a homepage of Ake Sandberg,
researcher and author.
NB. This home-page is under construction.... updated Sept. 2008
Ake Sandberg is a professor at the Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, and researcher and author in the field of working life, sociology of organizations and economic sociology. He is focusing upon work and organization and the roles of new forms of management and ICT technology under more competitive and globalized market conditions.
Key aspects are the possibilities of reaching welfare and 'good work' at the same time as competitiveness and efficiency, using modern technology and management. An interesting dimension is the relation between the quality of work (health, qualifications, control) and the resulting quality of products and service - and also with the latter, in many jobs, being part of the former.
EDUCATION
Ake Sandberg holds an MBA from the Gothenburg School of Economics, focusing on microeconomics of the firm in a social context. Graduate studies followed at the Department o Sociology, Stockholm University, at the Dept. of Industrial management and Economics (Indek) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and at the Dept. of Sociology, Uppsala University, where he also got his PhD and later became assoc.professor (Docent). Dissertation 1976: The Limits to Democratic Planning: Knowledge, methods and power in the struggle for the future, Liber Forlag, Stockholm.
POSITIONS
He has been employed, in chronological order, by
- FOA (the Defense Research Institute, Dept of Planning theory and systems analysis
- KTH. The Royal Institute of Technology, Dept. of Information Processing (IBADB)
- Arbetslivsinstitutet/ the National Institute for Working Life (NIWL)
- During two periods he served as a part-time professor at KTH, in the late eighties at Indek and 2003-2007 at the School of Computer Science and Communication, CSC, Depts of HCI and Media Technology.
- He has also been a guest professor at the universities of Roskilde in Denmark, UNSW in Sydney, Australia and LEST-CNRS (Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail), Aix-en-Provence, France and in the spring of 2007 at a media research group within the late Pierre Bourdieu's Centre de Sociologie Europeenne at Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales/MSH in Paris.
- Early in his career he was a stagiaire/researcher at B.I.P.E. Bureau d'Informations et de Previsions Economiques in Neuilly, Paris.
REAEARCH AREAS
Early studies covered planning and futures studies, Industrial Relations, the methodology of change oriented research in interaction with more traditional empirical/ theoretical research (interactive research); studies of socio-technical forms of work organization in e.g. the car industry as alternatives to lean production; new forms of management and 'flexible firms'; computers at work; processes of designing IT and work organization.
The MITIOR programme
More recently Ake Sandberg built up, beginning in the late nineties, the MITIOR programme: 'Media, IT and innovation in organization and work' at Arbetslivsinstitutet/ NIWL and at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. This research now continues at Stockholm University and its Department of Sociology. The programme has a focus on the development of work and industry in the ICT and new media sectors, but also more generally on the development and use of ICT and digital media in various sectors in in the economy as a whole. One example is the Swedish part in a global call center industry project.
The context is broad empirical studies on work, organization, industrial relations and management in the new working life. One theme is 'good work and productivity' and another theme is the interaction between quality of work and quality of product.
Aspects and perspectives thus, in summary, include work, organization, labour processes, labour markets, qualifications; new management ideas and reality; new ICT technology at work; flexible and deregulated work; CSR Corporate Social Responsibility; networks among companies and individuals; clusters, geographical aspects; competence, health, physical work environment, stress etc.
Methodologically and as to research approach, pluralism is advocated, with both qualitative and quantitative studies. A specific interest is understanding the relation between theoretical-empirical research, and research more closely interacting with the field, with organizations and movements, and with processes of social change - which seems related to what some today call 'public sociology'; we have discussed the pros and cons of 'interactive research' with phases or subprojects focusing on professional, academic distance on the one hand, and closeness to actors (organizations, movements) on the other hand.
ONGOING STUDIES
- at various speeds
A more theoretically oriented book project is now being formed, with the preliminary title 'IT Sweden: How high tech and competitiveness might go along with welfare and quality of work in the informational society'; it is based on MITIOR programme empirical research so far, and supplemented with secondary quantitative data, historical studies and qualitative interviews of key actors.
Apart from such an analytical and summing-up project, our recent, minor empirical studies focus on the media sector (work and management in paper and web news production), on HRM strategies and outcomes in Swedish call centres, as part of a global industry study and recently initiated, and perhaps a Swedish part of an international comparative study of CSR strategies and outcomes (Corporate social responsibility).
Arbetslivsinstitutet/NIWL was closed down.
A newly elected center-right government in December 2006 announced their decision to totally close down Arbetslivsinstitutet. Activitites linked to the MITIOR programme now continue at the Deptartment of Sociology at Stockholm University. Cooperation with CSC at KTH and other universities continues and are developed, to keep up a network of work life research within the fields of organization, management, ICT and media.
PUBLICATIONS
Books in English include
- PhD dissertation on sociology of plannning (above)
- 'Technological change and co-determination in Sweden', Temple Univ.Press, Philadelphia 1992,
- 'Enriching Production' (downloadable)
- Several empirical reports on the ICT and Internet industry: work, management, clusters etc; find one of those reports as pdf file to the left.
- See also the link to 'Publications'
- An edited volume in Swedish 'Ledning for alla' (SNS, 2003, 4th ed) is now being re-written and translated into English; it will give critical Scandinavian perspectives on management in the 'new working life' (to be published in 2009)
CONTACT INFO
Department of Sociology
Stockholm University
SE - 106 91 Stockholm
[email protected]
Phone +46 (0)8 16 31 86
Mobile phone +46 (0)706 70 88 33
Visits: B-huset, room 844; Tunnelbana/Metro station Universitetet, or bus 55
Map: http://www.su.se/content/1/c6/04/56/92/stockholm_university_frescati.pdf
The KTH mail account [email protected] is still working, and the Sociology and KTH mail accounts are connected. New private mail: [email protected]
ABOUT THE LINKS
above in the left column
* Department of sociology, Stockholm University
* Several publications appear in the Arbline library system: in search box Forfattare/ author, write: sandberg *ke Many documents are downloadable in pdf format
* 'Enriching Production': An edited volume on Volvo's production system as an alternative to lean production. Alershot: Avebury 1995; Digital edition put on line 2007 thanks to Michel Freyssenet, CNRS and the Gerpisa network, Paris.
* 'IT and Telecom Companies in Kista', 2007, research report put on line thanks to MPRA and RePEc
ADDITIONAL LINK
* KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of computer science and communication http://www.kth.se/csc?l=en_UK
with links to the departments of Media and of HCI