| 1. |
- Backlund Rambaree, Brita, 1977-
(författare)
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Contextualising Constructions of Corporate Social Responsibility : Social Embeddedness in Discourse and Institutional Contexts
- 2016
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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.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Aytar, Osman, 1960-
(författare)
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Mångfaldens organisering : Om integration, organisationer och interetniska relationer i Sverige
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to examine inter-ethnic relations between organizationally active people with different ethnic backgrounds. I focus on relations that are based on a mutual interdependence between parties, mutual respect, common procedural rules, real opportunities that expressly approve or reject a proposal in a decision or deliberation situation free from compulsion, where people, who have different ethnic backgrounds, strive after insight and understanding in their relations.In this dissertation I present three empirical cases about cooperation, consultation and participation as forms of inter-ethnic relations from the organizational fields in the society. These cases are examples of what I characterize as “organizing inter-ethnicity”, or organizing people with different ethnic backgrounds around common concerns. Organizing inter-ethnicity is in turn a part of organizing and integrating diversity in society. Drawing on the results of three case studies, I distinguish between opportunities and barriers.My case studies clearly illustrate that the tensions that influence the patterns of and variation in opportunities and barriers have sources that reach well beyond ethnicity. Tensions between old and new organizations, between working immigrant organizations and refugee organizations, between organizations from same group or between organizations that have conflicts from their members’ countries of origin provide some examples of the difficulties that generate barriers to broad interest constellations between organizations.
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| 4. |
- Fuehrer, Paul
(författare)
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Om tidens värde
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
- Abiala, Kristina, 1948-
(författare)
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Säljande samspel : en sociologisk studie av privat servicearbete
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Interaction between people can be seen as a distinctive feature of 'post-industrial society'. In this study I investigate some of the conditions for this encounter in private service work in Sweden. I start by discussing some important concepts: service, service encounter and emotional labour. Three parties in an interactional triangle can be perceived: the service enterprise, the service worker and the customer.The service encounter is embedded in organisational frames. Recruiting for social competence and training for selling interaction are two facets of these frames. In interactive service work, control is complicated by the fact that a third party, the customer, is involved and that the borders between worker, work process and result are somewhat indistinct. Indirect forms of control can be used to affect workers' attitudes and thinking, as well as behaviour.Service work can be described as a form of acting. Different service workers will identify differently with their work role. In my study I observe both positive and negative experiences of work. A majority report that they sometimes are so tired of people that they want to be alone after work.I distinguish two dimensions of interactive service work: type of interaction and sales situation. Interaction can be more or less important, and the sales situation can be more or less concealed. Based on these dimensions I suggest a typology to illustrate some differences between different service occupations. Four types are suggested: (1) Work first, and customer later; (2) Personalised services; (3) Routine selling; and (4) Persuasive selling. In the second group we find the experts of interaction, but also the strongest signs of social strain.
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| 6. |
- Barclay, Kieron, 1986-
(författare)
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The Long-term Impact of Birth Order on Health and Educational Attainment
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis examines the long-term impact of birth order on health, and educational attainment. Swedish register data is used to link individuals to their siblings, thereby allowing members of the sibling group to be compared to one another. This thesis consists of an introductory chapter summarizing empirical research on the relationship between birth order and educational attainment, intelligence, health, and personality, as well the theoretical frameworks that have been developed to explain those relationships. This introductory chapter is followed by four original empirical studies. The first two studies show that relative to first born siblings, later borns have lower physical fitness in late adolescence, and higher mortality in adulthood. The third study uses the Swedish registers to identify sibling groups that entirely consist of adopted individuals, and shows that the commonly observed negative relationship between birth order and educational attainment persists in these fully adopted sibling groups. These results suggest that birth order effects are likely explained by post-natal, social mechanisms within the family. Finally, the fourth study shows that even though later born siblings do worse than first borns in a fully adjusted statistical model, educational expansion in the 20th century has meant that later born siblings actually tend to have greater educational attainment and are more likely to attend university in comparison to older siblings within the same family.
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| 7. |
- Bergman Blix, Stina, 1971-
(författare)
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Rehearsing Emotions : The Process of Creating a Role for the Stage
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis takes as its starting point the dramaturgical metaphor of the world as a stage, which is used in sociological role theories. These theories often presume what stage acting is about in order to use it as a simile for every day acting. My intention is to investigate how stage actors actually work with their roles, in particular how they work with emotions, and how it affects their private emotions.The thesis draws on participant observation and interviews with actors during the rehearsal phase of two productions at a large theatre in Sweden. The results show that the inhabiting of a role for the stage is more difficult and painstaking than has been assumed in role theories so far. Shame and insecurity are common, particularly in the start up phase of the rehearsals. Interestingly, these emotions do not disappear with growing experience, but instead become recognized and accepted as part of the work process.The primary focus is the interplay between the actors' experience and expression of emotions, often described in terms of surface and deep acting, concepts which are elaborated and put into a process perspective. Analysis of the rehearsal process revealed that actors gradually decouple the privately derived emotional experiences that they use to find their way into their characters from the emotions that they express on the stage. Thus private experiences are converted to professional emotional experiences and expressions, triggered by situational cues. When the experience has been expressed the physical manifestation can be repeated with a weaker base in a simultaneous experience, since the body remembers the expression. It is important though, that the emotional expression is not completely decoupled from a concomitant experience; then the expression looses its vitality. The ability to professionalize emotions makes the transitions in and out of emotions less strenuous but can infiltrate and cause problems in the actors' intimate relations.
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| 8. |
- Bogren, Alexandra, 1976-
(författare)
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Female Licentiousness versus Male Escape? : Essays on Intoxicating Substance Use, Sexuality and Gender
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to study cultural aspects of alcohol and drug use in Sweden, and also to some extent in other countries. In the context of changing patterns of drinking and drug use in Sweden and in the rest of the world, such studies are increasingly important.The thesis comprises four self-contained but interrelated studies. Each study, in different ways, addresses the question of cultural variation (within and between cultures) and the cultural position of intoxicating substances. Acknowledging that young people’s use of intoxicating substances as well as women’s and men’s use of such substances are important social policy issues, each of the four studies also relates to the position of either young people or the position of gender with regard to intoxicating substance use.Study 1 investigates what it means to drink, take drugs and become intoxicated as understood from the official-organizational perspective of the FMN’s (Parents Against Drugs’) 2003 campaign directed towards teenagers´ parents. As a contrast to the hegemonic perspective presented by the organization in Study 1, Study 2 explicitly tries to find and describe different lines of reasoning with regard to alcohol use and intoxication among young people.Study 3 investigates the link – so commonly referred to in the Western world – between drinking, drug use and intoxication, on the one hand, and sexuality and gender, on the other. Study 3 further tries to grasp why women who drink are considered bad both because they violate the norms of feminine appearance and because they are perceived as sexually promiscuous and “available”. Study 4 focuses on cultural variation in the intoxication – sexuality link. It uses cross-country comparisons and multiple regression analysis of data from 11 countries within and outside the West to examine the link between positive expectancies about the effects of drinking on sexual feelings, on the one hand, and drinking, on the other.
