Pelle Åberg | ERSTA-SKÖNDAL - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Pelle Åberg
Folkrörelseanknytningar och marknadsrelationer Studieförbunden och deras grundarorganisationer, m... more Folkrörelseanknytningar och marknadsrelationer Studieförbunden och deras grundarorganisationer, medlemsorganisationer och samverkansorganisationer Johan von Essen och Pelle Åberg
By their very nature, attempts by civil society organizations to promote democracy abroad involve... more By their very nature, attempts by civil society organizations to promote democracy abroad involve cooperation and contact across the borders of nation states. The dissemination of the ideas and practices of the promoters is often essential; in the case of Swedish democracy promotion, popular education or folkbildning has been important.
This thesis investigates the dissemination of ideas and practices by civil society organizations in Sweden and Estonia in the field of popular education. More specifically, a number of projects run by member organizations of the Swedish study association ABF (Workers’ Educational Association) and member organizations of the Estonian AHL (Open Education Association) are studied. These projects are also part of democracy-promoting activities whose funding comes mainly from Swedish donor agencies. The thesis aims to understand not only what has been spread but also how ideas and practices have been translated to fit the Estonian context. The primary theoretical concept used is therefore translation, even though one aim of the thesis is to systematize the field of study concerning processes of dissemination and to enrich the concept of translation with the aid of previous work on diffusion and socialization.
The main contribution of the thesis consists of the in-depth study of cooperation between Swedish and Estonian popular education organizations. It also contributes to the theoretical development of the concept of translation by identifying different phases in this kind of process and important elements of these phases. Popular education is an important part of Swedish democracy promotion and this study also contributes to this rather undertheorized subject, and also to the discussions of transnational civil society cooperation, by demonstrating an analytical framework that can be of use in future research into these issues.
Articles by Pelle Åberg
Voluntas, 2019
Policy institutes, or ''think tanks'', are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our societies. In ... more Policy institutes, or ''think tanks'', are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our societies. In this article, we conceptualize think tanks explicitly as a civil society phenomenon, linking the proliferation of this relatively new type of actor to the transformation of civil society structures and of systems of interest representation. Using the case of Sweden as an illustration, we argue that the recent decades' rise of think tanks in institutional settings outside of the USA can only be understood if we take into account the particular features and institutional policy access opportunities of the domestic civil society in each national case, and that think tanks should be analytically understood as the allies of, rather than competitors to, the older, established forces in civil society.
Based on data from a survey conducted in Saint Petersburg in 2013, this article sheds new light o... more Based on data from a survey conducted in Saint Petersburg in 2013, this article sheds new light on attitudes towards fatherhood in contemporary Russia. We explore what norms are held concerning fatherhood, how these attitudes are related to age, sex, education and income as well as to ideal–typical models established in previous research on fatherhood from Western Europe and the US. Thus, the article also discusses what explanatory value established theoretical models have for the Russian context. Norms of the role of the father in the family are related to general norms of masculinity and, hence, are an important part of the study of politics and the political climate in a society. The results show that there are several fatherhood ideals present in contemporary Northwestern Russia: a traditional breadwinner model, an active fatherhood model as well as what we refer to as a marginalized fatherhood model. The latter has not been substantially identified in previous research, and may tentatively be identified as a legacy of the Soviet era.
What do we know about fatherhood and norms concerning fatherhood in Russia? This article investig... more What do we know about fatherhood and norms concerning fatherhood in Russia? This article investigates this question using previous research and the contemporary state-discourse. Family and parenthood have been important parts of the state-discourse during the last decades due to the demographic situation in Russia. However, at the same time, fathers are more or less absent from the discourse while mothers and children are occurring frequently. With this as a background, the role of the father is examined, in the past and in the present. This is done using previous research on Soviet and Russian fatherhood, with the aid of knowledge gained through fatherhood studies in other national contexts as well as current policy documents and presidential speeches. The results show that norms concerning fatherhood are closely connected to the sociopolitical context and changes in welfare systems and in the gender contract. The development of fatherhood models differ between Russian and West European, and American, experiences. In today’s Russia there are competing discourses, suggesting that the role of the father is contested. There is evidence of both a marginalized fatherhood model, a legacy from Soviet times, of the traditional breadwinner model of fatherhood as well as of a more nurturing and active type of fatherhood.
