Tillh��righetens gr��nser : Internationell adoption och ursprungets betydelse i svensk utredningsretorik

Boundaries of belonging: transnational adoption and the significance of origin in Swedish official rhetoric This article explores how the category of ���transnational adoptees��� in Sweden is constructed in two Official Government Reports (SOU). The article is inspired by poststructuralist perspectives on welfare and social categorization, and draws from a postcolonial and feminist theoretical framework. ���Transnational adoptees��� as a category is understood as constituted through discourse, and given meaning in different contexts. In the reports, a fundamental importance is attached to the fact that individuals with a background as transnationally adopted have been separated from their birth family and country of birth. It is argued that mental problems and a split identity are consequences to be expected from the separation. (Re)connection to the origin is therefore considered to be crucial for the well-being of the group. The article concludes that this line of reasoning is based on a specific logic of blood and roots, in which ���transnational adoptees��� are understood as belonging to their countries of birth, rather than Sweden. The logic of blood and roots can be read as a form of racialized othering, but also as a discursive exclusion of ���transnational adoptees��� from Sweden as an imagined, national community.

G��ra illa f��r att hj��lpa eller hj��lpa till att g��ra illa? : Arbetsl��sas reservationsl��ner, jobbchanser och ��teranst��llningsinkomster

Hurting to help or helping to hurt? The reservation wages of unemployed, job chances and reemployment incomes in Sweden Economic incentives and their impact on the job search behaviour of the unemployed have been a central focus in the academic and political debate in Sweden. A key concept has been the reservation wages of the unemployed, the lowest income at which an unemployed person would be willing to accept a job offer. Unemployment benefit systems have been argued to raise and maintain reservation wages at high levels that lower job chances. This has been supported by a large number of international studies. From this perspective lower reservation wages would function as protection against long term unemployment and the scarring effects associated with it. High reservation wages might however, based on the same behavioural assumptions, have a human capital preserving effect. The possibility to hold out for the right job should reduce human capital losses compared to accepting the first available job offer. In this article we use Swedish longitudinal micro data combining interview and register data in order to investigate three central aspects reservation wages in a Swedish context: factors influencing the setting of reservation wages, the effect of reservation wage on job chances and the impact of reservation wages on reemployment incomes. Our findings show that benefit level and pre-unemployment position in the wage structure are central factors for setting the reservation wage. The effects of reservation wages were however not the expected. No effects were found on job chances, while a strong positive effect was found on reemployment income. This together indicates that high reservation wages have a human capital preserving effect in Sweden.

V��r b��sta tid ��r nu? : Om tidsuppfattning och politisk sj��lvf��rst��else

Our best time is now? On conception of time and political self-understanding This study regards time as a horizon for action and argues that conception of time has great implication for political self-understanding. In the study, the modern conception of time, with its orientation towards the future, is contrasted with the late modern conception of time, which is characterized by a de-legitimization of utopian thinking and by an orientation towards the present. Political action is changing, from a transformation of the present into the future, to a management of the present. In this situation the future is not perceived as something qualitatively different than present, but is, as Helga Nowotny puts it, reduced to an ���extended present���. Or, to speak with Luhmann, the future is a ���present future��� where only one ���future present��� is conceivable. The future is in that sense increasingly closed. The paper argues that the current pragmatization of politics is partly due to changes in temporal representations, and suggests that more attention should be given to temporal semantics in political analysis.

Sj��lvet, rollerna och p��g��ende koordinationer av m��nskliga handlingar : Om att f��rs��ka se ���samh��llet��� som n��got annat ��n f��ngelse eller marionetteater

The self, roles and the ongoing coordination of human action.��Trying to see ���society��� as neither prison nor puppet theatre In the article it is argued that structural North-American role-sociology may be integrated with theories emphasizing ���society��� as ongoing processes (f. ex. Giddens��� theory of structuration). This is possible if the concept of role is defined as a recurrence oriented to the action of others standing out as a regularity in a societal process. But this definition makes it necessary to in a fundamental way understand what kind of social being the role-actor is. This is done with the help of Hans Joas��� theory of creativity and Merleau-Pontys concept of ���flesh��� arguing that Meads concept of the ���I��� maybe understood as an embodied self-asserting I, which at least in reflexive modernity has the creative power to split Meads ���me��� into a self-voiced subject-me and an other voiced object-me. The embodied I communicating with the subject-me may be viewed as that role-actor which is something else than the role played. But this kind of role-actor is making for new troubles because it is hard to understand how this kind of self is creating self-coherence by using Meads concept of ���the generalized other���. This trouble is handled by using Alain Touraines concept of the ���subject��� and arguing that the generalized other is dissolving in de-modernized modernity. In split modernity self-coherence may instead be created by what in the article is called the generalized subject. This concept means a kind of communicative future based evaluation, which has its base in the ���subject��� opposing the split powers of both the instrumentality of markets and of life-worlds trying to create ���fundamentalistic��� self-identities. This kind of self is communicative because it also must respect the other as ���subject���. It exists only in the battle against the forces of the market or a community. It never constructs an ideal city or a higher type of individual. It creates and protects a clearing that is constantly being invaded, to use the words of the old Frenchman himself. Asa kind of test-case it is by the way in the article shown how Becks concept of individualization may be understood in a deeply social and role-sociological way.