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| 9. |
- Bohman, Love, 1978-
(författare)
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Director Interlocking and Firm Ownership : Longitudinal Studies of 1- and 3-Mode Network Dynamics
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is based on three empirical studies of the director interlock network among Swedish firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, focusing on its consequences for firm behavior and its association with ownership structures. Director interlocks are created when directors serve on, and hence interlock, several boards. Director interlocks aggregate to a social network that not only connects most firms into a single component, but are, more essentially, also shown to affect firm behavior. The introductory chapter contains a review of the director interlock research as well as some suggestions for future research directions.Study I is an examination of the importance of director interlock relations for stock repurchases. Using parametric survival analysis, it is demonstrated that the decision to repurchase stocks is dependent on both the firms’ economic settings and their director interlocks.Study II examines the network impact on recruitment of new board members in the network of firms, directors, and owners. Using simulations, it is shown that directors with personal contact with a director and/or owner of the recruiting firm have a substantially increased probability of being recruited to the focal board.Study III examines the association between ownership and director interlocks. Re-analyses of the same network examined in Study II show that multiple director assignments are highly dependent on ownership interlocks.The three studies exemplify the real-world consequences of board interlocks and field a new understanding of the mechanisms behind their formation. Furthermore, the association between the director and ownership interlocks suggests that the ownership network (co-)produces some of the phenomena that have been attributed to the director network. These results underscore the need for further examination of director interlocks to bring the owners back into the analysis.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Bursell, Moa, 1977-
(författare)
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Ethnic Discrimination, Name Change and Labor Market Inequality : Mixed approaches to ethnic exclusion in Sweden
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four empirical studies on ethnic integration in the Swedish labor market. Studies I-III draw on a field experiment testing ethnic discrimination in the hiring process.Study I documents the existence of employer discrimination in response to equally merited applications with Arabic/African or Swedish names, and shows that foreign-named applicants have to send twice as many applications to receive a callback compared to Swedish-named applicants. Results also suggest that employers in female-dense occupations practice ethnic and gender compensation while employers in male-dense occupations practice only gender compensation.Study II reveals gendered differences in the intensity of employer stereotypes by testing how much more work experience is needed to eliminate the disadvantage of having an Arabic name on a job application. Results indicate a reverse gender gap, as initial differences in call-backs disappear for female applicants when CVs for Arabic-named applications are enhanced but remain strong and significant for male applicants.Study III evaluates criticism directed at residual analysis and field experiments that claims that they tell us nothing about real world discrimination and its long-term effects. By combining experimental and register data, Study III responds to this criticism by showing that the results of Study I correspond closely with real world labor market inequality of identical ‘twins’ (identified through propensity score matching) to the fictive individuals of Study I.Study IV explores the strategies underlying surname change from a Middle Eastern name to a more Swedish sounding one, drawing on 45 interviews with surname changers with a Middle Eastern background. The results indicate that immigrant name change is a pragmatic assimilation strategy. The study also illustrates how the institutional enabling of name change both creates and enables pragmatic assimilation.
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| 12. |
- Carson, Marcus, 1956-
(författare)
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From Common Market to Social Europe? : Paradigm Shift and Institutional Change in European Union Policy on Food, Asbestos & Chemicals, and Gender Equality
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation takes up developments in European Union policymaking that indicate important shifts from an emphasis on prioritizing markets and economic arrangements to a greater recognition and competing prioritization of what can be broadly characterized as "social" concerns. Potentially sweeping changes are taking place in EU policy in the areas of food safety, chemicals, and gender equality. Each is being substantially guided, even driven by concerns for public health, sustainability, and basic rights defined in terms of their social consequences. Such a socially defined agenda is increasingly important in European Union policymaking. This dissertation investigates these developments through case studies - based on interviews and original documents, as well as secondary literature - in three otherwise quite different policy sectors: the transformation of EU food policy from its focus on food as primarily a market commodity to taking into consideration and prioritizing public health and consumer safety concerns; EU chemicals policy and the banning of asbestos in Europe; the development of gender equality as an EU goal and the emergence of domestic violence as an EU policy concern. The concepts of public policy paradigm - and paradigm shifts - are employed as theoretical tools to specify, analyze and understand: 1) the priority ordering of guiding principles and institutional arrangements for defining and creating public policy, 2) public problem definitions and attributed causes, 3) the classes of social actors who are deemed authoritative, credible, and responsible for the amelioration of such problems, 4) the choice and formation of institutional strategies and definitions of appropriate means for problem solving, and more broadly, 5) the ways in which competing compelxes of leading ideas influence the choice and formation of institutional strategies. A paradigm shift in this perspective entails changes in one or more of the core dimensions of a paradigm. Such shifts also typically result in pressures to restructure institutional arrangements to make them consistent with a new paradigm. The cases examined here illustrate varying stages in an ongoing interplay between policy paradigms, actors, and institutional arrangements. The dissertation concludes that paradigmatic shifts have taken place in the three policy sectors examined, and that institutionalization is in varying phases of development.
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| 13. |
- Castillo, Daniel, 1977-
(författare)
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Statens förändrade gränser : En studie om sponsring, korruption och relationen till marknaden.
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis brings fresh light on the types of problems that contemporary democracies might face when interacting with private interests. More specifically, the study examines the separation between the state and private interests, based on the assumption that this separation is a precondition for maintaining democracy and legitimate governance. It is thereby a contribution towards understanding the social forces that allow private interests to penetrate the public realm, as well as the forces that protect the state from such penetration. Under which circumstances do private interests access state apparatus in ways that contradicts its universalistic principles? How does the state consider challenges against its legitimacy and how are such threats dealt with? These questions are answered by means of two case studies. The first concerns the interaction between a number of state authorities that receive sponsoring from business enterprises. The second concerns interaction - partially afflicted by corruption - between the state monopoly for selling alcoholic beverages (‘Systembolaget’) in Sweden and its private suppliers.Applying theories on organizational boundaries, exchange, trust, networks as well as legitimacy to these cases, the study demonstrates how state reforms, inspired by the logic of markets, has introduced new ways for private interest to access state affairs. In the case of ‘Systembolaget’, this is particularly evident. The possibility of access, the study argues, is a consequence of reshaping the internal boundaries of the state, broadening informal relations as well as extended scope of action for state employees. This replaced social differentiation as a mechanism of separation by the personal integrity of state employees. Interestingly, this finding should be considered in relation to how the state has attempted to sharpen its organizational boundaries through a strengthening of regulation and the businesslike relations of exchange.
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| 14. |
- Chartrand, Sébastien, 1971-
(författare)
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Work in voluntary welfare organizations : A sociological study of voluntary welfare organizations in Sweden
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since Sweden has one of the most comprehensive welfare states, the role of voluntary organizations active in the field of welfare is often neglected. The unique Swedish nonprofit sector is characterized by 1) the tradition of popular mass movements in which members are central and the real owners of the organization, 2) large membership and volunteering, but low employment levels, 3) dominance in the fields of culture and recreation, but the relative marginalization in welfare. This Ph.D. dissertation empirically studies work and the perception of work in voluntary welfare organizations (VWOs) in Sweden. I completed a series of 38 interviews of employees and volunteers in four VWOs: 1) a children’s rights organization; 2) a women’s center; 3) a volunteer bureau; and 4) a humanitarian organization. A quantitative survey of some 200 VWOs supplements the qualitative data. Looking at the internal work setting and interactions between workers one realizes that work in VWOs is influenced not only by the popular mass movements (folkrörelser), which are the foundation model of all Swedish voluntary organizations, but also by paradigms emerging out of the public and for-profit sectors: 1) the public paradigm permanently shapes voluntary welfare organizations through the action of paid workers who often have public sector work experience; and 2) work in voluntary organizations is partly integrated into the regular labor market, and interfaces emerge between volunteering and professional life (for-profit paradigm). The private sphere also interferes with volunteering. Finally, this sheds a new light on the claims of VWOs that they are autonomous, “free” entities, and their contribution to social integration and strengthening of social ties.
