113 research outputs found
Tales of Ambivalence. Stories of Acceptance and Rejection among Swedish Expatriates in Poland
Abstract is not availabl
Violence
This book considers how the concept of violence has been interpreted, used, defined, and explored by social researchers and thinkers. It does not provide a final answer to the question of what violence is or how it should be explained (or prevented), and instead offers a variety of useful ways of thinking about and theorising the phenomenon, mainly from a sociological standpoint.
It outlines four ways of understanding violence:
âą Violence as situation: the tension that exists between category-driven and situational explanations.
âą Violence as speciality: the study of particularly violent actors, and how they may be understood by reference to childhood histories, technologies, institutions, culture, class, and gender.
âą Violence as politics: political violence and violent politics.
âą Violence as storytelling: representations of violence from a narrative perspective.
Concluding with reflections on possible convergences between the four approaches and new directions for research, this book offers a unique and experimental approach to discussing and reconstructing the concept of violence. It is essential reading for criminologists, sociologists, and philosophers alike
Facing New Digital Arenas. Critical Disability Perspectives on Digital Games and New Social Media
Spel som lust och trÀning. Om tv- och datorspel för barn och ungdomar i habilitering
Utvecklingen av kommersiella tv- och datorspel frĂ„n sĂ„ kallade tumspel till spel som styrs av gester och andra kroppsrörelser har inneburit att spelen numera kan anvĂ€ndas för trĂ€ningsĂ€ndamĂ„l. Under 2007 och 2008 drevs projektet SpelTID vid Barn och ungdomshabiliteringen vid Habilitering & HjĂ€lpmedel i Region SkĂ„ne. TvĂ„ projektledare besökte samtliga tio enheter i regionen för att erbjuda tv- och datorspel för barn och ungdomar i habilitering. Projektets ambition har varit att âskapa en meningsfull, underhĂ„llande aktivitet och trĂ€ning för barn och ungdomar med funktionshinderâ. Tv- och datorspelens motiverande, entusiasmerande och salutogena potential har betonats. Syftet har varit att barn och ungdomar med funktionsnedsĂ€ttningar âskall fĂ„ tillgĂ„ng till en aktivitet som kan ge dem en kĂ€nsla av att vara moderna och hĂ€ftigaâ. Denna rapport redogör för genomförandet av detta projekt. Rapportens material bestĂ„r frĂ€mst av etnografiska fĂ€ltanteckningar frĂ„n omkring 45 timmars speltrĂ€ffar och samtal med 20 medarbetare (sjukgymnaster, arbetsterapeuter, psykologer, kuratorer och logopeder). Tre frĂ„gor stĂ„r i centrum: (1) vad sĂ€ger forskningen om tv- och datorspel i habilitering?, (2) hur organiserades anvĂ€ndningen av spelen? och (3) vad intrĂ€ffar nĂ€r ungdomar spelar? Tidigare forskning visar att tv- och datorspel ökar deltagarnas motivation i olika habiliteringsprocesser, att spelen uppfattas som roliga och att spelandet kan ge mĂ€tbara förbĂ€ttringar av fysiska förmĂ„gor samt stĂ€rka spelarnas sjĂ€lvförtroende. Spelen kan fungera som ett verktyg eller trĂ€ningsmedium i habilitering, Ă€ven om forskarna ocksĂ„ understryker att mer kunskap behövs. SpelTID har organiserats som en serie matchningar. De vuxna har pĂ„ varierande sĂ€tt försökt para ihop spelen med deltagarna eller skrĂ€ddarsy sĂ€ttet att spela, för att pĂ„ sĂ„ sĂ€tt visa upp spelens möjligheter, uppmuntra dem att spela och trĂ€na deras förmĂ„gor. Matchningarna framstĂ„r som avgörande för projektets framgĂ„ngar. I den mĂ„n matchningen lyckas blir personal, anhöriga och barn snabbt övertygade om en habiliteringsvinst; i den mĂ„n den inte lyckas (eller saknas) framstĂ„r spelandet snarare som en fritidsverksamhet. NĂ€r spelandet av tv- och datorspel undersöks mer i detalj gĂ„r det att urskilja en interaktiv dynamik mellan spelaren och spel samt mellan spelaren och dennes omgivning. Tre aspekter av denna dynamik undersöks sĂ€rskilt: (1) att övertrĂ€ffa sig sjĂ€lv, (2) att förlora sig i spel och (3) att bli mĂ€tt pĂ„ spelande. Rapporten visar att projektet har vunnit sina syften. Tv- och datorspel bildar ett lekfullt sammanhang som adresserar barn och ungdomar pĂ„ ett sĂ€tt som innebĂ€r att de temporĂ€rt blir befriade frĂ„n sin vanliga habiliteringsidentitet. De kan identifiera sig med fantasifigurer, lĂ„tsas vara nĂ„gon annan, testa hur det kĂ€nns att vara en vinnare och hĂ€mta motivation till fysiska rörelser och social gemenskap. Rörelserna motiveras inte av spelarnas funktionsnedsĂ€ttningar utan av spelen och deras dramaturgi. Spelandets utgĂ„ngspunkter har inte varit vad barn och ungdomar inte kan utan vad de kan. Genom individuella matchningar kan spelandet samtidigt generera trĂ€ning. Rapporten visar ocksĂ„ att engagemanget i spelen spontant understöds av omgivningen (genom exempelvis uppmuntran, skĂ€mtsam och lekfull retsamhet, pĂ„hejande) samt att eventuellt sviktande intresse för spel kan bemötas av vuxnas försök att pĂ„ nytt visa upp och blĂ„sa liv i lusten att spela
PĂ„ tal om mutor
GrĂ€nserna för vad som ska uppfattas som en muta Ă€r sĂ€llan enkla att dra. Det som juridiskt definieras som korrupt kan i vardagliga termer beskrivas som nĂ„got klanderfritt â som provisioner, konsultuppdrag, gĂ„vor, resor, bjudningar och liknande. Mutor kan ofta förklaras som nĂ€rbeslĂ€ktat med socialt umgĂ€nge eller gĂ€stfrihet. De kan ocksĂ„ förklaras i termer av tacksamhet eller som sedvĂ€nja och kultur. Artikeln Ă€r baserad pĂ„ intervjumaterial frĂ„n tvĂ„ pĂ„gĂ„ende kvalitativa sociologiska studier: en om svenska affĂ€rsmĂ€n verksamma i Ăst- och Centraleuropa och en om det svenska rĂ€ttsvĂ€sendets hantering av mutbrott och bestickning. Författarna till artikeln menar att det Ă€r viktigt för de företag och organisationer som vill bekĂ€mpa mutor och korruption att uppmĂ€rksamma dessa fenomen och de vokabulĂ€rer de beskrivs med. Artikeln diskuterar ocksĂ„ hur ekonomiska motiv kan anvĂ€ndas för att förmĂ„ företag och branscher att föregĂ„ med gott exempel
