Arbetslöshet som en icke önskvärd konsekvens av socialbidrag : Resultat från en tidsserieanalys på befolkningsnivå i Sverige 1946–1990

Unemployment as an unintended consequence of social assistance recipiency: results from a time-series analysis of aggregated population data Does the frequency of unemployment have a tendency to increase the number of social assistance recipients, or does the relationship work the other way around? This article utilizes Swedish annual data on aggregated unemployment and means-tested social assistance recipiency in the period 1946–1990 and proposes a multiple time-series approach based on vector error-correction modelling to establish the direction of influence. First, we show that rates of unemployment and receipt of social assistance is co-integrated. Second, we demonstrate that adjustments to the long-run equilibrium are made through adjustments of the unemployment. This indicates that the level of unemployment reacts to changes in rates of social assistance recipiency rather than vice versa. It is also shown that lagged changes in the level of unemployment do not predict changes in rates of social assistance recipients in short-term. Together these findings demonstrate that the number of social assistance recipients does increase the number of unemployed in a period characterized by low unemployment and high employment.

Sportdykaren och den ”rätta” manligheten

The Scuba Diver and “Proper” Masculinity Based on ethnographic fieldwork on scuba diving, this article explores the social homogeneity characterizing this specific sport activity regarding questions on how deviance is treated within a group and on what grounds. The consequences of the dangerous context on the Dyad (one is always diving together with a “Buddy”) in which the activity is performed, is analysed with the help of Georg Simmel (1950) and Erving Goffman (1967). The loyalty of the diving partner (the Buddy) towards the “right attitude” which governs the activity may be turned against the scuba diver who does not adapt. The Buddy is transformed from a friend into an opponent, who, by spreading anecdotes or rumours, questions the character of the scuba diver, which eventually may exclude him or her from the activity. The article discusses how the “right attitude” in scuba diving is related to the so-called predominant masculine identity (Connell 1995) in a Swedish context.

Mellan etnologi och modern sociologi : K. Rob. V. Wikman som medlare i Finland och Sverige

Between ethnology and sociology: K. Rob. V. Wikman as a mediator in Finland and Sweden K. Rob. V. Wikman, professor in sociology at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, played a central role both within Finnish and Swedish sociology in the 1940s and 1950s. He was a student of Westermarck and thus his own research represented an ethnosociological tradition, which at that time was challenged by modern, American-influenced sociological ideas. The aim of this article is to discuss the adaptation of “modern sociology” and the drawing of boundaries in Nordic sociology after the Second World War by focusing on Wikman’s work in Finnish as well as Swedish sociology, especially the assessor assignments he was given, and by giving emphasis to some of those that served as border poles or border markers in this process. The comparative starting point gives us reason to discuss some nationally characterized similarities and differences that can be observed in the establishment process of modern sociology in Finland and Sweden.

Tillhörighetens gränser : 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.

Göra illa för att hjälpa eller hjälpa till att göra illa? : Arbetslösas reservationslöner, jobbchanser och återanställningsinkomster

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.

Abilities and Cultural Understanding through Literature in the EFL Classroom : - A Literature Review

The English language can be seen as a lingua franca of contemporary times. Its spread and use in the globalized world has affected most levels of society and it can be argued that, in current times, English is synonymous with communication. This need for communication has shaped the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) syllabus, which is evident in the Swedish national steering documents for the educational system. For the upper secondary school these documents show an emphasis on communication, on cultural understanding, and also on the use of literature within the EFL classroom. The need to possess communicative abilities and cultural understanding, in connection with the use of literature, has sparked an interest to investigate if and how literature itself can be used as a tool to develop and improve EFL students’ communicative skills and cultural understanding. This literature review thesis analyzes five international research articles from different geographical parts of the Globe. The findings are categorized, compared, synthesized, and finally discussed in order to answer the research questions asked, and also compared with the English subject syllabus for the Swedish upper secondary school. The findings indicate that the analyzed articles share a consensus, to a varied degree, regarding the positive aspects of literature use in the EFL setting. The arguments are that communicative skills and cultural understanding are intertwined - enabling each other to exist, develop, and improve. One cannot exist fully without the other, and literature is a good tool to use to develop and improve these abilities. Literature can help develop all skills needed to acquire and produce both written and spoken English, and it also enables cultural understanding and a broadening of the mind. Where the articles differ somewhat is in the ideas of why literature is a good tool, how to implement literature in the classrooms, and what some of the negative aspects might be. The thesis also brings the lack of Swedish studies within EFL to the readers’ attention, as well as the need to do more research focusing on the students’ perspectives towards literature use in the EFL setting.

Våld på jobbet : Beskrivningar av våld i arbetslivet 1978–2004 i facklig press

Violence at work as a social problem: a study of the media coverage on workplace violence in Swedish trade union journals 1978–2004 The main purpose of this study was to find out the extent of the unions media coverage on workplace violence and the ways in which the topic was framed. The study shows that the reporting of violence in the workplace described in journals is on a stable level during the period 1978–98. However from the year 2000 and onwards, there is a clear increase in the attention. Four categories of workplace violence were used to identify and recognize different types of violence: intrusive-, consumer-, relationship-and organizational violence. This shows that much of the attention over time has shifted from intrusive violence to organizational violence and consumer violence. What seems to have happened is that workplace violence has become more than just robberies and assaults in the retail business. The stereotypical image of the criminal is challenged by non-traditional criminals like nurses, elderly people and companies. Certain groups, e.g. care workers, come to account for an increasing proportion of attention, both as perpetrators and victims of violence. This study is an important step in understanding the increased reports of workplace violence in Sweden.

