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- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Ecology and sociotechnical systems research – motivations for theoretical and methodological integration across fields
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Sustainability Transitions conference 2017.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Currently, we are witnessing a number of global trends that do not promise well for the future. Accelerating climate change, loss of biodiversity, chemical pollution, disappearance of natural forest and degradation of fishing grounds and agricultural lands are just a few of the serious environmental problems that threaten the functional and structural integrity of ecosystems, to an extent that also human societies risk collapse. The scale of human impact is now such that scholars suggest that we live in the Anthropocene. The trends are driven by several linked factors, which are not easily disentangled into manageable specific problems to be solved by specific policies. More than ever, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations are needed in order to address these urgent challenges. The objective of this paper is to argue for the importance of research on socio-technical-ecological systems (STES) rather than social-ecological (SES) and sociotechnical systems (STS) separately. Hence, we address researchers in both the social-ecological and sociotechnical fields. We organize the argument around six reasons why “technology” should be integrated into SES studies. We call these reasons: (1) the interface and mediation aspect, (2) ambivalence, (3) the agency aspect, (4) the question of scale, (5) the question of governance and politics, and (6) the question of epistemology and framing. We also highlight potential conceptual conflicts and mistranslations. Our discussion is primarily a theoretical argument, exemplified with empirical examples.Among the conceptual challenges, we note that SES scholars, if they consider technology in their analyses, generally treat it as an exogenous factor or as a passive background element. Similarly, STS scholars tend to neglect ecological dynamics and refer to the ecological domain mainly in terms of inputs and outputs, e.g. natural resources, environmental and health problems caused by human activities. In light of the discussion, we conclude that the importance of collaborating across the two fields goes beyond each field adding pieces together. We argue that integration and translation across these domains will lead to qualitative change in the theoretical and methodological approaches of both fields; and that technology, society and ecology should be given symmetric analytical attention.
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| 5. |
- Ikegami, Masako, 1961-
(författare)
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‘A Historical Examination on the Decision-making Process of the Use of Nuclear Weapons’ : a Japan-US International Workshop ‘Reducing Threats posted by Nuclear Weapons: Possible Cooperation between Japan and the United States’, co-organized by Center for Global Partnership, Pugwash USA, Pugwash Japan, Institute for International Studies, Meiji-Gakuin University, Tokyo, 24-25 January 2009
- 2009
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Ingår i: ‘Reducing Threats posted by Nuclear Weapons: Possible Cooperation between Japan and the United States’. - Tokyo : Meiji-Gakuin University Institute for International Studies. ; , s. 61-78
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 6. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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The role of trust in street-level organisations within integration projects
- 2019
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Ingår i: The 17th Annual ESPANET Conference: “Social citizenship, migration and conflict – Equality and opportunity in European welfare states”, The European Network for Social Policy Analysis, 5–7 September 2019, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish immigrant integration holds a unique contradiction in that it is lauded as having the ‘best’ policy in Europe (MIPEX), but its outcomes are amongst some of the poorest (Eurostats). Currently, responsibility of implementing integration policy is held by national agencies at the macro-level. Such a structure, however, is likely to overshadow what goes on at the micro-level, an oversight which is also reflected within current research. By adopting a street-level organisation (SLOs) approach, this research sets out to explore the gap between formal policy provision and measurable outcomes, where trust is situated as a critical dimension within the process of integration that is yet to be captured by other means. This presentation explores trust as a reason for the disparity between policy and outcomes, with the help of a case study that involves an SLO situated in Gothenburg; more specifically, a suburb characterised by a 90% immigrant population, and its unexploited social capital. To resolve this issue Gothenburg embarked on a four-year EU sponsored project concerned with labour market integration. Under this umbrella, a sub-project has been launched to engage 500 immigrants visiting an SLO within green business development as a means to integration. However, while initially promising, several intricacies surrounding the studied SLO, including its structure, history and leadership, has brought forth a number of worrying insights that have severed trust-building and impeded future work. Previous studies exploring the success of projects at the street level have successfully used qualitative methods, including reflexive non-participant observation. In our research we have used field notes collected over a six-month period from the project’s inception, supplemented by time lines of interactions and stakeholder engagements. The data have been coded to decipher key incidents and exchanges where trust has played a pivotal role in the dynamics between stakeholders, and for the direction of the project, as such. Given the responsibility that SLOs currently hold within immigrant integration, the personal street-level interactions from which (dis)trust evolves need to be regarded as significantly important. Our findings suggest that trust is greatly underestimated within SLOs, with distrust disrupting the success of the integration process, often resulting in project failure. This presentation will make recommendations as to how a SLO approach can contribute to trust-building, which will go some way in addressing existing ambiguities and inconsistencies between policy and outcomes concerning immigrant integration.
