| 1. |
- Hylmö, Anders
(författare)
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Disciplined reasoning : Styles of reasoning and the mainstream-heterodoxy divide in Swedish economics
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Economics is one of the most influential social science disciplines, with a high level of internal consent around a common theoretical and methodological approach to economic analysis. However, marginalised schools of thought have increasingly unified under the term “heterodox” economics, with their critical stance towards the “neoclassical mainstream” as common denominator. This has spawned debates among scholars about how to understand the nature of the mainstream-heterodoxy divide in economics.This thesis sets out to explain how such a common approach to science is generalised and stabilised in modern economics, and how this process is related to heterodoxy. Grounded in the sociology of science, it aims first to provide an empirical account of the mainstream-heterodoxy dynamics in Swedish economics, and second, to contribute to theory development. Drawing on the literature on distinct styles of reasoning in the history of science, I develop a theoretical framework of relational disciplinary styles of reasoning, which is used to analyse two bodies of empirical material from Swedish economics. The first is an in-depth interview study with researchers in economics, and the second is a document study of expert evaluation reports from the hiring of professors of economics at four of the top Swedish universities during 25 years. Through the two empirical studies, the fine-grained qualitative material provides an insight into the ways economists understand their discipline and the character of proper knowledge production.I argue that the mainstream-heterodoxy divide is fruitfully understood in terms of the institutionalised stabilisation of a disciplinary style of reasoning, and show how economists understand their scientific approach and its merits. The maintenance of the style of reasoning is the achievement of the thought collective of economists, where boundaries are constructed in relation to contesting heterodox economics and to other scientific disciplines. I show how the disciplinary style with its conception of good science and the notion of a core of the discipline is linked to the reproduction of disciplinary boundaries. I trace how this plays out through shifting quality evaluation practices, and show how top journal rankings have become a powerful judgement device which links the hierarchical ranking of top journals to the notion of a disciplinary core, and effectively functions as a mechanism of disciplinary stabilisation. In conclusion, I argue that these processes form a self-stabilising system in which the disciplinary style of reasoning and its boundaries is reproduced, with potential implications for how we understand intellectual dynamics and pluralism.
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| 2. |
- Yakhlef, Sophia
(författare)
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United Agents : Community of Practice within Border Policing in the Baltic Sea Area
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The risks and insecurities emphasised in contemporary societies have given rise to diverse forms of policing, such as transnational and intelligence-based police collaborations. This dissertation focuses on a border police collaboration project, called Turnstone, that took place between 2014 and 2015, aiming to address issues related to irregular migration and cross border crimes in the Baltic Sea areas. The purpose of this study is to provide a community of practice perspective on cross- border police collaboration drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with a number of intelligence police, coast-guard, and border guard officers from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. The study illustrates the everyday interactions as well as the formal processes and practices that have generated a trust-based collaborative environment, which is necessary for sharing secret intelligence information. Increasing demands of collaboration places the officers in an ambivalent position: their neighbouring countries are both their work partners and the ”source” of the cross-border criminals. Two processes account for the emergence of a community of practice: 1) the development of a common linguistic repertoire (a set of norms and values that served as guidelines for streamlining and guiding the pursuit of their joint daily activities), and 2) the actors’ engaging in what they consider “real police work”. The study shows how the participants are at pains to reconcile between these two demands: “real police work” involving “action” and aiming at catching criminals, versus formal work practices, such as attending formal meetings and writing reports, thereby catering to bureaucratic needs. By focusing on their joint activities organized during the project (referred to as Power Weeks), the study shows how a trust-based relationship, which is necessary for the exchange of culturally, politically and professionally sensitive information, has gradually developed by the participants in and through their joint engagement in these everyday practices. The study highlights the importance of both informal face-to-face encounters and more formal processes in the development of the group as an entity. The findings of this study suggest that working together, attending formal meetings, producing reports, sharing sensitive information, and profiling suspects are equally important as the informal after-work activities. The Power Weeks included various episodes of telling stories and sharing jokes and this has proved to a be a fertile context for generating trust, knowledge, and innovative work practices. The study emphasises the relevance of community of practice for understanding how participants from different organizational and cultural contexts brought together in a project can develop a collaborative environment around sensitive issues.
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| 3. |
- Ahlstrand, Roland
(författare)
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Förändring av deltagandet i produktionen : Exempel från slutmonteringsfabriker i Volvo
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation focuses on the changes in the organization of the production process that occurred at Volvo Cars and Volvo Trucks in the early 1990s. The changes were directed at the established division of labor – both vertical and horizontal – between different groups of employees: managers, foremen, white and blue-collar workers. The questions posed are primarily concerned with the changes for production workers and foremen. The interpretive framework is developed in this dissertation through a constant dialogue between, on the one hand, established theories, and on the other, analyses of the empirical material: interviews with executives, managers, white and blue collar workers, and local trade union representatives, as well as company documents, and notes from participant observation. This work results in a sociology of organizations approach and changes in the organization of production is understood based on the interaction of the company with various environments, and with reference to the interaction between actors within the two companies. The explanation of what occurred is largely based on the appraisal that actors have access to power resources that they are able to activate when they find it appropriate. In the studies presented here, this comes to expression in management having an exclusive right to initiate various changes based on its knowledge of markets, competitors, and other actors. At the same time, actors can strengthen their resources by joining forces with others. This is precisely what happened when the management of Volvo formed a coalition with trade union organizations, developing together processes of training and change to broaden and deepen the employees, primarily the assembly workers and foremen participation. The changes can be understood against the background of not just Volvo, but the entire industry, attempting to come to terms with the well-known production and personnel problems arising from the Taylorist system of production. But this is far from an exhaustive explanation. The changes are also impacted by the companies’ need to increase their competitiveness and an increased challenge from Japanese companies. Efficiency in terms of quality, delivery times, and the balance sheet was believed to be able to be improved by increased use of Japanese organizational principles and coupling the market with organization in a novel way. Furthermore, there has been an interest on part of trade unions to form a coalition with management as they, like management, want to introduce decentralized wage systems and see opportunities to have their demands met for increased skills training and more rich and diversified jobs for their members.
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| 4. |
- Alkvist, Lars-Erik
(författare)
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Max Weber och kroppens sociologi
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about the social body in sociology, represented by the classical sociologist Max Weber. Traditional sociology has not taken the body into account. The body has been considered to belong to the realm of the natural sciences. Sociology has seen the body merely as an instrument or a tool for social action. The mind/body dichotomy, homo duplex, prevails in sociology. The purpose of this investigation is to show that Weber does not totally neglect the social body. I claim that the body is “absent but present” in Weber’s texts. The above-mentioned view that the body is ignored by sociology must, in other words, be modified. I claim that Weber’s texts imply a conception, although rudimentary, of the social body. This conception co-exists, however, with Weber’s tendency to see the body as a natural object. This is in accordance with the general picture of the way sociology treats the body. To examine the question of the social body I turn to philosophy. I believe that some philosophers have been interested in viewing the body as a social rather than a natural object. Plato, René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant and finally Maurice Merleau-Ponty have all tried to come to terms with the relationship between the mind and the body. The above-mentioned philosophers, with the exception of Kant, are all therefore concerned with the body as more than simply a biological organism. They try to reconcile the dualistic difference between body and mind. They are, however, mainly concerned with finding a philosophical answer to how mankind can attain knowledge about the object. They are concerned with epistemology and ontology. Sociology, on the other hand, is more concrete and its corresponding concepts are “subject” and “structure”. Sociology fills these concepts with a more non-epistemological and ontological content. He has been described as a subjective sociologist or a micro sociologist, but I claim that this does not give the whole picture. Weber also sees individual intentions and purposes as determined by objective and structural constraints. I divide the works of Weber into two parts. I have named the subjectivist approach “the empowered individual”. Here Weber works at the level of the individual subject. He focuses on the subject’s own experience. The ethically shaped, and therefore systematically self-controlled, body becomes a vehicle for being in the world. The body is subjected to the governing ascetic ethic. The feelings and desires of the body become rationalised into a method and a system. In this way a far-reaching rational discipline is created, a so called “ethical conduct of life is created”. In the writings of Weber the “conduct in life” is described by the concept “habitus”. However, Weber is classical in the sense that he considers habitus as a mental attitude. Other works by Weber include a discussion of the constraining structural surroundings, but Weber prefers to use the concept “life orders” rather than “structures”. Weber describes a number of different life orders which he says form the specific cultural habits adopted by individuals in society.
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| 5. |
- Anving, Terese
(författare)
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Måltidens paradoxer : Om klass och kön i vardagens familjepraktiker
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis the relation between the everyday meal, the doings of family and the reproduction of difference in Swedish everyday family life is explored. The thesis has a qualitative approach and interviews with parents from different class and ethnic backgrounds and family constellations, but all with children under the age of 8 years old, is the empirical basis. Using sociological and feminist theories that focus on peoples’ experiences and doings and how they are related to relations of ruling, the analysis aims to understand how family is done in Sweden. Taking the point of departure in questions such as how can the practice of feeding be understood as a central hub for how family is done? What does the work of feeding imply in relation to assumptions of the gender equal Sweden? How do the parents interviewed relate to norms about feeding and parenting and what importance do these attitudes have for how class is experienced and reproduced? In the thesis it is argued that the practice of feeding is fundamental for how family is established in today’s Sweden. It is also an important point of departure to understand how relations of class and gender are being reproduced in everyday life. It is also argued that children play a central part in what is considered as “family” in Sweden. The practice of feeding is at the same time a unifying and separating practice where communion between family members, generations, friends and others is established but also a practice where difference is recreated and manifested. Even though Sweden has a long history of approaching gender equality women still continues to have the main responsibility for housework and care of children and a significant relationship between gender and feeding work is identified. Here it is argued that there is a need of an expanded work-concept that also includes the emotional and caring work. The work is not only about performing certain tasks but also how (mainly) the women live with and keep the family and its needs “in their head”. It is also argued that certain types of food, products and ingredients (such as sugar) are fundamental for how a division of class is recreated on a level of everyday life in Swedish families and that there is a strong relationship between “good” meals and “good” and respectable parenting. By taking the point of departure in the practice of feeding the dissertation contributes to the understanding of how family is done in today’s Sweden and how unequal relationships are recreated in one of the most central practices of everyday life.
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| 6. |
- Apelmo, Elisabet
(författare)
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Som vem som helst : Kön, funktionalitet och idrottande kroppar
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main aim of this thesis is to explore young women’s lived experience of the body, which, on one hand, is viewed as deviant – the disabled body – and, on the other hand, is viewed as accomplished – the sporting body. The questions posed in the thesis are the following: how do the young women handle the two subject positions that emerge as a result of the perception of them as respectively deviant and accomplished, which forms of femininity are available to them and what are the strategies of resistance they develop. Based on the work of philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Simone de Beauvoir, phenomenologies create in this thesis a sociological theoretical framework that includes the body. Participant observation was conducted at a disability sports camp for young disabled people and at four disability sports contests. The participants were recruited from both the sports camp and disability sports clubs. Ten semi-structured interviews were done with young women ages 15 to 28. Three of the participants were asked to keep video diaries: they were lent a small camcorder and a lightweight tripod for two months. In this study a polarization paradoxically is apparent between the weak, which is expressed through the expression of belonging as ”we”, and the strong individual. The subject position as capable and positive – as a reaction towards the weak, the negative – is one of the few positions that are available to them. With the positive and strong attitude, as with distancing from the victim position, the consequence is the difficulty, not only to complain but also to express pain, despair or discomfort in one’s everyday life. In this study many critical voices are raised. They also tell about stumbling and incontinence. At the same time the answer ”no, it’s fine” is given in many different forms. In this thesis this is interpreted as an unwillingness to express negative emotions. The phrase ”I am like everyone else” and the many variations on the same theme in the empirical material are interpreted as a wish for normality. Using the same logic – that attributed weakness leads to the expression of strength – the deviance that is attributed leads to a nearly extreme expression of normality. The lack of gender attributed to disabled people appears to imply that if functionality is not ”normal”, there is no room for another categorization. One interpretation of the material is that disability is seen in the family and in society as a different landscape, in which vulnerability needs to be compensated for by normality, which in turn results in the interview persons’ socialization into a compensatory normalcy.