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| 15. |
- Christenson, Eva
(författare)
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Herraväldets processer : en studie av kvinnors förslitningsskadesituation och könade processer i tre olika slags arbetsorganisationer
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis the situation concerning women's musculoskeletal disorders in three different types of workplaces is studied, and differences in women's and men's working conditions which affect this situation are identified. How diffe-rences in working conditions are constructed and reconstructed in and by gen-dered processes is analysed, and this analysis also shows how the work organiza-tions are gendered and gendering. The empirical material consists of studies of one electronics plant, two grocery stores, and five mail delivering offices. A qua-litative method is used.The study shows how horizontal and vertical sex segregation at the electronics plant and in the grocery stores resulted in women continually performing mo-notonous tasks, thus being exposed to high risks of developing musculoskeletal disorders. At the mail delivery offices where women and men performed the same work tasks the working conditions nevertheless were different. Recent changes of the organization of work had led to sex-specific consequences, such as the workload becoming heavier especially for women. The psychosocial work environments also varied.At the studied workplaces construction of gender and construction of diffe-rences in working conditions were intertwined in processes that also led to the reconstruction of men's dominance and women's subordination. Gendered processes were results of management policies, affected by the strategies of the local unions, and tied to the extended social relations. Gendered processes were also present in, and re-created by, the day-by-day interaction between fellow workers. Both women and men at the workplaces were faced with expectations of appropriate gender behaviour, and both women and men often, but not al-ways, conformed to these expectations.In the thesis an analysis of sexuality and heteronormativity at the studied workplaces is integrated in the analysis of the construction of gender and diffe-rent working conditions, in order to reach an increased understanding of gende-red processes in the work organizations.
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| 16. |
- Coniavitis Gellerstedt, Lotta, 1944-
(författare)
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Till studiet av relationer mellan familj, ekonomi och stat : Grekland och Sverige
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Within a loose framework of two ongoing and interrelated processes (globalisation and changing roles of the nation-state) family and relations between family, economy and state are studied in Greece and Sweden. Greece is in focus. Modernization, development and family in social science literature are discussed. Using the idea of the social landscape and the existence of four different types of organizations (private enterprises, nation-states, families and voluntary organizations) several advantages are achieved: care work is made visible and nation-states are seen in a wider context.Informal economy and clientelism in general and in Greece in particular are described. The role of family in maintaining such patterns is discussed and attention is paid to the mutual strengthening of family, informal economy and clientelism in a social landscape where formal, universalistic and public procedures to get access to valued resources exist side by side and interwoven with informal, particularistic and veiled ones. Traditional patriarchal ideologies are breaking up and an increasing number of women work outside the family but women's role in caring for family members in Greece is crucial. Great progress in terms of equal rights has been made. State involvement in caring activities and other reproductive work is however small. Modernization and rationalization in economy and state in the wake of EU and EMU membership challenge such phenomena as informal economy, clientelism and women's subordination.Finally development in Greece and Sweden within the EU is discussed and division of responsibilities and work with care is problematized.
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| 17. |
- Dahlberg, Caroline, 1976-
(författare)
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Picturing the Public : Advertising Self-Regulation in Sweden and the UK
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Across the globe, people are everyday audiences of advertising images, which have become integrated in our life worlds. Advertising images are entangled with interesting moral conflicts. This study analyses the decision-processes of advertising self-regulators, who are in the midst of such moral conflicts, with the purpose of showing how and why they decide if advertising images are acceptable or not.Two organizations based in different countries are included in the study; The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom and The Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (ERK) in Sweden. The empirical material consists of interviews with 38 people, images and text documents, from the two mentioned self-regulatory bodies, and some (participant) observation. The study focuses on cases of potentially offensive advertisements. The material is primarily analysed using the theory of worlds of worth, developed by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot.The thesis argues that advertising self-regulation is about ascertaining, and making compromises between, conventions of morality. The study demonstrates the pattern of how the contextual circumstances influence the moral decisions that are made. It is shown that a decisive feature of the decisions is to conceptualize the general public in a justified way. This means that decision-makers picture the public as types of people who hold one or a combination of moral logics, and assume that they use these to interpret and evaluate advertising images. How these publics are defined depends on how the settings of the different advertising images are collectively interpreted by the decision-makers.The thesis argues more generally that to understand people’s values we must look at conflict situations in which current morals surface, such as the ways they appear in relation to advertising images.
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| 18. |
- Dean, Lauren, 1983-
(författare)
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The Social Roles of Buildings : An Account of Materiality and Meaning in Urban Outcomes
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation explores the roles of buildings in urban social life. Buildings, as both a methodological tool and a research site, are valuable for understanding society. As a method, buildings allow access to various urban contexts. As a research site, the material and the social are integrated, where buildings and society are shown in continual construction. The overarching case shows how a new building type is born in a society and what buildings do, as both materiality and meaning, to help bring about outcomes. The study follows a single building type through history and analytical levels in the city of Santiago, Chile where three empirical studies emerge. The first traces a process of late 19th century urbanization to show the entrance of new residential building types into a city and how the physical and social landscape is reshaped in the process, emphasizing how one urban form emerges and is defined. Intercontinental connections bring new architecture and new language, stabilizing the link between form and name in the city. The resulting spectrum of buildings within the type shows how the diversity of residents shapes material outcomes. As the new buildings become fixed in the urban landscape, so too do social categories. How buildings change definitions both between and within societies, as well as start to take on meanings, is explored.Once definitions and form are established, the following studies explore the roles of the buildings in contemporary urban life. Photos analysis is employed to examine uses of shared space (a patio) in a residential building where buildings are theorized as material structures that contribute to patterned activities. It addresses how the building creates opportunities for observed everyday uses of private collective space. Using published comparison cases demonstrates that practices appear to differ between buildings of the same type when income of residents differs. It is hypothesized that opportunity is created not by the existence of the space per se, but by its gated enclosure, which separates the public street from the private space. The building is understood as a bound that simultaneously fosters interaction and exclusion. In addition, activities in these spaces, over time, contribute to new cultural understandings of the building type, showing how use can generate meaning.The last empirical study examines the reuse of residential buildings for commercial purposes in one neighborhood. The goal is to illuminate roles buildings play in contemporary neighborhood transformations. Rather than understanding transformation through reuse itself, modes of material conversions are examined. The differences between older conversions and newer ones in the area highlight the role of visible characteristics in the newly reused buildings. The material maintenance of residential facades on new conversions locks in the visual of a residential neighborhood, where intended function is built into form, even under commercial reuse. This is valuable in line with a constructed narrative about the place that focuses on the past. The building type under investigation is further redefined as reused buildings take on visual and spatial similarities to housing models from a past era that were not involved in changes in the neighborhood, but appear as if they were. This study relies on participant observation and analysis of marketing materials, as well as other documentary sources.
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| 19. |
- Eklund, Lina, 1982-
(författare)
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The Sociality of Gaming : A mixed methods approach to understanding digital gaming as a social leisure activity
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is an exploration of the practice of social digital gaming, using a mixed methods approach with complementary data and analytical methods. The main themes are the prevalence and meaning of gamers’ experiences of social gaming and the underlying structures limiting or assisting social gaming, both material and social. Applying an everyday perspective, focus is on gamers’ day-to-day practices and experiences. Studies I and II enquire into relational aspects of social gaming based on interviews and survey data. Study III investigates the relationship between game design and gamer agency and its importance for social interaction with strangers, using in-game participant observation. Lastly in Study IV, building on interviews, female gamers come to the fore as their gender construction in an online game is examined with the aim of understanding the connection between online and offline.The main result concerns how social gaming takes place in various social relations. How gaming comes to be―what it means―is dependent on the relations between gamers, be they family members, real life friends, Internet friends or strangers. In these interactions, gender and sexual identity are realized; in the relations between gamers, physical proximate or online. Finally, virtuality is shown to be a social accomplishment of the people engaging in games rather than a property of the games themselves.Focus on the relational unveils how gaming comes to be in the process of interaction, a process at the same time dependent on underlying structures, i.e. games as designed platforms with certain affordances for social behaviour. We are able, thus, to reconcile the social constructivist position that (social) gaming is created in the relations between gamers engaging in games with the more formalist approach that games are rule based structures. Games create a foundation for interaction that can further develop into the creation/maintenance of relationships and identity.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Fahlén, Susanne, 1967-
(författare)
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Facets of Work–Life Balance across Europe : How the interplay of institutional contexts, work arrangements and individual resources affect capabilities for having a family, and for being involved in family life
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to explore various dimensions of work–life balance in Europe. I examine the extent to which institutional factors, working conditions and individual resources influence individuals’ capabilities to have a family and engage in family life. The theoretical framework is inspired by Amartya Sen’s capability framework, a multi-dimensional approach that provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between institutional contexts and individual capabilities. Four studies have been conducted. The first study focuses on women’s short-term childbearing intentions in ten European countries and finds that the association between such intentions and economic uncertainties varies by the policy support for work-family reconciliation in the country as well as individual factors, such as her educational level, and her number of children. The second study addresses the impact of family-friendly working conditions on young adult women’s childbearing behaviour in Sweden, showing the importance of family-friendly working condition for the transition to motherhood of less educated childless women with low income, and for second births of low educated mothers. The third study analyses gender differences in perceived work–home conflict in ten European countries, and the importance of work-family policies and gender norms. I find that gender differences are more pronounced in countries with weaker support for work-family reconciliation and more traditional gender norms. The fourth study focuses on tensions between work and family demands that parents in Hungary and Sweden experience, and on their capabilities to make claims for work–life balance. We find greater agency inequalities for Hungarian parents for claims making for and achievement of work-life balance, in contrast to a strong sense of entitlement to exercise rights to care among Swedish parents, which reflect country variations in policy supports for work−life balance, working time regimes and social norms regarding work and care.