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| 7. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Double jeopardy within Swedish integration: Using South–North collaborations to explore the role of gender within transdisciplinary integration projects
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Transdisciplinarity Conference 2019: “Joining Forces for Change”, TD-Net – Network for Transdisciplinary Research / Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, 10–13 September 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden is now a highly multicultural society, and as such is dealing with a multiplicity of integration issues. Accordingly, approaches to integration must also be multifaceted in their nature, conducted by transdisciplinary teams within a diverse range of projects. The current approach is to integrate immigrants into the labour market, for which a lauded policy has been implemented (MIPEX). However, when looking at outcomes, the OECD data (2013) is placing Sweden at the bottom of its ranking, with 57% of 15-74-year-olds born outside of Sweden in employment, compared to 67% of native-born Swedes. A possible reason for the gap is the relatively high proportion of native-born women in employment. But, this does not explain why immigrant women’s levels of employment are consistently 10% lower than immigrant men’s. This creates a gender gap between immigrant men and women, and a gap between native-born and immigrant women. As such, immigrant women are experiencing a double-jeopardy in labour-market integration, both as women and as immigrants. Studies exploring instances of the double-jeopardy problem have been conducted in the US (De Jong et al 2001), Canada (Boyd 1984), Australia (Foroutan 2008) and Israel (Reijman & Semyonov 1997). However, this research is still considered novel as it utilises transdisciplinarity to explore the ways in which gender is being used to inform the process of integration. Drawing on the conceptualisation of transdisciplinarity from Zurich 2000, this research draws from a diversity of different projects and approaches to address the real-world problem of double jeopardy experienced by immigrant women. It does so by exploring the experiences and reflections from academics and researchers; government employees; sustainability strategists; social entrepreneurs and NGO volunteer and staff. The projects led by these actors are linked by the aim of providing social integration and the use of the concept of gender in doing so, albeit some more explicitly than others. This presentation explores how the hypothesis of double jeopardy plays out in practice. The aim of our research is to understand the ways in which a transdiciplinarity of actors apply the concept of gender within labour market integration and how this affects tangible outcomes for women. This has been undertaken through a South–North collaboration, using a Swedish-Kenyan collaboration programme within Mistra Urban Futures – SKILLs, aiming towards sustainable urban development. Our research applies a gender analysis of local case studies from impoverished areas of Gothenburg. The discussion is informed by challenges (and solutions) identified in Kisumu (Kenya) and provides a set of co-produced recommendations. The following research questions are pursued: 1. How does labour-market integration consider and use the concept of gender? 2. What effect(s) does the use of gender have upon the outcomes for women within labour-market integration projects? 3. How can the use of the concept of gender be improved within labour-market integration to provide outcomes for women that are equal, fair and sustainable? Initial findings suggest that gender as a concept is experienced differently by immigrant women and Swedish women. In questioning how women from the Global South experience integration projects in the context of the Global North, the collaboration has identified the following aspects: agency; choice of approach; cultural awareness; role modelling; stereotyping and; tokenism – within transdisciplinary projects from both research sites. With these challenges in mind, some integration projects may prove problematic at best and unsuccessful at worst because of this under-researched dimension.
