Community In Sweden Research Articles

Incentives for Collaborative Governance: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Initiatives in the Swedish Mountain Region

Governance collaborations between public and private partners are increasingly used to promote sustainable mountain development, yet information is limited on their nature and precise extent. This article analyzes collaboration on environment and natural resource management in Swedish mountain communities to critically assess the kinds of issues these efforts address, how they evolve, who leads them, and what functional patterns they exhibit based on Margerum's (2008) typology of action, organizational, and policy collaboration. Based on official documents, interviews, and the records of 245 collaborative projects, we explore the role of the state, how perceptions of policy failure may inspire collaboration, and the opportunities that European Union funds have created. Bottom-up collaborations, most of which are relatively recent, usually have an action and sometimes an organizational function. Top-down collaborations, however, are usually organizational or policy oriented. Our findings suggest that top-down and bottom-up collaborations are complementary in situations with considerable conflict over time and where public policies have partly failed, such as for nature protection and reindeer grazing. In less contested areas, such as rural development, improving tracks and access, recreation, and fishing, there is more bottom-up, action-oriented collaboration. State support, especially in the form of funding, is central to explaining the emergence of bottom-up action collaboration. Our findings show that the state both initiates and coordinates policy networks and retains a great deal of power over the nature and functioning of collaborative governance. A practical consequence is that there is great overlap—aggravated by sectorized approaches—that creates a heavy workload for some regional partners.

Parental attitudes and decision-making regarding MMR vaccination in an anthroposophic community in Sweden – A qualitative study

Measles outbreaks occur regularly throughout Europe, up to 31500 cases in the previous year, particularly where there are pockets of populations with lower vaccination coverage than the recommended ≥95%. Anthroposophic communities in Europe are one of several groups with relatively low vaccination coverage. In Sweden, outbreaks of measles and rubella were reported from an anthroposophic community. Thus the aim of this qualitative study was to explore facilitators and barriers to MMR vaccination among parents living in anthroposophic communities in Sweden. Twenty parents living in an anthroposophic community were interviewed, focusing on their views and decisions on MMR vaccination. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two overarching views of health emerged, differentiating broadly parents who vaccinate vs. parents who do not vaccinate. Four themes describing parental attitudes toward measles vaccination were developed and three of these, the conformers, the pragmatists and the attentive delayers describe different approaches toward vaccinations among those who actually vaccinate. The last theme, promoters of natural immunity, represents those postponing or refusing vaccination beyond childhood. This study suggests that there is a spectrum of parental beliefs regarding MMR vaccination in this anthroposophic community. Interventions specifically targeted to the anthroposophic community and strengthening health workers capacity for a constructive dialog on vaccine's benefit and risks may contribute to higher vaccination coverage. This is believed to minimize the risk of future epidemics and contribute to the WHO European Region's goal of eliminating measles.

Što Te Nema?: Transnational Cultural Production in the Diaspora in Response to the Srebrenica Genocide

This article examines diaspora mobilization through transnational cultural production within Bosnian diaspora communities in Sweden and the United States in response to genocide. A discussion of diaspora mobilization in response to homeland politics is underlined with data from interviews and participant observation. An example of transnational cultural production through public performance art between an artist and diaspora is highlighted in particular. Its focus is Srebrenica genocide remembrance. The article argues that diaspora cultural production can be more moderate and aims to move beyond ethnonationalist public political debates evidenced in Bosnia and Herzegovina's postconflict political environment while reaffirming belonging to the diaspora in respective host countries.

Breaking bored – negotiating spatial boredom and masculinity in the Volvo greaser culture

In this article I discuss how the experience of boredom becomes a vital part of the narratives and practices of a group of young greasers in a peri-urban community in Sweden. The ethnographic material originates from fieldwork carried out among the local ‘Volvo greasers’, aged between 15 and 19 years, at the local youth centre and the car park in a peri-urban community in Sweden in 2010. The aim of the article is to understand how place, personhood and social relations are intertwined in the greaser culture by introducing the concept of spatial boredom, which strives to illuminate the greasers' active engagement and negotiation with the experience of boredom. In light of this, the semantics of spatial boredom – the community's geographical placement as boring, reactive rather than active, static rather than dynamic – a symbolic link to femininity, domesticity, safety, routine and hence immanence is established. The orientation towards a ‘dangerous’, masculine-coded public space is reinforcing a split between both the feminine and the masculine and the public and the private.

