This essay aims to understand the teacher profession and how teachers' everyday lives look like in the school environment. The purpose is therefore to examine which challenges and strategies teachers have to face in their line of work. It also focuses on how their emotional expressions looks like and who they show these expressions to. The study´s based on a qualitative approach and the empirical material has been sampled through interviews with employees in the school system. The interviewed teachers are both male and female with a total of eight informants.   The study´s based on two theoretical concepts. The first is Erving Goffman´s theory about the dramaturgy perspective and the notion of impression management. The second theory is based on Arlie Hochchild´s conceptualization of emotions. These two theoretical aspects help me understand how the teacher profession has changed and how they manage to control their emotional behaviour in their occupation.   The results show that teachers managed to take on many types of roles to handle the challenges in their work environment. This study determines that the most common challenges in the profession is managing the time, the demands from different directions, reform changes and to maintain the professional face. The strategies to handle these challenges is the following four. The social support, how to manage the time pressure, how to handle emotions and their career ambitions.

This study aims to explore how male auxiliary nurses relate with gender-coded norms and why they relate to these norms in their work at elderly-care, while also exploring what kind of masculine identities appear when they relate to the expected gender norm. The empirical material was gathered by using a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with seven male auxiliary nurses from three different municipalities in Sweden. By using Connells (2008) masculinity-theory, where gender is seen as a process where the male body is regarded as an object and an acting organ which produces gender differences, this theory will help the essay understand the problems surrounding how the male auxiliaries’ nurses relate and negotiate with gender-coded norms in their work at elderly-care. This dynamic aspect of masculinity and the relation with the gender-structure will be used to examine how male auxiliary nurses relate and negotiating with different form of masculinities. The results of this study have showcased the evidently traditional gender norm that exists within this line of work, as the informants could relate to the pressure in maintaining their masculine identity. In some cases, the traditional gender norms have given the informants advantages and disadvantages which will be thoroughly explained later in the essay. The data ultimately showcased the dynamic and complex structure of masculinity, as male auxiliary nurses are expected to behave within the traditional forms of masculinity while also creating a new form of masculinity as they assume their “feminine” profession.

I debatten om prostitution finns många olika perspektiv på fenomenet och dess aktörer. Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera diskurser som är framträdande i diskussioner som rör prostitution, och därigenom bidra till ökad förståelse och ett bättre debattklimat. Studien är en diskursanalys på socialkonstruktivistisk grund. Till hjälp i analysen används Foucaults begrepp pastoralmakt som handlar om omsorg och hjälp genom kontroll och maktutövande. Tidigare diskursanalyser inom ämnet har delat upp diskurserna efter huruvida de syftar till att motverka eller normalisera prostitution. Den svenska sexköpslagen är abolutionistisk och bygger på en könsmaktsordningsdiskurs samt en patologiseringsdiskurs där sexköpare antas lida av psykiska problem. Andra diskurser som identifierats i tidigare forskning är den manliga sexdriftsdiskursen, olägenhetsdiskursen och moraldiskursen. Studien använder kritisk diskursanalys. Urvalet utgörs av 136 svenskspråkiga artiklar som innehåller något av sökorden “prostitution”, “prostituerad” eller “sexarbete” och som publicerats i tidningar eller på webben i Sverige mellan 1 februari - 30 april 2017. Analysen fokuserar på textens lingvistiska uppbyggnad samt intertextualitet, när texten refererar till andra texter eller diskurser. Resultatet visar att abolutionsdiskurser är dominanta medan normaliserande diskurser är ovanliga. Bland de mest dominanta diskurserna finns människorättsdiskursen, könsmaktsordningsdiskursen, patologiseringsdiskursen och diskursen om fattigdom och psykisk ohälsa som motivation till att sälja sex. Att abolutionsdiskurserna är dominanta kan bero på att hjälparbetare som polis och socialarbetare, som främst kommer i kontakt med sexsäljare i behov av hjälp, ges stor makt att tolka fenomenet. Insatser som motiveras med en olägenhetsdiskurs motiveras ofta med en moraldiskurs, vilket leder till att åtgärder som har negativa konsekvenser för sexsäljare presenteras som stödinsatser för säljare. Könsmaktsordningsdiskursens dominans leder till att sexsäljare som är män och transpersoner döljs. Framtida studier rekommenderas fokusera på män och transpersoner och på normaliseringsdiskurser eftersom dessa inte förekom så ofta i detta urval.

