The Institute for Civil Society Studies
Some completed projects:
Lost and Found in Translation: Organizational Change in Civil Society Organizations
This study was a doctoral thesis; author Ola Segnestam Larsson. Advisers where Professors Bengt Kristensson Uggla at Åbo Akademi University and Lars Svedberg at Ersta Sköndal University College.
Publications:
Segnestam Larsson, O (2011). Standardizing Civil Society: Interpreting Organizational Development in the Tension Between Instrumentalism and Expressivism, (Diss.). Stockholm: Santérus Academic Press.
Segnestam Larsson, Ola (2009). ”Creating Space for Grace”. Why the Introduction of Religion in Organizational Reforms for Religious Civil Society Organizations Rests on the Authority of Popular Management. Paper presented at the conference The Social Dimension of Religion in Civil Society – A European Perspective in Stockholm, Sweden.
Segnestam Larsson, Ola (2009). Change We Can Believe In. The Symbolic Function of Educación Popular and Folkbildning in Organizational Change in Non-Profit Organizations. Paper presented at the ESREA conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
European Values Study
European Values Study (EVS) is a study of the values of the European citizens on questions relating to e.g. working life, spare time, religion and politics. The study has been carried out in three different waves since 1981. During 2010 a presentation of the first results from the Swedish part of the survey has been presented.
Project leader: PhD Susanne Lundåsen. The study is financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).
Publication:
Lundåsen Susanne and Trägårdh Lars, Religion and Trust. In Joep de Hart, Paul Dekker & Loek Halman (red), Religion and Civil Society in Europe. New York: Spinger.
Distinctiveness and added value
Responsible for the survey is Charlotte Engel, Th.D in cooperation with Research Assistant Karin Gavelin. The study is financed by the Swedish Central Government.
Publication:
Gavelin K, Kassman A och Engel C (2010). Om idéburna organisationers särart och mervärde. En forskningskartläggning. Stockholm: Överenskommelsen.
More of value?
A study of the volunteers and the role of consultants for voluntary activities in the Swedish Red Cross
This study was being conducted through 2009 and is financed by the Swedish Red Cross.
Project leaders are TD Charlotte Engel and PhD Anders Kassman.
Homeless families. Exclusion and inclusion on the local housing market in Stockholm
This project focuses on homeless families. The aim is to identify inequalities and mechanisms, i.e. excluding and including mechanisms, which restrict families’ access to the housing market. Homeless families’ background and socio-economic situation is studied to see how these characteristics correlate with the structure of the local housing market and the distribution of housing. This study contains a structural, an institutional and an individual level that are interconnected in an intersectional analysis. The intersectional perspective also means that gender, class and migration parameters are important in the analysis.
The study was financed by The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS).
Coming publication: Homeless families in Stockholm – excluding and including mechanisms on the housing market. (Book chapter)
Project leader: PhD Marie Nordfeldt
MPHASIS – Mutual Progress on Homelessness through Advancing and Strengthening Information Systems
MPHASIS is a European partnership on homelessness monitoring systems, the main objective of which is improved capacity for monitoring information on homelessness and housing exclusion in 20 European countries on the basis of the recommendations of an EU study on Measurement of Homelessness. The research issue is to examine the implementation of a specific solution to Client Record Data Collection in a range of countries. The Institute for Civil Society Research at Ersta Sköndal University College will follow and evaluate the experience of a Swedish NGO making a pilot implementation of this system. MPHASIS is funded by the European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities PROGRESS Programme.
Project leader: PhD Marie Nordfeldt
Benchmarking Nonprofit Organizations and Philanthropy Educational Programs (BENPHE)
An U.S.-European Collaboration
ESH is participating in a collaborative project on Nonprofit Organizations and Philanthropy Educational Programs (BENPHE). The BENPHE’s aim is to analyze the current configuration of academic programs in management of nonprofit organizations, social entrepreneurship and philanthropic studies in the U.S. and Europe by: (1) examining similarities and differences and (2) seeking to explain why educational programs have a range of forms according to different contexts. Participating institutions are University of Bologna (Italy), Oxford Brookes University (UK), Ersta Sköndal University Collage (Sweden), Almalaurea Interuniversity Consortium (Italy), Indiana University (USA), Grand Valley State University (USA), Arizona State University (USA). Other partners are European Foundation Centre and The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
BENPHE’s added value is its comparative focus on educational programs in Europe and the U.S., the creation of a database, and a qualitative analysis of best educational practices to enhance transatlantic cooperation. BENPHE will also provide internship placements in a transatlantic framework. The goal of the project is to integrate additional partners into a consortium that will give us the opportunity to extend to the undergraduate level a joint or dual transatlantic degree program.
