Publikationer från Stockholms universitet
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(För)troende utan krav? : Svenska kyrkans balansgång mellan självständigt trossamfund och partipolitisk arena
No full textSvenska kyrkan studeras sällan ur statsvetenskapliga perspektiv trots dess kombination mellan demokratisk styrelseform och teologiska lära. Organisationen har dessutom sedan separationen från staten år 2000 gått från obligatorisk partipolitisk representation i kyrkomötet till ökad partipolitisk obundenhet bland dess nomineringsgrupper. Vad tidigare forskning saknat är dels en studie kring organisationens demokratiska legitimitet och hur den påverkas av att nomineringsgrupper med kopplingar till riksdagspartier beslutar inom en organisation som ska vara separerad från staten. Vidare har tidigare studier inte i någon större utsträckning behandlat det institutionella ramverket som organisationen förlitar sig på, lag om Svenska kyrkan och kyrkoordningen. Vår studie ämnar att utifrån Robert Dahls kriterier för demokrati kombinerat med David Beethams indikatorer för legitimitet att undersöka till vilken grad det institutionella ramverket inom Svenska kyrkan är demokratiskt. Vidare kommer studien belysa i vilka aspekter politiskt kopplade nomineringsgrupper legitimerar sitt deltagande i Svenska kyrkans organisation. Fallstudien bedrivs kvalitativt genom en innehållsanalys av Svenska kyrkans institutionella ramverk: Lag (1998:1591) om Svenska kyrkan och kyrkoordningen (SvKB 1999:1). I andra delen av analysen används valmanifest från nomineringsgrupper med bakgrund inom, eller formellt samröre med de åtta riksdagspartierna som empiri. Studien bedrivs med en teoretisk utgångspunkt i demokrati- och legitimitetsteori. Analysen initieras med ett avstamp i ramverket kombinerat med olika indikatorer för demokrati följt av premisser för legitimitet. Därefter kommer valmanifesten studeras för att indikera motiv bakom deltagande, relaterat till samma premisser om legitimitet. Avslutningsvis redovisas studiens slutsatser, diskussion och förslag till vidare forskning samt en detaljerad redogörelse av analysens genomförande.
Microbial ecology in soil carbon models : Implications of eco-evolution and spatial ecology for model properties and predictions
No full textSoils are an important part of the global carbon (C) cycle, as they store more C (as soil organic carbon, SOC) than the global vegetation and the atmosphere combined. Understanding how much of this SOC is respired and released to the atmosphere in form of greenhouse gases, vs. how much is retained in the soil has important implications, among others, for climate change. SOC turnover is largely controlled by soil microorganisms. Soil microbial communities are versatile and can adapt to a large range of environmental conditions by altering their functional traits. These eco-evolutionary dynamics can have consequences for SOC turnover. Moreover, microbes are not distributed evenly throughout the soil, but are clustered at µm-cm scales. As microbial interactions and degradation processes only occur within spatial proximity of microbial cells this spatial context can modulate microbial interactions and degradation processes. Microbially-explicit SOC models are used to synthesize and deepen our understanding of the soil C cycle and for making predictions about SOC fate. However, these models usually neglect important aspects of microbial ecology and describe microbes more similar to engines than to living organisms. In this Thesis, I explore how representing aspects of microbial ecology, such as microbial eco-evolutionary dynamics and small-scale spatial considerations, in soil C models can affect these models’ predictions and properties. My results show that the structure common to microbial-explicit models allows for unrealistic model instability, even though the processes it represents reflect our understanding of microbially-mediated SOC turnover. Such instability could be avoided by allowing modelled microbial traits to adapt along environmental gradients. An emerging method to account for adaptation of functional traits in models is eco-evolutionary optimization (EEO). EEO approaches can constrain model parameters representing microbial traits by assuming that they adapt so as to maximize a proxy of microbial fitness. Reviewing the different EEO approaches that have been used in the context of microbial-explicit SOC modelling, I found that—due to their varying (often implicit) assumptions—different EEO approaches can yield systematically different results. Despite some persisting technical challenges EEO approaches have a great potential to advance SOC modelling. Yet, further comparative studies and validation with data is needed. I address this gap by comparing different EEO approaches to predict the eco-evolutionary control of microbial production of extracellular enzymes. While different EEO approaches yielded partly diverging results, they agreed on general qualitative patterns about extracellular enzyme production as a function of SOC content and generally matched empirical observations. However, different assumptions about the spatial structure of microbial communities could affect these results, requiring further investigation. Lastly, I found that the small-scale heterogeneous distribution of microbes in soil can restrict macroscopic degradation processes in some cases. Taken together, my results illustrate how integrating aspects of microbial ecology into microbial-explicit soil C models can affect both their predictions and mathematical properties. My work adds to the further development of this class of models, and highlights opportunities and challenges in progressing towards “ecology-aware” soil C models
Elektronisk fotboja – Det nya fängelset?
