Associate Professor, Gender Studies, Lund University
Associate Professor, Sociology, Linnaeus University
Researcher, Scania University Hospital, Lund/Malmö
Background
My research deals mainly with public sector organizations, care and medical professions, public sector management and labor processes in healthcare work.
Research Areas
- Work and organisation
- Public Sector, healthcare
- Emotional labour
- Management regimes
- Political economy
Ongoing Research Projects
I am currently involved in three research projects.
The role of quantification: Competing knowledge claims in intensive care and their effects on communication, team work and mastery (2023 - 2026).
This project is funded by Vetenskapsrådet and explores competing knowledge claims in critical care, that is: conflicting notions of what type of knowledge is possible and needed in patient care, as well as in management and organizational development. Earlier studies point to the central role of quantification in critical care – that which is identifiable, analyzed and presented in terms of numbers tends to be considered more true and more important than that which is not. However, research also indicates that healthcare professionals feel ambivalent in relation to the dominance of quantification and measuring. This is the key tension that the project explores. Based on previous research efforts on team work in intensive care, pertinent questions are posed regarding competing knowledge bases and their potential effects on inter-professional communication, teamwork and notions of mastery among intensive care physicians, intensive care nurses and nursing assistants.
The project is transdisciplinary; two intensive care units offer the researcher team, myself and Mia Hylén, full access and involvement of staff and managers in the research process. In-depth interviews and observations are combined with document analysis and experiments on effects of inter-professional communication after the implementation of standardized scales measuring delirium in sedated patients. The project also includes an action research phase consisting of workshops with physicians, nurses and nursing assistants on different knowledge bases in intensive care.
Lessons learned? Swedish preparedness for creeping health crises and organizational learning after the Swine flu, the 2018 Heatwave and the COVID-19 pandemic (2024 - 2027)
This project is funded by Vetenskapsrådet and explores the Swedish regional health authorities' capabilities to a) continuously improve organizational capacities to effectively respond to crises affecting the healthcare system; and b) to prepare for and learn from creeping health crises. The empirical cases center on the Swedish experiences from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the 2018 Heatwave and the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2023. The unique contribution of the project is its in-depth analyses based on qualitative data of the concrete actions taken by regional health authorities during and after three creeping crises, which allow the research team to identify critical organizational prerequisites to effectively act on and learn from protracted crises.
The principal aim is to analyze and identify organizational prerequisites for a reliable and effective health crisis response in primary and tertiary care systems, as well as to provide Regions with state-of-the-art knowledge and recommendations on how to strengthen preparedness for creeping health crises and improve on post-crisis organizational learning. The project builds on already established contacts and collaborations between the researchers, myself and Erica Falkenström, and public officials within four urban Regions: Uppsala, Stockholm, Västra Götaland, and Skåne.
Work less, live more? Voluntary part-time work and consequences for health, well-being and life satisfaction
The other project started in 2019 and explores voluntary part-time work. It is funded by Forte. Mimmi Barmark, Department of Sociology, is PI and together we collect survey-, register based- and interview data to analyse the effects of part-time work on different groups of workers. Do part-time workers experience increased well-being and greater life satisfaction? And if so, what circumstances, including social position, material life conditions and values, contribute to determining the outcomes of part-time work?
I have also led research projects on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect among public sector workers, and the crisis response within intensive care units during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teaching
I am a member of the Faculty of Social Sciences' Teaching Academy as Excellent Teacher Practitioner (ETP).
Publications
Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.
Professionals in Sweden are pushing back hard against a rightwing plan to make them snitch on undocumented migrants
Rebecca Selberg
(2023) The Conversation
Journal articleIntroduction: Reproductive Justice and Transnational Feminism
Rebecca Selberg, Marta Kolankiewicz, Diana Mulinari
(2023) Struggles for Reproductive Justice in the Era of Anti-Genderism and Religious Fundamentalism , p.1-9
Book chapterRights Claims in Anti-abortion Campaigns in Poland and Sweden
Rebecca Selberg, Marta Kolankiewicz
(2023) Struggles for Reproductive Justice in the Era of Anti-Genderism and Religious Fundamentalism , p.155-177
Book chapterBoken får mig att vilja skrika: jag anklagar er! (Recension av Larsson & Plesner: De gränslösa. En bok om politikers skolaffärer)
Rebecca Selberg
(2023) Aftonbladet
Newspaper articleReal Utopias at Work. Conflicts and dreams among nurses in the public sector.
