| 1. |
- 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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| 2. |
- 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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| 3. |
- 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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| 4. |
- 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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| 5. |
- Cuadra, Sergio
(författare)
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Mapuchefolket - i gränsernas land : En studie av autonomi, identitet, etniska gränser och social mobilisering
- 2001
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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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| 6. |
- Elsrud, Torun
(författare)
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Taking Time and Making Journeys : Narratives on Self and the Other among Backpackers
- 2004
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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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| 7. |
- 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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| 8. |
- Hedlund, Marianne
(författare)
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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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| 9. |
- 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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| 10. |
- Hägerström, Jeanette
(författare)
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Vi och dom och alla dom andra andra på Komvux : Etnicitet, genus och klass i samspel
- 2004
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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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