In the late 90s critical debate and research on the media have gained wide attention. Media criticism and critique is becoming a central political, social and scientific issue. In the article the concept of media criticism is discussed. Media criticism is interpreted as public discourse assessing the media and media impact. Beyond a dialogue on media policy and media practice, criticism offers highly polarized and partly mystifying accounts of the media and its social and cultural impact. The heated debate on media is interpreted as part of a social struggle between different social institutions (markets, politics, science and media) and as different models for action and knowledge. New forms and arenas for media criticism are also suggested and discussed.
Population ageing and international migration are two of the most significant challenges that Sweden is facing today. These - combined with the scholarly debate on the ethics-of-care that notions such as 'caring democracies' have re-ignited - raise questions about how media representations of elderly care and migration are shaped. This research note gives insight into how care, and migrant care workers, are regarded in one of the world's most egalitarian societies. In doing so, it suggests that the intersection between population ageing and international migration is an abundant source of information about societies' moral compasses.
Research on welfare regimes and migration regimes has shown that Sweden and Finland have similar elderly care regimes but different migration regimes. It is against this backdrop that we set out to study what Swedish and Finnish daily press focusing on elderly care has written about ethnic minorities, migrants and migration. The study uses quantitative content analysis to analyze 241 daily newspaper articles published between 1995 and 2008. This article presents the themes that have been discussed, the elderly care actors that have been in focus (i.e. whether the focus has been on elderly care recipients, elderly care providers or informal caregivers), the ethnic backgrounds that these actors have had (i.e. whether the focus has been on the ethnic majority or on ethnic minorities) and the type of explanatory frameworks that the newspaper articles in focus have used. On the basis of this, we problematize the representations of ethnic minorities, migrants and migration that the newspaper articles in question put forth and the fact that the Swedish and Finnish daily press treats the issues at hand as if migration is mostly an issue that can be relegated to the periphery of the elderly care sectors' agenda.
In this paper we focus on how children and adults discuss children’s competence in urban space, and how this relates to the age of the child. Spatial competence is linked to the possibility to experience and participate in urban space. Gaining spatial competence thus requires children to be allowed to make experiences and to be able to participate in public life. However, our research suggests that age is the organizing norm regarding who is viewed as competent enough to gain access to and participate in urban space. Firstly, spatial competence is related to age-based categories, where children and adults are viewed as homogeneous categories. Adults are viewed as spatially competent while children are viewed as in need of protection from urban public life as they are not competent enough to understand and handle these socio-spatial contexts. Secondly, spatial competence is related to chronological age. Competence is generally defined from an adult perspective which means that increased chronological age is equated with increased competence. However, it is shown that chronological age is the organizing norm also for how children order other children within the category of children in terms of how spatially competent they are.
In this paper we focus on how children and adults discuss children's competence in urban space, and how this relates to the age of the child. Spatial competence is linked to the possibility to experience and participate in urban space. Gaining spatial competence thus requires children to be allowed to make experiences in public space. However, our research suggests that age is the organizing norm regarding who is viewed as competent enough to gain access to and participate in urban space. Firstly, spatial competence is related to age-based categories, where children and adults are viewed as homogeneous categories. Adults are viewed as spatially competent while children are viewed as non-competent. Secondly, spatial competence is related to chronological age and defined from an adult perspective which means that increased chronological age is equated with increased competence. It is shown that chronological age is the organizing norm also for how children order other children within the category of children in terms of how spatially competent they are.
Research and debate on violence against women in a Swedish context is here discussed from a perspective that focuses on the different understandings and epistemological claims behind existing positions. I crystallize a dominant perspective on violence, centred around fragmentation/deviance, and a challenging feminist understanding, centred around coherence/normality. I relate these understandings to a wider set of methodological choices and epistemological claims within research on violence against women, captured in what I call a discourse on partner violence (fragmentation) and a feminist discourse on men's violence against women (coherence). The article also examines the reactions, in media and academic life, that a quantitative study on men's violence against women in Sweden provoked, Captured Queen, Men's violence against women in equal Sweden. A prevalence study (Lundgren et al 2001). By applying a coherent methodological approach, stemming from the feminist discourse on violence against women, the study seems to have placed itself outside what was comprehensible for many voices in the debate (from media and the academic field). I discuss the hostile reactions the study aroused, in relation to its methodology and the above presented conflicting understandings that occupy the research field "violence against women".
King Captures Queen. Methodology in research on violence in violently equal Sweden
Research and debate on violence against women in a Swedish context is here discussed from a perspective that focuses on the different understandings and epistemological claims behind existing positions. I crystallize a dominant perspective on violence, centred around fragmentation/deviance, and a challenging feminist understanding, centred around coherence/normality. I relate these understandings to a wider set of methodological choices and epistemological claims within research on violence against women, captured in what I call a discourse on partner violence (fragmentation) and a feminist discourse on men’s violence against women (coherence).
