Papers by Ragnar Lundström
Scandinavian Political Studies
In this study, we explore individual differences in suspicion of welfare overuse in Sweden. Focus... more In this study, we explore individual differences in suspicion of welfare overuse in Sweden. Focusing on previously underdeveloped areas, we find that the hitherto observed negative relationship between political interest and suspicion of welfare overuse is only valid for those who sympathize with political parties to the left (and to a lesser extent the Green Party). Conversely, individuals who sympathize with centre-right parties or right-wing populists differ little internally depending on their level of political interest. We also find a strong positive correlation between anti-immigrant attitudes and suspicion about welfare overuse. Finally, we find that women are less suspicious of welfare overuse than men are, and that this cannot be attributed to gender differences in material risks or resources, education, experiences of welfare services, general trustfulness, anti-immigrant sentiment or political orientation. Neither do gender differences vary according to strength of gender identification. Thus, being suspicious about welfare overuse is not likely to be perceived as a typically masculine or feminine posture. Based on our findings, we argue that future studies exploring partisan or ideological differences in perceptions of welfare overuse need to consider these in conjunction with political interest and political context; that rising anti-immigrant sentiments pose a particularly serious threat to the legitimacy of welfare states, given their strong connectedness to suspicion of welfare overuse; and that gender differences in perceptions of welfare overuse are more fruitfully addressed through a lens of gender relations, rather than gender role stereotypes.
Environmental Education Research
This article examines the affordances and limitations of textbooks for promoting action competenc... more This article examines the affordances and limitations of textbooks for promoting action competence for sustainable development. Based on a content analysis of Swedish lower secondary level textbooks in geography and biology, we investigated how content about sustainable development is organised and formulated, the ways its multidimensional character is described, and how conflicts relating to achieving sustainability are addressed. We found that for both subjects, textbooks provided a fair amount of content about sustainable development, but that relations between its ecological, economic and social dimensions and between different subjects are routinely underdeveloped. We also found that the content about sustainable development obscures complexities and conflicts that are crucial for understanding the challenges involved with achieving sustainability, and taking action. In conclusion, we argue that such textbooks substantially limit the potential for promoting action competence for sustainable development, i.e. through cross-curricular approaches and critically assessing problem-oriented actions at collective and individual levels.
Social Science & Medicine, 2022
This paper explores news media discourse about COVID-19 during the spring of 2020 in Sweden, aimi... more This paper explores news media discourse about COVID-19 during the spring of 2020 in Sweden, aiming to provide an understanding of how moralising discourse is employed in narratives about public health risks and responses. We investigate print news media content about the corona virus and COVID-19 during the early stages of the outbreak, guided analytically by framework focusing on the relationship between moral panics and moral regulation. We direct attention, first, to how both moral majorities and villains, i.e., ‘folk devils’, and heroes are constructed in the news. Secondly, we look at how visions for interventions are produced discursively in relation to such constructions. Our findings suggest that moralising discourse largely target risk behaviours and health care claims of middle-class groups. We also find that news media discourse about the pandemic in Sweden is marked by attacks on government interventions that are distinctly different from observations in other contexts. In conclusion, we discuss these observations in relation the political and discursive context, and the potential impact of moralising discourse on the legitimacy of public health interventions and the welfare state. Finally, we also discuss how our findings can inform theoretical discussions about political populism, moralising discourse and public health.
Hybrid Media Culture, 2013
Mediebilden av fritidsgardar och andra motesplatser for ungdomar : Innehalls- och diskursanalys a... more Mediebilden av fritidsgardar och andra motesplatser for ungdomar : Innehalls- och diskursanalys av svensk press 1995-2008
Mediernas bilder av ungas motesplatser : en analys av rapporteringen i svensk dagspress 1995-2008
This article uses the case of Twitter activity under the #WikiLeaks hashtag to address issues of ... more This article uses the case of Twitter activity under the #WikiLeaks hashtag to address issues of social movements online. The aim is to analyze the potential of elusive web spaces as sites of mobilization. Looking at linguistic and social aspects, our main questions were: What are the characteristics of the communication in terms of common discursive codes versus fragmentation? In what respects can social order be distinguished, and to what extent are connections between users simply random? Are there any prominent patterns as regards the commitment of participators over time? With the help of tools from semantic, social network and discourse analysis, we were able to show that common codes, networks of connections and mobilization do exist in this context. These patterns can be seen as part of the elaboration of a ‘cognitive praxis’. In order to organize and mobilize, any movement needs to speak a common language, agree on the definition of the situation and formulate a shared visi...
