Associate professor in Social work

My research is primarily focused on social policy and especially related to poverty, marginalization and social benefits. I am principal supervisor for PhD student Elinn Leo Sandberg. We conduct joint research studies on the development of food poverty and receipt and distribution of food aid from civil society organizations to poor citizens in the research project “Food Aid from Civil Society”.  I also conduct a research study together with Rickard Ulmestig in the project “Employers in municipal activation for the unemployed” at Linnaeus University. I am also supervisor för Amanda Börjeson-Hedman focusing on labour market activation related to housing.

I was living in Riyadh from 2015-2019 where I was working for The World Bank with research on youth and female employment and developing social protection for poor focusing on creating evidence-based policies for increased employment in Saudi Arabia among women and poor citizens. I was also working for Lund University during this period abroad.

I was 2013-2016 Head of Research for EconSec, Lund University Economic Security Institute, a cross-disciplinary research institute focusing on studies of the impact on economic security for individuals and society related to the increasing use of credit and debts. During 2014-15 I was leading an Advanced Study Group at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, Lund University, with this cross-disciplinary research group and were also a member of the research group that was awarded a Theme research postion during 2016 working with the research project "Credit society" at this institute.

Major previous research projects

Together with my colleagues professors Håkan Johansson and Max Koch and Associate Professor Alexandru Panican I received a grant from EU FP 7 for the three year research project "COPE, Combating Poverty in Europe Re-organising Active Inclusion through Participatory and Integrated Modes of Multilevel Governance." COPE was active from 2012-2015 and studied EU member states approaches to combating or reducing poverty and exclusion. We were especially focusing on the development and provision of active inclusion policies, how do public, private and non-governmental actors deal with the challenges raised by the need for closer cooperation between different political levels (European, national, regional and local) involving all relevant stakeholders (public, private, organised civil society and citizens) across the boundaries of formerly separated societal fields (social, employment and economic policy).We have studied this from the National, Local and Individual level as well in relation to the EU implementation process in the respective countries.

From 2012-2014 I held a Post doc from the Faculty of Social Sciences Lund University.

Doctoral dissertation

During the welfare crisis in the beginning of the nineties there was a striking increase of young people in need of social assistance. The research project that constituted the basis for my doctoral dissertation studied the long-term consequences of early exclusion from the labour market for young adults who have remained in benefit dependency and unemployment.The research project used multiple methods, both qualitative and quantitative (longitudinal analyses of official register based data) in trying to accomplish a broad understanding of this issue. The doctoral dissertation, ”Den dubbla vanmaktens logik. En studie om långvarig arbetslöshet och socialbidragstagande bland unga vuxna” was published in 2009.

I continued this research in a comparative Nordic project on unemployment, establishment patterns and financial difficulties among young adults. Together with five Nordic research colleagues I was granted research funding from NORDCORP NOS-HS for the 4 year long project “Youth Trajectories: A Longitudinal Study of Risk Factors for Marginalization in Finland, Norway and Sweden." This project was active from 2009-2014.

In 2011 and 2012 I worked on "The Commission fo a Socially Sustainable Malmö" with research on strategies and policies aiming at reduction of child poverty. I have served as an expert in a Govermental Inquiry (SOU) as well as being a board member for the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society. 

I supervised Jayeon Lindellee, PhD graduation 2018 with the dissertation "Beyond retrenchment. Multi-pillarization of Swedish unemployment benefit provision". I was editor for the Jubilee book from School of Social Work that was published in 2022. I am also engaged in the research network AKTIV collaborating with the surrounding society on issues related to social policy, social benefits and labour market. I also held a position in the civil society founded commission NYSTA developing strategies relating to innovation, education and research during 2020-2021. 

I'm also Vice Chairman for Save the Children District Malmö and has been engaged as a volunteer in the Majblomman foundation for poor children and Stadsmissionens food provision and shelter for homeless citizens. 

Teaching

I have been employed at the School of Social Work, Lund University for 20 years and have been teaching and supervising on various courses and levels. In 2013 I was head of the doctoral introductory course at School of Social Work Lund University. I have also been heading and developing an explorative and innovative course at this department where service users are included as students and study together with regular social work students. The course focuses on social mobilization, entrepreneurship and service user involvement in social services. The presence of the service users enables a wider perspective and understanding of service users own voice and experiences in relation to creating best practice in social policy and various services. In a collaboration with School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley I have in 2015 published an article on this in "Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work" and have also been invited to Berkeley to present this work in 2013. I am currently working on various courses, primarily SOPA 21, SOPA 43 and SOPM 21 as well as supervising Bachelor and Master thesis projects. 

Keywords

Social Sciences

(poverty, social policy, social exclusion, unemployment, benefit dependency, child poverty)