Sociologf��rbundet har ordet : Sabbatstermin och utvecklingav sociologi��mnet

<p>Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p>

Nya m��jligheter f��r stratifieringsforskning i Sverige : Internationella yrkesklassificeringar och stratifieringsm��tt ��ver tid

New opportunities for social stratification research in Sweden: International occupational classifications and stratification measures over time The Swedish occupational classifications have in recent years been changed to a version of the international standard ISCO-88(COM), i.e. SSYK 96. As a consequence, a wide variety of internationally well-known stratification measures can be applied to Swedish data sets. In this article some tests of the validity of translation keys between the older national classifications and SSYK 96 are presented. The keys seem to work satisfactorily. Thus, it is possible to create long time-series with ISCO/SSYK and use these well-known stratification measures over time. Hence, the international interest in Swedish data sets, and empirical results based on these data sets, could rise. Moreover, in the article an empirical regularity, which is quite astonishing, is paid attention to; stratification measures based on different theoretical rationales indicate very similar hierarchies of occupations.

Beroende eller oberoende? : En kvalitativ studie av hur ��ldre hj��lptagare ser p�� att ha hj��lp och st��d

Dependency or independence? A qualitative study of how elderly home-help recipients regard having help and support Knowledge on elderly people���s understandings of dependence and independence is relatively scarce even though there is plenty of gerontological research on related topics. Although we know how to define and measure different types of dependency, we know, in fact, very little about how elderly home-help recipients themselves regard their situation in terms of dependency, independence and autonomy. This article aims to shed light on home-help recipients��� understandings of these constructs and on how they make sense of their situation. The analysis is based on 29 semi-structured interviews with people between the ages of 77 and 93. The findings show how these home help recipients differentiate between having help and support and being dependent on other people. Through the separation of aspects of these understandings, such as the reason why they accept help and support and how they regard the situation of being helped and assisted, three ways of regarding the situation have been identified, which stress the variability of the social construction of dependency and independence that these elders uphold. Some home-help recipients construct themselves as independent, others as autonomous and able selves, while a third group construct themselves as powerless.

Redakt��ren har ordet : F��ltet och forskaren

<p>Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p>

Homosocialitetens kraft : hur unga m��n ���g��r��� maskulinitet i grupp och individuellt

The power of homosociality: how young men ���do��� masculinity in groups and individually Using young men���s narratives, about other men, friends, dates and girlfriends, this article discusses the following questions: Can the interpretation ��� the understanding of young men���s collective presentations of masculinity as a surface that hides a more complex masculinity ��� undermine how we interpret young men���s talk about and interaction with other men, as well as with women? Can this disassembling understanding have an impact on how young men interpret and relive the interactions with other men, as well as with women? Can this disassembling of the homosocially created masculinity from the more individually created masculinity shape secondary gains for the young men, such as e.g. a more flexible and stretchable arena of responsibility, as well as more flexible space of acting? Thomas Johansson, Professor of Social Work social work, states that if we only focus the homosocially created masculinity, this will reshape a less nuanced picture of young men���s way of doing masculinity (Johansson 2005). Thus, young men���s vulnerability and difficulties remain hidden. However, this disassembling of the homosocially created masculinity from the more individually based doings of masculinity could possibly also give secondary gains, such as e.g. a more flexible and stretchable field of responsibility, as well as more flexible space of acting. This article shows that using a fragmentised and situated masculinity, as a way of understanding the complexity and the ambivalence in young men���s project of doing masculinity, makes evident ��� on the one hand ��� the vulnerability in young men���s process of doing masculinity. On the other hand, however, this view also makes it possible for young men to avoid responsibility for their actions. Instead the situated context ��� e.g. if in a peer group or alone, and what kind of relations the young man has ��� will be significant for how the act will be interpreted. The empirical material consists of six individual interviews and one group interview with four men. The age span of the participants is 16 to 24 years old. The overall theme for the discussions is heterosexual practice and relations.

