| 1. |
- Magnusson, Charlotta, 1978-
(författare)
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Mind the Gap : Essays on Explanations of Gender Wage Inequality
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The gender wage gap is accounted for to a substantial degree by the sex composition of occupations. The present thesis examines the mechanisms that produce this pattern. In particular, the theory of devaluation, currently the most widely accepted sociological explanation, is tested. The empirical findings, reported in three self-contained essays, question this line of explanation. All results are based on Swedish data: the Level of Living surveys (LNU; essays I and II) and administrative labour market registers (essay III).In Essay I the association between occupational prestige and occupational sex composition is examined. The association is non-linear, with gender mixed occupations having the highest prestige. Further, care work does not have lower prestige than other kinds of work. These results are inconsistent with expectations derived from devaluation theory. The analysis also shows that the wage returns to occupational prestige are lower for women than for men.Essay II examines why women receive relatively low returns to prestige. Family related factors are shown to be crucial. The gender difference in pay-off to prestige is thus marked among married/cohabiting employees with children but insignificant among singles as well as among childless married/cohabiting women and men. The gender wage gap in high-prestige occupations is largely due to differences between women and men in work characteristics difficult to reconcile with family duties.In essay III the functional form of the relation between wages and occupational sex composition is investigated. In the cross-section gender mixed occupations have the highest wages. Panel data tend to confirm this pattern: mobility from strongly male or female dominated occupations to more gender mixed occupations is associated with relatively high rates of wage growth. Further, there is a wage premium for care work but a wage penalty for other service work. These findings do not support devaluation theory.
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| 2. |
- Allstrin, Susanna, et al.
(författare)
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12 punkter om distansarbete efter Covid-19
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I och med att Covid-19-pandemin tvingade många anställda att skifta arbetsplatsen från kontoret till hemmet, tycks stigmat kring distansarbete, och framför allt hemarbete, ha minskat. Med ett möjligt slut av pandemin i sikte är frågan hur (kontors-)arbetslivet kommer att se ut framöver: Vad behöver man tänka på när man som arbetsgivare och/eller HR person funderar kring om distans- och/eller hybridarbete ska bibehållas, utökas – eller avvecklas? För företag blir det nödvändigt att analysera och planera hur den nya post-Covid verksamheten ska utformas. Det är av vikt för företag att uppnå en ny status quo när framtidens arbetsplats planeras; målet behöver vara att hitta ett arbetssätt som är gynnsamt för både arbetsgivare och anställda, oavsett om det rör sig om kontors-, distans- eller hybridarbete.Denna rapport syftar till att redogöra för forskningsläget kring hem- och distansarbete för att ge de som planerar för framtiden ett beslutsstöd. Forskningssammanställningen gör inte anspråk på fullständighet då det i nuläget är för tidigt att dra slutsatser om världens förändring efter pandemin. Rapporten diskuterar flera relevanta aspekter och presenterar konkret tolv punkter som är av vikt för den som leder och fördelar arbetet, samt dess stödfunktioner, på ett företag.
