I takt med att pandemins undantagstillstånd övergår i mer normal vardag växer förväntningarna på oss att ta upp tråden igen, i fråga efter fråga som satts på vänt under coronatiden. Agenda 2030, barnperspektivet, arbetsmiljö, utveckling, IT-säkerhet och samverkan tar plats igen tillsammans med så mycket annat. Höga ambitioner, mål och visioner trängs om uppmärksamheten och trots möten från tu till sju är det många som känner sig otillräckliga i detta race. 

I takt med att att-göra-listan fylls på och tempot trissas upp ser vi hur många ledare - till synes reflexmässigt – kavlar upp ärmarna och tar upp jakten på ”det perfekta systemet”, där allt gott på något mirakulöst sätt ska kunna genomsyra alla delar av verksamheten. Det är synd när denna speciella tid borde erbjuda ett gyllene tillfälle att stanna upp och fundera på förutsättningarna för ett mer situationsanpassat och inte minst hållbart ledarskap.

Det finns en otålighet i vår kultur och en övertro på smidiga och enkla lösningar. I Susanna Alexius bok Att leda komplexa uppdrag, synar hon orealistisk förhärskande ledarskapsideal som riskerar att bryta sönder ambitiösa ledare. Med grund i organisationsforskning och genom många exempel från samtida organisationer visar Alexius att allt gott omöjligt kan genomsyra allt, och att vad som är ”rätt” i ledarskap och organisering varierar över tid och rum. Så är det bara och det måste vi acceptera och förhålla oss till. 

I tider av gränsöverskridande utmaningar behövs djupare kunskap om organisationsformer för gränsöverskridande samverkan och social innovation. I det här kapitlet studeras hybridorganisering inom ramen för en föreningsägd koncern, som ett innovativt sätt att organisera sådan samverkan. Sedan 1933 har RFSU framgångsrikt kombinerat politisk aktivism i föreningsform, medicinsk vetenskaplig praktik på egen klinik och kommersiellt företagande i sina bolag i en och samma koncern. Sådan höggradig hybriditet kan betraktas som en social innovation i sig. I kapitlet beskrivs hur RFSU:s hybriditet har möjliggjort stora framsteg inom sexual- och familjepolitiken, både i Sverige och internationellt. 

Genom sin speciella hybrida form har RFSU verkat för frågor relaterade till god hälsa och välbefinnande, långt innan de paketerades som ”mål 3” i Agenda 2030. För att hitta lovande vägar framåt när det gäller social innovation och hållbar utveckling behöver vi lära av historien. Inte minst behöver vi återuppliva kunskap om föregångares organisering och betydelsen av äldre organisationsformer som kan vara högaktuella än idag. 

Through a longitudinal mixed method case study, this paper’s general aim is to contribute to the organizational analysis of the intricate relations and mutual influence between manifold forms of organization involved in tackling grand societal challenges (Alexius and Furusten, 2020; Brès et al 2018; George et al, 2016; Gray and Purdy, 2018; Gümüsay et al, 2022; Kaufmann and Danner-Schröder, 2022). As noted in the call for abstracts, many previous studies have highlighted confusion, contradiction and conflict in organizations with heterogeneous expectations. And among the fewer, more positive studies, a great number are conceptual rather than empirical (Segnestam Larsson and Wollter, 2020). That is to say that in these studies, hybrid or other alternative organizational forms, are treated as promising a priori (Greenwood and Freeman, 2017).

These insights may make one wonder whether there is solid empirical evidence to suggest that alternative forms of organizing are capable of tackling grand societal challenges. In this paper, drawing on an historical case study, I claim that the Swedish Federation for Sexual Education (RFSU) has potential to qualify as an interesting success case in this regard. An old saying goes: “All good things come in threes”. It all started in the 1930s. Internationally renowned journalist and social activist in sexual education and parental planning, Elise Ottesen Jensen, founded the Swedish Federation for Sexual Education (RFSU) in 1933. Missions like free and legal abortion, an acceptance of homosexuality and sexual education and access to contraceptives for all teenagers, were among those that motivated Ottesen Jensen to set up RFSU (Lennerhed, 2002).

Ottesen Jensen realized early on that her mission to extend sexual and reproductive rights in society could not be achieved solely on public funding, since the political ideas she and her co-founders (medical doctors and representatives from the workers’ movement) wanted to push were radical. There was a need for own “free cash” able to finance political sexual rights advocacy that in 1930s Sweden was seen as provocative to many.

From the start, Ottosen Jensen therefore had the idea of an organization made up of three different organizational “bodies” – a nonprofit parent organization for political advocacy and education, a clinic for therapy and treatment and a fully owned limited enterprise (RFSU Limited), producing and selling a product that was closely in line with the core political mission of sexual education and rights: condoms. Although each of the three had their particular institutional conditions, they also shared the same mission and were able to cooperate on their respective fronts, using different means (Lennerhed, 2002; Alexius and Segnestam Larsson, 2019).