Swedish project team is: PhD Marie Nordfeldt, PhD Lars-Erik Olsson and PhD Johan Gärde
The CINEFOGO Network of Excellence
CINEFOGO stands for ”Civil Society and New Forms of Governance in Europe - The Making of European Citizenship” and links more than 40 universities, research institutes and public service-institutions in 15 European countries. Its mission is to develop and spread knowledge with respect to citizenship and diversity in Europe. Particular emphasis is placed on the risks associated with what is called “civic apathy” and “social exclusion.” Thematically, three areas are highlighted: (1) Identities, Values and Civic cultures – Integration and Diversity; (2) Citizenship and Civic Participation in Relation to Social Protection; and (3) Multi-level Governance and Organized Civil Society.
The project is supported by the EU Sixth Framework Programme. It will run over a period of four years, starting in 2005 and is based at the University of Roskilde in Denmark. The Research Institute is one several Swedish research facilities to contribute and participate in various part of the project.
Financial support from CINEFOGO has facilitated the Institutes participation in international meetings and conferences as well as the Institutes own arrangement of several major international conferences . One conference took place in September 2008, Volunteering and Civic Virtue vs Civic Activism – An European Perspective in an era of Social Change, and another conference, The Social Dimension of Religion in Civil Society – A Comparative European Perspective, will take place in September 2009.
Manuscript in-progress:
Lars Trägårdh. Governmental Commissions and Democratic Governance: State and Civil Society in Sweden.
An international publication from the conference 2009 is planned in cooperation with The Netherlands Institute for Social Research/SCP.
Project leader at Ersta Sköndal is Professor Lars Svedberg, in collaboration with Professor Lars Trägårdh.
Knowledge and Professionalization in Human Service Organizations - A study of employees in the public, nonprofit and forprofit organizations
A growing part of the Swedish social services is being provided outside the public sector, both in nonprofit and forprofit organizations. In a public debate strong arguments for such a shift is that these organizations could meet the needs of diversity, i.e. they are suppose to offer something different compared to public social services.
In these attempts the forprofit companies accounts for the highest and most significant growth. As a result of these facts a special expectation is now levelled against the nonprofit organizations. In different contexts these service providers is characterized as being and doing something unique compared to public and forprofit organizations. Usually there work is said to be attached with a range of additional values.
In a parallel process a fundamental discussion is being pursued about the scientific basis of social work. This discussion and not least the growing demands for a proper scientific foundation and hard evidence have come to expression in a national development project that for a number of years has been directed at the public social services. A fundamental goal for the project is to create better preconditions for conducting social work on a solid basis of scientific knowledge. Though these parallel processes – on the one hand the wish for pluralism and on the other the demand of evidenced knowledge – there is a lack of research concerning non- and forprofit organizations involved in welfare work. There is for example no fundamental data about the level of competence among the staff members and a lack of basic information that could be reworked in deeper empirical analysis.
With special attention to the knowledge base in social work, and in comparison with the public service providers, staff members in nonprofit and forprofit organizations is focused in this study. How could a potential pluralism among these organizations be analysed and described, and what factors of diversity versus similarity could be found?
This project is financed with economic support from The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), IOGT-NTO, The National Board of Health and Welfare, the Research Department at Ersta Sköndal University College and the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University.
The Study is a co-operation between the Research Department and the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University and a doctoral thesis by Ulf Hammare. Advisers are Professors Tommy Lundström and Lars Svedberg.
Publication:
Ulf Hammare (2004). Kompetens i de sociala professionerna - en pilotstudie [Competence in Human Service Organizations]. Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.
