Kerstin Jacobsson
PROFESSOR
Department of Sociology and WorkAbout Kerstin Jacobsson
Background Kerstin Jacobsson obtained her PhD in Sociology in 1997 at Uppsala University and became Associate Professor there in 2002. Since 2013, she is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Work Science at University of Gothenburg. Before that, Kerstin was employed at Södertörn University as senior lecturer and between 2010-2013 as Professor of Sociology.
Specialist Fields Jacobsson works in the field of political sociology. One research orientation concerns Europeanization, soft forms of governance, European employment and labour market policy, and discourses on employability and activation. Another research orientation concerns social movements and civil society. Jacobsson has here led several international research projects on social mobilization and social movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Other research interests concern social theory, sociology of morality, sociology of emotions, organization, governance and governmentality, democracy and legitimacy.
Current research 1) “Urban Gardens as Meeting Places in Göteborg, Budapest and Bucharest: Building Collaborative Capacity for Sustainability in Different Socio-economic Contexts,” The Swedish Research Council Formas, 2020- 2023 (PI)
2) ”Housing, Social Mobilisations and Urban Governance in Central and Eastern Europe”, funded by Formas 2017-20) (PI)
3) ”Audit Culture and the Case Worker: A Study of the Public Employment Service and the Social Insurance Agency”. Funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond 2015-21. (PI)
Kerstin also participates in a research programme on "Civil Society Elites: Comparing Elite Composition, Reproduction, Integration and Contestation in European Civil Societies", funded by Riksbankens jubileumsfond (2018-2023) Project leader: Håkan Johansson, Lund University.
Teaching and tutoring Jacobsson's fields of teaching include European Union and Europeanization, civil society in Central and Eastern Europe, political sociology, sociological theory, and sociology of emotions. Jacobsson also supervises student essays and doctoral theses.
Cooperation Jacobsson is regularly invited by educational associations or government authorities to give public lectures.
Publications
Peer reviewed articles (the past 10 years):
Jacobsson, K. , Y. Wallinder & I. Seing (2020) Street-level bureaucrats under new managerialism: A comparative study of two welfare state bureuacracies, Journal of Professions and Organization.
Jacobsson, K. & E. Korolczuk (2020) Mobilizing Grassroots in the City: Lessons for Civil Society Research in Central and Eastern Europe, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 33(2): 125-142
Fröhlich, C. & K. Jacobsson (2019) “Performing Resistance: Liminality, Infrapolitics and Spatial Contestation in Contemporary Russia”, Antipode, 51(4), 1145-65.
Hollertz, K. , Jacobsson, K. & I. Seing (2018) Organizational Governance of Activation Policy: Transparency as an Organizational Ideal in a Swedish Welfare Agency, International Social Security Review,
Sunnerfjell, J. & K. Jacobsson (2018) Governing the Unemployable in the Neurochemical Age? The Case of Disability Coding at the Public Employment Service, Subjectivity, 11: 303-321.
Florea, I., Gagyi, A. & Jacobsson, K. (2018). A Field of Contention: Evidence from Housing Struggles in Bucharest and Budapest, Voluntas: Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29(49, 712-724.
Bengtsson, M & K. Jacobsson (2018) The Institutionalization of a New Social Cleavage: Ideological Influences, Main Reforms and Social Inequality Outcomes of the 'New Work Strategy', Sociologisk Forskning, 55(2-3), 121-143.
Fröhlich, C. & K. Jacobsson (2017) States Shaping Civic Activism: Comparing Animal Rights Activism in Poland and Russia, The Sociological Quarterly, 52(18), 181-201.
Bengtsson, M., C. de la Porte & K. Jacobsson (2017) Labour Market Policy under Conditions of Permanent Austerity: Any Sign of Social Investment? Social Policy & Administration, 51(2), 367-388.
Jacobsson, K., Hollertz, K. & C. Garsten (2017) Local Worlds of Activation: The Diverse Pathways of Three Swedish Municipalities, Nordic Social Work Research.
Garsten, C. & K. Jacobsson (2016) Transparency as ideal and practice: Labour market policy and audit culture in the Swedish public employment service, Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, 118(1), 69-92.
