Contextualizing Gender Policy in Tech Entrepreneurship: A Cross National and Multiple-Level Analysis

Author’s accepted manuscript (postprint)This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research in Emerald Publishing on 26/02/2024Available online: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-04-2023-0422Purpose In order to address the gender divide in technology entrepreneurship, we explore how different national contexts impact policies and policy implementation. We investigate how transnational concerns (macro level) about women’s low participation in (technology) entrepreneurship are translated and implemented among actors at the meso level (technology incubators) and understood at the micro level (women tech entrepreneurs). Design/methodology/approach We adopt gender institutionalism as a theoretical lens to understand what happens in the implementation of gender equality goals in technology entrepreneurship policy. We apply Gains and Lowndes’ (2014) conceptual framework to investigate the gendered character and effects of institutional formation. Four countries represent different levels of gender equality: high (Norway & Sweden), medium (Ireland) and low (Israel). An initial policy document analysis provide the macro-level understanding (Heilbrunn et al., 2022). At the meso level, managers of technology business incubators (n=3-5) in each country were interviewed. At the micro level, 10 female technology entrepreneurs in each country were interviewed. We use an inductive research approach, combined with thematic analysis. Findings Policies differ across the four countries, ranging from women-centred approaches to gender mainstreaming. Macro-level policies are interpreted and implemented in different ways among actors at the meso level, who tend to act in line with given national policies. Actors at the micro level often understand gender equality in ways that reflect their national policies. However, women in all four countries share similar struggles with work-life balance and gendered expectations in relation to family responsibilities.acceptedVersio

Comparative report - WORKS WP5 Policy pillar

This report begins with some general information and analysis of policy and regulation that were the subjects of discussion and exchange in the policy pillar in the first phase of WORKS. The second section is a synthesis of country information on general principles and trends of policy and policy enforcement. This is followed by a summary of sector information for the sectors chosen by the qualitative pillar to be the objects of empirical analysis. The last summarises research questions and dimensions to be guidelines for carrying out case studies and capturing the relevance and effects of policy and institutions at the workplace.WORKS - Work organisation and restructuring in the Knowledge Society, project no. CIT3-CT-2005-00619

Different views of how CDM projects contribute to sustainable development : A study of stakeholder perspectives of two large-scale renewable energy projets in Southern India

Climate change and sustainable development are interlinked in several ways. A global sustainable development with decreased emissions of green-house gases is seen as a prerequisite for mitigation of climate change. Simultaneously a changing climate will put constraints to development endeavours in developing countries. Yet, a sustainable pathway should include both mitigation and adaptation to climate change facilitating social development, economic growth and a stable environment in developing countries. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol is combining reduced green-house gas emissions with sustainable development in the CDM project’s host country. This so called dual goal has turned out hard to fulfil, especially the local development objective.   This thesis studies how CDM projects contribute to local development and how this development is viewed differently by various stakeholders. This was made through qualitative interviews with actors connected to two CDM projects in Southern India. In addition, a literature review and a document study was made. The projects chosen are in the renewable energy sector, using biomass fuel. Renewable energy is regarded as an important factor to come to terms with increasing green-house gas emissions.   The results from the literature review and document study show that the expected contribution by CDM projects to local sustainable development is usually expressed in terms of employment, distribution of benefits, social infrastructure, access to energy and technology transfer. The environmental benefit is included in the reduction of green-house gas emissions. In the context of local development, stakeholder participation is brought up as an important factor. The results of the interviews present similar categories of development linked to CDM projects. However, differing views of actual local development assisted by the CDM project was discerned in the answers.   This study points to scale-related problems linked to the global benefit of mitigation of climate change in combination with local development. In conclusion, there is a need for monitoring and evaluation of actual contribution by CDM projects to local sustainable development. To facilitate local sustainable benefits of CDM projects, enhanced stakeholder participation is necessary during the whole project activity period.