Tax Deductions for Gifts to Charities and other Non-Profit Organizations
The objective of this study is to map out the laws and their implementation with respect to the right of individuals and corporations to make tax deductions for gifts to a variety of non-profit organizations in a number of countries. The study will cover not only the legislation but also include an overview of research concerning the right to, use and consequences of tax deduction for gifts in a comparative perspective. Based on this descriptive overview of laws and policies, an analysis will be carried out that takes aim at grasping how the legislation shapes civil society in the different countries, creating varying conditions and incitement structures for civil society actors (charities, political associations, faith-based organizations, etc.). One purpose of the study is to provide a deeper understanding of what is at stake if and when laws permitting tax deductions for gifts to charities are introduced in Sweden, by using concrete examples from countries such as the United States where such laws have been in place for a long time. The resulting report will, it is hoped, deepen the current debate over the possible introduction of some such legislation in Sweden in the near future. The countries included in the study, aside from Sweden, are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway.
The study is financed by Sektor3 and will result in a report to be presented by Sektor3 during the summer of 2009. Responsible for the study are Professor Lars Trägårdh and PhD Johan Vamstad.
Adult education associations, folk high schools and their member organisations
The aim of this study is to inquire how adult education associations and folk high schools relate to their member organisations. The study is financed by the Swedish National Council of Adult Education and is conducted within a more comprehensive research-project at Ersta Sköndal University College.
The history of adult education can be described as a part of the development of Swedish civil society. Being a part of civil society is an important motive for the governmental funding distributed to adult education organisations. Now, one can argue that it’s unclear if these organisations still belong to civil society and there are therefore reasons to study their actual relation to civil society.
The member organisations of the Swedish study associations and folk high schools are often organisations with a clear civil society identity and a civil society history. They are, as principals, important for the civil society identity of the adult education associations/folk high schools. The research question is therefore, what is the connection between the adult education associations/folk high school and their member organisations?
Firstly, the formal distribution of power between the adult education associations/folk high schools and the member organisations is studied. Secondly, the member organisations opinion about their relation to the adult education associations’ organisations is studied. On a third level, informal constellations of persons within these relations are studied. The study will describe the relations between adult educational associations/folk high schools and their member organisations in terms of power, resources and ideology.
Project leader: TD Johan von Essen and PhD Pelle Åberg
The study is carried out in 2007-2009
Third Sector European Policy
This is an interdisciplinary collaborative research project including nine European countries: The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, UK, Spain and Sweden. The primary objective of the project is to describe and analyse the emergence of “horizontal” (cutting across traditional policy fields) European policy towards the third/voluntary/non-profit sector understood as a multi-level process (i.e. at the European, national and subnational levels).
Project leaders: For the Swedish part PhD Lars-Erik Olsson and PhD Marie Nordfeldt.
Publications:
Olsson, L-E, M. Nordfeldt, O. Larsson & J. Kendall (2009). Sweden: When strong third sector historical roots meet EU policy processes. In J Kendall (ed.) ‘Handbook of third sector policy in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Crowhurst, I., Larsson, O., Kendall, J., Olsson, L-E. & M. Nordfeldt (2005). The challenges of translation: the convention and debates on the future of Europe from the perspective of the European third sectors. Working Paper TSEP, no 12. London School of Economics.
Olsson, L-E., Nordfeldt, M, Larsson O. & J. Vamstad (2005). Third sector and policy processes in Sweden. Published on www.lse.ac.uk/collections/TSEP
Olsson, L-E, Nordfeldt, M, Larsson, O & J. Kendall (2005). The third sector and the policy process in Sweden: a centralised horizontal third sector community under strain. Working paper TSEP no 3. London. London School of Economics.
Trust and religious leadership
This project is about basic trust, fundamental for the survival of humanity. Created and formed in our earliest days by parental faith, basic trust gradually demands institutional support and protection. This guardianship has traditionally been through the tutelage of religious institutions. Ability to generate and to upkeep basic trust in man by care and attention is the touchstone of religion and of the religious community.
The study will report how ministers of religion and other religious leaders today consider their own mission and the congregational calling to arouse and uphold basic trust in members and sympathizers, in ritualised forms and for change and renewal. The plan is to be performed in Katrineholm, a local Swedish community.
The project is funded by the Research Department at Ersta Sköndal University College.
Publication:
Göran Johansson (2009). Ett nådens tillstånd. Samtal om tillit med andliga ledare i Katrineholm. [A State of Grace. Spiritual leaders on basic trust].
Project leader: Associate Professor Göran Johansson.
Life course, dying and family relations in the institutional context – the meaning of time, space and body
This is a post-doc project that focuses on the conditions of ageing and dying of old persons living at residential homes, as well as the experiences of their relatives. Of central interest is the institutional context, on the one hand, and the end-of-life phase, on the other. As a starting point for the analysis a life-course perspective is used to emphasize the temporal and spatial dimensions in the data. Another important concept for the analysis are different aspects of body and embodiment.