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| 7. |
- Arvidson, Malin
(författare)
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Demanding Values : Participation, empowerment, and NGOs in Bangladesh
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The concepts participation and empowerment are frequently used in development projects in the third world. The meaning given to the concepts today signal a normative orientation, marking an alternative, people-centred approach to development. When used in development projects, the concepts demand detailed descriptions. They also demand project implementers, often local NGOs (non-government organisations), to possess certain values – commitment, solidarity, altruism. These requirements are important in order to make sure the normative meaning of the concepts is not lost on its way from policy to the grassroots. NGOs are chosen as partners in development due to their ideological orientation. Commitment and sincerity are values that NGOs repeatedly claim as their trademarks. However, concern is being raised about changing characteristics of NGOs. Furthermore, the increasing availability of funds provided by the international donor community appears to have encouraged the emergence of NGOs with dubious intents. Discussions about the characteristics of NGOs, and about the use of participation and empowerment strategies are distinguished by a practical orientation, often promoting the strategies and NGOs as partners in development. Analyses are mainly aimed at identifying solutions that will ascertain more accurate development policies. Furthermore, the analyses are often based on experience confined to the development discourse. This means that a wider sociological perspective is neglected; the analyses prioritise accurate and detailed descriptions of the particular rather than identifying and trying to understand general social phenomena. Theoretical perspectives that emanate from empirical backgrounds that are different from the development arena, but that share a focus on similar social dilemmas, are seldom used to enhance our understanding of NGOs, or of the problematics involved with participation and empowerment strategies. The thesis discusses the meaning ascribed to participation and empowerment, based on a review of literature and on field work in two development projects in Bangladesh. Particular focus is put on how local NGO staff relate to the values that participation and empowerment strategies demand that they possess. The NGO staff in the study exhibit ambivalent behaviour and attitudes compared to what is expected from them and to the attitudes they themselves claim to hold. In exploring the ambivalence of staff motivation and performance, it is suggested that a sociological, or academic, rather than a practically oriented approach is used. Instead of focusing on staff behaviour as such, focus is put on the general dilemma of the concept of altruism, the core value related to development NGOs. Using organisation theories, the problematic relationship between organisational control and staff is examined, with particular focus on the dilemma of controlling staff motivation in normatively oriented organisations aiming to achieve social change. The study aims at debating and illustrating the difference between a practical and an academic analytical approach. The analysis presented has profound consequences for what expectations we may attach to development projects based on NGO implementation. It also has consequences for our expectations of participatory and empowerment strategies, which rely on implementing organisations that are characterised by altruistic motives.
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| 8. |
- Basic, Goran, 1972-
(författare)
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Samverkan blir kamp : En sociologisk analys av ett projekt i ungdomsvården
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation a collaboration project in Swedish youth care is analysed. The aim of the project was to enhance coordination between the Social Services and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care in order to make the efforts more efficient. The project also employed a number of coordinators. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to analyse conflicts, alliances and comparisons identifiable in interviews and observations. The analytic findings are put into an overall “collaboration context” represented by earlier research on the social phenomenon of “collaboration”. In this way the dissertation tries to contribute to a sociological understanding of a contemporary widespread phenomenon. The empirical materials of the study consist of recorded conversational interviews with 147 project participants (youngsters, parents and various professional categories) as well as observations of meetings, informal get-togethers and visits to institutions, Social Services offices, the head office of the National Board of Institutional Care and coordinators. The material was analysed using the analytic perspectives of Georg Simmel (1950/1964), Theodore Caplow (1968) and Erving Goffman (1959/2004). The analysis shows that the project manifested and led to struggles between organizations involving representatives from the Social Services, the National Board of Institutional Care and the project, as well as to several interpersonal conflicts between representatives from various categories of involved professionals, and the youngsters and their parents. The study also shows that the client, in such human service organizations, faces a significant risk of being marginalized. Professionals who appreciated the collaboration often drew their conclusions based on their interaction with other professionals, but the collaboration did not guarantee a successful treatment of the client. Conflicts concerning the roles of the coordinators and their written documents (“the agreements”) emerged and were actualized through the creation of the project. The coordinators and their “agreements” can be seen as the project’s most visible representatives and symbols, which during the project become both themes for conflict and actualize already established conflict patterns. The youngsters and their parents appreciated the projects’ coordinators who appeared as personally involved and able to make concrete changes. However, many of youngsters and their parents criticized the coordinators and even portrayed a victim identity in relation to the project. The coordinator’s relationship with the youngsters and their parents was mostly characterized by passivity. This is clearly apparent in the analysis of the administrative and/or passive coordinator. Different alliance constellations became visible in these presentations. When the coordinator roles were altered in the description, the alliance constellations change. It is a common strategy for clients in human service organizations to try to enter into alliances with professionals involved in their cases and, in so doing, try to alter the situation to their own advantage. The fact that these alliances are often sought by the client indicates, among other things, the client’s will to fight against the situation in which he/she finds him/herself. I believe that this can be seen as something productive rather than problematic.
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| 9. |
- Berg, Martin, 1977-
(författare)
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Självets garderobiär : självreflexiva genuslekar och queer socialpsykologi
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Det övergripande syftet med föreliggande studie är tudelat. För det första syftar den till att på teoretisk väg etablera en dialog mellan queerteoretisk och socialpsykologisk teoribildning om aktörer och aktörsskap med utgångspunkt i en kritisk läsning av Judith Butler och George Herbert Mead. För det andra syftar den till att på empirisk väg utveckla och fördjupa denna dialog i syfte att demonstrera och resonera kring de möjligheter som uppstår i spänningen mellan dessa teoretiska perspektiv. På detta sätt är avsikten att föra ett bidrag till såväl den queer- och genusteoretiska debatten som dess socialpsykologiska motsvarighet. Ambitionen är att detta sammantaget kan utgöra ett ramverk i vilket möjligheterna med en queer socialpsykologi skisseras. I jämförelsen mellan dessa teoretiska perspektiv fokuseras på frågan om hur människor antas bli till som aktörer och under vilka villkor och genom vilka processer detta äger rum. I centrum för denna diskussion positioneras relationen mellan deras respektive antagande om struktur och aktör samt hur denna relaterar till och förutsätts vara uppburen genom något slags praktik. För det andra diskuteras individens möjlighet att omförhandla sitt förvärvade aktörsskap och genom vilka processer och praktiker detta eventuellt kan göras möjligt. Avhandlingen är uppdelad i fyra delar. Den inledande delen (del 1: Inledande ord) introducerar studiens övergripande bakgrund, teoretiska position, syfte, material och de metodologiska överväganden som har gjorts under forskningsresans gång. Den andra delen (del 2: Teoretiska interventioner) utvecklar i tre kapitel den diskussion om spänningen mellan queerteori och socialpsykologi som påbörjades i avhandlingens första och inledande kapitel. I ett första kapitel fokuseras på Judith Butler för att ringa in och granska några centrala argument och faktorer i hennes tänkande. I ett andra kapitel diskuteras George Herbert Mead för att, i likhet med föregående kapitel, presentera hans övergripande argument och huvudsakliga tankegångar. Avslutningsvis avrundas avhandlingens andra del med ett kapitel som syftar till att summera och utveckla den spänningsrelation som hittas mellan dessa två teoretiker samtidigt som en diskussion förs om de möjligheter en empirisk utveckling av den teoretiska problematiken skulle kunna bidra med. Den teoretiska spänning som lokaliseras mellan Mead och Butler kretsar i första hand kring deras förståelse av relationen mellan aktör och praktik och med utgångspunkt i denna formuleras arbetsbegreppen transaktör och transpraktik som genomgående används i presentationen av det empiriska materialet. Avhandlingens tredje del (del 3: Empiriska nedslag) är i första hand av empirisk karaktär och är uppdelad i två kapitel. I det första av dessa förs en diskussion om hur de självreflexiva genuslekarna inbegriper formulerandet av ett särskilt transgenus och på vad sätt det är möjligt att förstå iscensättandet av genus som en i första hand självkommunikativ praktik. Gradvis demonstreras hur det går att utläsa en önskan om att iscensätta genus tillsammans med andra människor och därför kretsar det följande kapitlet kring en diskussion om betydelsen av social interaktion för detta iscensättande. Med andra ord går det att utläsa en rörelse från självkommunikation till (önskad) social interaktion och detta är ett tema som tydligt ringar in en stor del av den teoretiska problematik som genomsyrar denna studie. I den fjärde och avslutande delen (del 4: Avslutande reflektioner) knyts i tre kapitel de resonemang som hittills har presenterats och diskuterats ihop. Det inledande kapitlet för en teoretiskt orienterad diskussion om den föregående genomgången av det empiriska materialet. I ett därpå följande kapitel fokuseras på olika aspekter av självreflexiva genuslekar i relation till den klädda kroppen för att visa hur den tidigare presenterade praktik- och aktörsproblematiken är avhängig den klädda kroppens genusprägling. I detta sammanhang visas hur det är möjligt att upprätta en relation mellan självets framväxt, subjektivitet och den klädda kroppen. Avslutningsvis förs ett kortfattat resonemang kring avhandlingens huvudsakliga argumentationslinjer och vilka möjligheter ett tänkande inspirerat av queer socialpsykologi för med sig.
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| 10. |
- Berg, Pernille
(författare)
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The Reluctant Change Agent : Change, Chance and Choice among Teachers, Educational Change in the City
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation critically analyses the discourse on educational change. By placing educational change in the context of globalisation and innovation the author argues that the current discourse on educational change is un-nuanced and omits the important perspectives on change. The author has analysed an educational district in Sweden and one of its projects on competence development, named 'Striving for Action Teachers' in the dissertation. The project has involved 75 teachers and both pre-school, primary, secondary and special ed. schools. By interviewing some of the participating teachers and analysing their reflections on the competence development programme the author is able to develop four different types of categories of teachers and their perception on change and teaching. The four categories consist of the change agent, the reformer, the passionate pioneer and the dedicated teachers. These four different types of teachers are placed in the spectrum of top-down initiatives and focus areas encompassing teaching to the school as an educational organisation. By providing this research the author is thus able to elaborate on the research regarding educational change. By analysing the proposed four categories the author critically assesses the way in which top-down change initiatives may fallaciously assume that change can be brought about. The author presents different explanations to why change initiatives may be rejected and argues that when change is represented in a physical manifestation in one teacher supposed to be the vector of change, the teachers expected to assume this role of change end up rejecting this responsibility. In critically discussing the research on educational change and innovation the author situates the discourse on educational change in the growing research and discourse on innovation, especially public and social innovation. The author addresses similar concern when it pertains to innovation as previously purported in relation to educational change. The discussion illustrates the problematic tendency that the ambiguity inhibiting these debates leads to obfuscation. This obfuscation manifests itself in the way in which educational organisations address and respond to these demands. With the four categories of teachers the author argues for a further debate and nuanced perspective on innovation and educational change in order to continuously ascertain and critically assess the why’s, the who’s and the how’s behind each innovation and change. The dissertation is based in a cross-disciplinary field of theories: innovation, globalisation, sociology of education and organisational theories. Methodologically the dissertation is based within qualitative methods: observations, interviews and written materials.
