1.
Wide, Sverre, 1973-
(author)
Människans mått : Om statistik, sociologi och världen som socialt vara
2005
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This dissertation should be understood as an effort to provide a kind of critique of statistical reason. “A kind”, since it has another focus as well: the question of sociality. It is argued that these two topics are closely interrelated, not only, as the short exploration into the prehistory of statistics shows, for historical, but also and mainly for systematic reasons.The first part of this thesis is concerned with methods; not, in fact, so much with different methods as with the idea of methods in general. The second part deals with statistics, its prehistory and structure. It is argued that statistics is inherently causal and always and only understands the world as means (for our power), as it is. The third part explores a socio-logic, a concept meant to capture both the essence of sociality and our understanding of this sociality. And sociality, in the last analysis understood as play or game, turns out to be what cannot be controlled or dealt with in a methodical manner; it can never be reduced to what it is. The fourth and final part discusses and tries to overcome the proposed antithetical relation between statistics (methods) and sociality, and discusses possible consequences of the analysis for the fields of sociology and social thinking.In sum: The dissertation contributes to our understanding of methods, statistics and sociality and their interrelations.
2.
Heikkinen, Satu, 1969-
(author)
Att köra eller inte köra : Hur de äldre, åldrande och bilkörning har diskuterats i svensk transportpolitik
2008
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The objective of this study is to analyse the formation of older and ageing drivers in Swedish transportation policy. Documents from the Swedish Government, the Riksdag and, in a few cases, public authorities and newspapers are analysed. The discourse-analytical framework is inspired by Foucault’s archaeology, which is used as a tool box. The study identifies/constructs three periods in the formation of older and ageing drivers. In the first period (1934–1967) there is a discursive gap between statements about driver selection and traffic safety. Driving in ‘old age’ is a problem for medical expertise and mandatory tests are proposed. The proposals are rejected, as older people’s driving is not a problem in the discourse of traffic safety. In the second period (1967–1991) ‘older drivers’ is made up as a category of interest. ‘Older drivers’ become an accident population in the discourse of traffic safety due to changes in statistical practices. In the third period (1991–2006) a discourse of older peo-ple’s mobility is appearing alongside the discourses of traffic safety and driver selection. Moreover, the study traces how the statements of older and ageing drivers are ordered by more general ideas of the aged and ageing. Double discourses of ageing are followed by a dichotomisation in ‘healthy’ and ‘sick older drivers’ in the 1990s. The idea of an abrupt exit in old age alters to a more gradual exit, in its turn followed by challenging the very idea of exit.
3.
Kravchenko, Zhanna, 1978-
(author)
Family (versus) Policy : Combining Work and Care in Russia and Sweden
2008
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The twentieth century has witnessed a revolution in the ways in which the social division of labour is organised, and in terms of how waged work and caring for children are reconciled. This study explores family policy from the perspective of its capacity to manage the socio-economic risks emanating from combining the roles of breadwinner and caregiver which many parents are beginning to do in contemporary society. This study is focused on Russia and Sweden, countries which have a large share of their female population in the labour force and an institutionalised public policy directed towards meeting the challenges of childrearing in dual-earner families.In the first empirical stage of the study, I examine the establishment and development of family policies in these countries, and analyse their effects in terms of how they have attempted to reconcile the competing demands of work and family life in recent years, specifically, by focusing on three main components: parental leave regulations, the organisation of early childcare and education, and schemes of financial assistance and support for families with children (including their impact on poverty reduction, with the use of Luxemburg Income Survey data). The next stage, involved the exploration of the normative setting in which employment and parenting are realised. To do this I used survey data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), and its modules on Family and Gender Roles. In the final stage, by conducting in-depth interviews with families in Stockholm and St. Petersburg I was able to examine how decisions about using the available public means of assistance and support are negotiated within households, and which factors, other than public policy, influence such decisions. The results of these three empirical parts are juxtaposed in order to establish the relation between official inputs into family policy and the complex picture of its outcome in the two countries.
4.
