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During the 1960s immigrants were normally called -foreigners- (utlänning) in the Swedish press, and were usually described in a way that would nowadays be considered not only as politically incorrect but also as flagrantly racist and xenophobic. This way of representing immigrants in the Swedish media changed radically at the beginning of 1970s. The word -foreigner- was replaced by -immigrant- in most newspaper articles, and the media started to represent immigrants in a manner that resembles current politically correct media discourse. This paper discusses, first, the reasons for this discursive shift, in the context of the evolution of the Swedish integration and integration policy that was initiated at the end of the 1960s, and, second, the related development of international migration and ethnic relations (IMER) research in Sweden. Finally, the paper presents some reflections on the current state of relations between Swedish integration policy and Swedish IMER research. Original Publication:Zoran Slavnic, Integration into Vertical Mosaic: Reflections on the History of Integration Policy, IMER Research and Journalism in Sweden since 1960s, 2008, Migracijske i etnicke teme, (24), 4, 371-388, http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=53381Copyright: Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studieshttp://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=casopis&id_casopis=17

In the last few years, Swedish municipalities have striven to adopt automation to increase their internal efficiency by automating administrative processes. This E-Government initiative is taking place as part of the ongoing digitalization efforts by Swedish municipalities. To be able to automate processes, municipalities are introducing new types of software, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This allows the need for human involvement to be reduced, by letting a software robot perform processes instead. In adopting automation, several different stakeholders are involved, ranging from the original suppliers of the software to the case workers performing processes that might be automated. The aim of this thesis is to explore and understand different stakeholder perspectives on automation. This is done by identifying sociotechnical imaginaries of automation amongst involved stakeholders by conducting a qualitative and interpretive analysis of the contents of the five papers that are part of this thesis. Sociotechnical imaginaries of automation are visions of the future that stakeholders imagine automation as able to bring. Three sociotechnical imaginaries of automation are identified: Automation is a new era of digitalization, Automation is a powerful tool, and Automation is just another software. These imaginaries are held and performed by six stake-holder groups: Suppliers, Developers, Policymakers, Strategists, Civil serv-ants, and IT Department. Underlying interests, closeness to real-life-practice, experience with automation and how stakeholders influence each other are discussed as possible reasons for there being different sociotechnical imaginaries. From this, it is concluded that different stakeholders have different ideas of what automation entails and thus what “the automated municipality” looks like. Contradictions between different sociotechnical imaginaries are potential obstacles of communication and co-operation as different stakeholders may plan and approach automation differently. This thesis contributes a novel way of how the adoption of automation in Swedish municipalities can be understood. Funding agencies: Part of the research in this thesis has been conducted as part of a research project funded by AFA Försäkring.

The aim of this paper is to show that scientific thought experiments and works of science fiction are highly suitable tools for facilitating and increasing understanding of science. After comparing one of Einstein’s most famous thought experiments with the science fiction novel “The Forever War”, I shall argue that both proceed similarly in making some of the more outlandish consequences of special relativity theory intelligible. However, as I will also point out, understanding in thought experiments and understanding in science fiction differ in one important respect: While the former aim at what I shall call “physical understanding”, science fiction novels typically have “existential understanding” as their target. Funding: Linkoping University; Austrian Research Fund (FWF)Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [P31758]

The attractiveness of audit firms as employers appears to have decreased in recent yearsand the audit profession is currently experiencing high employee turnover. A shortage of personnelincreases the risk of long-term stress and illness. This paper therefore proposes audit firmemployees’ well-being as an important research topic and explores the antecedents of well-being ofSwedish audit firm employees in comparison with those of other business professionals. Based ona nationwide survey of members of the Swedish association of business professionals, with a focuson psychological well-being (measured through General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12)), thestudy shows that the psychological well-being of the professionals in this study generally alignswith the results from similar studies in a Swedish context. However, the findings indicate that auditindustry respondents have the lowest psychological well-being and that employer change, jobsatisfaction, and life satisfaction were the strongest antecedents of their psychological well-being. Funding agencies: Civilekonomerna; Platform for Enterprising at Kristianstad University; Department of Management and Engineering at Linkoping University

Grey water reuse has attracted more and more attention among researchers and professionals in recent years. As most of the Chinese cities are undergoing the process of fast urbanization and economic development, many water-related problems have occurred and urban water resources management has become a strategic issue. The urge to reconsider the conventional ways of utilizing water and discharging the wastewater in cities is calling. As a relatively simple and flexible way, decentralized grey water reuse system can help to make the first step in achieving a sustainable urban water management. However, whether it is feasible in China is still a question. This paper aims at looking for the answer based on a survey and interviews with professionals in the fields from different Chinese cities. The result shows “reuse” as one of the solutions of solving water shortage and achieving sustainable water management is not as simple as one may think. In general, decentralized urban grey water / wastewater reuse is not easy to flourish in China in the near future though most of the respondents hold a positive attitude about reuse itself. To explain this difference between attitude and actual planning we need more historical, political and social-economic understanding with a touch of “Chinese characteristics”.

This paper addresses the socio-economic consequences of the rapid deregulation of the Swedish taxi sector in the early 1990s. The deregulated taxi sector is illustrative of the ethnic labour market segmentation brought about by the evolution of the Swedish model from the universal welfare state, relying on -decommodifying- social policies, towards flexible solutions and related recommodifying labour market policies. We analyse the income, education and ethnic background of those workers for whom the taxi sector was the largest source of income during the period 1990-2004. An important result of our analysis is that since deregulation it has been more usual for foreign-born citizens to become involved in the taxi business, mainly because discriminatory entry barriers have been removed. But our findings also indicate that they have not been integrated in the sector under the same conditions as Swedish-born workers. Although better educated, they derive smaller incomes from the taxi sector than their Swedish-born colleagues. They also receive a higher proportion of social insurance allowances, higher unemployment benefits, and less income from education allowances than the Swedish-born. Altogether, foreign-born workers in the sector have smaller disposable incomes than their Swedish-born counterparts. Compared with the general foreign-born population, however, they have on average fewer social insurance allowances, more unemployment benefits, and less income from education allowances. It seems that an ethnically segmented labour market nevertheless makes it more profitable for the foreign born to work in the taxi sector than in other sectors or to remain unemployed. Finally, our findings show how sectors with deteriorating working conditions on the one hand appear to offer attractive employment opportunities for foreign-born citizens, while on the other hand they have another (un)intended consequence: foreign workers are the most severely affected by the changing relations between the labour market and social policy. Original Publication:Zoran Slavnic and Susanne Urban, Socio-Economic Trends in the Swedish Taxi Sector -Deregulation, Recommodification, Ethnification, 2008, International journal on multicultural societies, (10), 1, 76-94, www.unesco.org/shs/ijms/vol10/issue1/art5. Copyright: UNESCOhttp://www.eng.monash.edu.au/uicee/