A Quest for Communitas: Rethinking Mediated Memory Existentially

Abstract Despite the fragmentation of audience behaviour and the pluralization of platforms within the media cultures of the digital age, cultural memory practices retain an important feature: They echo a basic existential quest for communitas. The present article compares two seemingly incomparable regimes of memory of our time: the anniversaries of 9.11 on Swedish television and web communities of commemoration of lost loved ones. It suggests through these contrasting examples that existential themes are pursued in the face of three challenges: the temporality of instantaneity, the all-pervasive networked individualism that makes memory into a matter of elective affinities, and the technological capacities that subject memory to endless revision. The article explores the existential dimension of these memory practices in line with research within the culturalist emphasis on the study of media and religion. This debate recognizes the need for a broader understanding of the mediated qualities of religion and the religious qualities of the media. The article argues that both televisual anniversaries of trauma that invite audiences to an annual return, and our new multiple and fragmented media memories compel us to conceive of our hyper-contingent, late-modern digital age as a quest for meaning, transcendence and cohesion – for what Victor Turner (1969) called existential communitas.

Careless men, careless masculinities? Understanding young men's risk-taking with motor vehicles as violations

Young men's risk-taking with motor vehicles regularly generates public debate as a traffic safety issue, often resulting in various policy suggestions, such as curfews or raising of the driving licence age. This article is based on an ethnographic study of the ‘Volvo greasers’, young men and women aged 15 to 19, in a peri-urban community in Sweden. The focus is particularly on the greasers' risk-taking practices with motor vehicles, such as speeding and drifting. In order to understand how the greasers' risk-taking with vehicles is manifested, talked about and practised, the article critically engages with the contexts of the risk-taking practices and their effects at both the material and the discursive levels. Through contextualization as an analytical tool, a situated concept of risk-taking is developed, which illustrates how intersecting norms and conceptions around age, gender, class and place are practised at the local level. The aim is to explore the greasers' risk-related talk and practices through the notion of ‘control’: how different activities, practices and recountings of particular situations together function to control vehicles, the narrative around risk-taking and the emotions involved. I argue that the foregrounding of these controlling practices in the greaser culture legitimates a lack of care for oneself and others, which constructs the greaser men as not only carefree, but also careless. Consequently, I suggest that an approach to risk-taking practices as a kind of violation would be beneficial, due in part to their potentially harmful consequences and in part to the construction of careless men as a consequence of the controlling practices.

A comparison of unintentional injury patterns occurring in two Swedish communities in 1978 and in 2008

Surveillance and analyses of unintentional injuries can be used to help prioritise community prevention efforts. This study describes changes in local patterns for unintentional injuries resulting in deaths, hospitalisations, and outpatient visits to health care clinics and emergency rooms, comparing information from two different study periods, 1978 and 2008, in the Swedish communities of Falköping and Lidköping. Injury cases were analysed, and confidence intervals were derived. The study results show that while most injuries decreased comparing the first study period to the second, these changes were only significant in terms of decreases in outpatient care. This study points to the importance of more systematic collection data of injury events treated at the outpatient level, particularly for communities where there are relatively low numbers of injury-related deaths and hospitalisations.

‘Not without the Consent and Goodwill of the Common People’: The Community as a Legal Authority in Medieval Sweden

The article investigates the legal authority of the people in later medieval Sweden. Three features are especially focused on. The first aspect of communal legal authority is the representation and participation of the local laity in the judicial process as co-judges, members of the nämnd, the Swedish equivalent of the jury, or town councillors. They also acted as surveyors, compurgators and inspectors in legal disputes. The second aspect is the role of the community, the people of the province, as lawmakers. Finally, the article looks at the role of medieval Swedish communities in choosing judges, juries and parish priests as well as electing kings. The article argues that the legal authority of the people in medieval Sweden was influenced by and reformulated through the church by learned doctrines on majority decisions and the quod omnes tangit maxim. After the Middle Ages, the nämnd and the representation of the peasant estate at parliament became some of the constituents of the national legal identity of Sweden vis-à-vis other countries.

The Awakening of a Latent Diaspora: The Political Mobilization of First and Second Generation Turkish Migrants in Sweden

This paper explores how political developments in a host country catalyse the awakening of a latent diaspora and lead to the activation of a transnational community that previously consisted of loose and scattered networks. It also draws attention to the generational continuation of identity politics in a diaspora context through analysing a second generation's abrupt interest in homeland politics. By using the Turkish community in Sweden as a case study and by basing its main arguments on extensive research and fieldwork, it suggests that inter-diaspora rivalries and group competition may help to gain a better understanding of the interest that diasporans show in the promotion of homeland politics. It also suggests that although the diasporic discourses are based on contested political issues in their home country, the framing process takes place with regards to the host country context. The paper suggests that there were two significant transformative and triggering factors in Sweden that motivated the Turkish diaspora to participate actively in efforts to affect policymaking mechanisms in Sweden: Kurdish diaspora activism in general and the passage of the Armenian Genocide Bill by the Swedish Parliament on 11 March 2010.