Peterson, Helen, 1974-
(author)
Gender, Power and Post-Bureaucracy : Work Ideals in IT Consulting
2005
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis deals with work environments defined as post-bureaucratic, and which are characterised by individualisation and a decrease in the employer's formal control. The study shows how the employees in such work contexts are both empowered and disciplined. The main questions concern to what extent power shifts in relations between the employer and the employees and between female and male employees are visible and how such potential power shifts manifest themselves. The primary analysis of this power shift focuses on post-bureaucratic work ideals. Work ideals prescribe the skills, competence, manner and qualities of the ideal worker. While bureaucratic work ideals have emphasised employees' rule-following and role adaptation, reflecting the employer's supervision and control over employees, the post-bureaucratic work ideal has been suggested to a shift in power and control that challenges the bureaucratic relationship between power and position. The study uses a narrative analysis to highlight post-bureaucratic work ideals through examining in depth how Swedish IT consultants constitute, and position themselves in relation to, the ideal IT consultant. Although the consultants present themselves as powerful and autonomous vis-à-vis their managers, they also appear highly controlled by the system of consulting, by customer relations and by a work environment restricted by economic, individualised rationality. They also portray themselves as powerless in relation to threats of being made unemployed. Notwithstanding the supposed feminisation of a post-bureaucratic work ideal characterised by social competence, this study also shows that the work ideal that is rewarded in post-bureaucracy is not a feminine ideal. Although alleged to be gender-neutral, it is concluded that the idealised character of IT consulting is a gendered construction that gives precedence to hegemonic masculinity, and subordinates traditional feminine qualities, thereby reproducing gendred power relations.
5.
Urban, Susanne, 1966-
(author)
Att ordna staden : Den nya storstadspolitiken växer fram
2005
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The sociology of the city has two faces: one of threat and one of promises. Originally, the city was portrayed as a threat to social life and individual identity, while, in contrast, the neighbourhood was seen to include the promise of restoring basic social relations to the web of city life. Later, the neighbourhood itself came to be perceived as a threat, as it was seen to separate people from one another. The solution to this dilemma was that the neighbourhood should be an arena for meetings between different groups, supplying not strong ‘excluding’ bonds, but subtle ‘bridge-building’ ones.The aim of the first part in the thesis is to study the public view of the neighbourhood and its significance for social integration. The aim of the second part is to investigate the new metropolitan policy approach to attain the challenging goal of integration at the local municipal level. This is explored using the theoretical model of a democratic welfare society, as developed by Jürgen Habermas.Ethnic housing segregation, as a social problem, has evolved in several stages. In 1990 the promise became to combat ”problem areas” through various methods for integration, commitment, improved reputation, an increasing sense of community and environmental improvement. More recently, since 2000, the question of ethnic housing segregation appears to be being dealt with through a process of delegation of responsibility to various authorities with different areas of expertise and to local municipal authorities. This suggests a possible fragmentalization of approaches to ethnic housing segregation. In official discussion of ethnic housing segregation, an acknowledgement of the relational approach has been severely lacking. A review of the literature of neighbourhood effects shows that ethnic clustering can result in positive as well in negative effects. In a relational perspective, local networks are one of several other relations that, in combination with different structures and power distributions, effects integration between ethnic groups in the society.Principles from new metropolitan policy, referred to as ”bottom-up”, are similar to Habermas’ ideal. However, the concrete experiences highlight the difficulty in offering possibilities for rational communication, development of communicative knowledge, and even less communicative power. The new metropolitan policy has posed a new formulation of threat and promise. The dichotomy of segregation versus integration has developed into one of exclusion versus participation. The ideal has changed from formal to subjective integration, which includes civil participation in state business. The neighbourhood has served as one arena to start inclusive processes. The practice, on the contrary, is still dominated by measures aimed at making society work more efficiently through state intrusion into private matters i.e. governmentalization.
6.
