The article explores the complex patterns of inequality in Sweden from an intersectional standpoint by developing a methodological strategy using data from quantitative national survey material. Intersectionality stands in contrast to the inductive and hypothesis-testing approaches, which tend to reproduce categories as having an essential and stable meaning. It is generally acknowledged that quantitative approaches to intersectionality are rare or in development. Quantitative analyses tend to disregard some of the theoretical cornerstones of intersectionality: in particular, the relational and fluid character of categories. This may be why intersectionality researchers tend to reject quantitative approaches altogether. To address this dilemma, Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) is applied as a means of linking objective structures to subjective experiences, and it is argued that this methodology is well suited to detecting and capturing social spaces of privilege and oppression. The result shows that this kind of quantitative approach to intersectional analysis can facilitate the exploration of inequalities and positions of privilege across populations and globally at particular times, as well as contributing to ontological and epistemological perspectives on intersectionality. By exploring what the category is said to describe and how these parts relate to other sub-categories, especially about time and place settings and their intersections, we were able to identify relationships between structures of oppression and subjective experiences at a particular time and in a particular place, which is important in understanding both inequalities and positions of privilege. These analyses not only illuminate the hegemonic structures of power that create subordinated and privileged positions but also help us to theorize the non-linear and stochastic relations between and within these positions. This methodological advance also has important implications for social policy. © 2018 National Research University Higher School of Economics. All rights reserved.

Our modern society is exposed to multiple hazards and risks. To manage these successfully, it is important to have a good overview of the risks that potentially affect our society and how they are perceived and valued. This pilot study investigated possible ways of mapping and analysing risks that Swedish society and its inhabitants are exposed to and aware of. The aim was to capture complementary perspectives on accidents and crises, and to provide a point of departure for future planning and data collection strategies. To achieve this, previous studies are mapped and critically assessed and an example of a method of analysis is presented. The following questions have guided the work: 1) What methods are currently available to describe risks at a broader societal level? 2) What are the limitations, advantages and disadvantages of these existing methods? 3) Which of these methods are of relevance to Sweden? Summarizing previous studies, the report includes examples of methods, structures and data visualizations for mapping risks nationally or in larger regions. The report analyses 11 types of existing study or report as a source of inspiration and to scope existing gaps for potential improvement. The report makes recommendations for national level risk mapping in a Swedish context, supported by an empirical example.

The objective of this article is to further develop intersectional perspectives and feminist knowledge in environmental sociology. Environmental sociology has developed a critical theoretical frame with which to describe the social construction of risk, and this article further develops the understanding of the complex multidimensionality of the social relations that shape the lived experience of risk. An analytical and integrating discourse that acknowledges the connectedness of these dimensions and the influence of their interactions on the representation, production and reproduction of risk in society remains an unrealized ambition. Intersectional risk theory shows that risk is constituted and produced in social and geographic spaces, as well as the various power relations that prevail there, and consequently, risk is not only defined and managed differently but also the intersections of privilege and subordination are themselves reproduced through risk management. Using climate risks as a starting point, we propose a perspective for the study of risks that analyses the dynamic, ambiguous character of the doing of risk. Our intent is to investigate how risk discourses are entangled with the doing of class, gender and race, as well as with the differentiation between human and nature. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited.

Subjective feelings of risk are a central feature of everyday life, and evidence shows that people who do not conform to contemporary normative notions are often more exposed to everyday risks than others. Despite this, normative notions are rarely acknowledged as risk objects. By drawing on the theory of ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ risk, which combines intersectional and risk theory, this study contributes new perspectives on the everyday risks in contemporary society that face people who many would label as being ‘at risk’ – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The study consists of five focus group interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of different ages in Sweden. Findings pinpoint risks and how these are done and un-done in different spheres of interviewees’ lives: the emotional risks prevailing in their private lives; the risk of discrimination at work and in relations with other institutions; and the risk of violence and harassment in public places. These risks are all related to the heteronormative order in which the mere fact of being lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender is perceived as a risk. © 2016 Taylor & Francis.

In this article, the aim is to analyse how the insemination of images of a cow is entangled with perceptions of gene technology through the ‘doing’ of risk, nature, periphery and gender in Sweden. Two types of data have been used; the 1996 Eurobarometer survey on public opinion and a corpus of articles from the Swedish daily press. 13.6% of the respondents thought about the Belgian Blue cattle in relation to gene technology. Those who associated to the ‘Belgian Blue’ were more negative to gene technology on a general level, but did not differ from the rest of the sample in their attitudes to the specific applications of gene technology. Only one media article states that Belgian Blue is genetically modified, while 13% mention that the breed has a genetic defect, and almost all of the articles are very negative to the breed. The mass media achieved its most significant effects by (re)creating meanings and frames, frames which the public participated in co-creating and which were sometimes incorporated by the individual into his or her personal understanding of gene technology, in this case, the Belgian Blue as an image of gene technology. The conclusion was that terms like gene technology are so abstract that people have problems in understanding the meaning of the concepts and then turn to easily accessible images for instance in the media.

This article takes as its departure point the questions Which discourses figure in the news media's coverage of natural disasters?' and What are the possible unintended consequences of this type of crisis communication?' The overall aim is to elucidate the development of risk discourses, struggles over discursive legitimacy, and shifts in argumentation to legitimate or delegitimate certain actors and actions in relation to a widespread and devastating wildfire in the summer of 2014 in Sweden. The chosen media outlets are one national agenda-setting morning newspaper, one national evening tabloid, and one local newspaper. All coverage in these newspapers from the period of the wildfire (1-31 August 2014) were selected and analyzed. By employing a critical discourse analysis of three different newspapers' crisis communication flows during the one-month-long wildfire, we show how crisis communication is in fact embedded in discourses of power related to gender and rurality. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The overall aim of the paper is to explore two key areas in crisis management: (a) the role of local communities in crisis preparedness and response, and (b) how to involve the citizens in this task. Specifically we ask: What areas are important to develop in order for public resilience to be enhanced? The study has a broad scope and utilizes a novel design since it takes four stakeholder perspectives into consideration: the perspectives of municipal safety coordinators, members of voluntary organizations, semiorganized individuals, and nonorganized individuals. In total 33 in-depth interviews were undertaken in three different Swedish municiplaities. Seven major themes related to enhanced public resilience were developed in the analytic process: a) Collaboration: formal and informal practices, b) Specific competences and general abilities, c) Collective efforts and individual self help, d) Education and empowerment, e) Traditional communication versus digital media, f) Individual motivation and involvement, and g) Generation and age. From these themes four policy-level recommendations aimed for civil servants and similar public authority representatives. The recommendations consist of four key words, or ‘The four In:s; Inclusive, Interested, Insistent, and Inventive’. The study is part of an extensive research project, Public Empowerment Policies for Crisis Management, funded as part of the European Community's Seventh Framework Program.