Paula Mulinari, Rebecca Selberg
(2023) International Handbooks on Gender , p.22-36
Book chapterKärlek är sällan en magisk grej som bara drabbar folk (Recension av Marie Bergströms Kärlekens nya lagar)
Rebecca Selberg
(2023) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleLeaderless Management as the Solution to Struggles Over the Moral Center of Healthcare? : Ward Nurses’ Critique of Management as “Real Utopias” in the Public Sector
Rebecca Selberg, Paula Mulinari
(2023) Debating Leaderless Management : Can Employees Do Without Leaders? , p.77-95
Book chapter‘Exploring Narratives of Death’ (END): A case study of researcher experiences in studying dying, death and grief in an interdisciplinary setting
Jamie Woodworth, Rebecca Selberg, Jimmie Kristensson, Birgit Rasmussen
(2023) Mortality, 28 p.562-577
Journal articleMaja Larssons "Kläda blodig skjorta" skildrar hur barnafödandet blev en angelägenhet för vården
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleMinistern Mats Persson flirtar med nätkrigare
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleMakten får ligga – Ruben Östlund visar att sex är hårdvaluta
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleVarför övergav politikerna mitten - om det är vad väljarna vill ha?
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleIntersektionalitet - ett farligt begrepp?
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleDet kollaborativa handledarskapet som genusvetenskapens styrka : Om stark tvärdisciplinär forskning
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Kritiska blickar från marginalen : Reflektioner i spåren av Jens Rydström , p.287-307
Book chapterDet är inte feminism att kalla Putin våldtäktsman
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Expressen
Newspaper articleExit spirals in hospital clinics: Conceptualizing turnover contagion among nursing staff
Rebecca Selberg, Paula Mulinari
(2022) Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 21 p.87-107
Journal articleKuratorns roll i vårdens moraliska ekonomi - en kritisk analys av det reproduktiva arbetets värdering
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Socialmedicinsk tidskrift, 99 p.87-98
Journal articleSkräcken i patientens ögon: "Vad händer med mig?"
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Sydsvenskan Kultur
Newspaper articleMellan kulturkrig och byråkrati : Om akademisk frihet och universitetslärares professionalitet
Rebecca Selberg, Robert Holmberg
(2022) Högre utbildning, 12 p.78-91
Journal articleSveriges första kvinnliga läkare ogillade aborter
Rebecca Selberg
(2022) Expressen
Newspaper articleRebecca Selberg & Maureen Mo Kasaku
Rebecca Selberg, Maureen Kasaku
(2022) Post Rosa: Letters Against Barbarism , p.55-88
Book chapterContradictions in care: Ward nurses’ experiences of work and management in the Swedish public sector
Rebecca Selberg, Magnus Sandberg, Paula Mulinari
(2022) Nora: nordic journal of feminist and gender research, 30 p.81-93
Journal articleSjuksköterskeyrket som professionellt projekt - en feministisk analys av en vårdprofession
Rebecca Selberg
(2021) Genus och professioner , p.89-116
Book chapterTrigger warnings – om undervisning och politisk gränshållning i 2020-talets sociala landskap
Rebecca Selberg
(2021) Högre utbildning, 11 p.87-87
Journal articleSverige var likgiltigt inför judarnas öde (recension av Henrik Berggrens Landet utanför del 2, Norstedts)
Rebecca Selberg
(2021) Expressen
Newspaper articleSjuksköterskors erfarenhet av vardagsrasism
Rebecca Selberg
(2021) Ojämlika arbetsplatser : Hierarkier, diskriminering och strategier för jämlikhet , p.91-115
Book chapterUnderbetalda omsorgsarbetare kommer leda klimatupproret
Rebecca Selberg
(2020) Expressen
Newspaper articleThe 'crisis of care' and the neoliberal restructuring of the public sector: a feminist Polanyian analysis
Rebecca Selberg
(2020) Marxist-Feminist Theories and Struggles Today : Essential writings on intersectionality, labour and ecofeminism , p.167-187
Book chapterThe midwife case and conscientious objection: new ways of framing abortion in Sweden
Rebecca Selberg
(2020) International Feminist Journal of Politics, 22 p.312-334
Journal articleFeminism, National Movements, and European Questions: A Roundtable coordinated by Heidemarie Ambrosch and Barbara Steiner
Rebecca Selberg, Agnieszka Mrozik, Valeriya Utkina, Nora García, Selin Cagatay, et al.
