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The aim of this article is to shed light on teachers' actions to counter racism expressed by their colleagues. Based on qualitative interviews with teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools, the article presents a narrative analysis of three teachers. The article highlights the complexity of what it means to be a colleague in anti-racist work and argues that this brings different risks and possibilities for White teachers and for teachers of colour. By relating the narratives to research on racism and teacher professionalism, the article contributes to a better understanding of the prevalence and character of racism expressed by colleagues, and points at the need for further research.

This article explores Swedish teachers' and school leaders' Facebook rebellion groups as a medium where professional needs and actions can be formulated. Data consist of interviews with administrators representing the rebellion groups. Based on a theoretical perspective of teacher agency we searched for experiences and visions related to contextual aspects expressed in the groups. The results indicate a common experience of lacking resources among the groups. Through a well-balanced agency, they search for support among politicians in their striving to improve working conditions. However, the groups might develop different conditions for participating due to the formation of group-specific conversational climate about what is desirable and possible to post and discuss. Discussions on work-related issues might certainly be affected and the rebellion groups might contribute to preserve the specificity of each level in the school system. A split in the teachers' rebellion group indicates virtual relationships between professionals are easy to give up in favour of new formations, making the virtual groups vulnerable. The results raise the question about changing cultural aspects and what it means to be a professional teacher/school leader. Will teacher agency in the future be dependent on participation in such social media groups?

Keywords: Employment protection; inequality; populism; social spending; the welfare state Abstract Objectives This article aims to find country-level factors that explain the rise of populist parties in European democracies. While populism is often connected to inequality, we not that right-wing populist parties tend to thrive on fear, including fear of job loss. If flexible labor markets mean that unemployment is dedramatized because finding a new job is easier, labor market flexibility could dampen populism and inequality may be less important. Methods We run country-level fixed effects regressions on populist party vote shares in 26 European countries from 1980 to 2018. We use two different classifications of right-wing and left-wing populist parties and control for employment protection strictness as measured by OECD, Gini coefficients of disposable income, and a large set of control variables. Results Unemployment is positively associated with left-wing populism. Strict employment protection is positively associated with right-wing populism. Gini inequality of income is unrelated to (both types of) populism. Conclusion Strong employment protection and low-income inequality may not be the most efficient way to combat right-wing populism. A strategy that promotes flexible labor markets, and job upgrading may be an alternative. More research on the link between labor market institutions and (in particular, right-wing) populism is needed. CAPTION(S): Supplementary Information Byline: Andreas Bergh, Anders Kärnä

The legal framing of national education systems has been subject to substantial change in the past decade, especially in Nordic countries. Earlier research has called for better understanding of the implications of these changes which, in turn, points to a need for conceptual development. With an emphasis on legal and education scholarly work, this article explores concepts for further research on juridification in relation to education. This is done through an abductive process of inquiry, in which interpretations of the concept of juridification developed in previous research are explored in relation to changes in Swedish education policy on the area of equal treatment. We distinguish conceptually between juridification of and in education and propose a conceptual framework based on six dimensions of juridification, contributing to a view of policy as both formally regulated and enacted by education actors at different levels. This conceptual framework opens up new directions for further research in different areas and contexts.

The objective of this article is to explore differentiation of education through juridification. We examine changes in school governing, including trends towards globalization and marketization, as well as increased regulatory intervention in addressing complex social problems. Drawing on Luhmann's theory of functional differentiation and Teubner's problematization of juridification, we scrutinize three sets of distinct legislative regulations in a Swedish context. We uncover a multifaceted juridification alongside a multifunctional school organization nested in a complex web of differentiated and interconnected subsystems. Traditional forms of differentiation persist, albeit with juridification as a lever, thus sparking renewed tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swedish compulsory schools are committed to work for equality and social cohesion. Increasing school segregation, however, challenges this commitment. Based on survey data from Swedish municipalities, this article maps and analyses local initiatives that counteract school segregation. We identify three main types of initiatives—reinforcement, dispersal, and merging—and the exogenous (school external) and endogenous (school internal) drivers involved in each of them. The analysis reveals several gaps between the national level, the municipal level and local schools that hamper local efforts to counter school segregation. This article contributes to increased knowledge on how local initiatives of counteracting segregation are constrained by national policies about school choice and independent versus municipal schools, but also how local initiatives tend to focus on organizational dynamics rather than on social and pedagogical processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore possibilities and challenges for deliberative academic development. Deliberative academic development refers to a practice that engages members of the university in dialogue about its purposes, ways of organizing and leading higher education, as well as teaching and learning. The paper critically analyses data from focus group interviews with academic developers from four universities within two national contexts. Combining sociological conceptualizations of agency and the framework of 'epistemic living spaces', the paper offers insights into challenges and opportunities for deliberative academic development, as well as a framework for studying agency in other contexts.