Theoretically then, RFSU may be defined as a constitutional hybrid: an organization that is hybrid by constitution, hence an organization that was established for the explicit purpose of integrating not only different institutional logics but also structural elements typically found in different societal spheres, to fulfill its mission (Alexius et al, 2017; Alexius and Furusten, 2019). Examples of constitutional hybrids include limited enterprises fully owned by the public, cooperatives, mutually owned enterprises and the category of organizations focused in this paper; limited enterprises fully owned by civil society organizations.The paper is a development of a recently published Swedish essay (Alexius, 2022) and describes how the “holy trinity“ of radical political mission, clinical care and own market income, has been at the heart of RFSU and vital to its success during its 90 years in operation for the sexual health and rights in Sweden and abroad. In terms of data, the case study draws on previous historical volumes on RFSU and their founder (Lennerhed, 2002; Lindahl, 2003; Thorgren, 2014), as well as own document studies and 12 interviews conducted 2015-2021 with previous and current RFSU leaders and staff.

An important conclusion is that the common assumption in previous literature on hybrids, that power asymmetries will lead to mission-drift towards company-ization and marketization, should not be taken for granted. Rather, these processes must be scrutinized empirically using theoretical concepts like that of constitutional hybridity that opens up for recognition of the mutually strengthening mechanisms that have enabled RFSU to tackle grand societal challenges by achieving important social and sexual reforms.

References

Alexius, S. (2022). Hybridorganisering som social innovation: En historisk fallstudie av RFSU. I Bonnedahl, K J; Egan Sjölander, A and Lindberg, M. (eds). Social innovation för hållbar utveckling. Lund: Studentlitteratur

Alexius, S., Gustavsson, M., & Sardiello, T. (2017). Profit-making for mutual benefit: The case of Folksam 1945–2015. Score Working Paper Series, no 2.

Alexius, S., & Furusten, S. (2019). Exploring Constitutional Hybridity. I Alexius, S & Furusten, S. (eds.) Managing Hybrid Organizations. Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-26.

Alexius, S. & Furusten, S. (2020). Enabling Sustainable Transformation: Hybrid Organizations in Early Phases of Path Generation, Journal of Business Ethics, no. 165, p. 547-563.

Alexius S. & Segnestam Larsson, O. (2019). Market Means to Political Mission Ends: Scrutinizing the Social Meaning of Money in the Swedish Federation for Sexual Education (RFSU), Essay presented at the conference Political Resources: Autonomy, Legitimacy, Power, Södertörn University, Sweden, 17 May, 2019.

Brès, L, Raufflet, E. & Boghossian, J. (2018). Pluralism in organizations: Learning from unconventional forms of organizations. International Journal of Management Reviews, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 364-386.

George, G., Howard-Grenville, J., Joshi, A., & Tihanyi, L. (2016): “Understanding and Tackling Societal Grand Challenges through Management Research.” Academy of Management Journal, vol. 59, no. 6, p. 1880–1895.

Gray, B., & Purdy, J. (2018). Collaborating for our future: Multistakeholder partnerships for solving complex problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Greenwood, M., & Freeman, R. E. (2017). Focusing on ethics and broadening our intellectual base. Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 140, no. 1, p. 1-3.

Gümüsay, A. A; Marti, E; Trittin-Ulbrich, H. and Wickert, C. (eds), (2022). Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 79.

Kaufmann, L J & Danner-Schröder, A. (2022). Adressing Grand Challenges Through Different Forms of Organizing: A Literature Review. In Gümüsay, A. A; Marti, E; Trittin-Ulbrich, H. and Wickert, C. (eds), (2022). Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 79, p. 163-186.

Lennerhed, L. (2002). Sex i folkhemmet. RFSUs tidiga historia. Stockholm: Gidlunds förlag.

Lindahl, K. (2003). Sex – en politisk historia. Stockholm: RFSU/Alfabeta Anamma.

Segnestam Larsson, O. & Wollter, F. (2020). Vad kännetecknar de organisationer som studeras med hjälp av begreppet hybridorganisation? Score report series 2001:7

Thorgren, G. (2014). Ottar och kärleken: En biografi. Norstedts förlag.

Since the 1990s, a new model for market control organized through tripartite standards regimes (TSR), has expanded globally and affected most market exchanges through standard-setting, accreditation, and certification. This article investigates business-consumer relations under this regime, with a specific focus on the functions of accreditation and certification. In our case study of Sweden, a new picture of consumer protection under late capitalism evolves. Seeing it as a form of neoliberalization, the article uncovers a transition between two regimes of control; from one built on a potential conflict between consumer and business interests, to one based on the assumption that business interests are beneficial for all parties. Although business interest was formulated as pleasing the consumer-or the customer-by both certification firms and the Swedish Accreditation Authority, in practice consumer interest as something worth protecting was made abstract in the era of the TSR.

In this introduction, we reemphasize some key parts of meta-organization theory and their implications for understanding meta-organizations and meta-organizing processes. We clarify what meta-organizations are and what they are not and then analyze their key purposes and activities. We then present the papers of the special issue and discuss venues for future research. Although many key contributions have been made to meta-organization theory and research, there are many more things to investigate before we know as much about meta-organizations as we know about individual-based organizations. 

As in many other policy areas, there is a rising concern about how to involve the general public in heritage management and preservation. We analyse attempts made by Swedish cultural heritage authorities to initiate new participatory devices. We ask: How is storytelling used as a participatory device? What are the implications of this in terms of how legitimate concerns are reconfigured? Storytelling has a capacity to transform dominant discourses and result in new objects of care. We conclude that even storytelling itself is reconfigured in these practices, resulting in the collection of narratives, with limited transformative effects.