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| 11. |
- Blücher, Erika
(författare)
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Hållbar utveckling, samhällsstruktur och kommunal identitet : En jämförelse mellan Västervik och Varberg
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many of Sweden’s municipal districts show a population decline as well as an uneven population distribution. This pattern is neither desirable nor socially sustainable. Sustainable development is a well-known term often discussed from an ecological perspective. At the same time it is established that social and ecological sustainability are closely linked in several ways. In this dissertation social sustainability is studied. The term includes demographic and socio-economic factors, tradition and culture, technical structure, as well as power. Socially sustainable development, in this context, refers to the ability of a municipality to achieve and maintain a desirable developmental pattern. It also includes the ability of a municipality to handle crises, such as dramatic economic fluctuations and other societal changes. The overall aim of this study is to identify the underlying factors that influence the socially sustainable development in municipalities. All through this study, the municipalities of Västervik and Varberg are used as empirical examples. The study is formulated around three main questions. The first question concerns the importance of a municipality’s previous development patterns – for the current situation as well as for any possible future developments. The second question deals with the local identity and highlights factors that attract or hamper development in the local area. The third and final question refers to how local civil servants and citizens perceive their own community’s potential for development, as well as which developmental strategies they perceive in the current municipal activities. To answer these three questions, Västervik and Varberg have been studied through the use of historical documents and statistical material, and through interviews with both municipal local civil servants and residents. Theories of various aspects of local and regional development such as demographic patterns, society structures, local identity, and social capital are used. This study has identify several types of factors to pay attention to, as municipalities try to bring about and maintain a socially sustainable development. With insight into these factors the municipalities have a better basis for working out a procedural plan of action. Still, to bring about fruitful change it is crucial that the actors involved clearly define and reflect on their goals of a “sustainable development.”
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| 12. |
- Boethius, Susanne
(författare)
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Män, våld och moralarbete : Rapporter från män som sökt behandling för våld i nära relationer
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Men, violence and moral work- Reports from help-seeking men at treatment centers working with violence in close relationships Men’s violence against women is an extensive social problem. In the 1970s, a new kind of centers were established in the US and UK, focusing on treating men who had been violent against their wives or girlfriends, the aim which is to end the men’s violent behavior. In the 1980s the first center where violent men could seek help was established in Sweden. Even though these treatment programs have been around for almost 30 years, they have received limited attention from researchers and evaluators. Research in the field on domestic violence is less frequently studied from the perspective of men rather than from the female perspective. This thesis explores how men, who voluntarily sought help at men´s centers report their experiences of violence and treatment. The study is based on two types of data; responses given on a questionnaire collected primarily for an evaluation study, and analyses of qualitative interviews conducted for this thesis only. The results from the questionnaire shows that, the men who seek help at a treatment center do not constitute a heterogeneous group. Some men report frequent unilateral psychological, physical and sexual violence use against their partners. Other men report no physical or sexual violence use at all. Many men report being exposed to their partner’s violence. The motives for seeking help are not always to end the violent behavior. The possibility to assert whether the treatment was effective is also discussed. There was no control group, meaning that there is no way to compare the results with those men who did not participate in the treatment. However, the men report less violence use one year after the first contact was made with the treatment center. The main part of the analysis explores how the interviewed men present themselves. In other words, the thesis highlights the men’s explanations and portrayals of their own retold experiences. The analysis shows that all the men construct a morally decent description of their selves. Inspired by Scott & Lyman’s (1968) sociological concept ‘accounts’ and Goffman’s (1971) ‘presentation of self’, the moral work, made by presenting the retold violent acts and their relationships, are identified. Furthermore, the men switch between denying and claiming responsibility. At times they deny responsibility for the violence used and place it with the women (“it’s her fault”), their background, or specific situations. At other times they claim responsibility, and do this on three different levels; 1) in the situation, 2) by explaining that they have been trying to end the relationship and 3) by arguing that they has been trying to seek help. The men also negotiate the concepts of ‘violence’ and ‘women abuser’, making efforts to make distinctions between themselves and “real” women abusers.
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| 13. |
- Burcar Alm, Veronika
(författare)
-
Gestaltningar av offererfarenheter : Samtal med unga män som utsatts för brott
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation, young men's experiences of being victims of crime are analysed. Several kinds of material are considered in this study, but the primary data consist of informal, tape-recorded interviews with ten young men (17 to 21 year's old) who had been assaulted or mugged. Their accounts of their experiences are analysed using a number of constructionist, interactionist, and narrative perspectives. Identity is a central term in the dissertation, and is held to be something we do rather than something we have. The ways the young men talk about themselves, the perpetrators, the crime itself, and victimhood in general, form the core of the analysis. During the interviews, the young men managed their 'membership' of two diverse categories 'young men' and 'victims'. Male identity and victim identity can be seen as conflicting, but the young men present themselves as both by using a more subtle approach; they construe the two identities in such a way as they can co-exist in a characteristic way. The young men formulate themselves in their narratives as active, not as passive. Their own competence and drive are emphasised, while the perpetrator's influence and importance are diminished. The violent event itself is played down. By use of what may be termed 'manly' descriptions, the men defy the usual criteria for victimhood. They claim victim status, but they do not see themselves in line with the standard image of the passive, suffering, and vulnerable victim. On the contrary, this study presents us with a distinctive crime victim, one who is strong, active, and resilient.
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| 14. |
- Chan, Elton
(författare)
-
The Last Urban Frontier : Commodification of Public Space and the Right to the City in Insurgent Hong Kong
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the production and transformation of public spaces in Hong Kong, a city that is steeped in neoliberal ideals and has seen substantial deterioration in terms of democratic rights and freedoms in recent years. As a result of the expansion of neoliberal capitalism, commodification of urban space has not only exacerbated, but also become more far-reaching and indiscriminate. While existing lines of enquiry such as privatisation and commercialisation remain highly important, it could be argued that they may no longer suffice to encapsulate the exploitative motives and practices of public space due to the growing importance of public space in urban development, as well as the increasingly complex and dynamic models of funding, ownership, and management. Rather than fixating on certain characteristics like public ownership and commercial use of public spaces, the thesis argues that a broadened conceptualisation of public space commodification will be key to not only unpacking its multi-scalar socio-spatial impacts, but also revealing its connection to other urban processes. By rethinking commodification processes in relation to public space, this thesis sets out to establish the linkages between capitalist productive forces and the development and production of public space. Moreover, drawing upon recent protest movements in Hong Kong and the ways in which protesters appropriated and transformed different urban spaces into spaces of public discourse, the thesis argues that everyday contests over public space use and development are imperative to the city’s future political struggles. It is for this reason that the thesis started by examining the commodification of everyday public spaces in Hong Kong, and while inspirations for an alternative public space can be drawn from the sites of political struggles and contestations, it is ultimately in the spaces of everyday life where the right to the city can be formulated and enacted. The empirical cases are centred on three different public spaces in Hong Kong, as well as the protest sites of both the Umbrella Movement and the Anti-ELAB protest movement. By adopting a combination of both on-site and digital ethnographic approaches, this study examines the social production of different public spaces in Hong Kong. The main sources of data for this study include participant observations, interviews, documents, live stream footages, and online forums. The cases are analysed and presented across the four papers included in this thesis.
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| 15. |
- Cuadra, Sergio
(författare)
-
Mapuchefolket - i gränsernas land : En studie av autonomi, identitet, etniska gränser och social mobilisering
- 2001
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The new world order, that Castells denominates network society, generates a conflict between the globalisation and identity. In this sense the questions of identity and ethnic boundaries,in Barth’s meaning, emerge as a central subject to understanding societal changes. Globalisation is causing a weakening of the civil society, the relationship between the nation state and the people is also debilitated. New identities arise from this conflict. The resistance identity and the project identity arise, according to Castells, out of the new social movements. The present modernization, the technological, economical and cultural globalisation, has generated a new type of relationship between the Chilean society and the indigenous peoples. Analysing how these new ethnical relationships operates is the central subject in this study. The aim of this study is to understand the processes that occur within the ethnic boundaries which generate the identity of the respective cultures. From this aim, I analyse the discursive social references that the Mapuche use to preserve the boundaries between them and Chilean society. My analysis is concentrated in the political sphere where different Mapuches’ discourses are pronounced. New discourses have been actualised in Mapuches social movement, because of the new social references that have arisen in the identity of Mapuche. Why do Mapuche endeavour to revitalizing the boundaries with the Chilean society? Is globalisation generating a resistance against the tendencies to leave people without boundaries or to erase the boundaries between different types of people? Many such questions can be formulated in this context. Nevertheless, I propose that a close analysis of the historical development of the Mapuche boundaries, especially in the religious, political and social domains, can help us to better understand the rolls and functions of the boundaries in the social life. It is possible to analyse this in different discursive social references. The discursive analysis that I propose departs from the idea that in each discourse exist very clear social references which are generated at the same time from respective symbolic resources which exist in the group. The reactivation of old resources, the generation and appropriation of new symbolic resources, influences, in one way or another, the social references of the group which at the same time can influence the discourses of the same group. All these processes, around the relationship of social references / symbolic resources / discourse, are considered in this study as basic dynamics in the preservation of the boundaries of the ethnic groups, and are fundamental to the existence of the group also. Maintaining boundaries implies a permanent reflective process in which one chooses meanings for its’ own identity within different references. This reflective process occurs in a stress range that characterizes the boundaries of the group. I call this “boundary deliberation” The so-call process of globalisation in the present society generates new situations of boundary deliberation between different cultures. This reflective process in, and on, the ethnic boundaries occurs today between the Mapuches and Chilean society. Autonomy is one of the most important discursive social references in this reflective process. The results of this study were obtained through analyses of the boundary situations generated in the conflict between the Mapuches and the Chilean / western culture.
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Eklund, Lisa
(författare)
-
Rethinking Son Preference : Gender, Population Dynamics and Social Change in the People’s Republic of China
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation explores how son preference is constructed and renegotiated in light of social change in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Based on secondary sources and interviews with women and men in rural Anhui Province as well as key informants, it addresses son preference from conceptual, methodological, empirical and ideological perspectives. The analysis centres around son preference understood as a social institution that is both gendered/sexed and has intergenerational characteristics. The dissertation suggests that in the PRC, son preference is a “double sensitive” issue to study as it has become politically incorrect due to the Care for Girls Campaign, and as it is often perceived by government officials as easily leading to criticising the population policy. It proposes that there are two main approaches to studying son preference, namely the outcome approach, which focuses on how son preference manifests itself, and the causal approach, which zooms in on different factors underpinning the institution of son preference. It argues that accounts about the scope and prevalence of son preference are often informed by an outcome approach, where sex ratio at birth (SRB) imbalance is typically regarded as a proxy indicator of son preference. However, the dissertation challenges the usefulness of using SRB as a proxy indicator and suggests that when put in relation to fertility rates, SRB can be used to model “son compulsion”, which denotes that parents want to give birth to at least one son and take action in order to meet that goal. However, as demonstrated, there is no direct link between son compulsion and the institution of son preference, since son compulsion can be triggered by what is termed the “supply-factor”, i.e. that prenatal sex-selection is becoming more available and morally and socially acceptable. When adopting a causal approach, it becomes clear that the institution of son preference is being renegotiated through a dynamic process of individual and structural factors, which are anchored in a society that is becoming increasingly commercialised and individualised, and which is marked by low fertility levels, an ageing population and large flows of rural-urban migration. Still, due to ideological reasons related to the population policy, the role of the Chinese Communist Party in disciplining social order and ideas about modernity, son preference is often depicted in both official and popular discourses as something essentially “traditional”, “rural”, “backward” and “feudal”. In reality, however, son preference is becoming renegotiated in ways which blur the divide between “rural” and “urban”, and “traditional” and “modern”.
