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  4. Mattias Bengtsson

Mattias Bengtsson

Senior Lecturer

Department of Sociology and Work Science
Telephone
+46 31-786 47 78
Mail
mattias.bengtsson@socav.gu.se
Visiting address
Skanstorget 18
41122 Göteborg
Room number
F412
Postal address
Box 720
40530 Göteborg

About Mattias Bengtsson

Background

Since August 2024, I have held a part-time position as Professor of Sociology with a focus on the development of working life and welfare, Department of Working Life and Social Welfare, University of Borås. However, my main location is the University of Gothenburg, where I have been an associate professor of sociology since 2013. I am an Associate Professor in sociology since 2013, and I received my PhD in sociology from the University of Gothenburg in 2008 on the thesis Individen stämplar in. Arbetet, union och lönen i sociologisk belysning. The book studies individualization processes in Swedish working life, especially from a class perspective.

Research areas

My main research areas are in labour market and welfare research. I have studied issues related to opportunities and obstacles for transnational trade union cooperation within the EU, the working poor in a European perspective, the Swedish work line and how it is expressed in changes in active labour market policies and in unemployment and sickness insurance systems, and reforms in the Swedish Public Employment Service and their consequences for case workers and clients. My research has often taken departure from issues of social inequality, particularly from a class perspective. For example, I have studied social class in relation to issues such as the individualisation of working life, social comparisons, social mobility, class identification, attitudes towards trade unions and political attitudes. Over the past decade, in a collaboration with Marita Flisbäck, I have developed a sociology of existence perspective in relation to studies of individuals' meaning-making in the retirement process, orientations to work as a calling, and older workers' competencies and existential driving forces for prolonged working lives; see, e.g., "A sociology of existence for a late modern world. Basic assumptions and conceptual tools" (https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12416). In 2021-2025, I am working on a research study comparing policy changes and labour market effects of the pandemic in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I also study labour market/welfare challenges of green transition in a six-year FORTE programme. Iin addition, I have a strong commitment to leading, developing and reviewing new research - I am regularly hired as a reviewer of dissertation texts and I am the main supervisor of five PhD students in sociology and work science at the University of Gothenburg.

My page on Research Gate: Mattias Bengtsson (researchgate.net)

Teaching and supervision

I am responsible for a sociology course, where different aspects of social inequality and living conditions are studied. During the last decade I have taught in the Work Science programme, in areas such as labour market policy, European industrial relations and have been the course leader for the "Degree project in labour studies" (bachelor level). I have also previously taught on various sociology and social psychology courses, as well as on programmes such as the Human Resources Programme, the Teacher Programme, the European Programme and the Nursing Programme.

I am the main supervisor for Sophie Banasiak, PhD student in work science, Kristin Opaas Haugli, PhD student in work science, and Irene Hedfors, licentiate student in sociology.

I have collaboratively published several textbooks. For example, together with Tomas Berglund, I am the editor and author of the third and revised edition of the book Arbetslivet (Lund, Studentlitteratur, 2017).

Collaboration and academic assignments

I am a member on the board of the Centre for Research on Work and Employment/WE at the University of Gothenburg and on the editorial board of the Swedish working life journal Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv. In addition, I am the organizer, together with Karin Allard, of the Working Life and Welfare Seminar at the Department, and research group leader of the Research Group Working Life and Welfare in Transition at the University of Borås.