| 1. |
- Bååth, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
-
Social lens or inherently social phenomenon? : The study of food in Swedish sociology
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : SAGE Publications. - 1461-7064 .- 0011-3921. ; 71:6, s. 945-963
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sociology’s tendency to branch into applied scientific disciplines is regularly debated. This debate focuses either on the organisation of sociology in academic institutions or on how the content of sociologically informed interdisciplinary research diverges from disciplinary sociology. This article bridges these debates in a study of the sociology of food in Sweden. The aim is to analyse how Swedish food sociology reflects the tension between disciplinary sociology and interdisciplinary research. The data comprise the doctoral dissertations and post-PhD career paths of Swedish sociologists whose dissertations are about food. The article finds that these dissertations treat food either as an inherently social phenomenon or as a social lens (i.e. a social phenomenon viewed as instrumental for analysing something else). Second, it is found that sociologists whose dissertations treated food as an inherently social phenomenon were more likely to pursue careers in food sociology but also to hold affiliations outside of sociology departments. The article concludes that the academic locus of Swedish food sociology is organised outside sociology departments but that its approaches are not necessarily any less sociological. Thus, the analysis questions the basis for arguments that interdisciplinary research represents a threat to the critical and analytical core of sociology.
|
|
| 2. |
- Fittante, Daniel
(författare)
-
Diasporic multiculturalism
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : Sage Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Noting an overreliance on North American and European-based understandings of race and ethnicity, many sociologists have called for research in new spaces. But the same conceptual and regional limitations apply to several other studies. One example of this is multiculturalism. Scholars tend to associate multiculturalism with international migration and ethnic pluralism. As such, they typically study multiculturalism in the most ethnically diverse (and often most affluent) countries – that is, in Europe and North America. But international migration does not always result in ethnic pluralism. For example, diasporic return migration often leads to the convergence of internally diverse co-ethnic populations in ethnically homogeneous nation-states. The diasporic ‘returnees’, who were born outside of their perceived homelands, come through targeted migration policies, face various levels of discrimination, and yet contribute significantly to the economic development and cultural diversity of the countries to which they relocate. As such, this article argues that the multiculturalization of monoethnic nationhood is substantially driven by diasporic return migration. In exploring diasporic multiculturalism, the article draws from data collected in Yerevan, Armenia.
|
|
| 3. |
- Giritli Nygren, Katarina, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
-
Swedish exceptionalism, herd immunity and the welfare state : A media analysis of struggles over the nature and legitimacy of the COVID-19 pandemic strategy in Sweden
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : SAGE Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 69:4, s. 529-546
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Compared to many other countries, Sweden has managed the COVID-19 pandemic with no lockdowns, less regulation and more voluntary action expected of citizens and organizations. In this article, the authors explore media representations of national preventative strategies and how they were anchored in broader discourses. The article aims to analyse the development of crisis narratives and struggles over legitimacy during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. Employing a critical discourse analysis, the authors investigate the editorials and opinion articles in Sweden’s largest morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, during the spring of 2020. The authors combine descriptive analyses of the development of the crisis narratives with discursive analyses of conflicting ideologies in the debate. The study indicates that three crisis narratives dominated the debates: health, the economy and democracy. Within and between these narratives, struggles over legitimacy in the handling of COVID-19 were captured in several conflicting perspectives or paradoxes: Swedish exceptionalism versus the world, centralization versus decentralization and herd immunity versus herd humanism.
|
|
| 4. |
- Glasdam, Stinne, et al.
(författare)
-
Ideal types’ strategies related to handling early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic : A thematic analysis of comments from an international survey
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : SAGE Publications. - 1461-7064 .- 0011-3921.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- People (re)act differently when facing the pandemic. Multiple opinions about COVID-19 and related issues prevail, both in personal meetings and in (social) media. This article aims to illuminate different ideal types and handling strategies in early stages of the pandemic. A thematic Braun and Clark, and Weber inspired analysis of qualitative data from an international web-based survey was carried out in two steps. First, five ideal types related to handling the COVID-19 pandemic were constructed: the Stickler for the rules, the Challenger, the Fact hunter, the Idealist, and the Entertainer. Second, the ideal types were represented throughout four themes: Divided opinions on politico-medico restrictions, Multifaceted picture of the pandemic, Social media as a lookout point and source of insight, and The future between hope and fear. The results illustrated the complexity of people’s understanding of, (re)actions to and handling of the pandemic.
|
|
| 5. |
- Grothe-Hammer, Michael, et al.
(författare)
-
The Decline of Organizational Sociology? : An empirical analysis of research trends in leading journals across half a century
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : SAGE Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 68:4, s. 419-442
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent works see organizational sociology at the brink of irrelevance. Against this backdrop, in this article the authors want to explore the current state of organizational sociology empirically. They employ a variety of manual, automated and semi-automated content analyses to examine research articles published in generalist sociology journals since the 1950s. Contrary to contemporary pessimistic assessments, the results indicate that organizational sociology has not significantly declined over time. However, the study finds an increasing concentration on quantitative research designs, business-related topics, and only two dominant theory perspectives – neo-institutionalism and the network approach. A multifaceted decrease in variety rather than an absolute decline could be the right diagnosis.