Denna studie belyser hur positiva attityder till sexköp relaterar till kulturella föreställningar om manligt och kvinnligt. Tidigare forskning har visat att gruppen sexköpare består av en heterogen skara av män, och studier av dessa mäns bevekelsegrunder för att köpa sex har också genomförts. Forskning har även lyft fram hur sexköp normaliseras när män interagerar och samarbetar med varandra på prostitutionsforum. I denna studie åskådliggörs istället hur sexköpande män upprätthåller en positiv hållning till sexköp i en kontext där ett starkt motstånd mot sexköpet föreligger. Materialet som undersöks utgörs av en diskussionstråd som är hämtad från det internetbaserade forumet Flashback Forum, och som går under rubriken ”Varför köper ni sex?”. I studien tillämpas Hirdmans teori om genussystem samt Connells teori om hegemonisk maskulinitet, och genom den kritiska diskurspsykologins metodologi analyseras hur bilden av sexköp som en legitim handling sammanvävs med såväl könsspecifika normer som med sexköparnas känsloliv. Resultatet visar att framställningen av sexköpet som en legitim handling utgörs av en samling motsägelsefulla föreställningar som aktualiseras i en dynamisk process, vilken anpassas i förhållande till det motstånd som sexköpet möter. Sexköparna ger uttryck för en maskulinitet som inbegriper ett berättigande till kvinnans kropp, och den prostituerade kvinnan uppfattas vara ett bruksföremål på en marknad. Samtidigt beskrivs sexköpet som en frivillig affärstransaktion mellan jämlika parter. Männens förhållande till sina sexköp och till kvinnor präglas av känslor. De känner sig förorättade och förfördelade på det sexuella planet i relation till kvinnor, men samtidigt upplever de sig själva som altruistisk välgörare i bemärkelsen att de hjälper kvinnor genom att köpa sex.

The broader aim of this essay is twofold: Firstly, I study what motivate people to engage in physical activities, particularly walking or running. Secondly, I contextualize the experiences and understanding in relation to governmentality and technology. I pay particular attention to perceived benefits of physical activities and cardio exercises, both physical and mental benefits, which include feelings, motivations and experiences. The essay focuses on the perceived benefits of physical activities, which is deeply tied to health and self-governing. Therefore, this essay examines how physical activities is viewed as good for people’s health, how it is motivated by pain and illness, monitored by self-govern and technology, and desired for its ability to maintain capability and freedom. In order to analyze perceived benefits of physical activities, this study draws from several theoretical orientations of governmentality, concept of illness, embodiment, place, mobility and freedom. I have used medical anthropology, public health studies as well as historical studies of sport and exercises to contextualize physical activities. As method I have drawn mostly from interviews with the participants in the study and some observations of the environment. Besides that, I have used my own senses to experiences walking in different areas. Furthermore, I have analyzed written material from the public health agency and the ministry of health and social affairs in Sweden, health organizations and newspapers.

