Author: testbrukar2

Coordinator(s): Hans-Peter Y. Qvist, (Aalborg University, Denmark)

This session invites papers that contribute to the sociology of volunteering. Empirical papers may use quantitative data to shed light on the causes of volunteering including how they change over time and vary between contexts or to examine the possible effects of volunteering on different outcomes such as career progression, health, or social trust.

Papers may also use qualitative data to elucidate the social mechanisms through which people become volunteers or explain how the possible effects of volunteering on different outcomes come about. The session also welcomes papers that reviews existing sociological literature on volunteering or address important methodological issues within it.

Coordinator(s): Øyvind Wiborg (Department of sociology and human geography, University of Oslo, Norway) 

Western societies are experiencing rapid changes with huge implications on many levels. On a political level, western democracies are under pressure from non-democratic forces. BREXIT, Trump, and the growth of radical and popular right-wing movements in European societies represent notable examples of these developments. There are many sources behind such significant changes, but growing social inequalities and tensions between different social groupings represent a major factor.   

The Scandinavian societies are no longer safe havens. Despite being some of the most egalitarian societies, also the Nordic countries have experienced noticeable increments in inequality over the last decades. As in other Western societies, the increasing divides have bolstered traditional sociological dimensions such as social classes, socioeconomic status, and school and neighborhood segregation, often intertwined with new dimensions such as inequality between ethnic groups. Nevertheless, a new social force has marked its entrance in Nordic societies: the growing inequality in wealth accumulation. Surprising to many, the levels of inequality in wealth in Scandinavia match other Western societies with rather high levels of inequality. This new social force has significant implications for stratification processes over the life course and across generations.   

In this session, we call for empirical studies that focus on social inequalities across or within generations, which address central concerns within sociological stratification research.  More specifically, we call for papers that focus on educational attainment (performance and choices), and the outcomes of those choices (rewards and opportunities in the labor market). We call for papers that focus on wealth accumulation, either transmission across generations or sources of accumulation within the life courses. We also welcome papers that deal with other consequences of the increasing divides between the haves and have-nots, such as digital divides, the form of rhetoric and use of social media, political preferences, and voting behaviors. 

Coordinator(s): Rolf Lidskog (Örebro University, Sweden)

Scientific advances, technological development and changes in risk consciousness have led to stronger demands on society to manage and control various kinds of risks. Risk should be assessed, prevented, controlled and communicated in order to avoid severe negative impacts. Much thinking about risk management treats risk as separate from, and external to, its social context, thereby concealing the political and conflictual nature of risk issues. There are not only diverse definitions and understandings of risk, but the benefits and burdens of risk generation are unevenly distributed, socially, spatially and temporally.

This working group welcome papers that discusses environmental and risk issues in contemporary society. Contributions will range across different levels of analysis, theoretical approaches and methods. Presentations can be either in the form of a written paper circulated beforehand (with a discussant appointed) or an oral presentation (no paper circulated beforehand).

NB! THIS IS A PANEL. Only 4-5 papers or presentations will be selected.

Coordinator(s): Andrea Hjálmsdóttir and Hjördís Sigursteinsdóttir, (University of Akureyri, Island).

For many years in a row the Nordic countries have been at the top of the World’s Economic Forum gender gap index. This indicates that the Nordic countries have been quite successful when it comes to gender equality in terms of women´s economic participation and opportunities, educational attainment, health, survival; and political empowerment. Still, as everyday tasks have become more and more miscellaneous resent research indicates that many people are experiencing difficulties balancing work and family tasks in their everyday life. Despite their higher level of labour force participation, women still do a greater share of domestic work and childcare than men. This shows that gender inequalities seem to be embedded in social structures and are reproduced not only in the workplaces but not in the least at home.

This panel will address work life balance issues and gendered patterns of division of labour; and invites presentations focusing on division of labor, both in public and private life, how people experience pressure in everyday life, hours of work and health and wellbeing of couples and families.

Coordinator(s): Professor Lars Skov Henriksen, (Aalborg University, Denmark, Research), Professor Kari Steen-Johnsen (Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway) and Professor Jón Gunnar Bernburg (University of Iceland, Iceland).

In recent years, civil society and its relations to the topics of civic engagement, activism and social movements, social capital, trust, co-creation, the public sphere, and foundations have received considerable attention from scholars as well as decision makers and the broader public. In the Nordic countries we have seen renewed interest in the studies of historical and current relations between state and civil society, the role of associations and voluntary organizations in sustaining public welfare and culture, new forms of activism and new forms of organizing citizens initiatives and movements, the effect of these activities on individual and collective life and much more. The role of civil society in tackling new challenges related to migration, globalization, climate change, inequality, and populism is highly debated and contested.

We invite papers that address any of these questions, and in particular papers that bridge perspectives from social movement theory and civil society, as well as activism and voluntarism. Theoretical as well as empirical work is welcome, and we encourage colleagues to submit papers based on different types of designs and different data sources.