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Studies conducted over the past sixty years have reported stereotypical gender representation in school materials. Initiatives to counteract sexism have led to improvements, and the most overt gender-biased examples are less visible today. Despite this, studies still report gender imbalances. Since language has an enormous impact on how normative perceptions are created, increased knowledge about how we communicate and create knowledge about gender is needed. This study focuses on gender in EFL textbooks used in Swedish primary school. To reveal patterns of representation, a corpus was constructed and tagged to enable searches. The study reveals both equal and unequal representations. Equal patterns are shown in the numerical representation of proper names, and in verbs and adjectives collocating with females and males. However, animals and fantastic characters identified as either male or female in the books show traditional gender representations, with male characters not only occurring more frequently than equivalent female characters but also being represented as more active and innovative. The pronoun he is also considerably more common than she in the material.

Det finns än i dag inte mycket forskat kring hur lärare för de tidiga skolåren samtalar om barns skrivande av berättande texter. Därför vill vi med den här studien bidra till ökade insikter genom att undersöka hur lågstadielärare förändrar sitt sätt att tala om elevers berättande texter efter en kortare fortbildning kring sådana språkliga resurser, som tidigare forskning pekar ut som viktiga att lyfta i skrivundervisningen. Resultaten visar att lärarna i fortbildningen breddar sin repertoar av språkliga resurser som rör narratologiska aspekter, om än i olika grad beroende på vilken typ av elevtext de talar om. Det ligger i linje med tidigare forskning som visar på lärares vana och vilja att använda litterärt metaspråk vilket de kopplar till kreativitet, medan det grammatiska metaspråket kopplas till regler och restriktioner. Lärarna blir också mer precisa i sina uttalanden genom att oftare dels använda formellt metaspråk, dels ge exempel från de elevtexter de diskuterar. Resultaten bidrar således med underlag för fortsatta diskussioner om vad som behöver betonas inom fortbildning och lärarutbildning och understryker betydelsen av långsiktighet inom sådan utbildning. Studien ger också underlag för diskussioner om synsätt på elevers tidiga skrivande i undervisningen, styrdokument och läromedel. English abstract Teachers’ discussions about students’ writing of texts in early school years Very little research is available today about teachers’ discussions about students’ writing of narrative texts in early school years. This study therefore aims to contribute with such knowledge by investigating how primary school teachers change their way of talking about students’ narrative texts after having participated in professional workshops where various language resources were presented, that previous research has shown as important to highlight. The results show that the teachers primarily broaden their repertoire regarding resources related to narratological aspects, albeit to varying degrees depending on the type of student text they are talking about. This is in accordance with earlier research that shows teachers’ willingness to use literary meta-language, which they link to creativity, while grammatical meta-language is linked to rules and restrictions. The teachers also develop a somewhat greater precision by using formal meta-language, and giving examples from the students’ texts more often. In this way, the study contributes with insights for further discussions on what needs to be emphasized more in professional workshops and teacher education, as well as the importance of long-term efforts in such education. Furthermore, it concerns the need for expanded approaches to students’ early writing in teaching, curricula, national tests, and textbooks.

Aims - The high price of alcohol in the Nordic countries has been a long-standing policy to curb consumption, which has led consumers to importing alcohol from countries with lower prices. This paper seeks to develop a profile of alcohol importers in four Nordic countries. Methods - Cross-sectional data from general population surveys in Denmark (2003-2006), Norway (2004), Sweden (2003-2006) and Finland (2005-2006) were analysed by multiple logistic and linear regression. Independent variables included region, socio-demographics, drinking indicators and alcohol-related problems. Outcome variables were importer status and amount of imported alcohol. Results - People living in regions close to countries with lower alcohol prices were more often importers and imported higher amounts than people living in other regions. Higher educated persons were more likely to be importers, but the amounts imported were smaller than those by people with lower education. Persons with higher incomes were also more likely to be importers and they also imported larger amounts than people with lower incomes. In Sweden and Denmark regional differences of importer rates were more pronounced for persons of lower incomes. Age, risky single-occasion drinking, risky drinking and alcohol problems were positively related to the amounts of imported alcohol. Conclusions - Private importers in the Nordic countries are an integrated yet heavy drinking segment of society and do not appear to be located on the fringes of society

Environmental humanities is a dynamic and rapidly growing post-disciplinary field of scholarship that brings together scholars, practices and theoretical perspectives from the humanities, social sciences and the fine arts. It analyses, explores and tackles questions related to the environment and all kinds of environmental problems, and it may thus be understood as a concerted response to the pressing environmental challenges of our time. This article gives a brief introduction to the field and the various ways it has been promoted and institutionalized in Sweden and abroad. It also introduces the articles in the present issue, written by the researchers Sverker Sörlin, Ebba Lisberg Jensen, Martin Hultman, Coppélie Cocq and Daniel Andersson, as well as a short essay and a review. Taken together, these texts represent one of the first publications on environmental humanities and its development, published in Swedish.