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| 18. |
- Eldén, Sara
(författare)
-
Konsten att lyckas som par : Populärterapeutiska berättelser, individualisering och kön
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis, the expanding discourse of popular therapeutic culture on and for heterosexual couples is analysed. Three case studies have been carried out; self-help books for couples, TV programs with relationship-focus, and web discussion boards connected to the TV programs. The analysis is made in relation to sociological theories of individualization, therapeutic culture, feminist studies of couples and inequality, as well as inquiries of the private/public dichotomy. The thesis argues for a need to critically engage with the effects of individualization on couple relationships and gender. A responsible autonomous couple is constructed in popular therapeutic narratives. This couple is simultaneously autonomous and responsible for doing “couple work”, but also dependent on the experts’ definition of ideals of “the good couple” as well as on guidelines for ways to get there. As a result, the popular therapeutic narrative (contrary to the argument of theories of late modernity) ends up reproducing meaning-constitutive scripts for the heterosexual couple. In addition, the assumption of the responsible autonomous couple enables a reproduction of gendered stereotypes as well as gender inequality in the couple. Swedish popular therapy talks about the couple in gender-neutral terms, but e.g., the generalized “tools” offered to the participating women and men in the TV programs ends up reproducing traditional gender roles: men “take action”, “set limits”, and make decisions, and women “connect with their feelings”, “mirror” their men, and refrain from “controlling”. Furthermore, inequalities related to social structures and cultural norms of gender, such as unequal distribution of housework, cannot be framed as a “couple problem” in the discourse, but is understood in terms of “differences” related to “personality”. Popular therapeutic narratives are, however, challenged by the (mainly women) writers on the web discussion board. Most importantly, gender-neutral characterization of heterosexual couple relationships is questioned in the sharing of individual experiences. Thus, the thesis argues that popular therapy on the couple holds an – indirect – potential challenge of, not just the private/public dichotomy, but also the dichotomy of the personal/political.
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| 19. |
- Elsrud, Torun
(författare)
-
Taking Time and Making Journeys : Narratives on Self and the Other among Backpackers
- 2004
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This work addresses the phenomenon of long-term, so-called ‘independent’ travelling, or backpacking, often to destinations described as the ‘third world’. It regards backpacker journeys as arenas for identity work, for expressing individuality and a ‘strong character’. Rather than merely being a parenthetic detour in time and space a backpacker’s trip to the tropics can be understood as a creative effort by the individual to regain the control over time and space thought to be lost in places travellers call home. Yet, at the same time, backpacking reproduces structures of power, through (re)constructing the image of a ‘primitive other’ upon which much of a successful ‘western identity’ rests. The success is, however, not only dependent upon inventing and encountering ‘primitive’ others but also upon the gender of the traveller as well as the competence in mastering manifestations of adventure and risk. The work argues, for instance, that stereotype expectations of femininity (and masculinity) make female ‘adventurism’ into a challenge beyond the actual (or faked) ordeals encountered on the road. Adventurous women are forced to negotiate and balance between expectations placed upon them as (non-adventurous) females and as adventurous travellers. The arguments rest upon the ontological and epistemological conviction that individuals are creative, making the most out of the tools for identity work which society supplies them with. However, in the process of individual self-articulation, structures are both maintained and altered. Consequently, it is through studying individuals and their products/expressions (such as media texts or choice of clothing, food or ‘proper’ transport) that information can be gathered concerning individual thoughts and actions and the structures within which these are manifested. Such an undertaking has been accomplished within this project by means of a qualitative, ethnographically influenced approach, including interviews with backpackers, observations in backpacker areas and analysis of travel media.
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| 20. |
- Eriksson, Annika
(författare)
-
En gangster kunde kanske älska sin mor : Produktionen av moraliska klichéer i amerikanska polis- och deckarserier
- 1998
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study, American police- and detective-series are analysed. I focus on the portrayal of the criminals, especially the moral aspect. The series can be regarded as moral tales. The morality is embedded in the characters that populate the different episodes. There are two major categories of criminals in the series; the essentialized criminals and the ones that commit crimes due to circumstances. This categorization concerns the explanations of the crimes, how the criminals’ fundamental motives are depicted. Different attributes contribute to the construction of the characters as complete entities. The depiction of regret or the lack thereof is an essential aspect of the morality connected with the different culprits. Regret opens up for inclusion, while the lack of remorse and regret serve as a tool for exclusion from society. Respect and disrespect between offender and police/detective are also of significance for the presentation of morality. The portrayal of respect/disrespect can be interpreted in terms of a ”we” and ”them” construction: The disrespect that the essentialized villains show can be seen as a denial of the moral and social order and the police/detectives treatment of these villains can in turn be seen as a way of preserving this order, to keep unwelcome intruders away. The police and the detectives are thus engaged in a process of exclusion. In the same way, the respectful treatment of the other criminals — the situational criminals — can be seen as a recognition of the moral sphere, of including those that deserves to be incorporated. The episodes can be seen as status degradation ceremonies in the case of the essentialized criminals, and in regard to the other offenders, as ceremonies of restoration. The episodes constitute trials where the offender’s character is in focus. With this line of thought as a background, one can approach punishment as a form of moral communication. The episodes can thus be seen as a part of the punishment’s symbolic frame. In this, a certain cultural order is expressed that is not reducible to the series internal clichés. As such, the offenders that inhabit the series are valuable in that the viewer is a part of this symbolic frame.
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| 21. |
- Eriksson, Helena
(författare)
-
Befolkning, samhälle och förändring : Dynamik i Halmstad under fyra decennier
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Changes in society are often discussed on an aggregated level and it is argued that society is changing from a modern industrial society to a post-industrial society. Through studying changes on a local level it is possible to study the complexity and variations of the general and aggregated theories of societal changes, and place changes in a context of time and place. The main object of this study is to analyse change in a locality. The study is a case study which studies Halmstad, a municipality on the west coast of Sweden, between the years of 1968 and 2006. The empirical material consists of analysis of demographic statistics and labour market statistics, using official statistical databases. The empirical material also consists of an analysis of official and historical documents as well as interviews with persons active in Halmstad. Three time periods are identified in the analyses which are characterised by different patterns in the population. The periods are also characterised by changes in the labour market and the employment of the population. These changes are analysed through the interplay between actors in the locality and actors and influences from outside the locality. Through the analysis of reflexivity it is shown how change and stability are interrelated through the interplay between the new and existing or innovation and tradition.
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| 22. |
- Esholdt, Henriette frees
(författare)
-
Når humor, leg og lyst er på spil : Social interaktion på en multietnisk arbejdsplads
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How can we understand the multi-ethnic workplace as a social meeting place? And what happens if we do not 'frame' in advance the social meeting in the widespread anti-racist frame of understanding? These are the questions that are central to this thesis. Starting from a phenomenological methodology, it is the ambition of the thesis to challenge our usual preconceptions and not pre-define how inter-ethnic relations are to be understood, which is why the thesis - expressed in Goffman's terms - asks: ”What is it that’s going on here?” (Goffman 1974), as a way of finding which framework of understanding should be applied. Based on the part of the lifeworld that unfolds in a multi-ethnic workplace, the thesis examines the social interaction in inter-ethnic collegial relationships as it spontaneously arises and develops in the inter-ethnic collegial relationships in everyday working life. The thesis is based on fieldwork (consisting of participant observation and interviews) at the Food Factory ("Madfabrikken"), a multi-ethnic workplace in the hospitality sector in Denmark. With an auto-ethnographic point of departure, the researcher brings herself into play in the relationships under study, and makes herself an object of observation, reflection and study. In addition to the life at the Food Factory, the thesis is also concerned with the research process, and experiments with different methods of grasping and conveying the life lived in the Food Factory in all its complexity and ambiguity. The thesis explores empirical observations of social interactions, where humour, play and pleasure are on the line. As much as the interplay in the collegial relationships at the Food Factory can be pleasurable and fun, it does, however, bring the risk of danger. It is this duality that is illuminated in this thesis. In the first instance, the humour, play and pleasure are continually on line in the collegial interaction and this contributes to a range of humour-based and sexualized forms of social interaction, where "ethnicity" is defused and enjoyed as an aesthetic and sexualised surface. Secondly, it is true in the sense that humour, play and pleasure risk being on the line or jeopardized, if the rules for the interaction are not mastered or respected. What was previously 'framed' as being pleasurable, sexualized play and teasing at work, or what was set in a humorous frame, is suddenly in danger of being replaced or overtaken by a new 'framing' of the situation as sexual harassment or racism. The thesis does not end up with definitive answers as to how social interaction in a multi-ethnic workplace should be understood and how we can understand it as a social meeting place, but contributes with the knowledge that social interaction in inter-ethnic collegial relationships is vulnerable, ambiguous, fragile, undecidable, manipulable and redefinable. With an object-sensitive eye, the thesis contributes to other, more nuanced narratives about the social meeting of the inter-ethnic relationships - namely the narratives about the life lived and its forms.
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| 23. |
- Franzén, Alexandra
(författare)
-
Brottslingar av en mycket speciell sort. : Spionskandalen som en maktkamp mellan visselblåsare, grävande journalister och underrättelsetjänster.
- 2021
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Spy scandals in Western democracies can be seen as a power battle between three actors: investigative journalists, whistleblowers and the intelligence organizations at the center of the scandal. It is a conflict played out both within and outside of the court-house as the actors try to claim the label “hero” for themselves while actively trying to repudiate other labels, such as “traitor”, “spy” or “criminal”. This study investigates three particular cases of spy scandals in Western democracies: the IB-scandal in Sweden in 1973, The Guardian’s Snowden–publications in 2013 and the Danish daily newspaper Politiken’s publication of the book Seven years for PET – The time of Jakob Scharf in 2016. Researchers within political sociology have paid very little interest to spy scandals and the role of security and intelligence services in Western democracies. This research field is both understudied and undertheorized. This research project is developed along two tracks. In the first part of this dissertation, the three empirical case studies of the IB, Snowden and PET spy scandals are presented. Wilhelm Agrell’s concept of the “legality paradox” of security and intelligence agencies in Western democracies and Carl Schmitt’s thoughts on the state of exception are particularly useful perspectives here. In the second part of this dissertation, I conduct an analysis of the vocabularies of motives of the key actors in the three spy scandals. The vocabularies of motives are examined using reference group theory as developed by Robert K. Merton and Malin Åkerström. Both social scientists and legal researchers have written extensively on the topic of press freedom versus state security in Western democracies. In general, the legal research on the subject is intellectually more advanced than its equivalent in the social sciences: the latter is often burdened by the Foucauldian perspective that all security and intelligence services are by default illegimate and should be abolished. One of the main objectives of this doctoral dissertation is to bring together these two different research traditions, political sociology and legal research, to investigate intelligence organizations and spy scandals in four Western democracies.This dissertation advances new empirical and theoretical insights by drawing on previous research, legal and archival documents from the three case studies as well as thirteen interviews with key actors. It is argued that the absence of explicit laws regulating security and intelligence services in Western democracies, in addition to the states’ rhetorical definition of the spy scandal as an act of espionage or terrorism, tend to produce a partial state of exception. It is also shown that investigative journalists and whistleblowers, on the one hand, and intelligence organizations and courts, on the other hand, fundamentally disagree on the intended audience of the published spy scandal. The former argue that the general public is the audience of the spy scandals, whereas the latter counter that the state’s security policy enemies are the true audience.
