representative (from a youth council). The co-design and implementation processes are problematized and discussed in the dissertation from a researcher’s perspective (study IV). The theoretical framework for understanding how users can be devalued as knowers is epistemic injustice. The assumption is that the role of a knower can shift, depending on social power and the structures in a context. The findings in this dissertation show that user participation is contingent on the distribution of power and responsibility and on perceptions of knowers and knowledge in practice. Although the general attitude towards user participation is positive, a reluctance in practice is revealed. It appears to be a challenge for staff to acknowledge the expertise of users, despite the fact that the users’ have the capacity and are willing to contribute with their knowledge. Work with user participation is identified as a team effort that requires actions at all levels of the organization as well as increased resources, leadership and a coherent understanding and agreement of the concept. A participatory approach to knowledge production with users is identified as a possible way to enhance epistemic justice and the inclusion of all relevant actors in activities and processes. The dimensions important to user participation can be acknowledged. For the dynamics to be maintained in a wider sense, however, an organizational infrastructure, with routines and methods, is necessary. To sustain epistemic justice in the implementation of user participation, a participatory culture with a solid and coherent understanding of user participation in practice is encouraged. A realization of user participation in practice requires a critical exploration of power and positions, systematic changes to infrastructure and transparency about roles and responsibility.
2.
Duntava, Aija, 1985-
(author)
A View on the Invisible : A Study of Relationships between Different Aspects of Health in Populations
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis studies relationships between different aspects of health. Health is a multi-faceted concept consisting of various aspects: most commonly morbidity, functional limitation, subjective health, and mortality. The relationships between these aspects, however, are not fully understood, so this thesis aims at contributing to our knowledge on the topic. Three studies are included, each with a particular aim within the general objective.The first study is a systematic review of the articles that have attempted to study more than two aspects of health in one model. The review maps out the field of study, presenting and summarising the results of the articles selected to review, thereby also highlighting gaps in the research. One of its conclusions is that studies approaching health as one interconnected system are rare and that the relationships between the different aspects of health do not consistently show significant effects on each other. Additionally, many population groups in terms of age and place of residence are understudied. The findings from the systematic review have largely guided the scientific curiosity of the following two empirical studies.The second study proposes and tests a parsimonious model of health structure consisting of morbidity, functional limitation, and subjective health on the adult respondents of European Social Survey (n=32,679) using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that, in general, the proposed model holds true but there are age and gender differences in the health structure.The third study explores the variations in the health structure of the adult population in 17 countries in three European regions (North, East, and West). The results show that the model does not apply in all the studied groups across the regions. Clear gender difference in health structure exist in the Western and Northern parts of Europe but not in the East. As to age groups, the analyses show that young adults are similar in their health structure across the regions while there are regional differences between the other two age groups.This thesis shows that it is necessary to study the relationships between different aspects of health as one interconnected system. Furthermore, when health is at centre of scientific inquiry its multiple dimensions as well as age, gender, and regional variations should be acknowledged and taken into account.
3.
