Det personliga är sociologiskt : 14 professorer om svensk sociologi

This special issue of Sociologisk Forskning contains 14 papers by distinguished Swedish sociologists on the development of sociology in Sweden during the last decades and the forming of their own academic habitus in relation to that development. Contributors are: Göran Ahrne, Boel Berner, Margareta Bertilsson, Ulla Björnberg, Thomas Brante, Hedvig Ekerwald, Rosmarie Eliasson-Lappalainen, Johanna Esseveld, Bengt Furåker, Staffan Lindberg, Gunnar Olofsson, Sune Sunesson, Göran Therborn and Karin Widerberg. The volume is edited by Gunnar Andersson, Thomas Brante and Christofer Edling.

Tough, sensitive and sincere : how adolescent boys manage masculinities and emotions

This study aimed to explore adolescent boys’ views of masculinity and emotion management and their potential effects on well-being. Interviews with 33 adolescent boys aged 16–17 years in Sweden were analysed using grounded theory. We found two main categories of masculine conceptions in adolescent boys: gender-normative masculinity with emphasis on group-based values, and non-gender-normative masculinity based on personal values. Gender-normative masculinity comprised two seemingly opposite emotional masculinity orientations, one towards toughness and the other towards sensitivity, both of which were highly influenced by contextual and situational group norms and demands, despite their expressions contrasting each other. Non-gender-normative masculinity included an orientation towards sincerity emphasising the personal values of the boys; emotions were expressed more independently of peer group norms. Our findings suggest that different masculinities and the expression of emotions are strongly intertwined and that managing emotions is vital for well-being.

A simplified heat pump model for use in solar plus heat pump system simulation studies

Solar plus heat pump systems are often very complex in design, with sometimes special heat pump arrangements and control. Therefore detailed heat pump models can give very slow system simulations and still not so accurate results compared to real heat pump performance in a system. The idea here is to start from a standard measured performance map of test points for a heat pump according to EN 14825 and then determine characteristic parameters for a simplified correlation based model of the heat pump. By plotting heat pump test data in different ways including power input and output form and not only as COP, a simplified relation could be seen. By using the same methodology as in the EN 12975 QDT part in the collector test standard it could be shown that a very simple model could describe the heat pump test data very accurately, by identifying 4 parameters in the correlation equation found. © 2012 The Authors.

A tool for standardized collector performance calculations including PVT

A tool for standardized calculation of solar collector performance has been developed in cooperation between SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, DTU Denmark and SERC Dalarna University. The tool is designed to calculate the annual performance of solar collectors at representative locations in Europe. The collector parameters used as input in the tool are compiled from tests according to EN12975, without any intermediate conversions. The main target group for this tool is test institutes and certification bodies that are intended to use it for conversion of collector model parameters (derived from performance tests) into a more user friendly quantity: the annual energy output. The energy output presented in the tool is expressed as kWh per collector module. A simplified treatment of performance for PVT collectors is added based on the assumption that the thermal part of the PVT collector can be tested and modeled as a thermal collector, when the PV electric part is active with an MPP tracker in operation. The thermal collector parameters from this operation mode are used for the PVT calculations. © 2012 The Authors.

Manager's task to support integrated autonomy at the workplace : Results from an intervention

A new managerial task arises in today’s working life: to provide conditions for and influence interaction between actors and thus to enable the emergence of organizing structure in tune with a changing environment. We call this the enabling managerial task. The goal of this paper is to study whether training first line managers in the enabling managerial task could lead to changes in the work for the subordinates. This paper presents results from questionnaires answered by the subordinates of the managers before and after the training. The training was organized as a learning network and consisted of eight workshops carried out over a period of one year (September 2009–June 2010), where the managers met with each other and the researchers once a month. Each workshop consisted of three parts, during three and a half hours. The first hour was devoted to joint reflection on a task that had been undertaken since the last workshop; some results were presented from the employee pre-assessments, followed by relevant theory and illuminating practices, finally the managers created new tasks for themselves to undertake during the following month. The subordinates’ answers show positive change in all of the seventeen scales used to assess it. The improvements are significant in scales measuring the relationship between the manager and the employees, as well as in those measuring interaction between employees. It is concluded that the result was a success for all managers that had the possibility of using the training in their management work.

Social reproduktion i Värmland : Klass, utbildning och livsstil

Social reproduction in Värmland, Sweden This study uses the 2014 SOM-survey of the Swedish region of Värmland (n = 1420) to study the ways in which social reproduction is expressed in a regional setting. Following the sociology of Bourdieu the study presents statistically significant results that highlight that a.) class habitus shapes the type of home one creates for oneself and b.) one’s level of education, and that c.) the orientation towards the ”legitimate” culture is particularly pronounced among those with relatively high volumes of economic and cultural capital and finally that d.) a regional elite is consecrated in the cultural and urban center of the region. Although the sociological explanation to ”why we do what we do” is not the only one, this study shows that it is an important one. Class, expressed as class habitus and volume of economic and cultural capital, continues to shape peoples’ life choices and their orientations in the social world.

Finite element modeling of tube deformation during cold pilgering

A three-dimensional finite element model of cold pilgering of stainless steel tubes is developed in this paper. The objective is to use the model to increase the understanding of forces and deformations in the process. The focus is on the influence of vertical displacements of the roll stand and axial displacements of the mandrel and tube. Therefore, the rigid tools and the tube are supported with elastic springs. Additionally, the influences of friction coefficients in the tube/mandrel and tube/roll interfaces are examined. A sensitivity study is performed to investigate the influences of these parameters on the strain path and the roll separation force. The results show the importance of accounting for the displacements of the tube and rigid tools on the roll separation force and the accumulative plastic strain.