Om undran inför sociologerna

Sociology of everyday life aided by participant observation indicates that in the lifeworld, sociologists of today can be classified into a fivefold typology (from the highest to the lowest): 1. Pegasuses (such as Bordieu, Foucault and Habermas) 2. Pegasus-groomers 3. Tree-huggers 4. Stump-sitters 5. Moles. The paper analyses the styles of life, letters, and work of these different types as well as their impact on the progress of sociology.

Non-challenging education and teacher control as factors for marginalization of students in diverse settings

This article discusses teachers’ attitudes towards immigrant students in poor settings and the effect these attitudes have on organization of education on classroom level. It draws on results from two ethnographic studies where some primary school classes in Sweden were followed with participant observation and interviews as main research methods. The article focuses on classroom activities and teachers’ attitudes towards immigrant students and students with low socio-economic status. In the article is argued for the importance of presenting students in poor settings with demanding tasks and challenging education. In these cases, intellectually undemanding tasks in combination with little room for students’ own initiatives resulted in low enthusiasm among students regarding schoolwork and accordingly low learning, while classroom work that demanded active involvement by students in combination with high level of students’ influence on what took place in classrooms resulted in high level of students’ engagement and high outcome.

'They would never receive you without a husband' : Paradoxical barriers to antenatal care scale-up in Rwanda

OBJECTIVE: to explore perspectives and experiences of antenatal care and partner involvement among women who nearly died during pregnancy ('near-miss'). DESIGN: a study guided by naturalistic inquiry was conducted, and included extended in-community participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. Qualitative data were collected between March 2013 and April 2014 in Kigali, Rwanda. FINDINGS: all informants were aware of the recommendations of male involvement for HIV-testing at the first antenatal care visit. However, this recommendation was seen as a clear link in the chain of delays and led to severe consequences, especially for women without engaged partners. The overall quality of antenatal services was experienced as suboptimal, potentially missing the opportunity to provide preventive measures and essential health education intended for both parents. This seemed to contribute to women's disincentive to complete all four recommended visits and men's interest in attending to ensure their partners' reception of care. However, the participants experienced a restriction of men's access during subsequent antenatal visits, which made men feel denied to their increased involvement during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: 'near-miss' women and their partners face paradoxical barriers to actualise the recommended antenatal care visits. The well-intended initiative of male partner involvement counterproductively causes delays or excludes women whereas supportive men are turned away from further health consultations. Currently, the suboptimal quality of antenatal care misses the opportunity to provide health education for the expectant couple or to identify and address early signs of complications IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: these findings suggest a need for increased flexibility in the antenatal care recommendations to encourage women to attend care with or without their partner, and to create open health communication about women's and men's real needs within the context of their social situations. Supportive partners should not be denied involvement at any stage of pregnancy, but should be received only upon consent of the expectant mother.

Arbetsmiljö : Med fokus ur ett könsperspektiv

För att åstadkomma en god arbetsmiljö ska arbetsgivaren och arbetstagaren gemensamt sam-verka enligt Arbetsmiljölagen. Därav ligger ansvaret både på arbetsgivaren och arbetstagaren (Arbetsmiljölagen). Denna studie har utförts på ett industriföretag med syfte att undersöka ar-betsmiljön och arbetsskador ur ett kön- och genusperspektiv. För att kunna uppnå ett trovärdigt och tillförlitligt resultat har tre olika metoder använts såsom intervjuer, deltagande observation och information från företagets IA-system. Resultatet visar att det inte finns lika stora skillnader mellan kvinnor och män idag som det gjorde för 15 år sedan. Någonting annat som upptäcktes var att det finns ett stort mörkertal när det gäller att rapportera in säkerhetssamtal, tillbud och olycksfall i företagets IA-system. Efter att ha analyserat det insamlade empiriska materialet blev slutsatsen att kvinnor inte får arbetsskador lättare än män, utan att det beror på de kulturer, normer och värderingar som finns inom industrin. Företaget arbetar på rätt sätt när det gäller säkerhet, utrustning, ergonomi med mera, men når ändå inte ända fram till medarbetarna. Stu-dien visar att en stor del till att arbetsmiljön har blivit skapad på detta sätt genom att det finns en konflikt mellan medarbetare och ledning. Kultur, norm och värderingar påverkar både ar-betssituationen och arbetsmiljön. För att lyckas med sitt arbetsmiljöarbete måste företaget ar-beta med sin kultur och lösa konflikten mellan medarbetare och ledning, vilket kommer att bidrar till nöjdare medarbetare och ett trivsammare klimat.