In the midst of Summer 2011, it's finally time for only the second item of the year. Now that I've been on paternity leave and waiting for the second little one to come since the 4th of July, I've some spare time for an attempt to summarise the past months of 2011:
- lecturing; the course on Population, Urbanisation and Mobility in a slightly altered format, as well as a complete new format for the course on writing a minor academic thesis (B-uppsats). This second course was joined with the former course on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to result in an integrated map-and-report assignment.
- conferences; the final week of the GIS-report course coincided with the 4th biannual Nordic Geographers Meeting (NGM) in Roskilde, Denmark. Thus, this week at the end of May was quite a challenge, where Anders and me found ourselves replying to students' e-mails before breakfast at 7 am in our B&B at the Danish countryside. The other conference was the 6th International Conference on Population Geographies (ICPG) in Umeå with many interesting contributions and a conference diner at the archipelago of Norrbyskär. Next ICPG will be held in Groningen in 2013!
- manuscripts; Mostly during June, I've been writing and editing a number of manuscripts for my Dissertation. The first article, on international counterurbanisation, was in need of minor revisions which were to be done in due time. The second and third articles, on rural place marketing and the decision to migrate from the Netherlands to rural Sweden respectively, are in the course of creation. Last but not least, a chapter on mobility, place and ambivalence is in the making. This manuscript is supposed to be a contribution to an anthology on place and identity, to be published by CUReS. We will have a meeting in Bredsjö in August in order to discuss progression considering the Anthology.
- fieldwork; at the basis for the manuscripts lies fieldwork covering some months and a number of observations and interviews at emigration fairs and with Dutch households in Bergslagen. This fieldwork will be continued after my paternity leave ends in September.
By the way, needless to say that this blog is simply an online diary of a PhD Student in Sweden. For more contents and debates, one may take a look at Bo Malmberg's or Lena Sommestad's weblogs.
Showing posts with label Bergslagen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bergslagen. Show all posts
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Happy 2009!
Almost one week of 2009 has passed and Sweden is getting ready for a new year of work and relaxation. Hopefully, you had some good Christmas Holidays. We spent it in the North of Sweden, enjoying the winterweather and lacking internet access.
For now, I started slowly with some hours of work yesterday evening. Today, an official holiday in Sweden (Three Kings, 13 days after Christmas, aka Epiphany), I worked some hours. Many things have to be done again, starting with the essay I have to write for the course in GeoClassics. I aim at investigating the concepts of livsform (introduced by Höjrup in 1983), and linking it to Livestyle migration. Also, I am thinking of exploring some classics in Migration research; Ravenstein, Zipf, Hägerstrand and the like. In doing so, I should get a better understanding of the eras in Human Geography, from the 1880s to the end opf the 20th Century, with the Humanist era getting most attention.
This essay will probably also serve as a good starter for an intensive week in Norrköping, starting 19 January. At the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), I will attend a course called Theories and Politics of International Migration. A lot of reading needs to be done, but fortunately, most of this is sent to us in pdf format by e-mail. It seems to be a well-organised course, as accomodation is booked for us, and we can receive a student grant to cover the travel costs.
After this course, for which a paper is compulsory, I will have to focus on 2 scientific articles, a congress in Örebro in March (Sustainable Cities and Regions) and of course lecturing. Besides this, I will attend courses about Interview Methods and Cultural Heritage in the Bergslagen Area.
A lot of work, but from Midsommar onwards, I will be on paternity leave to spend half a year at home with my son!
have a happy 2009,
/Meimer (see also my Dutch blog @ volkskrantreizen)
For now, I started slowly with some hours of work yesterday evening. Today, an official holiday in Sweden (Three Kings, 13 days after Christmas, aka Epiphany), I worked some hours. Many things have to be done again, starting with the essay I have to write for the course in GeoClassics. I aim at investigating the concepts of livsform (introduced by Höjrup in 1983), and linking it to Livestyle migration. Also, I am thinking of exploring some classics in Migration research; Ravenstein, Zipf, Hägerstrand and the like. In doing so, I should get a better understanding of the eras in Human Geography, from the 1880s to the end opf the 20th Century, with the Humanist era getting most attention.
This essay will probably also serve as a good starter for an intensive week in Norrköping, starting 19 January. At the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), I will attend a course called Theories and Politics of International Migration. A lot of reading needs to be done, but fortunately, most of this is sent to us in pdf format by e-mail. It seems to be a well-organised course, as accomodation is booked for us, and we can receive a student grant to cover the travel costs.
After this course, for which a paper is compulsory, I will have to focus on 2 scientific articles, a congress in Örebro in March (Sustainable Cities and Regions) and of course lecturing. Besides this, I will attend courses about Interview Methods and Cultural Heritage in the Bergslagen Area.
