This article examines the changes in power resources in the Swedish labour market since the 1990s and investigates the factors that have caused these changes by utilising an ideological theoretical ...approach. Specifically, it explores the impact of ideological changes on power resources, such as the level of unemployment, the strength of trade unions, and institutional power resources. The ideological approach is used as the analytical tool to analyse the interaction between ideas and the material world. The article analyses 24 government policy documents and how they relate to the context where the ideas arise. First, I provide a contextual description in which the changing of power resources has occurred, then government bills related to the changing of power resources are analysed. I argue that the changes were motivated by the need to adapt to a globalised and flexible economy to create growth. The reduction in employeesʼ power resources can be seen as an outcome of a dialectical spiral between ideas and the context in which they exist, and I suggest that promoting employee interests rather than growth could have led to a different outcome.
This article examines the changes in power resources in the Swedish labour market since the 1990s and investigates the factors that have caused these changes by utilising an ideological theoretical ...approach. Specifically, it explores the impact of ideological changes on power resources, such as the level of unemployment, the strength of trade unions, and institutional power resources. The ideological approach is used as the analytical tool to analyse the interaction between ideas and the material world. The article analyses 24 government policy documents and how they relate to the context where the ideas arise. First, I provide a contextual description in which the changing of power resources has occurred, then government bills related to the changing of power resources are analysed. I argue that the changes were motivated by the need to adapt to a globalised and flexible economy to create growth. The reduction in employeesʼ power resources can be seen as an outcome of a dialectical spiral between ideas and the context in which they exist, and I suggest that promoting employee interests rather than growth could have led to a different outcome.
The aim of this article is to describe and explain the development of temporary employment in Sweden between 1992 and 2010, and to investigate the effect of temporary employment for individuals’ ...future career on the labor market. The article analyzes temporary employees’ status transitions on the labor market using Swedish Labour Force Survey (LFS) data for the period 1992–2010. Each cohort consists of 2-year panels and focuses on changes between the first and last measuring points. The findings indicate that the specific type of temporary employment is crucial as regards whether or not it constitutes a stepping-stone toward permanent employment. The chances are greater in the case of, for example, substitutes, but are considerably less in the case of on-call employment. Certain types of temporary employment thus seem to be used by the employer to screen the employability of the employee, while others are used for achieving flexibility
Arv, miljö eller både och? Johan Alfonsson
Sociologisk forskning,
06/2022, Letnik:
59, Številka:
1–2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Med hjälp av heritabilitetsmetodik har en del forskare som använder tvillingstudier, och på senare år även DNA-studier, hävdat att genetiskt arv på ett avgörande sätt förklarar sociala utfall. Att ...söka förklara vad som orsakar sociala utfall är en strävan att förklara hur verkligheten är beskaffad och är därmed en ontologisk fråga. Syftet med artikeln är att med utgångspunkt från den kritiska realismen kritiskt undersöka heritabilitetsstudiernas outtalade ontologiska antaganden. Först förklaras grunderna i heritabilitetsmetodiken, tvillingmetodiken och DNA-studier som mäter heritabilitet, och den tidigare kritik som riktats mot studierna sammanfattas. Därefter argumenterar jag för att heritabilitetsmetodiken inte undersöker vad som faktiskt orsakar sociala händelser: de mått som studierna tar fram döljer andra bakomliggande mekanismer som äger den generativa kraften att påverka sociala utfall. Mot denna bakgrund argumenterar jag för att studierna gör dels den felplacerade konkretionens felslut, dels det epistemiska felslutet. Avslutningsvis argumenterar jag för att konkreta sociala fenomen bör förstås som ett utfall av samspel mellan olika generativa mekanismer.
Arv, miljö eller både och? Alfonsson, Johan
Sociologisk forskning,
2022, Letnik:
59, Številka:
1-2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Heredity, environment, or both? A critical realistic critique of the heritability methodology
With heritability methodology researchers using twin studies, and during recent year also DNA studies, ...have claimed that heredity plays a crucial role in explaining social outcomes. Explaining what causes social outcomes is a strive to explain how reality is constituted, and is thus an ontological question. The purpose of this article is to examine the unspoken ontological assumptions in heritability studies from a critical realistic perspective. First I’ll explain the basics of the heritability methodology, the twin methodology and DNA studies that measure heritability, then I’ll describe the previous criticism of these studies. Thereafter I’ll argue that the heritability studies do not examine the actual causes of social events, but rather that the measures are driven by other underlying mechanisms, which thus are the ones possessing the generative power to influence social outcomes. Against this background, I argue that the studies commit the fallacy of misplaced concreteness and the epistemic fallacy. In conclusion, I argue that concrete social phenomena should be understood as an interplay between different generative mechanisms.
Arv, miljö eller både och? Alfonsson, Johan
Sociologisk forskning,
01/2022, Letnik:
59, Številka:
1–2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Med hjälp av heritabilitetsmetodik har en del forskare som använder tvillingstudier, och på senare år även DNA-studier, hävdat att genetiskt arv på ett avgörande sätt förklarar sociala utfall. Att ...söka förklara vad som orsakar sociala utfall är en strävan att förklara hur verkligheten är beskaffad och är därmed en ontologisk fråga. Syftet med artikeln är att med utgångspunkt från den kritiska realismen kritiskt undersöka heritabilitetsstudiernas outtalade ontologiska antaganden. Först förklaras grunderna i heritabilitetsmetodiken, tvillingmetodiken och DNA-studier som mäter heritabilitet, och den tidigare kritik som riktats mot studierna sammanfattas. Därefter argumenterar jag för att heritabilitetsmetodiken inte undersöker vad som faktiskt orsakar sociala händelser: de mått som studierna tar fram döljer andra bakomliggande mekanismer som äger den generativa kraften att påverka sociala utfall. Mot denna bakgrund argumenterar jag för att studierna gör dels den felplacerade konkretionens felslut, dels det epistemiska felslutet. Avslutningsvis argumenterar jag för att konkreta sociala fenomen bör förstås som ett utfall av samspel mellan olika generativa mekanismer.
Can the Nordic wage-setting model, where social partners decide wages through collective agreements, counteract a growing low-paid sector? This article tests four definitions of low-paid jobs to ...analyze whether this sector has grown for the period 2005–2020 in Sweden. Despite policy changes pointing towards growth, all definitions show a slight decrease in low-paid jobs over time. The authors argue that the industrial relations system, with the aim of keeping the industry wage increases in check to aid export competitiveness, also sets a uniform level wage that limits low-paid jobs. It is also found that low pay in the Swedish setting is partly a result of working less than full-time or having unstable employment, and service workers and those with low education are becoming increasingly common in this position.
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