The subject of this dissertation is trends in family formation among highly educated men and women in Sweden. The highly educated have typically differed from other educational groups in their patterns of childbearing. This has particularly been the case for highly educated women, who used to be in the minority among the highly educated and who were much more likely to be childless than other women. The goal of this dissertation is to understand how the expansion of higher education has transformed  the formation of childbearing unions among the highly educated group. The context for the dissertation is the dramatic expansion of higher education which has occurred in Sweden over the last half century. As the share of cohorts graduating from post-secondary education has grown, diversity among the highly educated has also increased. This dissertation draws upon rich Swedish administrative register data to answer questions about changes in the behavior of the highly educated group, as well as emerging stratification within the group. This dissertation consists of five studies and an introductory chapter. In Study 1, we examine changes in geographical distances between young couples and their parents. We find that among younger cohorts, generations live further apart. The expansion of higher education contributes to these distances, though the introduction of regional colleges has mediated the impact of educational expansion to some extent. In Study 2, we consider how effective colleges are as partner markets. We follow one birth cohort (1970), and examine the likelihood that they form a childbearing union with someone who attended the same university at the same time. We find that colleges are an important potential meeting place for childbearing partners, and examine how the likelihood of partnering with a fellow student is related to the college composition. In Study 3, I assess changes in partner choice among the highly educated, by comparing the likelihood that highly educated men and women born in 1940-2, 1950-2, 1960-2, and 1970-2 form a childbearing union, and whether they do so with a highly or a lower educated partner. I find that female graduates are much more likely to enter unions, and to “partner down”. Men’s likelihood of forming a childbearing union hasn’t changed across cohorts, but men from later cohorts are much more likely to find a highly educated partner than men from earlier cohorts. I show that partnership outcomes for graduates are related to social class background, university experience (degree length and institution type), and post-graduation income. In Study 4, we study unions with at least one highly educated partner, including men and women born in 1950-2, 1960-2, 1970-2, and 1980-2. We examine the extent to which educational (in)equality is mirrored in other measures of status such as social class background, income, and occupational prestige. We conclude that although the number of women “partnering down” in terms of education has increased dramatically, these unions are not necessarily characterized by female status-dominance more generally. In Study 5, I focus on highly educated men who do not form any childbearing union, studying men born in the years 1945-1974. I find that the consistent levels of childlessness among highly educated men may best be explained by changes in the composition of graduates in terms of field of study and post-graduation income. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript. Paper 5: Manuscript.</p>

This study examines how Swedish feminist comic artists express emotional regimes and feeling rules as displayed by comic characters. Guided by Arlie Russell Hochschild’s understanding of feeling rules and emotion management together with Erving Goffman’s decoding behavior methodology this study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of gender emotion management norms. The study uses triangulation, combining analyzes of five semi-structured interviews with Swedish feminist comic artists and visual analysis of roughly 130 comic panels from a selection of Swedish feminist comic books. The findings indicate that Swedish feminist comic artists question and challenge existing feeling rules and, render new visual representations of male and female’s emotion management through their comic characters. Four character design techniques are found (1) mirroring, (2) non-stereotypical representation, (3) removing the male gaze, and (4) not emphasizing differences between male and female characters. A unique connection between expected emotion management and comic character’s body type is also found. This new finding implies that emotions and body type might be important to examine in future research. Unlike previous studies, the visual analysis suggests that emotion and gender need to be examined through several instruments to gain a more nuanced result. The findings motivate treating comics as a culturally significant source of data for future research.

There is a positive association between education and longevity. Individuals with a university degree tend to live longer than high school graduates who, in turn, live longer than those with compulsory education. These differences are neither larger nor smaller in Sweden than in other European countries, despite its ambitious welfare-state policies. Furthermore, educational differences in longevity are growing, especially among women. In this thesis I look at the structural, individual and behavioral processes which generate and maintain the educational gradient in mortality. This is done by compiling theoretical insights and empirical research from a range of scientific disciplines. In doing so, this thesis aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the educational gradient in mortality. Several factors contribute to the association between education and health. Social and biological processes initiated in early life influence both educational achievement and adult health. Education helps individuals become more effective as agents by fostering generic skills such as information-gathering and decision-making. This aspect of education, learned effectiveness, promotes control and health regardless of available resources and prevailing conditions. Education thus has a direct influence on health. Education also indirectly influences health by giving access to better occupational positions and higher incomes, as well as by promoting social capital and healthy habits. The empirical section of the thesis consists of four separate quantitative studies using register data. Three of the studies use Swedish national register data while one uses register data from 18 European populations. The results indicate that widening income inequalities in mortality have contributed to a widening of educational inequalities in mortality, since education is a determinant of income. Both alcohol and smoking contribute to educational inequalities in longevity, but smoking has played an especially pronounced role in the widening of inequalities among women. Smoking represents a significant part of the explanation as to why women with low education have experienced smaller gains in life expectancy than the rest of the population. The results also indicate that the general trend towards more well-educated populations has contributed to the widening educational inequalities in mortality in Europe and that education is a stronger predictor of mortality among low income-earners than among the rest of the population. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how the national community is reproduced and delineated in relation to class, gender and racialisation. It uses a qualitative methodology and interviews with people chosen to represent an economic margin, and is theoretically informed by Pierre Bourdieu, Beverly Skeggs and others. In interviewees’ accounts about work life and societal change, traces are found regarding how the national community is delineated, and how value for the community is claimed or denied. The main findings are that a national community is connected through the idea of value for the community, and that the dominating ideas concerning this value change over time in accordance with economic, political and discursive processes. Recognition is a condition for access to the labour market and for the right to contribute to the future of the community. The values and the community are not homogenous; there is room for competing values and thus competing ways of recognition. Those with less recognised resources get their value for the community questioned in relation to current hegemonic values. Adaptability to the needs of the labour market in terms of expectations of geographic flexibility and the right attitude are common demands that implicitly presumes economic and social resources. Misrecognition of resources and value also relate to the social process of racialisation. Whiteness can be regarded as the result of recognised national inclusion in a country such as Sweden where the ideal of light skin and blue eyes have gained hegemonic position through history. Class relations as well as male domination over women works through the same mechanisms of misrecognition and excluded experiences.

Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka förhållandet mellan migration, reflexivitet och social klass. I fokus för den empiriska analysen står högt kvalificerade estniska emigranter. Reflexivitet har hittills inte varit ett viktigt begrepp i migrationsstudier. Även om vissa studier använt ordet reflexivitet, har det i huvudsak fungerat som bakgrundsbegrepp. Det finns en påtaglig brist på empiriskt orienterade studier av reflexivitet i migrationsstudier. Avhandlingen består av fyra artiklar med något olika inriktning. Den första undersöker det empiriska fallet i sin helhet utifrån en survey-undersökning om estniska migranter. Den andra artikeln diskuterar den brittiske sociologen Margaret Archers sätt att analysera migration och argumenterar i hennes efterföljd för ett socialpsykologiskt synsätt på de skiftande motiven att migrera. Den tredje artikeln utmanar tanken på att migranters återvändande i huvudsak kan förstås som saknad efter sociala relationer och känslor av hemlängtan. I den fjärde artikeln föreslås ett sätt för livsstilsorienterade migrationsstudier att hantera frågan om reflexivitet. Här positioneras livsstilsmigranter teoretiskt till andra typer av migranter och hur variationer ilivsstilsmigration kan analyseras. Trots inbördes variation har samtliga artiklar en gemensam nämnare. / This thesis focuses on issues around reflexivity and highly skilled migration. Reflexivity has been an underused concept in migration studies and incurporating it has been long overdue. By reflexivity this thesis understands the capacity of an actor to evaluate his or her position in relation to social structures, to take action in managing those structures and, finally, to critically revise both the position and action taken. There are multiple reasons as to why incorporating reflexivity is a useful endeavor to migration studies. On one hand, using reflexive types in order to understand different migration motivations offers an alternative to otherwise mainly class based explanations behind migration objectives. Migration research has long relied on the idea that migration motivations can be coupled with societal and class background. Similarly, return migration has been described almost unanimously as a result of a homing desire. Both positions, as claimed in this thesis, are oversimplifications. On the other hand, I argue that, reflexivity helps to analyze the importance of class or even society on migration in 21th century. This is why I suggest to analyze all three in concurrence – migration, reflexivity and class. In the following pages I analyze how reflexivity can be operationalized for studying migration. So far, reflexivity has been either used as background concept – mobility studies or for explaining particular kind of migration – lifestyle migration. I argue, that with careful operationalization reflexivity could be useful tool for explaining wide-variety of migrations – family, labour, lifestyle etc. Three articles in this thesis focus on providing such operationalizations, analyzing the relationship between migration motivations and reflexivity. Finally, the first article in this thesis analyzes the background of my particular group of migrants – Estonian highly skilled migrants and positions them in relation to other groups in Estonian society. Moreover, the article also underlines that self-development and lifestyle, if you will, is an important motivation for Eastern European migrants as well.