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In 2005, a Swedish television documentary that revealed gross misconduct and abuse in Swedish children's homes led to a number of inquiries that culminated with the passing of the Redress Act. This act entitled everyone that had suffered from abuse in out-of-home care to 250,000 Swedish crowns (close to 25,000 Euros). However, only 42 percent of the Swedish claimants were granted the compensation, a very low number in international comparison. The starting point of this study is this—in many accounts failed—redress process. Why did Sweden, self-appointed moral superpower, produce such deviating results? This question is addressed by an inquiry into the Swedish scheme of redress, focusing on the role of archives and recordkeeping with particular focus on the concepts of total archives and politics of regret. This paper argues that it was impossible for the Swedish Board of Redress to make satisfactory assessments of redress claims, given the set criteria and the archival material on which they were required to base their decisions, and that it is a futile task to base the writing of individual life stories on official documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The idea to create pictorial narratives seems to have occurred long after humans learned to produce iconic images, that is, depictions based on visual similarity to external objects. In Scandinavia, e.g. in Gärde, Sweden or Stykket and Bøla, Norway, early Mesolithic images (e.g. rock carvings from before c.5000 BCE) often feature animals that are solitary or without suggestion of causal or narrative relations to other figures, although they sometimes are grouped by proximity or are superimposed on each other. Notable is also the almost complete absence of human figures. However, in subsequent Neolithic configurations (after c.5000 BCE), there are renderings of human agents involved in various forms of interaction with each other or with animals, often within distinguishable 'scenes' or compositions. In this paper we outline the emergence of pictorial narratives in Scandinavian rock carvings. In particular, we focus on some of the first depictions of human agency as displayed in Nämforsen, Sweden (c.5000–1800 BCE). Further, we present an analysis of occurring human‐animal relationships, interpretable as early attempts to create narrativizing images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the participants talk about their experiences as newly graduated nurses, managers and nursing colleagues in the context of "newcomers' establishment in the profession" and to identify how they portray the healthcare organisation in their narratives.Design/methodology/approach: A narrative approach is used to reveal and illustrate three perspectives on the topic "new-comers' establishment". In total, 14 interviews are conducted with 4 managers, 4 nursing colleagues and 6 newly graduated registered nurses. The focus of this study is how a healthcare organisation embraces and retains newly graduated registered nurses and how this is perceived.Findings: The newcomers' establishment is facilitated by an orientation programme and an orientation period, individual support provided by managers and colleagues, and the creation of trust to boost confidence in nursing situations. The organisation is portrayed as struggling with high workloads, nursing shortages, high levels of responsibility and showing concern and an interest in the newcomer. The parties criticise the university for not teaching the most basic knowledge, thereby revealing the existence of a theory-practice gap.Originality/value: The research shows how building trust amongst the organisation's members is essential for creating a satisfying workplace and the retention of newly graduated registered nurses. Empirical descriptions of newly graduated nurses, managers and nursing colleagues experiences of "newcomers establishment" are rare, which is why the description of such "establishment" in this research increases the value of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse young adults' experiences of moving and the role of identity narratives; how intersecting and multiple identities are constructed through their mobility; and the significance of space and representations of space and place in the processes of subject formation. The focus of this paper is on stories of mobility and the representations of one of many European rural peripheries: the Swedish North. The narratives offer alternative ways of thinking of the urban and the rural; people desire and belong across the places of migration. Even so, the hegemonic neoliberal understanding of the city as progress is reproduced by the informants, while at the same time some of them describe the rural as progressive for valuing the immaterial things people today have forgotten. These narratives can be viewed as ways of both reproducing and resisting the neoliberal understanding of the 'need to be mobile'. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a thesis on global careers; a topic relevant to many project managers working internationally. The main purpose of the thesis was to contribute to the understanding of global careers through applying an identity construction perspective on narratives of global careerists' working lives. Design/methodology/approach – Through a narrative approach, 20 interviews with Swedish global careerists were analyzed and comparison of two types of global careerists was made – repeat expatriates and international itinerants. Findings – The repeat expatriates and international itinerants are shown to have different patterns in their identity construction and there are differences in their career orientations, in their identifications with the organizations they work for, with their careers and with what they do. They also differ in how they identify with their home country and culture and the countries and cultures in which they live. Circumstances such as the type of location, the time abroad, and if the work abroad is perceived as temporary, are significant in their identity construction. Practical implications – Both organizations and individuals benefit from understanding the implications of such careers. The results of this study can lead to the development of HRM practices to attract and maintain the relationship with these individuals and draw on their skills. Originality/value – By considering individuals' subjective experiences of global careers through an identity construction perspective, new understanding can be reached on individuals undergoing multiple transitions over the course of their careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how young people describe experiences of bullying when participating in an Internet community dedicated to young people experiencing mental health problems. The micro-analytic focus demonstrates how young people construct their identities in relation to their telling about their experiences of being victims of bullying, reporting on two distinct ways that they framed their postings. The posters either disclosed their experiences about bullying in relation to a wider self-presentation of experiences of bullying (bullying being part of their past and a partial reason for their problems), or more straightforwardly asked for help and advice from other participants to find ways of dealing with ongoing bullying. Finally, the paper demonstrates how contributors orient to the Internet community, and calls for more research based on unsolicited naturalistic data for such issues as bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, for the benefit of reflection processes in clinical and in local, regional, and national priority-setting, we aim to develop an ethical theoretical framework that includes both ethical principles and medium-range narratives. We present our suggestion in the particular case of having to choose between treatment interventions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and treatment interventions for other conditions or diseases, under circumstances of scarcity. In order to arrive at our model, we