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| 22. |
- Farkas, Gergei, 1974-
(författare)
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Essays on Elite Networks in Sweden : Power, social integration, and informal contacts among political elites
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to present work on a number of salient characteristics of elite relations in Sweden, studied from a social network analytic perspective. Elite integration, the distribution of elite power, and the significance of elites’ informal relations represent the three main themes explored in the original studies that comprise the thesis. Studies 1-3 concern elite relations at the local, i.e. municipal level of political decision-making, while research on parliamentary political elites is reported in Study 4. Studies 1-3 draw upon original complete network data collected through personal interviews with 248 local elites (politicians, corporate leaders, civil servants, etc.) active in four mid-sized Swedish municipalities. The question of local elite integration is investigated in Study 1, while the question of women elites’ potential access to structural power is studied in Study 2. These studies conclude that local elites are well integrated around structural cores of politicians and civil servants, and that women elites are on average not structurally disadvantaged due to their sex. Research concerning the role local elites’ involvement in associations like Rotary clubs is reported in Study 3. The results suggest that membership in such semi-exclusive voluntary settings may have an optimizing impact upon the elites’ personal networks, as far as their individual level social capital is concerned. In the final study (Study 4) focus is shifted to national political elites when a social network analytic perspective is utilized to study social cohesion within multiparty opposition coalitions recently formed in the Swedish Riksdag. The study concludes that the right wing-liberal Alliance coalition formed prior to the 2006 general elections was socially better integrated and more cohesive than the socialist-environmentalist coalition formed during the subsequent parliamentary cycle.
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| 23. |
- Florén, Thomas, 1969-
(författare)
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Talangfabriken : Om organisation av kunskap och kreativitet i skivindustrin
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this dissertation is to describe, explain and understand how record companies identify and develop new music and new talent. The analysis is carried out on three levels: individual, organizational and sector level. In a record company, this task formally goes to A&R (Artist and Repertoire). This dissertation takes its point of departure in how the capacity for discovering new talent can be understood in terms of knowledge, creativity and competence and how this capacity is affected in the meeting between the record company and the industry.The theoretical framework of the dissertation spans two sociological fields: the sociology of organizations and the sociology of knowledge. While it takes its organizational starting point in the Knowledge Company Approach, it employs a practice-based approach to discuss knowledge. I argue that within the Knowledge company approach there are two contrasting ways to understand knowledge; a distinction is made between knowledge- and creativity-intensive enterprises. The results show that the record industry’s polarized structure can be seen as a result of the Knowledge Company’s typical problems.The A&R’s work is described as including two phases, one intuitive and one analytical. The intuitive assessment is direct, unconscious and without reflection. This ability has been described as "intuition" and "gut feeling". The analytical phase adds analysis and reflection based on knowledge. The results from the interviews with A&R’s reveal the limit of formal and explicit knowledge not only in the choice of music but also in the marketing strategies.The overarching picture is one in which record companies move in a space characterized by tension between dichotomous forces – art and commercialism, creativity and knowledge, culture and economy, chaos and order, but where opposite poles are not mutually exclusive but complementary.
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| 24. |
- Forsberg Kankkunen, Tina, 1969-
(författare)
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Två kommunala rum : Ledningsarbete i genusmärkta tekniska respektive omsorgs- och utbildningsverksamheter
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to describe and partially explain how management is shaped in female-dominated social care and education services and male-dominated technical services, and how this contributes to creating and reproducing a gender system in municipal organizations. This was achieved by interviewing male and female operative managers in social care and education services and technical services. The managerial work of operative managers was also problematized in relation to activities at other organizational levels – the operational versus the strategic. The theoretical fields used in the study are primarily those having to do with organization and gender. I describe how power structures like sex and gender influence the construction of management; for example, genderized environments generate managerial action patterns, resources, and organizational prerequisites. The analytical results show that managerial work in social care and education services differs in practice from managerial work in technical services. Social care and education services have poorer organizational prerequisites for social interaction among organization levels than do technical services. The discrete prerequisites for managerial work make it more difficult for operative managers in social care and education services to support and interact with staff at the operative level than it is for operative managers in technical services. Operative managers in social care and education services also find it more difficult to actively influence the decision processes than do operative managers in technical services. When operative managers in social care and education services are cut off from strategic decisions and prevented from showing and explaining their needs and activities, the gender system in municipal organizations can be reproduced in the shadows.
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| 25. |
- Fridlund, Veronika, 1980-
(författare)
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Play with fire, play with you sometimes : Social aspects of condom use among young people in Sweden
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Although Sweden invests a great deal of money and effort in prevention work, STIs are a major problem in our society. Young people are at high risk both when it comes to unwanted pregnancies and STIs and several studies have revealed that the condom use is quite low. Condom use is a complex issue. There are often several factors that interact and affect the decision to use or not use condom. The result in this thesis shows that young people have behavioral expectation to use condom, especially for anal sex and vaginal sex with a casual partner (both known and unknown). At the same time, the condom use is low irrespective of type of partner and type of sex. Approximately 20 % of the participants never used a condom during the preceding 12 months. Most of the participants said that reason for their use or non-use was based on partner evaluation. However, our participants indicate that there often is a deeper reason why they do not use condoms. Women talk about their male partner’s resistance against condom use. Men in the other hand mention the problem with fit and feel especially problems related to erection problems when they have been drinking alcohol. One of the most interesting findings is that the participants’ view of sex affected their condom use. Those with a relaxed view (e.g., did not connect love with sex and had had more sexual partners during the past 12 months) had fewer occasions of unprotected vaginal intercourse compared with the participants with a traditional view (e.g., often associated sex with vaginal penetration).The most important thing we need to do is increase ’men’s sense of responsibility and involve them in the prevention work. It is also important that the condom counseling is individualized. It is not enough to simply speak about condom use in general; instead we need to relate condom use to sexual practice and partner type but also to the individuals’ specific condom problem.
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| 26. |
- Fuehrer, Paul, 1963-
(författare)
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Om tidens värde : En sociologisk studie av senmodernitetens temporala livsvärldar
- 2010
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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.
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| 27. |
- Goldschmidt, Tina, 1988-
(författare)
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Immigration, Social Cohesion, and the Welfare State : Studies on Ethnic Diversity in Germany and Sweden
- 2017
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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.