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| 3. |
- Backlund Rambaree, Brita, 1977-
(författare)
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Contextualising Constructions of Corporate Social Responsibility : Social Embeddedness in Discourse and Institutional Contexts
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- ‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) have become predominant frameworks connecting business to society that have spread across the globe. They comprise a shared set of ideas and practices, such as those promoted in global reporting standards and by international organisations such as the UN Global Compact. Nonetheless, both are constructed and reproduced by companies in relation to context-specific social institutions, including norms and conventions shaping company engagement in social issues. Using a neo-institutionalist theoretical framework, the thesis examines constructions of social responsibility in discourse and within institutional contexts, across regions that are not often compared in the research terrain: two West European welfare states (Sweden and the UK) and two emerging African economies (South Africa and Mauritius). The purpose of the thesis is to add to the literature on CSR and SRI with a sociologically informed perspective that is comparative and connects institutional theory with social constructionism and a Foucauldian perspective on power. The thesis analyses how perceptions of CSR and SRI are constructed in relation to the social institutions that encase companies’ engagement with social issues, such as national level welfare configurations and the institution of financial investments. The main argument in this thesis is that CSR and SRI need to be seen as contextually constructed, in discourse and practice, in ways that draw the boundaries and set the conditions for company engagement with social issues.The thesis comprises three articles. Article 1 is a content analysis of company self-reporting on CSR and the article examines how the content given to CSR relates to broader welfare configurations and as such differs in four national settings across the divide between emerging African economies and Western welfare states. Article 2 is a discourse analysis that examines interpretative repertoires occurring in company self-reporting across the same set of four countries. The interpretative repertoires are analysed as discursive practices where power intersects with the production of knowledge on CSR. Article 3 focuses on SRI and examines responsible investing as a form of institutional work that institutional investors engage in. Based on an interview study with institutional investors in Sweden, the article analyses institutional work as a process that has the effect of both institutional creation and maintenance and it connects these institutional processes to the construction of meaning on SRI. In its entirety the thesis contributes a sociological perspective on how prevailing understandings of corporate social responsibility come into being and are reproduced.
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| 4. |
- Berggren, Niclas, et al.
(författare)
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The Political Opinions of Swedish Social Scientists.
- 2007
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We study the political opinions of Swedish social scientists in seven disciplines. A survey was sent to 4,301 academics at 25 colleges and universities, which makes the coverage of the disciplines included more or less comprehensive. When it comes to party sympathies there are 1.3 academics on the right for each academic on the left—a sharp contrast to the situation in the United States, where Democrats greatly dominate the social sciences. The corresponding ratio for Swedish citizens in general is 1.1. The most left-leaning disciplines are sociology and gender studies, the most right-leaning ones are business administration, economics, and law, with political science and economic history somewhere in between. The differences between the disciplines are smaller in Sweden than in the more polarized U.S. We also asked 14 policy questions. The replies largely confirm the pattern of a left-right divide – but overall the desire to change the status quo is tepid.
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| 5. |
- Berggren, Niclas, et al.
(författare)
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The Political Opinions of Swedish Social Scientists
- 2009
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Ingår i: Finnish economic papers. - 0784-5197. ; 22:2, s. 75-88
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We study the political opinions of Swedish social scientists in seven disciplines and find indications of a left‑right divide, with sociology and gender studies being the most left‑leaning disciplines, with business administration, economics, and law being the most right‑leaning ones, and with political science and economic history being located somewhere in between. This pattern is found when lookingat party preferences, left‑right self‑identification, and positions on economic policy issues. Overall, there is a slight dominance in sympathies for the right, although there are more academics to the left among those most involved in activities with a potential to influence decision‑makers.
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| 6. |
- Berggren, Niclas, et al.
(författare)
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The Political Opinions of Swedish Social Scientists
- 2009
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Ingår i: Finnish economic papers. - : Taloustieteellinen Seura Ry / Finnish Economic Association. - 0784-5197. ; 22:2, s. 75-88
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We study the political opinions of Swedish social scientists in seven disciplines and find indications of a left‑right divide, with sociology and gender studies being the most disciplines, with business administration, economics, and law being the most right‑leaning ones, and with political science and economic history being located somewhere in between. This pattern is found when looking at party preferences, left‑right self‑identification, and positions on economic policy issues. Overall, there is a slight dominance in sympathies for the right, although there are more academics to the left among those most involved in activities with a potential to influence decision‑makers.
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| 7. |
- Bihagen, Erik, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Class Origin and Elite Position of Men in Business Firms in Sweden, 1993-2007 : The Importance of Education, Cognitive Ability, and Personality
- 2013
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Ingår i: European Sociological Review. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0266-7215 .- 1468-2672. ; 29:5, s. 939-954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using Swedish registry data, we study the impact of class origin on becoming part of the business elite between 1993 and 2007 for men aged 35–44 years. The elite is defined as the top 1 per cent of wage earners within large firms. We find a clear working class disadvantage and, with time, a polarization between those of working class origin and others. Decomposition analyses indicate that differences in educational attainment levels cause a large part of the gap, but less so over time. Differences in personality traits measured at around the age of 18 years also help explain the class origin differentials, and more so over time. The decomposition analyses indicate that the net effect of cognitive abilities is small. The results suggest a change in the value of education and personality in the labour market over time, but as men of working class origins have disadvantages in both domains, the relative disadvantage of coming from the working class was rather stable during the period 1993–2007.