compare two distinct ethical approaches: a generalist (principles) approach and a particularist (narratives) approach. Our focus is on Sweden, because in Sweden prioritization in healthcare is uniquely governmentally regulated by the "ethics platform." We will present a (fictional) scenario to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the generalist principled perspective of the ethics platform and the particularist perspective of narrative ethics. We will suggest an alternative (moderately particularist) approach to prioritization, which we dub a "principles plus medium-range narratives" approach. Notwithstanding the undeniably central role of principles in distributive justice, we claim that medium-range narratives concerning individuals or groups who stand to benefit or lose from ADHD prioritization practices should also be read or listened to and taken into account at all levels of priority-setting. These narratives are expected to ethically optimize clinical priority-setting, as well as that undertaken at local, regional, and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary This paper adds a phenomenological hermeneutic perspective on meanings of caring for adult people who self-harm as disclosed in narratives of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)-trained professionals., This paper shows that providing DBT care for people who self-harm means embarking an unpredictable journey, sometimes lonely, but also often together with the person who self-harm and with the DBT team., This paper emphasizes professionals' benefits of the tools and structure offered by DBT; however, the text points to the importance of the genuine meeting, including confirmation, as a prerequisite to recovery., This paper suggests that further research might focus on the meanings of genuine meetings and their organizational prerequisites., Abstract In this paper, we aim to explore meanings of caring for adult people who self-harm as described in the narratives of professionals trained in dialectical behaviour therapy ( DBT). We conducted narrative interviews with nine professionals working in a DBT team and used a phenomenological hermeneutical method to analyse their narratives. Our comprehensive understanding cast the caring relationship as an unpredictable journey, in which the professionals were guides or companions who aimed to walk side-by-side with the person who self-harms, prove to be trustworthy, and keep on track. They sometimes saw the journey as lonely and sometimes as a joint endeavour. Our analysis was informed by Martin Buber's writings on the 'genuine meeting' and confirmation. The professionals emphasized the importance of the tools and structure offered by DBT; however, the text points to the importance of the genuine meeting, including confirmation, as a prerequisite to recovery. Mental health nurses need opportunities for continuous training and counselling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notions of praxis, or practical action, and phronesis, or practical wisdom, are engaged with from two perspectives in this paper – with examples from author’s classroom studies across various Grade schools in Sweden on one hand and the theoretical exposition of these notions across a selection of existing literature on the other. A persuasive case is made for having praxis and phronesis be regarded as units of analysis suitable for grasping as well as furthering practitioner inquiry. The results of such research, conducted as a practice, are aimed at informing the vicarious and the experiential, upon which any reader can in turn base actions. In their ability to examine the practical, particular and local, the pursuit of such a social science is argued as being one that matters to the practitioners themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The initial Swedish discourse of transnational adoption as a win-win situation has changed over its more than 60-year-long history. This article aims to trace and present some themes in this history, with a particular focus on the public debate and the different narratives that representatives of the adoption triangle—the adoptees, the adoptive parents, and the biological parents—tell when dealing with transnational and transracial adoption as a personal and political phenomenon. The article draws from an ongoing study of discourses and narratives of transnational adoption based, above all, on journalism, memoirs, governmental documents, and previous research. It attempts to present the contradictory perspectives on transnational adoption to create a diffractive pattern. The diffractive analysis makes it possible to show how the investigated narratives and discourses on transnational adoption change in encounters with experiences made, and even more so, made visible and knowledgeable, in social practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that organizational change depends on societal narratives – narratives about the character, history, or envisioned future of societies. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a Swedish municipal waste management company serves as an illustration. Findings – Swedish waste governance is powered by two main narratives: "less landfilling" and "wasting less". Less landfilling has been the dominant narrative for several decades, but wasting less is gaining momentum, and a new narrative order is establishing itself. This new narrative order significantly redefines the socio-material status of waste and imposes major changes on waste management organizations. Research limitations/implications – Based on the case of waste governance in Sweden, the authors conclude that organizations should be aware that societal narrative affects the legitimacy and nature of their operations; therefore, they must integrate a watch for narrative change in their strategic reflections. Originality/value – This paper establishes the relevance of the notion of societal narrative to understand organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The overall purpose of this paper is to study gender and equality-related issues by exploring gender functions in the northernmost borderland of Sweden (the Tornedalen area). The study focuses on women's views of their own lives and how local culture may shape their identity. Design/methodology/approach - By analysing a large number of women's narratives through approaching feminist poststructuralism, the analysis focuses on gender relations and how women have adapted their lives according to the norms of the local society. The study involves a historical perspective from the middle to the late twentieth century. This includes transitions from an almost exclusively rural to a more urbanized life (within the countryside) and from a time when almost all women were full-time housewives to a time when this has become a rarity. Findings - The traditional culture in Tornedalen still existed in the late 1990s with pressure coming from the older generations to maintain traditional gender functions. From a feminist poststructuralist perspective, competing discourses affects the identity of the Tornedalen woman. Such competing discourses lead to, for example, women being impressed by masculine men who dominate the family whilst also, seemingly, expressing concern for equality issues. Many common gender identity characteristics also exist, such as (a feeling of) being strong (to be able to live in Tornedalen) and (a feeling of) being very much aware of (and claiming) local gender inequality. Originality/value – The paper provides new knowledge as to how inequality may persist in (a) local area(s) ruled by traditional norms. It also provides insights into women's lives and how identities evolve in (a) small local society(ies). