1.
Jakobsson, Mats, et al.
(author)
'Att blifva sin egen' : ungdomars väg in i vuxenlivet i 1700- och 1800-talens övre Norrland
2000
In: Sociologisk forskning. - Umeå : Umeå universitet. ; 37:3-4, s. 134-141
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The background to this study is that there is no studies on youth and their transition to adulthood in preindustrial Sweden. The main objective of this thesis has therefore been to analyze young peoples transition to adulthood during the late 18th and 19th centuries in a region of the northern part of Sweden. The social context of the region was mainly agrarian during the investigated period despite the fact that in the later part of the 19th and beginning of 20th century, a development of a growing forest industry had started. The main questions is: How and when in life did different social categories of young people establish an independent and adult life? Where there any changes in transitional patterns and was the establishment smoother or more troublesome at different times during the investigated period ? Where there any changes regarding social norms related to the establishment of adult life?The transition to adult life is studied from a life-course approach and four key-transitions; The First Holy communion, leaving home, marriage and parenthood are regarded as significant steps within the process to a independent social position. Individual data related to keytransitions is mainly collected from cathectical examination records and comprised 2206 individuals born in six different cohorts between 1770 and 1900. The selected cohorts represents individuals that had to deal with different social conditions during their youth and transition to adult life.The main results regarding the transition to adult life can be summarized in two words, complexity and variance. Usually it was a "long" transition but the number of accomplished keytransitions and the order between them varied, as well as ages when taking the first Holy Communion, leaving home, marriage and entering parenthood varied. Transitional patterns varied between different categories of youth. A dividing line existed between the sexes, those from households strongly rooted in the agricultural structure and those with background in social categories that didn't own or was in possession of land. Social norms related to keytransitons changed along this dividing line during the investigated period of time, and became less permissive within landowning or land-possessing categories and less prescriptive in other categories.Transitional patterns were also influenced by the social situation at different historical times. The need for labor, war and years of famine directly intervened in timing and sequencing of keytransitions. A long term development was that the transition to adult life became more problematic in the later part of the 19th century, especially among young people who were less integrated in the social context and among socially stigmatized youth. Finally, young people were active and reflexive in seeking social space to make the transition to adult life, actions that sometimes caused tensions and conflicts between generations.
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4.
Grape, Owe, 1960-
(author)
Mellan morot och piska : en fallstudie av 1992 års rehabiliteringsreform
2001
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis is a case study of the Swedish Rehabilitation Reform of 1992. Vocational rehabilitation is described as an organizational activity which takes place in the interaction between social policy regulations and organizational execution. The analytical point of departure is made up of two complementary theoretical perspectives (Chapter 3): New institutional theory and the concept of 'negotiated order'. New institutional theory can aid inter-organizational analysis as it assumes that organizations are not only influenced, but also permeated by institutional and technical frameworks. The 'negotiated order' perspective can provide an understanding of actors' motives when they work together. This perspective also acknowledges that actors are able to exercise 'episodic power', and that this differs from 'formal power'. The first empirical study (Chapter 4) analyses the political motives behind the Rehabilitation Reform of 1992. It shows that at the time of the Rehabilitation Reform economical and political interests were pushing for a tighter regulations in Swedish social policy. The following three empirical studies focus on the 'organizational field' in which rehabilitation is practised. This field consists of the social insurance office, employment agencies, primary health care centres and occupational health service centres. Chapter 5 deals with the regulations and environmental factors influencing the various organizations and their representatives. It points to five external forces that influence the performance of the four type of actors. The social insurance office is influenced by a judicial social insurance logic, the employment agencies by a holistic labour market policy logic, and the physicians in primary health care centres and in occupational health centres by a 'holistic' medical frame of reference, which contrasts with that often found in other medical sub-specialities. Finally, employers are influenced first, by a logic of profit which has a technical and institutional dimension and second, by an institutional welfare state logic.Chapter six shows that the largest 'domain conflict' in the initial phase of the rehabilitation trajectory has to do with defining 'capacity to work'. Domain conflicts are seen as resulting from different institutional logics, implying different views on illness and capacity to work. Numerous and frequent personal interaction make it possible for physicians and rehabilitation officials to avoid conflict. The operative phase is associated with two major domain conflicts. The first is related to negotiations between the social insurance office and the employers about transferring employees to other duties. Both sides avoid exercising power that may damage clients and future trust. Episodic power resources are used to exercise the strategy of 'the golden middle path'. The other domain conflict is related to the judgement of work capacity. The labour market officials' view of work capacity differs from that of the officials at the social insurance office.Chapter seven compares cooperative rehabilitation projects with regular rehabilitation activity. The results show that actors in cooperative projects break the sequential work order used in regular rehabilitation activity and thereby projects quickly collect comprehensive information about individuals. Cooperative projects can also achieve flexible solutions tailored to an individual clients needs. Further, cooperative projects allow time for unconventional initiatives, which regular activity do not. The process of 'returning to work' poses a challenge both kinds of work organizations. Individuals who are disabled in some way are required to meet the same labour market demands as healthy and well educated are expected to meet. Finally, regular rehabilitation work tends uses standardize clients while cooperative projects tend to treat them as individuals.