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| 8. |
- Bihagen, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Elite mobility among college graduated men in Sweden : Skills, personality and family ties
- 2017
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Ingår i: Acta Sociologica. - : SAGE Publications. - 0001-6993 .- 1502-3869. ; 60:4, s. 291-308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using Swedish registry data, we study the chances of mobility into the Swedish labour market elite for men who graduated in the years 1985-2005. The elite is defined as top earners within mid- and large sized firms and within the public sector organisations (henceforth, we use organisation for both firms and public organisations). Using discrete time event history models, we study the incidence of elite entry in terms of external recruitment and internal promotion. The choice of field of study and of college or university are important, as are personality and, to a limited extent, cognitive ability. What is most striking is that having kin in elite positions increases the chance of elite entry in general, and having parents in top positions in the same organisation increases the likelihood of internal promotion. In sum, elite entry among college-educated males is associated with a diversity of factors, suggesting that complex explanations for labour market success should be considered, where skills, personality, and family ties all seem to matter.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Bihagen, Erik, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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The gender gap in the business elite: stability and change in characteristics of Swedish top wage earners in large private companies, 1993-2007
- 2014
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Ingår i: Acta Sociologica. - : SAGE Publications. - 0001-6993 .- 1502-3869. ; 57:2, s. 119-133
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using unique Swedish register data on all employees in large private companies, we study trends in the gender composition of top wage employees from 1993 to 2007. The analyses reveal that the likelihood of women holding top wage positions has more than doubled since the early 1990s, but men are still markedly over-represented in this group of employees. We focus on educational choices, considering level and field of study as well as university attended. One important conclusion is that, although education is important in reaching a top wage position, field of education and university attended only marginally explain the gender gap. However, relative to other women, having a career signalling degree (i.e. economics, law or engineering) from a more prestigious university helps women. Dividing the sample into different cohorts indicates that the gender gap is partly a cohort effect, i.e. it is smaller among those born in the 1960s compared to cohorts born in the 1940s and 1950s. It should be noted that there is still a gender gap among employees born in the 1960s and that the gap widens after age 30. Future studies should focus more deeply on this family-related ‘period of divergence’.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Crawford, Jarret T., et al.
(författare)
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It may be harder than we thought, but political diversity will (still) improve social psychological science
- 2015
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Ingår i: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. - 0140-525X .- 1469-1825. ; 38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In our target article, we made four claims: (1) Social psychology is now politically homogeneous; (2) this homogeneity sometimes harms the science; (3) increasing political diversity would reduce this damage; and (4) some portion of the homogeneity is due to a hostile climate and outright discrimination against non-liberals. In this response, we review these claims in light of the arguments made by a diverse group of commentators. We were surprised to find near-universal agreement with our first two claims, and we note that few challenged our fourth claim. Most of the disagreements came in response to our claim that increasing political diversity would be beneficial. We agree with our critics that increasing political diversity may be harder than we had thought, but we explain why we still believe that it is possible and desirable to do so. We conclude with a revised list of 12 recommendations for improving political diversity in social psychology, as well as in other areas of the academy.
