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The aim of this thesis is to describe Political Science students' experiences of studies and work life. Students' reflections on their study situation as well as their envisaged and later experienced work life have been analysed through cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data. Central research questions are how students at the beginning and the end of their studies perceive their study program, how the communication patterns between teacher and students are negotiated, and what discourses of knowledge and competence operate in the program and in work life as well as how students of Political Science experience the transition from higher education to working life at two European universities, and how Political science students and students in two professional programmes experience the transition from higher education to work life. The empiri-cal studies are presented in four articles. Ethnography, phenomenography and discourse analysis have been applied. The results show that students embark on the program with dreams of being in the halls of power in Brussels or becoming famous by appearing in the media. They are, however, also driven by a Bildung incentive. Towards the end of their studies, more down-to-earth visions of the future as investigators have replaced their previous dreams. Another result is the ongoing negotiations about their role and the purpose of e.g. seminars, which convey double messages about what to say and when to contribute. They also report a rational and generic relationship between their studies and the work tasks, indicating that they have acquired a set of general skills that are helpful for them in their work. When moving from studies into work life, they report having a feeling of being squeezed between the politicians and the general public. Surprisingly, few of them regard themselves as having power in the decision-making arena. ; Syftet med avhandlingen är att beskriva studenter inom statsvetenskap och deras resa genom akademin ut i arbetslivet. Genom att undersöka studenternas reflektioner och tankar kring sin studiesituation och hur de ser på sitt kommande arbete genom att använda en undersökningsdesign som består av en tvärsnittsstudie och en longitudinell studie. Med utgångspunkt i syftet har ett antal forskningsfrågor formulerats; Hur uppfattas utbildningen av studenter i början och slutet av sina studier? Vilka diskurser kring kunskap och kompetens återfinns i studieprogrammen? Vilka diskurser kring kunskap och kompetens återfinns i arbetslivet? Hur upplever studenter i statsvetenskap vid två europeiska universitet övergången mellan akademi och arbetsliv? Hur upplever studenter i statsvetenskap och studenter från två professionsutbildningar övergången mellan akademi och arbetsliv? De empiriska studierna rapporteras i fyra uppsatser. Etnografi, fenomenografi och diskursanalys är de metoder som använts vid ana-lyserna av empiriska data. Många studenter väljer att läsa statsvetenskap på grund av ett allmänbildningsintresse, de uttrycker också drömmen om att få arbeta i maktens korridorer eller bli kända som experter i media. I slutet av sin utbildning infinner sig snarare en bild av en framtida roll som utredare. Eftersom studier i statsvetenskap har en rationell karaktär med fokus på generiska färdigheter är detta inte särskilt förvånande. En grupp studenter som följdes under sina första fem veckor i en seminarieserie fick dubbla signaler rörande sin roll vid seminarier. Relationen mellan utbildning och arbete beskrivs som i första hand rationell och generisk, dvs de har förvärvat allmänna färdigheter som är dem till stor hjälp i arbetet. När de som nya på arbetsmarknaden talar om sin identitet, framgår att de beskriver sig som klämda från två håll i sin roll som förmedlare mellan allmänheten och makthavarna. Förvånansvärt få anser att de har någon reell makt när det gäller beslutsfattande.

By investigating the occurrence of place innovative synergies between retail and tourism in a small-sized Swedish city, this article advances knowledge on how city center attractiveness can be enforced in a rural context with competing online shopping and suburban/out-of-town shopping centers. Previous studies of city center attractiveness, place innovation, and social innovation help distinguish innovative intertwinement of correlated trends of experiencing retail and retailing experiences, augmenting customer experiences through place-based characteristics. Interviews, workshops, and participatory observations with entrepreneurs, business promoters, and municipality representatives reveal three dimensions of place innovative synergies in city center attractiveness: 1) innovative variance in city center retail and tourism, 2) innovative interwovenness between the city center identity and its configuration, content, and communication, and 3) innovative interaction between retailers and tourism entrepreneurs in city center events. A key question is whether synergies in temporal events and everyday commerce are sufficiently combined, in order to engender encompassing renewal.

This article adds to the understanding of men's discursive resistance in relation to gender-equality interventions at work. Using Swedish men forestry professionals as the empirical base, the result shows how discursive resistance were performative acts, part of the construction of the same gender-equality interventions and organizational contexts that they were perceived to describe. In this case, direct opposition to gender equality provided a limited discursive position and sets of logics available in practice. Instead, the possibilities to renegotiate gender-equality interventions as unjust and unnecessary required, we conclude that the industry's ambition to hire and promote more women was perceived to have led to the use of affirmative action and the disruption of meritocratic principles and that the problems of gender equality were placed in the traditional forestry and among "prejudiced old men," as oppose to the more "modern" and "women friendly" forestry of today.

AbstractObjectivesStudies in the goods supply chain in areas outside of warehousing show evidence of gender and racial/ethnic inequalities in working conditions (i.e. in work organization, work environment, and employment conditions). This review aimed to identify, summarize, and discuss research focused on inequality in warehousing and its effects on warehouse working conditions. In the review, racial/ethnic inequality includes inequality related to country of birth and (im)migration status.MethodsWe performed a systematic search in the Scopus and Web of Science databases to identify warehouse studies that addressed working conditions and (in)equality at a workplace level. Screening of records was performed using the Rayyan systematic review tool. Risk of bias was assessed according to established methods and checklists.ResultsDatabase searches yielded 4910 articles. After title-abstract-keyword and full-text screenings, 21 articles were included. Results showed inequality based on gender and race/ethnicity in both work organization (different tasks were performed by different groups of employees), work environment conditions (physical and psychosocial aspects differed), and employment conditions (disparate employment types and incomes between groups of employees). Health differences, as a possible result of unequal working conditions, were evident between different racial/ethnic groups of employees. A hierarchy that included both gender and race/ethnicity was found, with (im)migrant and racialized women positioned at the bottom.ConclusionsWe found evidence that gender and race/ethnicity influenced work organization, work environment conditions, and employment conditions. Evidence was found for an intersection between gender and race/ethnicity. To improve working conditions, and subsequently occupational health, we encourage researchers to simultaneously consider gender and race/ethnicity factors at work, and to consider both why inequality is present and how it impacts working conditions in future studies of warehousing, particularly in online retailing.