Comparative Education Review, 2021
Gender equality constitutes a central aspect of sustainable development. Education is commonly vi... more Gender equality constitutes a central aspect of sustainable development. Education is commonly viewed as crucial for achieving both sustainable development and gender equality, and many argue that fostering action competence is a key element in such educational efforts. This article directs attention to the ways in which textbook content about sustainable development and gender equality may support and/or hinder the promotion of action competence. We analyze content about gender equality and sustainable development in Swedish lower secondary school textbooks in biology, civics, and home and consumer economics. We find that sustainable development and gender equality are organized as separate, rather than integrated, topics in textbooks. The analysis also shows that the social dimension, in particular, and multidimensionality, in general, of sustainable development are poorly described. Content about gender equality is furthermore marked by anthropocentric perspectives and weak historical contextualization. All of these traits, we argue, hinder rather than support how textbooks may promote action competence.
Discourse, Context & Media, 2018
This article investigates self-organized peer-to-peer support in online forum discussions about s... more This article investigates self-organized peer-to-peer support in online forum discussions about suicide. It analyzes how the discursive strategies through which participants introduce themselves as supporters relate to the support they provide. The analysis shows that the strategies employed to construct supporter identities commonly draw on what has been described as 'somatic individuality'-by which the management of biological 'risks' are framed as individual responsibilities-and by negotiating tensions between different perspectives on suicide. These are; (a) a discourse focusing on psychiatric knowledge and psychopharmaceuticals (b) a discourse focusing on social context and personal relationships, and (c) a critical stance towards the established care system. Negotiations between these condition, and are also conditioned by, power relations in the forum. These dynamics regulate the ways in which participants can use an online forum in order to move away from crisis points by discursively attempting to enter a supporter position.
Globalizations, 2018
This article engages with the role of the individual in transforming union organizations by discu... more This article engages with the role of the individual in transforming union organizations by discussing the experiences of Ulf Jarnefjord and his efforts to introduce climate change policies into the Swedish Transport Workers' Union [Transportarbetareförbundet]. Research investigating the integration of climate change policies into the agenda of Swedish trade unions has identified a disconnect between policy development among leaders on the one hand, and engagement among members on the other. Employing the life-history interview method, and the analytical concept of 'organic intellectual', this article focusses on the ways in which Ulf, as a regional health and safety officer, has experienced engaging with climate change issues in relation to both members and the leadership of his union. His experiences point to the importance of learning about how climate change and production impact on the everyday lives of members for developing and mobilizing support for climate change policies in unions.
First Monday, 2019
In this paper, we examine forms of communication and types of peer support that may arise in rela... more In this paper, we examine forms of communication and types of peer support that may arise in relation to mental health problems in peer-produced forums of social video comment threads. We focus specifically on how young fans of young YouTube celebrities (YouTubers) use this social media space to communicate with other YouTubers as well as with other fans about issues related to mental health. Through a semantic analysis, where topical themes in comment discussions are mapped, we address topics concerning mental health conditions in social video fandom discussions. At an overarching level, we are interested in how peer support is realized in the complex relationships between YouTubers and audience members, as well as among audience members. In our analysis, we focus on both the relationships between the individual and the collective, and between cooperation and competition in discussions. In concluding, we reflect upon what hindrances or possibilities for peer support exist in this r...
Labor Studies Journal, 2017
What conditions shape the introduction of climate change issues into trade union organizations? T... more What conditions shape the introduction of climate change issues into trade union organizations? This article analyzes life-history interviews with two union organization leaders working with climate issues—one in Sweden and one in the United Kingdom—discussing how their individual backgrounds, as well as the different organizational and national contexts in which they work, create different conditions and strategies for developing an environmental union agenda. The analysis discusses how the strategies of the Scandinavian leader focus on policy development, and compares this with how the U.K. union leader focuses primarily on the interests of, and conflicts with, members when integrating climate change in their respective organizations.
