Research
Alienation and work: Young on-call workers in flexible capitalism
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.
In my dissertation, Alienation och arbete: Unga behovsanställdas villkor i den flexibla kapitalismen, I studied young on-call workers in Sweden, who are employed by the hour and called in when needed. Drawing on Marx and the philosopher Rahel Jaeggi, I developed a theory of alienation for our time, grounded in capitalism’s unfulfilled promise of self-determination. The study shows how on-call work limits people’s ability to shape their own lives, work, free time and relationships: those who had chosen the job freely, had some financial security and more predictable work experienced less alienation, while those without these conditions were in a highly vulnerable position.
Precarious work in elderly care: Split shifts and their impact on staff
In my postdoctoral project I examine how split shifts affect assistant nurses in Swedish elderly care. A split shift divides the working day into two parts with a long break in between, and the project looks at how such fragmented working hours shape the balance between work and the rest of life.
Low-wage jobs in the Swedish labour market 2005–2020: What are the jobs, where are they, and what explains their development?
Between 2021 and 2025 I took part in this Forte-funded project, which studied the growth of low-wage jobs in Sweden, who is at risk of ending up in them, and why they have emerged. The project was based on Swedish register data and the Labour Force Survey (LFS).