Anorexia is a global issue but occurs mainly in the Western world. Anorexia nervosa is a complex disease caused by biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors which often interacts with each other. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain a greater understanding of how recovered women created meaning in their illness and if there are mutual factors in their life-stories. We have especially focused on family patterns and the communication within the family. We have based our study on symbolic interactionism as our theoretical perspective. The study is of a qualitative nature and we used semi structured interviews which later were interpreted from a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. In our result we could see that creating meaning was central throughout the disease and was expressed in different ways by our respondents. Ten themes appeared and the most vital findings were that anorexia was an active action and that it is an expression for self-hatred and low self-esteem. We could also see that lack of expression regarding emotions within the families and not being emotionally recognized by their parents were crucial factors. The most important result was the respondents own perception of anorexia as a symbolizing action and the content of the disease is about so much more than weight and looks.
Introduction: Men's violence (IPV) and lethal violence (IPH) against women in close relationships are serious global public health problems. Just over a third of the world's women state that they have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetime. 38.6% of the women who are murdered in the world are killed by someone they were, or previously had been, in a relationship with. Aim: To describe and compare risk factors in male perpetrators which may cause violence and lethal violence against women in close relationships. Method: A structured literature study based on 20 original articles, which were analyzed using thematic and comparative methods. Results: The thematic analysis resulted in four categories (socio-demographic, individual, situational and socio-ecological factors) as well as thirteen themes (socio-demographic, behavioral, psychological, physiological, contextual, criminal, relational, sociological, socio-economic and socio-cultural factors and perpetrator profile, power & control and patriarchal structures). The comparative analysis showed both differences (physiological, contextual, criminal and sociological factors and perpetrator profile and patriarchal structures) and similarities (sociodemographic, behavioral, psychological, relational, socioeconomic, sociocultural factors and power & control) between violence and lethal violence. The global context permeates the results of the study. Conclusion: The literature study clarifies the complex relationship between men's violence and lethal violence against women in close relationships and the multifaceted risk factors that interact to cause these crimes against human rights. The socio-dimensional model overall explains the four categories that have emerged in this study.
Seventy-two undergraduates participating in a step-level asymmetric public good dilemma were requested to distribute the provided public good among the group members to achieve different group goals. In Line with the hypotheses, economic productivity resulted in equitable allocations, harmony in equal allocations, and social concern in need-based allocations. The results also supported the hypotheses that salience of group goal minimizes influences of self-interest on allocations and that perceived fairness accounts for why people pursuing different group goals differ in their preferences for allocation of public goods.
The paper addresses the problem of how to define culture and multicultural selves within the growing field of multicultural studies.
The discussion comprises a critical view of the notion that each human being possesses a multicultural self (Lott 2009).It further examines the difference and the relationship between cultural and social selves from a symbolic interactionist perspective with a special focus on socialization and the concept of the significant other.
Based on 35 life stories of aging twins, this study focuses on personal experiences and recollections of their relationships with the co-twin over the life course. The participants are part of two longitudinal Swedish twin studies on aging, SATSA and Gender. In the narrative analysis, three relationship patterns, labeled ‘nurturing’, ‘draining’, and ‘superficial’, emerged, pointing to qualitative aspects in the co-twin relationship. The dominating aspect was emotional closeness, which differed in the three relationship patterns. In the nurturing twin relationship pattern, emotional closeness was experienced as intimacy and yet independence, while in the draining relationship pattern it was experienced as dependence. The superficial twin relationship was experienced as distant and lacking in emotional involvement. Most of the relationship patterns seemed to remain the same throughout life. However, seen from a life course perspective, this study pointed to complexity and diversity in lifelong twin relationships.
