Martin Gustavsson

My research is historical oriented. Thematically it is close to sociology of education, sociology of culture and economic sociology.

One theme is about how external resources of various kinds influence the behavior of organizations. An example of this type of research is the funding of higher education in Sweden before and after the economic crises of the early 1970s and 1990s, and the organizational consequences of increasing/decreasing grants.

Another theme concerns class-determined choices in consumption markets. How do different types of resources – economic and cultural capital – affect the buying behavior of individuals? I have, for instance, studied the polarized choices of economic and cultural elites in the art market, at the time of the socio-economic crisis of the 1930s with sharpened conflicts in society.

A third theme deals with the rationalization of labour processes and the organization of markets. Examples of this research are Taylorization of office work after the 1930s crisis and hyper-rationalization of the product control in consumer markets after the crises of the early 1970s and 1990s.
 

Publications

Selected from Stockholm University publication database (DiVA)

Examples of Sociology of Education

• Gustavsson, Martin (2023), ‘Hur humaniora och samhällsvetenskaperna blev fattiga. Att styra genom ämnesklassificeringar och resurstilldelning’ in Li Bennich-Björkman, Sverker Gustavsson & Mats Lindberg (eds) Hålla huvudet kallt. Om distanserat engagemang i en uppjagad tid, Göteborg: Daidalos, pp. 275–329.
  
  The chapter analyzes how the classification model for higher education, established in 1958 and still effective in its basic features, in conjunction with increasingly less generous financial models (see below), has resulted in a problematic situation for the humanities and social sciences.
  
  Read more about Hur humaniora och samhällsvetenskaperna blev fattiga: Att styra genom ämnesklassificeringar och resurstilldelning (diva-portal.org)
   
• Gustavsson, Martin (2022), ‘Från automatisk uppräkning till automatiska avdrag. Finansieringsmodeller för högre utbildning 1958–2021’, Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, (1), 103–124.
  
  The text analyzes changing financial and savings models for higher education which, in conjunction with the 1958 persistent classification model (see above), have become increasingly problematic for the humanities and social sciences.
  
  Read more about Från automatisk uppräkning till automatiska avdrag: Finansieringsmodeller för högre utbildning 1958–2021 (diva-portal.org)
   
• Gustavsson, Martin (2021) ‘From dismantling the class society to investing in human capital. The rise and fall of the selective student finance system in Sweden 1939–1964’, Nordic Journal of Educational History, 8 (2), 187–218.
  
  Preserved index cards of state scholarship recipients at Uppsala University are used in an analysis of a successful state effort to change the social recruitment to higher education in the period 1939–1964.
  
  Read more about From dismantling the class society to investing in human capital : The rise and fall of the selective student finance system in Sweden 1939–1964 (diva-portal.org)

Examples of Sociology of Culture

• Gustavsson, Martin (2023), ‘Class-Determined Taste for Gothenburg Colourists and Stockholm Colourists: A Comparison’ in Kristoffer Arvidsson (ed.) Wonderful Colour. Gothenburg Colourism in a New Light, Stockholm: Appell Förlag, pp. 166–180, 376–378.
  
  A Bourdieu-inspired analysis of taste polarities within the upper class in the 1930s, based on an examination of the sales records of various art galleries.
  
  Read more about Class-Determined Taste for Gothenburg Colourists and Stockholm Colourists : A Comparison (diva-portal.org)
   
• Gustavsson, Martin & Andreas Melldahl (2020), ‘The social closure of the cultural elite. The case of artists in Sweden, 1945–2004’ in Francois Denord, Mikael Palme & Bertrand Réau (eds), Researching Elites and Power. Theory, Methods, Analyses. Cham: Springer, pp. 223–239.
  
  An increasingly narrow social recruitment to top positions in various parts of the Swedish art field over time is analyzed with the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s field concept and sources about groups that populate prestigious schools and galleries.
  
  Read more about The social closure of the cultural elite: The case of artists in Sweden, 1945–2004 (diva-portal.org)
   
• Gustavsson, Martin (2019), ‘A vanguard claiming ground – Swedish artists on the market and within the state 1930–1955’, in Benedikt Hjartarson, Andrea Kollnitz, Per Stounbjerg & Tania Ørum (eds), A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries 1925–1950, Leiden: Brill Rodopi, pp. 597–614.
  
  An investigation of conflicts between artists with different gallerists (in a field of cultural production) and art consumers with different assets and taste (in a field of consumption) and the staffing of the Public Art Agency Sweden (the field of higher state administration) with resourceful artists, gallerists, and art consumers.
  
  Read more about A vanguard claiming ground: Swedish artists on the market and within the state 1930–1955 (diva-portal.org)

Examples of Economic Sociology

• Gustavsson, Martin & Katharina Rahnert (2023), ‘Reglering i takt med tiden. Revisionslagstiftning i ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv 1895–1995’ in Katharina Rahnert & Peter Öhman (eds) Revision – i går, i dag och i morgon, Stockholm: Ekerlids förlag, pp. 64–95.
  
  Against the background of how Swedish audit legislation has been related to overall socio-economic development trends and capitalist crises, the process behind new regulation in 1895 and 1944 is analyzed in detail.
  
  Read more about Reglering i takt med tiden: Revisionslagstiftning i ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv 1895–1995 (diva-portal.org)
   
• Arnberg, Klara, Gustavsson, Martin & Tamm Hallström, Kristina (2022), ‘Under the influence of commercial values. Neoliberalized business-consumer relations in the Swedish certification market, 1988–2018’, Enterprise and Society, 24 (3), 647–675.
  
  Changing ways of regulating consumer markets is examined: from state test labs’ physical control of companies’ products to private certification companies’ language-oriented control of companies’ formulations about how their management systems are supposed to work.
  
  Read more about Under the Influence of Commercial Values: Neoliberalized Business-Consumer Relations in the Swedish Certification Market, 1988-2018 (diva-portal.org)
   
• Gustavsson, Martin (2021), ‘En konsthalls materiella förutsättningar. Om Baumols dilemma och organisatorisk glömska 1923–2020’ in Andréas Hagström (ed.) Göteborgs Konsthall. En hundraårig konsthistoria, Göteborg och Lund: Göteborgs Konsthall och Null & Void Books, pp. 217–256.
  
  A study of cultural financing that discusses Baumol’s dilemma – the difficulties of increasing productivity, without quality reductions, in a sector with ever-increasing costs – and the paradox that the source material situation deteriorates as the zeal for measurement and documentation increases.
  
  Read more about En konsthalls materiella förutsättningar : Om Baumols dilemma och organisatorisk glömska 1923–2020 (diva-portal.org)

Show all publications by Martin Gustavsson at Stockholm University