Swedish Movement Research Articles

Anders Zorn and naturalistic ski competitions versus the progress of the hegemonic Swedish sport policy at the beginning of the 20th century

In this essay we will use a historical approach to comprehend, firstly, the progress and challenges of the Swedish Sport Movement, and secondly, as a stimulus to a reflection on current challenges in regard to the policy and organization of Swedish sport. Thus, the famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn, and his entrepreneurial approach in regard to ski competitions, in addition to his naturalistic ideas, stood in the early 1900 as a (serious) challenge to the initial progress of the Swedish Sport Confederation and its tradition, ideology and, in the prolongation, its hegemonic position. This historical review will, additionally, be related to a contemporary case – ‘The Motor Sport Case’ – in which the Swedish Sport Model has become challenged by EU Law and Competition Law. The presentation will offer a fair amount of – archeological – evidence to better understand the inherent (generic) conflicts as well as the hegemony of the Swedish sport movement. The theoretical framework builds roughly on the perspectives of power and hegemony, which includes concept such as domination, encapsulation, rebellion and noncompliance. The reflection focuses on the ‘organizational capital’ as the vital drive in the progress of the Swedish Sport Confederation and its monopoly.

Like worker, like union? Labor market risk exposure, white-collar predominance and trade unions’ policy advocacy

AbstractThis study seeks to advance the scholarship on trade union heterogeneity. Expanding on previous research, we develop a theoretical framework that distinguishes unions along two dimensions—members’ labor market risk exposure and the predominance of white-collar workers—that help shape their labor market policy preferences and advocacy. The framework is then assessed in a within-country mixed-methods analysis. We first document how members in 35 Swedish unions map onto the two dimensions, using fine-grained survey data, and then qualitatively analyze the advocacy of seven unions with different membership characteristics. Our results confirm the relevance of isolating the two dimensions in analyses of both membership preferences and elite advocacy. These findings contrast with existing accounts of the contemporary Swedish union movement and carry implications for many other countries with fragmented union landscapes. They particularly demonstrate the importance of disaggregating union membership in micro- and macro-level research involving unions and their power resources.

Mening och samhörighet

Meaning and Belonging: Young Adults in Today’s Pentecostal Congregations in Sweden
 The focus of this article is to explore where and how young adults in the contemporary Swedish Pentecostal movement experience meaning and belonging in their congregation and what impact meaning and belonging have for them. This article builds on a study from 2019, in which young adults in today’s Swedish Pentecostal congregations described their beliefs and their congregational life; Gemenskap, individualism och andlighet. Tro och församlingsliv bland unga vuxna i den samtida svenska pingströrelsen (Sand, 2019). The data was collected through interviews and a survey, in which both young-adult members and leaders were questioned. The results from the 2019-study will in this article be analysed and discussed based on Meredith B. McGuire’s theory on meaning and belonging in Religion: The Social Context (2008). In addition, the results will also be compared with related research. The results show the young adults mostly experience meaning and belonging in the smaller gatherings the congregations offer. The smaller groups offer the opportunity to form close bonds to other members and the possibility to strengthen their faith. The groups also work as a “safe haven” where the members can share their everyday life and personal challenges. Although the large parish community in the congregations can provide both meaning and belonging, such as volunteering in the church activities, worship and prayer during the Sunday services; they do not produce that to the same extent as the smaller gatherings. This article shows that the experience of meaning and belonging is important both for the development of the young adults’ faith and their belonging in the congregations.

Spirituality in the Swedish Pentecostal movement: continuity, discontinuity, and change

ABSTRACTThis article presents the results of a study of 91 sermons from two of the largest and most influential Pentecostal churches in Sweden, where the spirituality of the contemporary Swedish Pentecostal movement was analysed. Contemporary spirituality was examined with the help of identity-carrying elements in the categories of doctrines, practices, and affections and then compared with the spirituality of the early Swedish Pentecostal movement. The comparison suggests different aspects of continuity, discontinuity, and transition in the development of Pentecostal spirituality in Sweden.

Common sense as extremism: the multi-semiotics of contemporary national socialism

ABSTRACTThis paper explores how national socialist aesthetics and semiotics are regimented within the Swedish Nazi milieu today. In order to treat fascism as contemporary ideology, the article applies intertextuality and provenance as analytical concepts in the analysis of how Nazism is re-emerging discursively. The analysis contributes unique insights, as the dataset consists of extremist discourse aimed at providing members of the most prominent Swedish Nazi movement with guidance on how to embody and express national socialism in their everyday lives. The analysis reveals that common-sense notions about ‘a natural life’ and mainstream aesthetics concerning an outdoor lifestyle emerge as central expressions of a ‘natural’ and ‘healthy’ embodiment of national socialism. This aesthetic finds its ideological motive in opposition to a ‘sick’, ‘Jewish’ and ‘parasitical’ way of living. Mainstream notions are thus turned into vehicles for political extremism.