Fjellborg, Daniel, 1988-
(author)
Strategies and Actions in Swedish Mining Resistance : Mapping Anti-Extraction Movements and Exploring How Their Interpretations of Socio-Political Context Shape Mobilization Against Mining Projects
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Across the world, the demand for minerals is steadily increasing. In Europe, the push for mining coincides with rising public mobilization against extraction projects, and mining-related conflicts will likely be a feature of Europe’s foreseeable future. To understand the trajectories of mining conflicts, and to find just ways of handling them, it is important to understand the strategies and actions of the networks of actors that oppose extraction projects, that is, anti-extraction movements. While previous research has primarily explored mining resistance in the Global South, our knowledge about mining resistance in Europe is lacking. I contribute to filling this gap by investigating anti-extraction movements in Sweden, a long-term producer of minerals. The aim of the thesis is thus to explore what strategies and actions anti-extraction movements in Sweden use and how and why they choose them. I use social movement theory and emphasize how choices of strategies and actions are shaped by the socio-political context in which movements are embedded. With the help of frame analysis and an interpretive research approach, I explore how movement actors’ interpretations of contextual opportunities and constraints shape their actions, thus contributing to the ongoing research debate about how surrounding societal actors and institutions influence movement agency. In four papers, building on an extensive document analysis and interviews with movement actors, I systematically map and analyse anti-extraction movements in Sweden and provide in-depth studies of selected cases. I ask two research questions: 1. What anti-extraction movements are there in Sweden, in what socio-political contexts are they embedded, and what actions have they taken? 2. How do anti-extraction movements’ goals and interpretations of contextual opportunities and constraints shape their strategies and actions?The thesis presents the first comprehensive mapping of anti-extraction movements in Sweden and shows that mining resistance has increased across Sweden during the last two decades. My results reveal that movements use a wide range of actions, from civil disobedience and public demonstrations to litigation and political lobbying, and are composed of heterogeneous mixes of actors, including newly formed activist networks, organizations for farmers and Indigenous Sámi, and environmental organizations. Movements promote several visions for societal development, including environmental protection and sustainability, Sámi Indigenous rights and culture, and landowners’ rights and agriculture. In international comparison, the Swedish anti-extraction movements to a larger extent aim to influence political and legal actors and place less emphasis on project owners and corporate investors. Regarding how socio-political context shapes strategies and actions, my results indicate that movement actors’ interpretations of contextual opportunities do not always align with researchers’ understandings of what an opportunity is, thus producing unexpected actions. Movement actors’ interpretations of opportunities and constraints are found to be influenced by their goals, their comparisons of available options, their previous experiences, and their role in relation to other actors in the movement. My research shows that socio-political context often influences movement actors’ strategies and actions via their interpretations of opportunities and constraints for achieving goals. My results also suggest that socio-political context shapes movement actors’ strategies and actions by presenting them with appropriate ways to act in society. Lastly, my studies indicate that additional factors, including movement actors’ action traditions and identities, resources, and the diffusion of strategies, can influence movement actors’ interpretations of contextual opportunities and strategies and actions.
4.
Ginnerskov, Josef, 1989-
(author)
Quest for Sociology : Revisiting Prevailing Understandings of a Discipline with Computational Text Analyses of Dissertations
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
What is sociology? For centuries sociologists have struggled to answer this question and repeatably proclaimed that their discipline is in crisis. The problem has generated a field of its own, the sociology of sociology, where sociologists of knowledge offer concepts for how the paradigmatic status of discipline and its crisis ought to be understood. Yet, the foundation of these understandings has often been limited to conceptual reasonings, historical exposes, and anecdotes from prominent scholars. Following the increasing availability of digitized texts and the development of computational techniques, new venues have been opened for investigating the empirical bearing of what sociology is. This dissertation offers a synthesis of, and a contribution to, this growing literature at the intersection of the sociology of knowledge and computational social science.The starting point is a review of literature in the sociology of sociology that has found that our discipline is believed to exist in a state of fragmentation, lacks a paradigm, and is conditioned by the context of its production. Akin to the supposed crisis, these conceptualizations are often taken for granted rather than being empirically put to test. This is why this dissertation aims to shed new light on the crisis of sociology by empirically scrutinizing prevailing disciplinary understandings with an interpretative and theory-driven methodological approach to computational text analysis (i.e., word correlation networks, topic modeling, stylometry, and shallow neural networks). To account for textual representations of sociological knowledge that are firmly institutionalized and exist across different local contexts, hundreds of dissertations in this discipline published in Sweden between 1980 and 2019 by five main universities have been digitized to form two corpora – 380 full-texts and 850 abstracts. Using these corpora, the conceptualizations are operationalized to be able to scrutinize, and trace, reoccurring instances where dissertations allude to certain images of sociology, which, drawing on the work of Margaret Masterman, can be regarded as crude replicas of paradigms. The study design allows us to problematize prevailing understandings of what sociology is.In contrast to the notion of fragmentation, the corpora are constituted by a core conditioned by local institutions attuned to different paradigmatic images of sociology. A discrepancy is also found between the two corpora where the abstracts appear to follow a divide between qualitative and quantitative research, and the full-texts are characterized by five paradigms with distinct methodological, epistemological, and ontological positions. These results suggest that the coexistence of multiple paradigms has been conflated with fragmentation and that sociologists tend to present their knowledge along the lines of simplified dichotomies. In response to the crisis, a more fruitful approach might be to embrace paradigm pluralism.As a contribution to the sociology of knowledge, this dissertation is an example of how the methodological divide can be overcome by merging insights from the conceptual strand with a hermeneutical take on computational methods to empirically explore taken-for-granted assumptions behind the production of disciplinary knowledge.