How does participation in nonformal learning influence the self-perceived well-being among older ... more How does participation in nonformal learning influence the self-perceived well-being among older adults? This article looks into that issue through a study of people aged 65 years or older who have participated in Swedish study circles. The data analyzed consists of a nation-wide survey of study circle participants. The results show that there are beneficial effects from participating in study circles for the well-being of older adults. As could be expected, participants claim that their knowledge and skills have increased; but the main finding is the importance of the social dimension of participating in nonformal learning activities. The fellowship created in study circles is both an important motive for participation and an important outcome of having participated. This, however, is not at the expense of gaining new knowledge. Rather, the two dimensions may strengthen each other. Nonformal settings appear to provide an environment that has positive effects on the well-being of older adults. They do this by fostering a sense of belonging and the opportunity to be part of a fellowship that may work as an aid in avoiding social isolation and loneliness.
This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family pol-icy and dem... more This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family pol-icy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia. This article uses Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality and later developments discussing technologies of citizenship. More specifically, using interviews, documents, and participant observations, so-called “daddy-schools” that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied as a mode of governmentality. The analysis shows how the civic initiative studied at-tempted to empower fathers and how it has altered demographic discourses while approaching similar societal goals as the state does in its biopolitical strategies. Thus, the daddy-schools provide a complementary discourse concerning fatherhood while approaching the same perceived demographic crisis that the Russian state is challenged by.
History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, CSOs h... more History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, CSOs have to mediate between their original mission and modern-day realities. This article argues that understanding the concept of decoupling can enrich analyses of how organizations deal with path dependency. Hence, this article discusses cross-fertilization between historical and organizational institutionalism. This is illustrated through a study of Swedish CSOs using survey data, interviews and documents. The Swedish popular movement tradition is argued to be a path that is not easily abandoned, and the results of the surveys and interviews included here show how actors in CSOs find history to be both a resource and a constraint. Furthermore, different decoupling strategies, including both reversed and official decoupling, are used to balance between historical legacies and current challenges.
1 media in albania / a stettin story / russia and the "others" / polish activism / letter from ky... more 1 media in albania / a stettin story / russia and the "others" / polish activism / letter from kyiv / nazi forced enlistment A quarterly scholarly journal and news magazine. December 2013. Vol. VI:3-4.
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and …, 2013
Several challenges, external and internal, to the identity and position of civil society organiza... more Several challenges, external and internal, to the identity and position of civil society organizations exist today. Organizations may be tempted or coerced into closer cooperation with the state. There are also incentives to become more market-oriented. This article deals with such struggles in Swedish study associations and how these organizations attempt to gain legitimacy. The tradition of the organization is an important legitimating aspect and so is efficiency. These two aspects can complement each other but may also collide. The article demonstrates how civil society organizations handle an influx of market logics and trends of professionalization when these clash with a civil society identity. The findings indicate that different isomorphic processes are at work. Cultural resources are used to handle conflicting myths, leading to varied discursive strategies and incidences of decoupling.
The article demonstrates how Nordic ideas of folk high schools have spread globally. To study thi... more The article demonstrates how Nordic ideas of folk high schools have spread globally. To study this process of dissemination, analytical tools from neo-institutional organizational theory, especially the concept of myths, are used. By surveying and interpreting international literature, three ideal-typical patterns for the dissemination of folk high school ideas are presented (migration, inspiration and export). These are illustrated by examples from educational institutions in Japan, the USA, Tanzania, Argentina and Bangladesh. Different conceptions of the folk high school have been used to legitimate and organize various adult education institutions and activities across the world. This has attracted significant international interest but has hardly been dealt with in Swedish pedagogical research. This article argues that using tools from neo-institutional theory to study the dissemination of ideas concerning the folk high school is a fruitful approach, which contributes to Swedish research on folkbildning and links this field to international, comparative, pedagogical research.
Nordiskt Østforum, Jan 1, 2003
esh.se. Publications. ...