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 2016
Abstract This article presents an analysis of how secondary victims of murder—in this context, th... more Abstract This article presents an analysis of how secondary victims of murder—in this context, the parents or close family members of a primary murder victim—are represented in Swedish crime news discourse. The study is based on a discourse analysis of media coverage of secondary victims, and statements made by them, in relation to four highly publicized murder cases during the last two decades. The analysis shows that portrayals of secondary victimization reinforce the conflictual character of victim–offender relationships in the news, but also limit the conditions for talking about the significance of social support, mediation and reconciliation for crime victims. News representations of crime victims become less clearly marked by the characteristics of the ‘ideal’ victim as secondary victims, and persons who are explicitly critical toward the legal system, claim victimhood. Furthermore, the identity of the crime victims’ movement as a collective becomes destabilized when the category of the victim is widened to include individuals whose interests are framed as subjective, rather than related to the needs of other crime victims or the general public. In sum, increased media focus on secondary victims may thus undermine the legitimacy of victim claims in public discourse.
First Monday, 2016
This paper explores the labour movement organization LabourStart, a digital initiative that, by v... more This paper explores the labour movement organization LabourStart, a digital initiative that, by various means such as e-mail campaigns and social media use, seeks to promote workers’ rights and to strengthen the labour movement on a global scale. The main aim of this study is to analyse a) how LabourStart employs Twitter for communication and organisation and b) how the Twitter-sphere that LabourStart constitutes — and is constituted by — is geographically structured. Our dataset consisted of all tweets containing the word “labourstart” and all tweets coming from or addressing any LabourStart–related account during the period 2008–2015. As theoretical points of departure, the notions of transnationalization/translocalism were used, in part together with the concept of connective action, to conceptualise the research. In terms of methodology, network analysis was the main approach employed to obtain and visualise the findings. Our results indicate that LabourStart’s Twitter use does ...
Brief summary in English v Förord vii 1 Bidragsfusk i svensk välfärdspolitik 1 Fusk, missbruk och... more Brief summary in English v Förord vii 1 Bidragsfusk i svensk välfärdspolitik 1 Fusk, missbruk och bidragsberoende 3 Tidigare forskning 7 Offentlig debatt om ekonomisk brottslighet 10 Offentlig debatt om sjukförsäkringen 13 Kartläggningar av fuskets omfattning 15 Allmänhetens attityder till fusk och överutnyttjande 17 Syfte och frågeställningar 21 2 Teoretiska och analytiska utgångspunkter 25 Maktresurser, institutioner och förändring 25 En socialdemokratisk kontext 30 Diskursteoretiska utgångspunkter 33 Innehållsanalys och diskursiva nätverk 37 Analys och disposition 40 3 Bidragsfusk i svensk nyhetspress, 1990-2010 45 Omfattningen av nyhetstemat bidragsfusk 46 Bidragsfusk i allmän välfärdspolitisk debatt och nyhetsrapportering 52
European Journal of Communication, 2013
This article analyses discourse on benefit fraud in Swedish and British newspapers. It furthermor... more This article analyses discourse on benefit fraud in Swedish and British newspapers. It furthermore compares discourse on fraud in newspapers and political blogs in the two countries. In Sweden, fraud is primarily articulated as a collective social problem in policy discussions related to the health insurance programme. In the UK, it is often articulated employing strategies commonly associated with crime news narratives, and centred on images of individual cheaters. The main result of the analysis presented here is that these observed differences between British and Swedish media representations are related to the ways in which the relationship between the welfare state and the citizens traditionally have been constructed in liberal and social democratic contexts respectively. Political attempts to highlight the issue of benefit fraud, and dominant media representations of such attempts, must therefore be understood not as attempts to combat fraud, but rather as attempts to delegiti...
Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 2011
This article aims to further develop the understanding of the relationship and distinction betwee... more This article aims to further develop the understanding of the relationship and distinction between moral panics and moral regulation. To this end, a model for the comparative analysis of discursive changes over time, and between different discursive fields, is outlined. The model consists of three steps: (1) mapping general trends in news reporting; (2) analysing thematical relations in full-text news articles; and (3) conducting closer qualitative readings of news articles indicated to be of specific importance in the first two steps. Results from the presented case study – in which news reporting on benefit fraud in Sweden and the United Kingdom is analysed using the outlined model – suggest that there is a close relationship between moral panic discourse and moral regulation discourse. Using different strategies to construct social relations and deviant subjectivities through moralizing articulations, momentary outbursts of moral panics, and the more common, routine, forms of mor...
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Papers by Ragnar Lundström