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This article applies a couple perspective to assessing gender inequality in Sweden—a setting with high maternal labour force participation, a long history of family policy investment, and strong norms of gender equality. We address open questions about how couples' earnings following parenthood have changed over time, and how patterns of inequality in couples' earnings have played out across educational groups. Our study uses fixed effects methods and register data covering the total population of heterosexual couples giving birth in Sweden between 1987 and 2007 (N  =   587,414 couples). It examines change in the female partner's share of total couple earnings from 2 years before to 8 years after first birth across parent cohorts differentiated by his and her education. Women's earnings share declines steeply following birth, across all groups. Results show modestly smaller declines among parents in the latest cohort in the year directly following childbirth. Change is most pronounced among couples with a highly educated female partner, and it appears driven by a marked dip in fathers' earnings that is new to this recent generation of men. Recent movement towards within-couple equality in Sweden appears driven by men's work adjustments, pointing to an important shift in the allocation of care work within couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on working and living conditions among local politicians in Sweden and their experiences with combining political work and family life. Applying a sociological perspective on representation, we first map the working and living conditions among politicians, with a specific focus on gender and age. We then examine experiences of work-family conflict and subjective well-being and investigate how these outcomes are related to gender, age, and working and living conditions. The main findings show significant gender differences in working and living conditions, with substantially higher levels of work-family conflict among young women politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalism has an important role in making political participation visible to the public. In representing the voices of the public, journalism produces discourses on democratic engagement that tell us a great deal about the norms of how these discourses conceive of practices of political engagement. The aim of this article is to study the ways in which speaker identities are given to and taken by migrant activists participating in Swedish radio interviews. Employing Goffman's concept of footing, this article shows that there are conflicting speaker identities that the activists are adopting and are given by the framework of the radio interviews. The main conflict in how the speaker identities are made up is based on the negotiations around how the activists are talking about themselves or about others. The article further shows how talking about others in a public discourse such as journalism requires speakers to make difficult choices in how to represent oneself as a speaker, and that such choices might stand in conflict with a news discourse's preferred authentic and experiential identity of its sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found that intergenerational income persistence is relatively high in the United States and Britain, especially as compared to Nordic countries. We compare the association between family income and sons' earnings in the United States (National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979), Britain (British Cohort Study 1970), and Sweden (Population Register Data, 1965 cohort), and find that both income elasticities and rank-order correlations are highest in the United States, followed by Britain, with Sweden being clearly more equal. We ask whether differences in educational inequality and in return to qualifications can explain these cross-country differences. Surprisingly, we find that this is not the case, even though returns to education are higher in the United States. Instead, the low income mobility in the United States and Britain is almost entirely due to the part of the parent-son association that is not mediated by educational attainment. In the United States and especially Britain, parental income is far more important for earnings at a given level of education than in Sweden, a result that holds also when controlling for cognitive ability. This goes against widespread ideas of the United States as a country where the role of ascription is limited and meritocratic stratification prevails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal tourism workers in the Swedish mountains can be conceptualised as members of occupational communities. For members of such a community, the dual relationship between the job and other members are important. However, a place perspective might be fruitful, as place amenities are expected drivers of job acceptance. By studying seasonal workers' relation to place, through the lens of their 'membership' of an occupational community, it is possible to capture both the individual sense of place and the group's shared sense of place. The former is highly important, as social relations among the workers are particularly significant. In this study, the conceptual framework of occupational communities is modified to better suit temporary and mobile workers in amenity-rich rural areas. The overall aim of this paper is to investigate how seasonal tourism employees can be analysed as an occupational community. Further, it studies the ways in which a particular tourism-related occupational community perceives and connects to its location, as well as the ways in which seasonal tourism workers perceive the role of place and community in their everyday lives and future plans. Hence, this article concludes that members of an occupational community have a dual attachment to place. This type of community could exist and move around without being affected by the geographical place, but the place has affective possibilities influencing the workers, and in an isolated rural place, the community has more space to grow stronger. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the cumulative advantage hypothesis, health gaps between socioeconomic groups widen with age. In the United States, studies have supported this hypothesis. Outside this context, evidence remains scarce. The present study tests the cumulative advantage hypothesis in Sweden, a society that contrasts sharply with the United States in terms of policies designed to reduce social disparities in health-related resources. I draw on longitudinal data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey (N = 9,412 person-years), spanning the period between 1991 and 2010. The results show that gaps in self-rated health increase from early to middle adulthood. This applies to differences between educational groups and between occupational classes. In older age, health gaps remain constant. Cross-cohort analyses reveal a rising importance of cumulative advantage between educational groups but not between occupational classes. I conclude that the forces of accumulation prevail even in one of the most egalitarian welfare states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health problems are rising, especially among younger people, indicating a need to identify determinants of the development of mental health over the life course. Parental involvement in their children’s studies, particularly in terms of academic socialisation, has been shown to predict better mental health in adulthood, as well as other more favourable health outcomes, but no study published so far has examined its impact on trajectories of mental health. We therefore sought to elucidate the role of parental involvement at age 16 on the life course development of internalised mental health symptoms. Methods: In a population-based cohort (452 women and 488 men, 87 % of the eligible participants), we examined the association between parental involvement in their offspring’s studies, measured by teacher and pupil ratings at age 16, and an index of internalised mental health symptoms at the ages of 16, 18, 21, 30, and 43. Using latent class trajectory analysis, 5 different trajectories were derived from these indices: Very low stable (least symptoms), Low stable, Increasing, Moderate stable, and High decreasing (most symptoms). Multinomial logistic regression was used to regress trajectory membership on the parental involvement variables. Results: Teacher-rated parental interest in their offspring’s studies during the last year of compulsory school was associated with a lower risk of entering the Moderate stable (OR = 0.54; 95 % CI 0.30 to 0.98) and High decreasing (OR = 0.41; 0.18 to 0.91) trajectories, compared with the Low stable, also after adjustment for sex, parental social class and mental health, family unemployment and own school grades. Both these associations were present only in children with grades above the national average. Student-rated availability of assistance with homework was associated with a higher chance of entering the Very low stable trajectory in the whole sample (OR = 1.24; 1.07 to 1.43), in men (OR = 1.25; 1.05 to 1.48) and in those with above average grades (OR = 1.39; 1.13 to 1.72), and with a lower risk of entering the Moderate stable in women (OR = 0.74; 0.55 to 0.99), also after the same adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demise of the solidaristic wage policy, followed by the introduction of individual wage setting, is one of many similar changes in the Swedish welfare regime in recent decades. These changes were often demanded by employers and then eventually accepted and implemented by parts of the labour movement, i.e. Social Democracy and its related trade unions. Ever since its introduction in 1993, however, individual wage setting has created much controversy within Kommunal (the Swedish Municipal Workers' Union), the largest trade union in Sweden. In this light, it is interesting to examine the arguments that convinced a majority of the delegates at the decision-making congresses. Two main arguments in favour of individual wage setting have been put forward by union leaders, namely that the new wage system is appreciated by members and that increased wage dispersion increases productivity, which in turn leads to higher wages. This article reviews these arguments. It is found that member surveys suffer from flaws in methodology and that the productivity argument is ill-founded. The reason for the insistence on individual wage setting must be sought elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comparative analysis of the development of the gender wage gap in West Germany and Sweden during the period 1960–2006. Despite the economic similarities including broad social safety nets, the gap has developed differently since 1960. This analysis accounts for micro- and macroeconomic factors and politics and concludes that norms and traditions penetrate institutional settings and ensnare Germany in a cultural trap with regard to gender equality. While Sweden has moved to a two-earner model, German society expects mothers to stay at home. The micro analysis shows that family concerns (e.g. marriage and motherhood) decrease female income in Germany to a far greater extent than do such factors in Sweden, which can be explained in part by deeply held social attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the occurrence of political non-attitudes in Sweden and identifies the population segment possessing a 'something for nothing' (SFN) mentality regarding social spending. Sweden - often regarded as epitomizing the advanced welfare state - constitutes an analytically interesting case, providing a useful counterpoint to the predominantly American-based evidence on the subject. It is argued here that national political institutions fundamentally affect the prevalence - and social base - of the SFN segment. To identify SFN sentiments, two question batteries measuring social spending preferences are used. One battery contains 'priced' items emphasizing the cost of public spending, while the other set of 'unpriced' items does not explicitly connect increased public spending with increased taxes. The patterning of attitudes across these items is explored in order to determine whether SFN sentiments are common in the Swedish electorate. The observed attitude patterns are then linked to broader sets of attitudes to the welfare state, testing whether the degree of ideological coherence differs fundamentally between the SFN segment and other groups. The analysis then explores the individual-level determinants associated with different attitude patterns. The overall results show that: SFN sentiments are not dominant among the Swedish citizenry; the quality of the SFN segment's belief system, in terms of ideological coherence, does not represent a deviant case; and