Alexanderson, Karin, 1952-
(author)
Vilja, kunna, förstå : om implementering av systematisk dokumentation för verksamhetsutveckling i socialtjänsten
2006
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The aim of this study is to analyse conditions that either promote or hamper the implementation of methods for systematic documentation, follow-up and evaluation in social-work services with individuals and families. The theoretical framework consists of organization theories. Human Service Organizations (HSO) theory is complemented with concepts from the new institutionalism, domain theory, implementation theory, and theory about interventions.A concrete case, a project has been studied. The purpose of project was to implement methods for systematic documentation in public social services. With the notation “integrated” is meant that the methods should be built in and adjusted to the social-work practice. The methods were ASI (Addiction Severity Index) and IUS (a locally based model for integrated evaluation by inspiration from Göran Sandell).Data has been captured in a pretest/ posttest design (Marlow 2000). This means that “state of things” has been described before the intervention and after. The methods used were surveys and interviews (individual and group). The process has been documented through research notes proceeding records, protocols and some diaries written by social workers. Four municipalities from the middle of Sweden took part with five working groups. Two groups contained social workers acting with children and families and three groups were working with drug abusers. The population consisted of the social workers, the managers responsible for the individual and family entities, the politicians and the clients who were affected during the time of the project.The implementation of ASI and IUS has not occurred in the extent that was stated in the intervention theory. This means that ASI and IUS were not used in all new cases that occurred during the time of the project. The interviews supposed to be done in the beginning of the clients contact with the agency tended to be done more often than the follow-up interviews. After the project ended, three of five working groups decided to continue to use ASI (one group) and IUS (two groups). The overall impression is that the respondents comprehend, they have the willingness but they do not have the capability of using ASI and IUS. The organization does not seem to have the capacity of imposing requirements and giving resources. The outcomes do not seem to be the most important issue for the social services. These conditions are discussed in the study by means of the theoretical concepts. In the end, there is an effort to adjust the implementation theory to human service organizations.
7.
Jacobsson, Maritha, 1960-
(author)
Terapeutens rätt : rättslig och terapeutisk logik i domstolsförhandlingar
2006
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
In this dissertation, I explore a quite unique legal situation, namely administrative court hearings relating to coercive interventions: the Care of Young Persons Act (LVU), Care of Abusers (Special Provisions) Act (LVM), and the Compulsory Psychiatric Care Act (LPT). There are three central participatory roles in the court hearings: The official party is the authority who files the application for coercive intervention – either a chief psychiatrist or a social welfare board (typically represented by a social worker or sometimes a lawyer assisted by a social worker), whereas the citizen party is the person about whom the application is brought. The citizen party is represented by a legal representative. The professionals represent two different logics: therapeutic and judicial.The purpose of this dissertation has been to study the tension between therapeutic and judicial logic in court hearings relating to compulsory care. With theoretical concepts from Scott (1995) and Wetherell & Potter (1998), it is possible to say that the therapeutic and judicial logics are built up by institutional elements that are communicated through interpretative repertoires. Three questions are central:1. How do professional participators handle the different role expectations embedded in therapeutic and judicial logic? In this case, I am particularly interested in role conflicts faced by social workers and psychiatrists.2. How do different institutional elements (regulative, normative/cognitive) play out in the court hearings?3. To what extent can these court hearings be considered a scrutinizing order of discourse, where the arguments of official party are subjected to critical examination?In my analysis I am inspired by both critical discourse analysis and organizational theory, more precisely, new institutionalism. These two perspectives provide useful insights and make it possible to combine the micro- and macro levels in the analysis. Data for the analysis consist of 43 court hearings and 31 interviews, gathered from two different county administrative courts in Sweden. All written documents used and produced by the courts are also part of our data.The dissertation consists of five studies that indicate that the court hearings hardly can be described as a scrutinising order of discourse. In spite of this, the court constantly finds that the legal criteria for coercive intervention are satisfied. Neither the official party nor the legal representative argue according to a judicial logic. Instead, therapeutic logic dominates the order of discourse. When the arguments for compulsory care are therapeutic, they are not explicitly related to the criteria in the law. In my interpretation, the reason why the conflict between therapeutic and judicial logic is not realised can be found in the existence of a logic of normalisation. This ideological logic of normalisation can be found in most of the institutions in the Swedish society and are built on the idea of traditional welfare norms.
8.