Karlberg, E. & K. Jacobsson (2015) A meta-organizational perspective on the Europeanization of civil society: The case of the Swedish Women’s Lobby, Voluntas. International Journal of Nonprofit or Voluntary Organizations. 26(4), 1438-1459.
Jacobsson, K. (2014) ”Elementary forms of religious life in animal rights activism”, Culture Unbound, vol. 6: 305-326.
Hansson, Niklas & Kerstin Jacobsson (2014) "Learning to be affected: Subjectivity, sense and sensibility in animal rights activism", Society & Animals, 22(3): 262-88.
Lindblom, J. & K. Jacobsson (2014) "A deviance perspective on social movements: The case of animal rights activism", Deviant Behavior, 35(2), 133-151.
Garsten, C. & K. Jacobsson (2013) "Sorting people out: the plasticity of the categories of employability, work capacity and disability as technologies of government", Ephemera. Theory & Politics in Organization, 13(4), 825-850.
Jacobsson, Kerstin & Jonas Lindblom (2013) “Emotion work in animal rights activism: A moral-sociological perspective", Acta Sociologica, 56(1),55-68.
Garsten, Christina & Kerstin Jacobsson (2013) "Post-political regulation: Soft power and post-political visions in global governance", Critical Sociology, 39(3), 421-437.
Jacobsson, Kerstin (2012) "Fragmentation of the collective action space: The animal rights movement in Poland", East European Politics, 28(4): 353-370.
Jacobsson, Kerstin and Jonas Lindblom (2012) 'Moral reflexivity and dramaturgical action in social movement activism: The case of the Plowshares and Animal Rights Sweden', Social Movement Studies, nr 1: 1-20.
Garsten, Christina & Kerstin Jacobsson (2011) 'Transparency and legibility in international institutions: The UN Global Compact and postpolitical global ethics', Social Anthropology. 19(4): 1-16.
Books:
Jacobsson, Kerstin & Elzbieta Korolczuk (eds) (2017) Civil Society Revisited. Lessons from Poland. Oxford: Berghahn.
Jacobsson, K. & J. Lindblom (2016) Animal Rights Activism. A Moral-Sociological Perspective on Social Movements. Amsterdam University Press.
Jacobsson, K. (ed) (2016) [2015] Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Abingdon: Routledge.
Jacobsson, Kerstin and Steven Saxonberg (eds) (2015) Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and Russia. London: Routledge. [Based on a special issue of East European Politics]
Jacobsson, Kerstin and Steven Saxonberg (eds) (2013) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate. [Paperback Routledge 2016]
Jacobsson, Kerstin (ed.) (2010) Känslan for det allmänna. Medborgarnas relation till staten och varandra. Umeå: Boréa.
Garsten, Christina & Kerstin Jacobsson (eds.) (2004) Learning to be Employable. New Agendas on Work, Responsibility and Learning in a Globalizing World, Basingstoke, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Book chapters (the past 10 years):
Jacobsson, Kerstin & Håkan Johansson (2019) Europeanization of and by civil society: Towards an analytical framework, in: Towards a European Civil Society? Patterns of Europeanization through Swedish Lenses, edited by Anna Meeuwisse and Roberto Scaramuzzino. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.
Jacobsson, Kerstin & Elzbieta Korolczuk (2017) Rethinking Polish Civil Society, i: Civil Society Revisited. Lessons from Poland. Oxford: Berghahn, 1-35.
Jacobsson, Kerstin (2017) Rethinking Civic Privatism in a Postsocialist Context: Individualism and Personalization in Polish Civil Society Organizations, in: Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland. Oxford: Berghahn, 81-104.
Jacobsson, Kerstin and Elzbieta Korolczuk (2017) Conclusion: Empirical and Theoretical Lessons from the Volume, in: Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland. Oxford: Berghahn, 314-324.
Garsten, Christina, Jacobsson, Kerstin & Karolina Sztandar-Sztanderska (2016) Negotiating Social Citizenship at the Street-Level: Local Activation Policies and Individualization in Sweden and Poland, in: Martin Heidenreich and Deborah Rice (eds) Integrating Social and Employment Policies in Europe: Active Inclusion and Challenges for Local Welfare Governance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 265-293.
Jacobsson, Kerstin (2015) Introduction: The Development of Urban Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, in Kerstin Jacobsson (ed) Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 1-32.