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, place branding is regarded as stakeholder-centric, participatory and inclusive. However, a central assumption permeates the place-branding literature that there is a dominant organisation of some sort working strategically to organise the place-branding process. In this article we question this assumption and explore how multiple 'authors' create narratives and contribute to the branding of places. Using interviews, observations and printed and online material, we study a small town in southwest Sweden. Our illustrative case study reveals a decentralised collective production of narratives by multiple authors that together constitute the branding of a place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telephone nursing services are expanding globally. Swedish Healthcare Direct is the largest healthcare provider in Sweden. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of telephone nursing, as reflected by research on Swedish national telephone nursing, and discusses the findings in relation to international literature. A descriptive, mixed-studies literature review was conducted. Twenty-four articles from January 2003 to April 2015 were identified from PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL, and included. The issues explored in this study are how telephone nursing is perceived by callers, telephone nurses, and managers, and what characterizes such calls. Callers value reassurance, support, respect and satisfaction and involvement in decisions can increase their adherence. The telephone nurses' perspective focused on problems and ethical dilemmas, communication, the decision support tool, and working tasks. The managers' perspective focused on nursing work goals and malpractice claims. Concerning call characteristics, authentic calls, incident reports, and threats to patient safety were considered. Telephone nursing seems safe, but gender can play a role in calls. Future research on caller access, equity, and efficiency, healthcare cost-effectiveness, distribution, and patient safety is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analyse contemporary transitions in aviation taking a durational perspective. • We present a case study of commercial aviation in Sweden. • We find narratives for alternative aircraft fuels and technologies. • Narratives are based on recollections of the past and future expectations. The aim of this paper is to analyse contemporary transitions in the aviation industry in Sweden. We take a durational perspective to consider narratives as coordinating mechanism in sustainability transitions. We find that industry actors are constructing narratives for alternative aircraft fuels and technologies as they seek to maintain aviation's societal function whilst mitigating its climate impact. By reconciling memories of the past with their expectations for the future, narratives act to coordinate actors' transition activities in the present. In this way, narrative are more than an initiator of transitions, but constitute paths in-the-making, highlighting the agency of actors in enacting change in the present and shaping sustainability transitions of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND:Work and employees are often marginalized in studies on community-based psychiatric care and support systems. This paper highlights the role of the worker at congregated supported housing for people with severe mental illness (SMI). Housing support workers (HSW) are a fairly new professional role and have developed as a result of major changes in Swedish mental health care and services. The development of new roles is not unproblematic and raises intriguing questions. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to describe housing support workers' experiences of meaning in their work, and in addition illuminate how the work identity of HSWs can be negotiated and constructed. METHODS: Four focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 25 participants. Additionally, three follow up sessions were conducted with the same participants. The material consists of employees from four different sites. The intepretation of the material was inspired by a constructionist approach. RESULTS: The analysis generated three themes: to do a good job, everyday needs and the formal role. The work identity for HSWs is complex and not easily interpreted. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of an unclear assignment affects the description of what is meaningful and important-the work identity and significant affiliations for HSWs. In the long run, this fragmented world can have negative implications for the HSW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on sexuality and autism is dominated by a sexually deficit view of autism. According to this view, people with autism are considered different from neurotypicals and in need of sexual education that is specially adapted to the social impairments of people with autism. Perspectives on sexuality, couplehood, and autism are gradually changing, and this is partly because of alternative views on autism expressed and advocated within autistic self-advocacy movements. The present paper explores discourses within the Swedish autistic self-advocacy movement of an 'autistic' sexuality and couplehood (sexuality and couplehood on people with autism's own terms). The analysis is based on articles in a Swedish magazine, Empowerment, published between 2002 and 2009 that was produced by and aimed at adults with autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on the process of understanding the patient in the context of perioperative caring and reports a story narrated by a perioperative nurse as well as her emerging understanding of the patient prior to surgery at an operating department. This qualitative case study had a dual purpose; firstly, to describe how the perioperative nurse's understanding of the patient emerged and, secondly, to establish how the researcher interpreted the situation. As a perioperative nurse and researcher, the author is both the narrator and interpreter. To date we have rarely discussed the fact that, in a perioperative context, the patient might feel ashamed of his/her body, even before arriving at the operating department. This new understanding emerged from the hermeneutical dialogue in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the contributions of the Cultural Formulation (CF) interview to an overall understanding of patients, and focuses on the narratives of 23 newly referred patients with migrant backgrounds seeking help at a psychiatric outpatient clinic in Stockholm. Through text content analysis methods we identified five themes: displacement in space and time; mental illness as a physical disability; life events as etiological factors; concealing as a coping strategy; and being lost in a fragmented health care system. Findings indicate the need to contextualize symptoms for an in-depth comprehension of patients’ phenomenology. Both clinical and policy implications are discussed. The findings suggest that a section on migration and acculturation should be added to the cultural formulation in the next edition of DSM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BERGDAHL E, BENZEIN E, TERNESTEDT B-M and ANDERSHED B. Nursing Inquiry 2011; : 111-122 In this paper we present an action research process aimed at enhancing nurses' abilities to reflect on how to create good caring relationships with patients in advanced home care. Another aim was to examine the usefulness of an emerging theory, derived from results from a previous study. The request for this project to take place came from an advanced home care unit which had received complaints concerning patients in the palliative phase. The action performed was clinical supervision, structured around abilities that nurses need in order to create good caring relationships. During the action research process 42 narratives were analysed by the participating group. Three different data collections were carried out and analysed with qualitative content analysis in a triangulation procedure. The emerging theory was found to be useful and was also refined. The nurses reported that they felt strengthened and had developed their ability to reflect over good caring relationships. Some changes to practice were carried out by the participating nurses. The result also indicates that action research can be helpful in examining the usefulness of an emerging theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the perspective and conclusions of an article in Critical Social Policy: '"It's only a tradition": making sense of eradication interventions and the persistence of female "circumcision" within a Swedish context' (Ahlberg et al., 2004). In their analysis of Swedish Somalis' narratives of female circumcision, the authors interpret the unwillingness of the interviewees to admit a persistence of tradition in terms of 'denial' and 'avoidance'. We argue that an inadequate starting point makes their analysis biased, resulting in a violation of the interviewees' point of view. There is a lack of contextualization and triangulation. Instead of persistence of tradition, as emphasized by Ahlberg et al., we see reasons to focus on processes of abandonment of the practice. Their article raises issues of the researcher's position in a politicized context and of the importance of an awareness of how our preconceptions, as researchers, are formed by hegemonic political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the positive narrative surrounding the Triple Helix concept as a model for development in all kinds of regions. We claim that existing and problematic structural preconditions should be taken into consideration when applying the Triple Helix concept in weak regions. Empirically we base our paper on two longitudinal case studies in Sweden, where government are trying to break the negative trends in weak regions by initiating Triple Helix-like programs. However, due to poor preconditions, such initiatives tend to fail. Thus, a negative narrative can be related about Triple Helix cooperation when applied in weak regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scand J Caring Sci; 2004; 18; 3–11 The meaning of caring as described by nurses caring for a person who acts provokingly: an interview study Nurses working with people with learning disabilities are sometimes exposed to provoking behaviour such as unpredictable and violent actions, spitting and sexual harassment. Eight nurses at a group dwelling in Sweden were interviewed about their experiences when caring for a person who acts provokingly. Narrative interviews were conducted and interpreted using a method inspired by Ricoeur. Three themes were formulated which describe nurses’ feelings of being tormented, disrupted and helpless. Nurses describe themselves as being deeply humiliated by physical violence, spittle, sexual invective and actions on the part of the patient. They respond more to being spat on and the sexual invective than to the patient's physical violence. The frequent humiliations could be seen as a symbolic language connected to defilement and ‘evil’ and therefore as having a deep symbolic meaning for the nurses. These results were interpreted and reflected on in the light of a theoretical framework from an affliction perspective in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the text. This paper shows that an affliction perspective is important when searching for the meaning of caring for a patient who acts provokingly. The study indicates that the goal in a provoking care situation must be to see the provoking patient, as he appears to the nurses in order to glimpse the goodness concealed behind the provoking facade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Relations (IR) scholars have theorized the significance of communication and messaging across state borders, using notions such as soft power, sharp power, propaganda and illiberal communication. This study contributes to this body of research by investigating narrative persuasiveness by way of a large-scale experimental exploration of narrative reception. The projection of strategic narratives has become a central feature of modern influencing across borders. Despite the existence of a growing literature on the potentially harmful effects of such narratives, however, their persuasiveness remains under-researched. This article seeks to help fill this gap by asking what might induce people in Sweden to side with strategic narratives projected by Sputnik, the Russian state-funded news media platform. The article puts a central component of Walter Fisher's classic narrative paradigm to the test: the notions of narrative probability (consistency and coherence) and fidelity (previous life experience). In a rare large-scale survey experiment (N = 2,032), three narratives from Sputnik were presented to respondents to establish the potential perceived narrative probability and fidelity. Contrary to Fisher's argument and some previous works on strategic narratives, the results show that people can be persuaded by a narrative without having personal experience of the topic, and despite regarding the text as incoherent. This indicates that information influence projected through strategic narratives can be effective regardless of the form of the message and even when introducing unfamiliar ideas. This is an interesting addition to findings in previous studies that source awareness does not negatively affect the effectiveness of strategic narratives. The article ends by highlighting contributions to previous research on persuasion and by suggesting avenues ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the reception and dissemination of 'malign information influence' (MII) in a liberal democracy; information sponsored by authoritarian regimes or other hostile actors and projected through international broadcasting outlets across borders. The study contributes to the scarce research on the reception of narratives transmitted by the Russian state-supported media platforms RT and Sputnik, exposing characteristics, political attitudes, and sharing behaviors of RT/Sputnik consumers. A nationwide, representative survey (n: 3033) from November 2020 revealed a surprisingly high number of Swedish RT/Sputnik consumers (7%), with an overrepresentation of young, men and supports of non-parliamentarian parties and the right wing, nationalist Sweden Democratic Party. These consumers are somewhat more willing than non-consumers to disseminate news on social media and in real life despite being distrustful of the sources. The findings strengthen previous research in demonstrating the attractiveness of identity grievance narratives among alternative media consumers, yet the results show that RT/Sputnik consumers also aligned with narratives that contrasts with national security policy. They state less trust in politicians, institutions, the media, news, and journalism, yet are comparatively prone to share unreliable or untrue news content on social media and in real life. The analysis thus identified a section of media consumers who can function as vehicles for the dissemination of MII. The article contributes to the under-researched problem of the potential of MII to take root and provides a basis for future qualitative research that can refine and provide nuance to the knowledge of reception of MII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1827, an Indian juggler named Mooty Madua Samme converted to Christianity in Stockholm, Sweden. This historical event got much attention in the press at the time – as did his succeeding marriage to a Swedish woman named Erica – and was celebrated as a victory for the Evangelical Lutheran faith. Later, in the 1840s, a narrative depicting the event spread via a travelogue by Xavier Marmier, which was translated and mediated through the Swedish press, and reacted to by Samme's priest; in the 1850s, Samme's name surfaced again – now in context of the contemporary freedom of religion debates in Sweden. In this article, we explore Samme's baptism (and interrelatedly, his marriage) by looking at newspaper mediations of the event and the related narratives. Seen from a microhistorical perspective, we show how Samme's conversion and religious otherness was utilised in contemporary religious and political discussions, and we argue that the event and narratives surrounding the baptism can augment our understanding of the Swedish nineteenth century religio‐cultural landscape in which he was situated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the