This literature review summarizes findings from 63 articles published between 2001 and 2020 that study discretion of frontline workers at migration control. The results demonstrate that discretionary practices in various migration control situations (e.g., border zones, migration agencies, courts, public welfare services, and detention centers) are widespread but share common patterns. Frontline workers’ racialized prejudices and perceptions of migrant deservingness were the most dominant patterns found in the data, although there were some disagreements about which were most influential. Discretion of frontline workers was described as foremost detrimental to migrants, as itamplified the migrants’ vulnerable situations, even if it occasionally could increase individual migrants’ room for agency and strategic maneuvering. Contrary to the assumption underpinning the control gap-thesis in immigration policy literature that governments’ capacity to control migration is hampered by the significant discretion at the frontlines, many studies in our sample describe how governments shape the discretionary practices of frontline workers through informal, subtle, and opaque governing strategies. These informal governing strategies enable central governments to deflect responsibility for discriminatory and inhumane policy outcomes. 

This paper investigates the role of strategic artifacts in realizing change in two Swedish cities. Drawing from qualitative studies of city development projects we illustrate how ambiguous formulations in vision statements constitute a powerful basis for legitimizing actions. As part of establishing linkages between future-oriented vision statements and concrete actions here and now, we highlight the role of materialization. We provide three examples of how the vision statements studied materialized—into organizational structures, management control systems, and communication efforts—and discuss how such materialization implies that only some parts of broad vision statements are translated into practice.

As the world becomes more and more organized, it seems ever more difficult to find anyone responsible. Why is that? We argue that the extensive external organization of organizations in contemporary society provides the key. Formal organizations are collective orders with great potential for concentrating responsibility on top managers and the organization. But when they are organized by other organizations, this potential is undermined, and responsibility becomes diluted rather than concentrated. We explain this outcome by analysing the communication of decisions as a main producer of responsibility and by defining organization as a decided order. Our analysis draws upon and contributes to research about partial organization, but it also contributes to literatures on global governance and organizational institutionalism.

In recent years, both private and public organizations across contexts have begun implementing AI technologies in their recruitment processes. This transition is typically justified by improved efficiency as well as more objective, performance-based ranking, and inclusive selection of job candidates. However, this rapid development has also raised concerns that the use of these emerging technologies will instead increase discrimination or enhance the already existing inequality. In the present study, we first develop the concept of meta-algorithmic judgment to understand how recruiting managers may respond to automation of the hiring process. Second, we draw on this concept in the empirical assessment of the actual consequences of this type of transition by drawing on two large and unique datasets on employment records and job applications from one of Sweden's largest food retail companies. By comparing the outcomes of traditional and algorithmic job recruitment during this technological transition, we find that, contrary to the company's intentions, algorithmic recruitment decreases diversity. However, in contrast to what is often assumed, this is primarily not because the algorithms are biased, but because of what we identify as an unintended human–algorithmic interaction effect.

This article explores how economic information was turned into newsworthy content in Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s. Professional norms and identities of “business journalists” were during the 1960s yet to be developed, and there were concerns raised whether issues about the corporate world and the economy were suitable to turn into journalistic news content at all. Conceptualizing newsworthiness as a logic of appropriateness, the analysis focuses on the roles that professional norms and identities played in forming nascent economic news practice. The empirical findings show that there was not one way—or one place—that this newsworthiness was constructed. Instead, nascent economic news was produced in two highly separated organizational settings: one rooted in the journalistic world and one in the business world. Depending on the context, significantly different methods and ideas guided the nascent work of creating newsworthiness for economic information. 

This chapter sets out to do two things: to discuss international standards as a form of soft law and to demonstrate the usefulness of organization theory in doing so. International standards have received substantial scholarly attention during the last 20 years, but they have rarely been discussed as a kind of soft law, despite how well they fit the definition. Using insights from organization studies where scholars long have been theorizing about standards, we show how standards tend to dilute responsibility. Standards have a tendency to generate more organization and instead of clarifying or concentrating responsibility, it seems difficult to find anyone responsible in a world of standards. Discussing standards as an example of soft law, the framework for responsibility dilution presented in the chapter speaks to scholars also outside the realm of standard studies specifically.

Partial organization is a neat theoretical solution: it broadens the scope outside the formal organization and distinguishes between the organized and the non-decided. The purpose of this paper is to make a first, conceptual step towards exploring the drivers of partial organization and its expansion. We put partial organization in dialogue with other organizational theories and outline three different theoretical ways to explain why partial organization expands. First, the elaboration of organizational actorhood results in expanded partial organization. Second, new forms of organization, which deviate from the standard model of centralized organization, drive partial organization. And third, decided orders outside organizations perpetually expand, because they are based on decisions. Partial organization consequently expands for different reasons, but attention is focused on organizational expansion that satisfies Western principles, such as liberalisms and democracy. The theory of partial organization, however, would give us the tools to likewise analyze equally coercive sanctioning or power-laden hierarchies and to fully grasp organizational expansion. Mobilizing the lens of partial organization across Western contexts could bring the benefit of discovering cultural features and differences of organization, which in turn will increase the explanatory power of partial organization. 

