University of Gothenburg
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Bengt Larsson

PROFESSOR

Department of Sociology and Work
Science
Mail
bengt.larsson@socav.gu.se

About Bengt Larsson

BENGT LARSSON is professor in sociology. His research interests are in the area of economic sociology/economy and society. His current research is on industrial relations in Europe and individual wage determination. He has previously conducted research on the debt relief process at the Swedish Enforcement Authority, consumption patterns of lottery winners, children’s environmental education and influence on their families’ consumption, and economic crime and regulations; particularly crime control by company auditors and media representations of economic crime and corporate scandals. Larsson is affiliated with CERGU (Centre for European Research at Göteborg University) and is a member of its board. He is also a member of the CFK-board (Centre for Consumer Science).

Researchgate-profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bengt_Larsson2

Ongoing and recently finished research projects (for publications see tab above)

-Principal investigator (2020-2022): The workers collective and polarization: trade unions and workers representation. The project is WP5 in the program The challenges of polarization on the Swedish labour market, financed by FORTE (Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare). PI: Prof. Tomas Berglund. Project Website

-Project Coordinator (2020): FutureFit Sweden. The project, carried out by researchers Erica Nordlander and Sofia Björk, is a research evaluation of an education in digital skills developed and funded by Nesta, Google and Futurion. The training is conducted by Hyper Island in collaboration with the unions Unionen, Vision and Finansbundet.

-Project Partner (2018-2020): EESDA – Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe, funded by the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion). The project is led by the research institutes CEPS (Brussels) and CELSI (Bratislava). The project studies the articulation between European and national social dialogue. Project Website

-Principal investigator (2016-2020): Individual wage setting, from policy to practice – a comparative study of the meaning and application of wage criteria in different sectors, funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR). The project aims to describe the valuation and translation processes that occur in local wage setting, to identify and understand the actors' various arguments and valuations in these processes, and to explain what variations that affect the design and implementation in five different sectors. Project Website

-Project partner (2016-2018): SPEEED – Social Partner Engagement and Effectiveness in European Social Dialogue, funded by the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion). PI: Dr. Barbara Bechter, Durham University. The project aims to identify what factors that determine the effectiveness of the 43 sectoral social dialogues between employer organizations and trade unions in the EU-28, and, through an in-depth study of the health care and metal sectors, to understand what creates engagement and obstacles in the dialogues. Project Website

-Principal investigator (2014-2018): Conditions for and obstacles to trade union cooperation in Europe. A comparative study of countries and sectors, funded by The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (RJ]. This project is a comparative study of trade union cooperation and network-building at the sector level in Europe, aiming to explain what factors that enable or hinder cooperation.Project Website

Teaching and tutoring Larsson has lectured on industrial relations in Europe, economic sociology, sociology of law/social control, and classical and modern social theory, and has written and edited four textbooks in Swedish. Larsson has supervised students at both undergraduate and postgraduate/doctoral levels, and is currently supervisor for the doctoral students Jane Pettersson and Jesper Prytz.