Doctoral student wins early career prize

By patrik [dot] hekkala [at] soch [dot] lu [dot] se (Patrik Hekkala) - published 11 March 2019

Carolin Schütze has been awarded the ReNEW Early Career Paper Prize in social sciences for the best conference paper at the Third Nordic Challenges Conference, 2019.

In her award-winning paper entitled “Feeling Fear in Times of Polarization. A Systematic Content Analysis of Bureaucrats’ Commentary on Migrants using the Concept of Ontological Security”, Schütze addresses the question of immigration, but from a perspective not many scholars have explored, that is from the perceptions of bureaucrats.

Schütze uses the concept of ontological security (security of being and sense of order) in order to understand the perceptions of bureaucrats towards their work life and migration. Empirically the paper draws on a sample of open-end responses from a nation-wide survey compiled by Swedish bureaucrats employed at welfare institutions in charge of the labor market integration of migrants.

The ReNEW Early Career Paper Prize recognises talented scholars at an early stage in their career – during the PhD and post-doc period. Scholars are eligible up to three years after their PhD defence and must have participated in a ReNEW event from the 2018 to the 2019 ReNEW conferences.