https://www.mdu.se/

This report presents the results from a pedagogical project focusing students’ writing in higher education. Literature in this field conclude that student writing should be integrated in teaching of the subject with a plan for progression. Teachers’ and students’ experience indicate that students write a lot during their education, but only occasionally get concrete feedback on the writing as such. Focus groups with students showed that students found it difficult to write distinct and to differentiate between text genres. The teachers reported lack of ”tools” to help the students to improve their writing. The report suggest a model for the work with students writing based on goal setting; inventory; identifying problem areas; prioritizing; implementation; and follow-up and revision.

In this paper we explore the research literature relating to the guardianship of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. In particular, we seek to find out what type of dilemmas have been identified by research concerning the guardianship of unaccompanied minors, and the focus that the literature has therefore taken. A comprehensive search of identified databases was conducted. Ultimately, 38 publications were selected for analysis. The review was qualitative and inductive. The results of the review suggest that research has identified and focused on challenges in the form of diverging policy such as gaps and inconsistencies in guardianship institutions, as well as challenges in balancing different objectives concerning the guardianship role, such as conflicting interest in the guardianship assignment or between different actors involved in protecting the child's interest.

The conclusion is that different configurations of guardianship institutions, as well as the identified challenges for practice, appear to be related to the welfare state model. Therefore, future research concerning guardianship for unaccompanied minors needs to move beyond legal sources and policy documents by focusing on empirically informed research on the relationship between child care/protection, principles of assessing the best interest of the child and the welfare state systems.

Statistics made available by the Swedish Migration Agency (SMA) make it possible to follow the outcomes of asylum applications made by unaccompanied children (types of permits, percentage of rejections etc.). Yet, we know little about what unaccompanied children report in asylum procedure, or how their heterogeneous asylum claims influence the possibilities of being approved or rejected. In addition, we do not know if there are differences in reporting between boys and girls, and if so, these potential differences influence the possibility of receiving residency.

We decided to explore what unaccompanied children report using a mixed method approach. Asylum decisions concerning unaccompanied children were first coded inductively. These codes were later merged into larger categories that were analyzed quantitatively by regression analysis. The data sample consisted of 2321 asylum decisions (one calendar year) issued by the SMA. Overall, the results show that female gender has a negative influence on asylum outcomes. This difference is however reduced if the girl has reported a violent death by a next of kin. Moreover, there is an indication that girls report sexual violence to a larger extent than boys. However, the number of girls in the data sample was smaller (14.1 %), so when examining the group of children reporting sexual violence, the reporting by boys was slightly higher (in percentage). The results can provide insights about gender equality in asylum procedure, perceptions of children as active migrants and victimization.

The aim of the article is to show how intertwined sexual misconduct and harassment is with power, in higher education institutions. The data we draw upon are 14 in-depth interviews with women working in 8 different Swedish universities. They were all a part of the Metoo movement in Swedish higher education and shared testimonies of sexual misconduct and sexism in #akademiuppropet. The interviews that this article is based on were made 6 months in May 2017. Some results have already been published in a report made by the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR 2019). The issue of how sexual harassment is intertwined with the exercise of power in academia is very present in the interviews. In all interviews accept one the examples of sexual harassment, misconduct or sexism the perpetrator was a man in a higher position than the victim. This was not surprising as research on sexual harassment in academia have been dominated by studies on prevalence (Bondestam and Lundqvist 2020) and especially the prevalence of harassment among students (i.e. Klein and Martin 2021). We also know much about the underreporting of sexual harassment among university staff (i.e. Kirkner, Lorenz and Mazar 2020). More qualitative analyses of experiences of sexual harassment in academia that put power in the center of research is lacking. As Schultz (2018) points out in an analysis of the Harvey Weinstein case “explicitly sexual misconduct is typically only one manifestation of a broader pattern of sexism, harassment, and discrimination that is motivated less by sexual desire than by a drive to reinforce masculine workplace status and identity” (p.26). Based on the interview similar tendencies can be observed in the stories of sexually harassed women in academia.