In the first part there is a focus on the oldest old persons and their experiences of the body and bodily changes that are taking place during the process of ageing and dying. The aim is to conceptually develop an understanding of the impact that the body and bodily changes might have on the old person, and their relatives in an institutional care context. In the second part of the project the aim is to contribute with a theoretical understanding of family involvement, family care and family roles in the institutional elder care context. Finally the project aims to examine some methodological and ethical issues, raised by experiences gained through participant observation and conversations with the elderly.
This project is financed by the Swedich Council of Working Life and Social Research (FAS) and is in progress 2006-2008.
Project leader: PhD Anna Whitaker
Publications:
Anna Whitaker (2009) Family Involvement in the Institutional Eldercare Context - Towards a New Understanding. Journal of Aging Studies, 23(3): page numbers to be decided.
Anna Whitaker (2005). Kroppen under livets sista tid – de allra äldstas döende kroppar [The body during the final phases in life – the dying body of the oldest old]. In Jeppsson Grassman, E. & Hydén L-Ch. (eds), Kropp, livslopp och åldrande. Några samhällsvetenskapliga perspektiv [Body, Life Course and Ageing. Some Social Perspectives]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Manuscripts in progress:
Anna Whitaker. The ageing and dying body of the oldest old. First person accounts of nursing home residents.
Promotive and Preventive Youth Work – a Research Review
This is a research review of literature around promotive youth work, empowerment and other concepts used to describe youth work done by the civil society among young people to promote their leisure activities. Focus is on Swedish research from 1990 and onwards but some of the Nordic and European research will be covered as well.
The project is financed by the National Board of Youth Affairs.
Project leader: PhD Anders Kassman.
The history of empowering and preventing action concerning young people – a review
Besides the assignment, to overview and problematize contemporary social action towards young people, and initiated by the civil society, there is also an ambition to write and discuss the history behind. This investigation reveals and discusses a few major state inquiries during the period 1910-1980 concerning the welfare and societal place of young people by focusing on earlier research. The main aim is to describe and problematize the phenomenon and concepts of empowering and preventing (action) directed to young people. One important question is: Who or what is empowered or prevented - the state, the civil society or the individual?
The investigation is financed by Ungdomsstyrelsen and should be reported in the end of April 2008. The study was performed by PhD Eva Gullberg and PhD Kent Waltersson.
Promotive and Preventive Youth Work – an Evaluation of a National Project
The Swedish government has during 2006-2008 supported local governments and youth clubs preventive and promotive youth work. Ersta Sköndal University College has got an obligation as the projects evaluator. The evaluation will use personal interviews and surveys among all the projects with financial support.
Project leader: PhD Anders Kassman.
Erstabacken – A hospice for the severely ill homeless
Since 2005, Ersta Diakoni, a non-profit organisation, has been running a project for severely ill, homeless persons. The project is a collaboration between Ersta Diakoni, Stockholm County Council and Stockholm Municipality. Two studies are conducted at Erstabacken with the overall purpose of studying how an actor outside the public welfare system – Ersta Diakoni – is working to satisfy the need for qualified medical and social care for a particularly vulnerable group.
The first study is an evaluation of Erstabacken from an organizational perspective. This study is financed by Ersta Diakoni and is in progress 2006–2008.
The second study is an analysis of the work at Erstabacken from a residents’ perspective. This study is financed by the National Board of Health and Welfare and will be in progress 2007–2009.
Project leader: TD Charlotte Engel and research assistant Maria Ingemarson.
Publication: Erstabacken – A hospice for the severely ill homeless. Working Paper series no 56.
On the meaning of voluntary work. A study of people’s worldviews
The point of departure for this dissertation is the question of how people perceive what it means to be a citizen. In Sweden, voluntary work is a widespread social phenomenon and studying what voluntary work means to people enables the study of an important form of citizenship in contemporary society. The aims of the dissertation are to clarify the meaning of voluntary work and study themes in the view on society and the outlook of mankind emerging from the perspective of voluntary work.
The study consists of interviews with people who do voluntary work within environmental organizations, sports clubs, and welfare organizations.