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| 24. |
- Gregersen, Peter
(författare)
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Making the Most of It? : Understanding the social and productive dynamics of small farmers in semi-arid Iringa, Tanzania
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While much of semi-arid Africa is still sparsely populated with unused land, there are everywhere pockets of high and increasing population density in attractive locations. Small-scale farmers can respond to beginning land-scarcity in a number of ways. Through migration, through diversification of livelihoods, or through changes in their farming system. Which solution is chosen, depends not only on the land-situation, but on a totality of circumstances, with other important factors being marketing and external support. It is difficult to single out population growth as an independent cause. Nevertheless, in much public debate, population is held to be the root cause of food-shortages and environmental degradation. Yet, it may as well be argued that a certain population density is a contributing cause of development and agricultural change. The thesis discusses three themes in relation to small farmers: dynamics of livelihood and production, social differentiation and sustainability of production. At household level, the important factor in explaining what households do, is "uwezo", i.e. ability or power, defined as having capital in all forms. Uwezo is a wider and more dynamic concept than wealth or poverty. Village level differences seem less important. Nevertheless, natural conditions, market access, external stimuli and population pressure all influence what farmers can do and choose to do. These factors are most conducive in "Centre villages" where synergies can be obtained. Circumstances at national level, political and market conditions, are probably of greater significance, but in this thesis they are mostly treated as a common background to the effect of village and household level variables. However, the importance of economic and political circumstances for agrarian development and resource use are shown in a chapter on historical changes. The thesis further endeavours to show how the "Matthew principle" of differentiation works at ground level: those that have, gain, while those that have not, lose. It also discusses diversification of livelihood and de-peasantisation, and finds that this is not a pronounced tendency, but that it is again the most able who seize opportunities and so add to their resilience to risks and to their capacity, while the powerless tend to rely still more on wage-work. This leads to differentiation, but only of the extremes. The large middle group remains constant. Over generations, accumulation seem rarely to be in any one "household-enterprise", but perhaps within a family or kin-group, the members of which then can draw on this "family-capital". In terms of sustainability, it is shown that yields decline on average, but most in the smallest and least able households. It is concluded that uwezo, in its interrelation with circumstances, primarily market and land, is what determines household dynamics and land use, within the environment of natural, socio-economic and cultural circumstances. On population, the conclusion is that population pressure is not a decisive factor for land-use, and that the indirect effect of population is of more significance, i.e. through concentrations with markets for farm-produce, infrastructure and extension. Land and labour are not decisive factors on their own either. What matters is an empowering combination of capitals. At village level a conducive combination of centre village features. Farmers' behaviour is generally opportunistic, they try to make the most of circumstances and uwezo.
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| 25. |
- Gustavsson, Klas
(författare)
-
Det vardagliga och det vetenskapliga : Om sociologins begrepp
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation concerns the relationship between sociology and everyday life and aims primarily to critically evaluate the positions taken in the theoretical discussion on sociological concept formation and its relation to everyday life and social sciences. The main theoretical positions in the debate are summarized in two ideal typological models: (1) The rationalist theory of an epistemological break between everyday life and social science, here represented by the scholarships of Émile Durkheim, Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu; (2) the everyday-life-oriented theory of continuity between everyday life and social science, represented by Peter Winch, Harold Garfinkel and Dorothy E. Smith. By means of an explorative theoretical reconstruction and synthesis, another aim is to propose a pragmatic theory of the break between the everyday and science. This position can be found in an undeveloped version in Herbert Blumer’s idea of sensitizing concepts, but in a more advanced elaboration in Max Weber’s introduction of the ideal type, and in Alfred Schutz’ phenomenological reformulation of Weber’s interpretative sociology. The dissertation develops the pragmatic theory of break between everyday life and social science with insights from the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein.
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| 26. |
- Görtz, Daniel
(författare)
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Etnifierade polispraktiker : Hur etnicitet görs i polisers vardag
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyzes how ethnicity is accomplished in the work of Swedish police officers. It draws on ethnographic data from participant observations and field interviews in Malmö and its theoretical framework is primarily based on ethnomethodology. Police officers – and others in their environment – are found to employ ethnicity and invoke it into interactions in a variety of ways: 1) redefining police-citizen interactions in friendly directions, 2) ethnic profiling, 3) strengthening police control over citizens, 4) questioning police legitimacy, 5) offering accounts for deviant behavior, 6) creating in-group solidarity among police officers by way of distancing oneself from norms of “anti-racist political correctness”. These and other uses of ethnicity vary between the ‘frontstage’, where police officers encounter other people, and the ‘backstage’, where police officers interact with their peers. Police officers treat ethnicity with a great deal of sensitivity in the frontstage region, but they speak more freely about it, and adopt an ironic attitude towards “political correctness”, in the back stage region. Ethnicity is found to hold a certain form of social tension that requires the participants of a police interaction to manage and respond to it, sometimes in a postponed fashion where events are discussed at a later time. The study also highlights ethnicity’s place within police culture and police organization in a more general sense. The police adopt a social code that the study calls “ironic knighthood”, where they maintain various heraldic, authoritative and militaristic aspects of their culture and organization but add a humorous and ironic twist. Actively using ethnicity is integral to the interests and incentives of this code. It is argued that ethnicity cannot be removed from the everyday practices of the police, and that a more viable goal of a critical sociology is to seek to carefully describe ethnified police practices so that they can be reflected upon, problematized and developed.
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| 27. |
- Hedlund, Marianne
(författare)
-
Shaping Justice : Defining the disability benefit category in Swedish social policy
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about what qualifies to be characterised as disability in Swedish social security legislation and which principles are used to decide who is entitled to social security benefit as disabled. The thesis brings into focus which definitions of needs and criteria that are found 'worthy' and acceptable to include in a disability category in Swedish social policy. In other words are social classifications, public considerations about the categorising in focus. Through empirical 'case' analyses this thesis shows that very different conclusions can demark a disability category in welfare policy. The analysis uncovers that the definitions of this category are not always as clear or sharp in Swedish social policy. Formal administrative principles and different underlying conceptions define a disability category in particular ways that again brings different outcomes and demarcation lines of this category in Swedish welfare policy. The definition of a disability category is an outcome of contextual social processes and interpretations. Disability as social political and administrative category is a result of particular social constructs and based on defined normative premises and cultural interpretations. The thesis presents which principles and criteria are used to distinguish worthiness to a category of disability and illustrate how these categorising rely on certain understandings of the welfare politics for persons with disabilities. The thesis demonstrates that disability in social policy is a changeable category, and that changing criteria are used to determine eligibility. The definition of disability is an outcome of cultural consensus made between contradictory principles for distribution social justice in welfare policy to persons with disabilities.
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| 28. |
- Hedman, Karl, 1967-
(författare)
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Managing Medical Emergency Calls
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is a conversation analytic examination of recurrent practices of interaction in medicalemergency calls. The study expands the analytical focus in past research on emergency calls betweenemergency call operators and callers to pre-hospital emergency care interaction on the phone betweennurses, physicians and callers. The investigation is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish emergencycontrol centre. The data used for the study consists primarily of audio recordings of medical emergency calls.Fundamental procedures in medical emergency calls examined in the dissertation are: (1) questioning; (2)emotion management; (3) risk management and (4) instruction giving. Emergency call-takers ask questions toelicit descriptions by callers of what is happening and to manage symptoms of patients to help keep them safeuntil ambulance crews arrive. In the questioning practice about acutely ill or injured patients call-takers usemainly yes-no questions and clarify problems by questioning callers making a distinction between defined andundefined problems. The analysis reveals four core types of emotion management practices: (1) call-takerskeep themselves calm when managing callers’ social displays of emotions; (2) promising ambulanceassistance; (3) providing problem solving presentations including emergency response measures to concernsof callers, and (4) emphasising the positive to create hope for callers. Call-takers use seven key procedures tomanage risk in medical emergency calls: (1) risk listening through active listening after actual and possiblerisks; (2) risk questioning; (3) risk identification; (4) risk monitoring; (5) risk assessment; (6) making decisionsabout elicited risk and (7) risk reduction. Instruction giving using directives and recommendations isaccomplished by call-takers in four main ways: (1) acute flow maintaining instruction giving when callers areprocedurally out of line; (2) measure oriented instructions for patient care and emergency responsemanagement; (3) organisational response instructions and (4) summarising instruction giving. Callers routinelyacknowledge risk identifications and follow instructions delivered by call-takers to examine statuses and lifesigns of patients such as breathing, movement and pulse, and perform basic first aid and emergency responsemeasures.The findings generated from this study will be useful in emergency call-taker training in carrying out interactiveprocedures in medical emergency calls and add to the larger research programmes on on-telephoneinteraction between professionals and citizen callers. This is an essential book for pre-hospital emergency careproviders and institutional interaction researchers and students.
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| 29. |
- Hemmaty, Mona
(författare)
-
On the Margins : Migrants, Status Mobility and Recent Turns in Swedish Migration Politics
- 2019
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many people believe that changes in Swedish migration politics in the last decade signal a turning point and perhaps the end of the well-reputed Swedish exceptionalism. In 2008, Swedish labour migration policy was transformed into one of the most open in whole OECD, whilst Swedish asylum migration policy, known for its humanitarianism, took a significant turn toward restrictiveness in 2016. For several decades the opposite used to characterise Sweden as an outlier.This thesis takes interest in a legal status change channel known as spårbyte (“track change” in Swedish) implanted with the reform in 2008, allowing migrants to switch statuses to temporary workers after rejection of asylum claims or previous studies without having to return.The study sketches status changes in relation to the labour migration policy reform, and explores how migrants work themselves around legal and formal requirements to change of “tracks” in order to stay in Sweden with work permits. It mixes case file research, interviews, statistics and secondary sources and uses theoretical glasses of deservingness on the ways in which staying with work permits is experienced and conditioned by both inclusionary and exclusionary logics of migration control.The study finds that friendships, family, kinship ties and individual employers, help migrants in ways clearly enabled by the openness of the current Swedish labour migration policy. But earning the right to stay on the basis of work comes with a high price of dependency, elongated temporariness, uncertainty and deportability for migrants.