L’article retrace l'histoire du premier système d’aide sociale étudiante de l'État-providence social-démocrate suédois, un système sélectif d’aides, réservé aux étudiants issus des classes populaires. Moins connu, ce système sélectif introduit en 1939, a précédé le système actuel du prêt étudiant, établi en 1965 et conçu pour toucher les étudiants de toutes les classes sociales. Cette étude présente les raisons qui ont présidé à la mise en place du système sélectif, la manière dont il a atteint l'objectif d'élargissement du recrutement social des étudiants et les arguments mis en avant pour justifier son démantèlement. Si l'effet égalisateur du système sélectif était significatif, les prêts étudiants semblaient néanmoins plus compatibles avec l'idée émergente, importée de l'école de Chicago, que l'éducation pouvait être considérée comme un investissement dans le capital humain, générateur de revenus futurs (et donc finançable par un prêt) plutôt que comme un droit. Le cadre théorique de l’institutionnalisme historique permet d’analyser le passage entre deux modèles diamétralement opposés, au sein du même régime social-démocrate.

The article highlights the history of the early gift-based and selective student finance system of the social democratic welfare state in Sweden, targeting students from the working classes. This lesser-known system, introduced in 1939, preceded the present loan-financed and universal system established in 1965 designed to reach students from all classes. The arguments for launching the selective system, how this system met the objective of broadening the social recruitment of students and the arguments behind the dismantling of the system are analysed. The equalising effect of the selective system was strong, but student loans were nevertheless more compatible with an emerging idea, imported from the Chicago School, that education could be considered an (loan-financed) investment in human capital, that provides future yields rather than a right. Historical institutional theory is used to analyse the shift between two diametrically opposed models that took place within the same Social Democratic regime.

The purpose of the article is to examine financial models for higher education. The economic governance of universities during different time periods is an under-explored area. Three models have been tested in Sweden: “universitetsautomatiken” (1958–1976), “sektorsanslag” (1977–1992) and “grundbulten” (1993–). The models are described, compared and related to overarching savings models for central govern-ment administration. During the first financial model, which was particularly gener-ous, there were no such savings models. However, the less generous funding models implemented after the structural crisis in the mid-1970s interacted with increasingly severer saving models that makes annual deduction of appropriations: “tvåprocen-taren” (1978–1992) and “produktivitetsavdraget” (1993–). A mechanism for resource erosion has been built into the financing system since 1977 according to the main result of the study.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to conceptualise our understanding of public value accounting (PVA) by studying the use and usefulness of performance measurements (PM) as a management tool. The authors do this from a perspective in which they address the complexity of various (sometimes conflicting) assessments of performance measurement and management (PMM) by different stakeholders. Design/methodology/approachAn interpretative case study using qualitative methods. The paper is based on 30 interviews conducted in 2018 and 2019 with respondents working with PMM at different levels, such as politicians, officials and health-care professionals. The study context was Region Stockholm (RS) in Sweden and its health-care division. FindingsPMs become an instrumental tool for PMM, which led to output being promoted above outcome. The authors show that there is a conceptual shortcoming in the discussion of PVA, as the effort needed to achieve outcome-based information might exceed the ability of an organisation to deliver it. The authors address the importance of studying the interaction among different stakeholders, including politicians, the public and media, in research on PVA, as well as possible power relationships among stakeholders. Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the growing research on PVA and its call for more empirical research by offering a more nuanced interpretation of PVA activities. The authors do this by studying PMM and the nature of these activities in a public sector organisation from a multiple-stakeholder perspective.

This article delves into the moral economy that informs small-scale trade in urban Ghana's growing markets, and that intersects with development, the state, and the global economy. Small-small, emphasizes slow, gradual, dependable progress and inclusiveness. While (re)distributing profit and possibilities, small-small is also used to discredit competitors and is felt to inhibit personal growth. It furthermore often conflicts with neoliberal norms of self-governing and self-optimization. Drawing from fieldwork in Tamale, the study explores how morality intertwines with market dynamics, the nation-state, and politics of informality. Moral economy illuminates the temporal tensions between individual and collective gains against the backdrop of local economic practices and global capitalism. It underscores the moral underpinnings of protectionism and sovereignty amid neoliberal shifts, revealing complex interactions shaping economic life in urban Ghana.

Purpose - This paper explores practices of foresight within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program Futures Literacy, as a form of transnational governmentality–founded on the interests of “using the future” by “emancipating” the minds of humanity.

Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on ethnographic material gathered over five years within the industry of futures consultancy, including UNESCO and its network of self-recognized futurists. The material consists of written sources, participant observation in on-site and digital events and workshops, and interviews.

Findings - Building on Foucault's (1991) concept of governmentality, which refers to the governing of governing and how subjects politically come into being, this paper critically examines the UNESCO Futures Literacy program by answering questions on ontology, deontology, technology and utopia. It shows how the underlying rationale of the Futures Literacy program departs from an ontological premise of anticipation as a fundamental capacity of biological life, constituting an ethical substance that can be worked on and self-controlled. This rationale speaks to the mandate of UNESCO, to foster peace in our minds, but also to the governing of governing at the individual level.

Originality/value - In the intersection between the growing literature on anticipation and research concerning governmentality the paper adds ethnographically based knowledge to the field of transnational governance. Earlier ethnographic studies of UNESCO have mostly focused upon its role for cultural heritage, or more broadly neoliberal forms of governing.