This study is a doctoral thesis by Johan von Essen. Advisers are Professors Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm and Lars Svedberg. The project is a co-operation between the Department of Theology at Uppsala University and the Research Department.
Publication:
von Essen, J. 2008. Om det ideella arbetets betydelse. – en studie om människors livsåskådningar. [On the meaning of voluntary work – a study of people's worldviews].
Fryshuset – a study of ideology in theory and practice
Fryshuset in Stockholm is a foundation headed by the YMCA. Since 1984 Fryshuset has been engaged in teenagers and young adults through social work as well as education, skateboarding, basketball and music, emphasizing specifically the suburban areas. During the last couple of years Fryshuset has been expanding two of its social projects to the Swedish towns of Göteborg, Malmö and Uppsala. The aim of the Calm Street Project is to facilitate social integration through different projects in subways, schools and neighbourhoods. The aim of United Sisters is to strengthen the self-confidence of young girls, to guide them into adulthood through activities on their own terms, such as Girl Groups and the Girl Coaches.
This study will focus on the ideology of Fryshuset as pronounced by persons in a leading position within the foundation, as well as how it is understood and put into practice within these two social projects on a local level. It will also address these social projects as activities within the civic society, in their relations to the public sector.
The study was conducted in 2007 - 2008 and financed by the National Board of Youth Affairs.
Project leader: TD Charlotte Engel.
Contact Families – A complex collaboration between the professional social services and the civil society
Contact families are a special measure for supporting children in families with social problems. This is a longitudinal study with a qualitative design, consisting of interviews along with the study of various documents, and is based on children and families who received a contact family in 2000. The families are from four different larger and smaller municipalities in Sweden.
The study will describe and discuss the expectations of the different actors as to what this support will mean to the children and their biological families as well as the results of the support given. It will also place this kind of support in the context of Swedish and international social welfare for children in vulnerable life situations.
Questions to be investigated are:
What reasons do the actors in the child welfare services give for commissioning contact family support?
What are the expectations on contact family support? What is it expected to achieve for the children and their families? How well are these expectations fulfilled?
What understanding do the children have of a family life that consists of a (constructed) “dual family”?
The study was financed through Allmänna Barnhuset Foundation.
The Study is a doctoral thesis, author Lotta Berg Eklundh. The study is a co-operation between the Department of Social Work at Stockholm University and the Research Department. Advisers are Professors Sven Hessle and Thomas Lindstein.
Homelessness – local models of policy and practice
This project focuses on the issue of homelessness in Sweden. The aim is to compare different local models of policy and practice, which appears to be at stake, in relation to attempts to prevent or solve the homeless situation. Further, to analyse if and how different local models affect the individual path into or out of a situation of homelessness. Comparative case studies are conducted in four Swedish municipalities: Stockholm, Malmö, Kritianstad and Eskilstuna. The project, carried out in 2003-2005, was an interdisciplinary cooperation between the Sköndal Institute and the School of Social Work at Lund University.
The project was financed through the Swedish Council of Working life and Social Research.
Project leaders: Hans Swärd, Professor at the School of Social Work, Lund University and Marie Nordfeldt, PhD at the Sköndal Institute in collaboration with Lars-Erik Olsson, PhD.
Publication in English:
Nordfeldt, M., Olsson, L-E. & M. Knutagård (2008) Homelessness in the Swedish universalistic welfare system – the case of four municipalities.
Kronprinsesan Margaretas minnesfond
The fund in memory of the crown princess Margareta was found in 1920 and post every year 9 million Swedish kronor to associations and institutes that works for the benefits of a “public good”. The fund has been an active supporter of charitable and voluntary work for almost 90 years and was thus an active agent before the Swedish welfare society.
The fund has a long history and runs a rather extensive support activity, still it is fairly unknown. This project aims to investigate and analyse the activities of the fund trough a systematic exposition of the funds archives. Interesting questions will be: Which associations and institutes have supplied for support, how many were denied, which ones did get it, how much did they get, and who and how many applied more than once?
Project leader: PhD Annika Sandén, University of Linköping.
Promoting Integration? A study about concrete efforts to promote integration in civil society
Civil society shows varying interest in integration issues. Various organizations with different profiles pursue local projects with the purpose of increasing integration possibilities for immigrants in Sweden. On a policy level and in organizational documents, it is often difficult to find resolute descriptions of the concrete work being done.