The need for palliative care education, support, and reflection among rural nurses and other staff: A quantitative study

Many people now die in community care, and, considering the aging population, all healthcare staff members must be prepared to provide palliative care. Our objectives were to describe the total staff working in different care organizations in a rural community in Sweden and to explore palliative care competence, to describe educational gaps and the need for support and reflection, and to determine whether there are differences in care organizations, professions, age, and gender. A 4-section 20-item questionnaire was distributed to 1686 staff (65% response rate): in nursing homes (n = 395), home care (n = 240), and group residential settings (n = 365). Registered nurses (n = 70), assistant nurses (n = 916), managers (n = 43), and paramedics (n = 33) participated. Descriptive and correlational statistics were employed. Significant differences were found, and 40% (53% among men) lacked palliative care education, Fewer than 50% lacked education in the spiritual/existential areas, and 75% of those aged 20-66 (75% women, 55% men) needed further education. More women than men and staff aged 50-59 had an increased need to reflect. Our study may provide guidance for managers in rural communities when planning educational interventions in palliative care for healthcare staff and may support direct education with content for specific professions.

The Discourse of Multiculturalism: An Obstacle to Cultural Change?

This article discusses how the discourse of multiculturalism affects religious and cultural changes in the Muslim communities in Sweden and Norway, particularly with reference to gender and gender relations. Although the two societies have few multicultural policies, the discourse on multiculturalism has still led to claims for legal pluralism. However, it seems that there is an obvious change of attitudes to such claims between the first-generation Muslim immigrants and their descendants, second-generation Norwegian and Swedish Muslims.

Psychosocial Functioning and Intelligence Both Partly Explain Socioeconomic Inequalities in Premature Death. A Population-Based Male Cohort Study

ObjectiveThe possible contributions of psychosocial functioning and intelligence differences to socioeconomic status (SES)-related inequalities in premature death were investigated. None of the previous studies focusing on inequalities in mortality has included measures of both psychosocial functioning and intelligence.MethodsThe study was based on a cohort of 49 321 men born 1949–1951 from the general community in Sweden. Data on psychosocial functioning and intelligence from military conscription at ∼18 years of age were linked with register data on education, occupational class, and income at 35–39 years of age. Psychosocial functioning was rated by psychologists as a summary measure of differences in level of activity, power of initiative, independence, and emotional stability. Intelligence was measured through a multidimensional test. Causes of death between 40 and 57 years of age were followed in registers.ResultsThe estimated inequalities in all-cause mortality by education and occupational class were attenuated with 32% (95% confidence interval: 20–45%) and 41% (29–52%) after adjustments for individual psychological differences; both psychosocial functioning and intelligence contributed to account for the inequalities. The inequalities in cardiovascular and injury mortality were attenuated by as much as 51% (24–76%) and 52% (35–68%) after the same adjustments, and the inequalities in alcohol-related mortality were attenuated by up to 33% (8–59%). Less of the inequalities were accounted for when those were measured by level of income, with which intelligence had a weaker correlation. The small SES-related inequalities in cancer mortality were not attenuated by adjustment for intelligence.ConclusionsDifferences in psychosocial functioning and intelligence might both contribute to the explanation of observed SES-related inequalities in premature death, but the magnitude of their contributions likely varies with measure of socioeconomic status and cause of death. Both psychosocial functioning and intelligence should be considered in future studies.

Representations of religion in secular states: the Muslim communities in Sweden

The presence of Muslim populations in Western European societies is a relatively new phenomenon which is raising questions about how these societies treat religious minorities. This article considers the situation in Sweden, beginning with a brief history of the development of the Swedish state from one based on the Lutheran faith to today’s secular society in which state and religion are officially separated. It moves on to discuss the emergence of a sizable Muslim population in the latter part of the 20th century and considers the ways in which the secular character and religious neutrality of the state offer such religious minorities space to practise their religions. However, as Swedish society, politics and law are still premised on certain Christian notions of what religion should be, Muslims and more particularly Islamic organizations in the country have to find ways to adapt themselves to these pre-existing religious structures. Thus the presence of a large Muslim minority has affected the mindset of the members of this minority as well as the Swedish host society.

Contribution to PM2.5 from domestic wood burning in a small community in Sweden

Contribution to PM2.5 from domestic wood burning in a small community in Sweden

Why Do People Move to Cohousing Communities in Sweden? - Are there any Significant Differences Between the +40 Cohousing and the Mixed-Age Cohousing?

