University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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  4. Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand

Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand

Senior Lecturer

Department of Sociology and Work
Science
Telephone
+46 31-786 47 66
Mail
cecilia.lofstrand@socav.gu.se
Visiting address
Skanstorget 18
41122 Göteborg
Room number
G112
Postal address
Box 720
405 30 Göteborg

About Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand

Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand is associate professor of sociology. She received her PhD in sociology from the University of Gothenburg in 2005 with the dissertation The Politics of Homelessness - Local Policy and Practice (which was published by Égalité publishing house) and has been an associate professor of sociology since 2011. She has co-edited a couple of scientific anthologies, a special issue of a journal, and published a large number of scientific articles. She was director of postgraduate education at the Department of Sociology and Work Science for just over four years in 2018-2022.

Hansen Löfstrand's existing and ongoing research has several orientations. She conducts research on policing, including the private security industry's provision of policing and non-profit (civic) participation in policing, and take a special interest in the relations between state, market and civil society as well as issues of legitimacy and legal certainty. She also conducts research about the welfare society's margins, by studying initiatives targeting people categorized as homeless, crime victims, disabled, etc. In this field of research, Hansen Löfstrand is interested in both the work performance of employees and experiences of service users. Overall, her research is characterized by an interest in power, governance, social control, policing, legitimacy, the rule of law and legal certainty.

Hansen Löfstrand is currently leading the research project Body-worn cameras: implications for the work environment of security guards (funded by AFA Insurance). In this project, Hansen Löfstrand and Christel Backman examine the use of body-worn cameras in the surveillance industry from a work environment perspective to contribute with knowledge about how employees perceive and use the cameras, how it affects their work environment and how companies and the industry regulate and manage camera use.

Hansen Löfstrand has recently (2019-2021) participated in the project Geographies of home-based service interactions at the margins of welfare in Finland and Sweden (which is funded by the Academy of Finland and led by Professor Kirsi Juhila, University of Tampere, Finland). Hansen Löfstrand was responsible for the Swedish sub-study and for supervising a post-doc (Doris Lydahl). The project contribute with knowledge about implications of social contructions of place in home-based services targeting people in the margins of welfare, how employees and clients orient towards each other, and tensions between public / private, support / surveillance and inclusion / exclusion.

Hansen Löfstrand teaches courses in criminology, sociology and social psychology and has extensive experience of teaching qualitative methods. She is responsible for and teaches a course in qualitative analysis and conceptualization for doctoral students. Furthermore, she has extensive experience of supervision at all levels, including in postgraduate education.