1.
Jukkala, Tanya, 1981-
(författare)
Suicide in Russia : A macro-sociological study
2013
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This work constitutes a macro-sociological study of suicide. The empirical focus is on suicide mortality in Russia, which is among the highest in the world and has, moreover, developed in a dramatic manner over the second half of the 20th century. Suicide mortality in contemporary Russia is here placed within the context of development over a longer time period through empirical studies on 1) the general and sex- and age-specific developments in suicide over the period 1870–2007, 2) underlying dynamics of Russian suicide mortality 1956–2005 pertaining to differences between age groups, time periods, and particular generations and 3) the continuity in the aggregate-level relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality from late Tsarist period to post-World War II Russia. In addition, a fourth study explores an alternative to Émile Durkheim’s dominating macro-sociological perspective on suicide by making use of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems. With the help of Luhmann’s macro-sociological perspective it is possible to consider suicide and its causes also in terms of processes at the individual level (i.e. at the level of psychic systems) in a manner that contrasts with the ‘holistic’ perspective of Durkheim. The results of the empirical studies show that Russian suicide mortality, despite its exceptionally high level and dramatic changes in the contemporary period, shares many similarities with the patterns seen in Western countries when examined over a longer time period. Societal modernization in particular seems to have contributed to the increased rate of suicide in Russia in a manner similar to what happened earlier in Western Europe. In addition, the positive relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality proved to be remarkably stable across the past one and a half centuries. These results were interpreted using the Luhmannian perspective on suicide developed in this work.
2.
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.
3.
Löfmarck, Erik, 1974-
(författare)
Den hand som föder dig : En studie av risk, mat och moderskap i Sverige och Polen
2014
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This is a study of how mothers of young children relate to risk in everyday life, with an emphasis on the invisible risks associated with modernity in general, and with food in particular. It explores variations and similarities in how mothers deal with risk in two cultural contexts: Sweden and Poland. The study is based on twenty qualitative interviews with university educated mothers of small children in Stockholm and Warsaw. While risks more generally challenge how we “get on” with our lives, mothers of young children in particular have a special relationship to risk. During pregnancy and breastfeeding they are subject to all kinds of risk minimization efforts, and mothers are ultimately held "infinitely responsible" for their children's welfare by society. Women's transition to parenthood then makes for a particularly interesting case as to how risks manifest in everyday life. The theoretical framework draws on modernization theory, combined with insights from cultural theory. In addition, various contributions from sociological and psychological risk research, family sociology and research on parenting and motherhood are used to highlight contextual aspects and to interpret the empirical results. Two aspects of the mothers’ relationship to risk and food are examined in this study: firstly, their risk constructs, i.e. what they perceive as ‘risky’ with regards to food; and, secondly, their risk management strategies, i.e. how they deal with identified risks on a practical and cognitive level. The overall risk management depicted in this study is characterized by reflexivity, critical thinking, information retrieval, attention to scientific evidence, purposely transferred trust, confidence and the ability to make fairly sophisticated tradeoffs between risks and other aspects of life. Neither the Swedish nor the Polish mothers then conform to popular notions of ‘security junkies’ or ‘paranoid parenting’. Nonetheless, the comparative approach demonstrates how contextual differences, such as general trust levels and family policy, influence both the risk constructs and the employment of different risk management strategies.
4.