While smoking has decreased in Sweden since the 1970s, the use of Swedish snus (a domestic moist tobacco product) has simultaneously increased, especially among men. About 20 percent of the men and 3 percent of the women in Sweden are currently using snus every day. Although Swedish snus is used in some other parts of the world, notably in Norway and the US, the development in Sweden is unique, partly due to an EU ban from 1992 on the sale of snus outside the country. The present article argues that this situation needs to be explored and understood from a humanistic point of view, within the field of medical humanities, and proposes four interrelated aspects that such a study should focus on: the scientific uncertainty and controversies concerning the health risks; the divergent politics and regulations on the national level and EU level respectively; the business and marketing of the product; and finally cultural dimensions regarding tradition, norms, identity, experience and meaning in different social contexts.

An extensive vocabulary is necessary for successful communication in a foreign language. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, the teaching of English in Sweden is often based on one textbook and on that textbook only. The purpose of this study is therefore to describe what vocabulary is presented in one teaching material aimed at school years 4–6 (age group 10–12 years) in Sweden. More precisely, the following questions have been considered: (i) what are the most frequent words in the textbooks? and (ii) to what extent do words recur in the textbooks? To answer these questions, a corpus of the texts in the three books was compiled. The analyses show that although the texts appear to have been chosen to appeal to the age groups aimed for, there does not seem to be any consciously considered rationale behind the choice of what vocabulary to include, many words occur only once and the necessary repetition of words is thus lacking.

The consolidation of the USSTE research group in Umeå grew out of two favorable conditions: the Faculty of Arts’ economic crisis which was turned into a window of opportunity and the ability by the existing USSTE researchers at the time to constitute a credible recipient of such support. The future for USSTE depends both on how well its researchers can continue to perform according to established quality criteria, but also if it can manage to consolidate a sense of its own expertise, its own version of relevance, and engage in an international conversation on contemporary societal challenges.

This essay draws on a paper presented at the Young Academy of Sweden’s workshop “Universities as Creative Environments?” held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 17, 2011. Starting with a brief overview about creativity as a concept and as an object of academic study, results from a wide range of research on conditions for creative research environments, past and present, are summarized and discussed. Three findings regarding collaborative scientific research are highlighted: 1) small research groups (4–10 scientists) seem to be more creative than large ones; 2) heterogeneous research groups seem to be more creative than homogeneous ones; and 3) creativity in research groups appears to be stimulated by both “structural instability” (concerning organization and academic freedom) and “structural stability” (concerning trust and long term funding). Furthermore, it is argued that truly creative environments are vulnerable and difficult to create; they typically develop organically, from below, rather than being the result of top-down politics or university management. If these findings are correct – and if creative research is the ultimate goal – there may be reasons to re-think the benefits of large and strictly organised research programs, such as the so-called “centres of excellence”, “strong research environments” and “strategic research fields” so frequently promoted in current European research policy.

In the current historiography of the early Swedish welfare state the so-called sterilisation programme, which was established in the 1930s in accordance with the premises of racial hygiene, plays a prominent role. The aim of the present essay is to highlight and analyse ideas about what may be looked upon as the counterpart of sterilisation: medical practices in order to cure sterility. Furthermore, the essay explores the connection between such ideas and the population debate of the 1930s and 1940s, when not only voluntarily but also involuntarily childless marriages were considered as a threat against the nation. The analysis is based mainly on articles written by the respected gynaecologist and endocrinologist Axel Westman, who conceptualised sterility as a hormonal imbalance and argued that hormone therapy could be of great significance for the treatment of this diagnosis and thereby for society.

