Har du någonsin känt dig i resonans med världen? Denna upplevelse kan enligt den tyske sociologen Hartmut Rosa uppstå i de mest oplanerade situationer – på en skogspromenad, en konsert, en helt vanlig dag på jobbet; i beröringen av en älskad, ett samtal med en främling, mitt i en rasande storm. Resonans står i skarp kontrast till den alienation som präglar det moderna livet, där allt fler delar av tillvaron pressas in i effektivitetens och förfogbarhetens logik.

I den här boken introducerar och utforskar sociologen Christian Ståhl resonansteorin som ett verktyg för att tänka kring livet, döden, etiken och möjligheten till ett bättre samhälle. Här ryms både ljusa utopier och den mörka resonans som kan upplevas i mötet med döden. Med klimatkrisen som fond ställer resonans­teorin vissa frågor på sin spets: Hur kan vi tänka kring ett gott liv och samhälle i tider av existentiella hot? Och kan en annan relation till världen ännu ta form?

Christian Ståhl är professor i sociologi vid Linköpings universitet. Hans forskning handlar om samhällsförändring i relation till klimatförändringar, med särskilt fokus på arbetslivets gröna omställning.

The European Green Deal (EGD) was introduced as a transformative policy agenda for sustainability aiming to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent in the world. While previous research has studied its transformative potential, there is no comprehensive review of that research. We provide an integrative review of discursive policy analyses of the EGD, arguing that it is pivotal that policymakers understand what transformational potentials the agenda has—along with the obstacles to realize it in transformative ways that are inherent in its formulations. We discuss the transformative potential of the EGD, as presented in the 26 articles included in our review, using a theoretical framework of “empty signifiers” and “ivy discourses”. We conclude that the agenda is characterized by a certain amount of transformational discourse. However, its transformative impact risks being limited as it is enmeshed in assumptions of de-coupling and international relations remain tainted by colonial power dynamics.

Tidigare forskning har konstaterat att organisationers arbete med arbetsmiljöfrågor har betydelse för medarbetares hälsa, samt att lagar och reglering kan vara effektiva sätt att förbättra arbetsmiljön. Forskningen om reglers påverkan på arbetsmiljön visar att det sällan handlar om en enkel och tydlig kedja från lagstiftning till förändrad praktik, utan att tillämpning och implementering av regelverk i praktiken ofta är fragmentarisk och otillräcklig. Därför behövs det kunskap om hur arbetsmiljöarbetet går till i organisationer och hur detta påverkas av både regelverk och organisatoriska förutsättningar.

Previous research has identified organizations’ work with occupational health and safety (OHS) as influential on the health and wellbeing of their employees, and that laws and regulations can be effective ways of improving work environment management. The research on how regulation affects work environments show that it is seldom a clear and linear chain from legislation to changed practice, but that application and implementation of regulation in practice is often fragmented and insufficient. It is therefore relevant to summarize existing knowledge about how OHS management is carried out in organizations and how this is influenced by both regulations and organizational conditions.

This report investigates the ‘twin transition’ at the workplace level, drawing on twelve case studies in Spain and Sweden across the energy, transport, and finance sectors. Findings reveal that the digital transition is a mature, efficiency-driven process, while the green transition is still incipient and largely policy-driven. The study confirms significant synergies, where digitalisation enables greening through improved coordination and virtualisation, and green objectives can drive digital adoption. However, negative effects such as increased administrative burdens and work intensification are also identified in some cases.

This article presents an analysis of Swedish sickness insurance in the 2000's, outlining cultural and structural shifts in political and institutional design. The study is based on analytic dualism and Margaret S. Archer's morphogenetic model, which is used to create an analytical narrative focusing on political and institutional developments. The narrative identifies two distinct phases: one period of rapid cultural and structural change (morphogenesis), and one of institutionalization of the new structure (morphostasis). The narrative describes how a key element of the Swedish welfare state, sickness insurance, underwent a transition from an encompassing and generous to a strict and suspicious system, and how this was effectively solidified politically and organizationally. This is related both to a broader shift toward neoliberal and workfare policies, and to the specific socio-cultural and social interactions between agents to reform the system. The analysis provides a contribution to the literature by providing an internationally relevant empirical case of how an encompassing system has undergone a period of substantial decline, and by presenting a coherent long-term narrative which temporalizes this development into specific timepoints and phases.

Purpose – Knowledge regarding the importance of the psychosocial work environment for health and wellbeing in the workplace is extensive. However, more knowledge is needed about how the managers’ organizational conditions are related to what occupational health and safety management (OHSM) is actually conducted and how this relates to the work-related health of employees. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate if managers’ organizational conditions are associated with the conducted OHSM, and if the conducted OHSM is associated with the psychosocial work environment and well-being of the employees.

Design/methodology/approach – An electronic questionnaire was sent to managers and their employees working in 10 different organizations in Sweden, resulting in 1,097 valid responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the results.

Findings – The SEM analysis showed that managers’ conditions were related to employee well-being via OHSM and psychosocial work environment (job demands and job resources).

Originality/value – This study contributes to the existing literature in the field of OHSM by placing explicit focus on the role of organizational conditions for conducting OHSM. By studying not only the link between work environment and health, but also focus on the underlying organizational structures for OHSM, provides additional possibilities for prevention of the increasing work-related illness. As such, this paper contributes to a more holistic perspective in the field of OHSM.

PurposeFor clients to understand social insurance decisions and processes, information from authorities needs to be comprehensible, and clients need sufficient individual abilities. These dimensions are captured by the concept social insurance literacy, which has been operationalized into a measure, the Social Insurance Literacy Questionnaire (SILQ). The aim of this study was to describe the development of the SILQ and evaluate its psychometric properties using Rasch measurement theory.MethodsThe development of the SILQ included a Delphi study and cognitive interviews. A preliminary version, divided on four scales corresponding to the domains of the concept (obtaining information, understanding information, acting on information, and system comprehensibility) was psychometrically evaluated according to Rasch measurement theory, in a survey to a stratified random sample of people on sick leave (n = 1151) sent out in the fall of 2020.ResultsOverall, the items in the final version of the SILQ demonstrated good fit to the Rasch model, and the response scale worked as intended. Unidimensionality was supported for all scales, but minor problems with local dependency was detected for three items. The person separation was 0.80 for the Obtain scale, 0.82 for the Understand scale, 0.68 for the Act scale, and 0.81 for the System scale. Corresponding ordinal alpha values were 0.91, 0.91, 0.86, and 0.91, respectively.ConclusionThis study is a first step toward exploring literacy in the social insurance field. The SILQ covers individual abilities and systems' comprehensibility, and the results show that it has acceptable psychometric properties.