This ethnographic study examines how Swedish administrative judges apply the principle of treating like cases the same and unlike cases differently when adjudicating asylum claims. The findings suggest that judges construct asylum claims like citizens’ claims for welfare benefits and unlike protection claims made by citizens. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s critique of the state-centric foundation of contemporary human rights framework, I demonstrate that the Swedish asylum procedure is structured according to a similar state-centric foundation. Therefore, it reinforces injustices that exist between those who belong to a political community and those who stand outside that community asking to be let in. This study contributes to previous research on asylum adjudication by shedding light on structural injustices embedded within legal practices rather than searching for explanations in extra-legal factors. The implication of this approach is that it makes visible a paradox: that judges’ commitment to procedural justice principles can perpetuate structural injustices.

Asylum determinations are highly complex and difficult decisions. At the heart of this decision lies a credibility assessment of the asylum claimant’s narrative, which confronts the decision-maker with a seemingly straightforward question: do I believe this person’s story? To uphold legitimacy of this assessment, semi-legal criteria have been established internationally. However, these criteria have been criticized for relying on inaccurate and simplistic assumptions about human behavior, autobiographical memory, and communication. In light of this contestation, I ask how the legal-administrative practice of assessing credibility of asylum applications gains legitimacy in the eyes of the public, policy-makers, and legal professionals despite resting on highly disputable assumptions? To answer this question, I draw on interviews, observations, and written judgements from the Swedish administrative courts to explore how symbolic messages are tacitly conveyed through the use of judicial language, activities, and objects. The analysis suggests that cohesive, albeit tacit, messages about credibility assessments being accurate (rather than arbitrary), objective (rather than subjective), professional (rather than lay), and just (rather than unjust) are produced to both near and distant audiences. The study contributes to the literature on credibility assessments by offering a theoretical perspective that can unpack the relationship between symbolic communication in courts and perceived legitimacy for disputed practices within asylum determinations and migration control.

This essay takes a starting point in the well-known tension between the media logic and the scientific logic and the challenges when communicating science in a mediatized society. Building on the experience of engaging in research comics, both as a method for communicating science and a creative example of a meeting between science and art, we introduce a framework — a pedagogical tool — for how science communication can be understood through the two competing logics. We contribute to literature about the balancing act of being a ‘legitimate expert’ and a ‘visible scientist’, and suggest that the meeting between science and art can be understood as a lens for how to communicate science that goes beyond the deficit model.

Policymakers increasingly emphasize knowledge collaboration between academia and society as important means to generate innovations and solve complex issues. However, while recent literature on such collaboration suggests that knowledge needs to be integrated and generated across disciplines and sectors, there are surprisingly few studies that define what is meant by ‘knowledge’ or focus on the process of generating knowledge. Subsequently, the aim of this paper is to unbox ‘knowledge’ in knowledge collaboration by focusing specifically on how knowledge is understood by heterogenous actors during the process of generating knowledge. We build on insights from an in-depth case study and contribute to the literature on knowledge collaboration by bringing in theory on boundary work that specifically addresses the knowledge generation process. We argue that to better meet the expectations of collaboration, there is a need for more discussions and focus on the participating stakeholders’ heterogenous epistemological as well as ontological understanding.

Arrangements for collaboration in knowledge production across academia, government, non-governmental organisations, and corporations have several names, such as citizen-science, community-based participatory research, engaged research and hybrid forums. The multiplicity of schemes does not lie only in the high number of names for various versions of collaborative knowledge production. Different scholars also use concepts in multiple ways, depending on their individual choices, mother disciplines, and the problem area in which collaboration occurs. At the same time, there is a lack of analytical tools that address the full range of collaborative research schemes and provide a systematic set of questions to learn about the schemes, challenges, and opportunities. Based on our review of academic journal articles highlighting collaborative research schemes, this paper aims to analyse three parameters which it is fair to say that virtually all arrangements of collaborative knowledge production ought to consider when making decisions, parameters that are often partially missed or misunderstood: (A) epistemic-procedural, (B) exclusive-inclusive and (C) aggregative-integrative. By examining the three parameters, their political theory origins, and how they connect to and challenge existing schemes of knowledge collaboration, we provide analytical tools that could facilitate processes of developing and scrutinising arrangements of collaborative research. 

Against the backdrop of an emerging cold war between the United States and China, this chapter analyses the role of China in processes of autocratization in South Asia. It is argued that despite the transformation to a more assertive foreign policy under president Xi Jinping, China has not actively been promoting autocratization abroad. Nevertheless, with Xi’s vision of a “community of common destiny” for mankind, China is acting more as a leader and role model for countries in the Global South. Even in the absence of “push factors” for autocratization, it is feasible that China’s developmental model may resonate with other countries’ elites and officials. As a “pull factor” China could thus contribute to domestic processes of autocratization in South Asian countries.

