New essay collection on the deadly sins in our time
What role do the deadly sins play in our time? Rhetoric researcher Maria Wolrath Söderberg has tackled this question along with seven other scholars, and she describes our contemporary over-consumption as a form of gluttony. The researchers’ ideas have been collected in an essay collection, The Deadly Sins in Our Time
External link., published by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
You have to treat yourself, don’t you? This is the question that Wolrath Söderberg uses to approach the issue of gluttony External link.. However, instead of overeating, her focus on is over-consumption. Using her research into how people justify actions that damage the climate, she examines why we find it so hard to restrain ourselves when it comes to anything from new mobile phones to flying.
Recently, she was participated in a radio series based upon the essay collection; in an episode on "Greed and Gluttony External link." (in Swedish), she talks to Robert Östling, a professor of economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. Is greed a sin or an important motivator? And can our self-interest be utilised for the good of society? Are our high levels of consumption an expression of sinful gluttony that is depleting planetary resources?
Interested in Maria’s thoughts on the climate and her research? Listen to her radio feature on Sommar i P1 External link. (in Swedish).
Doctoral studentships open for application
2023-01-18From January to March, Södertörn University will be advertising around thirty doctoral studentships in 15 subjects, for which the period of study/employment begins on 1 September 2023.
“Older adults’ sexuality must be noticed and prioritised” – new book highlights an invisible issue in social care and healthcare
2022-10-13A new book focusing on older adults’ sexuality and sexual health is now available in Swedish. The lack of knowledge in this field risks becoming a health problem, according to researcher Linn Sandberg and sexologist Suzann Larsdotter, the book’s editors.
Abortion and reproductive rights in the firing line as right-wing populism grows
2022-08-08Issues relating to abortion, sex education and anti-genderism have become cornerstones that unite ultraconservatives around the globe. A new book, Anti-gender Politics in the Populist Moment, describes how the anti-gender movement is having an increasing influence on political discourse and the relationship between political movements and growing populism.
Animal perspectives help us understand the world – new anthology highlights the non-human in literature
2022-04-13Literary texts can help us understand society, why we act as we do and why the world is like it is. Traditionally, this is done using a human perspective, but what happens if we instead make animals our focus? This is what the literary scholars in the Ratat ǫ rsk network do, and in their new anthology Squirrelling they describe a research field undergoing transformation.
Moral stress in care of older people – new knowledge for better eldercare
2021-12-09The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted problems in Sweden’s eldercare, but managers and employees have already had to live with these problems for a long time. An ageing population, with an increasing level of demand for care services, complicates both needs assessments and day to day work, leading care workers to face ethical dilemmas. The researchers responsible for a newly started project believe that new knowledge about these situations can help improve the working environment and, by extension, result in better care provision for older people.
Page updated
06-11-2023