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| 13. |
- Dean, Lauren, 1983-
(författare)
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The Social Roles of Buildings : An Account of Materiality and Meaning in Urban Outcomes
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation explores the roles of buildings in urban social life. Buildings, as both a methodological tool and a research site, are valuable for understanding society. As a method, buildings allow access to various urban contexts. As a research site, the material and the social are integrated, where buildings and society are shown in continual construction. The overarching case shows how a new building type is born in a society and what buildings do, as both materiality and meaning, to help bring about outcomes. The study follows a single building type through history and analytical levels in the city of Santiago, Chile where three empirical studies emerge. The first traces a process of late 19th century urbanization to show the entrance of new residential building types into a city and how the physical and social landscape is reshaped in the process, emphasizing how one urban form emerges and is defined. Intercontinental connections bring new architecture and new language, stabilizing the link between form and name in the city. The resulting spectrum of buildings within the type shows how the diversity of residents shapes material outcomes. As the new buildings become fixed in the urban landscape, so too do social categories. How buildings change definitions both between and within societies, as well as start to take on meanings, is explored.Once definitions and form are established, the following studies explore the roles of the buildings in contemporary urban life. Photos analysis is employed to examine uses of shared space (a patio) in a residential building where buildings are theorized as material structures that contribute to patterned activities. It addresses how the building creates opportunities for observed everyday uses of private collective space. Using published comparison cases demonstrates that practices appear to differ between buildings of the same type when income of residents differs. It is hypothesized that opportunity is created not by the existence of the space per se, but by its gated enclosure, which separates the public street from the private space. The building is understood as a bound that simultaneously fosters interaction and exclusion. In addition, activities in these spaces, over time, contribute to new cultural understandings of the building type, showing how use can generate meaning.The last empirical study examines the reuse of residential buildings for commercial purposes in one neighborhood. The goal is to illuminate roles buildings play in contemporary neighborhood transformations. Rather than understanding transformation through reuse itself, modes of material conversions are examined. The differences between older conversions and newer ones in the area highlight the role of visible characteristics in the newly reused buildings. The material maintenance of residential facades on new conversions locks in the visual of a residential neighborhood, where intended function is built into form, even under commercial reuse. This is valuable in line with a constructed narrative about the place that focuses on the past. The building type under investigation is further redefined as reused buildings take on visual and spatial similarities to housing models from a past era that were not involved in changes in the neighborhood, but appear as if they were. This study relies on participant observation and analysis of marketing materials, as well as other documentary sources.
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| 14. |
- Duarte, Jose L., et al.
(författare)
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Political diversity will improve social psychological science
- 2015
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Ingår i: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. - 0140-525X .- 1469-1825. ; 38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Psychologists have demonstrated the value of diversity - particularly diversity of viewpoints - for enhancing creativity, discovery, and problem solving. But one key type of viewpoint diversity is lacking in academic psychology in general and social psychology in particular: political diversity. This article reviews the available evidence and finds support for four claims: (1) Academic psychology once had considerable political diversity, but has lost nearly all of it in the last 50 years. (2) This lack of political diversity can undermine the validity of social psychological science via mechanisms such as the embedding of liberal values into research questions and methods, steering researchers away from important but politically unpalatable research topics, and producing conclusions that mischaracterize liberals and conservatives alike. (3) Increased political diversity would improve social psychological science by reducing the impact of bias mechanisms such as confirmation bias, and by empowering dissenting minorities to improve the quality of the majority's thinking. (4) The underrepresentation of non-liberals in social psychology is most likely due to a combination of self-selection, hostile climate, and discrimination. We close with recommendations for increasing political diversity in social psychology.
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Klein, Daniel B., 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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Groupthink in Academia : Majoritarian Departmental Politics and the Professional Pyramid
- 2009
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Ingår i: The Independent Review. - Oakland, CA : The Independent Institute. - 1086-1653. ; 13:4, s. 585-600
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although academia differs from the settings explored by groupthink theorists, it exhibits many of the same tendencies and failings. One result is the relative absence of classical-liberal and conservative viewpoints among humanities and social sciences professors, especially in the more elite departments.
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| 19. |
- Klein, Daniel B., et al.