This paper explores the othering processes and feelings of belonging among international medical graduates (IMGs) who seek to practise medicine in Canada and Sweden. Building on the theoretical literature on othering, belonging, and the conceptualisation of status dilemmas, we explore how IMGs in Canada and Sweden negotiate their professional identity, how they cope with being othered and how they establish a path to belonging. Analysing qualitative interviews with 15 Swedish and 67 Canadian immigrant physicians, who are either practising medicine or are in the process of professional integration, we demonstrate that the construction of professional identity among IMGs necessitates constant comparison between the differences and similarities among ‘us’ – immigrant physicians, and ‘them’ – local doctors. In this process, one’s ethnicity, gender, and professional status are intertwined with the experience of being seen as ‘the Other’. We also show that in negotiating their professional status, IMGs actively interpret the meaning of being a Canadian/Swedish physician. We conclude that feelings of belonging to a professional group (Canadian or Swedish) do not seem to be static but rather fluid, ephemeral and changing, depending on the context. Our analysis suggests that more attention should be paid to the social context in which experiences of processes of being othered and feeling belonging are being constructed and interpreted by people themselves.

Since the MeToo hashtag went viral in 2017, the movement has burgeoned across social media, moving beyond Twitter and into living rooms and courtrooms. It has spread unevenly across the globe, with some countries and societies more impacted than others, and interacted with existing feminist movements, struggles, and resistances.

This interdisciplinary handbook identifies thematic and theoretical areas that require attention and interrogation, inviting the reader to make connections between the ways in which the #MeToo movement has panned out in different parts of the world, seeing it in the context of the many feminist and gendered struggles already in place, as well as the solidarities with similar movements across countries and cultures.

With contributions from gender experts spanning a wide range of disciplines including political science, history, sociology, law, literature, and philosophy, this groundbreaking book will have contemporary relevance for scholars, feminists, gender researchers, and policy-makers across the globe.

A growing shortages of health professionals, in particular nurses and doctors, have emerged in OECD countries. One way to meet such shortages is via the international migration of health workers. Between 1970 and 2005, the number of foreign-trained doctors increased at a rapid rate. In Sweden, the average annual growth rate is 7 percent per year (International Migration Outlook, 2007). These prognoses indicate that the number of non-Swedish medical doctors will continue to increase in coming years. The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare categorizes this group into two categories: (1) doctors trained in EU/EEA-countries, and (2) doctors trained in countries outside the EU/EEA. Preliminary results from this text analysis study indicate that doctors with training from outside the EU/EEA do not have the same social presumptions as doctors trained in the EU/EEA. The data analyzed comes from texts published in Swedish health journals. Using a grounded theory approach, we have generated a theoretical explanation for the special presumptions of doctors trained outside the EU/EEA. We argue that this group, through these selected texts, is ascribed a cultural capital that differs from the formal competence needed to serve as a doctor in Sweden. This becomes an obstacle for their integration into the professional labour market. We call this socio-professional phenomenon “cultural authorization”.

In this paper I analyze #akademiuppropet from a digital feminist perspective. Feminist activists are increasingly turning to digital technologies and social media platforms to dialogue, network and organize against sexism, misogyny, harassment and rape (Mendes et al., 2018) and #akademiuppropet is one example where women working in Swedish academic institutions got together to highlight the issue of sexual harassment. Data is gathered through qualitative interviews with 14 women that experienced sexual harassment in academia. During the interviews we talked about what #akademiuppropet and #metoo meant for them, and how they thought it might be a force for change. Results show that the use of social media, as one of many tools in organizing and mobilising the movement, has made it possible to put equal opportunity high on the agenda. This also indicates that many “small whisperings” can be turned into a powerful collective voice – as we have seen with the #metoo movement. Even so, the work is not finished, and we will have to continue to work together in our organizations and with a long-term perspective.