5.
Grönlund, Anne, 1962-
(author)
Flexibilitetens gränser : Förändring och friktion i arbetsliv och familj
2004
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
THE TERM FLEXIBILITY has come to be a symbol for a number of grand hopes. An increased flexibility is seen as a key issue for modern organisations and is assumed to pave the way for a more gender equal and family friendly working life. The aim of the thesis has been to confront a number of assumptions about the “flexibilization” of working life with quantitative data from the Swedish labour market. An important goal has been to discuss the effects of flexibility on gender segregation in work and family life. The study focuses on three branches with different gender composition of the work force: manufacturing, health care and finance. The main data consists of a questionnaire that was sent to a representative sample of employees in the three branches (n=1.836) and another that was sent to their workplaces (n=625). Addional data comes from interviews with representatives of labour unions and employer organisations, and reviews of collective agreements and of- ficial statistics. The results provide a picture of flexibility in working life that differs from the one depicted in the ongoing debate, both regarding the strategies of organisations and the significance of flexibility to employees. The debate has focused on expanding employers’ room to manoeuvre, especially the possibilities to hire and fire personnel according to shifts in demand. The thesis shows, however, that efforts to create flexibility within the existing work force, through for instance overtime and work rotation, are equally important as the numerical flexibility obtained through termination of personnel, temporary jobs and sub-contracting. The results also challenge the idea that labour market regulation constitutes a decisive obstacle for flexibility. Workplaces that regard regulation as a problem do not adapt staffing to demand any less than others do and in all three branches competence issues pose a greater problem. The analyses point to a somewhat ambiguous relationship between gender and flexibility. Women have less employeroriented flexible work hours than men, which could be a result of their greater responsibility for home and children, but despite this responsibility they have less of a possibility to set their own working hours. This is explained by the fact that influence over work hours is an organisational perk associated with a high position and an adaptation to employer needs, rather than a right for the employee. Demands on time from the family in the form of children or a greater responsibility for housework do not affect the possibilities for flexible work schedules. The thesis also gives cause to question the idea that flexible work hours make it easier to combine paid work and family. Flexibility does not seem to lessen the conflict between these two spheres, nor does it lead to a more egalitarian division of housework. Functional flexibility in the form of work rotation and other forms of varying work tasks leads to job enrichment, but also to an intensification of work This kind of flexibility is not more common among men than women and there is no gender difference regarding its effects on work.
6.
Gustafson, Åsa, 1968-
(author)
Sköra livsmönster : Om integrations- och normaliseringsprocesser bland bosniska flyktingar
2004
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The aim of this study is to illustrate and unfold the dynamic interaction between conditions of integration and patterns of integration, in other words the structural conditions related to processes of integration and normalization of every day life. This is done with concrete reference to Bosnian refugees living in Malmö and Umeå during 1996-1997, having received permanent permission to stay in Sweden during 1992-1995. How do refugees under different conditions arrange their lives, perceive their own life situation, manage the course of daily life and develop individual life patterns? The study shows that processes of integration and normalisation depend on and has an impact on involvement and participation in social, economic, political and cultural life in general. Background statistics, official documents and local daily press material together with intense interviews with Bosnian refugees and key-informants constitute the empirical base of the study. The theoretical base consists of a holistic perspective on integration, including aspects of ethnicity, culture and gender. The focus is on the double-sided processes of integration among refugees in relation to the established population. Refugees’ processes of integration and normalization are described and discussed with reference to patterns of living conditions, patterns of integration, patterns of action and patterns of attitudes. The general conclusion is that refugees’ life patterns are very fragile. Processes of integration and normalization depend on conditions of involvement and of participation as well as the openness of the society at large and specifically on how civil, political and social rights are supplied for. This in turn raises the question of the importance of not only formal but also substantial citizenship rights. Integration is also closely related to possible changes towards more flexible gendered spaces of action. The more equal gender relations in the family become the more it opens up for possibilities of integration and normalization for both women and men. Encompassing possibilities to integration into the society at large combined with increased potentials of altering conventional power relations between women and men are vital for the processes of integration and normalization among refugees.