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| 30. |
- Henecke, Birgitta
(författare)
-
Plan & Protest : En sociologisk studie av kontroverser, demokrati och makt i den fysiska planeringen
- 2006
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since planning in connection with new building projects frequently generates controversy, it can be seen as a typical form of contentious politics. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze siting controversies, their origin, development and termination, in efforts to explore the problem of legitimacy in planning processes of this sort. The research approach employed is that of a multiple case study analysis. Four different planning processes concerning building projects in southern Sweden in which siting controversies occurred were selected. Two of them concerned housing projects ? a small infill project in a cultural environment and a large housing development project on earlier farmland. The other two concerned infrastructure ? the building of a railroad line and a road construction project. The case studies were based on analyses of public records and on interviews with different participants in the planning process: representatives of the developer, municipal officials and politicians, people living in the vicinity of the projects and representatives of local organisations. Three different theoretical perspectives were used in analyzing the empirical material: 1) theories of controversy for examining the content, structure and effects of the siting controversies, 2) theories of democracy for analyzing the intentions of the Planning and Building Act, the interpretation of these intentions by the actors and the democratic character of their interactions, 3) theories of power for analyzing different dimensions of power in the planning process. Major collides between different institutional logics of market, politics and civil society were evident in all of the cases. Three of the controversies were similar in structure, involving escalation and polarisation of the opposing sides. The fourth controversy exemplified a conflict that persisted without escalation. As my analysis demonstrates, the amount of resources and the possibilities to mobilize these by those negatively affected by the plans were of particular importance for the development of the controversies. However, none of the cases terminated in a complete resolution. On the other hand, resistance and voice entailed that further investigation of the issues occurred, in some cases producing minor changes of the original plans. Both participant and elitist oriented activities were evident in the planning processes. The official discourse of a participant democratic planning process gave rise on the part of those affected to expectations that were seldom met and hence to distress. Rather than reducing the siting controversies, the actual possibilities for public participation tended to reinforce them. Analysis of the power relationships showed the developers to have an especially dominant role. In struggles between the different actors involved, the developers had access primarily to allocative resources, the local governmental officials to authoritative resources, and the residents who were affected to expressive resources. The results of the struggles were partly dependent upon alliances with or support by actors from other spheres of society and of compromises between different institutional logics. The conclusion is that in efforts to achieve legitimacy in the planning process it is important to take account of: the nature of the controversies, the degree of democratic content of the planning process, and the effects of existing power structures.
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| 31. |
- Hilding, Lars-Olof, 1963-
(författare)
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"Är det så här vi är" : Om utbildning som normalitet och om produktionen av studenter
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen, baserad på intervjuer med 58 studenter vid tre olika program vid Högskolan i Halmstad, behandlar de skäl olika studentgrupper beskriver för att börja studera, deras upplevelser av mötet med högskolemiljön, och vilken betydelse de en lokal högskola kan ha. Trots olika åtgärder var den sociala snedrekryteringen till högre utbildning i stort sett oförändrad mellan 1960 och 1990. Under 1990-talet skedde en utjämning, men 1999 kom fortfarande bara 24% av studenterna vid svenska universitet från arbetarklasshem, trots att de utgjorde 35% av hela befolkningen. Studenter med högutbildade föräldrar uppger att de egentligen inte träffar ett aktivt val att börja högre studier, det uppfattas snarare som en naturlig del av vuxenblivandet. Barn från hem utan utbildningstraditioner ger en annan beskrivning. De beskriver valet att utbilda sig som ett val bland flera andra, och att de fått stöd från föräldrarna oavsett vad de valt. För barn till lågutbildade var det ofta fråga om en särskild händelse som gjorde att utbildning blev ett aktuellt alternativ. I studien har det varit möjligt att jämföra hur både klassresenärer och arvtagare beskriver mötet med och vistelsen på högskolan. Båda grupperna beskriver hur de upplever miljön som förvirrande och otrygg. Arvtagarna utvecklar emellertid strategier för att hantera situationen, eftersom den är svårare att ifrågasätta för dessa - utbildningen är ju en naturlig del av vuxenblivandet. Klassresenärerna är däremot mer benägna att ifrågasätta studierna. Klassresenärerna beskriver hur de upplever att de förändras ifråga om språk och förhållningssätt under studierna, männen i mer positiva ordalag, kvinnor med en viss tvehågsenhet.
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| 32. |
- Holmström, Ola
(författare)
-
Skolpolitik, skolutvecklingsarena och sociala processer : Studie av en gymnasieskola i kris
- 2007
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is based on a case study of a series of events at a newly started Swedish high school. The study employs a qualitative methodology comprising of interviews, participant observation and analysis of text documents. The series of events opens with the grand visions of the municipality and the school's principal for the school and concludes with the teachers at the school unanimously acting to dismiss the principal. The purpose of the dissertation is to analyze this series of events in the light of the steering reforms and the optimistic attitudes towards school development in the 1990s. Thus the dissertation focuses on two different levels of the school system: on the one hand it looks at an actual school in crisis, on the other it looks at the policy level, which was predominated by an air of optimism. These two levels are linked in the dissertation via the concept school development arena. This connotes an analytical position towards which all principals and teachers were expected to move. When the school's local actors are in the school development arena they deal with the ?how? questions that the steering reforms turned over to them. If they do not enter the school development arena, the ?how? questions remain untreated and unanswered, resulting in not meeting the aims of the steering reforms. Against this background, a comprehensive drive towards the school development arena took place. This is expressed in the dominant school development discourse of the time that was carried by both school policy and school research. According to the discourse the principal should be a challenging leader, the teachers reflexive practitioners, and the school a learning organization. This dissertation shows that these directives pointed strongly towards the school development arena. The principal of the school in this study made great efforts to get the teachers to move into the school development arena, and this was the starting point for the pattern of social interaction that the dissertation focuses on. The social processes analyzed are interpreted using social psychological theory, symbolic interactionism, and Erving Goffman. Great analytical care is taken underline that social actions are not mechanical. How people act is rather a matter of how they define the situation. When the teachers define the principal's visions as ?nonsense?, they treated these visions as not worth bothering with. When the principal rewarded those teachers who entered the school development arena, his actions were deemed unfair, leading to protest and dissatisfaction. As the principal held steadfast to his course he was defined as autocratic and someone the teachers wanted to liberate themselves from.
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| 33. |
- Hultén, Kerstin
(författare)
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Med datorn på köksbordet : En studie av kvinnor som distansarbetar i hemmet
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this study is to analyse the situation of living and working for women who are teleworking in their homes. Telework carried out in the home will mean that paid and unpaid work will be done in the same location. When this happens, the division of time and space between paid and unpaid work is no longer self-evident, contraty to what appears to be the case when the workplace and the home are two separate places. Two groups of women have been interviewed. The emperical parts shows that the women acquire a certain flexiblility in time and space and experience a form of totality that they have missed earlier. At the same time they mean that they are caught in a gender-trap, and the study shows a clear gender division of labor. In the thesis the question are posed, what is the cause of the gender division of labor. In order to be able to answer the question, the thesis is referring to three other studies showing how women with paid work outside their homes deal with the relation between paid and unpaid work. In theese studies it is pointed out that the time aspect is improtant for creating balance and a feeling of totality in the working and living situation. For the teleworking women, the spaceaspect is more evident that the problem with time. It is through the possibility to join in space the paid and unpaid work, that the women experience totality in their lives as well as this possibility also causes the gender division of labor. Some of the experiences in their worksituation can also be related to how the phenomenon work is conceptualised. The thesis discuss the attempts within social sciences to develop the concept of work.
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| 34. |
- Hägerström, Jeanette
(författare)
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Vi och dom och alla dom andra andra på Komvux : Etnicitet, genus och klass i samspel
- 2004
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis, set in an educational context (Swedish Komvux, high school adult education), deals with how groups of us and them are constructed, changed and reproduced. In order to understand the processes of us and them I have looked at the interconnections between gender, ethnicity and class utilising participant observations and semi-structured interviews. The main theoretical points of departure have been feminist theories, theories on ethnicity/ ‘race’ and class and the theories of Elias on Established and Outsiders (1964/1999), Tilly on durable inequality (1998) and Bourdieu & Passeron on the reproduction of societies through education (1977). Gender and class are fields of research that have received a lot of attention in Sweden, yet little research has been done on how gender, ethnicity and class intersect. It is a new and relatively underdeveloped field of research, but also one that has grown in importance over the last few years. Education has proven to be a setting where gender, class and ethnicity/‘race’ are immensely important. These concepts are important when examining how social relations are structured and organised in every society. They are also very important in individual lives. On a theoretical level they are easier to understand as they can be separated analytically. Contextuality is the key to understand them on an empirical level as they move in and out of focus. In relation to ethnicity, I have also argued that the concepts of ‘race’ and racialisation ought to be brought into the discussions of eg ethnicity, cultures and immigrants. ‘Race’ is not as an essential category (any more so than gender, ethnicity or class), but rather a social construct that has an important bearing on people’s lives, especially on how people, in this case students, are being categorised and seen as immigrants. The discussion of ‘race’ is also a recent one in Sweden, a country still very much perceived as egalitarian and where, so far, the concept of ethnicity has been favoured. The thesis shows how we, the white Swedes, are seen and constructed as the majority at Komvux, and how they, the immigrants, are the others. However, the understanding of us is very much taken for granted and hidden behind perceived normality. Groups of us and them are created by perceptions of gender, class and above all ethnicity/‘race’. Amongst others I am using Elias’ theory to understand how us and them are created and maintained, although an important critique of this theory is that it does not to a great extent acknowledge variation and hierarchies within the groups of us and them or how the groups can overlap. This is most clearly shown by the divide into the other others, ie immigrants perceived as even more other, more them, than the immigrant students in the study. I have shown that us and them are not clear cut categories between Swedes and immigrants - groups often perceived as being essentially different - but rather involve processes of change, resistance and negotiation and also different forms of hierarchy.
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| 35. |
- Höglund, Birgitta
(författare)
-
Ute och inne : Kritisk dialog mellan personalkollektiv inom psykiatrin
- 2001
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Treatment ideologies and working models replace each other quickly in today's society. During the 1980s a dramatic dismantling of the psychiatric institutions occurred. The health care system was supposed to be transferred to non-institutional care. This was, however, not possible for all groups of patients. At an institution, specialized in so called demanding patients and patients who received care according to the Compulsory Psychiatric Care Act or the Forensic Psychiatric Care Act, an alternation process was initiated during the 1990s as a de-institutionalization within. New rehabilitation oriented working operations were initiated alongside the already existing ward care. This resulted in two local cultures who developed different rhetorical forms, with one common denominator: to present oneself as professionally and morally competent in relation to the politically correct ideology. The personnel, who worked with the rehabilitation outside the ward used an offensive counter rhetoric. They worked with the generally celebrated methods. In criticizing the others' characteristics of the total institution were used. In the interviews the professional role and self-image of the outside personnel was intimately entwined: they let the light from the new methods shine on themselves as individuals. The personnel at the ward didn't openly criticize the new working method nor openly defended their own. Within the framework of a defensive rhetoric they avoided attacks on their own personal morale. E.g with the use of a collective "we-perspective" distance were built up between themselves as individuals and their professional role. They empazised the difficulty in integrating the rehabilitation idea with the demand of total security. They also used an accepted counter rhetoric: they agreed with the advantages of the new methods and the disadvantages of their own, but explained apologeticly why it was like this. With the help of contrast - their own work was described as heavy, difficult and dangerous, the outside personnel's as easy and fun- the effort's of their their own work value was emphasized. All interviewees used the same rhetorical cultural repertoire, e.g similar typifications of the personnel - strictly a contrast between a new and old working method- yet in different ways. The purpose was, however, the same: to turn the criticism away from one self by pointing towards other groups. The credibility in the delivered messages was built up with the use of e.g concrete examples, quotations as well as references to opinions and expressions from persons, who, through their positions were looked upon as confidence-inspiring. An unassailable argument, that everybody used, was that they worked for the greater good of the patients. Another reoccurring rhetorical strategy was the usage of subtle criticism, e.g. quoting a colleague's response and by doing so making oneself unimpeachable to attack. Critical messages were defused or softened by the use of particles, rephrases and less accurate wording.