Aidukaite, Jolanta & Kerstin Jacobsson (2015) Europeanisation and Urban Movements: Political Opportunities of Community Organizations in Lithuania, in Kerstin Jacobsson (ed) Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 247-272.
Jacobsson, Kerstin (2015) Conclusion: Towards a New Research Agenda, in Kerstin Jacobsson (ed) Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 273-287.
Jacobsson, Kerstin (2015) Fragmentation of the collective action space: The animal rights movement in Poland, in: Jacobsson, Kerstin and Steven Saxonberg (eds) (2015) Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and Russia. London: Routledge, 47-64.
Jacobsson, K. & Saxonberg, S. (2013) "Introduction: The development of social movements in Central and Eastern Europe" in: K. Jacobsson & S. Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.
Jacobsson, Kerstin (2013) "Channeling and enrollment: The institutional shaping of animal rights activism in Poland", in: Jacobsson, Kerstin and Steven Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.
Garsten, Christina & Kerstin Jacobsson (forthcoming 2013) "The ascent of post-political global ethics: Harmony thinking in the UN Global Compact", in: Catia Gregoratti & Bart Slob (eds) Rethinking The United Nations Global Compact. London: Pluto Press.
De la Porte, Caroline & Kerstin Jacobsson (2012) "Social investment or recommodification? Assessing the employment policies of the EU member states", in: N. Morel, B. Palier and J. Palme (eds) Towards a Social Investment Welfare State? Ideas, Policies and Challenges. Bristol: Policy Press.
Jacobsson, Kerstin & Niklas Noaksson (2010) "From deregulation to flexicurity. The makeover of the OECD Jobs Strategy", in Martens, Kerstin & Anja Jakobi (eds) Mechanisms of OECD Governance. International Incentives for National Policy Making?, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jacobsson, Kerstin & Charlotte West (2010) "Europeanization of labor policy-making in the Baltic States", in: Bengt Jacobsson (ed) The European Union and the Baltic States: Changing Forms of Governance, London: Routledge, 98-120.
-
Antagonisms and solidarities in housing movements in Bucharest and
Budapest
Ioana Florea, Agnes Gagyi, Kerstin Jacobsson
Urban Ethics. Conflicts Over the Good and Proper Life in Cities - 2021-01-01 -
Street-level bureaucrats under
new managerialism
Kerstin Jacobsson, Ylva Wallinder, Ida Seing
Journal of Professions and Organization - 2020-01-01 -
Mobilizing Grassroots in the City: Lessons for Civil Society Research in Central and Eastern
Europe
Kerstin Jacobsson, Elzbieta Korolczuk
International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society - 2020-01-01 -
Europeanization of and by Civil Society : Toward an Analytical
Framework
Kerstin Jacobsson, Håkan Johansson
Europeanization in Sweden: Opportunities and Challenges for Civil Society Organizations - 2019-01-01 -
Housing struggles in Bucharest and Budapest: mapping urban civil society in terms of a field of
contention
Ioana Florea, Agnes Gagyi, Kerstin Jacobsson
Presentation at The XVI Polish Sociological Congress in Wroclaw - 2019-01-01 -
Performing Resistance: Liminality, Infrapolitics, and Spatial Contestation in Contemporary
Russia
Christian Fröhlich, Kerstin Jacobsson
Antipode - 2019-01-01 -
Följsamhet som styrningsideal på Försäkringskassan - ett hot mot
rättssäkerheten?