7.
Kadhim, Abdul M., 1951-
(author)
Svenskt kommunalt flyktingmottagande : politik och implementering
2000
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis consists of three empirical case studies, originally published as MERGE- papers ('Papers on transcultural studies' published at MERGE, Centre for Studies on Migration, Ethnic Relations and Globalisation at the Department of Sociology, University of Umeå), brought together and framed by a lengthier introduction. The empirical studies examine Swedish refugee reception activities, including the experiences of refugees themselves, with a focus on organisational and inter-organisational matters, and, in this context, the suitability as well as problems, mechanisms and issues, of implementation.According to Swedish policy aims since the mid-70s, immigrants are guaranteed equality, freedom of choice and partnership in relation to social, political and cultural rights. Based upon this background, an ambitious institutionalisation of refugee reception and integration policy was initiated in 1985, implicating the setting up of a new reception system involving almost every Swedish municipality. However, this political reform came to meet with fundamental problems, such as the absence of clear political goals and a remarkably low priority in the work of local political bodies. As a consequence, the ability and the ambitions of civil servants to apply an integrated approach to the reception process, and to foster growing co-operation among relevant local institutions to improve services and opportunities for integration, have not materialised as intended. These deficiencies of local integration policies appear to be connected with implementation problems, issues and obstacles, such as a lack of developed inter-organisational co-ordination mechanisms, lack of a clear division of labour and responsibility among concerned parties, economic obstruction etc. In addition to this, the resources that local refugee receptions have had at their disposal have been a high degree varying and unstable, with the consequence that the reception's organisation, e.g. as immigrant bureaus, has been subjected to constant remoulding. Continuous initiatives for restructuring the reception procedures seem seldom have been well suited, and in addition to this, there has been a lack of opportunities for influence by the refugees themselves concerning conditions of reception and inroads into integration. The conclusion is, somewhat paradoxical, that many of the refugee reception's political-administrative problems are fabricated by and within the refugee reception system and immigrant policy itself. In the thesis, a general background for necessary improvements of the service for refugees is outlined, making possible a lot of reformistic suggestions.While the thesis lays bare the problems with refugee reception, its policy and implementation, it also acknowledges important positive achievements of Swedish refugee reception and its political-administrative ambitions and framework. The reason that the effects of these positive efforts and achievements haven't materialised in successful integration to a higher degree, is also due to 'external' factors, like exclusion from the labour market, social exclusion through segregation, marginalisation and discrimination, processes of racialisation etc. These kinds of ramifying 'external' factors can only to a limited extent be influenced by local actors alone. The conclusion is that a successful integration cannot be achieved solely through measures within the practical institutional setting of the local refugee reception system itself, but must be underpinned and enforced by a more generalised inclusionary or anti-exclusionary politics, a generally more decided political will and over-all more purposeful measures securing a higher degree of suited implementation.
8.
Karlsson, Peder, 1963-
(author)
Forskares socialisation : Kunskapssociologisk visit i doktoranders livsvärldar
2004
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
This thesis is an exploration into the socialization of researchers as it takes place in various research practices. Using a lifeworld-perspective, a qualitative interview-study with doctoral students from different academic milieus is conducted. The organizational context of the study is the academic department as it is experienced, apprehended and constructed by the doctoral student.The “societal” context is described and discussed in a brief analytical exposé of Swedish science policy in the last decade of the twentieth century. Questioning the political reliance on a systems-perspective, and the shortcomings of system theory for the understanding of research practices in different academic milieus, a lifeworld-theoretical turn is suggested.A lifeworld-perspective is formulated in a meta-theoretical discussion focusing on the concepts of practice, time and language. Jürgen Habermas’ critique of phenomenological lifeworld-perspectives is the point of departure and theoretical inputs are derived from the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of scientific knowledge and phenomenological sociology. The solution is found in an integrative model of socialization as continual synchronization of subjective systems of coordinates and socio-cultural networks. Mediating between subjective consciousness and inter-subjective knowledge is language, and this is manifested in concrete practices observed in “real-time”.The empirical study reveals some influences of the system on the lifeworld. “Inside” the lifeworld, however, the interviewees mostly use their departments as frames of reference in their descriptions and discussions. A more elaborate exploration of the life-world results in an understanding of socialization in terms of positioning. This concept denotes the ways in which the interviewees describe themselves, their socio-cultural surroundings and themselves in relation to these milieus. At any given moment, positioning can be understood as a “co-construction” of subjective position and socio-cultural milieu. Positioning is thereby the empirical correlate to synchronization, and socialization can be “read off” from the ways in which doctoral students position themselves “here and now”. Problematic, though, is that “doctoral student”, and especially “female doctoral student”, are found to be vague and vulnerable categories with no clear meanings for the socialised nor for the socio-cultural environment. In a more speculative manner, these difficulties of positioning are put in relation to “scientist” as a vague category. If “scientist” cannot be defined, how then can we know what “scientists in the making” are?This thesis offers an insight into the plural “realities” of doctoral students in different academic milieus. It offers a lifeworld-perspective on socialization and is thereby relevant for discussions of post-graduate education among scholars as well as among policy makers.
