In recent years, there has been an establishment of private actors as providers of social work,and since then, the branch of private actors has expanded significantly. This has led tocountless discussions and questions about what it means for social work. The media andsocial scientists question how appropriate it is for private providers to operate social work.One problem that is addressed in research is the concern of private actors focusing onincreasing demand. The second main problem is the concern that Social Services becomes thecustomer instead of the child who is actually in need of help from a Residential care unit(RCU). This essay examines how managers at private RCU:s experiences the benefits anddisadvantages of running a RCU in the private sector, by interviewing seven managers. It alsocompares the interviewees' answers to theories of professionalism in order to examine howworking in the private sector affects professional values of social workers. The results showthat there are both benefits and disadvantages to running a privately owned RCU. The mostsubstantial benefit is that it is easier for managers to make decisions because of the closework with the owners of the RCU. This makes it easier for managers to make large changesand implement new working methods, which also means that private organizations can bemore flexible. Furthermore, the personnel working with the children also have greater impactover the organization. The largest disadvantage that is experienced is the difficulty of runningan organization with requirements of earning a profit. This also has an impact on theprofession of being a social worker. To work in a business that requires a profit can bechallenging as that goes against professional values. The interviewees, however, mean that itis easier to follow professional values, such as care for others, while working in the privatesector due to the personnels’ greater impact over the organization and how to manage their own work.

This thesis evaluates the effects of the Swedish ordningsvakt system with regards to its contribution to public safety. Building on a body of critical research regarding the effects of outsourcing of public services and police forces in particular, it develops an insight into the driving factors and underlying causes of the expanding use of ordningsvakter. The effects of ordningsvakt use in 17 Swedish municipalities on violent crime, theft, and vandal-ism have been measured through a multivariate regression model. Over multiple specifications, it became apparent that a statistically significant effect can be observed for vandalism but not other types of crime.The thesis finds that ordningsvakter in public spaces provide at most a very modest contribution to public order and fail to achieve the core objective of reducing violent altercations. This may be either due to a general inade-quacy of the system, or due to displacement effects caused by the deployment of guards. The resulting policy recommendation is an exploration of alternative ways to enable public order and safety measures on the municipal level, particularly a reintroduction of municipal police forces.

Vår undersökning behandlar fenomenet POPS, Privately Owned Public Spaces.Offentliga platser har historiskt sett varit viktiga för en stad på grund av dessdemokratiska och sociala värden. Dessa värden riskerar att försvinna när stadensoffentliga platser privatiseras. Vi har gjort en fallstudie av Emporias takpark där viundersökt hur platsen används och kontrolleras. Analysen visar att privatägda offentligaplatser tenderar att kontrolleras med verktyg som övervakning och regler. Detta leder tillatt vissa grupper i samhället mer eller mindre exkluderas från dessa platser till förmånför en köpstark samhällsgrupp och i förlängningen stadens image. / Our study treats the phenomenon POPS, Privately Owned Public Spaces. Publicplaces have historically been important in cities because of their democratic andsocials values. There is a risk that these values disappear when public places of thecity are privatized. We have done a case study of Emporia rooftop park where weresearched how the space is used and controlled. Our analysis shows that privatelyowned public places tend to be controlled by tools such as surveillance and rules.This leads to certain groups in society getting more or less excluded from these placesin favor of a more well-funded social group and in extension the image of the city.

No description available.

