This chapter presents a historical and current picture of Sweden as a country of migration. Sweden has for a long time had cultural encounters with neighboring countries but it is only in the post war period that the stream of migrants became large and justified the statement that Sweden is a multicultural society in a descriptive sense. The chapter contains an account of the main tenets in Swedish nationalism, and how Swedish national identity is constructed today. It also contains a description of Sweden's modern immigration history, from the World War II and onwards,with a focus on the two last decades, and how the migrant legislation has changed during that period. We also give a short account of four minority groups in present day Sweden; Sámi, Roma, Muslims and sub-Saharan Africans, whose claims for acceptance, tolerance and recognition sometimes is met with indecision, opposition or – at least at the informal level of everyday life – with outright aversion. In the section preceding the conclusions, we discuss how questions of tolerance, acceptance and recognition has been articulated and formulated in migration- and minority policy during the last decades, with a focus on the ten previous years.
With an area of 450 000 km(2), Sweden is one of the largest countries in Western Europe. It is 1500 km from north to south. It has nearly 9 million inhabitants (20 per km(2)). It is a constitutional, hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary government. Sweden is highly dependent on international trade to maintain its high productivity and good living standards. Many public services are provided by Sweden's 289 municipalities and 21 county councils. Municipal responsibilities include schools, child care and care of the elderly, as well as social support for people with a chronic mental illness. The county councils are mainly responsible for healthcare, including psychiatric care, and public transport at the regional level. Sweden is characterised by an even distribution of incomes and wealth. This is partly a result of the comparatively large role of the public sector.
In 2014, more than 200,000 refugees and migrants fled for safety across the Mediterranean Sea. Crammed into overcrowded, unsafe boats, thousands drowned, prompting the Pope to warn that the sea was becoming a mass graveyard. The early months of 2015 saw no respite. In April alone more than 1,300 people drowned. This led to a large public outcry to increase rescue operations. Throughout this period, UNHCR and other humanitarian organisations, engaged in a series of largescale media advocacy exercises, aiming at convincing European countries to do more to help. It was crucial work, setting the tone for the dramatic rise in attention to the refugee crisis that followed in the second half of 2015. But the media was far from united in its response. While some outlets joined the call for more assistance, others were unsympathetic, arguing against increasing rescue operations. To learn why, UNHCR commissioned a report by the Cardiff School of Journalism to explore what was driving media coverage in five different European countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK and Sweden. Researchers combed through thousands of articles written in 2014 and early 2015, revealing a number of important findings for future media advocacy campaigns. Most importantly, they found major differences between countries, in terms of the sources journalists used (domestic politicians, foreign politicians, citizens, or NGOs), the language they employed, the reasons they gave for the rise in refugee flows, and the solutions they suggested. Germany and Sweden, for example, overwhelmingly used the terms 'refugee' or 'asylum seeker', while Italy and the UK press preferred the word 'migrant'. In Spain, the dominant term was 'immigrant'. These terms had an important impact on the tenor of each country's debate. Media also differed widely in terms of the predominant themes to their coverage. For instance, humanitarian themes were more common in Italian coverage than in British, German or Spanish press. Threat themes (such as to the welfare system, or cultural threats) were the most prevalent in Italy, Spain and Britain. Overall, the Swedish press was the most positive towards refugees and migrants, while coverage in the United Kingdom was the most negative, and the most polarised. Amongst those countries surveyed, Britain's right-wing media was uniquely aggressively in its campaigns against refugees and migrants. This report provides important insights into each country's press culture during a crucial period of agenda-setting for today's refugee and migrant crisis. It also offers invaluable insights into historical trends. What emerges is a clear message that for media work on refugees, one size does not fit all. Effective media advocacy in different European nations requires targeted, tailored campaigns, which takes into account their unique cultures and political context.
The increased importance given to European policy concerning evaluation and quality assurance in higher education in the Swedish national policy context is explored in this chapter. The description rests on interviews with what here is labelled policy brokers and on the material from the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), as well as government bills, parliamentary minutes, national agency reports, and university teachers' union journals. The results show that ENQA membership requirements played a significant role in the Swedish policy debate on the design of the 2016 national evaluation and quality assurance system. Dissemination channels between Europe and Sweden are populated by individuals with similar functions and positions, e.g. that ministers often meet ministers. Within Sweden, European policy is disseminated by and through individuals who move between different positions within the ministry of education, national agencies, and higher education institutions. Different organisations also communicate with each other within Sweden, ensuring European policies reaching into higher education institutions. Such European governing attempts are carried out in activities like networks, conferences, papers, guidelines, and by using different forms of knowledge, both inscribed, embodied, and enacted.