This book analyses the ideology that China's leader Xi Jinping has crafted during his decade in power. China’s political system and domestic and foreign policies have, between 2012 and 2022, become more defined by the political thought of Xi Jinping, the most powerful leader of the Chinese Communist Party since the time of Mao Zedong. Today, Xi’s China is embroiled in superpower rivalry with the United States and its allies. Therefore, ongoing ideological transformation in the People’s Republic is destined to have global repercussions. Yet surprisingly, the ideological mission of Xi Jinping is poorly understood. Based on analysis of Xi Jinping’s collected speeches, the book argues that China’s new state ideology is constructed around the three key concepts of loyalty, discipline, and greatness. Xi’s mission is about ideological re-orientation and re-activation, as well as organizational innovation, seeking to frame China’s “national self” as a collective unit under one political banner and one leader. However, despite the monumental Party-state effort to boost the new ideology and state-scripted “moral careers”, the book contends that Xi Jinping cannot take for granted that political and patriotic loyalty will forever trump the formation of “disloyal moral careers” in society. 

This chapter explains how the major authoritarian powers China and Russia have propelled Sweden to alter its more than two hundred years long policy of neutrality and non-alignment. The focus is predominantly on China and its “wolf-warrior diplomacy” in Sweden, the Swedish debate on political naivety in general and regarding China in particular. It is argued that five years of deteriorating Sino-Swedish relations nudged Sweden further toward seeking stronger ties with the European Union on China policy. Drivers of these rapid and major changes to both policy and identity were the abduction of publisher Gui Minhai by Chinese state agents in Thailand in 2015 and the ensuing diplomatic conflict with China. The Swedish public, political parties, and especially key actors in the civil service increasingly perceived China as a threat to values and security. This sequence of events led to their construction of a coalition of consensus on a new China policy. Thus, authoritarian China, together with its increasingly belligerent partner Russia, became an important contributing factor that nudged “naïve” Sweden even further away from neutrality and onto the trajectory of military non-alignment.

Collaboration between academia and practice is crucial for addressing complex societal challenges and generating new knowledge. However, bridging the perceived gap between these two domains has proven challenging due to differences in language, expectations, and time horizons. In this article, we question the usefulness of framing these differences as a gap and explores alternative approaches to fostering academic–practice collaboration. With the help of organizational institutionalism and theory on configurational boundary work, we propose the concept of “institutional knots” to temporarily ease tensions and reconcile differences between researchers and practitioners. Drawing on two case studies, we examine how temporary knotting activities can support and enable collaboration without undermining participants’ distinct expertise and professional roles. By embracing and understanding the gap from such a perspective, we argue that institutional knots provide an alternative metaphor and valuable framework for organizing and managing academic–practice collaboration. The findings contribute to the literature on how collaborations may be organized by offering a complementary understanding of the gap metaphor and providing practical insights for researchers and practitioners seeking to navigate and leverage their differences.

En berättelse om organisering blandar organisationsteorins grunder med berättelsen om modeföretaget Mess. Genom skildringen av människorna och händelserna i och runt företaget ser vi framgångar, konflikter och utmaningar i organisationsteorins ljus. Mötet mellan den fiktiva berättelsen och organisationsteorins grundläggande teman ger en förståelse för vad en organisation är och vad organisering betyder – och vilken betydelse det har för att förstå vårt samhälle. I den här andra upplagan har boken kortats och omdisponerats så att några av de tidigare temana har vävts samman med de övriga. För att komplettera och stärka berättelsen om Mess har exempel – både från praktiken och från aktuell forskning – genomgående uppdaterats.

I den här rapporten undersöker vi hur kommunanställda kommunikatörer ser på och uppger att de arbetar med journalistiskt inspirerade metoder och format. Vår ambition är att utveckla kunskap om nyhetsproduktion i offentlig sektor men också att väcka frågor och stimulera till bredare diskussioner om vad som händer när gränser mellan traditionell journalistik och offentlig kommunikation förändras. Vår analys baseras på intervjuer med kommunikatörer i 13 kommuner runtom i Sverige. Samtliga kommuner som ingår i undersökningen använder i någon mån journalistiskt inspirerade arbetssätt i sin kommunikation. Merparten av de intervjuade kommunikatörerna har också journalistisk skolning och har tidigare arbetat som journalister.

Kommunikatörers arbete har under de senaste årtiondena professionaliserats och idag finns särskilda utbildningar, branschorgan, konferenser och nätverk för yrkesgruppen. Det har därmed vuxit fram gemensamma föreställningar om vad kommunikationsarbete i en kommun ska innefatta och hur det ska genomföras. Dessa gemensamma föreställningar kan förstås som en lämplighetslogik som ger struktur och vägledning till det vardagliga arbetet. Ofta sker förändringar i lämplighetslogiken genom små justeringar och anpassningar, och individer som bär med sig erfarenheter från annan verksamhet kan spela särskilt betydelsefulla roller i sådana förändringsprocesser. 

Vår intervjustudie pekar på vissa mönster i vad kommunikatörerna beskriver som viktigt, vad de anser rätt och lämpligt att göra samt vad och hur något kan informeras om med hjälp av journalistiskt inspirerade metoder och format. Tre idéer framträder som särskilt betydelsefulla eftersom våra intervjupersoner explicit kopplar dem till användningen av journalistiska metoder och arbetssätt: idén om att nyhetsvärdera (innehåll sorteras utifrån nyhetskriterier), idén om att vara relevant för mottagarna (innehåll är tänkt att tillgodose mottagarnas behov) samt idén om att väcka intresse och engagemang (innehåll ska locka till läsning och vara lättillgängligt). Sammantaget kan de tre idéerna stötta kommuners arbete med kommunikationsuppdraget att informera medborgare. Samtidigt vittnar vår analys om att dessa idéer kan styra mot att viss typ av information – sådan som anses ha nyhetsvärde och intressera invånarna – premieras på bekostnad av annan information, som kanske är svårare att berätta på ett enkelt och intresseväckande sätt om.  Framtida studier behöver mer närgående undersöka i vilken utsträckning, när och hur journalistiska metoder och format blir styrande för kommunikationsarbete.