Kerstin Jacobsson, Ida Seing, Katarina Hollertz
Socialmedicinsk Tidskrift - 2019-01-01 -
The Role of Teamwork in a Welfare State Bureaucracy: Performativity, Commitment and Control in the Swedish Social Insurance
Agency
Kerstin Jacobsson, Katarina Hollertz
Paper at the 3d conference on Street-level Research, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, June 11-13 2019 - 2019-01-01 -
Varieties of Professionalism: A Comparative Study of Workplace Cultures and Professional Role Identities in Two Welfare State
Bureaucracies
Kerstin Jacobsson, Ylva Wallinder, Ida Seing
14th Conference of the European Sociological Association - Europe and Beyond, 20-23 augusti, Manchester - 2019-01-01 -
Governing the unemployable in the neurochemical age? The case of disability coding at the Public Employment
Service
Jon Sunnerfjell, Kerstin Jacobsson
Subjectivity - 2018-01-01 -
Antagonism and Solidarity in Housing Movements in Bucharest and Budapest: A Field of Contention
Approach
Ioana Florea, Agnes Gagyi, Kerstin Jacobsson
Urban Ethics: Conflicts Over the ‚Good’ and Proper Life in Cities, 17-19 January, Munich, Germany - 2018-01-01 -
A Field of Contention: Evidence from Housing Struggles in Bucharest and
Budapest
Ioana Florea, Agnes Gagyi, Kerstin Jacobsson
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - 2018-01-01 -
Organizational governance of activation policy: Transparency as an organizational ideal in a Swedish welfare
agency
Katarina Hollertz, Kerstin Jacobsson, Ida Seing
International Social Security Review - 2018-01-01 -
The institutionalization of a new social cleavage Ideological influences, main reforms and social inequality outcomes of "the new work
strategy"
Mattias Bengtsson, Kerstin Jacobsson
Sociologisk Forskning - 2018-01-01 -
Den transparenta organisationen. Handläggaren och visibilitetskulturen i
Försäkringskassan.
Katarina Hollertz, Kerstin Jacobsson, Ida Seing
Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift - 2017-01-01 -
Conclusion
Kerstin Jacobsson, Elzbieta Korolczuk
Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland - 2017-01-01 -
Rethinking Civic Privatism in a Postsocialist
Context
Kerstin Jacobsson
Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland - 2017-01-01 -
Rethinking Polish Civil
Society
Kerstin Jacobsson, Elzbieta Korolczuk
Jacobsson K. & Korolczuk E. (eds). Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland - 2017-01-01 -
Urban community participation in post-Soviet space: Community organizing, urban governance and urban conflict in
Lithuania
Jolanta Aidukaite, Kerstin Jacobsson
13th Conference of the European Sociological Association: (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities. Athens: 29 August-01 September - 2017-01-01 -
States Shaping Civic Activism : Comparing Animal Rights Activism in Poland and
Russia
Christian Fröhlich, Kerstin Jacobsson
The Sociological quarterly - 2017-01-01 -
Konkurrancestat og
neoliberalisering
Kerstin Jacobsson
Konkurrencestaten og dens kritikere - 2017-01-01 -
Performing
Resistance
Kerstin Jacobsson, Christian Fröhlich
13th Conference of the European Sociological Association, RN25 Social Movements. Athens, Greece: 29 Aug - 01 Sept - 2017-01-01 -
Civil Society
Revisited
Kerstin Jacobsson, Elzbieta Korolczuk
- 2017-01-01 -
Local worlds of activation: the diverse pathways of three Swedish
municipalities
Kerstin Jacobsson, Katarina Hollertz, Christina Garsten
Nordic Social Work Research - 2017-01-01 -
Labour Market Policy under Conditions of Permanent Austerity: Any Sign of Social
Investment?
Mattias Bengtsson, Caroline de la Porte, Kerstin Jacobsson
Social Policy & Administration - 2017-01-01 -
Mobilizing the
Grassroots
Kerstin Jacobsson, Elzbieta Korolczuk
Workshop on ’Imagining a link between local activism and political transformation: Inventions from Eastern Europe". Paris: 9-10 December - 2016-01-01 -
Negotiating
Ambivalence
Kerstin Jacobsson
The international symposium ”State, Work, and Affects“. Vienna University: 28-29 January - 2016-01-01 -
States Shaping Civic Activism: Animal Rights Activism in Poland and Russia
Compared
Christian Fröhlich, Kerstin Jacobsson
European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) 10th conference. Prague: 7-10 September - 2016-01-01 -
Post-Bureaucratic Management Ideals and Affective Governance in a State
Bureaucracy
Kerstin Jacobsson, Linda Helgstedt
7th Midterm Conference on Emotions. Sociology of Emotions Research Network (RN11), Stockholm, 25-27 August 2016 - 2016-01-01 -