The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the concrete work aimed at the integration of immigrants into the Swedish society that is being conducted in socially oriented civil-society organizations dealing with children, youth and the elderly respectively. Gender related differences are of special interest.
The study is being financed by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, and will be presented in a report and articles in 2007-2008.
Project leader: PhD Emilia Forssell. Research assistant Maria Ingemarson is also involved in the project.
Publikation:
Forssell Emilia with Ingemarson Maria (2007). Integration Efforts in Civil Society: Youth and Elderly in Focus.
Social Capital and Social Policy
During 2006 and 2007, the Research Institute participated in the EU-financed project ”Social Capital and Social Policy Network Project”, headed by Professor Robert Leonardi at the London School of Economics. The Research Institute was one of a dozen national partners. During 2007 the focus was on social capital/social policy with respect to immigration, integration, and minority polices. A second area of particular emphasis for 2007 was the development of a “social capital index” to make cross European comparisons possible. The same team has filed a new application (pending) for a continuing project with the Commission.
Project leader at Ersta Sköndal has been Professor Lars Trägårdh, who was also a member of the central coordinating team at the London School of Economics during 2007. Other members of the national team have been PhD Susanne Lundåsen and PhD Johan Vamstad.
Women at the top – On women and leadership in sports
In Scandinavia, sport is usually seen as a popular movement with roots in the democratic traditions of the different nations. In the last few years the question of gender equality and integration has been placed on the agenda. Women in Sweden are in general as active in sports as the men. In spite of this, women do not to the same extend participate in the decision making. Only one of four decision makers in sports organisations is a woman. The aim of this study is to map and analyse explanations for the low representation of women in leading positions in sports organisations. Comparative studies on these issues are being carried out in Denmark and Germany.
The study is financed by the Swedish Centre for Sport Research and by the Research Department. Started in 2003, it will run through 2007.
Project leader: PhD Ulla Habermann.
Publications:
Habermann Ulla, Laila Ottesen and Gertrud Pfister (2003). Kvinder på Toppen – om kvinder idæt og ledelse [Women at the top – About women, sports and leadership].
Habermann Ulla and Laila Ottesen (2004). Omsorgskapital i idrætten [Social Capital in Sports].
Habermann Ulla (2004). ”Mange unge maend“. Kvinders arbejde i idrætten i Danmark och Sverige [”Many young men.” Women’s work in sports in Denmark and Sweden].
Habermann Ulla (2004, 2007). Kvinnor på toppen – om kvinnor, idrott och ledarskap [Women at the top – About women, sports and leadership].
Habermann Ulla, Ottesen Laila & Skristad Berit (2005): It will solve itself (?) - On the attitudes of Scandinavian sports managers towards equal opportunity. In Annette R. Hofmann & Else Trangbæk (ed.): International Perspectives on Sporting Women in Past and Present. Institut for Idræt, Köpenhamns University.
The John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project
This project, carried out in co-operation with the Stockholm School of Economics, is a comparative study of 13 participating countries led by a research group at John Hopkins University, where there is a long tradition of research on the nonprofit sector. Some of the main themes:
- to chart the extent, structure and financial basis of the nonprofit sector in a number of countries, using a uniform comparative methodology
- to provide an insight into the historical development, legal standing and theoretical understanding of the nonprofit sector and to identify the factors that make it strong or weak in different areas and in different countries.
By comparing Sweden with other countries, we aimed to achieve a more profound illumination both of general patterns and of the special characteristics that define voluntary organisations. Historical, economic and political conditions are also discussed and analysed.
Project Leader: Professor Tommy Lundström, in collaboration with Associate Professor Filip Wijkström
Publications in English:
Tommy Lundström & Filip Wijksröm; The Swedish Nonprofit Sector. EFI Research Reports, Stockholm School of Economics, 1994.
Tommy Lundström & Filip Wijkström: Defining the Nonprofit Sector – Sweden. Working Papers 16, John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. The John Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, 1995.
Tommy Lundström: "The State and voluntary Social Work in Sweden". In Voluntas, 1996.
Tommy Lundström & Filip Wijkström: The Nonprofit Sector in Sweden. Manchester University Press, 1997.
Voluntarism in Europe
This so-called Eurovol Project, initiated by the Volunteer Centre UK—a development and research unit for voluntary work in Great Britain, is a comparative study designed to investigate voluntarism in 10 countries of Europe from population, organisational and socio-political perspectives.