The Swedish national parliamentary election of 2018 took place amidst considerable concern over the role of misinformation. This paper examines the role of digital media during the election against the background of the Swedish media system. It focuses on the role of bots and how they supported the Sweden Democrats, whose agenda was also promoted by anti-immigrant alternative news websites. This article reports on a study of Twitter that used computational techniques to distinguish bots from genuine accounts across hashtags related to the election and Swedish politics (such as #valet2018). I examine which parties are supported and criticised by bots and by genuine accounts, and discuss the content of the tweets. In this article, I place bots in the context of broader debates about the role of digital media in politics and argue that misinformation and alternative news websites will demand continued future vigilance.
Apprenticeship training in Sweden and many other European countries goes back to the middle ages. Yet, this special model of vocational education still attracts significant interest due to the challenges young people face in preparing to enter the current labour market. This is obvious both in Sweden and in other comparable countries. The apprenticeship model is primarily promoted as achieving two important goals: first, as a tool to achieve a better match between young people's qualifications of employer demands for skills; and second, as an education pathway that can make the transition from school to work easier and therefore contribute to social inclusion. Many initiatives to spread information and provide support have been rolled out in the European Union, with the intention to strengthen apprenticeships in EU Member States.This chapter discusses recent relevant experiences linked with vocational education (VET) and apprenticeship training in Sweden. The main issue relates to basic requirements that have to be in place for establishing an apprenticeship training model, and the challenges a country like Sweden – with its mainly school-based VET – will face when aiming to initiate more of a classical apprenticeship training approach within vocational programmes at upper secondary level.
Sweden is a country that has a reputation and historical legacy as being "neutral" and working for peaceful solutions to different global problems after the bitter experiences in the 18th and 19th centuries that saw it fall as a regional power of the Baltic Sea region in a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire. Contemporary mainstream politics and society places itself firmly in the camp of global liberalism and the stressing the importance of the trans-Atlantic partnership, which influences how Sweden views its mission and approach to global affairs. Sweden's centuries long policy of neutrality/non-alignment is being tested in an environment of deteriorating relations with Russia. This is most clearly seen in the NATO debate where a noticeable split is taking place in society along the lines of humanitarian values (those supporting neutrality/non-alignment) and "interests" (namely supposed security interests by the pro-NATO side).
No. 1 preceded by introductory issued dated May 1977. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; Merged with: Cultural life in Sweden, Political life in Sweden, Working life in Sweden, and: Human environment in Sweden, to form: Viewpoint Sweden.
The Swedish government undertook significant reform in the education sector in the 1990's. Among the important steps in this reform were the institution of vouchers for schooling, decentralisation of education to the municipal level, and entry of private for-profit schools. These changes significantly improved school choice for parents and children, and increased accountability of schools, principals, and teachers. In addition, some researchers hold that the institution of vouchers for schooling at the very least halted the falling performance of Swedish children on learning achievement tests. This publication reviews the Swedish model, outlines the successes, challenges and gaps in the model, and highlights the political currency of this policy in present day Sweden.
Sheep production in Sweden is an agricultural sector that today exists merely as a small niche, despite its agroecological potential. Through literature research, a survey and 18 semi-structured interviews, this paper defines the sector's marginality and attempts to explain it. The effects of the sector's marginality on the sustainability of Swedish sheep farming and agriculture as a whole are evaluated. Finally, desirable directions for development of the Swedish sheep sector are suggested. The findings showed that the marginality of the Swedish sheep sector to a large extent is a product of socio-cultural factors that affect the structure of the sheep sector. Not least, the sector's marginality reinforces itself. In addition, bio-physical, historical and political circumstances have played a role in marginalising the sector. Several weaknesses and strengths regarding sustainability were recognized within the current, small-scale structures of Swedish sheep farming. Opportunities were identified through which the sheep sector could actually contribute to agricultural sustainability precisely through its marginality. Equally, threats to sustainability that arise from the sector being limited to its niche were acknowledged. Overall, the findings suggest that it would be beneficial for the Swedish sheep sector to grow if agroecological, sustainable farming is the ultimate goal. Whether this growth can and will be achieved, however, is questionable.