Jag har tillsammans med mina kollegor vid Örebro Universitet och tillsammans med förläggare på studentlitteratur kommit fram till att det behövs en bok som introducerar personalvetare till Sociologi. Presentationen kommer därför att fokusera på varför denna bok behövs och gå igenom de första två kapitlen i utkastet av boken. Jag ser att boken behövs av två anledningar: 1) För att många studenter inte riktigt verkar greppa varför de behöver sociologin och i så fall ganska sent i utbildningen. Bok behövs således som en tidig introduktion som kan användas tillsammans med annan litteratur för att motivera och öppna upp personalvetarnas sociologiska fantasi. 2) Den behövs också då många lärare examinatorer anser att personalvetarnas sociologiska blick har vissa brister. Jag har ofta hört att examinatorer tycker att personalvetarnas självständiga arbeten i sociologi saknar en kritisk blick på hur organisationer formar individer och speciellt det problematiska i detta formande. Personalvetarnas självständiga arbeten i sociologi präglas allt för ofta av en förgivettagen uppfattning om att organisationens inställning, värderingar och motiv är självklara och också alltigenom goda. Boken som föreslås här syftar därför dels till att lyfta fram viktiga sociologiska perspektiv på personalarbetets praktik samt att samtidigt ge personalvetarna verktyg för att ständigt ifrågasätta dessa praktiker.

Boken riktar sig främst till personalvetarstudenter i sociologi på introduktionsnivå men målet är att den blir en självklar del i litteraturlistorna även på sociologiska kurser på kandidatnivå och kan inspirera det självständiga arbetet.

The post-seminar gathering took place at one o’clock in the cafeteria. People were drinking, and many colleagues were attending. The senior faculty member walked up to a female colleague, placed his hand on her bum and groped her. This happened in front of everyone. Up to this point she had been socializing and taking part in the event. When she was groped, she froze, went to the back of the room and sat down. She probably felt violated and ashamed, I think. I saw her try to make eye contact with her colleagues, as if she expected someone to do something. The next day, someone told her in private that she should file a complaint. No open or collective action was taken by any of her colleagues, not even those who saw the groping. She was new to the department and unfamiliar with the procedures for how to file a report or complaint, or to whom. She was also dependent on the senior faculty member, as he was her co-supervisor. She left academia. He stayed, and is now supervising another doctoral student in a project for which he has external funding. (Female junior scholar during #akademiuppropet)

The testimony above exemplifies the 100 real testimonies that were shared in a unsearchable Facebook group with the aim of raising awareness of sexual harassment in Swedish higher education. It is an example of the types of testimonies that formed the basis of what later would be called #akademiuppropet. It can also be seen as a typical testimony, as it shares many of the themes that occur in the real testimonies, such as the dilemma of asymmetric power dynamics in academia, sexist and misogynist organizational cultures, and various kinds of sexual harassment that women in Swedish academia had experienced. The testimonies also included bystanders’ reactions, flawed reporting processes, and women’s feelings of marginalization, disappointment, shame and guilt. The testimonies are consistent with those from other academic organizational contexts, countries and times (see for example Husu, 2000). The consistency of the testimonies is something that I have thought about a great deal since the #metoo movement peaked in November 2017. These thought are presented in this article.

My presentation aims to explore the intersections between my culture as a qualitative researcher and the cultures of the migrant medical doctors that I interviewed. I also aim to explore the affect of the culture of the health professional context in which these interviews are conducted. Questions I would like to raise are: How will I be able to tell the stories of my informants? How do the Swedish health professional context affect the construction and interpretation of these narratives? How do my own background and professional cultures affect the constructions of these narratives? I will draw on some examples from my interviews where these intersections show and I will on the basis of social constructivism draw on some ideas on how we can understand and analyze the constructed situation that are created in qualitative interviews.

This paper is about social and symbolic boundaries (Lamont & Molnar 2002). The aim of this paper is to suggest a theoretical way to understand constructions of ‘Otherness’ within professional boundaries. I draw on the empirical case of the doctors with immigrant backgrounds in the Swedish medical profession and use the notion of critical construction site by Cornell & Hartmann 2007.