Det svenska biståndets informations- och kommunikationsarbete styrs av Strategin för informations- och kommunikations-verksamhet, inklusive genom organisationer i det civila samhället (Infokom-strategin). Denna utvärdering undersöker hur väl insatserna har uppfyllt strategins övergripande mål om att stärka den svenska allmänhetens kunskap om svenskt utvecklingssamarbete. Det gäller både de insatser som har genomförts under den föregående strategin (2010–2016) och den nuvarande (2016–2022). Insatserna utförs av Sida och svenska civilsamhällesorganisationer. Rapporten fokuserar på tidsperioden 2010–2020 och syftar till att utveckla förståelsen för i vilken grad och hur olika typer av insatser har bidragit till målet samt hur strategin kan utvecklas i framtiden för att mer effektivt bidra till stärkt kunskap. 

Allmänhetens kunskap om svenskt utvecklingssamarbete påverkas av en mångfald av samverkande faktorer. Infokom-insatsernas effekter på den svenska allmänhetens kunskapsnivå måste därmed analyseras i en vidare kontext. Den studerade tioårsperioden kännetecknas av betydande kontextuella förändringar som påverkar analysen av troliga effekter. De slutsatser vi utvecklar i rapporten är därför med nödvändighet av diskuterande karaktär. 

En viktig utgångspunkt för utvärderingen är särskiljandet av information och kunskap. För att information ska omvandlas till kunskap på individnivå krävs aktiv bearbetning. Vi lyfter fram tre kontextuella faktorer som har varit särskilt betydelsefulla för infokom-insatsernas förutsättningar att stärka individers kunskap: 1) den politiska kontexten och retoriken kring biståndsfrågor under tidsperioden, 2) mediebilden av biståndet, och 3) den svenska allmänhetens informationsinhämtning och nyhetsvanor. 

Utvärderingens slutsatser baseras på empiriskt material bestående av en webbpanelundersökning, intervjuer med personer som arbetat med infokom-insatser, en analys av medierapportering om biståndsfrågor, dokumentstudier samt redan tillgängliga data (opinions- och nyhetsvanemätningar). Utvärderingen består av två delar – en bredare kartläggning av det brokiga insatslandskapet, vilken ger en överblick av insatsernas genomförare, omfattning, målsättningar, målgrupper, kanaler, teman och aktiviteter, och djupgående fallstudier av sex strategiskt valda insatser som genomförts under hela eller delar av den studerade tidsperioden: Internationella/Globala Torget på Bok- och Biblioteksmässan, Sida Alumni, UNDP Sverige, Forum Syd/Civ, Diakonia och WWF Youth Sweden. 

Sidas årliga opinionsmätningar visar att den svenska allmänhetens kunskap om tillståndet i världen och kännedom om de Globala målen har ökat under den studerade perioden. Även svenskarnas självskattade kunskap och kännedom om bistånd har ökat. Det är dock tveksamt om dessa resultat kan ses som kunskap i någon fördjupad form. Det är vidare inte möjligt att dra slutsatser om huruvida enskilda insatser – eller ens insatser sammantaget – har haft någon avgörande effekt på den samlade kunskapen om bistånd hos den svenska allmänheten. Våra fallstudier visar dock att de sex insatser som studerats närmare till stor del lyckats med att sprida information om svenskt bistånd till sina målgrupper. Insatserna, vilka bland annat innefattar fysiska och digitala föreläsningar och seminarier, webbsidor, utbildningsmaterial, mediearbete och studieresor, har i hög utsträckning uppnått sina mål vad gäller informationsspridning. 

Det är alltså tydligt att de studerade infokom-insatserna i hög grad lyckats med att tillgängliggöra information. Frågan är dock i vilken utsträckning denna information har bearbetats av mottagarna och resulterat i ökad kännedom och/eller stärkt kunskap om svenskt utvecklingsarbete. Vår analys av kontextuella faktorer pekar på att 

den politiska styrningen av biståndskommunikationen, medie-logikens krav på korta, snabba och aktuella budskap samt svenskarnas rörelse mot digital nyhetskonsumtion och minskande intresse för biståndsfrågor har satt ramarna för infokom-insatsernas förutsättningar att stärka kunskap. 

Vad gäller insatsernas utformning är det tydligt att interaktiva komponenter främjar ett aktivt deltagande och reflekterande, vilket stödjer kunskapsutveckling på individnivå. Kunskapseffekterna av infokom-insatser som saknar interaktion – digital eller fysisk – är svårbedömda, särskilt i de fall där intressenivån hos mottagarna är okänd. Vi bedömer dock att det är mer sannolikt att dessa insatser bidragit till ökad kännedom snarare än djupare kunskap. Givet att den andel som vill veta mer om biståndsfrågor har minskat under perioden 2010–2020 så har det blivit svårare att nå ut med information som på ett eller annat sätt bearbetas av mottagarna. Insatser som innefattar skolarbete, vilket stimulerar till aktivitet och engagemang, kan vara ett bra sätt att nå målgruppen unga som har ett relativt lågt intresse och engagemang för biståndsfrågor. 

