| 1. |
- Wesolowski, Katharina
(författare)
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Maybe Baby? : Reproductive Behaviour, Fertility Intentions, and Family Policies in Post-communist Countries, with a Special Focus on Ukraine
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis studies different aspects of reproductive behaviour on the international, national, and local levels in post-communist countries. The main focus is Ukraine, where fertility rates are very low and the population is in severe decline. The studies contribute new knowledge about the applicability of a family policy typology developed on the basis of Western countries’ experience for post-communist countries, and about the influence of family policies on fertility levels in these countries. Moreover, the studies investigate whether and how macro-level influences impact on individuals’ reproductive behaviour. Four articles are included in the thesis:Family policies in Ukraine and Russia in comparative perspective analyses the institutional set-up of family policies in both countries and compares the findings to 31 other countries. The results show that Ukrainian family policies support a male-breadwinner type of family, while the benefit levels of Russian family policies are low, compelling families to rely on relatives or the childcare market.Family policies and fertility - Examining the link between family policy institutions and fertility rates in 33 countries 1995-2010 comparatively explores whether family policies have an effect on fertility rates across the case-countries. Pooled time-series regression analysis demonstrates that gender-egalitarian family policies are connected to higher fertility rates, but that this effect is smaller at higher rates of female labour force participation.To have or not to have a child? Perceived constraints on childbearing in a lowest-low fertility context investigates the influence of the perception of postmodern values, childcare availability and environmental pollution on individuals’ fertility intentions in a city in Eastern Ukraine. It is shown that women who already have a child perceive environmental pollution as a constraint on their fertility intentions.Prevalence and correlates of the use of contraceptive methods by women in Ukraine in 1999 and 2007 examines changes in the prevalence and the correlates of the use of contraceptive methods. The use of modern contraceptive methods increased during the period and the use of traditional methods decreased, while the overall prevalence did not change. Higher exposure to messages about family planning in the media is correlated with the use of modern contraceptive methods.
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| 2. |
- Jukkala, Tanya, 1981-
(författare)
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Suicide in Russia : A macro-sociological study
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This work constitutes a macro-sociological study of suicide. The empirical focus is on suicide mortality in Russia, which is among the highest in the world and has, moreover, developed in a dramatic manner over the second half of the 20th century. Suicide mortality in contemporary Russia is here placed within the context of development over a longer time period through empirical studies on 1) the general and sex- and age-specific developments in suicide over the period 1870–2007, 2) underlying dynamics of Russian suicide mortality 1956–2005 pertaining to differences between age groups, time periods, and particular generations and 3) the continuity in the aggregate-level relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality from late Tsarist period to post-World War II Russia. In addition, a fourth study explores an alternative to Émile Durkheim’s dominating macro-sociological perspective on suicide by making use of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems. With the help of Luhmann’s macro-sociological perspective it is possible to consider suicide and its causes also in terms of processes at the individual level (i.e. at the level of psychic systems) in a manner that contrasts with the ‘holistic’ perspective of Durkheim. The results of the empirical studies show that Russian suicide mortality, despite its exceptionally high level and dramatic changes in the contemporary period, shares many similarities with the patterns seen in Western countries when examined over a longer time period. Societal modernization in particular seems to have contributed to the increased rate of suicide in Russia in a manner similar to what happened earlier in Western Europe. In addition, the positive relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality proved to be remarkably stable across the past one and a half centuries. These results were interpreted using the Luhmannian perspective on suicide developed in this work.
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| 3. |
- Chabosseau, Tom
(författare)
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Sailing or Sinking Together : Container Shipping in Digital Platform Capitalism
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis addresses the classical research problem of collaboration among competing actors in the context of digital platform capitalism. This study investigates how ocean carriers attempted, and sometimes managed, to set standards, exchange data, and jointly develop supply chain management platforms despite the alleged risks of doing so. Using a mixed methods research design articulating quantitative and qualitative analysis, the investigation sheds light on how the incumbent company that launched those two initiatives engaged in meaning-making processes with the challengers it hoped to get on board. Following those meaning-making processes illustrates the hurdles for field-dominating actors to stimulate collaboration as their position is perceived by other actors as resulting from predatory practices and thereby casts doubts on the nature of their actual motives. The thesis first provides an analysis of the structure of the field of container shipping by characterising the variety of positions it contains and their relationships. The aim is to set the stage for the second part of the research design that delves into the emergence of two digital initiatives: the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) and Tradelens. The first initiative consisted of the establishment of an industry-wide organisation to provide container shipping with a set of standards, while the second had the ambition to serve as a for-profit digital infrastructure for the exchange of information on container journeys. The emergence of digital collaboration traces back to the activities of a group of IT executives in search of solutions to their common issues outside the boundaries of their organisations. While that professional group succeeded in making standardisation a key concern for the industry, as shown by the establishment of DCSA, the exchange of standardised data turned out to be much more problematic. The case of Tradelens underlines the boundaries of digital collaboration in a competitive field. While the incumbent that launched the platform managed to alleviate doubts about its willingness to derive a competitive advantage from the platform, it never managed to do it to the extent where the platform would gain operational traction. This study adds new knowledge to the field of digital platform capitalism by turning the attention to a case where platforms affect interfirm relationships by increasing the need for collaboration and by showing the utility, against technological-centred approaches, to rely on the tools of neo-institutional theories to grasp how technological change is embedded in the long-term trajectory of an industry.