Book Chapters by Pelle Åberg
Svensk folkbildning respektive svenskt jämställdhetsarbete är två exportområden för det svenska c... more Svensk folkbildning respektive svenskt jämställdhetsarbete är två exportområden för det svenska civilsamhället. I detta kapitel analyseras två samarbeten där man inom studieförbundet ABF (Arbetarnas bildningsförbund) respektive organisationen Män för jämställdhet (MÄN) har varit engagerade i transnationellt idéutbyte med aktörer i Estland samt Ryssland. Studiecirklar och pappagrupper ges lokala tolkningar i de båda samarbetena. Förutom att de ursprungliga svenska modellerna under resan anpassas – översätts – till de lokala förhållandena så menar författaren att det också tycks förekomma ett slags returresor där även de avsändande organisationernas egen verksamhet påverkas och utvecklas av de erfarenheter som görs i samarbetena, samtidigt som modellerna fortsätter sina respektive resor österut.
esh.se. Publications. ...
This chapter analyzes different perspectives dealing with organizational change and the dissemina... more This chapter analyzes different perspectives dealing with organizational change and the dissemination of ideas and practices between different contexts. Through an investigation into projects featuring cooperation between Swedish and Estonian civil society organizations, the chapter demonstrates how different concepts brought together can further our understanding of such processes.
Folkrörelseanknytningar och marknadsrelationer Studieförbunden och deras grundarorganisationer, m... more Folkrörelseanknytningar och marknadsrelationer Studieförbunden och deras grundarorganisationer, medlemsorganisationer och samverkansorganisationer Johan von Essen och Pelle Åberg
By their very nature, attempts by civil society organizations to promote democracy abroad involve... more By their very nature, attempts by civil society organizations to promote democracy abroad involve cooperation and contact across the borders of nation states. The dissemination of the ideas and practices of the promoters is often essential; in the case of Swedish democracy promotion, popular education or folkbildning has been important.
This thesis investigates the dissemination of ideas and practices by civil society organizations in Sweden and Estonia in the field of popular education. More specifically, a number of projects run by member organizations of the Swedish study association ABF (Workers’ Educational Association) and member organizations of the Estonian AHL (Open Education Association) are studied. These projects are also part of democracy-promoting activities whose funding comes mainly from Swedish donor agencies. The thesis aims to understand not only what has been spread but also how ideas and practices have been translated to fit the Estonian context. The primary theoretical concept used is therefore translation, even though one aim of the thesis is to systematize the field of study concerning processes of dissemination and to enrich the concept of translation with the aid of previous work on diffusion and socialization.
The main contribution of the thesis consists of the in-depth study of cooperation between Swedish and Estonian popular education organizations. It also contributes to the theoretical development of the concept of translation by identifying different phases in this kind of process and important elements of these phases. Popular education is an important part of Swedish democracy promotion and this study also contributes to this rather undertheorized subject, and also to the discussions of transnational civil society cooperation, by demonstrating an analytical framework that can be of use in future research into these issues.
Voluntas, 2019
Policy institutes, or ''think tanks'', are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our societies. In ... more Policy institutes, or ''think tanks'', are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our societies. In this article, we conceptualize think tanks explicitly as a civil society phenomenon, linking the proliferation of this relatively new type of actor to the transformation of civil society structures and of systems of interest representation. Using the case of Sweden as an illustration, we argue that the recent decades' rise of think tanks in institutional settings outside of the USA can only be understood if we take into account the particular features and institutional policy access opportunities of the domestic civil society in each national case, and that think tanks should be analytically understood as the allies of, rather than competitors to, the older, established forces in civil society.
Based on data from a survey conducted in Saint Petersburg in 2013, this article sheds new light o... more Based on data from a survey conducted in Saint Petersburg in 2013, this article sheds new light on attitudes towards fatherhood in contemporary Russia. We explore what norms are held concerning fatherhood, how these attitudes are related to age, sex, education and income as well as to ideal–typical models established in previous research on fatherhood from Western Europe and the US. Thus, the article also discusses what explanatory value established theoretical models have for the Russian context. Norms of the role of the father in the family are related to general norms of masculinity and, hence, are an important part of the study of politics and the political climate in a society. The results show that there are several fatherhood ideals present in contemporary Northwestern Russia: a traditional breadwinner model, an active fatherhood model as well as what we refer to as a marginalized fatherhood model. The latter has not been substantially identified in previous research, and may tentatively be identified as a legacy of the Soviet era.
