| 1. |
- Duvander, Ann-Zofie, et al.
(författare)
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Similar Negotiations over Childcare? A Comparative Study of Fathers' Parental Leave Use in Finland and Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 11:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fathers' leave use is promoted in many countries, but so far with different success. Major explanations of different usage revolve around economic bargaining between parents and economic constraints in the household. By using extensive register data from 1999-2009 in Finland and Sweden, this study asks whether fathers' use of parental leave in the two countries is determined by the same socioeconomic characteristics on the individual and the household level once we control for sociodemographic factors. Striking similarities in what influences fathers' use of leave in the two contexts are found, even though leave is used at very different levels and the policy design differs remarkably. Generally, fathers with a similar income level to the mother use leave the most, but in high-income households the mother's higher income leads to the highest propensity of fathers' leave take-up. The results indicate that equal bargaining positions are associated with fathers' leave use but also that mothers' stronger position often facilitates fathers' leave. We conclude that the role of gendered bargaining positions should be studied in interaction with the level of resources in the household.
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| 2. |
- Fischer, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Co-Design as Learning : The Differences of Learning When Involving Older People in Digitalization in Four Countries
- 2021
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 11:2, s. 66-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Involving older people through co-design has become increasingly attractive as an approach to develop technologies for them. However, less attention has been paid to the internal dynamics and localized socio-material arrangements that enact this method in practice. In this paper, we show how the outcomes that can be achieved with user involvement often pertain to learning, but their content can differ significantly based on how the approach is implemented in practice. Combining explorative, qualitative findings from co-design conducted in four countries (Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden), we illustrate how different types of learning occurred as design workshops engaged the experiences and skills of older people in different ways. Our findings make visible how learning can be a core outcome of co-design activities with older adults, while raising awareness of the role of the power relations and socio-material arrangements that structure these design practices in particular ways. To benefit from the full wealth of insights that can be learned by involving older people, deeper knowledge is needed of the implicit features of design, the materials, meanings, and power aspects involved.
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| 3. |
- Jacobson, Malcolm
(författare)
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Graffiti, Aging and Subcultural Memory-A Struggle for Recognition through Podcast Narratives
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article engages with the existential importance of subcultural memory for middle aged men. The social site is digital and consists of the first three Swedish graffiti podcasts where graffitied life courses are reflexively constructed through conversations. The empirical material gives unique insight into the construction of subcultural aging and self-identity and offers a critical reflection on theories of youth cultures. The results show that sharing memories of youth, crime and agency shapes the meaning of graffiti and subcultural cohesion. Retrospective narratives on personal development and increased reflexivity and self-control are constructed. Story telling has a long tradition in graffiti and social media has lately been incorporated within the subculture. As graffiti is a holistic practice, writers adopt many techniques to create graffiti personas, and podcasts, in addition to writing, have been established as a contemporary way to practice graffiti. The article illustrates how graffiti podcasting forms a mnemonic community where the meaning of graffiti is negotiated. Podcasts are memory sites in a struggle for individual and cultural recognition of what used to be labeled a deviant subculture.
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| 4. |
- Lundberg, Johan
(författare)
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The Return of the Clan in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 10:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This is a conceptual paper which deals with a subject that has been neglected by contemporary Swedish researchers, politicians and journalists: the clan society, which is one of the most common forms of society in the world-from which many of today's nations seem to have sprung. The thesis of the essay is that the taboo around the clan issue has meant that we have no capacity to understand foreign policy or integration policy.
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| 5. |
- Nordenmark, Mikael, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Work/Family Conflict of More Importance than Psychosocial Working Conditions and Family Conditions for Mental Wellbeing
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI. - 2075-4698. ; 10:67, s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies have indicated the importance of family life and psychosocial working conditions for mental wellbeing. More recently, studies have highlighted that a good balance between work and family is crucial for good mental wellbeing. However, few studies compare the relative importance of these factors for mental wellbeing. The main aim of this study was to analyse the relative importance of psychosocial working conditions, family conditions and work/family conflict for mental wellbeing. The analyses are based on a Swedish data set, including questions regarding working life, family life and mental wellbeing. A total of 12,461 married/cohabiting individuals employed in Swedish organisations were included in the study. Results show that psychosocial working conditions, family conditions and work/family conflict all were related to mental wellbeing. In the final regression model, the strongest correlation was found between mental wellbeing and the variables work/family conflict, satisfaction with private life and partner relationship, with work/family conflict appearing to be of greatest importance. These findings highlight the necessity of including measurements of work/family conflict when studying the importance of work and family conditions for individual mental wellbeing. For workplace health promotion and improvement, it may be beneficial to consider not only psychosocial working conditions, but also family conditions, and particularly work/life conflict
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| 6. |
- Olsson, Erik J, et al.