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| 28. |
- Gustafsson, Nina-Katri, 1976-
(författare)
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Bridging the world : Alcohol Policy in Transition and Diverging Alcohol Patterns in Sweden
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present dissertation aims at analysing the effects of recent alcohol policy changes. The traditional strict policy in Sweden had focused on high pricing and limited availability to control levels of alcohol consumed and thus alcohol-related harms. However, increased travellers’ allowances meant larger availability of cheaper alcohol when importing from Denmark and Germany, which are the countries from which Swedes obtain most of their private imports; the tax decrease in Denmark further decreased the price. As the economic literature links demand to price of a commodity and the early (smaller) quota changes had resulted in higher consumption in southern Sweden, it was expected that these latest changes would mean higher consumption and more alcohol-related problems in this area in particular. Some groups were additionally expected to be more affected than others.The present compilation thesis comprises four related articles and an introductory chapter that ties them together. Article I focuses on private imports in relation to quota changes 2002 – 2004 and relate this to purchase at the alcohol monopoly stores. Self-reported consumption and alcohol-related problems are studied in Article II and IV. In Article III, register data on alcohol-related harms, i.e. hospitalizations and police-recorded crimes, are analysed.The results of the dissertation were puzzling, since there was no large increase in consumption or alcohol-related problems in the south, but increases in the north during the period. However, private imports and cases of hospitalization due to alcohol poisoning were found to have increased in the south. Thus, the results imply that these policy changes had an effect on private imports, but that this effect was not large enough to increase total consumption as well. Additionally, increased alcohol poisoning cases implied that there had been an impact among high consumers. The increases found in consumption and problems in the north may instead have other explanations.
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| 29. |
- Haglunds, Magnus, 1969-
(författare)
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Enemies of the People : Whistle-Blowing and the Sociology of Tragedy
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Enemies of the People is a book that examines whistle-blowing—i.e., the unauthorized conveyance of sensitive information to mass media and authorities—and the social responses this performance provokes. The book develops a fresh view of this phenomenon by framing the trend of events according to a couple of fundamental elements found in tragedy.The book also includes a critical appraisal of the perspectives that set the tone in the existent whistle-blowing research. The prevalent one-sidedness found in this field of research is reviewed and contrasted with the contributions delivered in the present study.The analysis is based on three famous whistle-blowing cases that received a lot of attention in mass media: Ingvar Bratt and the Bofors affair; Odd F. Lindberg and the Norwegian seal hunting affair; and finally, Paul van Buitenen and the Leonardo-affair in the European Commission.The author claims that by studying the sociology of tragedy, it is possible to develop a new way of examining social processes where the final outcome is the excommunication of the appointed culprits through, for example, expulsion or avoidance. This purgatorial process is treated as a social status degradation, where the offender experiences a thorough social identity transformation that turns his or her social position to a lower social rank than initially held.The title of this book alludes to a stage play written by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. His dramatic piece An Enemy of the People, written in 1882, plays a prominent part in this study.
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| 30. |
- Hellgren, Zenia, 1976-
(författare)
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Negotiating Social Membership : Immigrant Claims-Making Contesting Borders and Boundaries in Multi-Ethnic Europe
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The concept of social membership is the mainframe for this dissertation, which encompasses four independent articles that approach the boundaries of social membership from different perspectives. Empirically, the focus lies on mobilizing groups that demand an extension of rights and/or inclusion for documented and undocumented immigrants in two European immigration countries: Sweden and Spain. I have defined the processes through which mobilizing actors (immigrants themselves and diverse supporters of their cause) interact with boundary-making actors (institutional actors, policy makers), whom through their positions participate in drawing the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion, as negotiating social membership. To study these processes, I have performed 68 interviews with actors as mobilizing immigrants, activists mobilizing on behalf of immigrants, representatives of NGOs and trade unions, policy-makers and politicians. Two main types of claims appeared: undocumented migrants’ rights groups mobilizing for residence permits and social rights, and documented immigrants’ (and their supporters’) advocacy against ethnic discrimination. Furthermore, I have included a study that reflects the tensions over social membership within immigrant communities. The gendered dimension is its main focus, as it illustrates the value conflicts over gender equality and ethnic diversity brought to the surface through the debates following so-called honour killings in Sweden, and the difficulties faced by young immigrant women mobilizing simultaneously against racism and patriarchal oppression. The thesis consists of four independent articles within the overall framework of mobilizing groups demanding extended rights for and/or inclusion of immigrants. By using immigrants’ rights mobilizations, negotiations, debates and agendas, my general aim has been to explore the processes through which social membership is being contested and negotiated by a wide range of actors. In doing so, it has been possible to reveal how legal and symbolic boundaries create exclusionary processes that pose constraints on the social membership of immigrants with different legal statuses.
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| 31. |
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| 32. |
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| 33. |
- Hosseini-Kaladjahi, Hassan, 1943-
(författare)
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Iranians in Sweden : economic, cultural and social integration
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study explores three dimensions in the integration of Iranian immigrants in Sweden: economic, cultural and social. To test the generalisability of the ideas presented, and to place them in a wider framework the integration of Iranians has been compared with those of three other minorities: Chileans, Poles, and Finns. Data used in the statistical analyses have been obtained from the Centre for Research in International Migration and Ethnic relations (CEIFO).Economic integration of an immigrant group in a new society has been defined as its economic equality with the host population. The first part dealing with this aspect of integration compares Iranians with Swedes by three economic indicators: the ratio of unemployment, socio-economic status and income. By all indicators Iranians hold a considerably lower position as compared with Swedes. Both socio-demographic factors related to the Iranians and discrimination exercised by Swedish employers have been found to be relevant to the economic integration of Iranians in Sweden.The comparison of Iranians with the three other minorities, in terms of discrimination, indicates that the discrimination of these minorities corresponds to their cultural distance from Swedes. Iranians, with the remotest culture from Swedes among the four minorities, suffer the highest degree of discrimination. Finns, with the closest culture, suffer the lowest degree of discrimination. And the two other minorities lie between these two groups, respectively. Discrimination manifests itself mainly in a differential size of incomes which derives from the differential distribution of these groups among the least desirable occupations.The second part dealing with cultural integration evaluates the adaptation of Iranian to Swedish culture by two indicators representing cognitive and normative acculturation. This part is especially focused on the proposition that the westernisation process in Iran and differential reactions against this process are relevant in the acculturation of Iranians in Sweden. Two hypotheses formulated on the basis of this proposition- the negative effects of commitment to Iranian culture and radicalism on the acculturation of Iranians in Sweden- have been supported by the indicator of normative acculturation, but not by that of cognitive acculturation.The comparison of the four minorities has demonstrated that generalities, clustering and uniqueness all exist among the factors explaining their acculturation. The generalities and clustering are more striking in cognitive acculturation. Similarities are more evident between Iranians and Chileans.Finally, the last part dealing with social integration concentrates on the association of Iranians with Swedes. Assuming that association of two individuals with each other requires a common language and a minimum degree of intersubjectivity, it has been generally hypothesised that: 1) social integration of minorities in the new society will be a function of their cultural distance from the host population, and 2) all processes contributing to the increasing or decreasing of cultural distance will contribute also to the increasing or decreasing of their social integration.On the basis of these general hypotheses the following concrete hypotheses have been tested. 1) Among the four minorities, Iranians, as culturally remotest from Swedes, will have the least degree of social integration, followed by Chileans, Poles and Finns, respectively. 2) Commitment of Iranians to Iranian culture, as a medium increasing cultural distance, will correlate negatively with their social integration in Sweden. 3) Countercultural elements in Swedish society, as a medium of cultural-distance reduction, will contribute to the social integration of immigrants in this society. All hypotheses have been supported by the existing data.