In order to bridge the gap between structure and agency the study started with a review of the Swedish research literature in order to see how ‘ethnicity’, ‘race and ‘Otherness’ had been received in research. In this review I found that ‘Otherness’ is often something that is ascribed to patients and not doctors. I then went on reviewing the professional debate around the issue of doctors with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden I found something what I theorized as underlying assumptions of ‘the Other’. This ethnic ‘Otherness’ was not about doctors ‘ethnicity’ nor about ‘race’ instead it had to do with that the doctors had immigrated and was perceived as something sable and predetermined.

This notion of ‘Otherness’ was later also found in interviews with doctors with immigrant backgrounds. In the interviews I expectantly found stories of discrimination, prejudice and even racism but I also found stories of agency, and coping strategies where the ‘Otherness’ they were ascribed with was used a way to construct their role in the Swedish health care system; to take care of patients with immigrant backgrounds.

The paper theorise this as doctors with immigrant backgrounds seem to be using a primordial definition of ‘the Other’ in circumstantial ways in order to find their place within the Swedish medical profession which I argue, is a critical construction site.

This thesis is about medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds who work in Sweden. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds, this thesis explores the medical doctors’ feeling of professional belonging and boundary work. This thesis focuses mainly on the doctors’ experiences of being part of the Swedish medical profession while, at the same time, being regarded as ‘different’ from their Swedish medical counterparts. It starts off with the idea that medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds may have, or could be regarded as having, contradictory social positions. By virtue of being part of the Swedish medical profession, they belong to one of the most privileged groups in Swedish society. However, due to their immigrant background these doctors do not necessarily occupy a privileged position either within their profession or in society in general. This thesis shows that doctors with immigrant backgrounds feel that they are not perceived as full-fledged doctors, which seem related to how they are somewhat ‘othered'. The results show that these doctors cope with being seen as different from doctor with non-immigrant backgrounds, by using the notion of ‘migranthood’ as a resource in negotiations in everyday work life but they also do what they can to overcome the boundaries of ‘Swedishness’. Belonging should therefore be seen as having a formal and an informal side, as getting a Swedish license does not automatically mean that you feel belonging to, in this case, the Swedish medical profession. This seems to put doctors with immigrant backgrounds in a somewhat outsider within position, which seems having to do with boundaries between who is included in the ‘us’ and in the ‘them’. Lastly, these findings indicate that sociologists need to expand the understanding of professional groups to also include boundary work within these groups. In order to do so, this thesis argues that sociological theory on professional groups could be combined with sociological theory about social positions as that is one way to understand the outsider-within position that these doctors (and presumably other skilled migrants) have to cope with.

This policy note highlights issues concerning the right to seek asylum raised by a panel of migration experts in Sweden during the annual Swedish Forum for Human Rights in 2016. The discussion took place following Swedish asylum and immigration policy taking an increasingly restrictive turn. Two main themes are identified. The first theme encompasses views on the relationship between the legal framework’s increased restrictiveness and discourses of securitization and explores the possibilities of moving beyond this pattern. The second theme highlights that different professionals and other staff engaged with asylum seekers and refugees can retain a (legal) space to resist repressive activities that challenge their professional code of conduct and personal integrity.

The difficulties immigrant doctors encounter can be considered as an impediment to accessing skilful work, and are thus an indication of ethnic bias. Therefore the term “devaluation of human capital” is here used to analyze one case where schooling and/or licensure from other countries are less recognized. This study focuses on the case of immigrant doctors in Sweden and their difficulties in achieving similar status positions there as their Swedish counterparts. The study is based on a qualitative study of the Swedish medical journal over time and the aim was to broaden the understanding about how the skills of immigrant doctors are described in this context. Results show that, immigrant doctors in Sweden are constructed as assets when their language-skills are helpful in relation with immigrant patients. In this case the human capital of immigrant doctors is not devaluated, but often they are also considered as a threat to the ‘trustworthiness’ of the profession of doctors. Cultural authorization is a concept presented in this article that can help describing a profession’s way of re-evaluating immigrant professionals.

