Research on dancing in later life has mainly focused on the health-promoting effects of dance, including aspects of well-being, while studies focusing on emotions are rare. The purpose of this article is therefore to contribute to research on older people's dancing through examining emotions in social dancing. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 44 older persons. The analysis shows how successful interaction rituals create positive emotions such as joy and pride and contribute to emotional energy. However, there are also unsuccessful interaction rituals which contribute to negative emotions of sadness and anger. These negative emotions can drain emotional energy, but, importantly for this study, they may also contribute to a forceful counter-energy which motivates the interviewees to try again. We discuss these patterns as emotional energy tropism and as negative emotional energy and positive emotional energy working together. The study provides insight into how and why dancing feels good as well as why older people do not give up dancing despite setbacks. Overall, the study contributes to research discussions about emotions in gray dancing as well as sociology of emotions.

There is political interest in Sweden’s proximity to Norway, which is reflected in the regional policy focusing on developing business needs. As such, proximity at the regional level is simply expected to generate economic growth. The authors propose a holistic approach to spatial planning in a Swedish–Norwegian border region in place of the simplistic economic perspective. The aim of the article is to highlight the importance of adopting a bottom-up cross-border planning perspective that is based on the perceptions of the border region residents by showing that the proximity of Norway is important to communities in Värmland Province, on the border with Norway, in a different way from how regional authorities and policymakers perceive it. The authors used a qualitative method in their study. They found that residents were more interested in the individual, social, and cultural opportunities of the border, while authorities stressed traditional growth strategies. In conclusion, the authors recommend that policymakers should implement a bottom-up cross-border planning strategy (CBPS) in Värmland that includes the residents’ perspective, as a reinforcement of place-based policy approaches.

Time, or rather lack of time, is currently an issue to many involved in social work, in Sweden and elsewhere. Stress at work is presently one of the most common reasons social workers state for leaving their profession or their workplace. This article examines how time is perceived in relation to work and private life by employees in the social services. The investigation was conducted as a qualitative interview study with six social workers. An abductive approach was adopted in the analysis. The results indicate a general experience of lack of time and an individual perception of time among the interviewees. What they say about time indicates that they have a monochronic perspective on time. It is also shown that the respondents use different curbing strategies to recuperate. At work, strategies take the form of creating recovery arenas allowing for micropauses such as eating an apple or having a cup of coffee. After work, exercising or strolling in the woods are common strategies. In relation to the employer and the organisation individuals also assume responsibility for organisational shortcomings that they cannot influence. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

The purpose of the study was to analyse how cross-border commuting differed from intranational commuting in Sweden, and how cross-border mobilities affected spatial integration. The authors analysed patterns and spatial flows of cross-border commuting by comparing them with characteristics of intranational commuting. In the article, they explore the assumption that the border constitutes an ‘engine’ for work-related mobility, which affects processes of spatial integration in cross-border areas. The empirical material comprised data from surveys of commuting from the Swedish county of Värmland to Norway and commuting within Värmland. The findings showed that cross-border commuting shared common features with intranational commuting, including how the frequency of commuting was dependent on distance. The motives for commuting differed, and the reasons for working in Norway were economic rather than professional. In terms of spatial integration, cross-border commuting was mainly one-directional, from Sweden to Norway, while leisure mobility and migration tended to be in the opposite direction. The authors conclude that the border region is characterised by integration through specialisation, which involves a permanent state of ‘transient’ mobility. Thus, a win-win situation can be distinguished, in which the border serves as a resource and an ‘engine’ for cross-border integration, mobility and economic activities.

The purpose of this article is to study emotion management by focusing on emotion labour in relation to organisational resistance in psychiatry. Drawing on focus group interviews and individual interviews with 11 therapists in psychiatry, and on theories of emotion management and harbouring work (i.e. managing emotion work and renewing energy in a team), we argue that individual workers in psychiatry have to create strategies on their own. The main findings show that emotions are harboured alone and resistance strategies created in solitude can be characterised as everyday resistance and organisational misbehaviour, performed in deep backstage spaces such as the bathroom.

Against the background of population aging, older peoples dance has attracted attention in research and its health promoting effects and social meanings have been brought to the fore. In this article we focus on the context and power dimensions of dance with an emphasis on the organizing of dance among older adults in terms of social discourses and age relationships. On the basis of qualitative interviews with 33 older dancers and 11 dance providers in Sweden, the study illustrates how dance is organized through social discourses on healthism and on the increasing group of older people as a powerful consumer group. The study highlights that older people and their social dance contexts are marked and subordinated in relation to younger age groups through non-verbal practices such as choreography and temporal codes. In short, dancing among older adults is not only a common health promoting and social activity, but also an arena in which age and age normality are negotiated and constructed.

Närheten till Norge skapar specifika förutsättningar i en region som Värmland. Närheten anses på regional strategisk nivå generera tillväxt, dvs skapa möjligheter. Vi har i tidigare forskning identifierat möjligheter men även utmaningar som exempelvis gränshinder som skapar svårigheter för invånare och företagare. I detta kapitel skall vi fokusera på närheten till Norge och på värmlänningarnas syn på denna närhet till broderlandet. I relation till detta analyserar vi hur medborgarna upplever sin boendemiljö, service på orten och allmänt sett hur bra de tycker att det är att bo där de bor. Vi ställer oss frågan hur nöjda medborgarna är med livet och relaterar det till landsbygdsperspektiv kontra stad. I kapitlet gör vi jämförelser mellan medborgarna i Värmland och boende i västra Värmland, det vill säga gränskommunerna Årjäng, Torsby, Eda och Arvika. Syftet med det är att jämföra de olika medborgargrupperna, alltså boende i gränsregionen kontra boende i övriga kommuner i Värmland, mot en tydlig strategi mot Norge. Frågan är om, och i så fall hur, Norge har betydelse för värmlänningarna?