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| 34. |
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| 35. |
- Joosten, Sjors, 1993-
(författare)
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100% Swedish : Working for recognition through Hip-Hop from the suburbs of Stockholm
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation examines the role of hip-hop in shaping identity, immigrant integration, and social belonging in the Swedish context. It discusses how Swedish hip-hop artists with immigrant backgrounds and from segregated suburbs use their art to translate personal narratives, communicate social realities, and imagine alternative conceptions of Swedishness. The research draws upon Civil Sphere Theory (Alexander, 2006) and Recognition Theory (Lamont, 2018, 2023), which focus on symbolic boundaries that are in play in the conception of who “we” are as a society and associated processes of inclusion, belonging, and recognition. The study investigates how hip-hop assists immigrant-Swedish artists to articulate their experiences, construct identities, and navigate processes of integration and instances of exclusion. By describing the impact of the work of hip-hop artists and other key actors in the hip-hop scene, the dissertation considers the implications of hip-hop for immigrant incorporation, social recognition, and belonging within Swedish society. The analysis is based on qualitative data, including interviews with immigrant-Swedish hip-hop artists and other stakeholders of the hip-hop scene related to the suburbs of Stockholm, observations of significant places and performances in the Stockholm hip-hop scene, analysis of lyrics, and interpretation of secondary sources like media coverage. Through the analysis of this data, the dissertation uncovers how hip-hop artists challenge territorial stigmatization, work against racialization and discrimination, and strive for a greater appreciation for cultural hybridity and the multicultural reality of Sweden. The findings provide a nuanced portrait of hip-hop as a site of both empowerment and struggle for immigrant-Swedish individuals and communities. While hip-hop offers a platform for artistic expression, economic advancement, and agency, it also confronts tensions between commercial success and social marginalization that can reinforce stigmatizing stereotypes and social exclusion or support recognition and integration. As hip-hop becomes more mainstream, artists appear on public TV shows, perform on national stages, and enter the finer rooms of the cultural landscape. Hip-hop from the suburbs has become more present and widespread. However, it continues to be seen as produced in symbolically excluded spaces by immigrant-others. A substantial factor in this is the disproportionate attention to gangster-rap, which emphasizes criminality and exclusion, undermining other hip-hop artists that try to convey messages that facilitate belonging and recognition. The dissertation clarifies symbolic boundaries between the construction of a dominant and conventional 'lagom' Sweden and an immigrant-Swedish multicultural suburban 'orten' Sweden, and argues that artists often work towards new forms of belonging and recognition, potentially redefining these symbolic boundaries and contributing to immigrant incorporation on a larger scale. But this depends significantly on the artists’ ability to balance a mastery of knowing how to approach the wider audience through hip-hop and change-making in sharing messages to discuss redefining symbolic boundaries in favor of a more inclusive society. It can be concluded that Swedish hip-hop does not only work on an individual level for creating alternative forms of identities and routes to belonging but also adds to a social critique of how symbolic boundaries are drawn and can work towards imagining a multicultural and inclusive Sweden that is both 'lagom' and 'orten,' thus 100% Swedish. Ultimately, this dissertation contributes to research on immigrant incorporation, belonging, and recognition through the arts and music – specifically popular culture – and demonstrates the value of hip-hop for research on immigrant inclusion and belonging. This dissertation underscores the transformative potential of hip-hop as a catalyst for broader societal change, reshaping conceptions of Swedish identity and challenging existing boundaries of belonging. By identifying translation, communication, and imagination as the key actions of hip-hop artists and other cultural agents, the study contributes to theoretical advancements bridging Civil Sphere Theory with Recognition Theory. Contributing to the sociology of immigrant incorporation by clarifying the interplay between symbolic boundaries and music, the research offers new insights into how immigrant-Swedish artists and their communities navigate processes of integration and belonging.
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| 36. |
- Jovičić, Jelena, 1990-
(författare)
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On the Visual (Re)production of ‘Refugeeness’ : Images, production sites and oppositional gazes
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation explores ways in which images disseminate specific kinds of knowledge and shape the way we understand issues of migration and flight today. In the wake of the 2015/2016 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe, there has been a vast proliferation of photography depicting flight and people fleeing. Bird-eye view images of crowded boats in the Mediterranean, scenes of people arriving at the shores of Greece, Turkey and Italy, precarious living conditions and violent pushbacks along the ‘Balkan Route’ covered the front pages of newspapers for months on end. Presence of such familiar visual cues goes beyond the idea of neutral and reflective messages of the world, rather, they show us how interpretations of the world are made meaningful and carried out in very particular ways. Images represent an integral part of the production and dissemination of state discourses and as such they can be understood as situated in the social, economic and political dynamics at a given point in time, yet embedded in historical discourses such as the long history of colonial constructions of ‘otherness’ through the use of camera and photography. This work aims to contribute to sociological knowledge on the meaning making of flight and people fleeing by looking at the visual (re)production of flight through a feminist, decolonial lens. Together, the articles seek to answer three central questions: (1) What are the dominant visual discourses on flight and ‘refugeeness’ as reproduced in the mainstream media? (2) What is the role of the image makers operating in the production field in constructing visual discourses on flight and ‘refugeeness’? (3) What are the potentials and limitations for challenging the mainstream discourses on flight through visual counter narratives produced by people with personal experiences of flight? To answer these questions this dissertation makes use of visual discourse analysis, qualitative interviews and participatory visual methods.Article I and II explore newspaper cover-page photography and ways in which such images constitute and disseminate knowledge on the issues of flight and people fleeing. Article III moves on to study the production sites of images of flight and points to the complex ways in which visual production of ‘refugeeness’ in the media rests on the intersections of racialized, gendered and classed discourses, making it a field full of ambivalence and tensions as addressed in the article. Finally, in Article IV, I outline the potentials and challenges of using participatory visual methods as a way of challenging the mainstream visual discourses on flight and shifting focus from tropist representations and fixation on ‘refugee’ bodies to the visual narratives on life in exile produced by people with recent histories of flight themselves.
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| 37. |
- Kallstenius, Jenny, 1976-
(författare)
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De mångkulturella innerstadsskolorna : Om skolval, segregation och utbildningsstrategier i Stockholm
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An educational reform was carried out in Sweden in the early 1990s. This reform involved implementing a far reaching policy of freedom of choice. The reform resulted in an increased establishment of independent schools, competition between schools and gave cause to substantial student flows between different city districts and public and independent schools.This study focuses on three public compulsory schools in Stockholm city with a striking inflow of students from socially disadvantaged suburbs, and an outflow of students to other schools. The aim is to describe and analyse how school leaders, teachers, parents and students relate to, and make use of, the freedom of choice policy. The study revolves around the following questions: How does the policy affect the schools’ positions in the field of education? How can the inflow of students be explained? How does the increased diversity affect identity formation and social relations among students? How can the outflow of students living within the schools’ catchment areas be explained?The empirical data were collected through an ethnographic fieldwork over the course of one year, using different techniques foremost observations, focus groups and interviews.My theoretical point of departure is that an understanding of these processes must take societal structures and social positions, as well as individual and institutional factors, into account. In my analyses I draw on Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and concepts such as field, habitus, capital and social space.The findings suggest that the schools’ positions, and the actors’ practices, are determined by objective factors, but that surrounding social and symbolic structures also plays an important role. Symbolic capital associated with “Swedishness”, and characteristics ascribed to stigmatized suburbs and the better-off inner-city districts, are important factors to understand the student flows and the development at the studied schools.
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| 38. |
- Kassman, Anders
(författare)
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Polisen och narkotikaproblemet : från nationella aktioner mot narkotikaprofitörer till lokala insatser för att störa missbruket
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The subject of this study is the policing of the drug problem during the period between the nationalization of the police force in 1965 and the introduction of imprisonment as a penalty for drug consumption in 1993. The influence of four key factors are discussed: legislation, organization, the conception of and the attention paid to the drug problem. Qualitative and quantitative data from police archives, the prosecutor general, parliamentary publications, a public TV newsroom and various statistics from other sources are combined. The analysis shows four important stages in the process towards a substantially increased drug control:By the end of the 1960s, all data indicate increased attention to the drug problem. The penal law on narcotics was passed in 1968. It laid the foundation for subsequent policing activities. The police was also given increased possibilities to use telephone-tapping to combat serious crimes.By the end of the 1970s, the creation of a special narcotics police organization at the medium level of police hierarchy institutionalized, emphasized and assigned manpower to combat serious crimes.Since the beginning of the 1980s new target groups have been added. The "street dealer" is a new direct target. With the strengthening of the preventive role of the police new indirect target groups emerged: the police also emphasized their work against recruitment of new drug users.The main objective of the new penal law on narcotics of 1968 was to help drug addicts recover and merge back in society again. Addiction was seen as a disease. Drug dealing by the addicts was reprehensible but not a priority matter to the police. Over time, this attitude changed and in 1989 the police saw distinct actions against street dealers as the most important element in the repressive policy.