What do we know about fatherhood and norms concerning fatherhood in Russia? This article investig... more What do we know about fatherhood and norms concerning fatherhood in Russia? This article investigates this question using previous research and the contemporary state-discourse. Family and parenthood have been important parts of the state-discourse during the last decades due to the demographic situation in Russia. However, at the same time, fathers are more or less absent from the discourse while mothers and children are occurring frequently. With this as a background, the role of the father is examined, in the past and in the present. This is done using previous research on Soviet and Russian fatherhood, with the aid of knowledge gained through fatherhood studies in other national contexts as well as current policy documents and presidential speeches. The results show that norms concerning fatherhood are closely connected to the sociopolitical context and changes in welfare systems and in the gender contract. The development of fatherhood models differ between Russian and West European, and American, experiences. In today’s Russia there are competing discourses, suggesting that the role of the father is contested. There is evidence of both a marginalized fatherhood model, a legacy from Soviet times, of the traditional breadwinner model of fatherhood as well as of a more nurturing and active type of fatherhood.
How does participation in nonformal learning influence the self-perceived well-being among older ... more How does participation in nonformal learning influence the self-perceived well-being among older adults? This article looks into that issue through a study of people aged 65 years or older who have participated in Swedish study circles. The data analyzed consists of a nation-wide survey of study circle participants. The results show that there are beneficial effects from participating in study circles for the well-being of older adults. As could be expected, participants claim that their knowledge and skills have increased; but the main finding is the importance of the social dimension of participating in nonformal learning activities. The fellowship created in study circles is both an important motive for participation and an important outcome of having participated. This, however, is not at the expense of gaining new knowledge. Rather, the two dimensions may strengthen each other. Nonformal settings appear to provide an environment that has positive effects on the well-being of older adults. They do this by fostering a sense of belonging and the opportunity to be part of a fellowship that may work as an aid in avoiding social isolation and loneliness.
This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family pol-icy and dem... more This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family pol-icy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia. This article uses Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality and later developments discussing technologies of citizenship. More specifically, using interviews, documents, and participant observations, so-called “daddy-schools” that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied as a mode of governmentality. The analysis shows how the civic initiative studied at-tempted to empower fathers and how it has altered demographic discourses while approaching similar societal goals as the state does in its biopolitical strategies. Thus, the daddy-schools provide a complementary discourse concerning fatherhood while approaching the same perceived demographic crisis that the Russian state is challenged by.
History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, CSOs h... more History and traditions are important for many civil society organizations (CSOs). However, CSOs have to mediate between their original mission and modern-day realities. This article argues that understanding the concept of decoupling can enrich analyses of how organizations deal with path dependency. Hence, this article discusses cross-fertilization between historical and organizational institutionalism. This is illustrated through a study of Swedish CSOs using survey data, interviews and documents. The Swedish popular movement tradition is argued to be a path that is not easily abandoned, and the results of the surveys and interviews included here show how actors in CSOs find history to be both a resource and a constraint. Furthermore, different decoupling strategies, including both reversed and official decoupling, are used to balance between historical legacies and current challenges.
1 media in albania / a stettin story / russia and the "others" / polish activism / letter from ky... more 1 media in albania / a stettin story / russia and the "others" / polish activism / letter from kyiv / nazi forced enlistment A quarterly scholarly journal and news magazine. December 2013. Vol. VI:3-4.
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and …, 2013
Several challenges, external and internal, to the identity and position of civil society organiza... more Several challenges, external and internal, to the identity and position of civil society organizations exist today. Organizations may be tempted or coerced into closer cooperation with the state. There are also incentives to become more market-oriented. This article deals with such struggles in Swedish study associations and how these organizations attempt to gain legitimacy. The tradition of the organization is an important legitimating aspect and so is efficiency. These two aspects can complement each other but may also collide. The article demonstrates how civil society organizations handle an influx of market logics and trends of professionalization when these clash with a civil society identity. The findings indicate that different isomorphic processes are at work. Cultural resources are used to handle conflicting myths, leading to varied discursive strategies and incidences of decoupling.