(författare)
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Is There a Free-Market Economist in the House? : The policy views of American Economic Association members
- 2007
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Ingår i: American Journal of Economics and Sociology. ; 66:2, s. 309-334
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- People often suppose or imply that free-market economists constitute a significant portion of all economists. We surveyed American Economic Association members and asked their views on 18 specific forms of government activism. We find that about 8 percent of AEA members can be considered supporters of free-market principles, and that less than 3 percent may be called strong supporters. The data are broken down by voting behavior (Democratic or Republican). Even the average Republican AEA member is "middle-of-the-road," not free-market. We offer several possible explanations of the apparent difference between actual and attributed views.
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| 20. |
- Klein, Daniel B., et al.
(författare)
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Is There a Free-Market Economist in the House? The Policy Views of American Economic Association Members
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- People often suppose or imply that free-market economists constitute a significant portion of all economists. We surveyed American Economic Association members and asked their views on 18 specific forms of government activism. We find that about 8 percent of AEA members can be considered supporters of free-market principles, and that less than 3 percent may be called strong supporters. The data is broken down by voting behavior (Democratic or Republican). Even the average Republican AEA member is “middle-of-theroad,” not free-market. We offer several possible explanations of the apparent difference between actual and attributed views.
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| 21. |
- Klein, Daniel B., 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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Liberal Versus Conservative Stinks
- 2008
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Ingår i: Society. - New York : SpringerLink. - 0147-2011 .- 1936-4725. ; 45:6, s. 488-495
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a recent Public Opinion Quarterly article “Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony?,” John Zipp and Rudy Fenwick pit themselves against “right-wing activists and scholars,” citing our scholarship (Klein and Stern in Academic Questions 18(1): 40–52, 2005a; Klein and Western in Academic Questions 18(1): 53–65, 2005). Here, we analyze Zipp and Fenwick’s characterization of our research and find it faulty. We, then, turn to their self-identification “liberal vs. conservative” findings and show they concord with our analysis. If one feels that it is a problem that humanities and social science faculty at 4-year colleges and universities are vastly predominantly democratic voters, mostly with views that may called establishment-left, progressive, or status-quo oriented, then such concerns should not be allayed by Zipp and Fenwick’s article. We commence the article with a criticism of the “liberal versus conservative” framework because it is the source of much of the confusion surrounding controversies such as the one over the ideological profile of faculty.
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| 22. |
- Klein, Daniel B., et al.
(författare)
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Narrow-Tent Democrats and Fringe Others: The Policy Views of Social Science Professors
- 2005
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper provides copious results from a 2003 survey of academics. We analyze the responses of 1208 academics from six scholarly associations (in anthropology, economics, history, legal and political philosophy, political science, and sociology) with regard to their views on 18 policy issues. The issues include economic regulations, personal-choice restrictions, and military action abroad. We find that the academics overwhelmingly vote Democratic and that the Democratic dominance has increased significantly since 1970. A multivariate analysis shows strongly that Republican scholars are more likely to land outside of academia. On the 18 policy questions, the Democratic-voter responses have much less variation than do the Republicans. The left has a narrow tent. The Democratic and Republican policy views of academics are somewhat in line with the ideal types, except that across the board both groups are simply more statist than the ideal types might suggest. Regarding disciplinary consensus, we find that the discipline with least consensus is economics. We do a cluster analysis, and the mathematical technique sorts the respondents into groups that nicely correspond to familiar ideological categories: establishment left, progressive,conservative, and libertarian. The conservative group and the libertarian group are equal in size (35 individuals, each), suggesting that academics who depart from the leftist ranks are as likely to be libertarian as conservative. We also find that conservatives are closer to the establishment left than they are to the libertarians.
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
- Stern, Charlotta, 1967-
(författare)
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European Professors as Public Intellectuals
- 2009
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Ingår i: Society. - New York : SpringerLink. - 0147-2011 .- 1936-4725. ; 46:2, s. 110-118
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Historically, European economists, compared to their American counterpart, were more involved in public discussions of policy. In this paper it is argued that this has likely changed. The chief reasons seem to involve the European imitation of the academic ethos that is more prevalent in America. Features of this academic ethos include a more formalist orientation in graduate programs and an academic incentive system wherein professional journal publication is paramount and public discourse is relatively devalued. I suggest there is an inescapable ideological dilemma in addressing the costs and benefits of professors’ neglect of public discourse. The ideological character of academics compared with our own political sensibilities affect whether we want academics to influence public discourse or not. I use the history of academics as public intellectuals in Sweden to substantiate the change, and I use new data on Swedish social science academics to see whether those who participate in public discourse tend to have certain political and social views.