5.
Härd, Sofia, 1992-
(author)
Knowledge in practice : The feasibility of recovery capital in Swedish alcohol and other drug treatment
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The recovery model, endorsed by various governmental bodies, emphasises the integration of a recovery perspective into alcohol and drug policy, with a focus on post-treatment interventions such as housing, employment and education needs. In an effort to enhance the utility of the recovery perspective in treatment, the concept of recovery capital (RC) has been used as a foundation for operationalisations used to measure treatment needs and progress. While other countries have embraced the recovery model and RC in alcohol and other drug (AOD)-related policy and treatment, the treatment setting in Sweden has not undergone a comparable transformation. This dissertation aims to explore the feasibility of implementing RC in Swedish AOD treatment. It examines the transferability and applicability of assessment tools and considers the challenges of translating research into practice. This involves delving into the complexities of knowledge transfers, production and use in order to bridge the gap between research findings and practical implementation. The feasibility study involved qualitative interviews with AOD treatment professionals to gather their perspectives on the applicability of an RC-based assessment tool (Papers II and III). Insights into feasibility were also obtained from a quantitative study assessing treatment progress in individuals residing in a recovery residence in Florida, USA, using an established RC-based assessment tool (Paper I). To further evaluate the target setting for the feasibility study, the use of a locally developed assessment tool was explored through a deviant case analysis (Paper IV). The dissertation’s theoretical framework is built upon conceptualisations of standardisations and professions that emphasise their interconnected nature and thereby underscore the significance of their relationship in the analysis of knowledge production and use, thus situating the study within a broader theoretical discourse on the interplay between standardisation and professionalism.The findings confirm the applicability of the RC concept in Swedish AOD treatment by highlighting its unique benefits in exploring diverse recovery pathways to address individual challenges and strengths. However, it is evident that certain elements of its conceptual framework are already implemented in the treatment facilities visited in the study. Furthermore, whether or not to use standardised assessment tools to implement RC in Swedish AOD treatment remains unclear. The dissertation also emphasises the importance of collaborating with professionals during the development of assessment tools as a way of ensuring that these tools align with the cultures and structures of the social work profession, presenting this collaboration as an approach to bridging the gap between research and practice. It also identifies a significant knowledge gap in locally produced knowledge, urging further research to map its extent and evaluate its impact on current and future knowledge production and use in social work. Lastly, the absence of client participation is acknowledged. The need for future research to explore the client perspective is emphasised, given the potential adverse effects of recovery-oriented interventions on clients.
6.
John, Ben Malinga, 1988-
(author)
Union-Fertility Nexus and Fertility Variation in Sub-Saharan Africa : The Role of Marital Dissolution and Repartnering
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The role of marital dissolution and repartnering in shaping fertility patterns in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been largely overlooked, even though marital dissolution and repartnering are fundamental features of marriage dynamics in this region. This dissertation addresses this gap by using existing statistical and demographic techniques and developing new demographic methods to (i) examine the relationship between union dissolution and fertility at the micro level (Study I); (ii) assess the dynamics of union dissolution, including the levels of all-cause first union dissolution, the timing of first union dissolution, and the reproductive years spent outside of marriage due to union dissolution (Studies II & III); and (iii) analyze the influence of marital dissolution and repartnering on macro fertility patterns in SSA (Study IV). The analyses are mainly based on Demographic Health Survey data collected in 34 SSA countries since 1986. The findings show that marital dissolution is associated with reduced fertility at both the individual and the population level, and remarriage does not fully compensate for lost fertility at the individual level. The assessment of the dynamics of union dissolution indicates that union dissolution is common, it typically occurs at relatively early reproductive ages, and the number of reproductive years lost due to union dissolution is minimal. Furthermore, this dissertation documents that cross-country differences in union dissolution and repartnering rates account for 9.4% of cross-country fertility differences in SSA. In addition, the results show that changes in marital dissolution and repartnering rates and the fertility behaviour of women who experience these events mostly contributed to the slow pace of fertility decline in this region. For the SSA region (as a whole), fertility would have declined 1.24 times faster in the absence of such changes. These findings demonstrate that marital dissolution and repartnering are important drivers of fertility variation in SSA, and thus highlight the value of integrating these dynamics into the discourse on the union-fertility nexus and fertility variation in SSA and beyond.