the background characteristics associated with SFN sentiments suggest that members of this segment should rather be viewed as free riders in economically vulnerable positions than ignorant and politically confused citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the potential impact of institutional change on popular welfare support. The encompassing welfare state of Sweden provides an interesting case where the privatization of social service delivery has been widespread over the last decades. We use survey data from five rounds of the Swedish Welfare State Survey (1992, 1997, 2002, 2006 and 2010) in order to study how public preferences for the financing and organization of welfare services have changed over time. Based on a theory describing an ideal-typical pattern of public support for an encompassing welfare model, we derive three types of public preferences: support for a pure state model, a pure market model and a mixed model (welfare services are funded by taxes but provided by private firms). We begin by tracking the development of these ideal-typical attitude patterns between 1992 and 2010. We then investigate how preference patterns vary across municipalities displaying different degrees of privatization of social service delivery. Our results show that welfare support among Swedes over the last decades is better characterized as dynamic rather than stable. Swedes seem to take an overall more ideologically based position on the role of the welfare state over time. The share of respondents expressing such ideologically based preferences has increased from 54 per cent in 1992 to 78 per cent in 2010. This change is principally manifested in increased support for the state and mixed models. This trend seems to be parallel to the increasing share of private welfare service providers over the last decade. We also find a link between the municipal degree of privatization and support for our three ideal-typical welfare models. Public support for a mixed welfare model and, to some extent, a market model, is comparatively stronger in municipalities where welfare services to a large extent are carried out by private actors. Conversely, data shows that public support for the traditional Swedish state model is more widespread in municipalities having a low degree of welfare services privatization. Lastly, we discuss some theoretical implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents results from two case studies of marginalised housing areas on the outskirts of two major cities in Sweden. The areas have been analysed through the lens of glocalisation of the everyday lives. The aim is to illustrate and gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of, and relationship between, place, gender and transnationalism. The article contests the simplified image of migrant women in these marginalised areas as local-bound and isolated. It analyses their everyday lives asspaces of glocality, with a particular focus on local and global networks, local and global meeting places, and relationships to local authorities. The aim is to disseminate new knowledge about the complexities of these women's lives in a global-local context, which also has implications for the theoretical concept of glocality. Through the concept of glocality, the beneficial as well as the negative aspects of these women's lives in marginalised neighbourhoods are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the health effects of subjective class position stratified by objective social position. Four types of subjective class were analysed separately for individuals with manual or non-manual occupational background. The cross-sectional analysis is based on the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey from 2000 and includes 4,139 individuals. The dataset comprises information on perceived class affinity and occupational position that was combined to conduct logistic regression models on self-rated health. An inverse relationship between self-rated health and the eight combinations of objective and subjective social position was found. Lower socio-economic position was associated with poor health. The largest adverse health effects were found for lower subjective social position in combination with lower occupational position. When the covariates education, father's occupational position and income were added to the model, adverse effects on health remained only for females. Subjective social position helps to explain health inequalities. Substantial gender differences were found. It can be assumed that subjective class position captures a wide range of perceived inequalities and therefore complements the measure of occupational position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care services help women who are mothers or daughters to combine caregiving and gainful employment. While Swedish childcare policy expanded services to meet the needs of children and working mothers, this discourse analysis of Swedish eldercare policy shows that the expansion of eldercare services from the 1950s to the end of 1970s was justified solely on the basis of older people's needs. The lack of connection in policy documents between the needs of working daughters and the provision of eldercare services made it easier to cut services beginning in the 1980s, without considering the consequences for family members. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the dynamics of migration, working conditions and in/formalization in the domestic service sector in Sweden. Based on an interview study conducted in Stockholm 2009/ 2010, the article identifies crucial aspects of a range of large scale social and economic shifts in Sweden. Especially in focus are the conditions of migrant domestic workers (from Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Africa and South America) within a global division of labor. Compared to other European countries, Sweden is a unique case due to its social democratic welfare state traditions encouraging female work participation and public solutions for care, as well as its longstanding controversies around policies encouraging private domestic services (Gavanas, 2006; Gavanas, 2010a). Due to its hierarchical connotations in line with gender, class and ethnicity, proposals for tax deduction for domestic service have been highly contested in Sweden. The mere idea of a private domestic service goes against the grain of social democratic and feminist traditions as well as cultural