Within this framework, we have carried out an investigation of civic participation among the Swedish population as well as a study of organisations specialising in social work with focus on the importance of voluntary contributions for their activities and policies. A third sub-project examines government policy with regard to voluntary work.
In parallel, we have worked consistently on the original theme, where comparisons between Sweden and countries such as Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the UK are of particular interest.
Project team: Prof. Eva Jeppsson Grassman, Prof. Lars Svedberg and Britta Olby, Doctoral Student.
Publication in English:
Eva Jeppsson Grassman & Lars Svedberg: Voluntary Action in a Scandinavian Welfare Context: The Case of Sweden. In Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 1996.
Voluntary social work – An overview
Based in a project for the Social Services Commission, in 1992-1993 the research group carried out a number of minor empirical studies, including an analysis of the concepts involved and review of the work being carried out in other countries. These studies were undertaken by researchers from a variety of fields—social work, psychology, theology and the history of ideas. Results have been published in the Swedish Official Report Series (SOU 1993:82).
Project leader: Prof. Lars Svedberg, together with Dr. Erik Blennberger (DD), Prof. Eva Jeppsson Grassman, Dr. Kerstin Isaksson and Dr. Roger Qvarsell.
Publication in English:
Voluntary Work in Sweden – An Introduction. In Third Sector Resource and Challenge in Social Work 1993.
Third age volunteering
“Third Age Volunteering in Social Care” is an investigation of volunteering activities among people in the 55-75 or so-called ‘Third Age’ group. This was an attempt to discover the extent of the work being done by this group, its character and the contexts in which it was carried out, as well as the kinds of activities that have been most successful.
Project leader: Professor Eva Jeppsson Grassman.
Publication in English:
Eva Jeppsson Grassman: Third Age Volunteering. Occasional Papers no 2, the Sköndal Institute 1994.
Self-help groups in Sweden
This study is intended to give a first, comprehensive picture of self-help groups in a broad range of areas in Sweden today. A research review was compiled in 1997 that included a summary of the knowledge gained up to that point as well as an examination of the concepts involved. A nation-wide survey of the prevalence and distribution of self-help groups in different social problem areas was undertaken in ten Swedish local authorities. This was primarily based on interviews with a smaller number of self-help groups and two questionnaire surveys directed to a larger number of group members in the local authorities being investigated. The project was carried out from 1996-2000.
Project leader: Magnus Karlsson, PhD.
Publication in English:
Karlsson Magnus, Eva Jeppsson Grassman and Jan-Håkan Hansson (2002). “Self-help Groups in the Welfare State: Treatment Program or Voluntary Action?” In Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 13, 2, pages 155-167.
Local authorities and voluntary social work - The FRIKOM Project
From 1997 to 2000, a project of collaboration between municipalities and voluntary organisations has been in progress. The aim of the project was to develop models and methods for different kinds of co-operation and to spread information about these results. Another important ambition of the project was to strengthen and to increase co-operation between municipalities and voluntary organisations.
The task of the Sköndal Institute was to monitor the development of the project, to critically analyse the work being done and to publish and otherwise present the results. A method handbook was published in January 2001 and the final report later in 2001.
Project leader: PhD Lars-Erik Olsson.
Basta Workers' Co-operative - A case study
A case study from the field of drug addiction treatment is presented as an illustration of different organizational forms in the borderland called “social economy” between the state and market sectors. In 1994, former drug addicts started a workers’ cooperative called ”Basta Arbetskooperativ” with inspiration from a large workers’ cooperative, San Patrignano, in Italy. Different characteristics of this cooperative, its formation and start-up period are outlined. Problems concerning the possible gap between rhetoric and practice are discussed as well as the difficult task of developing a successful organization while having to consider and balance value systems from both the public and the market sectors of society.
This study was carried out from 1995 to 2000 in co-operation with researchers from the Stockholm School of Economics. Two final reports were presented in 2001.
Project team: Jan-Håkan Hansson, Associate Professor, Anna Meeuwisse, PhD and Filip Wijkström, Associate Professor.
Mutual support, help and self-help
Applying a user viewpoint, this project is intended to explore and examine the role and importance for people’s lives and welfare of the activities of socially oriented organisations as compared to other care systems. In a first study, elderly users and/or caregivers in the local activities of three national organisations were interviewed, partly in a small community and partly in a suburb of a larger municipality. In a second study, the type of help and support given in self-help groups is investigated through interviews and participant observation. Of particular interest is the occurrence of mutual support.