Animal Rights Activism: A Moral-Sociological Perspective on Social
Movements
Kerstin Jacobsson, Jonas Lindblom
- 2016-01-01 -
Transparency as ideal and practice: Labour market policy and audit culture in the Swedish public employment
service
Christina Garsten, Kerstin Jacobsson
Statsvetenskaplig Tidsskrift - 2016-01-01 -
Negotiating Social Citizenship at the Street-Level: Local Activation Policies and Individualization in Sweden and
Poland
Kerstin Jacobsson, Christina Garsten, Karolina Sztandar-Sztanderska
Integrating Social and Employment Policies in Europe: Active Inclusion and Challenges for Local Welfare Governance - 2016-01-01 -
Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern
Europe
Kerstin Jacobsson
- 2015-01-01 -
Europeanisation and Urban Movements Political Opportunities of Community Organisations in
Lithuania
Kerstin Jacobsson, Jolanta Aidukaitė
Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe - 2015-01-01 -
Introduction: A New Look at Social Movements and Civil Society in Postcommunist Europe and
Russia
Kerstin Jacobsson, Steven Saxonberg
Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and Russia - 2015-01-01 -
After a Cycle of Contention: Post-Gothenburg Strategies of Left-Libertarian Activists in
Sweden
Kerstin Jacobsson, A. Sorbom
Social Movement Studies - 2015-01-01 -
Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and
Russia
Kerstin Jacobsson, Steven Saxonberg
- 2015-01-01 -
Fragmentation of the collective action space : The animal rights movement in
Poland
Kerstin Jacobsson
Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and Russia - 2015-01-01 -
Conclusion
Kerstin Jacobsson
Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe - 2015-01-01 -
Introduction
Kerstin Jacobsson
Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe - 2015-01-01 -
A meta-organizational perspective on the Europeanization of civil
society
Eva Karlberg, Kerstin Jacobsson
VOLUNTAS - International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - 2015-01-01 -
Performing
Resistance
Kerstin Jacobsson, Christian Fröhlich
Conference of the Swedish sociological association. Gothenburg: 13-15 March 2014 - 2014-01-01 -
A deviance perspective on social movements: The case of animal rights
activism
Jonas Lindblom, Kerstin Jacobsson
Deviant behavior - 2014-01-01 -
Learning to be affected: Subjectivity, Sense, and Sensibility in Animal Rights
Activism
Niklas Hansson, Kerstin Jacobsson
Society and Animals - 2014-01-01 -
Elementary forms of religious life in animal rights
activism
Kerstin Jacobsson
Culture Unbound. Journal of Current Cultural Research - 2014-01-01 -
Emotion work in animal rights activism: A moral-sociological
perspective
Kerstin Jacobsson, Jonas Lindblom
Acta Sociologica - 2013-01-01 -
Local worlds of
activation.
Christina Garsten, Katarina Hollertz, Kerstin Jacobsson
Paper presented at the Espanet conference, Poznan, 5-7 September 2013. - 2013-01-01 -
Sorting people in and
out
Christina Garsten, Kerstin Jacobsson
Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization - 2013-01-01 -
En möjliggörande
arbetsmarknadspolitik?
Kerstin Jacobsson, Seing Ida
Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv - 2013-01-01 -
Post-political
regulation
Christina Garsten, Kerstin Jacobsson
Critical Sociology - 2013-01-01 -
Europas låga arbetskraftsinvesteringar - ett högt pris att
betala?
Mattias Bengtsson, Kerstin Jacobsson
Ett konkurrenskraftigt EU till rätt pris/ Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Lars Oxelheim och Thomas Persson (red.) - 2013-01-01 -
Entrepreneurial
Poland
Kerstin Jacobsson
Paper presented at the conference “The challenge of collective action: New perspectives on civil society and social activism in contemporary Poland” Warsaw University, 18-19 October 2013 - 2013-01-01 -
Conclusion
Kerstin Jacobsson, Saxonberg Steven
Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Edited by Kerstin Jacobsson and Steven Saxonberg - 2013-01-01 -
Channeling and
enrollment
Kerstin Jacobsson
Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Edited by Kerstin Jacobsson and Steven Saxonberg - 2013-01-01 -
Beyond
NGO-ization
Kerstin Jacobsson, Steven Saxonberg
- 2013-01-01 -
Affects of animal rights activism: Subjectivity, sense and
sensibility
Niklas Hansson, Kerstin Jacobsson
Paper presented at the 10th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Geneva, 7–10 September, 2011 - 2011-01-01