The article demonstrates how Nordic ideas of folk high schools have spread globally. To study thi... more The article demonstrates how Nordic ideas of folk high schools have spread globally. To study this process of dissemination, analytical tools from neo-institutional organizational theory, especially the concept of myths, are used. By surveying and interpreting international literature, three ideal-typical patterns for the dissemination of folk high school ideas are presented (migration, inspiration and export). These are illustrated by examples from educational institutions in Japan, the USA, Tanzania, Argentina and Bangladesh. Different conceptions of the folk high school have been used to legitimate and organize various adult education institutions and activities across the world. This has attracted significant international interest but has hardly been dealt with in Swedish pedagogical research. This article argues that using tools from neo-institutional theory to study the dissemination of ideas concerning the folk high school is a fruitful approach, which contributes to Swedish research on folkbildning and links this field to international, comparative, pedagogical research.
Nordiskt Østforum, Jan 1, 2003
esh.se. Publications. ...
Svensk folkbildning respektive svenskt jämställdhetsarbete är två exportområden för det svenska c... more Svensk folkbildning respektive svenskt jämställdhetsarbete är två exportområden för det svenska civilsamhället. I detta kapitel analyseras två samarbeten där man inom studieförbundet ABF (Arbetarnas bildningsförbund) respektive organisationen Män för jämställdhet (MÄN) har varit engagerade i transnationellt idéutbyte med aktörer i Estland samt Ryssland. Studiecirklar och pappagrupper ges lokala tolkningar i de båda samarbetena. Förutom att de ursprungliga svenska modellerna under resan anpassas – översätts – till de lokala förhållandena så menar författaren att det också tycks förekomma ett slags returresor där även de avsändande organisationernas egen verksamhet påverkas och utvecklas av de erfarenheter som görs i samarbetena, samtidigt som modellerna fortsätter sina respektive resor österut.
esh.se. Publications. ...
This chapter analyzes different perspectives dealing with organizational change and the dissemina... more This chapter analyzes different perspectives dealing with organizational change and the dissemination of ideas and practices between different contexts. Through an investigation into projects featuring cooperation between Swedish and Estonian civil society organizations, the chapter demonstrates how different concepts brought together can further our understanding of such processes.
Hur paverkar deltagande i informellt larande aldres sjalvuppskattade valmaende? Detta undersoks h... more Hur paverkar deltagande i informellt larande aldres sjalvuppskattade valmaende? Detta undersoks har med hjalp av en rikstackande enkatundersokning av studiecirkeldeltagande. Resultaten visar att cirkeldeltagande har positiva effekter pa aldres valmaende. Som vantat havdar deltagarna att deras kunskaper och fardigheter har okat men betydelsen av deltagandets sociala dimension ar det som framtrader tydligast. Gemenskapen som skapas i studiecirkelns informella miljo ar bade ett viktigt motiv for deltagande och ett viktigt utfall av att ha deltagit. En informell larandekontext verkar bista med en miljo som har positiva effekter pa aldres valmaende genom att fostra en kansla av tillhorighet och ge mojlighet att bli del av en gemenskap som kan vara en hjalp i att undvika social isolering och ensamhet.
Civil society organizations are discussed as actors who can reduce democratic deficits in global/... more Civil society organizations are discussed as actors who can reduce democratic deficits in global/regional governance institutions, not least the EU which is the focus of this paper. However, organizations with different aims and ideologies often come together in large meta-organizations to address EU-institutions. This paper studies how the identity and ideological acerbity of CSOs is affected by membership in heterogeneous meta-organizations through a case study of CONCORD Europe, active in the development cooperation field at the EU level. Theoretically, neo-institutional theory and research on meta-organizations is used. Empirically, documents and interviews with representatives of CONCORD and CONCORD’s membership are analyzed.