(2020) Europe in the Brave New World : Transform! Yearbook 2020 , p.203-223
Report chapterWhat works in work? Real utopias and the need for social transformation in care work
Rebecca Selberg, Magnus Sandberg, Paula Mulinari
(2020)
Conference paper: abstractImproving the quality of healthcare through interdisciplinary education - a collaboration between Medicine and Gender Studies
Rebecca Selberg, Maria Wemrell
(2019)
Conference paper: abstractThe Crisis of Care - Caring Against Crisis : Professional Responses to Austerity Politics in Female Dominated Welfare Professions
Rebecca Selberg, Paula Mulinari, Magnus Sandberg
(2019)
Conference paper: abstractScheduling conflicts in the low-wage labor force: the case of Swedish and US women
Rebecca Selberg, Irene Padavic, Katherine Tindell
(2019)
Conference paper: abstractAtt komma till rätta med könsobalans i akademin: Vad kan Lunds Universitet göra?
Rebecca Selberg, Terese Anving
(2018)
ReportMaria Carbin, Johanna Overud och Elin Kvist, Feminism som lönearbete. Stockholm: Leopard, 2017. : Recension
Rebecca Selberg
(2017) Sociologisk Forskning, 54 p.390-393
ReviewJakt på papperslösa gör oss till en polisstat
Jacob Lind, Pouran Djampour, Maja Sager, Emma Söderman, Vanna Nordling, et al.
(2016) Svenska Dagbladet
Newspaper articleAnti-abortion Politics via (Labor) Law : A Discursive Opportunity Structure in the ‘Woman Friendly’ Welfare State?
Rebecca Selberg, Niklas Selberg
(2016)
Conference - otherFör ett bättre Lunds universitet nu
Daniel Möller, Jessica Abbott, Thomas Björklund, Paul Caplat, Markus Gunneflo, et al.
(2015) LUM: Lunds Universitets Magasin , p.34-34
Journal articleKvinna och ”brytare”? Förhållningssätt och strategier bland kvinnliga ledare vid Lunds universitet
Rebecca Selberg
(2014) I spänningen mellan policy och villkorad närvaro: minoritiserade grupper i en neoliberal akademi
Book chapterErfarenhet som feministiskt begrepp – kön, medvetande och handling i institutionell etnografi
Rebecca Selberg
(2014) Kritiska gemenskaper – att skriva feministisk och postkolonial vetenskap
Book chapterInterpellation, normative femininity and compliance in the neoliberal public sector: the case of nurses
Rebecca Selberg
(2014)
Conference paperIntersectional directions in working life research - a proposal
Paula Mulinari, Rebecca Selberg
(2013) Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 3 p.81-98
Journal articleNursing in Times of Neoliberal Change: An Ethnographic Study of Nurses' Experiences of Work Intensification
Rebecca Selberg
(2013) Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 3 p.9-35
Journal articleEmbodied careers in nursing - understanding embodied aspects of increased professional differentiation under NPM reform in Sweden
Rebecca Selberg
(2013)
Conference paper: abstractFemininity at Work - Gender, Labour, and Changing Relations of Power in a Swedish Hospital
Rebecca Selberg
(2012)
DissertationArbete - intersektionella perspektiv
(2011)
BookAt bryta in i ledarskap - kvinnor och ledarkarriärer vid Lunds universitet
Rebecca Selberg
(2011) Rapport inom ramen för projektet: En öppen akademi
ReportWhy Nurses Sometimes Cry. Calls for Recognition, Redistribution and Doubled Edged Solidarity Among Overworked Nurses
Rebecca Selberg
(2010) From Linnaeus to the Future(s) - Letters from Afar
Book chapterFemininity at Work - Capturing Femininity with Institutional Ethnography?
Rebecca Selberg
(2009)
Conference paperFemininity and Feminist Consciousness among Swedish Female Healthcare Workers
Rebecca Selberg
(2007)
Conference paper