| 1. |
- Arora-Jonsson, Stefan, Professor, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
A new understanding of competition
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Competition. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780191924460 - 9780192898012 ; , s. 1-25
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Competition is currently found in many, if not most, social domains, such as the economy, politics, public services, sports, culture, higher education, and science. But competition is not endemic to any of these fields. Rather, it has been constructed by those involved or by observers. We ask what competition is and how it can be introduced into a new context. Critically reflecting on insights from economics, management studies and sociology, we define competition as a combined social construction of four factors: actorhood, relationships among actors, scarcity, and desire. We shed light on asymmetric constructions of competition among different actors. Our definition leaves open the effect of competition on behaviour: competition may lead competitors to avoid interaction with each other or to cooperate; it may motivate people to try harder or it may demotivate them. Finally, we discuss issues for further research that follow from our understanding of competition.
|
|
| 2. |
- Arora-Jonsson, Stefan, Professor, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
Competition unbundled : taking stock and looking forward
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Competition. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780192898012 - 9780191924460 ; , s. 221-236
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this final chapter, we discuss how the preceding chapters illuminate some fundamental questions about competition. How is it constructed? How are the behaviours resulting from competition managed? What are the consequences of competition? How can competition be removed? And, how do these factors vary with the good people compete for? Our aim is to provide an outline of a social science research programme on competition that is long overdue. A central message of the book is that competition seems ubiquitous but that it should not be taken for granted or be naturalized as an inevitable aspect of human existence. Its emergence, maintenance, and change are often the result of intention and purposive efforts, and a central challenge for social science is to learn more about these developments.
|
|
| 3. |
- Arora-Jonsson, Stefan, Professor, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
The Construction of Competition in Public Research Funding Systems
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Handbook of Public Funding of Research. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar Publishing. ; , s. 172-184
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Competition is a core feature of public research systems. Previous literature has mainly focused on the consequences of competition for research funding in such systems. These consequences are important, but the literature has largely assumed that competition for funding is inevitable in public research systems. This assumption masks the extent to which competition is a constructed phenomenon requiring explanation. When and why is there competition for research funding in public systems? In this chapter, our aim is to develop new knowledge about the ways that various allocations of funding are or are not constructed as competition for funding. We utilise recent theorising to analyse competition for research funding as a phenomenon that eventually comes about through organising efforts. Our chapter revitalises previous literature, and offers policy implications and future inquiry avenues that highlight the importance of understanding how competition for funding is constructed, and potentially revoked, in public research systems.
|
|
| 4. |
- Arora-Jonsson, Stefan, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
The Meaning Of Economic Democracy : Institutional Logics, Parabiosis, And The Construction Of Frames
- 2017
-
Ingår i: How Institutions Matter!. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 9781786354303 - 9781786354297 ; , s. 71-99
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent empirical and theoretical developments related to the microprocesses of institutional logics have helped to cultivate a powerful theory of agency. We build on these developments to show how the institutional logics perspective can shed light on important questions related to frame construction and how institutions matter. In particular, we show how the emergence of an economic democracy frame in post-war Sweden generated different efforts to define that frame with concrete ideas and practices linked to different logics – socialism and neoliberalism. We show how socialists tried to define economic democracy as requiring a radical transformation in the nature of ownership and control embedded in the innovative financial practice of wage earner’s funds. In contradistinction, conservatives drew on neoliberal ideas and extant mutual fund practices to construct alternative meanings and practices related to economic democracy that enrolled citizens in Capitalism without challenging extant Capitalist ownership structures. While mutual funds and wage earner’s funds initially existed in a state of parabiosis – existing side by side without much interrelationship – struggles over the meaning of economic democracy led these practices to become competing solutions in a framing contest. Implications for the study of institutional logics, frames and the social organization of society are discussed.
|
|
| 5. |
- Arora-Jonsson, Stefan, Professor, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
-
The Origins of Competition : institution and organization
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Competition. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780192898012 - 9780191924460 ; , s. 61-76
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Institutional conditions and organizational efforts are key for understanding how and why the elements constituting competition come about. Several contemporary institutions favour the construction of competition. States, organizations, and individuals are increasingly being seen as actors that are able to compete with each other, and globalization and other recent institutional developments have increased the number of relationships that they can construct. An impressive economic development during the last century has not prevented a continued sense of scarcity and new desires have emerged, not least the desire for status positions. Fourth parties organize social life in ways that create competition by intention or unintentionally. Organizers of contests in politics, markets, sports and many other sectors construct actors, relationships, and scarcity for something desired. Similar efforts have been an essential part of many recent reforms of organizations and markets. The increasing number of prizes and rankings in almost any area of life produces scarcity and is likely to create new desires for goods that per definition are scarce.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Bomark, Niklas, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
-
Convincing Others That They are Competing : The Case of Schools
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Competition. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 9780192898012 - 9780191924460
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The past decades have seen numerous attempts to introduce competition into new sectors of society, but we still know little about the processes by which competition is realized in a new setting. We study three decades of organizational efforts of a Swedish municipality that sought to introduce competition for students among its upper secondary schools following a national reform in the early 1990s. Our study shows that declaring competition was far from sufficient for its realization; the path to competition was lined with hesitation, uncertainty, and a rich variety of organizational challenges to be overcome. One particularly vexing challenge was to convince the principals of the schools that they should view each other as competitors for students. Our findings contribute to previous literature by demonstrating that competition need not be a prerequisite for choice; that several organizers of competition may operate at once; and, more generally, that competition is introduced through stepwise, piecemeal processes.
|
|
| 9. |
- Bomark, Niklas, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
-
Organisationsteoretiska perspektiv på skolsegregation
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Segregation. - Stockholm : Riksbankens jubileumsfond i samarbete med Makadam förlag. - 9789170613036 - 9789170618031 ; , s. 59-70
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Den här boken är resultatet av ett stort forskningsprogram som velat utveckla den analytiska sociologins teoretiska och metodologiska grundvalar, och förbättra kunskapsläget gällande segregationsprocesser i dagens Sverige. Jag vill framföra ett stort tack till Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) som beviljade oss ett mycket generöst anslag. Detta gjorde det möjligt för oss att bygga upp en excellent forskningsmiljö, först vid Institutet för framtidsstudier och sedan vid Institutet för analytisk sociologi, Linköpings universitet. Flera forskare inom forskningsprogrammet har intresserat sig för självförstärkande processer där framgångar leder till ytterligare framgångar, och anslaget från RJ illustrerar med all önskvärd tydlighet betydelsen av den här typen av processer. Medlen från RJ ledde till ytterligare anslag från andra forskningsfinansiärer och spelade en avgörande roll i den process som ledde fram till bildandet av Institutet för analytisk sociologi i Norrköping.Jag vill också uttrycka min stora tacksamhet till alla de forskare som medverkat i programmet, betydligt fler än de som kunde inkluderas i denna bok. Ett särskilt tack går till Gunn Birkelund (Universitetet i Oslo), Robert Mare (University of California, Los Angeles), David Sumpter (Uppsala universitet) och Petri Ylikoski (Helsingfors universitet) som spelat en avgörande roll för forskningsprogrammets utveckling. Ett stort tack går även till de medarbetare vid Linköpings universitet och vid Institutet för framtidsstudier som gjorde att alla administrativa bekymmer lyste med sin frånvaro och gjorde det möjligt för forskarna att uteslutande ägna sig åt sin forskning. Avslutningsvis vill jag även tacka Thomas Andersson, Jenny Björkman och Catherine Grimlund Träff för deras professionella redigeringsarbete.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