Social entrepreneurship in a sport policy context

This article investigates social entrepreneurship in relation to government state policies in Sweden and to the Swedish sports movement. Social entrepreneurship within sport comprises three elements that need to be qualified: the social element, entrepreneurship and sport. We wish to offer both a specific and a wider definition of social entrepreneurship in sport; specific in the sense that we try to define the concept theoretically, and wider in that we place the concept in a societal context where we relate it to different sectors in society. The method can be described as ethnographically inspired case studies. Four cases are presented. Previous research and the cases have helped us to formulate theses concerning ‘sport’ and ‘profit’ as means for social entrepreneurship, ‘social’ being normatively defined in the public sector, and entrepreneurial activities being understood as acts, crossing boundaries between the different sectors of society, leading to conflicts.

Spatiotemporal Variation in Distance Dependent Animal Movement Contacts: One Size Doesn't Fit All.

The structure of contacts that mediate transmission has a pronounced effect on the outbreak dynamics of infectious disease and simulation models are powerful tools to inform policy decisions. Most simulation models of livestock disease spread rely to some degree on predictions of animal movement between holdings. Typically, movements are more common between nearby farms than between those located far away from each other. Here, we assessed spatiotemporal variation in such distance dependence of animal movement contacts from an epidemiological perspective. We evaluated and compared nine statistical models, applied to Swedish movement data from 2008. The models differed in at what level (if at all), they accounted for regional and/or seasonal heterogeneities in the distance dependence of the contacts. Using a kernel approach to describe how probability of contacts between farms changes with distance, we developed a hierarchical Bayesian framework and estimated parameters by using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques. We evaluated models by three different approaches of model selection. First, we used Deviance Information Criterion to evaluate their performance relative to each other. Secondly, we estimated the log predictive posterior distribution, this was also used to evaluate their relative performance. Thirdly, we performed posterior predictive checks by simulating movements with each of the parameterized models and evaluated their ability to recapture relevant summary statistics. Independent of selection criteria, we found that accounting for regional heterogeneity improved model accuracy. We also found that accounting for seasonal heterogeneity was beneficial, in terms of model accuracy, according to two of three methods used for model selection. Our results have important implications for livestock disease spread models where movement is an important risk factor for between farm transmission. We argue that modelers should refrain from using methods to simulate animal movements that assume the same pattern across all regions and seasons without explicitly testing for spatiotemporal variation.

Learning to lead: the transition from participant to leader within the Swedish scout movement

ABSTRACTThe aim of the present article is to explore how members transit from participants to leaders within Swedish scouting. It is a contribution to the ongoing discussion about the continued involvement of older participants within youth cultures [Bennett, A. (2006). Punk's not dead: The continuing significance of punk rock for and older generations of fans. Sociology, 40, 219–235; Bennett, A., & Hodkinson, P. (2012). Ageing and youth cultures: Music, style and identity. London: Berg; Davis, J. R. (2006). Growing up punk: Negotiating aging identity in a local music scene. Symbolic interaction, 29(1), 63–69; Hodkinson, P. (2011). Ageing in a spectacular “youth culture”: Continuity, change and community amongst older goths. The British Journal of Sociology, 62(2), 262–282], through investigating a different case; that of a youth organization. Both educators, who take charge, as well as participants taking part in scout leadership courses, have been interviewed. The present study demonstrates there is an end to childhood and youth within scouting. In order to stay involved, the participant has to become a leader. Paradoxically, though, no significant difference between being a scout and a leader is however experienced. The only difference is that the member has to be more responsible as a scout leader. None of the informants, however, mention responsibility as their main motive for continued participation. Rather, the main motive for volunteering as leaders seems to be the prospect of remaining scouts. Through becoming a leader, the scout is able to stay a scout and concomitantly; to stay youthful.

Frikyrklig ecklesiologi?

A Free Church Ecclesiology? Peter Halldorf’s View of the Church under Discussion There has been a change in the ecclesiology of the well-known Pentecostal pastor and author Peter Halldorf. His ecclesiology was first centered on the individual Christian and he appears to have regarded the church as a group of praying individuals. This ecclesiology could perhaps be regarded to be in line with the ecclesiology of the Swedish Pentecostal movement, the starting point of Halldorf’s ecclesiological processing. Halldorf’s later ecclesiology has taken a controversial turn and is influenced by the Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Movement. The Pentecostal movement in Sweden has in recent decades undergone major changes which have led to an unclear self-understanding. In spite of the fact that Halldorf is very influential as a pastor and writer, his alternative ecclesiology has not been received as a serious alternative within the Pentecostal movement. In this article I discuss trajectories in Halldorf’s ecclesiology in relation to the ecclesiology of John Howard Yoder. My aim is to provide a Free Church evaluation of Halldorf’s trajectories and my claim is that his development does not necessarily stand in disagreement with the Swedish Pentecostal movement, if one considers the movement’s Baptistic roots. It is therefore possible that Halldorf’s trajectory is a path to follow for the Swedish Pentecostal movement, a movement searching for an identity. It is at the same time possible that the Free Church ecclesiology of Yoder may deepen Halldorf's own ecclesiology.

