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- Lundberg, Anders P
(author)
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Om gemenskap : En sociologisk betraktelse
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Various reports have stated that the traditional Swedish popular movements (e.g. the Workers movement and the Free church movement) are loosing ground. Instead of joining a political party or a church, politically or religiously active individuals are said to seek out new and individualized ways of being involved. This thesis studies a number of men and women that persist in being communally involved within the traditional movements (as above). It asks questions such as "What does their involvement look like?" "How important is a sense of belonging for being involved?" "To what extent is it possible to be an autonomous individual while being communally active?" "What difficulties do they encounter, as related to the problem of individualism and community?" "How do they solve these problems?" To aid in an understanding of the conditions for communal involvement in a post- or late modern era, the thesis employs two different (partially opposed) theoretical schools: post modernism and communitarianism. Drawing from these schools, while at the same time presuming an intimate knowledge of the traditional Swedish popular movements (folkrörelserna), the writer constructs two ideal typical concepts: stable community (resembling the communitarian vision) and casual community (resembling the post modernist vision). These ideal types are employed to create an understanding of the conditions for community and communal involvement today. Empirically, a number of strategies are found among the interviewees in order to keep up their involvement. These include: a privatization of ideology; an effort to make a professional career within the movement; the phenomenon of nonprofit professionals; an effort to view involvement as a gain for the personal life project; to view life as a series of stages where it is possible to step in and out of involvement at different times during a life course; to keep organizational structures at the back, letting them promote affinity and affection among individuals rather than being in focus themselves. Also empirically, this thesis shows how involvement among the interviewees resembles what the author labels stable community. It shows the perceived importance of relations of trust, emanating from stable community. It also shows though, a tendency (primarily among those active within the Free church) to expect too much of the relations within a community: rather, it would be necessary to realize the importance of other types of relations (i.e. elective affinity, a relation typically emanating from casual community; but also what the author labels friendship) for keeping the fire burning. Also, there is a tendency (primarily within the Workers movement) to invite too many new individuals too fast into the group of active individuals. Trust (stable community) takes time to create: when rushed, a sense of belonging may be missing, possibly leaving members embittered and disillusioned.
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| 2. |
- Ekelund, Alexander, 1979-
(author)
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Kampen om vetenskapen : Politisk och vetenskaplig formering under den svenska vänsterradikaliseringens era
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis examines the relation between politics and science in Sweden during the era of political radicalization in the sixties and seventies. Rooted in the Bourdieuan tradition of cultural sociology the main analysis focuses on relations between different cultural fields. Studying social movements and the political debate as well as the scientific fields makes it possible to identify habitus and strategies that formed the radical student generation. In addition to efforts to understand the historical background of the radicalisation, like the changes within the Education system and the general tendencies of the political debate, certain parts of the Swedish student movement are studied in-depth, like Unga filosofer in Stockholm and other autonomous groups organizing students and young teachers at the university departments. Of particular interest are the collective struggles to gain influence within the academic structures and the alternative forms of education that were initiated in the late sixties and early seventies.Since the young generation of radical academics were not prone to follow the traditional paths – the established order of succession – they had to find ways to compensate for the academic capital that they renounced by challenging their professors or other influential actors. To understand how this came to effect the Social Sciences and Humanities – or in this case more precisely the fields of philosophy, sociology and literary criticism – the other studies focus on analysing three politically motivated projects that were formed at intersections between a movement-context and academia: the first centred on the critique of positivism, the second engaged in the development of the ideas of scientific socialism – inspired by the reception of the philosophy of Louis Althusser – and the third a later feminist project that evolved in the field of literary criticism with the reception of Julia Kristeva’s theories. One thing the three projects had in common was that they created opportunities to channel political engagement in academic strategies by occupying homological positions in the political-intellectual field and the scientific fields – in some cases confronting the same antagonists in the different arenas. Some of the preconditions that made these strategies possible, which are discussed on the basis of the studies of the different fields, are the intellectual infrastructure that enabled conversion of symbolical assets, like magazines and other arenas for theoretical debate, the creation of social networks and the fact that the political radicalization encouraged transnational theoretical investments.
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