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| 39. |
- Kelfve, Susanne, 1974-
(författare)
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Gotta survey somebody : Methodological challenges in population studies of older people
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Conducting representative surveys of older people is challenging. This thesis aims to analyze a) the characteristics of individuals at risk of being underrepresented in surveys of older people, b) the systematic errors likely to occur as a result of these selections, and c) whether these systematic errors can be minimized by weighting adjustments. In Study I, we investigated a) who would be missing from a survey that excluded those living in institutions and that did not use indirect interviews, b) how prevalence rates would be affected by these exclusions, and c) whether post-stratifying the data by sex and age (weighting adjustment) would correct for any systematic measurement error.In Study II, we compared mortality and hospitalization rates in those who responded to a postal questionnaire with rates in the target population. In addition, we tested whether a weighting variable created with a number of auxiliary variables could correct for the differences. In Study III, we followed a longitudinal cohort sample for 43 years. By recalculating baseline characteristics at each follow-up, we investigated how the sample changed after a) selective mortality and b) survey non-participation.In Study IV, we investigated whether the systematic non-participation that is likely to occur in surveys of older people affects the association between education and health.In sum, the results of these four studies show that people in the oldest age groups, women, those of low socioeconomic position, and those with the poorest health tend to be underrepresented in surveys of older people. This systematic underrepresentation might lead to an underestimation of poor health and function, a bias that is unlikely to be corrected by weighting adjustments, and to an underestimation of health inequality between educational groups. The results also show that the selective mortality that occurs in longitudinal samples might be compounded by selective non-participation among the most disadvantaged groups.
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| 40. |
- Klingvall, Mikael, 1971-
(författare)
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Adaptability or Efficiency : Towards a theory of institutional development in organizations
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Organizations, once established, tend not to change, typically going obsolete as society continues to evolve. This makes adaptability an important issue. Organizational members must make sense to each other, or coordination suffers. They must also make sense to environmental actors, or the organization will not achieve the support it needs to survive. This sense-making is a process of institutionalization, of constructing a shared understanding of the organization's enterprise, business and environment. When environmental actors adopt new priorities, ideas and modes of thinking, organizations must develop a new understanding of reality or go obsolete. To stay adaptable, organizations needs to contain competing perspectives. But the pressures to conform and to coordinate make it difficult for established organizations to adapt, trapped by the very benefits of increased efficiency. Using an agent-based model of organizational institutionalization, I show that an organization's adaptability is highly dependent on structural elements that affect the member interaction frequencies, and that organizations that leverage the strength of weak ties between member groups can maintain adaptability. The effects of changes to any of these elements are decidedly non-linear, however, which helps explain why it is difficult to design effective organizations. Organizational structure is one part of a tri-partite framework of institutional development in organizations and of organizational adaptability, where the other two parts are the individual characteristics of the members and the content of the organizational culture.
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| 41. |
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| 42. |
- Kravchenko, Zhanna, 1978-
(författare)
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Family (versus) Policy : Combining Work and Care in Russia and Sweden
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)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.
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| 43. |
- Lawrence, Rebecca, 1979-
(författare)
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Shifting Responsibilities and Shifting Terrains : State Responsibility, Corporate Social Responsibility and Indigenous Claims
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Using case studies from Australia, Sweden and Finland, and also drawing on examples from parts of Asia, including Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Thailand, the thesis explores how state and market actors respond to Indigenous claims and how Indigenous claims are themselves reconstituted through those particular responses. While the duty of protecting Indigenous rights might nominally fall upon the state, we are increasingly witness to the enfolding of market actors and market rationalities in debates concerning Indigenous claims. The research contained in the thesis highlights how a practice of 'passing the buck', or passing of responsibility onto others, is constituted through both market and government relations whereby responsibility for addressing Indigenous claims is shifted from states to corporations, from corporations to states, and from states back to Indigenous peoples themselves. The thesis consists of four articles. Article 1, titled 'Obliging Indigenous Citizens: Shared Responsibility Agreements in Australian Aboriginal Communities' provides a critique of the governmental provision of services to remote Australian Aboriginal communities through quasi-market arrangements. Article 2, titled 'Corporate Social Responsibility, Supply-chains and Saami Claims: Tracing the Political in the Finnish Forestry Industry' explores conflicts over state logging in Saami territories and the construction of the state/market divide in CSR debates over the rights of Indigenous peoples. Article 3, titled 'NGO Campaigns and Banks: Constituting Risk and Uncertainty' studies the negotiated and contested boundaries of markets through debates over the governance of social and environmental risks in the investment banking sector. Article 4, titled 'The Last Frontier? Windpower developments on traditional Saami lands' considers how colonial rationalities constituting the state-Saami relationship are reproduced in new debates over windpower developments in Saami mountain areas.
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| 44. |
- le Grand, Elias, 1976-
(författare)
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Class, Place and Identity in a Satellite Town
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The central aim of this study is to examine processes of identity formation among white, working-class youths in a marginalized area located on the outskirts of South London. It is primarily based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork but also on analyses of web sites, newspapers and popular culture. The study contributes to research on ‘chavs’, and on youth (sub)cultures and social class.Identity is conceived as constructed through the dialectical interplay between ‘external’ processes of social categorization and ‘internal’ processes of identification and boundary work. The context of the study is the recent moral panic in Britain over ‘chavs’. In public discourse, the term chav emerged as a way of pathologizing white working-class youths adopting specific visual markers of taste. The study shows that most respondents, and the area in general, were positioned in the stigmatizing discourse on chavs, and the spaces and places that they are associated with. When interpreting the meaning of chav, the respondents drew strong boundaries against the term, and used it to categorize others. In contrast to earlier research, the notion of chav is not related to a subcultural style adopted by socially excluded groups of youths, but primarily a form of categorization serving to pathologize important aspects of the working-class culture in the area.The findings support the contention that spatiality plays an essential role in the formation of classed identities. In light of the stigmatizing perceptions of the area, the study explores the often ambiguous ways in which the respondents negotiated their sense of belonging, community and safety. Moreover, in relation to taste and masculinity, the study demonstrates how the construction and performance of classed identifications and distinctions, and thus symbolic class hierarchies, are related to the spatial context.
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| 45. |
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| 46. |
- Leiva, Alejandro, 1976-
(författare)
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Three Faces of Diversity Rhetoric : Managerialization, marketing and ambiguity
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Over the past decades, the language of diversity management has spread from the US to many parts of the world, including Sweden, where it emerged in the mid 1990’s. Consisting of three papers, this thesis contributes to the field of critical diversity studies by examining the multifaceted character of diversity rhetoric among Swedish diversity consultants. A central point of debate in previous research has been the relationship between, on one hand, diversity management rhetoric, and on the other hand, equal opportunities and antidiscrimination law. Scholars suggest that Scandinavian and Swedish “diversity” are strongly associated with ideals of equality, antidiscrimination and corporate social responsibility. This thesis gives nuance to this picture by focusing on the views of consultants.Paper 1 tries to answer this question: Do Swedish diversity consultants managerialize antidiscrimination law? Research on the US and the UK asserts a conflict between legal equality and the instrumental rhetoric of diversity management. However, studies on continental Europe and Scandinavia tend to posit diversity rhetoric as linked to ethnicity and tempered by legal and social equality. Building on interviews with diversity consultants, this paper shows that their diversity constructions conform to the managerialization thesis. Paper 2 argues that diversity’s three common rhetorical moves—its broad scope, its business case, and its dissociation from legal frames—are more open to interpretation than typically portrayed in the critical diversity research. While scholars tend to interpret this rhetoric as managerial dilution of legal and equality ideals, findings indicate that consultants may use the same rhetorical moves to incorporate an equality logic and extend legal ideas beyond the limits of the law. These interpretative discrepancies are conceptualized as ambiguity—i.e., the same rhetorical moves may support more than one interpretation.Paper 3 examines the ongoing institutional work of diversity consultants as they rhetorically try to build a business case for “ethnic marketing” in Sweden. Extant literature suggests that ethnic marketing relies on making differences between “them” (ethnic minority consumers) and “us” (majority consumers). This paper asserts that while making differences is crucial when creating “ethnic” consumers (“different from us”), another rhetorical strategy, “making similarities,” is used to construct already otherized people as “consumers” (“similar to us”). Further, findings show that Sweden’s lack of official statistics on ethnicity and general reluctance towards highlighting ethnicity may function as institutional obstacles that hamper the legitimacy and spread of ethnic marketing.