A lot of work, but from Midsommar onwards, I will be on paternity leave to spend half a year at home with my son!
have a happy 2009,
/Meimer (see also my Dutch blog @ volkskrantreizen)
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Decemberstress
December is always a busy month, but this year seems to beat all other years! First of all, our little son is growing and exploring his new world endlessly, which naturally takes much energy from us, the parents. It is lovely though!
Second of all, at works the creativity just expands and expands, and at the moment I am planning my text for the course GeoClassics, as well as the chapter about the Dutch Impressions of Bergslagen for the reader Bilder av Bergslagen.
Moreover, I am planning to attend a course called Politics and Theories of International Migration in Norrköping in the middle of January, for which an article will have to be written as an assignment. this article can be combined with the article that I wanted to write anyway, by the working title "Mapping The Orange Wave" - more news to come. Also, I would like to finish a 1st version of my 2nd article before the summer holidays.
And last but not least, a working group (including myself) at the university has been busy attempting to start a Section for PhD Students at Örebro Student Union see the Result at DokSek.
Also, have a look at t he menu on the left of this page, scroll down a bitt and take a look at Swedish tv item 3, or at the websites under the header other blogs & sites. With the new report by the Swedish National Agency for Rural Development, a lot is happening, not least in Bergslagen!
Second of all, at works the creativity just expands and expands, and at the moment I am planning my text for the course GeoClassics, as well as the chapter about the Dutch Impressions of Bergslagen for the reader Bilder av Bergslagen.
Moreover, I am planning to attend a course called Politics and Theories of International Migration in Norrköping in the middle of January, for which an article will have to be written as an assignment. this article can be combined with the article that I wanted to write anyway, by the working title "Mapping The Orange Wave" - more news to come. Also, I would like to finish a 1st version of my 2nd article before the summer holidays.
And last but not least, a working group (including myself) at the university has been busy attempting to start a Section for PhD Students at Örebro Student Union see the Result at DokSek.
Also, have a look at t he menu on the left of this page, scroll down a bitt and take a look at Swedish tv item 3, or at the websites under the header other blogs & sites. With the new report by the Swedish National Agency for Rural Development, a lot is happening, not least in Bergslagen!
Monday, 3 November 2008
Fieldwork - Interviews
In the first week of October, I did some fieldwork in my research area; Bergslagen. Hällefors, Ljusnarsberg, Nora, Ludvika and Smedjebacken have seen my face. I interviewed Dutch migrants there, as well as people from organisations such as Region Dalarna and Placement. It were fruitful days and I now will try to transcribe the 7 interviews, as a valuable empirical part of my coming articles.
Keep an eye on this site and some Academic Magazines such as Population, Place and Space and you might see my name there :) Also, I started a new blog in Dutch @ meimer.volkskrantreizen.nl. More detailed info can be found there!
More info will follow, from our yearly Conference for PhD Students for example.
Keep an eye on this site and some Academic Magazines such as Population, Place and Space and you might see my name there :) Also, I started a new blog in Dutch @ meimer.volkskrantreizen.nl. More detailed info can be found there!
More info will follow, from our yearly Conference for PhD Students for example.
Sunday, 18 May 2008
Dissertation (part 2)
After the first Seminar about our Research Proposals in November (see previous post), it was time for our second Seminar on 7 May. This was also our final one for this year, which means that our texts are analysed a bit more thoroughly and that the comments are a bit more spicy. If you want to read my text, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment on this blog and I will be happy to provide you with it. Thank you, all Swedish colleagues that read the text, and Dutch friends that also showed interest :)
It was a good day, this 7th of May. I first commented on Andreas' text, "The city in the city"; a text in the history discipline, outlining his plans for research in the place within society of the Philadelphia Church in Stockholm in the 20th Century. After that, it was Majas turn to provide my text with comments. Her general critique was that my Research Design is quite ambitious and that I need to think of the practical framework, mostly time and energy. I might have written a bit too enthusiastically about the different theories behind my research and the different methods that I want to use and the high number of interviews that I want to conduct. Other comments were that it might not be possible to measure the social and cultural impacts of 30 Dutch families in a municipality of 7,500 inhabitants over a period of just a few years.
However, I also received clear back-up for my ideas about writing a compilation thesis and the structure that I chose, basing the Thesis on a trilogy of articles comprising 1st the ideas behind attracting Dutch migrants from the side of the Bergslagen municipalities; 2nd the decision making process on the side of the Dutch households; and 3rd the impacts of the settling of the Dutch families in Bergslagen, both on the municipalities and on the households.
Overall, I received many good tips and some useless ones. In combination with the Network Day that we had a week later in Stockholm, it feels like a good end of the first year - Dissertation-wise. More about the Network Day soon!