Sammantaget visar vår analys av centrala faktorer som förklarar infokom-insatsernas kunskapseffekter att: 

Medierapporteringens format och innehåll innebär begränsade möjligheter att bidra till stärkt kunskap om biståndsfrågor via nyhetsartiklar och annat medieinnehåll. Även om biståndsaktörer med stark och tydlig profil samt koppling till aktuella händelser kan få genomslag i medierna så begränsas möjligheten att bidra till kunskap av medierapporteringens fokus på korta budskap, och betydande skillnader mellan olika målgruppers konsumtion av nyheter. Medierapportering kan dock bidra till informationsspridning och därmed i förlängningen ökad kännedom om biståndsfrågor. 

Medan ökad kännedom om något kan skapas genom att sprida och tillgängliggöra information så kräver kunskapsutveckling att mottagaren involveras, engageras eller aktiveras. Insatser som innehåller fysiska möten, interaktion eller reflektion har därför bättre förutsättningar att bidra till kunskapsmålet. En kombination av kanaler och metoder för infokom-insatser kan stötta och berika varandra. Pressarbete och digitala satsningar kan vara centrala för att över tid utveckla kunskap om de kombineras med aktiviteter som främjar interaktion mellan biståndets aktörer och den svenska allmänheten. Om insatser utvärderas löpande och genom en kombination av kvantitativa utfallsmått och kvalitativa analyser så stärks möjligheten till lärande hos utförarna. Ett fördjupat lärande kring resultat och vad som fungerar bättre och sämre kan i sin tur förbättra möjligheterna att bidra till kunskapsmålet. Inför arbetet med kommande strategi pekar vår analys mot vikten av en fortsatt bred ansats där debatt, analys och granskning ges utrymme. Frågornas bredd och komplexitet kräver en mångfald av perspektiv och angreppssätt. Infokom-insatserna handlar i många fall om att engagera målgrupper i en dialog om biståndsfrågor och ökad kunskap kräver ofta någon form av interaktion eller aktivitet, och särskilt i de fall där målgruppen är ointresserad av biståndsfrågor 

Rapporten visar att intresset för biståndsfrågorna hos svenskarna minskat under den undersökta perioden. Om kunskapsmålet ska bibehållas och uppfyllas så krävs en bättre förståelse för, och mer forskning kring, vad som ligger bakom det sjunkande intresset. För att utveckla lärandet hos utförarna av infokom-insatser kring hur intresse och kunskap skapas krävs vidare att enskilda insatser utvärderas regelbundet och djupgående samt med särskilt fokus på hur intresse uppkommer och bibehålls. Här kan till exempel löpande dialog och samrådsgrupper spela en viktig roll. 

Procedural planning experiments often attempt to influence how planning actors think through producing physical and social environments that affect how they feel. In this paper such experiments are conceptualized as attempts at generating atmospheric “bubbles” through the engineering of affective atmospheres. Our empirical examples show that purposeful affective engineering is very difficult to achieve – and one cannot expect that their eventual outcomes can be predicted on the basis of the ambitions that underpin them. Therefore, it is crucial to remain attentive to questions concerning the variegated, distributed and often unexpected effects of such endeavors. 

This paper explores the river landscapes and concomitant values resulting from tensions between floodmanagement and visions of a River City. The aim is to contribute to an understanding of the management of urbanwaters as valuation practices. We regard valuation practices as co-constitutive of current and future riverlandscapes. Sweden’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, is located next to the sea, and the Göta River, Sweden’slargest water system, runs through it. Our empirical focus is on how this city approaches increasing risks of flooding.We explore three approaches that have been formulated in relation to flood management: defend, retreat andattack. We ask how these approaches are applied in the management of Göta River flooding and in the city’s visionof a future Gothenburg that embraces the river as a genuinely positive aspect of urban life. We present the case asa journey that takes us upstream from the river’s sea inlet port and through Gothenburg. During our kilometre bykilometre journey, the river’s appearance shifts. The varied river landscape mirrors the diversity in how its watersare valuated, both historically and in present times. The perception of urban waters is shaped by practices ofvaluation. These valuations are generative. They connect the value of water to other entities, actors, plans, activitiesand buildings, and they are thus key to the river landscapes that will eventually be realised. By way of conclusion,we identify a number of governance challenges that are particularly relevant to urban rivers.

Status as been described as an ancient form of social inequality that interpenetrates modern meritocratic institutions, including research and higher education. Status is a multifaceted social phenomenon that can affect the relations between people in many different ways. Despite political and normative changes that promote equal treatment of men and women, deep-rooted gender biases still exist as integral parts of the creation of status hierarchies in academic life. In this chapter, I illustrate this argument using a number of concrete situations from the Swedish Research Council panel groups in which some male reviewers responded with disrespect to the arguments presented by their female colleagues. The analysis is intended to shed new light on the social dramaturgy of gender-based status inequalities in the grant peer review process. It is unusual in putting the emphasis on the panellists’ detailed interactions rather than on the efforts to encourage gender equality in competition results through rule-changes and other prescriptive means. Moreover, it reveals the intersectionality of gender, age and esteem in shaping the behaviour of panellists.