Nya möjligheter för stratifieringsforskning i Sverige : Internationella yrkesklassificeringar och stratifieringsmått över 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.

Projekt Norrliden : Om småstadspressens etnifiering och genderisering av en förort

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.

Tillväxt 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 samhälle : lika för 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.

Modeling and illustrating requirement prioritization in public e-service development from a value-based perspective

A major problem in e-service development is the prioritization of the requirements of different stakeholders. The main stakeholders are governments and their citizens, all of whom have different and sometimes conflicting requirements. In this paper, the prioritization problem is addressed by combining a value-based approach with an illustration technique. This paper examines the following research question: How can multiple stakeholder requirements be illustrated from a value-based perspective in order to be prioritizable? We used an e-service development case taken from a Swedish municipality to elaborate on our approach. Our contributions are: 1) a model of the relevant domains for requirement prioritization for government, citizens, technology, finances and laws and regulations; and 2) a requirement fulfillment analysis tool (RFA) that consists of a requirement-goal-value matrix (RGV), and a calculation and illustration module (CIM). The model reduces cognitive load, helps developers to focus on value fulfillment in e-service development and supports them in the formulation of requirements. It also offers an input to public policy makers, should they aim to target values in the design of e-services.

Nationella minoriteter i historieundervisningen : bilder av romer i Utbildningsradions program under perioden 1975-2013

In 2000 when Sweden signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities the Roma minority became one of the acknowledged national minorities in the country. It meant that the rights of the Roma mi-nority would be safeguarded and the knowledge of its history and culture would be spread. In that context, the Swedish school, with its founded as-signment of democracy, was given an important role. The education was to communicate the multicultural values of the society and to make visible the history and culture of the Roma minority. The school books used in teaching today do not meet these demands. The view of the Roma minority given in school books is often inadequate and simplified. The present study will therefore examine a different type of edu-cational material used in schools and teaching, The Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company‟s programs of history and social studies regarding the Roma minority. Starting in postcolonial theory as well as critical dis-course analysis the study examines how the picture of the Roma cultural and ethnic identity in the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company‟s material has been displayed and possibly changed during the period of 1975 to 2013. The results show a picture of Roma which, both in form and content, con-sists of some clearly demarcated discursive categories. The obvious continui-ty of the categories gives a picture of static and invariable Roma identity. At the same time this unambiguous picture is broken both by giving the existing discourses new meaning and also adding new discourses. The complexity and nuances become more prominent and the Roma identity is integrated in common Swedish history telling. The changes in the view of Roma, given by the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company, can mainly be explained by the change of the Swedish immigration and minority policy and, as a conse-quence of this, the change of the school‟s mission regarding knowledge communication of Sweden as a multicultural country.

Kritisk diskursanalys av Gy2011 med fokus på kulturkontexten : Politiska diskursers relation till svensk läroplansutveckling

This research aims to relate the modern Swedish curriculum development to the political discourses liberalization and European integration through a critical discourse analysis of the Swedish curriculum Gy2011. These political discourses constitute the cultural context of Gy2011, which according to critical discourse theory is synonymous with the terms social sphere or praxis. The term cultural context includes the environment in which the text has been created as well as its intertextuality – in this case its relations to earlier curricula. The analysis of Gy2011 exhumes scientific research done in the field of curriculum studies, which enables future research. The Gy2011 analysis shows that the political discourses liberalization and European integration stands out within the texts cultural context, and have done so for more than 70 years, a fact that is illustrated by an overview of Swedish curricula history. This research also illuminates how the liberalization discourse accelerated during the 1980’s, by both social democrats and the political right, and that the European integration process has gained momentum in recent years.

Influences of infrastructure and attitudes to health on value of travel time savings in bicycle journeys

In this paper we investigate how attitudes to health and exercise in connection with cycling influence the estimation of values of travel time savings in different kinds of bicycle environments (mixed traffic, bicycle lane in the road way, bicycle path next to the road, and bicycle path not in connection with the road). The results, based on two Swedish stated choice studies, suggest that the values of travel time savings are lower when cycling in better conditions. Surprisingly, the respondents do not consider cycling on a path next to the road worse than cycling on a path not in connection to the road, indicating that they do not take traffic noise and air pollution into account in their decision to cycle. No difference can be found between cycling on a road way (mixed traffic) and cycling in a bicycle lane in the road way. The results also indicate that respondents that include health aspects in their choice to cycle have lower value of travel time savings for cycling than respondents that state that health aspects are of less importance, at least when cycling on a bicycle path. The appraisals of travel time savings regarding cycling also differ a lot depending on the respondents’ alternative travel mode. The individuals who stated that they will take the car if they do not cycle have a much higher valuation of travel time savings than the persons stating public transport as the main alternative to cycling.