This study addresses the issue of international migration and border management. Specifically, it focuses on the phenomenon of immigrant detention within a framework of humanizing closed institutions. With the help of structural semiotics, I examine the widely debated documentary 'Detained' (2015), which explores sociality unfolding in a detention centre in southern Sweden. I scrutinize four categories of film characters and their interrelationships. Giorgio Agamben's conception of biopolitics is used to interpret the study results. This theory highlights the fundamental vulnerability of detained non-citizens and explains this as a result of disruption in the linkages between 'natural life' and politics, which grounds the system of modern sovereignty. I argue the film should be recognized as a critique of biopolitical border regulation. It demonstrates that attempts to improve the detention system and its practices along the lines of a more civic model are both fundamentally undermined by the contradictory nature of the confinement ideology and insufficient as long as the very legitimacy of detention as a part of border control remains uncontested. On the one hand, custodial humanism is always fragmented by the organizational priorities of effectiveness and security. On the other hand, the sociality of staff-detainees is deeply framed by the overall regime of border management. As representatives of social activists, the film's producers are sensitive to the limited effects of the humanization project and attempt to mobilize public opinion to contest practices of policing irregular migration. The study concludes with an emphasis on the need for further research on civil society's response to the recent immigrant crises and its related policies.
With increasing market deregulation, workplace relationships, identities, and functions are gradually transforming. This study problematizes the role of trade union organizations, looking at the phenomenon of performance appraisal interviews or so-called ‘developmental talks’ in the Swedish context. The critical tradition in organizational research and Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘technologies of governance’ (examination and confession) are utilized to scrutinize discourses produced by a trade union’s training video on developmental talk. As I will demonstrate, the trade union appears in the educational materials as an expert-therapist, assisting the worker in the development of a specific identity type — a ‘disciplined entrepreneurial self’ — that fits neoliberal demands addressed to labour. The paper emphasizes the legitimation of normalizing power by means of the video narration and it’s special concern for a particular category of employees, namely workers with non-Swedish background. The study ends with a discussion on a possibility of resistance to the regularity and normalizing effects of the video discourse.
With the shift of political discourse in the European Union away from the idea of multiculturalism, the notion of 'civic integration', frequently accompanied by the language of cultural differences, has become prominent in policies and social interventions. This study explores the experiences of an integration project entitled 'Cultural Friend Tibro', initiated in Western Sweden by local authorities. The main idea of the project is to bring together representatives of different cultural groups - immigrants and local residents - and facilitate the development of friendship-like relationships. Mutual learning, exchange and joy are especially emphasised as a means to overcoming prejudices and social divisions. No specific requirements in terms of ethnicity are demanded of the participants: local residents involved in the project are not expected to be of Swedish origin. Instead, the requirement is that they possess sufficient knowledge of Swedish culture and society. Both categories of participants are considered 'cultural friends'. The procedure of 'matching' newly arrived and 'established Swedes' is hoped to initiate interpersonal interactions. Matching couples individuals or families is done with reference to gender, family situation and possible common interests or hobbies. It is left to the participants themselves to decide whether they would like to develop further relationships. In spite of the seemingly open and friendly format initially promoted by the project organisers, practices of estrangement ('othering') have surfaced in participant reflections on how the project was implemented. In this study, I identify and critically examine manifestations of othering as an effect of employing the notion of culture in the project's rhetoric, as well as possible ways by which participants may spontaneously destabilise the constructed cultural boundaries. This case study is built on the analysis of multiple sources, including ten semi-structured interviews with project participants, inquiries with the project leader, analysis of project documents and advertisements and social media materials.
Neoliberalism is increasingly shaping social policy and social management, encapsulating human subjectivity and emotionality under the guise of social well-being and exploiting these aspects of human life for profit-making purposes. The human sciences have developed various concepts of social well-being, including theories that seem to justify the neoliberal order. This study examines the strengths and limitations of a well-being theory associated with the field of positive psychology. I use the experience of the Russian-American cooperation in outer space – the Mir-Shuttle program (1994‒1997) – to establish the applicability of the selected well-being theory in the context of a demanding and dangerous environment. The study’s dataset comprises three types of sources, used on the principle of availability: biographical interviews with the program participants (NASA’s Shuttle-Mir Oral History Project), media interviews with Russian cosmonauts, and published autobiographies. A theory-driven thematic analysis was applied to process the data. The findings indicate that a broader contextualization is essential to explain regularities in the achieving of regimes of social coherence, integration, social realization, and contribution during long-term space missions. Cultural, political, organizational, and existential dimensions need to be considered. The ideal of collective empowerment, secured by mutual sharing, interconnection, and trust, might challenge the current imperative of disciplined self-promotion.
