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.

Redaktören har ordet : Fältet och forskaren

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

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.

Redaktören har ordet : Etnicitet och gender samt återblickar på sociologförbundets årsmöteskonferens 2007

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

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.

Redaktören har ordet : Från geometrisk regelbundenhet till Rorschachtest

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Natthärbärget som vandrande lösning

The shelter as a recurrent solution to homelessness During most of the 20th century shelters for the homeless has been criticized as being of too low standard and an unworthy way of living in a welfare society. During the 1960s and 1970s most shelters in Sweden were shut down and replaced with other forms of housing for the homeless. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s the issue of homelessness has returned to the political agenda as an existing social problem in Sweden. In this period we have also experienced a return of the shelters. These newly opened shelters are in many ways based on the same ideas like the old shelters described in stories of poverty and deprivation from the 19th century. In our article we raise the question how a system that has been rejected and condemned from both ethical and ideological standpoints as an unworthy way of living can be “remodernized” and considered again as a (temporary) solution to homelessness. We examine how shelters are justified in the 21st century and what functions they fill. We also discuss the fact that the shelters are almost exclusively run by (religious) voluntary organizations.

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.

Redaktören har ordet : Att ha och inte ha

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Repliker : Replik på Janne Flygheds recension

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Repliker : Replik på Anders Ramsays recension

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

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.

Essays on growth and environment

This thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers. Paper [I] Following the 1987 report by The World Commission on Environment and Development, the genuine saving has come to play a key role in the context of sustainable development, and the World Bank regularly publishes numbers for genuine saving on a national basis. However, these numbers are typically calculated as if the tax system is non-distortionary. This paper presents an analogue to genuine saving in a second best economy, where the government raises revenue by means of distortionary taxation. We show how the social cost of public debt, which depends on the marginal excess burden, ought to be reflected in the genuine saving. We also illustrate by presenting calculations for Greece, Japan, Portugal, U.K., U.S. and OECD average, showing that the numbers published by the World Bank are likely to be biased and may even give incorrect information as to whether the economy is locally sustainable. Paper [II] This paper examines the relationships among per capita CO2 emissions, per capita GDP and international trade based on panel data spanning the period 1960-2008 for 150 countries. A distinction is also made between OECD and Non-OECD countries to capture the differences of this relationship between developed and developing economies. We apply panel unit root and cointegration tests, and estimate a panel error correction model. The results from the error correction model suggest that there are long-term relationships between the variables for the whole sample and for Non-OECD countries. Finally, Granger causality tests show that there is bi-directional short-term causality between per capita GDP and international trade for the whole sample and between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions for OECD countries. Paper [III] Fundamental questions in economics are why some regions are richer than others, why their growth rates differ, whether their growth rates tend to converge, and what key factors contribute to explain economic growth. This paper deals with the average income growth, net migration, and changes in unemployment rates at the municipal level in Sweden. The aim is to explore in depth the effects of possible underlying determinants with a particular focus on local policy variables. The analysis is based on a three-equation model. Our results show, among other things, that increases in the local public expenditure and income taxe rate have negative effects on subsequent income income growth. In addition, the results show conditional convergence, i.e. that the average income among the municipal residents tends to grow more rapidly in relatively poor local jurisdictions than in initially “richer” jurisdictions, conditional on the other explanatory variables. Paper [IV] This paper explores the relationship between income growth and income inequality using data at the municipal level in Sweden for the period 1992-2007. We estimate a fixed effects panel data growth model, where the within-municipality income inequality is one of the explanatory variables. Different inequality measures (Gini coefficient, top income shares, and measures of inequality in the lower and upper part of the income distribution) are examined. We find a positive and significant relationship between income growth and income inequality measured as the Gini coefficient and top income shares, respectively. In addition, while inequality in the upper part of the income distribution is positively associated with the income growth rate, inequality in the lower part of the income distribution seems to be negatively related to the income growth. Our findings also suggest that increased income inequality enhances growth more in municipalities with a high level of average income than in municipalities with a low level of average income.