Project leaders: Eva Jeppsson Grassman, PhD, Lars Svedberg, Professor, together with Doctoral Students Magnus Karlsson and Britta Olby.
Voluntary organisations and the homeless
An inquiry into the efforts of Swedish voluntary organisations to aid the homeless, carried out with the support of the National Board of Health and Welfare as part of an extensive government project to chart the extent of homelessness in Sweden.
An inventory was made of the organisations engaged in giving help to the homeless and the kind of assistance given. The inquiry was concluded with a major educational drive, in which the Sköndal Institute took part, to spread information about the plight of the homeless in Sweden. This project was carried out in 1994-1995.
Project leader: PhD Marie Nordfeldt.
The vulnerability study
This investigation was concentrated on human ability to handle crises and difficult life situations. Among people at risk or afflicted are those who have the ability to make use of available personal, social and material resources to gain control of and get on with their lives in spite of adverse circumstances. On the other hand are those who are unable to extricate themselves from their situations, where difficulties are compounded and the progression played out is often a negative spiral of increasing vulnerability. In this project, special attention was paid to the part played by the different circumstances and abilities of the persons involved.
The study, carried out in 1995-1996 on behalf of the Swedish Red Cross, has stimulated a discussion of methods that has hopefully enabled voluntary organisations to better make contact with persons at risk and introduce them to self-help as a way out of their difficulties.
Project leader: Professor Rolf Stål.
Motives and driving forces of voluntary workers
An investigation of voluntary work in the Swedish context carried out with qualitative methods, in which the following are some of the questions dealt with. Who are the people involved in voluntary work? What life conditions lead people to involve themselves in voluntary work? How is altruism expressed in Swedish volunteering? What are the motives and values of the volunteers and what are the forces that drive them? This project was carried out from 1994 to 1997.
Project leader: Professor Eva Jeppsson Grassman.
Religious voluntary treatment of substance abusers
Lewi Pethrus founded the Swedish Pentecostal Movement in 1913. Since 1959, the Lewi Pethrus Foundation has driven a rehabilitation project for alcoholics and drug addicts in close cooperation with the movement. This study, a process evaluation, describes and analyses the work of the Foundation, a religious commitment system, in secular terms.
Project leader: Assistant Professor Göran Johansson.
Working with HIV/AIDS in the Noah’s Ark-Red Cross Foundation
Noah’s Ark is a centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Development. This study describes and analyses the culture and ideology of the Foundation and the character and function of its use and combining of volunteers.
Project leader: Assistant Professor Göran Johansson.
Informal care of elderly immigrants
This study is intended to generate new knowledge about the content and character of informal caregiving in Sweden and of different solutions to the needs of the elderly. In focus are persons who give help and care to elderly immigrants who have been less than ten years in Sweden and who require nursing and/or other forms of assistance.
The project was started in 1999. In a first phase completed in 2000, a small number of informal caregivers giving daily help to older relatives were studied. These elderly relatives, who had emigrated from countries outside Europe during the 1990s, were only receiving help through this informal system. A second study was started in late 2000. Here those in focus are informal caregivers whose elderly family members are also being assisted by caregivers in the formal Swedish social security system. How do the informal caregivers describe the path into the formal system? How have their lives been affected by this change?
Project leader: Emilia Forssell, Doctoral Student.
The dying of the elderly – Relatives and care personnel talk about caregiving at home, in retirement homes and in hospitals
In an effort to understand the conditions of dying in old age, we chose to follow a specific group of elderly persons in their twilight years. Data was collected in interviews with relatives and care personnel in three local authorities. A starting point for the work was a field study carried out in 1997. This project was financed by the Board of Health and Welfare.
Project leader: Emilia Forssell, Doctoral Student.
Voluntary caregiving to the dying
An investigation of the Swedish conditions of voluntary participation in the nursing and care of persons at the end of their lives was carried out with financing from the Board of Health and Welfare. This study is intended to show the extent and content of voluntary work in this area. Questions treated in the report are the motives behind the ambition to engage volunteers for nursing, how volunteers are recruited and trained and the extent to which they get support and supervision in their practice. Finally, a discussion is held regarding the role and function of volunteers in relation to personnel and patients.
Project leader: Doctoral Student Anna Whitaker.