Fuehrer, Paul, 1963-
(författare)
Om tidens värde : En sociologisk studie av senmodernitetens temporala livsvärldar
2010
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation explores the relationship between people’s conceptualisation and use of time in everyday life against the background of the political economy of the late modern welfare state. The main focus lies upon their evaluation of different time-uses in order to approach a better understanding of the moral economy of time. Special consideration is given to the role of commodification of time and the experience of time scarcity. Another topic investigated is the association of time with the striving for ecological sustainability in everyday live.The study is based upon three empirical materials. The first one consists of a subset of Statistic Sweden’s time-use database for inhabitants of Stockholm. The other two materials are qualitative interview studies. One was conducted with 85 unemployed people in Sörmland and Jämtland, the other with 45 inhabitants of Stockholm. The interviewees in the latter study were asked to consider two options for the future of welfare politics in Sweden: increasing wages combined with the same work hours as today or a substantial decrease in working hours accompanied by stagnating wages.Many interviewees consider time scarcity to be an important issue that needs to be integrated into the traditional concept of welfare. Time conflicts in everyday life, also regarding the choice of sustainable options, are solved with a certain moral flexibility still dominated by work ethics. Some interviewees try to articulate counter-images to the commodified concept of time by challenging traditional conceptions of the value of time and envision an ecological sound time use. These attempts draw attention to the importance of temporal commons such as vacations and also the need for a conscious time-politics in order to strengthen temporal welfare.
5.
Jonsson, Fatima, 1972-
(författare)
Hanging out in the game café : Contextualising co-located computer game play practices and experiences
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
What social practices are people involved when staying in a game café? What kind of social setting is the game café? What are the attitudes towards playing computer games at home and in public among parents? What are the media representations of co-located game playing in public? What are the sensory experiences of playing co-located game play in public? This dissertation gives a descriptive and analytical account of the contexts and meanings of playing co-located computer games in public settings such as game cafés and LAN parties. The overall aim with the dissertation is to describe and investigate the social and cultural meanings and contexts of playing computer games in a game café. The research questions have been investigated in four empirical studies.The dissertation shows that people are involved in various social practices and activities aimed at supporting and maintaining social relationships among friends and peers. The game café can be seen as a third place, as it used by players for recreation and an escape from the pressure of home and school, a place which feels like home, is familiar and welcoming. However the game café is a limited third place used by young men who likes to play online and network games. The dissertation also shows how the social environment provides for specific sensory experiences. These sensory experiences involve sitting together side by side slapping each other’s shoulders and legs, eating candies and drinking sodas, listening to music. The representations of co-located game playing in public reproduce traditional gender roles where professional gamers are represented by men and causal gamers are represented by women (and men) as well as construct youth as party lovers. The study also suggests that parents’ attitudes towards their children playing games in public draw on traditional values and ideas about children’s play and social relationships.
6.
Kings, Lisa
(författare)
Till det lokalas försvar : Civilsamhället i den urbana periferin
2011
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The current global restructuring processes are usually described in terms of increased integration and, concurrently, greater fragmentation among different regions and scales. How these parallel outcomes are reflected in the civic sphere, largely for those mostly affected, i.e. the urban grassroots, is the focus of this study. The theoretical objective is to develop an alternative way of conceptualizing engagement in the civil sphere in marginalized urban neighborhoods; this is presented in the form of a complementary analytical model named: the three pillars of simultaneousness. The empirical objective is to analyze the organization of civil society in two neighborhoods: Rinkeby and Tensta, both categorized as being on the lowest rung of the urban hierarchy in Stockholm, Sweden. The empirical analysis is based on three types of data: interviews, documentation and participant observation. The analysis reveals that these neighborhoods are well-organized and that it is the small, localized self-help organizations, conceptualized as the organizations of everyday life, which engage the urban grassroots. The configuration of the associations and the close face-to-face interactions, combined with traditional membership, imply that this form of activism cannot be understood without taking into account the specific national historic context. In the Swedish urban periphery, the reinvention of the Swedish social mass movement tradition is central when discussing both the constraints to and opportunities for suburban organizing. The strong movement tradition, together with political and financial incentives, has facilitated the development of a vigorous community life. At the same time, these prerequisites have undermined the political and critical potential of the urban grassroots.
7.
