Towards a Sociology of PhilosophyHeidegren, Carl-Göran; Lundberg, Henrik
doi: 10.1177/0001699309357831pmid: N/A
The article presents and discusses the sociology of philosophy as a theory-based empirically practised sociological subdivision that came to the fore in the 1980s. In the first part, the type of empirical material and the forms of data presentation that are available to the sociology of philosophy are discussed. In the second part, the focus is on two important attempts, those of Randall Collins and Pierre Bourdieu, to develop general sociological theories about the relationship between social being and thought. The main lesson to be drawn from them is that in normal circumstances philosophical thought cannot be reduced to socio-political conditions outside the attention space (Collins) or the philosophical field (Bourdieu). In the concluding part, we tentatively sketch a programme for a future sociology of philosophy. All in all, the sociology of philosophy is seen as an emerging new subdivision within sociology, the potential of which is far from exhausted with respect to theoretical development as well as empirical approaches.
Reforming the Work to Combat Long-Term Homelessness in SwedenLöfstrand, Cecilia Hansen
doi: 10.1177/0001699309357834pmid: N/A
Examining recent strategies to combat long-term homelessness, the article looks at two social policy reforms implemented in a Swedish municipality. The first of these involved dismantling of the existing hostel system and its replacement with the ‘housing staircase’ model. The second meant the end of the housing staircase model and the engagement of private for-profit companies in the municipal special-housing service provision. By incorporating the new actors within its homeless policy framework, however, the municipality has merely adjusted its approach to accommodate a practice already followed on the ground to legitimize an existing situation. The reforms resulted in revisions to official policy and organizational structures, while actual practices remained unaffected. As a result, little has changed in the situation of the long-term homeless. Regardless of the type of service supplier (municipal, for profit or non-profit), measures to counteract homelessness in Sweden have remained dependent on a general premise equating homelessness with addiction, mental illness and deviance more broadly. Alternatives based on access to regular housing are not even debated, despite the success such approaches have had elsewhere.
Sickness Absence among Immigrants in Norway, 1992—2003Dahl, Svenn-Åge; Hansen, Hans-Tore; Olsen, Karen M.
doi: 10.1177/0001699309357841pmid: N/A
Utilizing register panel data (1992—2003), in this article we study long-term sickness absence among immigrants and ethnic Norwegians (n = 200,022). The data contain detailed information on socio-economic background, labour market participation and social insurance benefits for all individuals aged between 16 and 67 years residing in Norway. We present four main findings: (1) There is no difference in sickness absence between ethnic Norwegians and immigrants from the other Nordic countries, Western and Eastern Europe after controlling for demographic, socio-economic and labour market factors; (2) the sickness absence rates are higher among individuals from Asia (men and women) and Africa (men), and lower among men from North America and Oceania compared with ethnic Norwegians; (3) second-generation immigrants share the same level of sickness absence as ethnic Norwegians; (4) residence time has a curve-linear effect (reversed U-shape) on sickness absence for most immigrant groups. We discuss the findings in relation to the reason for emigrating, health risks related to immigration, social exclusion and norms towards sickness absence.
Popular Explanations of Poverty in EuropeLepianka, Dorota; Gelissen, John; van Oorschot, Wim
doi: 10.1177/0001699309357842pmid: N/A
In this contribution we describe and explain the differences in popular poverty attributions that exist within and between 28 European countries. On the basis of the existing literature we distinguish five predictors: awareness of the existence of poverty, personal experience of disadvantage, personal values, socio-demographic background and structural and cultural country-level characteristics. Using data from the European Values Survey (EVS) 1999/2000, we assess for most of these predictors the extent to which they relate directly to people’s partial ranking of popular poverty attributions. The results of rank-ordered logistic regression models show that differences in popular poverty explanations relate directly to whether one lives in a country with a Catholic tradition and a high level of poverty, their (subjective) experience of disadvantage and personal values. Furthermore, we find that the size of the various associations depends on people’s particular choices of poverty explanations.