| 1. |
- Medina, Alicia, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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The Unethical Managerial Behaviours and Abusive Use of Power in Downwards Vertical Workplace Bullying : A Phenomenological Case Study
- 2020
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Ingår i: Cahiers de l'Association Internationale des Etudes Francaises. - : Alicia Medina. - 0571-5865 .- 2076-8443. ; 9:6, s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this article is to introduce an ethical perspective of managerial behaviours to the study of vertical workplace bullying. A framework called the line of impunity was chosen that describes the missuses of power by certain ranks in organizations. Previous research on bullying addresses several perspectives such as the consequences of the bullying situation for the organization, the target and bystanders, the leadership style of the bully, the perceived structural support, and the manifestations of the abusive behaviours. However, to date, the ethical aspects have been poorly outlined. Applying the line of impunity brings light to several aspects of workplace bullying that are connected to an unethical use of power. This study is unusual because it is a phenomenological research based on two case studies that present the field experiences of two of the authors while working in different organizations, one in Sweden and the other in USA, during an extended period of time. The two main contributions of the study are the new concepts power methods and reinforcing, which highlight the connection between abusive behaviour and the ethical aspects that are present in downwards vertical workplace bullying situations.
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| 2. |
- Gümüscü, Ahmet, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Bringing the Family Back in : On Role Assignment and Clientification in the Swedish Social Services
- 2015
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - Basel : MDPI AG. - 2076-0760. ; 4:1, s. 117-133
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, municipal social services provide help and support for vulnerable people with a variety of needs. Although the family has long been understood to be a focus of social work interventions, it is unclear how it is brought into the casework process in the highly individualised and specialised municipal social services. Therefore, in this study we investigated processes of client-making and role assignment in five service sectors: social assistance, child welfare, substance abuse, disability, and elderly care. We carried out focus group interviews with social workers in each of these sectors in a mid-sized community in central Sweden. Findings showed that clienthood and the family are interpreted in different ways. The family is brought into or kept out of service provisions in ways that are connected to social workers’ construction of the family either as expert, client or non-client. However, the role of the family may also change during the casework process. Findings are examined in relation to theories of the welfare state and implications for family-focused practice are discussed.
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| 3. |
- Hagqvist, Emma, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Balancing Work and Life When Self-Employed : The Role of Business Characteristics, Time Demands, and Gender Contexts
- 2018
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-0760. ; 7:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores individual and contextual risk factors in relation to work interfering with private life (WIL) and private life interfering with work (LIW) among self-employed men and women across European countries. It also studies the relationship between interference (LIW and WIL) and well-being among self-employed men and women. Drawing on data from the fifth round of the European Working Conditions Survey, a sample of self-employed men and women with active businesses was extracted. After applying multilevel regressions, results show that although business characteristics are important, the most evident risk factor for WIL and LIW is time demands. Both time demands and business characteristics also seem to be important factors in relation to gender differences in level of interference. There is a relationship between well-being and both WIL and LIW, and time demands is again an important factor. Gender equality in the labor market did not relate to level of interference, nor did it affect the relationship between interference and well-being. However, in gender-separated analyses, LIW and LIW interacted with gender equality in the labor market in different ways for women’s and men’s well-being. In conclusion, gender relations are important in interference and how interference relates to well-being.
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| 4. |
- Ljung, M, et al.
(författare)
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Safety on Passenger Ferries from Catering Crew's Perspective
- 2016
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-0760. ; 5:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The majority of employees on passenger ferries consist of the catering staff: those who operate in restaurants, shops, and in the hotel on board. Research on this category is scant. The aim of this study is to investigate the catering staff’s experiences and perceptions of safety practice on board passenger ferries. The methods are semi-structured interviews and a qualitative content analysis of official documents and research articles. Results: Increased safety regulations and directives on an international and a national level have taken place after the major ferry disasters of late 1990s. Changes in the safety organization on the passenger ferries have resulted in more involvement of the catering crew in safety on board. Safety awareness and the way the catering staff think about safety have improved. The risk of terrorism has further reinforced safety awareness. A clear challenge for safety work on ferries is the reduction of catering crew. The transition to job flexibility for catering crew may constitute risk factors regarding safety and security.
