Roland Karl Oscar Ericsson Paulsen (born 17 December 1981) is a Swedish author and sociologist. His thesis Empty Labor: Idleness And Workplace Resistance is about people who devote more than half of their work time to private activities, so-called "empty work". [1] The dissertation was published at Cambridge University Press and received international attention from among others The Atlantic , The Economist and The Wall Street Journal . [2] [3] [4]
Paulsen was born in Hägersten, Stockholm on 17 December 1981. He received his Ph.D from Uppsala universitet and is a docent in sociology; he is now active at the institution of business administration at Lund university. [5] [6] He researches individuals relationship to waged work, and especially questions regarding why waged work takes up such a major role in peoples lives. [7]
Paulsen claims that the people who have the highest income generally contributes the least. [8] His dissertation Empty labor is about people who spend more than half of their time at work doing private activities. [1] Roland Paulsen writes columns for Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's biggest newspaper. In these he has among other things explained his view on inequality and his critique of the theories of Hans Rosling. [9] He has also co-authored Return to Meaning: A Social Science with Something to say (with Mats Alvesson) in which the authors address how the "publish or perish" game produces meaningless social science research that cannot address social problems and just serve to further academic tenure and promotion. [10] Paulsen has also put forward the concept of functional stupidity [which according to paulsen is defined as] "[...] the modus operandi of ego-dystonic compliance we enter in order to endure long hours of imposed work assignments we would rather not perform.". [11] [12]
In 2010 Paulsen published his book Arbetssamhället – Hur arbetet överlevde teknologin (Roughly translated: The work society - how work survived the technology.) which was critical of work.
Paulsen said that he wanted to achieve a change in how we perceive work, in relationship to that the need for work itself has decreased due to the technological development. [13] [14]
Paulsens considers it to be a waste of resources that peoples working hours hasn't decreased as technology has moved forward. As well as claimed that work is increasingly losing its ability to create value. [15] Instead, Paulsen claims, that work takes on a religious function in contemporary society, and acts like a mechanism of distributing resources.
When asked why he thinks it is an important question for people who vote in political elections to create more work. Paulsen responded:
"It's an absurd idea, all politicians today want to create jobs. The only thing that is being discussed is technical aspects of how that is going to be achieved. But it is also obvious that one does not win ellections by promising that there are going to be more people without any work, but the question of shortening working time has been swept under the rug completely. In the past, we worked to create growth, now we want growth to create jobs." [16]
Uppsala is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Livets Ord, literally Word of Life, is a megachurch in Uppsala, within the Swedish Word of Faith movement. Livets Ord is the foremost example of the Neo-charismatic movement in Sweden, closely related to Word of Faith, and it may be viewed as a Swedish expression similar to Pentecostal elements in American Christianity.
Eric Gustaf Ericson was a Swedish choral conductor and influential choral teacher.
Upsala Nya Tidning or UNT is a regional daily newspaper published in Uppsala, Sweden.
Ärna or Uppsala Air Base is an air base located northwest of Uppsala, Sweden. It is a base of the Swedish Air Force. In 2009, it was announced that the Armed Forces had the intention to phase out its airport unit on 1 July 2010 and hand over the operation of the aerodrome to a private operator. However, on 19 December 2009, it was announced by the Supreme Commander that the Armed Forces will continue military air operations. This is because the alternative proposals to locate the flight operations were not feasible. Since 14 October 2021, Uppland Wing is based at Ärna Air Base.
The Community of Forn Sed Sweden, formerly the Swedish Asatro Community is a heathen organization founded in 1994.
Eva Lundgren is a Norwegian-Swedish sociologist. She is an expert on violence against women and sexual violence, particularly in religious contexts. She is professor emerita of sociology at Uppsala University.
Dina Schneidermann was a Ukrainian-Swedish violinist who studied violin with David Oistrakh in Moscow. Schneidermann was born in Odessa, USSR. Having married the Bulgarian violin professor Emil Kamilarov (1928–2007), Schneidermann moved to Bulgaria. The couple left Bulgaria in the 1980s, and moved to Uppsala, Sweden, where they lived for the rest of their lives.
Eat Sleep Die is a 2012 Swedish drama film written and directed by Gabriela Pichler. Set in present-day Sweden, it follows a realistic story about an unemployed young woman named Raša, who struggles to find a new job while simultaneously taking care of her sick father.
Åke Gabriel Bonnier is Bishop of Skara in the Church of Sweden since September 2012. Through inheritance, he is also the second largest owner of the Bonnier group.
Ann Helen Heberlein is a Swedish academic and author, who writes extensively on theology and ethics. She is best known for her autobiographical account of life with bipolar disorder, Jag vill inte dö, jag vill bara inte leva.
Mats Alvesson is a Swedish management scholar and professor of business administration at Lund University, particularly known for having made key contributions in forming the field of critical management studies.
Ylva Q Arkvik is a prominent composer of contemporary classical music. She has written about 50 works for varying settings such as chamber ensemble, orchestra, choir, opera, theatre and electroacoustic music. Her works have been performed by Swedish ensembles and orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kroumata, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet and Musica Vitae.
Elvavrålet is a student tradition where students at universities and colleges at a certain time every night in student residential areas open their windows, go out onto balconies or rooftops and scream to relieve stress.
Magnus Nyman is a Swedish historian and a Roman Catholic priest.
Historien om någon is a Swedish children's story written by Åke Löfgren and illustrated by Egon Møller-Nielsen. It was originally published by Folket i Bild in 1951, and has since been re-released by Rabén & Sjögren; a tactile edition for readers with impaired vision has also been produced by the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille, with tactile illustrations by Eva P. Eriksson and Marguerite Ahlbom.
Pavel Gamov is a Russian-born former Swedish politician who was a member of the Riksdag, first as a member of the Sweden Democrats and then as an independent.
Per Gunnar Wetterberg, is a Swedish author and historian.
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