Tham, Pia, 1960-
(author)
Arbetsvillkor i den sociala barnavården : förutsättningar för ett kvalificerat arbete
2008
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis describes and analyzes the working conditions of child welfare social workers who responded to a comprehensive questionnaire (n=309, dropout rate 3 per cent).In Study 1, the working conditions of social workers new to the profession (0-2 years) were compared with those of social workers with longer experience. The study shows that less experienced workers were more often found working in areas characterized by worse socioeconomic conditions and in workgroups where many others were also new and inexperienced. Although they described some aspects of their working conditions more positively they tended to report more health problems.In Study 2, working conditions of the child welfare social workers were compared with those of other professional human service workers. The study shows that although social workers in general and child welfare social workers in particular made positive assessments of their working lives, social work was unusually demanding among human service professions on several measures of workload, complexity of tasks and quality of management.In Study 3, the associations between the child welfare social workers’ working conditions and their health and well-being were investigated, controlling for background variables. The negative consequences of high job demands, especially for psychological health and well being emerge.In Study 4, factors associated with the social workers’ intention to leave the job were investigated. The study showed that lack of human resource orientation within the organization was of greatest importance. The results are analyzed from two different perspectives; the effort/reward model and new institutional theory. The main conclusions are that improvement is needed of the introduction to the profession at the workplace, that the status of child protective work needs to be raised and that social workers need help to limit their responsibility load, more time and space for reflection, and greater valuation of their work.
9.
Holmberg, Tora, 1967-
(author)
Vetenskap på gränsen
2005
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
With behavioural genetic twin- and animal-studies as a point of departure, this thesis investigates how the polyphonic talk about genes creates certain conditions for how “human behaviour” can be constructed, how the politics of boundary fixing contributes to and undermines respectively, credible narratives about human behaviour and, in the extension, about what constitutes human-ness. Furthermore, sociology is used as a sounding board in order to investigate what behavioural genetic knowledge can promote in terms of sociological insights and vice versa. Empirically, the thesis concerns how scientists describe and represent their own (and others’) research in scientific articles, popular science, at conferences and in the interviews performed with myself. But it also addresses how daily news and evening papers represent the same research in Sweden today. The results reveal that the figures included – the Twin and the Human-animal – are highly versatile. The Twin can, at a superficial gaze, be central for a hegemonic narrative about heredity and environment in different proportions, but is flexible enough to allow a variety of alternative stories and a “complementary position”. The Human-animal can in a similar fashion produce distinct boundaries between humans, on the one hand, and all other animals on the other; whilst simultaneously modifying the same boundaries in terms of “the other” as constitutive of human-ness and humans as just one species among others. These figures are thus boundary transgressing objects which refuse to be (more then temporarily) locked in one position. As an effect of this, they have double functions: they can come into use both to strengthen, and to challenge, hegemonic, scientific narratives. Due to this double-ness, an interested distrustfulness can be fruitful for discussions “over the line”; discussions where goals and possibilities are not predetermined. Manifold-ness opens for alternative notions, capable of challenging ingrained opinions and established narratives.
10.
Imboden, Alain, 1971-
(author)
The Propaganda of Progress : The Case of Swedish Housing Exhibitions
2005
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The purpose of this research is to analyse what progress is made of in terms of meanings in order to confirm and explain its presence as representational principle of change. The material used for the research consists of texts produced in relation to four housing exhibitions, which together cover a 70-years period. These events, which common purpose is to exhibit progress, offer a unique opportunity to understand the particularities of such a process and the rules that governs it. The empirical case, which relies on a theoretical approach of progress and modernity, reveals that progress is represented through choices and hierarchies revolving around a delimited series of issues addressed by all four housing exhibitions. The analysis of these choices and hierarchies shows nevertheless that if the way progress is represented clearly differs from one exhibition to the other, it is not the case of the assumptions that structure these different representations. For example, each exhibition offers their specific representations of the relation that exists between time and change, but all four events share the assumption that progress is to come.It is from the analysis of these representations and of the assumptions they rely on that the particularities of progress as representational principle are deduced. Progress appears in this perspective as a principle that celebrates an eternal state of imperfection but yet enables the existence of ephemeral forms of perfections. This inherent tension imposes a constant renewal of the way progress is represented that has consequences in terms of acceleration and movement. As principle, progress establishes also a necessity to claim authority and to take responsibility for changes to come. Finally, the research shows that representations of progress not only define what progress is but also regenerate and reinforce the existence of progress as principle of change by containing a systematic attempt to persuade and convince an audience, which results ultimately in a propaganda of progress.