The paper is a review of Swedish forest policy and legislation over four centuries, using mainly Swedish language literature, including Government and Forest Authority print. - Government policies during the 17th and 18th centuries favoured mining and Navy interests, restricting the rural population's use of the forest commons. The commons and the Crown lands were largely privatised around 1800, and the ensuing philosophy of economic liberalism was against any restrictions on ownership right. Thus, modern legislation was introduced as late as in 1903, in spite of the ambitions of several generations of foresters inspired by the emerging forestry thinking on the Continent, aiming at sustainable timber production. From that year, legislation and institutions were developed gradually striving to utilise the full timber producing potential of Sweden's forestland. From 1979, this policy reached a climax, with far-going state control of forest management while retaining formal ownership rights. The forests were restocked the forests but environment had been steamrolled – at least, a growing opinion saw it like that. After 1990, the policy was reoriented towards more broadly understood sustainability and multifunctionality. This most notably was achieved through the 1993 Forestry Act, but also through new environmental legislation, taxation and property legislation and institutional change, in parallel with similar developments in a majority of European countries. The change can be seen as a transition from stateformulated policy to forest governance where several actors compete for influence. - Policy development over the four centuries is seen as a result of political and economic forces. During the 17th century, Sweden was in many respects a military state where the Crown and the Nobility shared economic interests, while the Estate of Peasants (the peasants never lost their political freedom in Sweden) struggled to defend its land rights. During the last decades of the 18th century, the Crown aligned itself with the Peasants, curbing the former elite, preparing for the Napoleonic era (~1800). This was marked by a transition towards political and economic liberalism, privatisation of commons as well as of public land, and an ascendancy of both peasants and urban entrepreneurs. Towards the end of the 19th century, forest industry became an important actor, while the state wanted to ensure social stability by safeguarding farmer interests. After 1950, industry and the trade union interests dictated the policy, while traditional farming-withforestry was transformed, losing political leverage. At the end of the 20th century, increasingly urban middle-class values came to dominate the ideational landscape, paving the way for present policies.
Every year about half a million women die from complications of pregnancy, parturition and puerperium, most of which are preventable. The purpose of this thesis was to chart the distribution and decline in maternal mortality in Sweden between 1751 and 1980, and furthermore to characterize positive (predisposing) factors and negative (protective) factors of maternal mortality. Maternal mortality declined from 900 to 6.6 per 100,000 live births in these 230 years. Maternal deaths accounted for 10070 of all female deaths in the reproductive ages between 1781 and 1785, but only 0.2.0/0 between 1976 and 1980. However, in the 19th century 40-450/0 of the female deaths in the most active childbearing ages were maternal deaths. The children left motherless had an extremely high mortality. Indirect maternal deaths and puerperal sepsis accounted for the bulk of maternal deaths in the rural areas. Only a minority of maternal deaths occurred in lying-in hospitals. Midwifery services in rural areas and antiseptic techniques were most effective in preventing maternal deaths during the late 19th century. The changing distribution ofage and parity amongst the parturients had a definite impact on the mortality decline, enhanced by time, contributing to 500/0 of the mortality decline over the last 15 years. The expontential decline of cause-specific mortality and case fatality rates during the last 40 years is furthermore explained by the emergence ofmodern medicine - antibiotics, antenatal and obstetric care. The earlier serious problem of illegal abortions was eradicated by legislation and changes in hospital practice. The maternal mortality decline has levelled out during the 1970s, the relative importance of embolism as a cause of death is increasing. Advanced age and intercurrent disease are the most difficult risk factors to overcome. To conclude, this study indicates that the reason why maternal mortality has declined faster than otherhealth indices is that the major part of the maternal deaths can be prevented by medical technology, including family planning, antenatal and obstetric care. This experience should be of interest to developing countries where high rates of maternal mortality prevails.
This is a brief overview of Sweden and one of its major public health issues--the elderly care system. This includes information on the location of Sweden, its population, and the type of government established. The public health issue Sweden is facing is the lack of quality elderly care with its growing elderly population. The affected group is the elderly community. There are several challenges faced in order to improve the quality of elderly care. Chronic conditions in this population have been increasing and are requiring more complex health services. A reform needs to be established by the government to require higher education for staff and nurses working in any elderly care facility.
This report analyses the technical opportunities for a complete decarbonisation of the basic material industry in Sweden by 2050. From this assessment, the report discusses policy implications for the industry sector given the overall framework set by the ongoing international climate negotiations. Relying on current production systems and applying "end-of-pipe" solutions will be insufficient to reduce emissions below the estimates produced by most climate economic modeling. Decarbonising the industrial sectors while maintaining production volumes requires a major effort to develop, introduce and invest in novel process designs that currently are not available on the market. For achieving this, our analysis points to the need for complementing the current main climate policy approach of pricing the emissions via the EU ETS with a stronger policy for technical change. The support needs to include funding for RD&D but also for market development support in a broad sense. So far, this approach has worked well in the renewable energy sector through the use of various support schemes. The report outlines a technology strategy for industry that identifies a set of broad technological platforms and infrastructure needs such as electrowinning, black liquor gasification, biomass based bulk chemicals, magnesium based cement, application of industrial CCS e.t.c., that all are in need of targeted support. A road map for creating a common vision between government, industry and civil society is a crucial first step. The overall purpose of a roadmap may be to establish priorities on RD&D, coordinate various actors, create networks and institutions for knowledge sharing, and map possible future technology and policy pathways.