The article also examines the reactions, in media and academic life, that a quantitative study on men’s violence against women in Sweden provoked, Captured Queen, Men’s violence against women in equal Sweden. A prevalence study (Lundgren et al 2001). By applying a coherent methodological approach, stemming from the feminist discourse on violence against women, the study seems to have placed itself outside what was comprehensible for many voices in the debate (from media and the academic field). I discuss the hostile reactions the study aroused, in relation to its methodology and the above presented conflicting understan- dings that occupy the research field “violence against women”.
Research results are dependent on how social phenomena are conceptualized. In the present article, consequences are discussed of the standardized conceptualization of religiosity as "church-oriented". In its place, a multifaceted approach to the phenomenon of religious belief is suggested. This approach was used for an analysis on how eleven Swedish women and men with different religious and spiritual as well as non-religious and atheist affiliation talk about beliefs. The results suggest that beliefs were meaningful because they related to specific perceptions of a Zeitgeist. It was hereafter underlined that belief in "something" or other brief descriptions of the sacred placed the sacred outside of the individual. Finally, while subjective authority is valued for choosing to believe, this subjectivity seems in part to be dependent on collective dimensions of recognition. The value of choosing beliefs can be conceptualized as a meaningful yet analytically distinct aspect of belief co-existing with descriptions of the sacred. Thus, it is concluded that a multifaceted approach to religious belief may develop our understanding of religion and religiosity in contemporary society.
This article responds to recent calls for reconsidering the concept 'civil religion' to advance the understanding of how both religious and secular authorities shape individuals' attitudes towards the religious. 'Civil religion' is defined as set of religious symbols and practices that can be studied at an individual level. The analysis utilized representative survey data collected in 2016-2017 in Sweden. Four basic forms of 'civil religion' were identified and justified in relation to expectations held by both religious and secular authorities in Sweden over time. The analysis showed that the identified forms of 'civil religion' differ in terms of social class, gender and age. The results are taken to raise further research questions about relationships between high socioeconomic status and criticism of religion and about low socioeconomic status and adherence to religious minorities in Sweden. In addition, it is stipulated that a civil religion approach to religious attitudes might shed new light on questions concerning contemporary covenants and shared ideas about the religious.
This article responds to recent calls for reconsidering the concept ‘civil religion’ to advance the understanding of how both religious and secular authorities shape individuals’ attitudes towards the religious. ‘Civil religion’ is defined as set of religious symbols and practices that can be studied at an individual level. The analysis utilized representative survey data collected in 2016–2017 in Sweden. Four basic forms of ‘civil religion’ were identified and justified in relation to expectations held by both religious and secular authorities in Sweden over time. The analysis showed that the identified forms of ‘civil religion’ differ in terms of social class, gender and age. The results are taken to raise further research questions about relationships between high socioeconomic status and criticism of religion and about low socioeconomic status and adherence to religious minorities in Sweden. In addition, it is stipulated that a civil religion approach to religious attitudes might shed new light on questions concerning contemporary covenants and shared ideas about the religious.
In this study we study how homosexuality has legally gone from exclusion to inclusion in migration law and what ideological understandings that underpin this inclusion. The data corpus of the study consisted of the preparatory work concerning same-sex sexuality, cohabitation and migration. Data was coded for patterns concerning the public administrative understandings of same-sex sexuality as described in the preparatory works. The coding was theoretically driven by critical and Marxist approaches to ideology. Conducting a thematic analysis, four themes were identified in the data. The overall finding is that the preparatory works give precedence to sexuality in terms of disposition (läggning) when it is linked to identity and intensions to engage in a long-term relationship. This means that alternative sexual identities and practices not compatible with the ”heterosexual matrix” have been excluded from the ideological lens. The ideological focus in the preparatory works could be seen as a reflection of the capitalist system, where some social categories are viewed as desirable to include in a capitalist society.
In the Shadow of Ethno-Cultural Stereotypes: Gender, Equity and Ethnic relations in Sweden
Scientific debates about cultural differences between “Swedes” and migrants/ethnic minorities inSwedenhave fuelled stereotypical categorizations and a socio-cultural demarcation between "us" and "them”. The authors argue that this development has underpinned constructions of foreignness. In the light of a critical review of the current debate on honour related violence, the authors discuss - inspired by Georg Simmel’s and Erving Goffman’s classic texts on the stranger, the stigma and the construction of foreignness - alternative understandings of culture and politics of belonging with a focus on gender, agency and identity formation. Formation of cultural and ethnic identity should be related, the authors conclude, to a dynamic interplay between the past and the present. Moreover, the social dimension should be highlighted, in order to avoid a stigmatizing culturalism.