7.
Jönsson, Elin, 1993-
(author)
Hardened Responsibility? : Contestations and Contradictions in the Regulation of Corporations
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Throughout the last decades, the social responsibility of corporations has undergone significant changes. From revolving around self-regulation, voluntariness, and soft law, the regulatory landscape has expanded to involve harder demands on corporations, such as mandatory sustainability due diligence. This thesis considers these changes as a hardening of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and explores such hardening as an outcome of contestation and struggle. In doing so, it echoes critical scholars’ call for criminology to direct attention toward the harms committed by powerful entities – in this case, large corporations in the global context – and the interests that frame the regulatory response to such harms. Three papers are included in this thesis, focusing on key actors that participate in the contestation and struggle under study: politicians (Paper I), corporations (Paper II), and non-governmental organizations (Paper III). The first two papers consider struggles for and against regulatory hardening, and shed light on the contradictory dynamics that permeate these struggles, while the third paper explores how organizations struggling for justice in the wake of corporate harm seek to alter the contours of the existing regulatory landscape. Taken together, the papers offer insight into how social actors articulate demands for change, or resist such change, and their underscoring interests or ambitions.This thesis situates these findings in previous research on the regulation of corporate social and environmental responsibility, considers the papers’ methodologies, and develops the theoretical lens through which the findings can be understood. The final analytical discussion considers the hardened regulations as solutions, with the problem at hand being the paradigm of self-regulation and voluntariness that has long characterized CSR. This problematization is interpreted as an articulation of internal critique, in which social actors strive for consistency between practices and normative expectations. Thus, new regulatory practices, which conform to these expectations, have been proposed. The analysis then traces this problematization, and the contestation around it, to fundamental contradictions. Drawing attention to the inherent contradictoriness of CSR as a social formation, it argues that this should be understood as the driving force behind contestation and thus the hardening trend itself. In addition, the analysis considers the transformative potential in actors’ struggles, suggesting that some may go beyond an adjustment of regulatory practices to an existing normative framework.All in all, the thesis contributes to criminological research on corporate responsibility by highlighting the dynamics of conflict and contradiction involved in contemporary regulation. Moreover, by understanding hardening as a solution to a problem, revolving around the shortcomings of CSR – which was itself introduced as a regulatory solution in the 1990s – the thesis situates the regulation of today in a historical development. By doing so, it draws attention to both continuity and change in this regulatory landscape.
8.
Jönsson, Johan
(author)
Performing Numbers : An Ethnography of Numbers in Everyday Organisational Life
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis presents a study of the interplay between what numbers do and what people do with numbers in everyday organisational life. Couched in an ethnographic perspective, the study draws on rich empirical material crafted from participant observations conducted at a Scandinavian hospital. The study focuses on how numbers work in everyday social interactions between doctors, nurses, patients, administrators, and managers. Three different kinds of numbers are analysed within the context of renal care – a clinical measure, a performance target, and a hygiene compliance rate. The theoretical framework draws on Austin’s theory of performativity and Goffman’s idea of dramaturgical performances. The thesis contributes to critical accounting studies and the field of sociology of quantification by extending, developing and, occasionally, challenging dominant notions of the performativity of numbers and numerical reactivity. Recent critical studies of quantification show that numbers are far from neutral, impersonal, and or objective; instead, they function as powerful actants. In much of the previous research, numbers appear to be so powerful, leaving little room for actors to resist their impact. While embracing the potential power of numbers, this thesis challenges the overly deterministic view of numbers by highlighting the agential leeway available to individuals in their everyday work. The thesis develops four types of possible interactions and outcomes between numbers and actors: ignoration, manipulation, metamorphosis, and transformation. In addition, it suggests three dichotomies to understand the reciprocal relationship between people and numbers as ways to engage with the dialectics of numbers in everyday organisational life.