Lindström, Jonas, 1971-
(författare)
Drömmen om den nya staden : Stadsförnyelse i det postsovjetiska Riga
2012
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this thesis is to shed light on Post-Soviet urban renewal and people’s perceptions of changes that recently occurred in both the city of Riga and Latvian society more generally since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. More specifically, this study examines how these perceptions are manifest in Riga’s ongoing renewal. Through applying aspects of continuity and discontinuity, I illustrate how the urban renewal of Post-Soviet Riga uncovers imaginary and emotional aspects of the city and how these are interpreted in relation to the past, present and the future. This study introduces the concept “urban postperestroika” and one important difference between this concept and the more common concepts post-socialist, post-communist or post-Soviet is that the former highlights a process while the latter ones largely highlight the state. The starting point is how urban phantasmagorias – contemporary dreams of the future of the city – elucidate urban renewal processes in general and urban postperestroika in particular. In Riga’s ongoing renewal processes I identify three main trajectories in relation to aspects of the past, present and the future: de-Sovietization, globalization and Lettification. Together, these three trajectories constitute an engine that produces urban phantasmagorias.The dissolution of the Soviet Union has given rise to notions that everything is “back to normal” again, and these notions of normalcy have influenced urban renewal processes. The dilemmas, as shown in this thesis, concern the Soviet period and its remaining psychical structure which give the impression of being too conspicuous to eliminate and too contradictory to assimilate. The study illustrates the difficulties of building new urban and societal structures on the remains of pre-existing orders. Such difficulties of course lead to contradictory and ambiguous world views and to new dysfunctional situations that have to be managed in the future.
8.
Elmersjö, Magdalena, 1978-
(författare)
Kompetensfrågan inom äldreomsorgen : Hur uppfattningar om kompetens formar omsorgsarbetet, omsorgsbehoven och omsorgsrelationen
2014
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This dissertation examines how perceptions of competence affect the care of older persons, and the values and vocational conceptions of care work and care recipients that are tied to the perceptions of what skills that are needed and why. Competence is defined by three parts with relevance for the content of care work: what knowledge the care workers should have, what tasks they should perform and how they should respond to care recipients. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse how the care managers' and care workers' perceptions of competence form the direction of the care work and how that direction relates to the care recipients’ perceptions of and expectations on the care work. The care work is characterised by what is analysed as an activation of the recipients - that the recipients themselves should perform as much of the care work as possible. The activation aims at managing the decay of the aging body and is motivated by a vocational conception of the care recipients as different from others, with designations as grateful and passive. This conception is analysed as generation character based on an idea among the care managers and care workers that the society in which the recipients grew up gave them certain cognitive prerequisites that have to be managed in the practical care work. The care recipients in the study have opposing conceptions and perceptions of care work compared with the care managers and care workers. The recipients’ central objective with the care work is to prevent what has been interpreted as the disrepair of the home. The care recipients’ position in the organisation raises the problem of loyalty towards the care workers and in some sense the care managers. Their loyalty reduces their ability to complain and to influence their situation to the better. Keywords: care of older persons, care needs, care work, care relationship, care receivers, care workers, care managers, competence, technologies, activation, generation character
9.
Zakharov, Nikolay, 1978-
(författare)
Attaining Whiteness : A Sociological Study of Race and Racialization in Russia
2013
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Attaining Whiteness is the first book-length sociological study of how ideas about race resonate in post-Soviet Russia. The book charts how tropes of self, hybridity, and maturity constitute important symbolic vehicles for applying the idea of race to the drawing of differences. A new theoretical framework is developed that casts light on fields of study that have not yet received sufficient attention in Western European and American research concerning racial issues. This study of racialization takes a step towards providing a better understanding of how the discourses of race are extended and transformed through the production of social knowledge and social relations. This volume addresses the resilience of genetic criteria for defining cultures and behaviors in both the sciences and humanities in Russia, and also examines the ongoing and pervasive policy of racialized exclusion. The study argues that the concepts and practices of race, whiteness, and Russianness operate ambivalently insofar as they both hold the social fabric together, organizing the perception of the “Other”, but also undermine the unity of society. Racialization thus fosters, first, the sense that Russia belongs to the core of civilization as opposed to the Third World; second, the formulation of policies towards the internal peripheries that support social control informed by the notion of human material; and, finally, the promotion of exclusionary ethnic self-identifications that employ the discourse of hybridity.