In the recent year, concerns about growing shortages of health professionals, in particular nurses & doctors have emerged in OECD countries. These shortages have been met via international migration of health workers. Between 1970 & 2005, the number of foreign-trained doctors has increased at a rapid rate. This development indicates that non-Swedish medical doctors will continue to increase in the years to come. The Swedish Board of Health & Welfare categorizes this group into two subcategories which are used in this paper: (1) doctors trained in EU/EEA-countries, & (2) doctors trained in countries outside the EU/EEA. We used a grounded theory approach for analysing 23 selected articles from professional health journals. Preliminary results from this text analysis study indicate that doctors with training from outside the EU/EEA do not have the same social presumptions as doctors trained in the EU/EEA. Using a grounded theory approach, we have generated a theoretical explanation of the special presumptions of doctors trained outside the EU/EEA. We argue that the members of this group are ascribed a type of cultural capital that differs from the formal competence needed to serve as a doctor in Sweden which effect their professional integration process. We call this socio-professional phenomenon “cultural authorization”.

Syftet med utvärderingen är att ta tillvara de erfarenheter och kunskaper som finns inom projekten, samt se vilka spår Arvsfondens finansiering har lämnat. 

I utvärderingsuppdraget har följande frågeställningar ingått:

Vilka spår lämnar Arvsfondens pengar och under vilka förutsättningar lämnar pengarna spår? Vilka framkomliga vägar finner projekten och vilka hinder stöter de på? Hur upplever målgruppen insatserna? Hur många har deltagit i och/eller nåtts av den aktuella verksamheten?

I utvärderingsuppdraget har också ingått att, utifrån Arvsfondens kategorisering av överlevnad, bedöma vad som lever vidare efter projektslut, för de projekt som avslutats vid tiden för utvärderingen.

Genomförande

Utvärderingen omfattar 25 projekt inriktade på jämställdhet och som antingen främst riktats till flickor och kvinnor (17 projekt) eller pojkar och män (8 projekt). I forskarnas genomgång av projekten har det visat sig att flera av de projekt som riktats till flickor och kvinnor också vänt sig till icke-binära och transpersoner. Projekten har pågått under perioden 2016–2023. Utvärderingen slutfördes i juni 2023. Projekten som ingår i utvärderingen har framför allt riktat sig till två av Arvsfondens målgrupper: Barn (0–11 år) och ungdomar (12–25 år).

Utvärderingen har bestått av tre olika delstudier: telefonintervjuer med projektledare i ett urval av projekten, en dokumentstudie baserad på ansökningar, årsrapporter samt slutrapport från de projekt som avslutats vid tiden för utvärderingens slutförande, samt fördjupade studier av tre projekt.

Syftet med utvärderingen är att ta tillvara de erfarenheter och kunskaper som finns inom projekten, samt se vilka spår Arvsfondens finansiering har lämnat. 

I utvärderingsuppdraget har följande frågeställningar ingått:

Vilka spår lämnar Arvsfondens pengar och under vilka förutsättningar lämnar pengarna spår? Vilka framkomliga vägar finner projekten och vilka hinder stöter de på? Hur upplever målgruppen insatserna? Hur många har deltagit i och/eller nåtts av den aktuella verksamheten?

I utvärderingsuppdraget har också ingått att, utifrån Arvsfondens kategorisering av överlevnad, bedöma vad som lever vidare efter projektslut, för de projekt som avslutats vid tiden för utvärderingen.

Genomförande

Utvärderingen omfattar 25 projekt inriktade på jämställdhet och som antingen främst riktats till flickor och kvinnor (17 projekt) eller pojkar och män (8 projekt). I forskarnas genomgång av projekten har det visat sig att flera av de projekt som riktats till flickor och kvinnor också vänt sig till icke-binära och transpersoner. Projekten har pågått under perioden 2016–2023. Utvärderingen slutfördes i juni 2023. Projekten som ingår i utvärderingen har framför allt riktat sig till två av Arvsfondens målgrupper: Barn (0–11 år) och ungdomar (12–25 år).

Utvärderingen har bestått av tre olika delstudier: telefonintervjuer med projektledare i ett urval av projekten, en dokumentstudie baserad på ansökningar, årsrapporter samt slutrapport från de projekt som avslutats vid tiden för utvärderingens slutförande, samt fördjupade studier av tre projekt.