Projekt Norrliden : Om sm��stadspressens etnifiering och genderisering av en f��rort

The Norrliden project. Genderisation and ethnification of a low status residential area in the local press Media often contributes to segregation by constructing low status residential areas as ���different��� from what is ���normal��� and ���Swedish���. Research into media representations of these residential areas often focuses big city contexts. Furthermore, research tends to be preoccupied with the construction of ethnic differences, paying little attention to the relationship between construction processes of gender and ethnicity. This article is a critical analysis of how the local daily newspapers in a medium sized town, Kalmar, construct stereotypes of immigrants and gendered identities in the low status residential area Norrliden. Two newspapers were studied in search for articles related to the area, published during the year 2005. Despite the newspapers��� claim that they want to contribute to a more nuanced and less stereotyped image of the residential area the consequences of their work seem to be the opposite. The representation sof the area are coded with stereotypes suggesting that the area is unsafe and dangerous and that the people who live there are motivated by affect and emotions rather than by successful socialisation. These representations are also characterised by notions of ethnicity and gender, as well as class. Norrliden is described as an area in need of change and improvement, as an unfinished project dependent upon aid from the outside. A reading of the 2005 media representations of Norrliden exposes an example of ���symbolic violence��� in that texts and photographs repeatedly degrade the area and its inhabitants.

N��gra iakttagelser om sociologins historia ��� och samtid

<p>Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p>

Redakt��ren har ordet : Etnicitet och gender samt ��terblickar p�� sociologf��rbundets ��rsm��teskonferens 2007

<p>Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p>

Tillv��xt som kontrovers : Ekonomers och sociologers debatt om den svenska offentliga sektorn

The controversy of growth: a debate between economists and sociologists about the Swedish public sector Has the ���Swedish model��� forced Sweden into stagnating economic growth? And has this caused Sweden to lag behind other comparable OECD-countries from the 1970s and onwards, i.e. since Sweden chose a welfare path different from many other countries? This has been the subject of a more than twenty year long controversy between Walter Korpi, professor of sociology and social policy, and leading Swedish mainstream economists. In a series of articles, especially during the years of economic crisis in the 1990s, Walter Korpi claimed that other reasons than the Swedish model has to be taken into account when comparing welfare states and their impact on economic growth, while the economists have persistently maintained the opposite view. These disputes over statistics and methodology have developed into what is here referred to as a science based controversy. This article analyzes the controversy between sociology and economy in accordance with controversy theory. In this way we can consider both the underlying social as well as political aspects of the debate, which leads to the conclusion that not every aspect of a science-based controversy is a byproduct of science itself.

Kriskommunikation i ett heterogent samh��lle : lika f��r alla eller till var och en efter behov?

The controversy of growth: a debate between economists and sociologists about the Swedish public sector Has the ���Swedish model��� forced Sweden into stagnating economic growth? And has this caused Sweden to lag behind other comparable OECD-countries from the 1970s and onwards, i.e. since Sweden chose a welfare path different from many other countries? This has been the subject of a more than twenty year long controversy between Walter Korpi, professor of sociology and social policy, and leading Swedish mainstream economists. In a series of articles, especially during the years of economic crisis in the 1990s, Walter Korpi claimed that other reasons than the Swedish model has to be taken into account when comparing welfare states and their impact on economic growth, while the economists have persistently maintained the opposite view. These disputes over statistics and methodology have developed into what is here referred to as a science based controversy. This article analyzes the controversy between sociology and economy in accordance with controversy theory. In this way we can consider both the underlying social as well as political aspects of the debate, which leads to the conclusion that not every aspect of a science-based controversy is a byproduct of science itself.

Revisorn och den institutionaliserade misstron : professionaliseringen av svensk bolagsrevision

The auditor and the insitutionalization of distrust: the professionalization of external auditing in Sweden This paper addresses professionalization with a focus on trust, rather than on issues of power and competition. It contains a conceptual analysis of trust/confidence, as well as a case study of the professionalization of external auditing in Sweden. The conceptual analysis discusses the ���time-binding��� aspect of trust/confidence, and the significance of social control mechanisms related to ���persons���, ���roles���, ���values��� and ���programs��� for creating and sustaining trust/confidence. The case study focuses on the role of trust/confidence for the organization and professionalization of external auditing in Sweden, and in particular on the ways in which trust in auditors and auditing have been stabilized. The latter issue is dealt with through a discussion attempting to capture a historic displacement in three dimensions: from reliance on the auditor���spersonal reliability, to trust in the professional role; from trust in the individual discretion of certain persons to trust in the regulation of auditing as a standardized program; and finally, from trust in the values represented by individual auditors to trust in the institutionalized professional values.