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| 36. |
- Isaksson, Anna
(författare)
-
Att utmana förändringens gränser : En studie om förändringsarbete, partnerskap och kön med Equal-programmet som exempel
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis the overall aim is to analyse conceptions of change with the point of departure being texts developed within the framework of three development partnerships financed by the European Social Fund's Equal Programme 2001-2007. The development partnerships, consisting of collaborating parties from both the public and private sector, aimed at developing new methods and ideas in order to counteract discrimination and all kinds of inequality in working life. The thesis poses the following research questions: How are the problems that the development partnerships intended to counteract described? What appears as important to change in order for discrimination in working life to decrease? In what ways are changes aimed at combating discrimination and contributing to increased gender equality and diversity in working life deemed possible? What motives emerge behind the visions of creating a working life without discrimination? How are gender and other social categories constructed and how do these constructions impact on the conceptions of change that emerge? The ideas, perspectives and interests that characterise the understanding of changes in working life in the studied texts, are illustrated with the aid of theories on how society's forms of rule have changed from government to governance and theories on how gender is done. Furthermore, why certain perspectives and ideas emerge and the consequences of them is analysed based on institutional ethnography and concepts such as social relations and ruling relations. The thesis' analysis points to how the consensus-based organisational form of partnership and the politics and principles that are reflected in the Equal Programme together with notions on growth, leadership and gender create limits for the conceptions of change. Limits that in certain respects entail that society's relations of power and inequality, instead of being challenged, are reproduced. Based on the results of the study, the importance is emphasised of continuously taking one's point of departure in identifying and challenging the limits to how one can speak of change, since the dominant conceptions of change may be an expression of the ruling relations.
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| 37. |
- Jack, Tullia
(författare)
-
Negotiating Conventions : cleanliness, sustainability and everyday life
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cleanliness has seen a rapid increase in both developed and developing countries, along with a parallel rise in not only water and energy but also cleaning products consumed. Water and energy supply as well as dealing with waste are environmentally critical in securing a sustainable future. This dissertation aims to contribute to sustainability by providing new insights around how conventions change or stay stable. This knowledge will be useful in intervening and shifting conventions in more sustainable directions.To get at cleanliness conventions this dissertation uses three main data sets. First, existing data sets such as time-use surveys as well as domestic water and energy consumption; second media representations of cleanliness in five popular Swedish magazines over the past thirty years; and finally focus-group discussions with fifty-seven participants about how media representations relate to everyday life. This data provides a multi-level exploration of cleanliness developments from the aggregated to the specific. By plotting the way that cleanliness has developed in Sweden over the past thirty years, as well as the media discourses and the way that people relate to these discourses, this dissertation aims to gain a clearer understanding of how conventions come into existence, circulate and become accepted, and how to intervene and shift conventions in more sustainable directions. Cleanliness is a mundane issue, yet stills play a leading role in everyday life, quietly using water, energy and people’s time and has been increasing in Sweden since at least the 1980s. I argue that the media is part of this, not as a casual factor, but rather as a reflector and amplifier of various cleanliness practices. Media represent cleanliness, or hyper-cleanliness, as ideal while deviations are presented as shameful or even medical problems. These potentially oppressive representations are, however, not naïvely accepted in everyday life, but rather calibrated as it is common knowledge that magazines show over-hyped perfection, but also criticised and resisted. Cleanliness is context driven and relational, so this dissertation argues that unsustainable increases in cleanliness that have led to intensifying water and energy consumption could be reversed by changing cleanliness conventions.Investigating cleanliness conventions is important in understanding how resource consuming practices are shared and reproduced. This dissertation provides new insights into ways that media plays into how cleanliness conventions, and ways that people relate to – and resist – representations in everyday life are useful considerations when designing interventions into current collective conventions to steer everyday life in more sustainable directions.
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| 38. |
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| 39. |
- Jannisa, Gudmund
(författare)
-
The Crocodile's Tears : East Timor in the Making
- 1997
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- On 7 December 1975 Indonesian troops invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which had unilaterally declared itself independent on 28 November the same year. The immediate background to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor was that the old regime in Portugal was overthrown in April 1974, resulting in a decolonisation programme for Portugal's colonies. Immediately after the invasion Indonesia installed a provisional government and now regards East Timor (Timor Timur in Bahasa Indonesia) as the Indonesian Republic's twenty-seventh province. The period 1975-1989 was in East Timor characterised first by war, later by isolation and fear. From 1989, in which year East Timor was opened up for visitors by the Indonesian authorities, resistance against the occupation has been manifested in a multitude of ways, both by those living inside East Timor and among the East Timorese in exile. This was highlighted when, in December 1996, José Ramos Horta and Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in trying to resolve the conflict. The thesis presents the conflict in a historic perspective where the growth of Indonesian and East Timorese nationalisms are seen as two distinct historical processes which are shaped by their respective positions in the pre-colonial maritime trade of Asia, the impact of colonialism (Dutch and Portuguese respectively) and modern history in a global sense, especially from W.W.II onwards. The hypothesis of the study is that there exists among the East Timorese a sense of community feeling which by Benedict Anderson has been called an 'imagined community'. The aim of the thesis is to describe the historical background to the conflict and to establish the factors (historical/ethnic/linguistic etc.) which have led to the formation of this 'imagined community'in the sense that Benedict Anderson discusses this concept. The study ends with a discussion about the possibility to find solutions to the conflict, a possibility which is greatly enhanced by the East Timorese resistance' willingness to take part in 'talks without preconditions' under the auspices of the UN.
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| 40. |
- Jönhill, Jan Inge
(författare)
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Samhället som system och dess ekologiska omvärld. En studie i Niklas Luhmanns sociologiska systemteori
- 1997
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part is an exposé of Niklas Luhmann’s comprehensive sociological systems theory. Systems theory is a theory focusing upon the distinction between system and environment. In the first chapter the systems theoretical foundations as related to theory of science, its basic methodology, its central concepts and their historical development are presented and discussed. In the second and third chapter the presentation and discussion takes its point of departure in the two primary levels of analysis: the theory of social systems as communication systems; and the as well special as general theory of society as social system, respectively. One of Luhmann’s many challenging thesis – inspired by the phenomenology of Schutz and the second order cybernetics of von Foerster – is that the sociologist primarily is an observer of observations of (other) observations; another that social systems operate as autopoietic systems, i.e. as self-referential and “self-producing”, operatively closed, but cognitively open systems. The theory of society comprises of four parts: 1) the theory of communication media, 2) of evolution, 3) of differentiation, and 4) of society’s self-description. According to the theory of differentiation, the systems of economy, politics, law, science, family, etc., are operating as functions systems in the system of society. One conclusion of the analysis is that in modern society the distinction between inclusion and exclusion is a main, guiding distinction for the understanding of how persons are connected to society. The second part of the thesis is a systems theoretical analysis of the ecological environmental problems of society, thereby showing the relevance of systems theory in the understanding a contemporary sociological issue. The analysis is carried out around three theses: 1) Society can only relate and react to the environmental problem through communication; 2) Modern society is, to a high degree, dependent upon technology. Therefore, it is exposed to risks. Risk should be seen mainly as a form of danger caused by decisions of one’s own. Risk is thus not contrary to security, but a distinction between danger and risk; 3) Functional differentiation, which is shown to have a lot of advantages to the modern complex society, also causes great difficulties in attempting to solve environmental problems. However, this insight brings, as is shown, the only key to solutions. The environmental issue makes more urgent not only the development of an ”environmental sociology”, but first and foremost a general theory of society.
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| 41. |
- Kamara, Fouday
(författare)
-
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CRISES IN SIERRA LEONE : The Role of Small-scale Entrepreneurs in Petty Trading as a Strategy for Survival 1960-1996
- 2001
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sierra Leone is a small country with rich mineral resources such as diamonds, bauxite, gold and iron ore. Other resources include fishing, forestry and fertile agricultural land, which enable people to farm without any sophisticated methods of mechanization. Nevertheless, with all its wealth in resources, the country is relatively poor and is one of the least developed countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa. This has led to an economic and social crisis as well as other complex problems, from political instability and patronage to corruption and economic mismanagement. This study is an effort to understand and discuss these problems and their impact on the lives of people of Sierra Leone. The author discusses the economic and social problems in Sierra Leone, and the role the small-scale entrepreneurs in petty trading as a strategy for socio-economic survival in the country. The people of Sierra Leone have succeeded in surviving the growing economic chaos. The study is based on a number of interviews conducted in the country as well as related literature. Social networks, which expanded during this period, have become the hallmark for small-scale entrepreneurs and petty trading within the institutional framework of the country, both in the public and private sectors.
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| 42. |
- Karlsson, Magnus
(författare)
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Från Jernverk till Hjärnverk : Ungdomstidens omvandling i Ronneby under tre generationer
- 2000
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The place is Ronneby, a smallish town in southern Sweden. My subjects are working class and lower middle class men in Ronneby, men who — since the beginning of the century — have encountered changing conditions for reaching adulthood. In this dissertation, I will analyse these changing and increasingly difficult conditions and try to explain how the tradition of starting to work early in life, and thus becoming adult when still very young, has been replaced with a need to postpone adulthood further and further. Old industrial companies like Kockums and L.M. Ericsson used to provide jobs which could be passed on from father to son. Nowadays, they have been superseded by advanced undertakings in Information Technology and by a local university, specialized in teaching software development. The whole situation in Ronneby bears the imprint of the same problems which towards the end of the century have spread through most of the Western world. People who do not understand the new logic of change and cannot adapt to it personally, will be left behind. Ronneby can be seen as a symbol of the disappearance of a Swedish industrial tradition and the coming of a new industrial order, which has little use for a labour force with only lower education. The tools of interpretation are mainly from Margaret Mead and David Riesman. In their respective ways both have described the transformation of society in terms of the relation between character and social structure. Mead concentrates on changing patterns of culture, and she maintains that there was a period in history when parents could safely assume that their children´s lives would become copies of their own lives, whereas we now live in a period when neither parents nor various expert systems in society knows what to expect from the coming generation. Riesman concentrates on the consequences of cultural transformation, and he maintains that there is a correlation between types of society and types of character. The Tradition-directed character – with inherited power relations – later became Inner-directed – with life goals transplanted by parents in their offspring at an early age – and finally Other-directed – a character type which seeks guidance from peers and mass media. To a large extent this dissertation deals with the decline of the family and primary relations, but at the same time with people´s capability of always creating new forms of social bonds and things in common.
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| 43. |
- Kaya, Gökhan
(författare)
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Aspirations, Capital and Identity : Four studies on the determinants of life chances for young Swedes with an immigrant background
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation examines the determinants of life chances among young people with immigrant background in Sweden. The dissertation includes four research papers, each examining a specific research question on a determinant of life chances. The studies are based on datasets from two surveys: the Social Capital and Labour Market Integration survey, and a longitudinal study of ten schools in Malmö.Study I examines aspired pathways, asking whether young people want to continue directly to university from secondary education or if they mix in other plans. The results show that young people with an immigrant background aspire less to experimentation and prefer direct transition. The results have two facets: Young people with immigrant origin are determined to be successful. On the other hand, opting for less experimentation may deprive them of an opportunity to explore their self and life outside university, which may be an important source for informal resources.Study II investigates access to social capital among mixed-union children, and its distribution across trans-national and social sources. The results diverge from previous studies that argue that social integration of children of mixed unions lies between that of the children of immigrants and children of two Swedish-born parents, or are similar to children of Swedish-born parents. The results suggest that social capital depends on the migration background of the foreign-born parent, which influences whether children from mixed unions have greater or lesser access to social capital, and whether this access is through few or many sources.Study III examines involvement in diverse cultural activities, so-called omnivorousness. It is often argued that omnivores are tolerant of, and inclusive to, the stigmatised other. The idea is tested by examining if individuals involved in diverse forms of cultural activities bridge disconnected ethnic groups. The results are not in line with this hypothesis, suggesting that previous studies are far too ready to associate progressive “positive” attributes with omnivores, and do not fully capture what people actually do in their social relations.Study IV examines if young people who view themselves as invandrare (“immigrant”) are additionally disadvantaged compared to other young people of immigrant origin. The results show a greater association with depression and unemployment risk among people with explicit immigrant identity. Yet, people of immigrant origin with no explicit identity have even greater disadvantage. Thus, an explicit sense of self, even a stigmatised one, protects people from falling into the most disadvantaged positions.Taken together, the four studies provide new insights on the life chances of young Swedes with an immigrant background, and they underscore the fact that social integration has to be understood as a complex process.