9.
Kjellgren, Maria, 1973-
(author)
Skolkuratorns samtalspraktik : en studie om individuella samtal med barn i den svenska grundskolan
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis fills part of the existing knowledge gap regarding school social workers (SSW) individual counselling practice. The overall aim is to investigate the individual SSW counselling in Swedish elementary schools, as part of the pupil health team (PHT). This will be achieved by exploring the following three basic research questions: What characterizes school social work regarding structure, process and interventions in individual counselling sessions held by SSWs with children? How do SSWs describe the difficulties and opportunities in school social work, interventions and performance, and collaboration with other actors in pupil health teams? What characterises SSWs’ individual counselling according to the adolescents’ experiences and expressed needsThis thesis consisted of four research studies. The first one concentrated on SSWs personal experiences of counselling children, in which focus group studies were conducted with 22 SSWs (four groups). In the second study, the SSWs described their experiences of being a part of a multi-disciplinary team, the PHT, during the focus group interviews. These two studies were analysed by content analysis. The third study consisted of a quantitative protocol study regarding child characteristics, counselling strategies and interventions analysed by descriptive statistics. The purpose on the fourth study was to increase knowledge about the individual counselling from the adolescents’ perspective. Individual interviews were conducted and analysed through content analysis.This thesis highlighted the necessity for children to express themselves, in regards to their life situation, concerns and problems. SSWs could be one prominent actor in the children’s lives by providing individual counselling sessions. SSWs are described as the PHT psychosocial expert with specialised knowledge regarding the impact of negative psychosocial factors on children.In addition, this thesis concluded that available regulations and guidelines meant insure that children are listened and able to express their narrative in a safe and trustful school counselling environment are limited.
10.
Lillo Cea, Pablo Antonio, 1989-
(author)
The World-Class Ordination : A Field Theory Approach to the Study of Global University Rankings
2024
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Using Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, this thesis explores the idea of a “world-class university” by analysing the narratives and dynamics that shape this classification in the context of global university rankings. It uses a combination of methods, including historical studies, bibliometrics, multiple correspondence analysis, and social network analysis to examine the socio-historical factors determining world-class status in higher education.The research reinterprets the rise and evolution of global university rankings, framing it as a process of field formation. Influential entities like the IREG Observatory and the Center for World-Class Universities have been instrumental in fostering a global discourse that encourages competition among higher education institutions, leading to the establishment of a worldwide system for evaluating academic excellence.A comparative analysis of institutions, nations, and regions based on ranking results over two decades spotlights the enduring dominance of U.S. and U.K. institutions amidst the rising presence of Chinese. Focusing on 2022 data from the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Ranking, and Times Higher Education World University Ranking using Multiple Correspondence Analysis. It finds that prestige, heavily influenced by private reputation surveys, outweighs performance or internationalisation metrics in these rankings. The analysis also reveals a contrast between international recruitment and a domestic orientation, with English-speaking institutions attracting more international students and faculty. A dichotomy in scientific recognition emerges, opposing older institutions with award-winning alumni and staff to younger universities excelling in citations per faculty. Euclidean clustering supports these findings, identifying distinct groups of institutions, such as domestically focused Asian institutions and well-rounded Anglo-Saxon universities.Lastly, the thesis examines patterns of academic collaboration using social network analysis, with a focus on Swedish, English, and German higher education institutions. It observes a shift in partnerships from American to Asian counterparts, indicating Asia’s ascending role in the global academic landscape and reflecting changes in global university rankings. Overall, this study enhances our comprehension of higher education from a global perspective, uncovering the pervasive dominance of the Anglo-Saxon educational model in university evaluations, where the quantification of reputation is misrecognised as academic excellence.