(författare)
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What Price Equality? The Academic Cost of Government Supervised Gender Mainstreaming at Swedish Universities
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 10:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article is focused on gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities in the period from 2016-2019. Our research questions are: (a) In what form was gender mainstreaming introduced and did the form itself affect scholar's academic rights? (b) Was the process in question compatible with international standards of institutional autonomy? (c) What effect did gender mainstreaming have on scholars' ability to exercise their academic rights in accordance with international standards? Using the UNESCO Recommendations Concerning the Status of Higher-education Teaching Personnel (1997) as our international standard, we conclude that gender mainstreaming was introduced as a form of identity politics though government action and de facto supervision; that the latter was problematic from the perspective of institutional autonomy; that the choice of gender studies as a preferred scientific framework for university policy had a chilling effect on inquiry and free speech in other areas of research; and, finally, that gender mainstreaming led to violations of some scholars' individual rights. The findings may be taken into account in evaluations of the outcome of gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities, all things considered.
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| 7. |
- Stenberg, Jenny, 1959, et al.
(författare)
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Making School Children's Participation in Planning Processes a Routine Practice
- 2021
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Children's participation in planning has been investigated to some extent. There are, however, unexplored topics, particularly concerning what is needed for children's participation to become a regular process. Based on case studies in Sweden, this article draws some conclusions. It is quite possible to organize ordinary processes where children participate in community building, in collaboration with planners, as part of their schoolwork. The key question is how this can be done. Clearly, it needs to occur in close collaboration with teachers and pupils, however it also needs to be implemented in a system-challenging manner. Thus, rather than looking for tools with potential to work in the existing school and planners' world, it is important to design research that aims to create learning processes that have the potential to change praxis. Hence, it is not the case that tools are not needed, rather that children need to help to develop them.
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| 8. |
- Sörensen, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Shadow Management : Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democratic Legitimacy through Ombudsmen with Cases Studies from Swedish Higher Education
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 10:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector effectively erode the core (liberal) democratic values of the rule of law and transparency. The tension between public law and managerially-influenced governmental policy is in practice resolved by the emergence of what we call “shadow management” in public administration, whereby managerial decisions that clash with constitutional and administrative law are dealt with in internal memos or consultancy reports and hidden from public view. The consequence is a duality in the public sector, which potentially reduces public trust in institutions and undermines their democratic legitimacy. Finally, we argue that when governmental neoliberal policy clashes with legal requirements, the likely effect is that the popular institution of the (governmental or parliamentary) ombudsman, originally introduced for legal supervision over civil servants, takes on the new deceptive role of providing pseudo-legal justification for neoliberal reform, making neoliberalism and ombudsmen a particularly problematic combination from a democratic and legal perspective. We support our contentions by a case study of Swedish higher education and hypothesize that the mechanisms we highlight are general in nature.
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| 9. |
- Almahfali, Mohammed, et al.
(författare)
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Exploiting Sociocultural Issues in Election Campaign Discourse : The Case of Nyans in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI. - 2075-4698. ; 13:12, s. 257-257
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Swedish far-right party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), came to power in 2022 and is currently the second-largest party in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. While it has been propagandizing an anti-migrant discourse, another newly founded party has been producing a counter-discourse. The newly created Nyans party claims to represent migrants and minorities in Sweden. However, its discourse uses controversial issues that could potentially misrepresent those communities. Our study aimed to analyze Nyans’ Facebook posts published in the month leading up to the 2022 elections. Through our analysis process, which lasted from January to August 2023, we applied a critical discourse analysis approach to uncover the relationship between sociocultural issues and their social, political, and ideological contexts. The results reveal that Nyans’ discourse focused on opposing left-wing parties and aligned itself with the far-right. The discourse aligned with misinformation campaigns on social media when addressing sociocultural issues. These issues include the childcare law, the burning of the Qur’an, and the veil, which are pertinent to a particular perspective in the Muslim community and do not necessarily represent immigrants or minorities.
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| 10. |
- Alstam, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Finding a Suitable Object for Intervention: On Community-Based Violence Prevention in Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 12:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, local municipalities, working in collaboration with the police, are assigned an important role in community-based crime prevention and the promotion of safer neighbourhoods/cities. The strategies adopted are supposed to be informed by the policies of national advisory bodies, which emphasize surveying the current situation, problem analyses, systematic planning of interventions and evaluation of efforts. This paper reports on a three-year research project that studied local crime prevention/safer community practices in four so-called 'particularly vulnerable areas' (PVAs) using meeting observations and stakeholder interviews. The analysis shows that when constructing intervention strategies, the actors involved had to navigate between different organizational logics and found it difficult to demarcate a suitable object for joint efforts. When they were able to find an object to be targeted, such as youth at risk of drug abuse or low-level criminality, they could rely on a collective mindset, but they struggled in situations where a joint effort was not possible, such as when dealing with the risk of aggravated violence or when the operations got close to more organized crime-both elements that form part of the definition of PVAs. This failure may partly be explained by competing logics dominated by idiosyncratic action in line with bureaucratic rules and routines. This finding raises questions about a putative but non-articulated limit to crime prevention and whether a predetermined approach aligns with the prescribed sequence of survey, analysis, intervention planning and evaluation when faced with more brutish violence.
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