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| 4. |
- Duntava, Aija, 1985-
(författare)
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A View on the Invisible : A Study of Relationships between Different Aspects of Health in Populations
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis studies relationships between different aspects of health. Health is a multi-faceted concept consisting of various aspects: most commonly morbidity, functional limitation, subjective health, and mortality. The relationships between these aspects, however, are not fully understood, so this thesis aims at contributing to our knowledge on the topic. Three studies are included, each with a particular aim within the general objective.The first study is a systematic review of the articles that have attempted to study more than two aspects of health in one model. The review maps out the field of study, presenting and summarising the results of the articles selected to review, thereby also highlighting gaps in the research. One of its conclusions is that studies approaching health as one interconnected system are rare and that the relationships between the different aspects of health do not consistently show significant effects on each other. Additionally, many population groups in terms of age and place of residence are understudied. The findings from the systematic review have largely guided the scientific curiosity of the following two empirical studies.The second study proposes and tests a parsimonious model of health structure consisting of morbidity, functional limitation, and subjective health on the adult respondents of European Social Survey (n=32,679) using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that, in general, the proposed model holds true but there are age and gender differences in the health structure.The third study explores the variations in the health structure of the adult population in 17 countries in three European regions (North, East, and West). The results show that the model does not apply in all the studied groups across the regions. Clear gender difference in health structure exist in the Western and Northern parts of Europe but not in the East. As to age groups, the analyses show that young adults are similar in their health structure across the regions while there are regional differences between the other two age groups.This thesis shows that it is necessary to study the relationships between different aspects of health as one interconnected system. Furthermore, when health is at centre of scientific inquiry its multiple dimensions as well as age, gender, and regional variations should be acknowledged and taken into account.
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| 5. |
- Rojas, Yerko, 1978-
(författare)
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Childhood Social Exclusion and Suicidal Behavior in Adolescence and Young Adulthood
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis I analyze, with the help of social epidemiological theories, childhood risk factors behind suicidal behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. The data comes mainly from the Swedish “Stockholm Birth Cohort Study” (SBC) consisting of 15,117 participants. A total of four separate studies are included.The first study is restricted to boys born in 1953. By analyzing data from different registers and questions from a survey conducted when they were 12-13 years old it is shown that those who spent most of their time alone, had been absent from school even though they were not ill or grew up in a family which received means-tested benefits at least once during their childhood had a higher risk of taking their own lives. The second study includes the same boys, but suicidal behavior is extended to also encompass suicide attempts and is analyzed in parallel with interpersonal violence. The results show that these different behaviors can be similarly explained by shortcomings in social bonds and relative deprivation during childhood. The third study, which focuses on women’s suicidality within the SBC, shows that girls with both above and below average marks in the sixth grade had a higher risk of engaging in suicidal behavior as adolescents or young adults. However, this relation only held for girls who had grown up with supportive parental ambitions in terms of educational commitment. For boys, only low school performance was shown to be suicidogenic, irrespective of parental ambitions. The fourth and final study is based on the international “Health Behavior in School-aged Children” study and information from international databases. Here it is shown that the suicide rate among 15-24 year old women in 30 European and North American countries at the end of the 2000s was inversely related to how many days a week 15 year old girls involved themselves with friends in 2005/2006.The introductory chapter of the thesis begins with a short background to the theme of social exclusion and suicidality. This section is followed by a more detailed discussion of how the notion of social recognition that is found within the social exclusion literature, can help nuance our understanding of social isolation and suicidal behavior further.
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| 6. |
- Nettelbladt, Ylva, 1987-
(författare)
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Attityder till barnfrihet : (Icke-)reproduktionens betydelse
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is a study in attitudes towards voluntary childlessness. The specific aim is to investigate attitudes towards voluntary childlessness in a society with pronatalist values: how are they structured and how can the structure be interpreted in the Swedish context? As inspiration and theoretical framework the theory of “the value of children”, that was developed by Lois W. Hoffman and Martin L. Hoffman in the 1970’s USA, was used. In order to fulfill the aim a quantitative survey was conducted on the Internet with 2,283 respondents. The data were factor-analyzed and three main factors were interpreted. These factors were named “The natural parenthood”, “Freedom” and “The personal experience”. They were interpreted as three collective dimensions of thinking about parenthood and voluntary childlessness. The study contributes to our knowledge of pronatalist norms as well as the ways in which attitudes towards voluntary childlessness are shaped. The thesis proposes that pronatalist norms can hide under a supposedly individualistic discourse or under internalized beliefs about naturalness. Positive attitudes towards voluntary childlessness seems to contain, above all, beliefs about freedom.
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