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| 8. |
- Kotze, Shelley, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Using South-North collaborations to explore the role of gender within immigrant integration projects
- 2019
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Ingår i: 2019 RINGS Conference: “Genders and Feminisms in a Polarised World – Sustainability, Futures and Utopias”, The International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies / Tallinn University – Gender Studies Research Group, 2–4 October 2019, Tallinn, Estonia.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of Sweden’s current predicaments is that it is a highly multicultural society in a European context, facing a crisis through the vulnerability and anxieties relating to the increasing immigrant populations being closely related to an increasing polarisation. In a polarised society, gender is at risk of again becoming the invisible “third” face of policies trying to facilitate migration, overwhelmed by the complexity and jeopardies of integration and disintegration, homogeneity and diversity, equality and inequality, inclusion and exclusion. Sweden has developed a lauded policy, most particularly within the formal opportunities offered to immigrants when accessing the labour-market (MIPEX). However, the index does not measure the outcomes of such policy. The OECD data (2013) is placing Sweden at the bottom of its ranking, as it has the largest gap, in levels of employment between native-born Swedes and those born outside of Sweden. Possible reasoning for the gap is the relatively high proportion of native-born women in employment. When immigrant employment numbers are explored along gendered lines immigrant women’s levels of employment are consistently 10% lower than those of immigrant men. This not only creates a gender gap between immigrant men and women, but also a gap between native-born and immigrant women. As such, immigrant women are experiencing a double-jeopardy in labour-market integration, both as women and as immigrants. Therefore, we ask if intersectional actors are taken into account in designing policies; how they reflect the differences of immigrant women trying to integrate; and how can immigrant women change Swedish society and its labour force? This presentation explores how the hypothesis of double-jeopardy plays out in practice. The aim of our research is to understand the ways in which different approaches to labour-market integration apply the concept of gender, and how this affects the tangible and sustainable outcomes for the women involved. This will be undertaken through a South–North collaboration, using a Swedish-Kenyan collaboration programme within Mistra Urban Futures – SKILLs, aiming towards sustainable urban development. Drawing upon experiences and reflections from works of academics, researchers and NGOs, our research applies a gender analysis of local case studies from impoverished areas of Gothenburg. The discussion is informed by challenges (and solutions) identified in Kisumu, and provides a set of co-produced recommendations. Initial findings suggest that gender as a concept is experienced differently by immigrant women and Swedish women. In questioning how women from the Global South experience integration projects in the context of the Global North we attempt to initiate discussion how labour-market integration can produce more tangible, sustainable and equitable outcomes for immigrant women.
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| 10. |
- Berg, Linda, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Swimming against the tide: Why Sweden Support Open Door Labour Migration Policies in Sweden and within the EU
- 2012
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Ingår i: 19th International Conference of Europeanists (CES), Boston, 22-24 March 2012.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Across Europe, regulating migration remains one of the most pressing issues for national governments, not least in the current context of economic crisis and welfare state challenges. Vast academic interest has been directed towards understanding restrictive refugee and labour immigration policies of destination countries, including the impact of growing anti-immigrant parties. But so far, less attention has been directed towards analysing countries’ liberal migration policy preferences. Contrary to recent developments in many EU member states, Sweden has witnessed a dramatic liberalisation of the rules governing the entry of third-country labour migrants. The new Immigration Law of 2008 liberalised immigration policy and made it more employer-driven. These changes have been called a ‘slight revolution’. Sweden is also one of few EU countries to actively take initiatives to promote greater harmonisation of labour migration policy within the EU. Moreover, Sweden was one of only three Member States (along with the UK and Ireland) to immediately open its doors to citizens from the EU accession countries of 2004 and 2007. This paper analyses the preferences and strategies of the main Swedish political actors in order to explain why Sweden has been backing such open/liberal policies. It draws on the examination of media coverage, party programs, official documents and elite interviews.
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