No full textElektronisk fotboja har använts som ett alternativ till fängelsestraff i Sverige sedan försöksverksamheten år 1994, och har sedan dess successivt utvidgats. Genom förändrade villkor har det blivit möjligt för fler dömda att avtjäna allt längre fängelsestraff med fotboja istället. Den senaste utvidgningen som trädde i kraft i januari 2026, innebär att fler klientgrupper kan verkställa fängelsestraff med elektronisk övervakning. Trots denna utveckling har frivårdsinspektörernas yrkesroll i verkställigheten i begränsad utsträckning studerats i en svensk forskning. Syftet med denna studie är därför att fördjupa kunskapen om hur frivårdsinspektörer beskriver fotbojans syfte och funktion, samt hur de positionerar sig i relation till klienten. Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i frivårdsinspektörernas erfarenheter av verkställighet med fotboja som ett brottspreventivt verktyg, där frivårdsinspektörernas utsagor genomgående tolkas utifrån ett maktperspektiv med stöd i vårt valda teoretiska ramverk. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och baseras på semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex frivårdsinspektörer verksamma inom frivården. Det empiriska materialet analyseras genom studiens teoretiska ramverk, som bygger på Michel Foucaults teori om disciplinär makt och Gilles Deleuzes analys av kontrollsamhället. Dessa kombineras för att förstå hur fotbojan ligger i gränslandet mellan institutionell disciplin och den mer subtila, flexibla kontroll som möjliggörs av den teknologiska övervakningens introduktion, för att forma klienten till en produktiv samhällsmedborgare. Resultatet visar att frivårdsinspektörernas arbete präglas av en dubbelhet där kontroll och stöd förstår som ömsesidigt beroende snarare än motstridiga. Fotbojan framträder som en verkställighetsform som integrerar kontroll i klientens vardagsliv och syftar till att främja självreglering och samhällsanknytning. Samtidigt innehar frivårdsinspektörerna en central maktposition genom ansvar för riskbedömningar, uppföljning och beslut vid regelöverträdelser. Studien bidrar till en fördjupad förståelse av hur elektronisk fotboja fungerar som en hybrid mellan disciplinär och vardagsnära kontroll, samt hur frivårdsinspektörernas professionella bedömningar är avgörande för verkställighetens utformning och legitimitet
Effects of visual accompaniment on listening comprehension among L2 English learners
No full textListening comprehension is an integral part of second-language learning and one of the more important input skills in the Swedish upper-secondary English curriculum. While visual support, such as captions, has been shown to improve understanding, an online trend of using videos, unrelated to the spoken narration, to catch and hold attention might be used to further improve it. This study investigates how these two types of visual accompaniment affect immediate comprehension of spoken English among Swedish upper-secondary students. It compares how three different types of input condition (audio-only, captioned, and unrelated gameplay-video) affect comprehension. Additionally, a secondary goal of measuring how these types of input affect attention is included. Fifty-four students from an upper-secondary school in Stockholm, all aged between 15–16, were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. Every group watched or listened to a three-minute clip followed by a multiple-choice comprehension test. Data analysis was done by comparing comprehension across groups using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The results showed that the inclusion of both captions and unrelated visual stimulus resulted in higher listening comprehension among learners. Between the other conditions, no statistical significance was found. Participants felt that focus was affected positively in both experimental conditions
Fishery closures increase pike aggression and trigger a trophic cascade in coastal Baltic Sea bays
No full textFisheries often intentionally target large predatory fish, because of their high commercial value or trophy size. Fisheries also unintentionally target fish with a high activity and aggression. This is because static fishing gears like gillnets, traps and baited-hooks have a higher likelihood of catching fish which swim around more or strike baits more often. This selective impact on large, active individuals shifts target populations toward smaller, more timid fish. A parallel and growing body of literature suggests that prey organisms live in fear of their predators, and that this fear can alter prey behaviour enough to cause trophic cascades. In this study, we investigated whether fishery