content of family identity among people in Sweden, a country often portrayed as relatively free from traditional family norms. More specifically, we investigated the types of family-related narratives that individuals shared, narratives of deviation from the master narrative of what was expected and accepted in Swedish society. In addition, the identity centrality of the themes was investigated. The data covered 462 participants, 170 of whom – 139 women, 30 men, and one non-binary (Mage = 20.11, SD = 4.85) – had family-related narratives. We identified six themes of deviating narratives, of which the family-related narratives had significantly higher identity centrality than did the non-family-related narratives. Not only do the present findings emphasize the importance of family for people's identities, but they also illustrate the complex and multilayered aspects of family identity. The master narrative discernable in the participants' narratives of deviation portrays ideals of the happy, white, secular, middle-class, heteronormative nuclear family, even though this does not always correspond to the actual lived situations of families in contemporary Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain and fear associated with needle procedures have been found to be more common among children and adolescents treated for type 1 diabetes (T1D) than among others in their age group. Furthermore, high glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) values are associated with needle‐related fear. Aim: To describe negative experiences of needle procedures in childhood diabetes treatment from children's and adolescents' own perspectives. Methods: Short written narratives (n = 83) and drawings (n = 2) from children and adolescents treated for T1D, aged 7–18 years, were subjected to inductive qualitative content analysis. Results: Negative experiences with needle procedures had many facets, such as pain and fear, changing over time and affecting everyday life. All kinds of needle procedures caused difficulties, but venipunctures were described as the worst. Conclusion: All needle procedures involved in diabetes treatment are potentially experienced as creating pain and fear, but the negative experiences are multifaceted and vary between individuals. These experiences create suffering for children and adolescents, and influence their daily lives. Besides finding techniques to decrease the number of needle procedures in the treatment, research should focus on implementing methods to decrease pain, fear, and other negative experiences as well as to promote self‐coping. This is urgent, since needle‐related fear has an impact on glycaemic control and therefore increases the risk of long‐term complications. Clinical Implications: When caring for children and adolescents with diabetes, their previous experiences with needle procedures need to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that cannabis is understood differently across cannabis cultures. In Sweden, young cannabis users are seen as vulnerable, problem-burdened and increasingly embracing drug-liberal attitudes. Despite low prevalence rates, youth cannabis use is considered a high-profile problem that warrants prohibition. Previous studies show that staff in Swedish addiction treatment legitimize resolute interventions by making up young users as irrational. The treated young people claimed instead that starting to use cannabis and quitting were informed decisions. In this article, we revisit interviews with 18 young clients in Swedish addiction treatment, and examine the data with a focus on comparisons (e.g. A is unlike B). We perceive comparison as a tool in the formation of narrative identity, rather than a logical outcome of accounts. We ask what is compared with what in young people's accounts of cannabis use, and what these comparisons reveal about their thoughts on well-being, the self and the setting. The interviewees used comparisons that drew on cultural, institutional and organizational narratives when they discussed cannabis. Taken together, their accounts instantiated ideas about powerful drug effects, the primacy of the neoliberal subject and the potential of cannabis addiction. We discuss whether these accounts mirror rather than challenge drug prohibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical evidence for whether narrative macrostructure skills are shared between a bilingual child's two languages is inconclusive, and it is not known how macrostructure (overall story structure) is influenced by general language proficiency and amount of exposure. The present study investigates these issues in 100 Turkish-Swedish bilingual 4-to-7-year-old children growing up in Sweden. Oral narratives were elicited in both Turkish and Swedish with two picture-based tasks from the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) in the telling mode. We investigated to what extent the language of elicitation influences bilingual children's macrostructure (story structure, episodic complexity), and explored effects of age, narrative task, narrative length, expressive vocabulary and language exposure, both separately and combined, on macrostructure in the respective language. Story structure and episodic complexity were found to increase similarly with age in both Turkish and Swedish from 4 to 7 years. Scores did not differ between the two MAIN storytelling tasks. Expressive vocabulary and narrative length influenced story structure scores positively and similarly in both languages. Daily language exposure and length of exposure to Swedish did not show any significant effect. The results can be interpreted in support of a carry-over of narrative macrostructural skills between the two languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contends that contemporary writings on the representation of offending women provide a simplified outline of 'available' representations. To nuance and further complicate our understanding, this study lays bare the most salient media characterisations of women perpetrators in Swedish press. In contrast to much previous research, it covers various offence types and an extensive period of time (1905–2015) and moves away from the focus on mega-cases and cases of extreme deviance. First, the study illustrates that characterisations are contingent and that there is a greater variety in 'available' representations than previous research suggests. The characterisations rather tend to move between and beyond the categories of bad, mad and sad. Second, the study makes visible the narrative continuities (across cases and over time) and analyses the social and cultural work of gendered characterisations. While steering attention to sense-making and the construction of familiarity, the article complicates the assumption that women's deviance primarily or necessarily is represented as otherness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Narratives play a central part in person‐centred care (PCC) as a communicative means of attending to patients' experiences. The present study sets out to explore what activities are performed and what challenges participants face in the interactive process of narrative elicitation, carried through in patient‐professional communication in a remote intervention based on PCC. Methods: Data were gathered from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in a Swedish city where health care professionals (HCPs) conducted remote PCC for patients on sick leave due to common mental disorders. A sample of eleven audio‐recorded phone conversations between HCPs and patients enroled in the RCT were collected and subjected to conversation analysis. Results: Three interactive patterns in narrative elicitation were identified: Completed narrative sequences driven by the patient, question‐driven narrative sequences guided by the HCP, and narrative sequences driven as a collaborative project between the patient and the HCP. In the question‐driven narrative sequences, communication was problematic for both participants and they did not accomplish a narrative. In the other two patterns, narratives