What is your dissertation about?
- My dissertation examines the geography of low-income work in Sweden between 1990 and 2020, with a focus on regional differences in prevalence and workers’ chances of upward mobility, and the role of technology-driven structural transformations. I also connect these dynamics to the rise of political discontent and support for the Sweden Democrats.
What research methods have you used?
- The dissertation relies entirely on quantitative methods, drawing on longitudinal Swedish register data. I use both descriptive and inferential tools. Regarding the latter, I apply a range of regression techniques, including fixed effects panel models, pooled OLS, logistic regression, and structural equation modeling.”.
Was there anything that surprised you along the way?
- Yes, one thing that surprised me was the overall trajectory of low-income work in Sweden. Instead of an increase, which is often assumed in discussions about polarization, I found a small but clear decline in its prevalence over the period I study. Even more, there was an enduring negative relationship between the rise of the knowledge economy and the share of low-income work – regions that specialized in knowledge-intensive industries actually tended to have lower levels of low-income work. These patterns challenged my initial expectation that the expansion of high-skill sectors would automatically generate more low-income service work in their shadow.
- On the discontent side, it was surprising to find that regions with a relatively high presence of low-income work were not necessarily the ones where discontent and support for the Sweden Democrats were strongest. Instead, discontent seemed more driven by the lack of opportunities and – low levels of upward mobility.