induced timidity causes trophic cascades, and if fishery closures can help reverse this. Our hypothesis was that fisheries decrease predatory activity enough to decrease fear in prey, therefore causing higher prey feeding rates and subsequently a trophic cascade. Our study system was coastal Baltic Sea bays in the Stockholm and Öregrund (Sweden) archipelago, an area where fisheries mainly consist of recreational catch-and-release (C&R) fishers targeting large predator fish like pike with lures. A C&R event, although often non-lethal, causes enough stress to alter the behaviour (e.g. habitat choice, swimming distance, aggression) of caught pike. Our surveys included abundance estimations of pike (using rod-and-reel fishing), mesopredators (using gillnets), mesograzers (using fauna traps) along with vegetation surveys. This was coupled with surveys of pike behaviour (attack/landing rate estimations during the rod-and-reel fishing), mesopredator feeding behaviour (using baited-remote-underwater-video cameras) and mesopredator predation rate (using gammarid tethering). To assess what effect different levels of fishery absence have on pike and trophic interactions, the surveys were conducted in year round fishery closures (MPAs), seasonal fishery closures (pMPAs), and areas open to fishing. We found that pike aggression was higher inside fishery closures and that this variable was negatively correlated with predation pressure on gammarids; a clear sign of a trophic cascade. Additionally, we found a negative correlation between pike and mesopredator abundance, and higher predation pressure on gammarids with increasing levels of fishery protection. Importantly, when the seasonal protection of pMPAs (2.5 months/year) was in effect, predation pressure on gammarids was higher inside of pMPAs compared to areas open to fishing, but after seasonal protection had ended, predation pressure was similar. Our results are the first to suggest that fishery induced timidity can trigger a trophic cascade and that fishery closures can help reverse this effect. Our results also suggest that mesopredators in shallow coastal areas of the Baltic Sea live in a landscape of fear, shaped by exposure to threats from pike and human (fishing related) activities, and that this fear is strong enough to cause a trophic cascade. These findings have major implications for our continued understanding and management of shallow coastal ecosystems. FORCEThriving bay
Recent evidence of a functionally extirpated ecotype of herring, Clupea harengus (Actinopterygii, Clupeiformes, Clupeidae), in the southern Stockholm Archipelago, Baltic Sea
No full textThe fall spawning ecotype of the herring, Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1758, is considered functionally extirpated in the Baltic Proper. Once the dominant ecotype in fisheries landings of herring, few observations of this sub-population have been presented in the 21st century. This short communication describes the opportunistic observation of fall spawning herring larvae in the costal Baltic Proper in 2023 (n = 61) and 2024 (n = 23). Back-calculated hatch dates indicated that the larvae likely hatched between the months of September and December prior to capture. Warmer water temperatures coincided with hatching extending later in the year. This study highlights the presence of a herring ecotype recently considered largely absent from the Baltic Proper and supports the need for further studies to investigate their current role in the ecosystem and herring fishery
Organizational Cultural Barriers to Digital Transformation in a Grocery Retail Company in Sweden
No full textIntroduction: Digital transformation (DT) is increasingly important for organizational competitiveness, yet many DT initiatives fail due to non-technical obstacles. Research shows that organizational culture plays a critical role in shaping the success or failure of transformation efforts. Despite extensive studies across sectors such as public administration and manufacturing, organizational cultural barriers to DT in the Swedish grocery retail sector remain underexplored. To address the research gap, this thesis investigates which organizational cultural barriers to digital transformation may exist in the grocery retail sector in Sweden. Research Question: The research question is: What are the organizational cultural barriers to digital transformation in a grocery retail company in Sweden? Method: As research strategy, a single case study was conducted at a company in the grocery retail sector in Sweden. The company is a multinational grocery retailer undergoing a global digital transformation affecting all its branches, including