9.
Karp, Staffan, 1958-
(author)
Barn, föräldrar och idrott : En intervjustudie om fostran inom fotboll och golf
2000
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The purpose of this work is to describe and understand the significance of sports for children active in sports, their parents, and family. I am interested in how daily sports practice is understood by children active in sports and their parents and what sports mean for upbringing of children and young people. In the study eighteen children were interviewed, twelve boys and six girls in the ages of 10-12 years and their parents. Nine of the children play golf and nine play soccer. The perspective applied is pedagogic, which means that the connections between the social and individual are focused on. The results show that the patterns of childrearing for soccer and golf are distinguished from each other and thus what the children learn. In a comparison with research on concepts among parents from different social strata on the rearing of children, the pattern of childrearing with soccer agrees with patterns in the worker class, and those of golf with patterns in the upper middle class. In the results there are gender-related differences that do agree well with theories and research on the masculine hegemony in the sport. But the results also show that the sport can contribute to the rearing of males with both masculine and a part of traditionally feminine characteristics and of females with both feminine and a part of traditionally masculine characteristics. Another result is that sports at the same time correspond to needs of today's people and can be a counter against a development that is described by research as a split between body and soul, cultural isolation, dissolution of norms, and a fragmentation of existence. Soccer and golf become a kind of common project for families, not only for meetings between parents and children but also for meetings between adults and children of different ages. In a time when parents feel insecurity when facing the task of childrearing, sports stand for a distinct network of rules. In this way sports become a kind of complement to the childrearing that parents provide. Finally, the results show that there is both that which is common and that which is distinctive in both sports. Of the children who play golf, almost all of them devote themselves to some team sport, while the children who play soccer do not practice any other sport. In this way the children who play golf receive a double qualification that equips them for confrontation with the demands of modern society in a different way than with the case of the children who play soccer. And it is this that is the most distinctive factor.
10.
Lindgren, Simon
(author)
Modernitetens markörer : ungdomsbilder i tid och rum
2002
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
The main objective of tbis dissertation is to study the media discourse on youth as it appeared in the Swedish region of Norrbotten during the postwar period. It discusses changes in ways of thinking and talking about youth against the background of modernization in the region. The data consists of artides from two locai newspapers. Norrbotten is geographically peripheral to the center of Sweden; it is also one of the few border regions of the country. The entire area — but particularly Tornedalen, which borders Finland - has a history of unemployment, problems related to infrastructure, and cultural conflicts. This study relates the discourse on youth to the tensions within such dichotomies as modem and traditional, urban and rural, and global and local. While the view of the media as constructors of social reality influences the theoretical perspective of the study, it is not meant to imply that the media create reality on their own. Rather, it is assumed that they are "co-producers" of reality and that journalistic texts serve as specific expressions of the predominant cultural codes in a culture and/or a given period of time. The dissertation presents case studies of four decades — the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1980s — and focuses on the texts, as well as the contexts of the discourse surrounding Norrbotten youth. Following discussions of both the media messages and their sociohistorical contexts, it concludes that the debate about "today's youth" often serves as a forum in which society can express its hopes and concerns for the future. With theoretical concepts such as modernity and generation as a starting point, this dissertation further examines these results. In these discussions, modernity's duplicity stands out. On the one hand, youth are viewed as the bearers of what could be called romantic modernity and on the other, as provocateur in regard to the classical, rationalistic modernity's puritanical ideals and its moral entrepreneurs. The relationship between the generations is also symptomatic of modernity as a whole. With that, youth does not necessarily have to symbolize change in terms of rationality. In other words, provocation can spring from any deviation from the norms of change and progress established by the classic approach to modernization. Furthermore, the dual view of youth, that is, the prevailing tendency to describe them, simultaneously, as symbols of a belief in the future and degenerates, is typical for modernity. Consequently, the duality of the view of youth mirrors an ambivalent attitude to an ambivalent modernity.
