N I S A L - National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life

Elisabet Cedersund

As one of our university’s leading communication researchers and one of our institute’s founders, Elisabet’s research interests have shaped the profile of our doctoral program. Known for her many contributions to the study of how everyday talk is transformed into institutional discourse, her research is often cited when Swedish communication studies in welfare settings are concerned. She has contributed, in other words, to the field of discourse studies by way of the numerous empirical endeavors that she has lead through the years. This is perhaps why she coordinated the Nordic Network on Communication Studies within Social Work, which the Nordic Academy for Advanced Study (NORFA) funded back in the late 90’s.

Her career started, however, a decade earlier since it was when she began studying how dialogues between citizens and municipal employees – such as social workers – shape the manner in which case management procedures develop that her work became known. Her focus on both text and talk makes her research unique, as is the fact that she has consistently shed empirical light on the ways in which a variety of institutional categories are produced and reproduced in assessment talk. Her interest in the construction of ‘social problems’ and ‘individual needs’ through everyday talk and institutional discourse has become her trademark, as are her contributions to our understanding of case management within social, health and elderly care.

The lists of projects she has conducted through the years is rather large but some of them seem particularly interesting to mention since they might provide some insight into the variety of empirical settings to which she has applied the discursive perspective: meetings between people with dementia and their elderly care providers; studies of how social pedagogical theory can contribute to our understanding of elderly people’s everyday life; the analysis of work achievement and salary negotiation- talks between trade union representatives and employers in the public sector.

In terms of grants and project leadership it seems also necessary to mention that Elisabet has been the primary investigator for a variety of research projects through the years. She has held grants from – among others - the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), the Vardal Foundation for Health Care Sciences and Allergy Research (Vårdalsstiftelsen) and the former Swedish Council for Work Life Research (Rådet för arbetslivsforskning). Of interest is also the fact that the width of her expertise has made her one of our most sought after supervisors for doctoral projects in communication. At present, she supervises Ph. D. candidates (within social gerontology; social medicine; caring sciences; education research and within the field of disability studies) and is also involved in the supervision of practitioners who work within the Swedish-Norwegian partnership – which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - for the development and transmission of competence on alternative methods within health and social care services.