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| 47. |
- Lindberg, Elisabet, 1963-
(författare)
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Vad kan medborgarna göra? : Fyra fallstudier av samarbetsformer för frivilliga insatser i äldreomsorg och väghållning
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the study is twofold. First, to provide a picture of what happens when groups of citizens cooperate with municipalities and administrations to produce services essential to the community, i.e., elderly care or road maintenance. Second, to compare this picture with the picture of citizens’ involvement that the civil society theories describe. This is done by comparing four different cooperation projects. The empirical material has been gathered through four qualitative case studies – two elderly care cases and two road maintenance cases – and the analytical frame has been drawn mostly from organization theory, especially the resource dependence and the institutional perspectives.In the dissertation it is shown that in the projects with less complications the processes developed in a way that balanced, to some extent, the asymmetry in the dependence relation, i.e., the resources controlled by the groups became more interesting for the administrations and municipalities. These processes did also develop in a way that made it possible for the actors to come to an agreement of what problem the project was supposed to solve. These findings covariates with how interested the municipalities and the Road Administration organizations were to participate in the cooperation projects. It also covariates with the use of institutionalized cooperation forms. The short cut of an already defined and legitimated cooperation form implied that less transaction resources had to be invested in the cooperation itself – but as a result the actors did not communicate sufficiently and therefore did not develop a mutual understanding and trust. Another finding is that both the groups and the municipalities and administrations had pragmatic motives for their involvement in the cooperation projects, which led to an organizational form that was effective for the purpose of solving the identified problem with the elderly care/road maintenance, but not for the unintended consequences described by the civil society theories. As the group of citizens really involved was small, the consequences – greater solidarity and responsibility, and a decentralized democratic process, only comprised a few, mostly resourceful, citizens.Finally, the study shows that the groups’ contributions to the democratic process were limited by their involvement in actually solving the problem in question, i.e., to build and run an elderly home or to work with the improvement of the roads. The findings suggests that the picture of citizens’ involvement often put forward in the political debate in Sweden – as both a complement to the service provided by the public sector and a way to improve the democratic process – ought to be the subject of further research.
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| 48. |
- Lindvall, Daniel, 1974-
(författare)
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The Limits of the European Vision in Bosnia and Herzegovina : An Analysis of the Police Reform Negotiations
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- From the beginning of 2000 the European accession process was placed at the centre of peace-building in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The prospect of EU membership provided a common vision that could encourage different segments of society and the political elites to bridge ethnic divergences and engage in authentic post-war reconciliation. As a pre-accession criterion the European Union required Bosnia and Herzegovina to unify its fragmented policing system at the level of the state. However, this requirement proved to be a step too far, resulting in a protracted and ultimately unsuccessful process of political negotiations that lasted from 2004 to 2007.This thesis analyses the police reform negotiating process. In the aftermath of interethnic violence, ethnic communities tend to focus on protecting their self-continuity and, as a result, aspects of identity and security become closely linked. It was for this reason that the European Union’s insistence on placing law enforcement authority at the state level in Bosnia and Herzegovina came to be viewed as an identity threat, which subsequently affected interethnic group dynamics in a negative way. From this premise, the study goes on to assess the impact of the negotiating process on the political discourse in Bosnia and Herzegovina and on public notions of societal security. The study illustrates the background and rationale of the European Union’s strategy and analyses the dynamics between the international community and the domestic political elite. The conclusions of the thesis are drawn from interviews with the principal domestic politicians and the main international policymakers of the international community, and also from a broad range of opinion surveys as well as the original documentation of the negotiating process.
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| 49. |
- Ljungar, Erik, 1964-
(författare)
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Levebröd eller entreprenörskap? : Om utlandsfödda personers företagande i Sverige
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Why are so many persons with an immigrant background self-employed in Sweden? To just say that it is discrimination in the labor market or that some immigrant groups have a “cultural inclination” that makes them fit to run a business does not provide for a full explanation.I first give an overview of the research of immigrant- and minority business in sociology. I present those factors which place an emphasis on the characteristics and resources among ethnic groups. Thereafter I focus on the structural factors, which can encourage persons from a minority background to become self-employed. My own perspective places an emphasis on social relations when trying to understand the mechanisms which influences a person with an immigrant background to become self-employed. In relation to this, ethnicity defined in a relational context is particularly emphasized. I also examine if self-employment is a solution to the problems of segregation among the foreign born in Sweden.I have chosen to study persons with an Iranian, Kurdish and Chilean background who start and run their own businesses. One important result in this investigation is that many of the persons from all three groups have a common experience of discrimination and exclusion in the Swedish labor market and in society at large. There are some individuals who became self-employed to bring a business concept into reality, i.e. in this sense they are entrepreneurs. But even in these cases there were elements of features of discrimination that motivated them to become self-employed. Another finding is that especially persons with a Kurdish background often make use of their ethnic or social network when they start and run their own businesses. Many of the self-employed in this study are well educated, but often participate in business activities that do not require so many qualifications. They are in some respects economically integrated, but the question remains whether or not the ethnic segregation still exists.
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| 50. |
- Magdalenić, Sanja, 1961-
(författare)
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Gendering the sociology profession : Sweden, Britain and the US
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation explores the relationship between gender and professions with a historical sociological analysis of the sociology profession in Sweden, Britain and the US. The theoretical framework draws upon three conceptual terrains: professions, organizations and gender. A variety of sources are utilized, such as published and unpublished material, interviews, available statistics, auto/biographies and archival material. The aim of the dissertation is twofold. First, it seeks to add to theorizing about the relationship between gender and professions by exploring the ways in which the emergence, organization of and knowledge production in an academic profession interrelates with gender. Second, the dissertation considers how gender is interrelated with the historical development of sociology as a profession.A revised concept of the “professional project” - which involves historically specific strategies of occupational closure - is used as an analytical tool to examine gendered processes of exclusion and demarcation that occurred in the three national histories of sociology. The dissertation considers three dimensions that are central to that framework of analysis - professional associations, academic departments and sociological canon – to explore how the restructuring of gender relations varied in different organizational spheres and over time.Although both women and men were involved in the sociological movement that preceded the emergence of the sociology profession, men came to dominate the institutional arenas such as sociology departments and professional associations. The conception of sociology as a field excluded the previous work of women, and some men, whose work did not fit the new agenda of objective science. Despite the fact that sociology as a profession institutionalised in different periods in Sweden, Britain and the US, until the late 1960s women were largely absent from higher posts in professional associations, sociology departments and the sociological canon. Also in all three sociology fields, there were social movements and women’s professional organizations that sought to bring women into the sociology profession and to put gender research on sociological agenda. Of the three arenas linked to the professional project, i. e. professional associations, academic departments and sociological canon, my analysis shows that women have made the greatest inroads in professional associations in terms of broadening the associations’ membership and representation as well as institutionalising gender caucuses and programs into the associations. Academic departments, where the production of future professionals and most knowledge takes place, have been slower to change. Finally, despite notable achievements in gendering sociological theory and research, gender has not yet become fully integrated into sociological canon.
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