Våld i trafiken : om cyklisters utsatthet för kränkningar, hot och våld i massbilismens tidevarv

When cyclists begin to take up more traffic space than before, conflicts appear. In Sweden, the media has reported on hatred against cyclists when describing the antagonism between (male) cyclists and (male) car drivers, as well as between cyclists and pedestrians, in traffic-dense environments. Despite the current political renaissance of cycling in Sweden, the proportion of personal trips in which the bike is the main mode of transport has remained largely unchanged over the past fifteen years. This has in part been linked to cyclists’ experiences of insecurity in traffic space. Therefore, conflicts between more or less vulnerable road users are becoming increasingly important to investigate in a society where car normativity needs to be challenged in favour of more sustainable travel. The aim of this article is to, based on media material, policy reports, interviews and cyclists’ online discussion-forums, study the situation of cyclists to discuss their situation in a car-normative environment from a gender and violence perspective. What forms of conflicts do cyclists negotiate in their everyday traffic environment? How can this be understood in relation to gender and violence? It is argued that cyclists are being positioned in contradictory ways: as vulnerable and exposed on the one hand, and as particularly dangerous road users in need of disciplining and interventions on the other. Not only do cyclists negotiate their situation by viewing themselves as drivers would, namely as more or less invisible. They are also subjected to what has been called ‘hatred’: discursive and even physical violence directed towards cyclists for taking up too much traffic space from motorists. Examples of (violent) resistance against and negotiation with the self-evident nature of (male) motorists’ entitlement to traffic space are given. In the final part of the paper I suggest that the violence needs to be understood as deeply embedded within larger gendered structural formations of mass motorism and traffic space.INSEC

VINNOVAs FoU-verksamhet ur ett jämställdhetsperspektiv. Yrkesverksamma disputerade kvinnor och män i VINNOVAs verksamhetsområde

Kvinnor är fortfarande i minoritet bland disputerade och inom det tekniska området finns särskilt få disputerade yrkesverksamma kvinnor. Kvantitativ översyn ur ett jämställdhetsperspektiv av regioner, samhällsområden och branscher där disputerade kvinnor förvärvsarbetar och jämför med de regioner, samhällsområden och branscher som VINNOVA tilldelar forskningsmedel

Långsamt våld : Om trafiken och klimatförändringarna

Trots att många städer och kommuner uppmanar sina invånare att cykla, gå och åka kollektivt för hälsans och miljöns skull, är bilen fortfarande det vanligaste transportmedlet i Sverige. Trots en ökad elektrifiering av bilflottan transporterar vi oss främst med hjälp av bensin- och dieseldrivna motorer, vilka släpper ut luftföroreningar som skadar vår hälsa och som bidrar till klimatförändringar. Vägtrafiken står för den största delen av energianvändningen från transporter i Sverige, över 60% av dessa står personbilstrafiken för. Den här texten handlar om vägtrafikens negativa inverkan på miljön och människors välbefinnande. Målet är att diskutera vad våld kan vara genom att beakta de växthusgasutsläpp och klimatförändringar som följer i vägtrafikens kölvatten, närmare bestämt som en form av långsamt våld. Att betona våldets långsamhet möjliggör att lyfta fram fenomen som vanligtvis inte förstås som våld, men som över tid kan ha synnerligen våldsamma effekter på såväl miljö, djur och människor. Temanummer:Vi talar om våld. Hur kan vi förstå vad våld är?</p

Riskfyllda relationer mellan män, maskulinitet och bilar

För de som är intresserade av samspelet mellan riskbenägenhet och kön/genus finns särskilt en relation som framstår som mer riskfylld än andra: män och bilar. Under senare år har mäns risktagande i trafiken uttryckligen formulerats som ett problem för en bristande trafiksäkerhet som får förödande konsekvenser för andra. Nationalföreningen för trafiksäkerhetens främjande (NTF) beskrev 2007 läget på följande vis: ”I den mån kvinnor förolyckas är det ofta män som kör ihjäl dem”. Vägverket (2003) uppskattade några år tidigare att grovt sett 90 procent av dödsolyckor med vägfordon orsakades av män. Mot denna bakgrund är det av vikt att förstå hur genus uttrycks genom bilar och hur bilar uttrycker genus. Det tycks föreligga ett flertal riskfyllda relationer att beakta som relaterar till bilkörning, bildesign och kön/genus. Här tas avstamp i mäns överrepresentation i olycksstatiken för att diskutera hur bilars design och kraft relaterar till kön, emotioner och makt