preferences for public care (Gavanas, 2006; Öberg, 1999). However, since tax reductions for domestic services were introduced in 2007, rapid transformations have taken place in Sweden. In addition to the tax reductions, the Swedish market for domestic service is also expanding as a result of welfare state cutbacks, as well as privatization of public care, deregulation, internationalization and flexibilization of labor markets (Gavanas, 2006; Platzer, 2003; de los Reyes, 2002). In this article I am arguing that the domestic service market is undergoing segmentation based on social network segregation, as opposed to the policy ambition that a formal sector, as a result of the tax reductions, is replacing an informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the perceptions of Roma adolescents on health, well-being and quality of life (QoL) and how the Roma managed their own life situation within these areas. The data, which consists of interviews, was analysed through content analysis. The most common understanding of health and well-being was to feel good, secure and happy. A wide social network of family and friends was seen as an additional element. The respondents perceived their own health and well-being to be good. A feeling of freedom, the ability to make decisions independently and the possibilities for education and employment were the most important elements of QoL. Quality of life was perceived to have something to do with values and beliefs in the future. Social support from family and friends were the most frequently used coping strategies. The perceptions of the Roma adolescents on health, well-being and QoL turned out to be quite similar to the perceptions of the non-Roma adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political context of civil society in Western Europe has changed dramatically in recent decades. These changing circumstances may produce a decline in the integration of civil society into political life - especially deliberative activities at the national level. This article discusses how serious these alleged threats are to a hitherto vital civil society - that of Sweden. It focuses on fours indicators of organised civil society's contribution to deliberative democracy. First, have efforts to contact politicians, public servants and the media, as well as participation in public debates, decreased? Second, has civil society directed interest away from national arenas and instead concentrated resources in local and/or supranational arenas? Third, is there any evidence of a withdrawal from public activities, such as public debates and media activities in favour of direct contacts with politicians and public servants? Fourth, has civil society become more professionalised in the sense that interest groups are increasingly hiring professional consultants? Two surveys conducted in 1999 and 2005 show that Swedish organised civil society has not faded from national public politics. However, growing public participation is almost exclusively connected to increasing communication via the mass media and direct contact with politicians. Taking part in open public debate has not increased. The national arena has marginally lost some importance. Moreover, there is an increasing tendency to hire professional lobbying consultants. This might improve the quality of civil society's contributions to public deliberation, but a more elitist civil society might also develop, which is uninterested in social dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the theory of 'state feminism' is applied on the area of regional development policy, supplementing existing research about state-citizen relationships in northern and southern Europe. Based on Swedish data, it is argued that the former alliance between the women's movement and the welfare state has been transformed as a result of new steering methods in regional development policy in a way that is best understood as a paradox. This paradox includes both stronger and weaker relations. The public support to Women Resource Centres (WRCs) in Sweden is used as an example of 'state feminism'. The ability of the WRCs to affect policy has changed over time, however, due to the adoption of new steering methods based on networks and market-orientation in Swedish regional development policy. The conclusions induce further development of 'state feminism' theory, making it more up-to-date with the prevalent interaction between women's movements and European welfare states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, the first major study of the extent of men's violence against women in Sweden reported that almost every other woman had been exposed to male violence. This article investigates how this feminist-based survey was negotiated by the press and in national politics. The legitimacy of the investigation was undermined in a number of ways, both in the media and in politics. The report was defined as partial and not as reliable as ‘conventional’ criminological research. The resistance provoked by the investigation is here interpreted as a way of producing nationalistic notions, where ‘Swedishness’ is recreated as being woman-friendly, just and equal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores and analyses narratives in social report-books in the context of structural rationalization during the 1960s and 1970s in Sweden, which entailed large movements of people both in Sweden and Finland (as it did in other countries of Western Europe). The characteristics of the report-books are that they claim to depict the truth and to give voices to marginalized people with the aim to contribute to social change. The analysis dwells not only on the content of the books, but also on the narrative techniques employed. It is discussed how the authors were tied to their political context and the general discourse of social critique in their rendering of voices. The main questions of this article are: whose voices were paid attention to and how was home narrated and represented? One kind of narrative content links home attachment to roots in a rural context, where home centres on reproduction of families, territorial claims and nature hugging. It is established through rhetoric of nature and timelessness, fathers passing inheritance on to their sons and a desire for a non-alienated existence in an archaic landscape. The narrative techniques used are based on an invisible narrator and on a travel narration with questions and answers. It is