This dissertation consists of five studies presented in seven essays. The overall objectives are to investigate the extent and consequences of competition on the rental housing market as well as the importance of national government policies for the substitute good, i.e. owner-occupied housing. However, each essay also has specific objectives. Due to the characteristics of the housing market, one should not expect competition to be very fierce. The market characteristics are, for instance, capital-intensive, complicated and time-consuming construction processes as well as a limited supply of land in many areas. In fact, firms have a lot to gain from colluding and to avoid e.g. price wars. It is therefore theoretically more likely that housing companies will engage in “functional” or “strategic” competition such as the quality of housing services. Essay I and IV analyze the unique municipal housing market in Sweden where apartment rents are determined by negotiations between the local municipal company and the local Union of Tenants. A regression analysis is applied on data from 30 municipalities. There was a strong correlation between apartment rents at local municipal markets and the level of “external” competition (measured by the price level on the market for single-family owner occupied housing), but not with “internal” competition (measured by the market share of the municipal housing company) or the capital expenditure of the municipal housing company (presumed to reflect historical construction and renovation costs for the apartments). The dissertation also investigates the consequences on rents (essay II) and on the quality of housing services (essay III) from a local Swedish municipal housing company selling a substantial part of its apartment stock (15-40 percent) and thereby theoretically creating more competition. These essays use a quasi-experimental methodology whereby the development of the housing market in a privatization town is compared with the development in a very similar comparison town. It is found that privatization has lead to lower rents in the short- and medium-term in six out of seven privatization towns. The development of the quality of housing services was more related to the performance of each individual company and not a specific category of companies. In essay V, these results are merged and developed further. Essay VI presents a wide range of policies available for governments wishing to increase access to home ownership for low-income households and thereby increasing the pressure on rental housing companies to reduce rents. A systematic overview of policies is provided based on the four distinct time periods of a typical ‘housing career’ of a household; i.e. down payment accumulation stage, transaction stage, ownership stage and selling stage. It is found that many policies are required to meet the specific and differing needs of households for governments wishing to encourage home ownership. Essay VII describes that home ownership rates have increased in almost all industrialized countries during the period from World War II until mid-1990s. The essay analyses the implications of government policies and some other factors (e.g. national wealth, income distribution) on home ownership rates in 13 industrialized countries during the period 1970﷓2000. A fixed-effect model is applied on a panel data set. The most important result is that a statistically significant and positive correlation between government support and home ownership rates was found although this is only a preliminary conclusion since data was scarce. / Avhandlingen består av fem studier presenterade i sju essäer. Den övergripande målsättningenär att undersöka konkurrensens omfattning och effekter på bostadshyresmarknaden samtbetydelsen av statliga stödsystem för substitutvaran till hyresbostäder, nämligen olika formerför bostadsägande. Varje essä har också specifika målsättningar.Inledningsvis så bör man inte förvänta sig omfattande konkurrens på bostadshyresmarknadenpga dess särdrag, exempelvis så är byggprocessen kapitalintensiv, kompliceradoch långsam och tillgången på mark är ytterst begränsad på flera delmarknader. I själva verketså har företagen mycket att vinna från att samarbeta och undvika tex priskrig. Teoretiskt så ärdet därför mer sannolikt att bostadsföretag ägnar sig åt ”funktionell” eller ”strategisk” konkurrenssom exempelvis kvaliteten på bostadstjänster.Essä I och IV analyserar konkurrensen på den unika svenska hyresmarknaden där bostadshyrorsätts i förhandlingar mellan det lokala allmännyttiga bostadsföretaget och hyresgästföreningen.Data från 30 kommuner analyseras med hjälp av regressionsanalys. Resultatetvisade en stark korrelation mellan hyresnivån i allmännyttans bostadsbestånd på kommunnivåoch ”extern” konkurrens från liknande ’produkter’ (motsvarande prisnivån på egnahem), meninte med ”intern” konkurrens från andra bostadsföretag (motsvarande allmännyttans marknadsandel)eller allmännyttans kapitalkostnader (som antas främst motsvara byggkostnadernaför lägenheterna).Avhandlingen undersöker även konsekvenserna på hyra (essä II) och kvalitet (essä III) frånen försäljning av en omfattande del (15-40%) av en allmännyttas bostadsbestånd. Teoretisktskapar detta mer konkurrens. Dessa essäer använder sig av en kvasi-experimentell metodikvarvid utvecklingen på en konkurrensutsatt bostadsmarknad i en tätort jämförs med utvecklingeni en annan snarlik tätort. Det visade sig att hyresnivån i sex av sju konkurrensutsattatätorter hade sjunkit på kort och medellång sikt. Däremot visade sig kvalitetsnivån främstvara beroende på den enskilda hyresvärden och inte på hyresvärdens kategori (privat ellerkommunal). Essä V slår samman dessa resultat och utvecklar materialet ytterligare.Essä VI diskuterar ett stort antal medel (eng ’policies’) för en statsmakt som önskar attgöra ägande av bostaden mer tillgängligt för låginkomstgrupper och därigenom bl a ökapressen på hyrorna på bostadsmarknaden. Medlen är systematiskt beskrivna i enlighet med defyra distinkta tidsperioderna för en ’typisk’ bostadskarriär; nämligen stadiet när kontantinsatseninsparas, överlåtelsestadiet, ägandestadiet och försäljningsstadiet. Studien visade attdet troligen behövs ett flertal medel för att möta hushållens specifika och skilda behov omman avser att uppmuntra hemägande.Essä VII beskriver att andelen som äger sin bostad har ökat i nästan samtliga industriländerfrån andra världskriget fram till mitten av 1990-talet. Essän analyserar konsekvenserna avmyndighetsstöd och flera andra faktorer (tex BNP-utveckling, inkomstfördelning) för andelenhushåll som äger sin bostad i 13 industriländer under perioden 1970-2000. En fix-effektmodell appliceras på ett paneldataset. Det främsta resultatet var att det fanns en statistisktsignifikant och positiv korrelation mellan andelen som äger sin bostad och omfattningen påmyndigheternas stöd. Resultatet är dock endast preliminärt då tillgången på data varbegränsad. / QC 20100831