the Swedish one. Semi-structured interviews were held with six people within the organization involved in either the described digital transformation or other similar transformations. The data collected was thematically analyzed to identify recurring patterns and form themes. The data was also triangulated by examining internal documentation about the company’s digital transformation. Results: During thematic analysis, 19 organizational cultural barriers to digital transformation within the case company were identified, of which 8 barriers are new. The barriers are grouped into five themes: Knowledge Gaps, Dependencies, Miscommunication, Bureaucracy, and Mindset. For the theme of knowledge gaps, Employee Competence Loss, and Missing Expertise are identified as new barriers, while within dependencies, Information Dependencies is new. For the theme of miscommunication, Information and Feedback Loss, Lack of Diversified Communication, and Employees Neglecting Communication are new barriers, whereas for bureaucracy, no new barriers are identified. Lastly, Reluctance to Change among Managers and Poor Interest are newly identified barriers under the theme of mindset. Discussion: The identified organizational cultural barriers highlight the issues facing digital transformation in a grocery retail company in Sweden. Since several barriers are aligned with previous research, it indicates that there are similar challenges to DT in different sectors. To address the challenges, DT project managers must embrace actions such as allocating sufficient time and resources for training, and ensure employees are informed, engaged, and able to overcome negative perceptions of digital transformation. Diversified communication channels can reduce miscommunication, address concerns, and improve understanding, especially in early stages. Additionally, reducing bureaucratic processes and organizational dependencies by streamlining decision-making and clarifying responsibilities can increase autonomy, engagement, and agility, enabling a culture that better supports digital transformation initiatives
Misunderstandings of the Child Penalty Graph
No full textWe study misunderstandings of a widely used research graph that visualizes how parenthood affects gender inequality in the labor market. The child penalty graph typically displays overlapping trend lines for women and men before parenthood and a sharp divergence thereafter. A large survey experiment asks participants about the gender gap in earnings before and after random assignment across three alternative graph designs. Approximately one-third of respondents misinterpret the distance between the trend lines in the child penalty graph as the gender gap in earnings. After viewing the graph, nearly 50% of respondents (and 60% of those with a PhD) report an earnings gap of 0–5% before parenthood, far below the true gap of about 20%. We examine two consequences of this misunderstanding and assess whether alternative graph designs improve comprehension
The Chronicles of Nodulation : The LCOs, the Genes and the Evolutionary Trajectories
No full textPlants take up nitrogen from the soil as ions or free amino acids. Some plant species form symbioses with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria to carry out biological nitrogen fixation using the enzyme complex nitrogenase to convert atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, which the plants can use. This involves the formation of specialized plant structures called root nodules and is known as root nodule symbiosis. Such bacteria include rhizobia and Frankia. The hosts of rhizobia are legumes (order Fabales) and one non-legume (Parasponia, order Rosales), while Frankia associates with actinorhizal plants from the orders Fagales, Cucurbitales, and Rosales. Phylogenetically, Frankia can be divided into four clusters. The earliest diverging cluster is Frankia cluster-2, which can be divided into the island and continental lineages, and, with one exception, contains species that have never been cultivated. It diverged from the non-symbiotic cluster-4. Subsequently, another symbiotic lineage branched off from cluster-4: the precursor of the two symbiotic clusters, cluster-1 and cluster-3. Cluster-1 contains two distinct groups: cluster-1a, whose species can infect Alnus, and cluster-1c, whose species can infect (Allo-)Casuarina. To date, some cluster-1a strains have not been cultivated. The as-yet-uncultivable strains of both cluster-1a and cluster-2 lineages show strong genome erosion (4.2 to 5.6 MB compared to 10 MB in cluster-4). This thesis aims to provide a broader understanding of the evolution and saprotrophic capabilities