Myths and Traditions as Constraints or Resources? Path Dependency and Decoupling Strategies among Civil Society Organizations

History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, CSOs have to mediate between their original mission and modern-day realities. This article argues that understanding the concept of decoupling can enrich analyses of how organizations deal with path dependency. Hence, this article discusses cross-fertilization between historical and organizational institutionalism. This is illustrated through a study of Swedish CSOs using survey data, interviews and documents. The Swedish popular movement tradition is argued to be a path that is not easily abandoned, and the results of the surveys and interviews included here show how actors in CSOs find history to be both a resource and a constraint. Furthermore, different decoupling strategies, including both reversed and official decoupling, are used to balance between historical legacies and current challenges.

Coaching and Coach Education in Sweden

The purpose of this article is to describe the status of coaching and coach education in Sweden. The Swedish Sport Movement can be traced to the distinctive cultural and political characteristics that exist in Sweden and in other Scandinavian countries. The typical Swedish coach has been described as a collectivist, having a high work ethic and believing strongly in the importance of the group (Birkinshaw & Crainer, 2002). They build their coaching on what are traditionally considered female values, have a high-risk tolerance and there is often a lack of hierarchy in the coach-athlete relationship. Most coaching is done on a voluntary basis and the different Sport federations design and deliver coach education. There is no standard or uniform coach education regarding content, structure and costs. In addition, the quality of coach education in Sweden has not been assessed. Although many coaches recognize the importance of learning from other coaches, research has found that coaches in Sweden are seldom prepared to reflect and to think critically (Fahlström, Glemne, Hageskog, Kenttä, & Linnér, 2013; Hedberg, 2014).

Young or youthful: the Scout Movement and youth discourses

The aim of this article is to explore the discourses surrounding the contemporary Swedish Scout Movement and young people. The method is based on discourse analysis. Newspaper articles about, and leaflets from, the movement from 2007 to 2009 were analyzed. The findings suggest that scouts are described as well-behaved, decent, sinful, “geeky,” young or youthful. The leaflets demonstrate that the organization wants to promote itself as youthful. It has trouble recruiting young people and tries to change its image by borrowing symbols from other youth cultures. Paradoxically, this approach leads to a conclusion that the Scout Movement's youth are not seen as youthful by their own organization. They cannot signal youthfulness by themselves.

Sweden Asks: Should Convicted Murderers Practice Medicine?

Most reasonable people acknowledge that Karl Helge Hampus Hellekant has committed a grave moral offense: the 33-year-old Swede, also known as Karl Svensson, was convicted of killing trade unionist Björn Söderberg in 1999 at the behest of the Swedish neo-Nazi movement. What is not so clear is whether Hellekant, who is currently free on parole, should be permitted to become a physician. The former extremist was admitted to the medical school at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute in 2007, but later expelled—following considerable public debate—after school officials discovered that he was temporarily unable to verify his academic records. Sweden’s most prestigious medical school, Uppsala, subsequently confirmed these records and matricatulated him in 2008.

Turning Aliens into Socialists

Immediately after the Second World War Sweden was struck by a wave of sightings of strange flying objects. In some cases these mass sightings resulted in panic, particularly after authorities failed to identify them. Decades later, these phenomena were interpreted by two members of the Swedish UFO movement, Erland Sandqvist and Gösta Rehn, as alien spaceships, or UFOs. Rehn argued that ‘[t]here is nothing so dramatic in the Swedish history of UFOs as this invasion of alien fly-things’ (Rehn 1969: 50). In this article the interpretation of such sightings proposed by these authors, namely that we are visited by extraterrestrials from outer space, is approached from the perspective of myth theory. According to this mythical theme, not only are we are not alone in the universe, but also the history of humankind has been shaped by encounters with more highly-evolved alien beings. In their modern day form, these kinds of ideas about aliens and UFOs originated in the United States. The reasoning of Sandqvist and Rehn exemplifies the localization process that took place as members of the Swedish UFO movement began to produce their own narratives about aliens and UFOs. The question I will address is: in what ways do these stories change in new contexts? Texts produced by the Swedish UFO movement are analyzed as a case study of this process.

Lewi Pethrus and the Creation of a Christian Counterculture

AbstractThis article presents and analyzes the life and work of Lewi Pethrus (1884-1974), the leader of the Swedish Pentecostal movement. The argument is that Pethrus created a Christian counterculture in the midst of a secularized Western society. Although a radical congregationalist skeptical toward organization, Pethrus spent most of his life building institutions. The first institutions he created were for the benefit of the spiritual life of Pentecostal congregations and churches. These included a publishing house, an edifying journal, a hymn book, and a school for evangelism. During World War II, however, Nazism and Communism made Pethrus attentive to the dangers of secularization. He now began founding institutions that were part of the broader civil society, such as a daily newspaper, a radio station, a bank, and a political party. His goal was to turn Sweden into a Christian society. He did not achieve this, but what he did leave was the legacy of a Christian counterculture.

Optimal size of PHEV batteries from a consumer perspective – estimation using car movement data and implications for data harvesting

Due to expensiveness of PHEV batteries, the dimensioning of the batteries is very important. We derive the marginally optimal size from a consumer economics perspective and show that a crucial factor for optimal size and profitability is the marginal annual recharging frequency. We apply the analysis to a small set of Swedish vehicle movement data and demonstrate that the resulting optimal battery is highly dependent on the specific movement pattern of the individual car. We conclude that it is now urgent for the continued development, planning, and estimates of proliferation and impact of PHEVs, that statistical data, today mostly lacking, for the movement patterns of individual vehicles are assembled.

Racism on the Palace Steps?

After leaving the diplomatic post vacant for over a year, Richard Nixon in 1970 surprisingly appointed African-American Jerome H. Holland as the new US ambassador to Sweden. When Jerome Holland arrived at the Stockholm airport, antiwar protesters allegedly shouted ‘nigger go home’ at him. A week later, as Dr. Holland submitted his credentials to the Swedish king, demonstrators may have again shouted the racist epithet ‘nigger’. These incidents were widely reported in the US media and now appear in history books. This article examines what happened in April 1970, and concludes that the evidence showing that antiwar demonstrators said any of these things is weak. It may be that someone simply misunderstood what had been said. Another possibility is that the Nixon White House wanted to smear the Swedish antiwar movement with the stain of racism, trying to undercut the legitimacy of Sweden's criticism of the Vietnam War. This article examines the evidence behind a historical puzzle that still allows various interpretations of meanings and motives.

Football, football pools and the unexpected arrival of sports in Swedish welfare politics

The aim of the essay is to describe the establishment of football pools in Sweden during the 1920s and 1930s and how this – unexpectedly – contributed to the breakthrough of sports within the framework of Swedish welfare politics. The essay begins with a short historical background. It continues with an account of the illegal pool industry which arose in Sweden in the 1920s followed by the forming of the government‐controlled gambling company Tipstjänst in 1934. After an analysis of the short‐ and long‐term importance of pools to Swedish sports, the effects the development in Sweden had on the sports policies of the other Scandinavian countries will be discussed. The essay concludes with a discussion of the link between the Swedish sports movement and the gambling market in modern times. The fact is that the gambling policy problems current in the inter‐war period have emerged in a new form – with uncertain consequences to Swedish sports’ future economy and relation to the government.

Heightened Feelings! Emotions as ‘Capital’ in the Swedish Suffrage Movement

This article deals with six Swedish suffragists who belonged to an informal network in the Swedish Suffrage Organization and who corresponded over the twenty years that the struggle for the vote took, from 1902 to 1921. The analysis takes place on two levels; on the one hand, it deals with the women’s description of their emotional experience, and on the other, with how these feelings were constructed and used in political propaganda as a kind of ‘capital’—in demonstrations, public meetings or festive occasions. The suffragists on the barricades lived at a time of much drama and many tensions and the period generated powerful feelings that could be utilized in the campaign for the vote. The theoretical framework is Randall Collins’s model of ‘interaction rituals’ where he argues that feelings are of great importance for social movements in particular.

A Yearning of the Heart: Spirituality and Politics

AbstractThis text is a personal account of some of my experiences as an activist within the global justice movement and also as a Buddhist practitioner, and how these two ways of striving for human emancipation interlink and mutually reinforce each other. Using examples from the Swedish Attac movement and the EU summit mobilisations in Gothenburg in 2001, the text argues that social movement activism is often existentially challenging, in that its participants are made aware of their inability to live up to their own ideals of equality, inclusion, justice and dignity. Many activists experience a kind of deep, existential disappointment with themselves and their organisations, which makes it hard to sustain engagement, especially since most movements do not have a language for or a culture of speaking about these processes. The text shares experiences of using teachings and practices of teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Chögyam Trungpa and Pema Chödrön in order to understand and integrate such disappointment and sustain engagement.