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| 5. |
- Mehrabov, Ilkin, 1979-
(författare)
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Azerbaijani Women, Online Mediatized Activism and Offline Mass Mobilization
- 2016
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-0760. ; 5:4, s. 1-17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite its post-Soviet history, Azerbaijan is an under-investigated country in academic research—compared with the other former constituencies, such as the Baltic countries or Russia, of the USSR—and gender questions of the contemporary Azerbaijani society are even less touched on. Within the current context of the post-“Arab Spring” era of mediatized connectivity and collective political engagement, this article looks into and analyzes how Azerbaijani women participate in different online and offline social and political movements, and if (and how) they are impeded by the increased state authoritarianism in Azerbaijan. Using data, obtained from online information resources, yearly reports of human rights organizations, focus group discussions, and interviews, the study detects four major activist constellations within the Azerbaijani field of gendered politics. Based on the analysis of conditions of detected groups, the article claims that flash mobs, a tactic employed mainly by liberal activists, emerge as the promising way in overcoming the normative nature of Azerbaijani patriarchal society, thus providing an opportunity for normalization and internalization of the feeling of being on the street and acting in concert with others—the practices which might lead towards an increasing participation of (especially young) women in the political processes of the country.
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| 6. |
- Zorell, Carolin, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Real-World Sustainable Citizenship between Political Consumerism and Material Practices
- 2019
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 8:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While the number of theoretical concepts surrounding sustainable citizenship, political consumerism and ethical lifestyles is rising continuously, this article is interested in how citizens themselves delineate sustainable citizenship through their practices. Asking which contours real-world sustainable citizenship has, we draw on the practice turn. From this perspective, sustainable citizenship might be an empirical nexus of material practices, like buying organic products or sharing goods. These practices rely on dispositions that include practical rules, attitudes and political values. With survey data from Germany (N = 1350) and using principle component analysis, we reconstruct sustainable citizenship through stable and widespread real-world patterns. The results suggest that sustainable citizenship is a relatively coherent, nonetheless hybrid bundle of performances and dispositions. Real-world sustainable citizenship most resembles political consumerism, but consists overall of three distinct practices: sustainable purchasing, reduced consumption, and green mobility. All three are shown to be connected to engaged citizenship norms and the intention to advance social-ecological change. However, social class seems to prevent some citizens particularly from applying sustainable purchasing, while age and infrastructures constrain green mobility. Altogether, our results show that citizens from all social backgrounds practice sustainable citizenship. Yet they do so through different forms of practices, adjusted to their capabilities.
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| 7. |
- Fredriksson, Martin, 1972-
(författare)
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Piracy and the Politics of Social Media
- 2016
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - Basel : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 5:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since the 1990s, the understanding of how and where politics are made has changed radically. Scholars such as Ulrich Beck and Maria Bakardjieva have discussed how political agency is enacted outside of conventional party organizations, and political struggles increasingly focus on single issues. Over the past two decades, this transformation of politics has become common knowledge, not only in academic research but also in the general political discourse. Recently, the proliferation of digital activism and the political use of social media are often understood to enforce these tendencies. This article analyzes the Pirate Party in relation to these theories, relying on almost 30 interviews with active Pirate Party members from different parts of the world. The Pirate Party was initially formed in 2006, focusing on copyright, piracy, and digital privacy. Over the years, it has developed into a more general democracy movement, with an interest in a wider range of issues. This article analyzes how the party’s initial focus on information politics and social media connects to a wider range of political issues and to other social movements, such as Arab Spring protests and Occupy Wall Street. Finally, it discusses how this challenges the understanding of information politics as a single issue agenda.