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| 44. |
- Kebede, Teketel Abebe
(författare)
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`Tenants of the State' : The Limitations of Revolutionary Agrarian Transformation in Ethiopia, 1974-1991
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study is about the agrarian reforms and policies of the military regime in Ethiopia in the period of its rule between 1974 and 1991. It is a descriptive and qualitative study of a set of agrarian policies which seeks to establish both the unrealized potential of the early and baisc reforms such as the 1975 Land Reform and Peasant Associations and the limitations of subsquent policies of collectivization, compulsory villagization, resettlement and centralized command procurement. An empirical case study of the effects of one of the policies, namely the villagization program is undertaken. The study seeks to place the description and analysis of the agrarian policies into a number of relevant contexts. First, an attempt was made to relate the discussion to questions of forms of peasant cooperation and state policy disincentive ont the one hand and the exigencies of prolonged war and rural conflict on agrarian policies on the other. Secondly, agarain policies are placed in theoretical framework through discussions of various perspectives and debates on subjects such as agarian transformation (socialist and capitalist), peasantry, state agrarian intervention and state-peasant relations. Thirdly, the study attempts to situate the analysis of the agaraian policies in relevant historical and politico-ideological contexts through a more or less detailed presentation of agrarian relations in Ethiopia before 1974 and the 1974 Ethiopian popular movement and analyze how these backgraound conditions influenced the nature and outcomes of the agarian policies of the military regime. The potentials and limitations of the agrarian policies of the regime are assessed in relation to the myth and reality of agrarian transition/transformation in Ethiopia in the period under consideration, the problems of rural institutions and state-peasant relations and the scholarly quest for comprehensive explanations of the Ethiopian experience in agarian policies. Finally, based on the Ethiopian experience the study raises issues such as forms of peasaqnt organization, organization of agricultural production and above all problems of state-peasant relations as major problem areas for future research both for equitable and broad-based agricultural growth as well as for peasant emancipation and participation which had been the promises of the 1974 popular movement but whose potentials failed to be realized to the fullest extent possible.
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| 45. |
- Kindblad, Christopher
(författare)
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Gift and Exchange in the Reciprocal Regime of the Miskito on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, 20th Century
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is a historical-comparative analysis of a conflict that has developed in the economic system of the Miskito in the 20th century, concerning the use of common property resources. The study is based on empirical material collected in a Miskito/Creole village on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in the 1990s. During the enclave period (1860-1960) Miskito men earned money as wage labourers at foreign companies (lumber, mining and banana plantations), and sent home money and purchased goods to women, who worked in subsistence agriculture. At this time the communal resources were reserved mainly for subsistence and food gifts. This permitted a symbolic transformation of money and purchased goods, which were distributed in a wider network of kin-related women. There was a relatively stable coexistence of short-term exchange and long-term gift, which is referred to as a reciprocal regime. However, the transition to the commercial period (1960-) resulted in a commercial exploitation of communal resources, which seriously started to compete with subsistence and the custom of food gifts in the 1970s. A contradiction developed between short-term exchange and long-term gift, which stems from a double and contradictory coding of communal resources. This development was interrupted during the 1980s - the decade of the Sandinist revolution - but continued in the 1990s, although new aspects were added due to increasing population pressure, external exploitation and few opportunities for wage labour. In spite of instabilities in the reciprocal regime, the analysis suggests that there could be a conflictual coexistence of gift and exchange, which is potentially creative for the future.
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| 46. |
- Klintman, Mikael
(författare)
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Nature and the Social Sciences : Examples from the Electricity and Waste Sectors
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The book has two interrelated objectives. One objective is meta-theoretical and concerns the exploration of theoretical debates connected to issues of studying society and environmental problems; another objective is empirical/analytical, referring to the analysis of "green" public participation in the electricity and waste sectors in Sweden, and partly in the Netherlands as well as the UK. The metatheoretical part draws the conclusion that the ontology of critical realism, combined with a problem-subjectivist tenet, is a particularly fruitful basis for the social sciences in order to provide an understanding environmental conflicts. The empirical questions refer to preconditions and obstacles to public participations in the "greening" of the domestic practices related to electricity and waste. Methodologically, the empirical part is based on a combination of statistical data and comparative case study research, conducted through semi-structured interviews with local authorities, housing organizations, energy companies, a windpower cooperative, and households. The challenges of providers are divided into making visible, making acceptable, and making doable, based on both material and socio-political characteristics of the sectors. Households, in turn, face the challenges of constructing combinations of green identity as a foundation of their motivation: ecological, environmental, economic, and social green identities. The study shows how differences in identity-combinations across cases-although materially influenced-are rarely materially determined in any irrevocable way. Instead, policy reform may substantially strengthen the social support of action-motivating combinations of green identities.
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| 47. |
- Klitgaard, Vibeke
(författare)
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Social (u)orden i distriktspsykiatrien : En systemteoretisk analyse af psykiatriske patienters kommunikation og adfærd samt stigmatisering fra omverdenen
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation looks into everyday life at two day-care centres of community psychiatry in the municipality of Copenhagen. More specifically, it is about the patients' communication and behaviour, and about the stigmatization fromthe outer world they experience. The empirical material is based on three years of participant observation. The two daycare centres and their districts were situated in opposite ends of the socioeconomic scale within the municipality, one of them in the district of the highest socioeconomic status in the municipality, the other one in a district of very low socioeconomic status. The socioeconomic distance caused marked differences in the patients' communication and behaviour patterns, which had to do with the patients' orientation. In the day-care centre placed in the low socioeconomic status district the patients focused mainly on the patient community, whereas the patients at the day-care centre in the district of high socioeconomic status were oriented towards normality. I analyze patients’ communication and behaviourin line with the communication part of Luhmann’s systems theory approach. The patients expressed varying degrees of communication disturbances: some major, when they could not express themselves in a comprehensible way and therefore could not interact with other patients; some minor, which enabled them to interact with other patients even if they expressed for instance singular delusions. I focus on the day-care centres' double status as places of refuge and as stigmamarkers. They were places of refuge where the patients could talk freely about their symptoms and the effects of psychopharmaceuticals. However, the day-care centres were also stigma-markers because the patients were subjected to stigmatisation and moral judgment as a consequence of their mere contact with the psychiatric treatment system. The literature on stigmatisation describes how the discrimination against psychiatric patients influence their chances in more or less all life areas: Income, education, job and employment, psychological well-being, housing status, medical treatment, health and satisfactory relations. On top of the above-mentioned, psychiatric patients are at severe risk of excess mortality, as recently documented in a forensic autopsy study.
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| 48. |
- Knopff, Bradley D
(författare)
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Reservation Preservation : Powwow Dance, Radio and the Inherent Dilemma of the Preservation Process
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation, I have studied Native North American reservations and why they still exist. My research was carried out with the Ojibway, Lakota and Métis peoples in the Midwestern region of the USA and Canada. I chose three reservations with public radio facilities and one reserve community without radio in order to complete this investigation. Also, I have examined and described the Powwow Drum dance on these reservations. In this section, I have focused on the historical nature of this cultural event as well as its modern invitation perspective for both the reservation and the non-Indian public to better understand them. The third section takes up relevant issues as Native Canadian language and media resources. Moreover, the difficult dilemma for those reservation communities to be preserved in relative isolation from mainstream North America must still be addressed and resolved in a more permanent way. Finally, this book is evidence of Native North American survival in both the USA and Canada.
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| 49. |
- Kolankiewicz, Marta
(författare)
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Anti-Muslim Violence and the Possibility of Justice
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is concerned with the ways in which justice is dispensed in Swedish courts in cases concerning anti-Muslim violence. Based on material accessed through the Swedish National Board for Crime Prevention and classified as Islamophobic hate crimes, the judicial treatment of cases that may involve racism is analysed. An aim is to explore how different laws against racism in the Swedish legal system, most importantly the penalty enhancement provision for crimes motivated by racism, work in practice. Through an in-depth analysis of several cases—of a mosque fire, of insulting emails and of attacks on taxi drivers—the thesis explores a particular type of silence around the possible racist nature of these acts. The main argument is that the courts’ understanding of motive, subject, language and injury, and their definition of racism, make it difficult to notice a racist dimension of these acts of violence and therefore to redress a type of harm entailed by racism. Focusing on obstacles inherent in the workings of the judiciary and in the ways truth is established, the limits of resorting to law in search of justice in cases involving racism are discussed. By bringing in a counter-example, a case in which the focus of the judgement is on the racist nature of the acts on trial, an attempt is made to expand the understanding of the judiciary and make the agency of those involved in cases, and in particular the discretion of the judges, visible. In this way, a more dynamic model of the law is proposed, in which laws, rather than being predefined in a self-contained legal system, are steadily made through acts of interpretation taking place in courts. Theoretically, the thesis is located in an intersection between sociology of racism and sociology of social justice. In particular, the question of how racism and law influence each other is explored. For one, the development of Swedish legislation against racism is analysed as embedded in particular social dynamics related to racism as shameful. These dynamics lead to the passing of progressive laws, at the same time as the existence of racism may be denied. For another, the thesis examines how acts of racist violence take on new forms to avoid the accusation of racism. Drawing on feminist and critical debates on social justice, this thesis explores the limits and potential of using law in the struggle against racism.
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| 50. |
- Kondrup Jakobsen, Klaus
(författare)
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The Logic of the Exception
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Normally, we understand democracy and dictatorship as two separate forms of government. Actually, they are intertwined due to the state of exception and its inevitability for the political constitution. This concession frees of normative pre-conceptions of the political and leads us to the hypothesis that if we study the political beyond ideological skirmishes and narrative constructions we can come to conceive of the political as a sociological object of study. The logic of the Exception suggests that such hypothesis can indeed be verified by sustaining Carl Schmitt’s famous definition of sovereignty: “Sovereign is the one who decides on the state of exception.” In four chapters a thorough discourse analysis is carried out with the purpose of bringing to the fore the complexity of Schmitt’s definition and the difficulties of sustaining it in a modern philosophical climate. Several definitions concerning the elements of the political are hereby produced facilitating the construction of a polity model in a concretist conceptual framework. The analytical framework of concretism has several advantages for studying the political as a sociological object of study. Firstly, it avoids idealist assumptions and utopian preconceptions. Secondly, it contrasts the unending power relation analysis of political realism and comes to terms with the relativism of its conclusions. A third, but perhaps most notable consequence of a turn to concretism is the revelation of the fundamental logic governing the political, a revelation laying the political bare in its naked clarity as authority and dominance. By conceptualizing the logic behind the fundamental mechanism of polity, The Logic of the Exception reveals a discourse free of moralist or cynical assumptions about the political. In light of this new found language, we come to understand the rise of global polity following the international state of exception (1999-2006) through a discussion of modern political sociology.
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