were accomplished but through various collaborative processes. Conclusion: This study provides insight into what challenges narrative elicitation may bring in the context of a remote PCC intervention and what interactive work patients and HCP need to engage in. Importantly, it also highlights tensions in the ethics of PCC and its operationalization, if the pursuit of a narrative is not properly balanced against the respect for patients' integrity and personal preferences. Our findings also show that narrative elicitation may represent an interactive process in PCC in which illness narratives are jointly produced, negotiated and transformed. Patient or Public Contribution: Stakeholders, including patient representatives, were involved in the design of the main study (the RCT). They have been involved in discussions on research questions and dissemination throughout the study period. They have not been involved in conducting the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the IR theories of norm translation and strategic narratives, this article focuses on how states translate international norms to their own advantage by producing strategic narratives to advance their soft power ambitions abroad. Using the example of feminist foreign policy (FFP), the article compares Sweden, Canada, France, and Mexico in their attempts to translate international feminist norms into their countries' strategic narratives. This comparison is based on three strategic narrative types (issue, national, and international system narratives) and two types of feminism (liberal, intersectional). Issue narratives reveal that Sweden and Mexico give more priority to social policies, while France and Canada emphasise the role of the market in addressing gender inequality. International system narratives demonstrate that Sweden and Mexico perceive global challenges as drivers of gender inequality, while France and Canada see gender inequality as a cause of global problems. National narratives show that Sweden and Mexico refer to other FFP countries to 'back up' their feminist initiatives, while France and Canada do not relate to other states. Finally, while liberal feminism dominates all four FFPs, each state either prioritises particular aspects of it (legal, market, security, rights-based) or incorporates elements from intersectional feminism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research presented in this work represents reflections in the light of Julia Kristeva's philosophy concerning empirical data drawn from research describing the everyday life of people dependent on ventilators. It also presents a qualitative and narrative methodological approach from a person-centred perspective. Most research on home ventilator treatment is biomedical. There are a few published studies describing the situation of people living at home on a ventilator but no previous publications have used the thoughts in Kristeva's philosophy applied to this topic from a caring science perspective. The paper also addresses what a life at home on a ventilator may be like and will hopefully add some new aspects to the discussion of philosophical issues in nursing and the very essence of care. Kristeva's philosophy embraces phenomena such as language, abjection, body, and love, allowing her writings to make a fruitful contribution to nursing philosophy in that they strengthen, expand, and deepen a caring perspective. Moreover, her writings about revolt having the power to create hope add an interesting aspect to the work of earlier philosophers and nursing theorists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queen Christina of Sweden (1626–1689) was one of the most prominent women of her time. Her life was the subject of much speculation; it was reported in the newspapers, it appeared in historic accounts, as well as in less serious tales – as court gossip – already during the first half of her life. The narratives of Christina formed a diverse corpus of texts that circulated in Europe during the second half of the seventeenth century. Most texts originated from a few sources but they were translated, edited, and re-written and thus helped to shape a textual life of the queen that was highly contradictory. The many anecdotes surrounding Christina grant the queen a life in the spotlight and turn her into an icon, often representing that which the author wants her to be. This paper deals with the representation of the queen in some of the English translations of texts originally published in Italian and French. It focuses on the narration of life, on the gendering of sovereignty, but also on the use of genre for telling a life story written to suit certain purposes rather than to tell the ‘true story’ of a life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tales about alleged persecutions of Finnish slash and burn cultivators who migrated to Central Sweden between 1580 and 1640--the so-called 'Forest Finns' of Sweden, specifically those settling in the Värmland area--were popularised in the common understanding of 'Forest Finnish' history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The aim of this paper is to examine the process of popular history production in order to understand this phenomenon. What meanings did these tales convey to their narrators? Drawing on the theoretical findings of oral history research I will argue that while these tales may initially have been based on historical facts, they are less interesting in terms of offering reliable historical evidence than because they are psychologically true for the narrators. I suggest that ever since the tale-telling tradition became established among Värmland Finns during the nineteenth century--a period that coincided with their assimilation into the Swedish population--these tales have offered a metaphorical way for an ethnic minority to express its feelings of frustration in face of the death of their culture and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recovery from life-threatening illness may be experienced as more demanding and lasts longer than patients first expect. Many patients experience recovery after life-threatening illness, as filled with complex problems. These problems are primarily physical and psychological, although also social, and adversely affect daily life as well as perceived quality of life. Patients experience uncertainty about living with the legacy of a life-threatening illness and how it negatively limits their daily lives and experienced health. Aim: The purpose is to illuminate experiences of the meaning of recovery from life-threatening disease. Ethical approval: Approval for the study was obtained through a Regional Research Ethics Committee. Methods: This study was conducted as a qualitative narrative study. This means that written stories of human recovery beyond suffering from life-threatening disease were collected and analysed with a phenomenological hermeneutic method. Results: The findings reveal two major areas -- intrapersonal meanings and relational meanings. Four themes were found in these areas, each of which was divided into subthemes as follows: obstacles, for example disappointment of life, alienation of self and opportunities/resources: for example balance, own knowledge, hope and gratitude; relational obstacles, for example a lack of care, stigmatisation and economic stress; and relational resources such as informal care and professional care. Study limitations: The informants were predominantly women that may be explained by the fact that females seem to be more often engaged in social media and willing to participate in these kinds of studies. Another limitation is that we only reached out to Swedish speaking Facebook groups when recruiting our informants. Conclusions: In the narratives of their recovery process, surprisingly few focused on professional health care as a resource. Experiences from the study may be used to further develop care, especially to support patient self-care regarding intrapersonal and relational resources that promote patient recovery beyond suffering from life-threatening disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relegated to the margins of the large body of research on ADHD and school is individuals' own retrospective accounts of schooling. Drawing on multiple narrative interviews with nine young adults with ADHD in Sweden, the present study explores their experiences and reflections concerning their years in compulsory school. Despite variations in the gradient of decline, time in school was described as a slippery slope, with rapid deterioration in secondary school. Participation in sports and cultural activities outside school emerged as strong supportive factors. The expectations placed on the individual in the school context and relationships with teachers were described as key hurdles. In hindsight, school was perceived as a meaningless phase of their lives. The present findings nuance the skewed diagnosis focus in contemporary research, raising questions about timing of support in school and offering important insights concerning girls with ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Around the globe the electricity sector is strikingly similar, as regardless of nation it is structured around centralized large-scale power production. However, these centralized systems are currently experiencing operational problems related to climate change, energy security and aging grid infrastructures. In Sweden, the lack of investment and maintenance of the grid have created bottlenecks in certain regions, which are now facing an electricity shortage. This capacity crisis has received the attention of the media and generated a debate around the future trajectory of the electricity system. Results: The purpose of this study is to analyze the ongoing media discourse in Sweden to determine whether there is a dominant narrative in the debate and its potential implications. The findings indicate that the government is unanimously held accountable for the electricity shortage and that there is a strong inclination toward a centralized electricity system as a solution. Conclusion: The results indicate that the dominating centralized narrative, should it receive too much traction, might create a technological lock-in and result in overlooking the many advantages of a decentralized electricity system. Ultimately, this might give rise to an outdated electricity system that stalls its transformation toward a more sustainable path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that teachers' knowledge of a functional metalanguage plays a central role in supporting students' writing development. However, only a few of these studies have focused on primary school teachers and their use of metalanguage in various text types. The aim of this study was to investigate how primary school teachers talk about young students' (ages 7-9) narrative and informational texts before and after taking part in professional development workshops presenting different language resources and accompanying metalanguage. These resources represent a broader view of language than the more formal tradition offered to primary school teachers in Sweden. The results showed that after participating in the workshops, the teachers had broadened their repertoires concerning what aspects they talk about and how they talk about them; that is, their talks became more text-specific and extensive, and they used a formal metalanguage to a greater extent. These results are discussed in relation to the tradition of writing instruction used in primary grades in Sweden and the teachers' pathways to broadening their repertoire of metalanguage. Also discussed is the potential a broader language view in early grades may have in supporting students' writing development throughout their school years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the nature of narrating experiences of difficult life events among Swedish young adults. We use the master narrative cultural framework to understand how narratives of difficult experiences are told. Building on extant work on the importance of the narration of difficult life events for identity and wellbeing, we examine how these stories are narrated in the Swedish context in relation to well-being. Identity narratives about life challenges were collected from 116 participants (Mage = 33.28, SD =.54, n = 58 women). Employing an open-exploratory approach, four equally prevalent emotional sequences were found: redemptive sequencing, neutral/vague sequencing, a combination of positive and negative sequencing, and negative sequencing. No differences were found in the use of the first three emotional sequences for well-being, but the negative sequencing was generally associated with poorer well-being. This study shows that there are several ways to narrate difficult experiences in the Swedish context, and sheds light on how culture informs narrative identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we aim to contribute to the literature on social identification among migrants and minorities by offering a theoretical framework that accounts for the interplay of socio-psychological factors, local and transnational group dynamics, and the socio-political environment in which migrants live. This approach enables us to analyse not only the political significance of identity, but also the psychology of identity formation. Drawing upon qualitative data, we analyse how young Somalis (N = 43) living in the municipalities of Malmö (Sweden) and Ealing (United Kingdom) construct and negotiate their ethnic social identities in relation to: Somali elders living in the same city; Somalis in Somalia and in the diaspora; and the British/Swedish majority society. We show that, to secure a positive self-identity vis-à-vis these referent groups, young Somalis engage in psychological strategies of separation; social competition; and social creativity. The socio-political environment in which they are embedded influences which strategy they adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Seeing a speaker's face facilitates speech recognition, particularly under noisy conditions. Evidence for how it might affect comprehension of the content of the speech is more sparse. We investigated how children's listening comprehension is affected by multi-talker babble noise, with or without presentation of a digitally animated virtual speaker, and whether successful comprehension is related to performance on a test of executive functioning. Materials and Methods: We performed a mixed-design experiment with 55 (34 female) participants (8- to 9-year-olds), recruited from Swedish elementary schools. The children were presented with four different narratives, each in one of four conditions: audio-only presentation in a quiet setting, audio-only presentation in noisy setting, audio-visual presentation in a quiet setting, and audio-visual presentation in a noisy setting. After each narrative, the children answered questions on the content and rated their perceived listening effort. Finally, they performed a test of executive functioning. Results: We found significantly fewer correct answers to explicit content questions after listening in noise. This negative effect was only mitigated to a marginally significant degree by audio-visual presentation. Strong executive function only predicted more correct answers in quiet settings. Conclusions: Altogether, our results are inconclusive regarding how seeing a virtual speaker affects listening comprehension. We discuss how methodological adjustments, including modifications to our virtual speaker, can be used to discriminate between possible explanations to our results and contribute to understanding the listening conditions children face in a typical classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children who have parents with any kind of illness may become young carers who take a responsibility not expected of children for household tasks, or personal or emotional care for parents and siblings. So far, little is known about children in Sweden who are at risk of becoming young carers. The aim of this article is therefore to explore the extent and impact of children's caring activities as reported in a