of the nitrogen-fixing Actinomycetota Frankia, and how these bacteria interact with their host plants. In Study I, we tried to determine why certain Frankia strains cannot be cultured. Frankia have an uptake hydrogenase enzyme (Hup), which recycles the hydrogen produced by nitrogen fixation to counter the loss of energy that occurs during the process. We analysed the different types of [NiFe] uptake hydrogenases found across Frankia clusters to understand whether they play a role in a strain’s ability to survive in culture. We found that the Frankia strains which could not be cultivated to date have lost the gene set required to produce type-1h [NiFe] uptake hydrogenase, which scavenges electrons from atmospheric hydrogen for respiration during carbon starvation. These strains contain either type-1f or type-2a hydrogenases, either of which can recycle the hydrogen produced during nitrogen fixation, allowing them to fix nitrogen during symbiosis in an energy-efficient manner. In Study II and Study III, we checked for the presence of undiscovered Frankia species exhibiting genome reduction in Casuarina or Coriaria hosts that escaped isolation via traditional culturing techniques. Nodules were collected from several countries and directly sequenced the nodule to obtain nodule metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs), bypassing the need to culture the microsymbionts. We identified five new Frankia species: one Casuarina-infective species from cluster-1c, and four from earlier studies: one novel Coriaria-infective species from the cluster-2 continental lineage, and three novel Coriaria-infective species from the cluster-2 island lineage. All these strains show evidence of erosion of the genes needed to produce type-1h [NiFe] uptake hydrogenase. In conclusion, Frankia strains follow one of two evolutionary trajectories – either towards obligate symbiosis (accompanied by strong genome erosion), or towards rhizosphere colonization (with limited genome erosion). In Study IV, we examined the lipochitooligosaccharide (LCO) compounds produced by some species from the continental lineage of cluster-2 Frankia. In rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (i.e., in other plant microsymbionts), LCOs are used for microbe-host communication. In the evolutionarily older AM fungi, LCOs can also suppress host defences. Since Frankia LCOs are not produced by all Frankia species, a function in genus-wide microsymbiont-host communication seems unlikely. We therefore examined the effect of Frankia LCOs on plant defence. Our findings suggest that, like AM LCOs, Frankia LCOs suppress plant defence, enabling infection and nodulation under stressed conditions. Overall, these studies advance the understanding of how Frankia evolved during their association with actinorhizal plants and highlight some major differences between Frankia strains that can be grown in culture and those that cannot
Att skapa möjligheter för en blomstrande kamratgemenskap : En kvalitativ intervjustudie med lärare om deras uppfattningar om kamratgemenskap för elever med flerfunktionsnedsättning
No full textElever med flerfunktionsnedsättning har rätt till kamratgemenskap som alla andra, men lever med begränsade möjligheter och har färre kamrater än andra elever. Skolan är en viktig plats för möjliggörandet av kamratgemenskap för elever med flerfunktionsnedsättning då det är en plats att träffa jämlika elever och skapa horisontella relationer, som därmed kan förbättra deras livskvalitet. Därför var vårt syfte att undersöka lärares uppfattningar om kamratgemenskap för elever med flerfunktionsnedsättning, samt vilka möjligheter och hinder som finns i skolvardagen. Vi utgick ifrån capability approach (Sen, 1993) som lyfter individens rättigheter och faktiska möjligheter där individen sätts i centrum och ses som aktiv agent. Vi genomförde en kvalitativ intervjustudie med 10 lärare som arbetar med denna elevgrupp och analyserade data med hjälp av tematisk analys. Resultatet visade att kamratgemenskap för elever med flerfunktionsnedsättning kan förstås utifrån två olika perspektiv som påverkar elevernas reella möjligheter på olika sätt, samt att personal behöver hitta balans mellan att stödja elevernas egna kamratskapande utan att ta över. Lärarna lyfte även fram vikten av elevernas fysiska frihet och samarbete med vårdnadshavare för att möjliggöra fördjupade kamratrelationer. Vår slutsats är att personer i elevernas omgivning behöver en samsyn om att eleverna kan vara aktiva agenter i kamratskapandet. Detta behövs för att eleverna ska ges reella möjligheter att kunna utforska kamratgemenskap mer självständigt utifrån egna förutsättningar, behov och viljor