Economic incentives and their impact on the job search behaviour of the unemployed have been a central focus in the academic and political debate in Sweden. A key concept has been the reservation wages of the unemployed, the lowest income at which an unemployed person would be willing to accept a job offer. Unemployment benefit systems have been argued to raise and maintain reservation wages at high levels that lower job chances. This has been supported by a large number of international studies. From this perspective lower reservation wages would function as protection against long term unemployment and the scarring effects associated with it. High reservation wages might however, based on the same behavioural assumptions, have a human capital preserving effect. The possibility to hold out for the right job should reduce human capital losses compared to accepting the first available job offer. In this article we use Swedish longitudinal micro data combining interview and register data in order to investigate three central aspects reservation wages in a Swedish context: Factors influencing the setting of reservation wages, the effect of reservation wage on job chances and the impact of reservation wages on reemployment incomes. Our findings show that benefit level and pre-unemployment position in the wage structure are central factors for setting the reservation wage. The effects of reservation wages were however not the expected. No effects were found on job chances, while a strong positive effect was found on reemployment income. This together indicates that high reservation wages have a human capital preserving effect in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important but neglected aspect of the international Aryanisation process is that of the German subsidiaries. Aryanisation of subsidiaries occurred in Sweden during the 1930s as well as during the Second World War. This type of Nazi racist policy was intensified during 1940-1942, a period that coincided with the heydays of Nazi-German military power and the efforts to integrate neutral bystanders such as Sweden into the so called "Neuordnung". The Aryanisation of the subsidiaries never provoked any official Swedish reactions. To a certain extent this might be explained by the fact that the government and businesses had no legal means to interfere in the internal affairs of the subsidiaries. The Swedish silence, it seems, was also influenced by national commercial considerations. We do not know how common it was for Swedes to exploit the Aryanisation of the subsidiaries for their own interests. It is, however, quite evident that some Swedish firms and entrepreneurs had no moral qualms about exploiting the possibilities created by the Aryanisation of the subsidiaries. Some Swedes who saw the possibilities of personal gain saw Aryanisation as "business as usual," in a manner similar to how recent studies have shown some of the Swiss to have reacted. However this study reveals that the attitudes and behaviour of the Swedes cannot be described only in terms of "black or white". Swedish courts defended Jewish refugees with respect to subsidiaries and their rights to protect their assets from Nazi confiscation. They did so by using the legal weapon of ordre public. The courts, however, used the weapon of ordre public in a selective way. In cases when Jewish rights and demands were violated after the date of the Aryanisation in Germany or the equivalent action in Austria and the Sudetenland the principle of ordre public was not used. It could then provoke Nazi-German reactions that could jeopardise Swedish economic interests. In this context, commercial considerations seem to have played a greater role than rights to Swedish courts. It also seems that the Germans did not carry through the Aryanisation of subsidiaries during 1940-1942 if this would jeopardise their economic interests on the Swedish market. Such behaviour suggests that in certain fields the Swedish economy had a similar key role to the German economy as the economy of neutral Switzerland had in other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a non-participant in the Second World War Sweden still experienced the policy of Aryanisation. Thousands of Swedish firms and businessmen, Jewish and non-Jewish, were asked about their "racial origin" and were registered by the Germans. In many cases they were threatened with different kinds of reprisals and some were boycotted. These measures were intensified during the period 1938-1942. The reactions to the Aryanisation policies in Sweden were those of a silent and passive bystander, especially during the years 1939-1942. Only once did the Swedish authorities speak up when in December 1938 foreign minister Rikard Sandler openly criticised German Aryanisation measures in Sweden. Aryanisation demands and measures continued, however, and escalated in 1941 in a most spectacular way. In this year, German firms and authorities demanded of their Swedish commercial contacts that they sign an agreement to help create a Europe without Jews by giving up all contacts with Swedish-Jewish firms and entrepreneurs. Should they not comply they would not be allowed to trade with Germany. Neither in this case nor in the case of other Aryanisation measures did Swedish authorities, public opinion or business organisations officially protest against German demands. It is possible that this behaviour expressed fear of German reprisals or of the Aryanisation measures. There was however, a secret report by the Swedish Board of Trade from early 1939 regarding the Aryanisation policies and its consequences which proves that the government and business organisations were concerned. The report showed that businessmen and their organisations were uneasy about Aryanisation and did not support the Nazi racist policy against Swedish Jews. The report didn't, however, lead to any official protests. Naturally there are many explanations for the Swedish silence about Aryanisation, such as anti-Semitism in certain circles of the administration and business community or simply indifference. The public report of 1939 shows that Swedish pre-war companies were not willing to openly criticise and protest against Aryanisation since this could jeopardise important commercial relations with Germany. It also demonstrates that businessesmen had little interest in the consequences of Aryanisation for Swedish Jews. The image of Sweden as a totally passive bystander should be modified, however. Sweden's stance can be described as that of active silence. There was passive resistance to the German demands among many Swedish firms and businessmen that the Germans could not neglect. The Germans had to accept this for commercial reasons. The existence of this passive resistance may explain why German official representatives in Sweden in 1941 gave the advice to the authorities in Berlin that Aryanisation in Sweden could wait until the war was over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]