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- Brännström, Inger, 1945-
(author)
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Community participation and social patterning in cardiovascular disease intervention
- 1993
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study addresses health policy and public health in the field of cardiovascular disease (CVD) on the local level in Sweden. The overall aim is to contribute to the assessment of structural and social conditions within public health by analysing participation processes and outcome patterns in a local health programme. The northern Swedish MONICA study served as a reference area. The research strategy has been to integrate quantitative and qualitative methodologies and, thereby, focus on different aspects of the health programme under study.The mortality rate was excessive in the study area of Norsjö relative to both provincial and national figures over a period of more than 10 years. This finding formed the basis for a tenyear comprehensive and community-based health programme towards the prevention of CVD and diabetes.Even in this seemingly homogeneous area it was found that socio-economic circumstances were associated with the public health. Almost half of the study population had hypercholesterolaemia (;>6.5 mmol/1), 19% of men and 25% of women were smokers and 30% and 29%, respectively, had high blood pressure. Age had a strong impact on all outcome measures. After adjustments for age and social factors it was found that the relative risk of having hypercholesterolaemia dropped significantly in both sexes during the six years of intervention. The probability of being a smoker was significantly reduced only in highly educated groups. No statistically significant change over time could be found for the risk of suffering high blood pressure. In the reference area of northern Sweden there were no changes over time for any of the selected risk factors. The likelihood of self-assessed good health decreased with increasing risk factor load, with the exception of hypercholesterolaemia , in all social strata.The authorities, including the health and medical staff, were the main actors on the mediastage. Men in manual occupations were least affected by the media coverage. The actors and the public as well as the media viewed the health programme as orientated towards individual lifestyles. Community participation was mainly defined by the actors based on the medical and health planning approach. Differences in interpretations, social interests, personal conflicts and ideological constraints among the actors at local level were observed. Some critical attitudes towards the organization and management of the health programme were also noted among the citizens. However, a majority of the public wanted the health programme to continue. The present study underlines the importance of considering age, gender and social differences in the planning and evaluation of CVD preventive programmes.
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| 2. |
- Gunnarsson Payne, Jenny, 1976-
(author)
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Systerskapets logiker : en etnologisk studie av feministiska fanzines
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis coheres around the issue of collective political mobilisation within one part of the contemporary feminist movement, or more specifically, within the Swedish feminist zine community. A feminist zine, also commonly referred to as Grrrlzine or femizine, is a small non-commercial and non-professional publication, which is distributed by channels other than that of the mainstream media.The aim of the thesis is to examine what role the 'name' ' sisterhood' has in the constitution of a feminist zine community. Further, it is to explore the ways in which this 'name' is expressed and the precise function this name has within the community itself. That 'sisterhood' is necessary for a feminist politics is, according to the vast majority of the zines studied, obvious. Nevertheless the issue of what sisterhood 'is' or what it ’ought to be’ is constantly under negotiation. In this thesis I study how the name sisterhood works to create a collective feminist identity – even if this very 'name' comes to be articulated in, sometimes radically, different forms.In order to conduct my analysis, I have taken several theoretical decisions. First, I have chosen to frame the zine community in accordance with the term communitas, defined as a collective identity constituted in terms of its opposites, by that which it is not. In this specific case, this Other consists of the commercial media, that is also, conceived as an effect of a wider patriarchal threat.Second, to understand the differences which exist within this community, I have chosen to develop three feminist logics, to capture some quite contradictory articulatory strategies. They are referred to as ’liberal feminist’, ’radical feminist’ and ’post feminist’. The concept of logics allows me to interpret how it is that three different (and sometimes competing) feminist traditions can be found in the zine community, and commonly how in a single zine, or a single text, the three logics can coalsce.As mentioned above, it is the 'name' sisterhood that provides the glue that holds the feminist zine community together. To understand this I have analyzed sisterhood by way of the concept 'empty signifier', that is, a 'name' which is partially emptied of meaning and which serves as a surface of inscription for a variety of feminist demands, demands that in themselves may have very little, or even nothing in common.Finally, the ideas outlined in the thesis call for reflexivity, that is, for an explicit meta-analysis of the conduct of one’s own research process. In this thesis I discuss the problematic arising when the feminist researcher studies a feminist movement, and the inevitable blurring of political partisanship and theoretical analysis that takes place. Here I pay particular attention to the frontiers that a political community is always-already in a process of re-negotiating, and how the researcher is herself part of this very re-negotiation.
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| 3. |
- Ekstrand, Eva, 1949-
(author)
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Kaj Anderssons Morgonbris : kvinnopress, trettiotal och längtan efter fri tid
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the 1930s the Swedish homes were modernized through a series of social reforms. As a result of this, time was expected to be released from the housewife’s daily domestic duties and the question was what to do with this time. In this dissertation the concept of time is used in the sense of free time as time for free thinking. The time issue during the thirties is an underlying question throughout the study. The magazine Morgonbris (1904-), a political campaign journal published by the social democratic women’s association (in Swedish: Socialdemokratiska kvinnoförbundet, SSKF) was the public arena for political issues of this kind.The aim of the study is to scrutinize the magazine, its shape (typography and layout) and content, the editors´ journalism as well as the relationship to the SSKF and the circle of readers during the decade, in order to describe the dramatic changes of this political and public arena with special focus on the editorship of Kaj Andersson (1931-1936).Methodologically this study draws on Hannah Arendt’s “storytelling” or “fragmented historiography”. Theoretically the concepts “public sphere” and “proletarian experiences” are adopted and Jürgen Habermas, Oscar Negt & Alexander Kluge as well as Pierre Bourdieu, are referred to. The gender perspectives of Joan F. Scott and Yvonne Hirdman are also adopted.Kaj Andersson’s ”active journalism” in Morgonbris exhibits two distinguishing characteristics during the thirties, it was clearly socialist and critical towards nazism and fascism and it was the most salient vehicle of modernity within the Swedish press at the time. She re-styled the magazine, gave it a new outfit and introduced a new kind of modern, photojournalism. The result was an economic upswing for the magazine. The heritage of Ellen Key´s aesthetics came forward in a consumer campaign, “The best of the industry to the needs of the homes” (Fabrikernas bästa till hemmens behov), which bears similarities to the “Better Homes of America” campaign, launched in the 1920s in the USA. The political path in both campaigns coincided partly with the agenda of Alva Myrdal. Also the “Housewife Holiday” campaign that Kaj Andersson initiated in Morgonbris was in line with the modernization of women’s life throughout the country. The exhausted housewives’ yearning for rest and temporary release from domestic duties was reflected in several articles, in which their grass-root initiatives were acknowledged as political action.Until Kaj Anderson left Morgonbris, after several schisms with the committee about her creative – her backbiters would say self-indulgent – style to run the editorial office, she balanced on the border between commercialism and socialism. Her background in the party press, the social democratic newspaper Social Demokraten, influenced her ideas, but her initiatives to turn to the fields of production and consumption also drove a wedge into the field of journalism, as an involuntary beginning to separate it from the field of politics.
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