Svensk idrottsrörelse är en marknad i förändring, idrottande utanför idrottsföreningar har ökat under de senaste åren och privata aktörer har tagit stora steg framåt. Runt om i världen sprids en ekonomisk nyliberalism där privata aktörer blivit vanligare genom avregleringar och fått tillgång till marknaders principer för att tillgodose behov på bästa sätt.  Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ideella idrottsföreningar upplever konkurrensen från privata aktörer på idrottsmarknaden. Vidare syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur ideella idrottsföreningar hanterar denna konkurrens samt hur ideella idrottsföreningar kan komma att påverkas av den konkurrens som idag finns från privata aktörer på idrottsmarknaden. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och empiri har samlats in genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer som genomförts genom digitala möten eller över telefon med anledning av rådande Covid-19 pandemi och dess begränsningar i fysiska möten. Respondenterna representerade varsin idrottsförening i Stockholmsområdet inom fyra olika idrotter: fotboll, ishockey, simning och friidrott.   Empirin har analyserats utifrån den teoretiska referensramen bestående av konkurrens, nyinstitutionell teori, organisationsformer och sektorböjning. Samtliga föreningar i studien upplever konkurrens från privata aktörer på något sätt. Det är tydligt att de som upplever den största konkurrensen är lagidrotterna ishockey och fotboll, vilka också kommit längst i sin hantering av den uppstådda konkurrensen. De upplever i dagsläget den största konkurrensen från privata aktörer inom lov- och campverksamheter. Inom friidrott och simning upplevs en annan typ av konkurrens primärt gällande anläggningar och med kommunen som konkurrent. En effekt som de privata aktörerna medför är att föreningarna förlorar deltagare i sin camp- och lägerverksamhet och att pengar går från idrottens föreningsliv till de privata aktörerna. För att hantera detta arbetar föreningarna med att utveckla kvaliteten i hela sin verksamhet för att bli mer konkurrenskraftiga. Den större delen av den löpande verksamheten påverkas i dagsläget dock inte av de privata aktörerna, men detta kan komma att förändras. / The Swedish sports movement is a market in transition, people engaging in sports outside of the typical sports clubs have raised in popularity over the last years and private players have taken big steps forward. Economic new liberalism, where private players are more common have gained access to previous regulated markets due to deregulation. The purpose of this study is to examine non-profit sports clubs ́ experience of competition from private players in the sports market. Furthermore, this study aims to examine how non-profit sports clubs are affected by the competition and how their organization handles it. This study has a qualitative approach and data has been collected through eight semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted through digital meetings or via telephone, due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and the limitations it caused in physical meetings. Every respondent represented a sports club in the Stockholm area in different sports: soccer, ice hockey, swimming, and athletics. The collected data were analyzed with takeoff from previous research regarding competition, new institutional theory, organization forms, and sector-bending. All clubs in the study are exposed to competition with private players. The sports experiencing the most competition are the soccer and ice hockey clubs who are once facing this issue much more compared to the athletics and swimming clubs. The competition that ice hockey and soccer face is primarily through holiday camps. In the athletics and swimming clubs, the competition is primarily regarding facilities and the fact that the municipality is an actor in the market as well. The effects caused by the private players ́ existence is that the clubs lose participants in their camps and that money outflows from the sports clubs to the private sector. To manage this the clubs work with quality development to become more competitive. The clubs’ day-to-day operations are not affected by the private players in this current situation, but that might change.

This essay explores if and how welfare attitudes in Sweden and in the United Kingdom have changed since the 1990s. Due to an increase in privatization and globalisation during the last 20-30 years, Sweden has become more economically liberal or right wing, aligning more with countries like the United Kingdom. The question therefore is to see if Sweden’s welfare attitudes have changed to become more like the welfare attitudes in the United Kingdom. There is a lack of research on how welfare attitudes change over time, as earlier research has focused more on comparison between countries or between groups. This essay uses empirical data from The International Social Survey Programme, in which three surveys from the years of 1996, 2006 and 2016 has been selected. In these surveys respondent have been asked how much responsibility they think the government should have for its citizens. The results show that the development in welfare attitudes in Sweden and United Kingdom are remarkably similar to each other. The analysis of the empirical data showed no differences between Sweden and the United Kingdom in welfare attitudes across all time periods. Compared to 1996, most groups in these countries wanted less state intervention in welfare generosities which is meant to aid poorer and more economically vulnerable people in their own society.