Work area

Current Position

2003 - Professor in Social Work focusing on Civil Society and it’s Social Implications and Research Director since 1992.

Previous Academic Professional Experience

2003-2004 Deputy President/Vice-Chancellor, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College
1996-2006 Deputy Head of Department, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College
1992-2003 Head of Research (project employment), Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College
1992-2001 Lecturer, Stockholm University
1988-1992 Postgraduate appointment, Stockholm University

Previous Professional Experience

1978-1988 Employed as an investigator for Stockholm City, Stockholm County Council, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Government Offices of Sweden, with from 1980 to 1992 periods of full-time parental leave altogether amounting to five years.
1969-1978 Active as social worker and writer.

University Education and Degrees:
1973, B.Sc. in Social Work.

Doctoral Degree and Dissertation:
1994 Ph.D. in Social Work. Thesis: “On Marginality. A Client Group’s Relationship to Work”.

Associate professorship:
1999 Associate professorship, Stockholm University.

Supervison of Doctoral Candidates:
Supervisor of seven doctoral students, 2002-2010.

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Academic Grants 2005-2012 (selected)

”The State and Civil Society in Northern Europe: The Swedish Model Reconsidered”
Financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, 2005, and the Swedish Red Cross, 2005-2007.

“Social Cohesion, Trust and Participation” (a project in collaboration with the European Institute and the London School of Economics)
Financed by The European Commission, 2006-2008.

“Social trust in Sweden”.
Financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Fund, 2006, and The Lansforsakringar Alliance, 2006-2011.

”Knowledge and Professionalization in Human Service Organizations
- A study of employees in the public, nonprofit and forprofit
organizations”
Financed by The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), 2006-2007.

"Aspects of citizenship".
Financed by The Central Government of Sweden and the Swedish Red Cross, 2005-2009.

”Lost and Found in Translation. Organizational Change in Civil Society Organizations”.
Financed by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency 2007-2010.

“Swedish Study Associations and Civil Society”
Financed by The Swedish Research Council, 2008-2010.

“Trust in a local perspective”
Financed by The Swedish Research Council, 2008-2009.

“Fryshuset on the move. Societal entrepreneurship in and beyond civil
society”
Financed by The Knowledge Foundation, 2009-2011.

”The European Values Study”
Financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, 2009-2010.

“Free to choose welfare – A social scientific study of experience from
different groups of citizens.”
Financed by The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), 2010-2012.
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Additional academic merits, 2000 to the present

2004 – 2010 Expert adviser regarding the evaluation of applicants in appointments to be made, including four Scandinavian professorships.

2004 – 2010 Member of the Initiative Group for Civil Society Research at the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.

2004 – 2010 Member of examining committees or faculty opponent at 15 disputations in Scandinavia, the latest at the Department of Theology, Uppsala University 2009 and at the Institutt for sammenliknende politik, University of Bergen.

2004 – 2010 Expert adviser to Swedish research councils.

2002 - 2010 Member of the Research Council at the Board of National Health and Welfare.

2001 – 2002 Visiting professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zeeland,

2009 – 2010 Initiated a Swedish and later a Nordic network of civil society researchers, of which chairperson in 1997-2000 and again from 2009.

2000 – 2010 Have initiated and run a large number of conferences, the two latest in 2008 and 2009 international ones.