There are increasing external pressures on 21st-century universities to be engines of economic recovery and growth. In this rapidly altering landscape, how university senior leaders articulate the purpose of university education and the contribution of academic developers to fulfil these education purposes is a matter of empirical interest. Senior leaders and academic developers have particular responsibilities since they impact educational quality at an institutional level. Senior leaders are responsible for orienting their institutions, giving direction to colleagues in the process, while their implicit leadership theories animate effort and interactions. Academic developers are employed to provide educational programmes for academics to develop their pedagogical competence, and are increasingly deployed by university leaders to implement new quality assurance systems. Such responsibilities strongly suggest agency and relative autonomy to forge new alliances and collaborative networks where these did not previously exist; they are simultaneously required to be leaders and followers. Consequently, the portfolios of academic developers have expanded exponentially, strategically walking a tightrope between the potentially coercive message of strategic missions and the relative autonomy of academic staff, brokering new horizons of university education in a collegial, collaborative and horizontal manner. The paper captures the dynamics of leading education in four universities: the brokering responsibilities of academic developers.

Keywords: Trust; Credit ratings; Interest rates; Economic reforms Abstract This paper asks whether the sensitivity of market long-term interest rates and credit ratings is associated with cross-country differences in social trust. We note a number of theoretical mechanisms that suggest that macroeconomic shocks are more likely to be effectively dealt with in higher-trust societies. A set of panel estimates across middle- and high-income countries reveals that interest rates and credit ratings are substantially more sensitive to inflation and growth problems in low-trust countries. This finding sheds light on the differential market reactions to macroeconomic problems in seemingly comparable countries. Biographical information: The Research Institute for Industrial Economics (E-mail: andreas.bergh@ifn.se). Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University (E-mail: ChBj@asb.dk ). Article Note: We thank Edith Neuenkirch, Eelke de Jong, and participants of the 2014 meetings of the European Public Choice Society (Cambridge) and at a seminar at the University of Trieste for helpful comments. All remaining errors are entirely ours. Bergh thanks the Swedish Research Council and Johan och Jakob Söderbergs Stiftelse for financial support. CAPTION(S): Supporting information Byline: Andreas Bergh, Christian Bjørnskov

Abstract While the association between economic freedom and long-term economic growth has been well documented, the parallel research literature on the distributional consequences of economic freedom is full of conflicting findings. In this paper, we take a step toward reconciling these two bodies of literature by exploring the within-quintile growth consequences of changes in three separate elements of economic freedom: the size of government, institutional quality and and policy quality. Although the distributional consequences of increases in economic freedom are theoretically ambiguous, we find evidence that economic freedom affects all parts of the income distribution equally, in addition to indications that the growth effects are largest for the poorest and richest quintiles. Article Note: The authors wish to thank Joseph Connors, participants at the 2019 meetings of the Public Choice Society (Louisville), and two reviewers at this journal for comments on earlier versions. Bergh wishes to thank the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet, grant 2,103-734) and Torsten Soderberg's Foundation (grant E1/14). Bjornskov gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation. Replication files for stata are provided in the supplementary information. CAPTION(S): Data S1 Supporting Information Byline: Andreas Bergh, Christian Bjornskov

This article focuses on a new form of governing that targets a selected group of teachers. Specifically, it analyses how the Swedish so-called advanced teacher reform is enacted at the local level and discusses its implications for teachers' professionalism. The methodological approach enables a local analysis in a broader international policy context. Using characteristic elements from curriculum theory to analyse the relationship between different levels and elaborating on the linguistic turn of curriculum theory, three concepts are central in the analysis: enactment, linguistic criteria and professionalism. Empirically, the study draws on material from a two-year application process in a medium-sized municipality. The result demonstrates that the local enactment process is clearly influenced by transnational policy trends and that less allowance is made for teachers' own experience-based knowledge in the second studied year. The linguistic analysis shows how the applicants using the 'right concepts' were selected to become 'advanced teachers'. As complex and qualitative aspects disappeared from the agenda, this type of governing, with its standardized use of language, may reduce schools' educational potential. Changes like this raise new questions about how schools can maintain and develop democratic and professional values whilst being exposed to new policy trends.