Books
Vad hände med arbetarklassen? Om svek, makt och ojämlikhet i Sverige
What Happened to the Working Class? On Betrayal, Power and Inequality in Sweden
Arkiv förlag, 2025
The working class is still Sweden’s largest class and essential to how society functions, yet its position has steadily weakened. The book shows how deliberate policy since the 1990s has eroded workers’ structural and collective power resources, and documents widening class gaps in wages, job security, health, life expectancy and housing. During the recent inflation crisis, workers lost seven to nine years of real wage growth, against two to three years for the middle class. Where earlier generations could improve their conditions together, the main way up today is to leave the working class, which is no answer for the healthcare workers, childcare staff, builders and refuse collectors society depends on. With a foreword by Göran Therborn.
Det otrygga arbetslivet i Sverige: Dess framväxt och konsekvenser
Precarious Working Life in Sweden: Its Emergence and Consequences
Studentlitteratur, 2022
A textbook on why insecure work has grown in Sweden and what it means for those affected. The book moves from global changes in capitalism, from Fordist mass production to a flexible service economy, to the Swedish labour market. Building on Walter Korpi’s power resources theory, it explains insecurity as the outcome of shifting balances in four power resources: union strength, unemployment, institutions such as employment protection and the welfare system, and human capital. It identifies eight dimensions of insecurity, from employment security to wages, and examines three groups in depth: temporary employees, agency workers and gig workers.
Alienation och arbete: Unga behovsanställdas villkor i den flexibla kapitalismen
Alienation and Work: The Conditions of Young On-Call Workers in Flexible Capitalism
Arkiv förlag, 2020. Doctoral dissertation.
Drawing on Marx and Rahel Jaeggi, the book develops a theory of alienation for our time and shows how young on-call workers in Sweden are limited, in different ways, in their ability to shape their lives, work, free time and social relationships. Awarded the Arbetsmiljöhögskolan Prize in memory of Ann Bergman for the best Swedish doctoral dissertation of 2020 in the field of working life and work environment. More about the dissertation.