|
|
| 6. |
- Holmberg, Arita, Docent, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
-
Children as a new climate precariat : A conceptual proposition
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : SAGE Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 70:5, s. 781-797
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article proposes that children constitute a new climate precariat. This conceptualization contributes to a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of the vulnerability of children in relation to the climate crisis. Previous literature tends to treat climate change in an abstract fashion that renders today’s children invisible. Climate precarity consists of three main elements of vulnerability: temporality problems, insecurity and an identity vacuum. In relation to temporality and security, children are suffering from the potential loss of a sustainable future, which spurs the need for urgent action and constant consciousness – in the present. World leaders’ inaction creates an uncertainty regarding whom should be held responsible for taking action in guaranteeing children the future which climate change is at risk of depriving them. The concept of climate precarity could be used to explain children’s collective action in relation to the climate crisis. Children’s concerns in relation to the climate crisis suggest that agency and empowerment are spurred through their resistance towards these vulnerabilities.
|
|
| 7. |
- Jonsson, Stefan, 1961-
(författare)
-
A society which is not : Political emergence and migrant agency
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : Sage Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 68:2, s. 204-222
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This essay represents an effort to rethink the relationship between political emergence and migrant agency. This undertaking has a theoretical motivation. Mainstream human and social sciences seem to be at an impasse because of their structural inability to interpret and explain systemic crises and contradictions. While this is a topic far too complex to be dealt with in a brief essay, the following pages will explore three expressions of this impasse. First, the social sciences often analyse migration without acknowledging its profound political implications. Second, European history and sociology rarely recognize histories of imperial dominance and anticolonial resistance as intrinsic to European history and society. Third, mainstream social and political theories often ignore the structural significance of collective protests and resistance movements for the realization of democracy. The article frames the analysis of these problems via two different theoretical contexts in which we can observe ongoing conceptual or methodological shifts or ‘turns’ that respond to the said impasse. In studies of democracy and citizenship there has thus been a clear turn toward ‘borders’. In migration studies, there is a corresponding turn toward ‘agency’. By analysing the interconnections between these theoretical contexts the article suggests ways of resolving the three problems at hand. It starts by examining the first one, or the inability to acknowledge the profound political implications of migration. This discussion will then offer an approach to the other two, concerning the legacies of colonialism and the significance of political agency and protest.
|
|
| 8. |
- Kuukkanen, Mari
(författare)
-
(Un)making the established-outsiders figuration in anti-racist and migrant rights activism
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : Sage Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 72:1, s. 48-64
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article discusses recent anti-racist and migrant rights activism in Finland with the help of Norbert Elias' figurational sociology and the concept of the established-outsiders figuration. The mobilisation of 'outsiders' (racialised minorities and migrants) has reordered the contemporary field and challenged the 'established' majority activists to reflect on their own practices. Through combining figurational and cultural perspectives, I compare the extent to which established liberal and left-libertarian activists, with their distinct ideological positions, have succeeded in transforming the power ratio between themselves and the outsiders. This article advances the use of the established-outsiders conceptualisation in cases where the established support, in principle, the outsiders' inclusion. This helps to shed light on both the more covert and subtle ways through which the established reproduce their power as well as their agency in dismantling the power disparity.
|
|
| 9. |
- Parding, Karolina, et al.
(författare)
-
Governance reform in context : Welfare sector professionals’ working and employment conditions
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : Sage Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 69:1, s. 119-139
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article addresses the relationship between profession, organisation and spatial (geographical) setting, more specifically the relationship between welfare sector professionals’ conditions for work amidst governance change. In previous research, the conditions for welfare sector professionals’ work have largely been studied without taking the employing organisations or the local and regional situation into consideration. In this article, the authors question and seek to counteract this de-contextualised approach. They do so by showing that the circumstances of the specific workplace context are essential in understanding welfare sector professionals’ working conditions, especially so in current governance contexts characterised to varying degrees by marketisation, via processes and structures which facilitate choice, competition, privatisation and devolution. This line of argument is illustrated in relation to how upper secondary teachers in Sweden experience their conditions for work and employment in eight schools across three different ‘market types’. The authors contend that whilst different conditions in different workplaces can to some extent always be expected, current governance agendas in the welfare sector seem to exacerbate these differences. The article’s theoretical contribution, therefore, is in the privileging of local contextual dynamics. The authors suggest a stronger emphasis on spatially-informed frames of reference in future studies of conditions for welfare sector professionals.
|
|
| 10. |
- Patel, Sujata
(författare)
-
Sociology’s encounter with the decolonial: The problematique of indigenous vs that of coloniality, extraversion and colonial modernity
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - : Sage Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 69:3, s. 372-388
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How did the process of decolonization reframe the social sciences? This article maps the interventions made by theorists of and from the ex-colonial countries in reconceptualizing sociology both as practice and as an episteme. It argues that there are geographically varied and intellectually diverse decolonial approaches being formulated using sociological theory to critique the universals propounded by the traditions of western sociology/social sciences; that these diverse knowledges are connected through colonial and global circuits and that these create knowledge geographies; that collectively these diverse intellectual positions argue that sociology/social sciences are constituted in and within the politics of ‘difference’ organized within colonial, nationalist and global geopolitics; that this ‘difference’ is being reproduced in everyday knowledge practices and is being structured through the political economy of knowledge; and that the destabilization of this power structure and democratization of this knowledge is possible only when there is a fulsome interrogation of this political economy, and its everyday practices of knowledge production within universities and research institutes. It argues that this critique needs to be buffered by the constitution of alternate networks of circulation of this knowledge.
|
|