pilot study by a sample of children in Sweden. A number of international questionnaires measuring the amount of caring activities, impact of caring, quality of life, and psychological well‐being were translated and combined into a survey. The pilot survey was completed by 30 children 10–18 years of age. Also, when completing the survey, the children were interviewed concerning their experiences of caregiving. The participants report on a group level emotional symptoms such as fear and nervousness above the clinical cut‐off value. They also rate a lower level of caring compared with findings from the United Kingdom, but they report a higher degree of negative impact of caring than young carers in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: There is a need for a better understanding of clients who undergo treatment for substance use, especially to avoid relapse. Aims: To identify our clients' discourses which led to their substance problems and to determine those discursive strategies which have kept them sober. Method: A total of 14 participants at a Swedish municipally-operated treatment program were interviewed about their childhood, teenage years, early experiences with substance, how they recognized they had substance problems, found out about treatment, adopted strategies to maintain sober and whether they noticed identity changes during treatment. Results: Participants saw themselves as the main actors in their life stories even although professional support was one of the important factors in the change to a sober life style. The group mentioned different causes of substance problems such as adverse childhood experiences and loss of stable life patterns; a variety of reasons for seeking treatment, here "turning points" as keeping job and support from others; and different strategies to avoid relapses such as avoiding places where there was alcohol, being frank about their alcohol problems, focusing on one day at a time, attending AA meetings, avoiding romanticizing about alcohol, and participating in new activities and in a government-controlled personal savings program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To gain a better understanding of fear‐avoidance beliefs towards physical activity and body awareness in people experiencing moderate‐to‐severe rheumatic pain. Background: Rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis are long‐term conditions with pain as the prominent symptom. Health‐promoting physical activity is recommended and can have an analgesic effect. High self‐rated pain has previously been reported to be associated with increased fear‐avoidance behaviour in relation to physical activity. Body awareness, which includes attentional focus and awareness of internal body sensations, could be valuable in the nursing care of long‐term diseases. Design: Empirical phenomenological. Methods: An empirical phenomenological psychological method was applied. The interviews took place between autumn 2016–spring 2017 with 11 informants (eight women and three men, age range 44–71 years) who were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 7) or psoriatic arthritis (n = 4), with a disease duration ranging from 3–35 years. The mean visual analogue scale score in the study sample was 60 mm. Results: Three typologies were identified: "My relatively fragile physical status", "I am an active creator" and "Part of something bigger than myself." Conclusions: The current findings indicated that pain anticipation and fear‐avoidance beliefs towards physical activity sometimes affected the behaviour of individuals with long‐term rheumatic pain syndromes. People experiencing moderate‐to‐severe rheumatic pain tended to focus on their fragile physical and emotional state. By adopting a more favourable attitude towards the self, the body could be restored to a state of calm and balance. Relevance to clinical practice: The current findings are relevant for healthcare professionals engaged in health‐promotion clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of care managers and their work in putting policy into practice in micro-interactions with older people in Swedish eldercare. The care managers assess the individual needs of older people, and decide what type of social care and services will be given. Dilemmas in care management are often related to the gap between needs and resources. The aim was to study the positioning of care managers within different storylines advanced in needs assessment conversations. Positioning theory was applied to study discursive practices and discursive strategies within Swedish eldercare. Audio-recorded needs assessment conversations among care managers, older people and their relatives at care planning meetings in connection with hospital discharge were analyzed. Two overall positions were identified for care managers—as ‘professional experts’ and as ‘organizational representatives’—allowing the care managers to maneuver within two contesting storylines: ‘distribution of scarce eldercare resources based on the principles of eligibility and equal treatment’ and ‘older people entitled to eldercare according to their own perceived individual needs’. For social work, the results showed the importance of discussing how care managers might move towards exercising greater professional autonomy, becoming less dependent on their position in the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Field education is a key curriculum component in social work programmes. Students as well as researchers have identified this learning experience as central to the students’ transition to practice. This article reports on a qualitative study with the aim of analysing social work students’ narratives of their experiences during field education in order to elucidate their reasoning with regard to the challenges presented by unique clients and their contexts, along with their objectives set in the service user situation. The narratives of 23 social work students in Sweden describing a sum total of 46 problematic and unproblematic situations during field education were analysed, revealing circumstances that according to the students had either aggravated or facilitated professional action. Findings The experiences of being overwhelmed by emotions and of having too much latitude in the interpretation of principles and guidelines were experienced as aggravating circumstances, whereas having knowledge of legislation and clear guidelines to follow was experienced as facilitating client interaction and as providing a sense of security with the professional role. The analysis also revealed differing levels and scope of ambition with regard to the objectives set in the service user situation. Applications Our results demonstrate the importance of furthering students’ articulation of and active reflection on their interpretation of guidelines and legislation, and on their own setting of objectives specific to the individual cases and on how these objectives relate to the value base of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated first-line managers' experience of and responses to a concise leadership intervention to facilitate the implementation of oral care clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in nursing homes. Leadership is known to be an important element in knowledge implementation but little is known as to what supports managers to facilitate the process. By means of a process evaluation with mixed methods, the context and a three-month leadership program was explored, including activities during and in relation to the program, and the effects in terms of oral care CPG implementation plans. While the managers appreciated the intervention and considered improved oral care to be a priority, their implementation plans mainly focused the dissemination of an oral care checklist. The findings suggest that extended implementation interventions engaging both managers and clinical staff are needed, and that a concise intervention does not facilitate first-line managers to adopt behaviors known to facilitate knowledge implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]