mainly male voices that are paid attention to. Female voices are to some extent heard but marginalized. Female bodily practices and habits are connected to positions as wives and daughters. The fisherman, the hunter, the woodlander and the farmer, are (re)presented as threatened male positions and therefore male bodies will in a near future be out of place. These narratives are framed by a patriarchal discourse where bodies are naturalized and made straight. Quite another kind of narrative content is forward-looking, dealing with voices in a suburban context. The montage as a narrative technique is systematically used there, combining text and image. The didactic montage is intended to be educational, to enlighten people with the aid of pointers. This calls for activity on the part of the reader/observer, who is supposed to be given the impression of having interpreted the meanings independently. It is based on consciousness-raising as a feminist method for change. This narrative of home is about societal participation and resenting and resisting patriarchal distinctions such as public/private. It is framed by a feminist discourse where bodies are denaturalized and orientated at finding space for the displaced body to expand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the notion of transparency as a strong democratic value and theories of procedural justice, this article reports an explorative experimental test whether transparency in decision making may lead to increased perceived legitimacy in terms of decision acceptance and trust. This is done in a context of difficult decisions of high importance for citizens - namely priority setting in public health care. An experiment was designed in which ordinary citizens were presented with a description of a case of priority setting between two groups with different health care needs. One group was given no information at all on the decision-making procedure, as an example of non-transparent decision making, and six groups were presented with different descriptions of the decision-making procedure, as examples of transparency in decision making. The transparent procedures were derived from three basic forms of democratic decision making: representation, direct participation and expert decision making. A second manipulation framed the decision-making procedure alternatively in positive or negative terms in order to capture media framing effects as well. According to the findings of the study, transparent decision-making procedures tend to weaken rather than strengthen general trust in health care - a finding that might reveal obstacles to attempts to strengthen the legitimacy of health care by employing transparent procedures. The results also show that while the form of decision making had no significant impact on perceived legitimacy, positive or negative framing of a decision-making procedure influences public perceptions of both the procedure and the decision outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Sweden, where some 20 per cent of the population is either foreign born or second generation, has long been known internationally as the model of a tolerant, egalitarian, multicultural welfare state, which extended substantial citizenship, welfare and labour rights to all within its borders, including immigrants. However, under the twin pressures of neoliberalism and the EU’s commitment to ‘managed migration’, this Swedish exceptionalism has been, and continues to be, substantially eroded. The shortcomings of the earlier multicultural settlement of the 1960s and 1970s, a growing extremist populism, the growth of an unprotected, semi-clandestine sector of the labour market, combined with high levels of youth unemployment and urban segregation, have led to unprecedented rioting and violence in Swedish cities. The voices of minority ethnic youth, many of them Muslim, should be heeded as rejecting the exclusivism of current political trends. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several studies have demonstrated that stepfamily couples have a higher risk of childbearing than couples in a stable union with the same total number of children. Analysing retrospective data from a nationally representative sample of Swedish adults, we find that the risk of a second or third birth is higher when it is the first or second child in a new union. We also find a faster pace of childbearing after stepfamily formation than after a shared birth. The risk of a second birth (in total) is only a little higher in the first two years after stepfamily formation than in the first two years after a shared birth, and thereafter the risk is lower for stepfamilies. The risk of a third birth (in total) is particularly high early in the stepfamily union and remains higher than that of couples with two shared children for at least five years. The stepfamily difference was lower after than before 1980, when the Swedish government introduced parental leave incentives for short birth intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first decade of the twenty-first century may be remembered for the rebirth of consensus on labour market policy. After three decades of bitter political and ideological controversy between a neo-liberal and a traditional social democratic approach, a new model, often labelled flexicurity, has emerged. This model is promoted by numerous political organisations since it promises to put an end to the old trade-off between equality and efficiency. Several countries are embracing the flexicurity model as a blueprint for labour market reform, but others, mostly belonging to the 'Mediterranean Rim', are clearly lagging behind. Why is it so difficult for these countries to implement the flexicurity model? This paper argues that the application of a flexicurity strategy in these countries is complicated by the lack of social trust between social partners and the state as well as political economy traditions that highlight the role of labour market regulation as a source of social protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the height of the Swedish welfare society, a campaign with the aim of promoting mental health issues within the Swedish labour market was launched. The title and purpose of the campaign, 'Mental health - an action of increased understanding and solidarity at work', was to illuminate mental health issues at work. Surprisingly to the organizers, the mental health campaign stirred up major opposition, especially