Cohousing is based on collaborative network, or fictive kin in the community. It could facilitate the goal of self-sufficiency. This research aims to investigate the motivation of move to cohousing communities in Sweden, and to find out if there are any significant differences according to two different cohousing types; between the +40 cohousing and the mixed-age cohousing. The +40 cohousing is a kind of senior cohousing in which residents are supposed to be aged over 40. Questionnaire survey was applied and 242 collected data were analyzed by SPSS statistical program. Notable differences in demographic and dwelling variables are found between the 2 groups. There are more women, singles, academics, and small dwellings in the +40 cohousing than in the mixed-age cohousing. Referring motivation of move, "sharing common activity" and "idea of cohousing" are commonly noticed as the main reasons why people move to cohousing communities. Major difference between the 2 groups is that residents of the +40 cohousing tend to stress more on social interaction with neighbors than practical merit. On the contrary, ones of the mixed-age cohousing focus more on practical advantage than social interaction. As a conclusion, it is evident that motivation of move to cohousing communities is different by cohousing types, which have different residents' characteristics. Cohousing could contribute to elevate marginal group's quality of life as an alternative living environment. Therefore, cohousing design has to be tailored to adapt residents' specific needs of different life-stages. In order to implement cohousing model into other countries, for instance into Korea, it needs to experiment with the notion of transplanting selected cohousing principles to a public housing development. In the mixed-age cohousing where more dual income families with young children than conventional housing developments reside, residents would need more practical advantage than emotional support in the community, while as residents in the senior cohousing need vice versa.

스웨덴 노인용 코하우징 주민의 이주동기의 시계열적 차이 : 2001~2010년 10년간의 차이를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to identify difference in motivation of move to senior cohousing communities in Sweden during 10 years between the year of 2001 and 2010 by a longitudinal study. Questionnaire survey was used for the study. 313 data were collected from 12 senior cohousing communities, which were established by residents-initiated process. It includes 8 of Senior g<TEX>${\aa}$</TEX>rden cohousings in 2001 and 4 of +40 cohousings in 2010 nationwide in Sweden. The result indicates that there are significant differences in motivation of move to senior cohousing between 2001 and 2010. Comparing motivation of move to senior cohousing during 10 years, respondents of 2010 focus more on social merits than practical merits of cohousing as they move to cohousing communities. They stress more to the reasons as good contacts with neighbors, mutual supports, sharing common activities and getting rid of loneliness rather than burden of housing and garden management, and universal-designed house. The result of this study reveals motivation of move to senior cohousing has been changed during 10 years in Sweden.

To age as a man: Ageing and masculinity in a small rural community in Sweden

This study aims to add to knowledge on the relation between ageing and masculinity in society by looking at how older unmarried and childless men in a small Swedish rural community articulate their ...

Traditional ecological knowledge among Sami reindeer herders in northern Sweden about vascular plants grazed by reindeer

Traditional knowledge about how reindeer utilize forage resources was expected to be crucial to reindeer herders. Seventeen Sami reindeer herders in four reindeer herding communities in Sweden (“samebyar” in Swedish) were interviewed about plants species considered to be important reindeer food plants in scientific literature. Among 40 plant species, which the informants were asked to identify and indicate whether and when they were grazed by reindeer, they identified a total of 21 plant taxa and five plant groups. They especially recognised species that were used as human food by the Sami themselves, but certain specific forage plants were also identified. Detailed knowledge of vascular plants at the species level was surprisingly general, which may indicate that knowledge of pasture resources in a detailed species level is not of vital importance. This fact is in sharp contradiction to the detailed knowledge that Sami people express for example about reindeer (as an animal) or snow (as physical element). The plausible explanation is that observations of individual plant species are unnecessarily detailed information in large-scale reindeer pastoralism, because the animals graze freely under loose herding and border surveillance.

Majority versus Minority: ‘Governmentality’ and Muslims in Sweden

This article deals with the Muslim community in Sweden in view of the majority–minority dynamics with focus on how values, attitudes, behaviors, and practices of the Swedish majority influence Muslim minority communities and how majority society’s approach to Muslims and Islam influences both the relationship Muslims have with non-Muslims and the understandings that Muslims have of Islam.

Being here and there: migrant communities in Sweden and the conflicts in the Horn of Africa

The largest migrant communities in Sweden come from Africa's most troubled region, the Horn. These are the Somali and Ethiop-Eritrean communities. This paper examines the not-so-obvious ways in which Ethiop-Eritrean and Somali communities in Sweden influence the political developments, particularly the conflicts at ‘home’. Many of these immigrants living in Sweden keep up with social and political developments in their countries of origin almost on daily basis and remain engaged, to a large extent, in the affairs of both their families and communities ‘out there’ while they ‘are here in Sweden’. This article therefore focuses on the particular forms of engagement that have either intended or unintended impact on the intractable conflicts in which the societies in these countries are engaged. I argue that ‘nostalgia underpins the immigrants’ sense of commitment to the affairs of their countries of origin, and therefore, providing moral and material support to warring groups derives the impetus largely from the affective dimension of migration.