Transnational Socialization : Cooperation between Swedish and Estonian Adult Education Organizations
Ornfeldt Clausen, Kaj: Bjornen vagner : Virksomhedsledelse og mennesker i USSR og Rusland 1990–1999
Promoting Active Fathers : The Birth and Development of a Civic Initiative in Contemporary Northw... more Promoting Active Fathers : The Birth and Development of a Civic Initiative in Contemporary Northwestern Russia
Nordisk Østforum, 2009
I have gained a number of very good friends, who have constantly provided me with challenging poi... more I have gained a number of very good friends, who have constantly provided me with challenging points of view while simultaneously offering their support, from my years at the Baltic and East European Graduate School. So to all my postgraduate student colleagues-thank you so much! I
Nordisk Østforum, 2011
Recenserad av Pelle Åberg [fi l.dr., forskare vid Enheten för forskning om det civila samhället, ... more Recenserad av Pelle Åberg [fi l.dr., forskare vid Enheten för forskning om det civila samhället, Ersta Sköndal högskola]
Politics and Governance, 2020
Think tanks, defined as organizations that produce policy research for political purposes (McGann... more Think tanks, defined as organizations that produce policy research for political purposes (McGann, 2007; Medvetz, 2008), are an increasingly ubiquitous type of policy actor world-wide. In Sweden, the last 20 years’ sharp increase in think tank numbers (Åberg, Einarsson, & Reuter, 2019) has coincided with the decline of the traditional Swedish corporatist model based on the intimate involvement of the so-called ‘popular movements’ in policy-making (Lundberg, 2014; Micheletti, 1995). Contrary to the large, mass-membership based and democratically organized movement organizations, think tanks are small, professionalized, expert-based, and seldom represent any larger membership base. Their increasingly important role as the ideological greenhouses in Swedish civil society might, therefore, be interpreted as an indication of an increasingly elitist and professionalized character of the latter. But what is a think tank? The article explores how a shared understanding of what constitutes a...
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2020
Foucault Studies, 2015
This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family policy and demo... more This article deals with civil society organizations active in the field of family policy and demographic issues in contemporary Russia. This article uses Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality and later developments discussing technologies of citizenship. More specifically, using interviews, documents, and participant observations, so-called “daddy-schools” that have emerged in and around Saint Petersburg since 2008, are studied as a mode of governmentality. The analysis shows how the civic initiative studied attempted to empower fathers and how it has altered demographic discourses while approaching similar societal goals as the state does in its biopolitical strategies. Thus, the daddy-schools provide a complementary discourse concerning fatherhood while approaching the same perceived demographic crisis that the Russian state is challenged by.
Spreading the word : Transnational cooperation and the (re-) building of adult education in Estonia
This paper adds to the discussion of how history shapes civil society organizations (CSOs) throug... more This paper adds to the discussion of how history shapes civil society organizations (CSOs) through an investigation of Swedish folk high schools. We ask: How do CSOs balance between remaining true ...
Swedish Study Associations and their Members : A Link to Civil Society or a Loyal Business Relati... more Swedish Study Associations and their Members : A Link to Civil Society or a Loyal Business Relationship?
Nordisk Østforum, 2016
What do we know about fatherhood and norms concerning fatherhood in Russia? This article investig... more What do we know about fatherhood and norms concerning fatherhood in Russia? This article investigates this question using previous research and the contemporary statediscourse. Family and parenthood have been important parts of the state-discourse during the last decades due to the demographic situation in Russia. However, at the same time, fathers are more or less absent from the discourse while mothers and children are occurring frequently. With this as a background, the role of the father is examined, in the past and in the present. This is done using previous research on Soviet and Russian fatherhood, with the aid of knowledge gained through fatherhood studies in other national contexts as well as current policy documents and presidential speeches. The results show that norms concerning fatherhood are closely connected to the sociopolitical context and changes in welfare systems and in the gender contract. The development of fatherhood models differ between Russian and West European, and American, experiences. In today's Russia there are competing discourses, suggesting that the role of the father is contested. There is evidence of both a marginalized fatherhood model, a legacy from Soviet times, of the traditional breadwinner model of fatherhood as well as of a more nurturing and active type of fatherhood.