from the political left. The idea of mental hygiene in an industrial and workplace setting, a cross-breed between the values of the Human Relations School and psychiatric science, was received with deep mistrust. The campaign caused an agitated debate in the media about power relations between employers and employees. The political disagreements were exposed in a number of articles in the daily newspapers and in the evening papers during the summer of that year. This article undertakes an investigation of the campaign literature and the media debate. The interpretation of the debate highlights different opinions about the meaning of normal mental health. Four different views of normality and mental health which demonstrate the complexity of the issue are presented. Mental health could mean adjustment and harmony, it could be a medical weapon to suppress the working class, it could even mean a neutral state of absence of mental problems, or lastly it could be a claim for the right to live a normal life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeding norms are pervasive, and ideals of healthy food increase in relation to advice from commercial and government actors. Here we address how perceptions of "proper" food in Swedish family households are formed in relation to children's preferences. We argue that what is served in today's Swedish families should be understood in the context of discourse related to food and feeding and as a consequence of parent-child interaction. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews and focus groups with mothers of children between the ages of three to eight and thirteen to nineteen years. We discuss three main areas: internalized food norms, controlling strategies, and dealing with children's wishes. Our conclusion is that the interactive nature of feeding work and contemporary food discourse yields a constant tension between trying to put norms into practice and at the same time dealing with specific, often uncertain, situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Sweden played host to the Equestrian competitions of the 1956 Olympics, social issues of class and gender were publicly discussed and challenged. Indeed, equestrian sports by their very nature and history drew attention to the changing social order of sports (and society at large) during the 1950s. It will be shown that there were a range of quite ambivalent responses to working class men and to women during this time in Sweden. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that the relationship between these social issues and horse riding was challenged and revised during this time and that the 1950s can be seen as a turning point for the social order of sports. Equestrian sports provide a fascinating case study due firstly to a number of specific contextual features that will be explained, and secondly because they were among the first sports in Sweden to face challenges to traditional social structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political participation is higher among men than women in most parts of the world. However, earlier research has shown that this does not hold true in Scandinavia, including Sweden, where gender differences are remarkably small. This article studies the causes of the Swedish situation. A conventional hypothesis is formulated based on research from other parts of the world. It assumes that gender-equal participation in Sweden can be explained by the lack of gender differences in certain political resource and motivational factors that are often analyzed. However, this hypothesis is not supported by the data, which instead indicates a female disadvantage with regard to both resources and motivation. Two alternative hypotheses are developed and shown as empirically viable. The first assumes that women more often adhere to norms that emphasize the importance of being politically active, which promotes their participation in politics. The second focuses on collective mobilization based on interests specific to women. In line with this hypothesis, only women are shown to be members of women's organizations and hold more radical opinions on issues related to gender equality and reproduction. These factors have a positive impact on women's participation, and together they explain a noticeable amount of the male advantage with regard to conventional explanatory factors. Therefore they are important contributory causes of gender-equal participation in Sweden, although other factors, not discussed here, also contribute. Quantitative methods are used in the analyses, and the study material is the 1997 Swedish Citizenship Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, Sweden has emerged on the other side of the 1990s crisis with, if not its self-image intact, then at least a reasserted confidence as, once again, the most modern country in the world. Crisis management in the 1990s seemed to have succeeded. The Swedish bumblebee - the unthinkable animal that flies despite its high taxes and large public sector - flew again. The 'Swedish model' was back after a decade as the punch bag of neoliberalism. Throughout the European centre left - from the debate on the European social model to Segolene Royal and Gordon Brown - Sweden has reemerged as 'Nordic light', proof that a better world is possible. This reappraisal in the eyes of the world has paradoxical consequences in Sweden, since it seems to overwrite the uncertainty and insecurity of crisis with assertion and confidence, while leaving many questions unanswered. It also leads to new definitions of what Sweden is. The paper suggests that Sweden post-1990s suffers from a particular kind of nostalgia, in which the famous Model emerges as a kind of paradise lost with uncertain links both to past and future. While Sweden yet again becomes the utopia of others, it is a kind of future past to itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study combines data at individual and area level to examine interactions between equality within couples and gender equality in the municipality in which individuals live. The research question is whether the context impacts on the association between gender equality and health. The material consists of data on 37,423 men and 37,616 women in 279 Swedish municipalities, who had their first child in 1978. The couples were classified according to indicators of their level of gender equality in 1980 in the public sphere (occupation and income) and