Hidden Attractions of Administration
This book argues that the expansion of administrative activities in todayâs working life is driven not only by pressure from above, but also from below. The authors examine the inner dynamics of people-processing organizationsâthose formally working for clients, patients, or studentsâto uncover the hidden attractions of doing administrative work, despite all the complaints and laments about "too many meetings" or "too much paperwork." There is something appealing to those compelled to participate in todayâs constantly multiplying and expanding administration that defies popular framings of it as merely pressure from above. Hidden Attractions of Administration shows in detail the emotional attractiveness, moral conflicts, and almost magical features that administrative tasks often entail in todayâs organizations, supported by ethnographic studies consisting of over 200 qualitative interviews and participant observations from ten organizational settings and contexts across Sweden. The authors also question and complement explanations in administration-related research that have previously been taken for granted, arguing that it is a simplification to attribute all aspects of the change to New Public Management and instead taking into account what the classic sociologist Georg Simmel called anEigendynamik: a self-reinforcing tendency that, under certain circumstances, needs only a nudge in an administrative direction to get going. By applying ethnography to issues of bureaucratization and meeting cultures and by drawing on findings in emotional sociology and social anthropology, this volume contributes to both the sociology of work and the study of human service organizations and will appeal to scholars and students working across both areas
Meetings or Power Weeks? Boundary Work in a Transnational Police Project
Meetings are common in contemporary working life, but they are often overlooked in academic studies and sometimes defined as empty or boring by employees. Yet, the meeting society is being reproduced again and again. There seem to be hidden ways to incorporate meetings into todayâs working life without arousing critique about pointless activities and deviations from what should really be done. One strategy was illustrated in a study of a transnational police project. Police culture celebrates visible crime fighting, which is associated with action, physical toughness, and capturing criminals. The police officers involved in the project emphasized the need to avoid âa lot of meetings,â but de facto constructed their project as meetings. Nonetheless, the project was declared a success. We analyze this paradox in terms of boundary work concerning meetings; the police officers turned some meetings into âreal police workâ by discursively and practically removing them from the category of bureaucracy and its associations with formalities, rigidity, and documentation. The most important example is how an âoperational action group meetingâ was renamed âpower weeks,â eradicating the very word âmeetingâ from the term. This was closely associated with increased informality and multi-tasking during these gatherings
Required to be creative : Everyday ways for dealing with inaccessibility
Todayâs society promises that people with disabilities can access anything, but in practice there are numerous obstacles, and the ways in which people deal with them can be easily missed or taken for granted by policy makers. This article draws on a project in which researchers âgo alongâ people with disabilities in Sweden who demonstrate and recount accessibility troubles in urban and digital settings. They display a set of mundane methods for managing inaccessibility: (a) using others, (b) making deals and establishing routines, (c) mimicking or piggybacking conventions, (d) debunking othersâ accounts and performing local politics. The employment of these shared but tailored methods shows the difficulties to be accepted that people with disabilities still face, as well as the wide-ranging tension that exists between the grand rhetoric of inclusion and modest results. The tension implies that people with disabilities are required to be creative
Summing up the criminal case online
Online engagement with criminal cases is often interpreted in either punitive or crowdsourcing terms, but interactionist and ethnomethodological analyses can disclose other and more fundamental aspects. This chapter looks closely at a particular practice among posters on the Swedish platform Flashback: that of summing up the discussion âso farâ. To sum up is a delicate and vulnerable act of rhetoric in this setting, often requested to create order but also criticized for resulting in errors, thereby seen as deflecting rather than reflecting what has been posted previously. By the help of Garfinkel and Sacksâ conceptualization of âformulationsâ â a common way for conversationalists to comment on and demarcate their actions within an ongoing conversation â the chapter exemplifies the indexical, reflexive and accountable character of online summaries in the Flashback community. Even though summaries can be viewed as a cleansing and ordering device, they might as well expand rather than end the discussion. The author argues that interactions around summaries of crime cases illustrate the online sleuthing culture and how its internal social control as well as meaning production constitutes an online setting
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