Böcker recenserade i Sociologisk Forskning 2009–2010

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Konsensus och personifierade konflikter : problembeskrivningar av äldreomsorg i svensk dagspress

Consensus and personified conflicts: representations of elderly care issues in Swedish newspapers Elderly care issues are commonly framed in public discourse. In mass media the representations of such issues are influenced by media logic. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse how elderly care issues were represented in three Swedish newspapers during the first half of 2007. How were the problems characterized? How were different actors characterized and which roles were they assigned? How are conflicts of interests described? Finally, we aim to discuss how media contribute to an understanding of the complexity of elderly care as a whole. Taken together, the articles do not provide a coherent picture. However, costs, quality of care and demographic issues were common themes. The elderly were commonly represented in personal narratives about problems that occurred when they needed elderly care. The elderly in the future are projected as more active and demanding than the elderly today. The care workers were active voices in discussions about working conditions, but absent in discussions about their education and professional identity, which was an issue commonly advocated by politicians. Many issues were represented as conflicts between the individual elderly and the care system or between care workers and their employers. More elaborated discussions about how to prioritize between different needs and demands were rare. This can be seen as examples of how the media tends to use personification, simplification and polarization as means to tell interesting stories.

Den ofrånkomliga nationalismen

The necessary nationalism This article deals with the role of fictional narratives, especially the modern novel, in the formation of national identities. Naguib Mafouz’s Cairo trilogy is referred to as an example of how literature may both serve as the mirror image of national identities and as an agency in their formation. The sense of community attachment to a modern state is ”thinner” than to a family or traditional village and/or tribe, though no less vital. Drawing on Norbert Elias’s concept of ”survival unit,” Benedict Anderson’s ”imagined communities” and recent studies in the field of comparative literature by Gregory Jusdanis and Azade Seyhan, this article argues for the necessity of the nation – in spite of its unfavourable chauvinistic reputation. This contention is discussed in relation to recent literary developments in Turkey and recent debates on nationhood in a Swedish context.

Från redaktören : Det redaktionella arbetet

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Sociologförbundet har ordet

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Framväxten av sociala rörelsers globala politik

The emergence of social movements’ global politics Globalization not only transforms capital, media and technology, but also creates conditions for global politics, beyond ”international politics”. New transnational public arenas emerge, where a broad range of actors articulate demands and interests. A globalized political infrastructure arise from the combination of the (1) internal transnational mobilization within two opposing global networks: movements’ World Social Forum and political economy elites’ World Economic Forum; and a global connection with (2) regular dramatic street protests during multilateral regime summits; and (3) a permanent and virtual network of information communication technology that enables new forms of action, organization and mobilization. Together these arenas make participatory and global politics possible for social movements. Regime confrontations are formed by the new global media of ICT in a way that transforms the struggle into a political drama, where activists’ diversity of tactics – The Majority Drama, The Carnival, and The David-Goliath Drama – creates both competition and collaboration. These arenas are only emerging and this new form of global political structure creates both possibilities and problems. Still, a unique potential to democratize politics is created.

Recensioner

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv