Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
199
result(s) for
"Liberalism Sweden."
Sort by:
SWEDEN—RECENT CHANGES IN WELFARE STATE ARRANGEMENTS
The Swedish welfare state, once developed to create a new society based on social equality and universal rights, has taken on a partly new direction. Extensive choice reforms have been implemented in social services and an increasing proportion of tax-funded social services, including child day care, primary and secondary schools, health care, and care of the elderly, is provided by private entrepreneurs, although funded by taxes. Private equity firms have gained considerable profits from the welfare services. The changes have taken place over a 20-year period, but at an accelerated pace in the last decade. Sweden previously had very generous sickness and unemployment insurance, in terms of both duration and benefit levels, but is falling behind in terms of generosity, as indicated by increasing levels of relative poverty among those who depend on benefits and transfers. Increasing income inequality over the past 20 years further adds to increasing the gaps between population groups. In some respects, Sweden is becoming similar to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The article describes some of the changes that have occurred. However, there is still widespread popular support for the publicly provided welfare state services.
Journal Article
Neoliberalization of Housing in Sweden: Gentrification, Filtering, and Social Polarization
During the last twenty-five years, housing policy in Sweden has radically changed. Once forming a pillar of the comprehensive welfare system, abbreviated the \"Swedish model,\" neoliberal housing politics have established market-governed housing provision with a minimum of state engagement. This shift has had consequences on the social geography of housing conditions. The research reported here analyzes social geographic change in Sweden's three largest cities-Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö-between 1986 and 2001, relating observed patterns of gentrification and filtering to cycles of accumulation and to neoliberalization of housing policies. First, we outline the neoliberalization of Swedish housing policies. We then present an empirical analysis of gentrification and filtering in the three cities, spanning two boom periods (1986-1991, 1996-2001) and a bust period (1991-1996). The data reveal social geographic polarization manifested in the growth of supergentrification and low-income filtering. The analysis also introduces the concept of ordinary gentrification, supporting the move in gentrification research toward a broad generic conception of the process. Political reforms after 2001 are summarized and we argue that these underlie the continued increase in inequality and that the social geographic polarization mapped between 1986 and 2001 has probably intensified during this decade.
Journal Article
The Birth of the Finance Consumer: Feminists, Bankers and the Re-Gendering of Finance in Mid-Twentieth-Century Sweden
This article examines a series of financial study courses for women in 1950s Sweden, jointly organised by commercial banks and an important non-partisan women's organisation, the Fredrika Bremer Association. The aim is to highlight and explain historical connections between feminism and financialisation. I argue that the feminist aspiration to emancipate women from the curtailments of ‘petty’ domestic finance aligned with the banks’ desire to domesticate financial markets. The performances of ‘female finance’ in these campaigns – striking a balance between PR and empowerment – contributed to the making of a new historical figure, not that of the female investor but rather the consumer of finance. The article not only demonstrates the role of gender in the financialisation of everyday life and in the domestication of finance, but also uncovers a longer pre-history behind these processes that are conventionally associated with neoliberalisation in later decades.
Journal Article
Liberal and illiberal industrial policy in the EU: the political economy of building the EV battery value chain in Sweden and Hungary
In the context of an increasingly ambitious European Union (EU) industrial policy and the transition to electromobility, the main objective of the article is to uncover the interaction between the supranational level and domestic policies through examining the buildup of the electric vehicle (EV) battery value chain in illiberal Hungary and liberal Sweden. The study analyses these diverse cases through the lenses of comparative political economy. How do European industrial policy objectives translate into national policies under widely different political conditions? How do the different translations impact on the original objectives of EU policy? Through using a structured-focused comparison, the paper argues that the building of the EV battery industry implies the entrenchment of existing models of capitalism in both cases. Liberal democracy is only compatible with the coordinated market economy model of Sweden, while in Hungary the illiberal regime and the dependent market economy model reinforce one another in face of growing public recognition of the disadvantages of dependency—misallocation of resources, environmental damage, and limits to upgrading. EU strategic objectives are served only by the Swedish model, while the Hungarian model leads to deepening institutional cleavages within the EU and implies growing dependence on Russia and China.
Journal Article
Neo-liberalism translated into preconditions for women entrepreneurs – two contrasting cases
Purpose
Contrasting two countries with different gender regimes and welfare states, Sweden and Tanzania, this paper aims to analyse how the institutional context affects the ways in which a neo-liberal reform agenda is translated into institutional changes and propose how such changes impact the preconditions for women’s entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses document analysis and previous studies to describe and analyse the institutions and the institutional changes. This paper uses Scandinavian institutional theory as the interpretative framework.
Findings
This study proposes that: in well-developed welfare states with a high level of gender equality, consequences of neo-liberal agenda for the preconditions for women entrepreneurs are more likely to be negative than positive. In less developed states with a low level of gender equality, the gendered consequences of neo-liberal reforms may be mixed and the preconditions for women’s entrepreneurship more positive than negative. How neo-liberalism impacts preconditions for women entrepreneurs depend on the institutional framework in terms of a trustworthy women-friendly state and level of gender equality.
Research limitations/implications
The study calls for bringing the effects on the gender of the neo-liberal primacy of market solutions out of the black box. Studying how women entrepreneurs perceive these effects necessitates qualitative ethnographic data.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates why any discussion of the impact of political or economic reforms on women’s entrepreneurship must take a country’s specific institutional context into account. Further, previous studies on neo-liberalism have rarely taken an interest in Africa.
Journal Article
Exploring the “Liberal Paradox” from the Inside
Courts are influential actors during the implementation of immigration policies in liberal democracies. The “liberal paradox” thesis stipulates that courts are driven by logics that hamper restrictionist immigration policies. This study contributes to this theory by exploring the norm construction of impartiality among judicial workers in Swedish migration courts when deciding asylum appeals. Its findings contradict the liberal paradox assumption that courts act according to inner logics that benefit immigrants’ rights. At Sweden’s migration courts, judicial workers show impartiality by using a skeptical approach to asylum applicants and do so to distance themselves from the political discourse of generosity that has dominated Swedish political debate for decades. The broader implications of these findings are that immigration policy theories can benefit from qualitative research exploring informal norm constructions in courts, as such work can offer new insights about the role of courts in the implementation of immigration policies.
Journal Article
‘Navigating a lonely road to adulthood with an ever-changing map’; a framework and case study protocol exploring the transition to adulthood, mental health literacy and occupational balance among Swedish young adults
Recent reports point to a global and Swedish national mental health crisis among young adults. It is widely recognised that this phase of 'emerging adulthood' involves many challenges, stressors and uncertainties that can negatively impact mental health and well-being. In addition, these strains may be exacerbated by rapid contemporary changes in technological, societal and sociocultural contexts. Developing and tailoring interventions bolstering the mental well-being of young adults requires deeper insights into their lived experiences, self-perceived strengths and challenges.
This paper has two interconnected purposes: Firstly, presenting relevant theories and theoretical perspectives at the individual, group and societal levels providing a rationale for theorised study propositions underpinning a situational analysis of Swedish young adults. Secondly, building on this theoretical foundation, the aim is to describe a protocol for a case study and situational analysis examining how Swedish young adults from Generation Z experience their transition to adulthood, its impacts on their mental health, describing their mental health literacy, occupational balance, and support needs.
This case study protocol outlines a holistic, single-case study design employing a flexible approach. Data will be collected in Sweden through focus groups and individual interviews with stakeholders, young adults, and their parents. Existing and available mental health and well-being promotion in Sweden will be mapped through online searches. The various data sources will initially be analysed separately using thematic analysis. Subsequently the subthemes and themes will be jointly analysed across participant groups using pattern matching in workshop formats.
The results of this case-study are expected to generate new knowledge of the reasons underpinning the increase in mental ill-health among young adults in Sweden. This knowledge will subsequently inform the future co-production and core design features of a digital mental e-health intervention aimed at promoting mental well-being among Swedish young adults aged 18-29.
Journal Article
Donor Political Economies and the Pursuit of Aid Effectiveness
In response to corruption and inefficient state institutions in recipient countries, some foreign aid donors outsource the delivery of aid to nonstate development actors. Other donor governments continue to support state management of aid, seeking to strengthen recipient states. These cross-donor differences can be attributed in large measure to different national orientations about the appropriate role of the state in public service delivery. Countries that place a high premium on market efficiency (for example, the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden) will outsource aid delivery in poorly governed recipient countries to improve the likelihood that aid reaches the intended beneficiaries of services. In contrast, states whose political economies emphasize a strong state in service provision (for example, France, Germany, Japan) continue to support state provision. This argument is borne out by a variety of tests, including statistical analysis of dyadic time-series cross-section aid allocation data and individual-level survey data on a cross-national sample of senior foreign aid officials. To understand different aid policies, one needs to understand the political economies of donors.
Journal Article
Neo-liberalism and universal state education: the cases of Denmark, Norway and Sweden 1980-2011
This article investigates neo-liberal policy on education in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Traditionally, the edifice of the education system in these Scandinavian countries has been built on egalitarian values, but over the last 20 years they have increasingly adopted market-led reforms of education. The extent of neo-liberal policy varies between the countries. Denmark and Norway have remained more hostile toward such policies, thus protecting the education system from extensive deregulation and privatisation. Conversely, in Sweden a greater credence has been given to market forces, allowing private providers to play a much more significant role in delivering education services. This variation in neo-liberal policy on education in Scandinavia is usually ascribed to the increasing power of the Right. However, this article differs from most other education research in that it argues, on the contrary, that the answer is to be found mainly within the social democratic parties themselves.
Journal Article