private sphere (child care leave and parental leave) compared to that of their municipality. The health outcome is compensated days from sickness insurance during 1986–1999 with a cut-off at the 85% percentile. Data were analysed using logistic regression with the overall odds as reference. The results concerning gender equality in the private sphere show that among fathers, those who are equal in an equal municipality have lower levels of sick leave than the average while laggards (less equal than their municipality) and modest laggards have higher levels. In the public sphere, pioneers (more equal t han their municipality) fare better than the average while laggards fare worse. For mothers, those who are traditional in their roles in the public sphere are protected from high levels of sick leave, while the reverse is true for those who are equal. Traditional mothers in a traditional municipality have the lowest level of sick leave and pioneers the highest. These results show that there are distinct benefits as well as disadvantages to being a gender pioneer and/or a laggard in comparison to your municipality. The associations are markedly different for men and women. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines shifts in the ways that immigrants were framed and depicted within Swedish HIV/AIDS policy discourse from 1985 to 2005. In particular, it examines whether, when and how immigrants were linked to understandings of risk and safety in sexual relations. Whereas, at first, immigrants were rather marginal to this discourse, they later held a central position. Moreover, there was a shift in how ethnicity and 'race' were conceptualised by the Swedish authorities — a movement away from cultural pluralism towards neo-assimilationism. Throughout this time, cultural differences, often defined in terms of different attitudes to gender and sexuality, were focused on as defining the boundaries between 'immigrants' and 'Swedes'. But, whereas the pluralist approach favoured respect and tolerance for these differences, the neo-assimilationist approach that replaced it argued that immigrants ought to assimilate to the more enlightened sexual values of Swedishness, in order to better prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among undocumented migrants (including asylum seekers) in Stockholm between 2004 and 2006, additional interviews with police officers, deportation escorts and staff at Swedish detention centres and some fieldwork in Tehran in June 2005 and August 2007, this article examines the impact of Sweden's more restrictive asylum policy since the beginning of the decade. From a condition of 'deportability' to incarceration in detention centres and then removal from Sweden, asylum seekers have been increasingly criminalised - their confinement and removal being seen as mechanisms for preserving national security. Focusing, in particular, on the techniques used by the detention apparatus to 'humanise' and 'rationalise' the confinement and expulsion of asylum seekers, it is argued that a discourse of 'caring' and 'saving' works, in effect, as a disciplinary mechanism that presents asylum seekers as responsible for their own detention and deportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of examining predictors of social workers' ideal recommendations of inpatient or outpatient treatment for problem substance users, this study applied multilevel logistic regression to factorial survey data collected from a sample of 205 frontline social workers from 36 social services units in Sweden. The results show that social workers' ideal recommendations of inpatient or outpatient treatment are based on evaluations of a number of client characteristics. These include the clients' treatment preferences, their primary drug, levels of social resources, and age. In addition, it was found that professional recommendations are also determined by treatment availability and policy guidelines, and by the decision makers' own ideological convictions regarding alcohol and narcotics problems. This study brings to light the necessity of organizational routines that allow and encourage social workers to reflect on and to articulate their judgements and decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the concept of social capital has had an enormous impact on the social scientific debate. Despite its vagueness, the concept expresses a distinction that is of significance for the maintenance and depth of democracy. At the same time, the overarching thesis put forward concerning the fundamental role of associations and social networks in the creation of social capital is not convincing. In this article the role of universal institutions, and primarily of one such institution, the general school system, in creating social capital is emphasized. The discussion gradually homes in on Swedish society and the changes it has undergone in recent decades. The term “universal institution” with reference to the Swedish compulsory school system is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore marital exogamy (especially intermarriage between immigrants and natives) among 39 different immigrant groups using cross-sectional registry data for the total immigrant populations in Sweden in 2003. Immigrants who are better educated, who spend a longer time in Sweden before marriage and live outside the bigger cities are more likely to be married to natives. Controlling for age at immigration, education, time between immigration and marriage, settlement size and the relative size of the immigrant group of the opposite sex, immigrants from Western Europe (excluding Finland) and the United States are more likely to be married to natives than are other immigrants. We also analyse the link between intermarriage and economic integration, with the results indicating a strong association between intermarriage and economic integration in terms of employment and income. Immigrants married to natives are more likely to be employed, and also to have higher individual and household income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the interwar period, the Swedish economy has been dominated by a few business groups that control practically all Swedish industry of any importance. This article provides a sociologically informed account of the existence and lasting dominance of business groups in Sweden. In challenging efficiency-based accounts of business groups in Sweden offered by transaction-cost economists, I adopt