/Meimer
It was a good day, this 7th of May. I first commented on Andreas' text, "The city in the city"; a text in the history discipline, outlining his plans for research in the place within society of the Philadelphia Church in Stockholm in the 20th Century. After that, it was Majas turn to provide my text with comments. Her general critique was that my Research Design is quite ambitious and that I need to think of the practical framework, mostly time and energy. I might have written a bit too enthusiastically about the different theories behind my research and the different methods that I want to use and the high number of interviews that I want to conduct. Other comments were that it might not be possible to measure the social and cultural impacts of 30 Dutch families in a municipality of 7,500 inhabitants over a period of just a few years.
However, I also received clear back-up for my ideas about writing a compilation thesis and the structure that I chose, basing the Thesis on a trilogy of articles comprising 1st the ideas behind attracting Dutch migrants from the side of the Bergslagen municipalities; 2nd the decision making process on the side of the Dutch households; and 3rd the impacts of the settling of the Dutch families in Bergslagen, both on the municipalities and on the households.
Overall, I received many good tips and some useless ones. In combination with the Network Day that we had a week later in Stockholm, it feels like a good end of the first year - Dissertation-wise. More about the Network Day soon!
/Meimer
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Seminar in Eskilstuna
The first conference that I participated in as a PhD student was in Eskilstuna, at a campus of Mälardalen University. It is quite close to Örebro, about one hour by train in the direction of Stockholm. I combined the trip with a visit to Eric, whom I interviewed for my brother's website about wintersport: www.onlinewintersport.nl.
The next day, Thursday 18 October, it was time for the conference so I went o meet colleague Max at the venture: IdéLabben, at the Institute for Innovation, Design and Productdevelopment, close to the central station. The day started at 10 am, lasted until 4 pm and we heard a lot of speakers from different fields. One of the most interesting was Maths Isacsson, who has conducted research in Bergslagen for 35 years. He talked about the projects in teh region, what it meant for the regional cultural heritage and the restructuring plans. Being an industrial area in decline, the region profited from EU's Structural Funds, especially after Sweden joined this Union in 1995.
Now, as in many other deprived areas in Europe, buzz-words around which the discourse focuses are Cultural Industries and Experience Economy. He spoke about the changing image - or rather images - of Bergslagen in media, with the local inhabitants and in Sweden.
Other speakers were a journalist, businessmen, researchers from other regions such as Norrbotten and even a guest speaker from Newcastle, a city situated in an industrial restructuring area. There was even a short discussion about the arrival of Dutch families to Bergslagen and what it means for local politics when an entrepreneur from abroad wants to turn a forrestcottage into a restaurant for instance. The cottage in the forrest has been abandoned for years without anyone really taking an interest, but when some small sized enterprise wants to buy it in order to commercialise it, this can cause many protests!
There was a short movie about the history of Bergslagen and the local culture of male blue collar workers resisting education and creativity. This, together with the usual networking and a lecture by an art and image scientist about a painter that painted these stereotypical heavy industy images (Johan Ahlbäck) made that he conference was well worth visiting.
Now, off to Åkerby for the next conference!
The next day, Thursday 18 October, it was time for the conference so I went o meet colleague Max at the venture: IdéLabben, at the Institute for Innovation, Design and Productdevelopment, close to the central station. The day started at 10 am, lasted until 4 pm and we heard a lot of speakers from different fields. One of the most interesting was Maths Isacsson, who has conducted research in Bergslagen for 35 years. He talked about the projects in teh region, what it meant for the regional cultural heritage and the restructuring plans. Being an industrial area in decline, the region profited from EU's Structural Funds, especially after Sweden joined this Union in 1995.
Now, as in many other deprived areas in Europe, buzz-words around which the discourse focuses are Cultural Industries and Experience Economy. He spoke about the changing image - or rather images - of Bergslagen in media, with the local inhabitants and in Sweden.
Other speakers were a journalist, businessmen, researchers from other regions such as Norrbotten and even a guest speaker from Newcastle, a city situated in an industrial restructuring area. There was even a short discussion about the arrival of Dutch families to Bergslagen and what it means for local politics when an entrepreneur from abroad wants to turn a forrestcottage into a restaurant for instance. The cottage in the forrest has been abandoned for years without anyone really taking an interest, but when some small sized enterprise wants to buy it in order to commercialise it, this can cause many protests!
There was a short movie about the history of Bergslagen and the local culture of male blue collar workers resisting education and creativity. This, together with the usual networking and a lecture by an art and image scientist about a painter that painted these stereotypical heavy industy images (Johan Ahlbäck) made that he conference was well worth visiting.
Now, off to Åkerby for the next conference!
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