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| 8. |
- Ahmadi, Fereshteh, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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Existential Meaning-Making Coping in Iran: A Qualitative Study among Patients with Cancer
- 2022
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 11:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article is written on the basis of a study on meaning-making coping in Iran. The study is a part of an international project in 10 countries with different religious and cultural backgrounds. This article aims to discuss the secular existential meaning-making coping methods employed by Iranian cancer patients. Interviews were conducted with 27 participants with various kinds of cancer. Nine secular existential meaning-making coping strategies emerged from the analyses of the qualitative interviews. These coping methods are as follows: Ignoring the illness, Distraction, Altruism, Encounter with others, Nature, Discourse of the self, Visualization, Positive solitude, and Positive thinking and transformational orientation. It seems that, using these strategies, our sample of Iranian cancer patients/survivors have been denying/ignoring their illness, and/or empowering themselves. We discuss the results, considering the potential influence of cultural elements, including Iranian Islam, Persian mysticism, and Persian literature, on the selection of the coping strategies. The study contributes to our understanding of coping via elucidating how seriously ill individuals in Iran try to manage the challenges caused by a health crisis.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Karin, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Being a Group Fitness Instructor during the COVID-19 Crisis : Navigating Professional Identity, Social Distancing, and Community
- 2021
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 10:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research question and purpose: Les Mills is a New Zealand-based fitness distributor with a community consisting of approximately 140.000 instructors worldwide who teach standardized workout routines. This paper aims to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic and related measurements, such as social distancing affect the everyday lives and professions of Les Mills International (LMI) group fitness instructors. The aim was met with the following research questions: RQ1: How are social distancing and social connectedness understood, and how do they condition LMI instructors' understanding of their profession? RQ2: What do LMI instructors think about the #LesMillsUnited campaign to maintain a strong trainer community in the midst of the pandemic? RQ3: How do LMI instructors think that group fitness will change long term due to social distancing? Research methods: Using qualitative measures and a case-study-based approach, data were gathered through interviews with LMI-certified group fitness instructors. Seven semi-structured focused group discussions with fifteen group fitness instructors from different countries were conducted and audio recorded. The first round of virtual discussions took place in April 2020, and the follow-up talks in September 2020. A thematic analysis was employed to analyze the material. Results and findings: According to the participants, online classes as a means of upholding group fitness in times of social distancing is an insufficient substitute to face-to-face instructing, lacking social connectedness that is normally maintained through successful rituals or social scripts. Navigating "instructorhood" during the pandemic includes emotional labor where not only relationships to clients are challenged, but instructors also experience societal pressure to reinvent themselves as instructors. Implications: With no way of telling how long social distancing needs to be practiced, the group fitness industry is facing unprecedented challenges. Making sense of the group fitness profession currently preoccupies instructors who may now have to redefine to themselves how they can teach, and who for.
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Staffan, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Sweden and Coronavirus : Unexceptional Exceptionalism
- 2020
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - Basel : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 9:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aims of this article are, first, to describe the Swedish authorities' strategy for dealing with the sudden onset of novel coronavirus in early 2020 and, second, to explain why that strategy differed markedly from those in nearly all other European countries. From an early stage, the Swedish government delegated decision making to the Public Health Agency, and its goal was to mitigate the effects of the virus rather than to suppress its spread. Society was never closed down in the same way as elsewhere. Using data from media reports and other publications, we argue that the agency was insulated from pressure to change course, even as the number of deaths associated with covid-19 rose far above those in Sweden's Nordic neighbours, by four conditions: (1) the structure of national public administration; (2) an outburst of nationalism in parts of the media; (3) the uneven impact of the virus; and (4) a political leadership that was willing to delegate responsibility for policy almost entirely. We conclude by briefly comparing the coronavirus strategy to previous episodes of Swedish policy exceptionalism. This emerging pattern, we suggest, raises normative questions about the functioning of Swedish democracy.
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