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| 25. |
- Stern, Charlotta
(författare)
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Intern konkurrens : Den organisatoriska konkurrensens inverkan på nykterhetsrörelsens medlemsutveckling
- 1999
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Ingår i: Sociologisk forskning. - : Sveriges Sociologförbund. - 0038-0342 .- 2002-066X. ; 36:2, s. 63-81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper examines how competition within a movement affects the overall growth of the movement’s membership. Using data on the Swedish temperance movement, I test hypotheses from three different theories; the theory of cross pressure, rational choice theory, and organizational ecology. My main finding is that intra-movement competition tends to be beneficial for the movement as a whole: as the number of competing organizations increases, the total membership increases. This finding conform best with rational choice theory that emphasize that competition invigorates a social movement.
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| 26. |
- Stern, Charlotta
(författare)
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Konkurrens, nisch, förändring
- 2007
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Ingår i: Social handling och sociala relationer. - : Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. ; , s. 303-333
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 27. |
- Stern, Charlotta, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Sex differences and occupational choice Theorizing for policy informed by behavioral science✰
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 202, s. 694-702
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Occupations are segregated with respect to sex, even in modern, egalitarian societies. There are strong pressures to eliminate segregation and therefore strong reasons to correctly theorize why segregation persists. The dominant view underpinning most public policies is essentially that environmental factors nudge women and men into different occupational paths. Nudging, however, ignores research suggesting that psychological traits that influence occupational choice differs between women and men, on average. Some of the most well-documented and persistent average sex differences between men and women suggest that the taken-for-granted assumption that an egalitarian society would exhibit a more or less equal distribution of men and women across the occupational landscape may be mistaken. Rather, models of occupational choice informed by individual differences in preferences, broadly understood, would help us better explain how men and women behave in the labor market. Differences in occupational preferences will affect choices. Therefore, differences in proportions of women and men across professions may be in line with an egalitarian society and the well-being and best interest of both men and women in society.
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| 28. |
- Stern, Charlotta, et al.
(författare)
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Stockholm City's Elderly Care and Covid19 : Interview with Barbro Karlsson
- 2020
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Ingår i: Society. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0147-2011 .- 1936-4725. ; 57:4, s. 434-445
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Upwards of 70% of the Covid19 death toll in Sweden has been people in elderly care services (as of mid-May 2020). We summarize the Covid19 tragedy in elderly care in Sweden, particularly in the City of Stockholm. We explain the institutional structure of elderly care administration and service provision. Those who died of Covid19 in Stockholm's nursing homes had a life-remaining median somewhere in the range of 5 to 9 months. Having contextualized the Covid19 problem in City of Stockholm, we present an interview of Barbro Karlsson, who works at the administrative heart of the Stockholm elderly care system. Her institutional knowledge and sentiment offer great insight into the concrete problems and challenges. There are really two sides to the elderly care Covid19 challenge: The vulnerability and frailty of those in nursing homes and the problem of nosocomial infection-that is, infection caused by contact with others involved in the elderly care experience. The problem calls for targeted solutions by those close to the vulnerable individuals.