a historical and dynamic approach that understands economic institutions not as efficient responses to external circumstances, such as market conditions, but as “social constructions.” This approach emphasizes the role of contingency as well as agency in the formation and reproduction of institutions. The article demonstrates the historical contingencies of the emergence of the business groups—in the form of economic crises in the interwar period—and how the groups became institutionalized in the postwar period through a process of social exchange among the key actors in the Swedish political economy: the business elite, the trade unions, and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Value conflicts involving gender equality are interwoven into current multicultural tensions in many European societies. They are at the core of these tensions in Sweden, in which gender equality and principles of individual human rights constitute the state profile and political identity. In this article, we focus on three cases of honor killings that became flash points for public debates on 'culture and cultures' among political parties, immigrant groups and feminists in Sweden. The media fervor surrounding honour-related violence has provided xenophobic groups with political opportunities, but at the same time, the public debate has given visibility and opened up public space for immigrant women's groups. We conclude that the notion of the 'good society' has kept at bay the recognition of overtly xenophobic parties, but it has also inhibited open dialogue across and within majority and minority cultures, which would allow for reflections upon the diversity within cultures, marked by religion, gender, class differences and generational conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arend Lijphart's seminal consensus model of democracy does not only try to explain how democracy actually works. It also purports to be a ‘kinder, gentler’ form of democracy with regard to e.g. unemployment, disability, illness and old age. So far, this conjecture has not been brought to a systematic test which is the purpose of this article. We look into the consequences for one of the areas Lijphart singles out: disability. Does consensus democracy promote a more generous policy towards disabled people than majoritarian democracy? We transfer Lijphart's theory to municipality level. In Sweden, disability care is namely the responsibility for the municipalities, which are comparatively large and independent and with the right to tax their citizens; they are like small nation-states. There is, however, a considerable variation in disability support between them. Some give ten times as much support than others. Is it those governed according to the consensus model? Our approach helps controlling for the variation in political and cultural context and expands the number of observations. The statistical comparison of Swedish municipalities does not, however, lend any confirmation of the famous theory. Instead, there are reasons to doubt that consensus democracy promotes more generous policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the actions of Swedish preschool staff when suspecting the maltreatment of children in their domestic environment, and the staff’s further experiences and relations to the family members. Methods A questionnaire in 2005 to the staff of 189 child groups in community preschools, including 3,100 children. Results A report to Child Protective Agency (CPA) was submitted in 30% of the cases where maltreatment was suspected. The staff’s decisions as well as their working situation, and how they estimated the parents’ benefits from CPA support were deeply affected by their different relations to the families. The staff had their best contact with the children and their most insecure and vulnerable contact with the fathers. Conclusions In situations with suspected child maltreatment the staff face conflicts of loyalty, mostly based on insecure relations, which could become an impediment to supporting and educating the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of the gender revolution, women have entered the public spheres of education, employment and politics. The next step is the process by which men enter the private sphere and share the responsibility for the care of home and children equally with their female partners. Using comparable survey data, we investigate to what extent this process is underway in Norway and Sweden, analysing both ideal and actual sharing. Young Swedish couples are clearly more in favour of egalitarian sharing of housework than their Norwegian counterparts, and also seem to apply this ideal in reality to a greater extent. This is probably due to Sweden's longer history of gender equality norms, which are more 'institutionalized' in public policies (thus demonstrating path dependency). However, more or less the same explanatory factors were established to be important as those found by researchers of other, less gender-equal, societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown mixed results concerning the effects of participation in active labour market policy programmes (ALMPs) on the longer-term scars in the form of poor income development and low job stability following the end of an unemployment spell. Most previous studies, however, have been limited both in the time frame used and to particular programmes. We argue that human capital investments are long-term investments and should therefore also be investigated from a long-term perspective. ALMP training and ALMPs as subsidised employment also represent different types of human capital investments that may produce effects that are differently distributed over time. In order to handle these issues, this article uses a longitudinal register-based dataset in which all long-term (more than six months) unemployed Swedes in 1993, who had no labour market problems in 1992, were followed for ten years. We found positive effects of ALMP participation concerning both the probability of reaching pre-unemployment incomes and a reduction in the hazard of exiting the labour market, while the effect on the probability of having an unemployment-free year was mixed. The effects of the two forms of ALMPs were differently distributed over time, with ALMP employment having an immediate effect that decreased relatively quickly and ALMP training having a longer-term effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]