The present study aims to explore online shopping of groceries across generation cohorts in Sweden during Covid-19, particularly regarding the oldest generation cohort—the Dutifuls (born 1945 or earlier). The data were collected through three large surveys, representative for the Swedish population in the age range 18–85. The field period for the first survey was September 17, 2018–January 21, 2019 (N = 1754). The field period for the second survey was April 14–June 28, 2020 (N = 2501). The field period for the third survey was September 20–December 30, 2021 (N = 1588). Online grocery shopping in Sweden has increased remarkably since the outbreak of Covid-19, especially among the Dutifuls. However, the same generation cohort decreased their online shopping of groceries in the end of 2021. The findings are discussed in relation to limitations and practical implications. The decline of online shopping of groceries among the Dutifuls needs to be followed-up and explained by further research.
Whether monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins differ from each other in a variety of phenotypes is important for genetic twin modeling and for inferences made from twin studies in general. We analyzed whether there were differences in individual, maternal and paternal education between MZ and DZ twins in a large pooled dataset. Information was gathered on individual education for 218,362 adult twins from 27 twin cohorts (53% females; 39% MZ twins), and on maternal and paternal education for 147,315 and 143,056 twins respectively, from 28 twin cohorts (52% females; 38% MZ twins). Together, we had information on individual or parental education from 42 twin cohorts representing 19 countries. The original education classifications were transformed to education years and analyzed using linear regression models. Overall, MZ males had 0.26 (95% CI [0.21, 0.31]) years and MZ females 0.17 (95% CI [0.12, 0.21]) years longer education than DZ twins. The zygosity difference became smaller in more recent birth cohorts for both males and females. Parental education was somewhat longer for fathers of DZ twins in cohorts born in 1990–1999 (0.16 years, 95% CI [0.08, 0.25]) and 2000 or later (0.11 years, 95% CI [0.00, 0.22]), compared with fathers of MZ twins. The results show that the years of both individual and parental education are largely similar in MZ and DZ twins. We suggest that the socio-economic differences between MZ and DZ twins are so small that inferences based upon genetic modeling of twin data are not affected.
Sweden has the reputation of being one of the most progressive countries in the world concerning work-life development and industrial democracy. In this article, an analytical overview of the development in these areas is provided, which includes the antecedents, major events, actor positioning and also the broad-term outcomes. Two major reform movements are described: one aiming to create a radically different work-life where workers control their own work with a power balance between labour and capital, and one a reformist movement aiming to create a degree of co-determination and a more engaging work-life without any major changes in power relations. The case shows that the radical movement was not able to generate radical change and that the reformistic movement achieved only partial success. The outcome over time has been a decreased interest in work-life development where co-determination practices are heavily institutionalized but perhaps do not provide better conditions for workers than in many other advanced industrial countries with a lesser degree of formal co-determination.
This chapter starts with brief discussions of the whens and whys of justice reasoning and acting, after which descriptions of several distributive justice theories are provided. These are analyzed on the basis of four dimensions: type of justice motivation, orientation of justice behavior, the source of justice behavior initiation, and the source of justice behavior direction. We suggest that the overemphasis in the distributive justice literature on the three principles of equity, equality, and need, ought to be tempered by finer distinctions among the varieties of each and increased attention to additional principles and combinations of principles. The chapter ends by outlining suggestions for future research. Four issues are featured: the nature of the object (social resource) that is distributed and the focus of justice judgments, how the way the resource was produced may affect its allocation and justice judgment, how justice relates to various types of conflict, and why people sometimes do not react to perceived injustices.
This chapter discusses how conflicts are transformed from real life, via narratives to a game. It explores four types of conflicts: intergroup, intragroup, interpersonal and intrapersonal derived from a material consisting of three cultural artefacts that are interconnected: Shakespear’s dramaThe Tragedy of Hamlet, the TV-series Sons of Anarchy and the table top game Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem. The fundamental and underlining question in this chapter is what the board game medium is capable of preserving from a Shakespearean drama and real life conflicts. For each step in the transformation the conflicts take on a slightly different form. The world, objects agents and events undergo changes and conflicts are presented in terms of motivation, how they are initiated and how they are turned into events such as direct war player versus player. In the stepwise transformation from Hamlet to Men of Mayhem the characters as such disappear and only function as emblematic objects rather than agents. The main finding of the chapter is that there is no room for intrapersonal and intragroup conflicts in the game. Social structures and social conflicts are the common denominators between non-fiction, narrative and the game.