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| 29. |
- Stern, Charlotta, 1967-
(författare)
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The dynamics of social movements : essays on competition and diffusion
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis various aspects of social movement competition and diffusion is studied. The first part of the thesis focus on movement competition and especially on how competition relates to the ability of movements to attract members. The second part of the thesis focus on movement diffusion, especially on how different types of social networks affect social movement evolution.In the first essay inter-movement competition between a temperance organization and a Social Democratic party organization is studied. It is argued that a movement organization's success and evolution is influenced by other movement organizations in the local environment. Using the analogy of the ecological niche, organizational competition is modelled as a function of organizational niche-overlap. It is found that niche-overlap affect an organization's success in attracting members, and that niche interaction affect the evolution of the organizational niche.In the second essay intra-movement competition is examined with regard to its effect on the overall growth of a movement's membership. Using data on the Swedish temperance movement, hypotheses from three different theories are tested - cross pressure theory, rational choice theory, and organizational ecology theory - the main finding is that intra-movement competition increase the membership of social movements, which is in line with the hypothesis derived from rational choice theory.In the third essay intra-movement competition is further examined. A model built on the idea of ecological niches and differences in 'ways of life' is developed and hypotheses are tested using data on the free church movement. It is found that the effect of intra-movement competition on membership differ in homogeneous and heterogeneous niches. It is further found that the success of the free church movement is significantly lower in homogeneous niches. The suggested explanation is firstly, that the free church movement faced a different situation than the other folk-movements, since their organizational niche was already occupied by the Swedish state church; secondly, that the holding power of the state church was strong in homogeneous niches since they are more likely to be characterized by a common way of life.In the fourth essay the diffusion of memberships to a local temperance organization is studied. The essay addresses the free rider problem from a network perspective, and suggests that a potential solution to the problem is provided by the social networks to which individuals belong. It is argued that an individual's network consists of a group of 'relevant others' that are small enough to provide social selective incentives and, thus, to overcome the free rider problem. The ideas are tested empirically, and the results support the small group thesis - additional movement members in the group of relevant others increase an individual's propensity to join the organization.The last essay analyzes the relative importance of two networks in explaining the spatial diffusion of the Swedish Social Democratic party. The first is a micro-network of interpersonal contacts and the second is a macro-network linking otherwise disconnected local networks. This macro-network emerged out of the travel routes of the party's political agitators. Party diffusion, thus, is analyzed as the combined result of two networks at different analytical levels, and it is suggested that this multi-level approach provides a deeper understanding of the diffusion process. The empirical results show that both types of networks were of considerable importance for party diffusion.
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| 30. |
- Stern, Charlotta
(författare)
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Undoing Insularity : A Small Study of Gender Sociology's Big Problem
- 2016
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Ingår i: Econ Journal Watch. - 1933-527X. ; 13:3, s. 452-466
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In my experience as a sociologist, I see many ways in which gender sociology tends to insulate itself from challenges to its own sacred beliefs and sacred causes. The sacred beliefs are to the effect that the biological differences between the sexes are minor and that the cultural differences between the genders have little basis in biological differences. The scholarly findings that challenge the sacred beliefs come from anthropology, developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, the neurosciences, genetics, biology, and many other fields. For many decades now researchers have amassed findings of differences in competitiveness, aggression, sexual interest, risk behavior, and many other traits, and differences in brain physiology and neuroimaging, by many different methods and approaches. I investigated a sample of top cited gender sociology papers to test my impression, and indeed the findings illustrate extreme insularity. It saddens me to see students and scholars fall into insular communities of highly dubious sacred beliefs and causes. I propose that gender sociologists strive to undo insularity.
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| 32. |
- Weidenstedt, Linda, 1982-
(författare)
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A Sociology of Empowerment : The Relevance of Communicative Contexts for Workplace Change
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Empowerment has been a popular concept in management and leadership practice and research for more than forty years. The intentions behind empowerment at the workplace are positive: empowered employees should experience a greater degree of influence, decision-making latitude, and meaningfulness. This is achieved through transfers of power, such as increases in autonomy and responsibility. Although empowerment efforts have often been shown to successfully result in empowered and highly involved employees, there has also been research that shows the opposite: the so-called paradox of empowerment is a well-known problem that refers to failed empowerment efforts through which beneficiaries feel disempowered rather than empowered.This thesis comprises three papers intended to contribute to empowerment research and practice within a sociological framework that offers a better understanding of implicit assumptions between employer and employee and the unintended consequences these can have on the outcome of empowerment change efforts. The analyses utilize a communicative approach in line with sociological and social-psychological theories of communication and interaction.The first two papers are theoretical analyses, one examining the general concept of empowerment (Paper I), the other focusing more specifically on empowerment in workplace contexts (Paper II). Paper III is an empirical analysis that investigates some of the theoretical assumptions made in Papers I and II.The first paper analyzes empowerment from a sociological point of view and identifies possible mechanisms behind the paradox of empowerment. It is argued that such paradoxes may evolve from discrepancies between approaching empowerment from a purely economic and structural perspective versus a communicative and relational one. It concludes with the observation that, although their agency may be increased on a structural level, empowerees may experience a parallel decrease of agential options on a communicative level.The second paper deals with empowerment at the workplace as a management or leadership technique. Focusing on relational aspects, a “basic communicative structure” is identified. This is analyzed as comprising a contractual and a communicative context that should be taken into consideration by empowerers in order to avoid misunderstandings in the recipients’ sensemaking processes. Paper II concludes by arguing that the way recipients make sense of their roles and situations as defined by employment and/or psychological contracts might not necessarily be in line with the communicative meanings they ascribe to the change agents’ actions, and vice versa.The third paper analyzes employees’ orientations and attitudes toward empowerment and the relevance of their attitudes for the success of empowerment efforts. These issues are explored by means of survey data from 268 employees in the Swedish retail sector. Results indicate that age and work intensity (part-time vs. full-time), as well as cohabitation status may have significant impacts on how empowerment efforts are approached and received by employees.The thesis as a whole provides insights into sociological issues of empowerment, both generally and particularly in management and leadership contexts and concludes that the communicative context of empowerment interactions plays a significant role in employees’ empowerment orientations.
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- Ye, Rebecca, 1985-
(författare)
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The Aspirants : How faith is built in emerging occupations
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Anticipating future demands in skills and workforce development has been a longstanding practice and challenge for governments and policy-makers. While such developments are examined closely at the national and regional levels, an even more pressing issue is to advance our understanding of how people who take on jobs in new and emerging fields embark on and persist in their occupational pathways. A striking feature of these occupations is their weakly defined and unstable nature. How do individuals traverse career trajectories with these characteristics? What drives and enables them to take the road less travelled? To address such questions, this research project set off from a distinctive occupational school in Sweden that prepares individuals for emerging occupational roles in digital work. Using an interpretative, longitudinal, and multi-method approach, this study focuses on a group of aspirants who were being trained to become specialists in extracting, analysing, and using digital data for the growth and profit of organisations. These individuals can be viewed as experiencing a double “not-yet” situation, since not only are they at the stage of aspiring to certain work roles, but the occupations to which they aspire are also in a nascent, not yet fully defined stage. This study accompanies them through significant events over the years: from when they are in training, to when they search for jobs, and, finally, when they are in work.The monograph contains three empirical sections that are sequenced by the aspirants’ school-to-work pathways. The first section examines the processes of socialisation into the occupational school; the second analyses their efforts to meet the labour market; and the final one investigates the ways in which they persist in their occupational trajectories. Following these stages reveals how a strong school culture, coupled with a strong labour market, facilitates the building of “faith” into weak-form occupational pathways. Through the ceremony of being selected into the educational organisation and performing everyday rituals that engender confidence in their individual and collective futures, the analysis reveals types of “scripts” that are fashioned into the school’s methodology as well as the expectations of future hirers. It becomes apparent that aspirants generally accept these scripts as necessary and adhere to them to navigate the constantly changing demands of the labour market. However, when these interpretive schemes fail to help them cope with their unclear occupational futures, uncertainties of worth, and the unstable normative logics they encounter at work sites, the aspirants are compelled to deliberate and adapt conceptions of what is possible and permissible through individual and collective projections. In all, the empirical findings form the basis for a sociological model that offers a perspective on how to treat temporality, anticipation, and the “not-yets”, particularly in the context of education to work transitions.
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