Media discourses about marginalized areas are often dominated by narratives of male violence and crime, issues that have attracted considerable attention in previous research. The purpose of this study is instead to explore media portrayals of girls and young women living in marginalized suburban areas in Southern Stockholm, in order to extend existing knowledge about the specific opportunities and obstacles that women face. The study uses an intersectional perspective and the concept of territorial stigmatization together with a critical discourse analysis. It is based on the analysis of 474 media texts published over the past 40 years. Two recurrent topics in the media portrayals were identified: safety and “take space” (“ta plats” in Swedish). In the articles on these topics, we identified underlying dilemmas of responsibility – who is responsible for girl’s and young women’s safety and taking space? In relation to such dilemmas, two frequently occurring positions for girls and young women could be discerned; those of victims and/or enablers. On the one hand, girls and young women are not depicted as responsible for the problems often associated with marginalized areas, such as crime and violence, but rather as the victims of such problems. On the other hand, they are portrayed as having various other responsibilities, not only for themselves but also for other girls, and even for their parents, in relation to taking space. In conclusion, girls and young women are faced with two types of discourses, shaped by their gender, age and the place they live, which we argue can be understood as specific forms of the concept of territorial stigmatization — territorial victimization and territorial responsibilization.

Covid-19 började som en hälsokris och växte snabbt till en omfattande samhällskris – i det privata och offentliga livet, nationellt och internationellt, lokalt och globalt. Syftet med denna artikel är att bidra med kunskap om människors oro under covid-19-pandemins första fas i Sverige. Oro studeras utifrån sociodemografiska faktorer, socialt kapital samt människors bedömningar av nationella åtgärder och potentiella hot. Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgår från begrepp och teorier om oro och socialt kapital. Data samlades in i Sverige under april–maj 2020 med hjälp av en webbaserad enkät om människors erfarenheter av covid-19-pandemin. Genom multipel regressionsanalys och multipel korrespondensanalys fann vi att graden av oro är nära kopplad till bedömningen av nationella åtgärder som felaktiga, samt till uppfattningen att själva viruset covid-19 är det största hotet (i jämförelse med ekonomiska eller sociala konsekvenser av pandemin). Dessa faktorer var även relaterade till högre ålder, kronisk sjukdom samt lågt socialt kapital. Artikeln pekar på ett behov av mer sociologisk forskning – både kvantitativ och kvalitativ – om pandemins olika konsekvenser i vardagslivet.

Stockholmsregionen växer och utvecklas. Regionen förväntas växa med ytterligare cirka en miljon invånare fram till år 2050. Fler människor måste dela på stadens utrymmen och resurser. Stockholms ytterområden – där de flesta bor och kommer att bo – förtätas och rustas upp. Hur bygger vi då ett hållbart Stockholm, ett samhälle där alla kan få plats, delta, trivas och må bra?

BACKGROUND: Russian suicide mortality rates changed rapidly over the second half of the twentieth century. This study attempts to differentiate between underlying period and cohort effects in relation to the changes in suicide mortality in Russia between 1956 and 2005.

METHODS: Sex- and age-specific suicide mortality data were analyzed using an age-period-cohort (APC) approach. Descriptive analyses and APC modeling with log-linear Poisson regression were performed.

RESULTS: Strong period effects were observed for the years during and after Gorbachev's political reforms (including the anti-alcohol campaign) and for those following the break-up of the Soviet Union. After mutual adjustment, the cohort- and period-specific relative risk estimates for suicide revealed differing underlying processes. While the estimated period effects had an overall positive trend, cohort-specific developments indicated a positive trend for the male cohorts born between 1891 and 1931 and for the female cohorts born between 1891 and 1911, but a negative trend for subsequent cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the specific life experiences of cohorts may be important for variations in suicide mortality across time, in addition to more immediate effects of changes in the social environment.

BACKGROUND: Depression is a major health problem worldwide, especially among women. The condition has been related to a number of factors, such as alcohol consumption, economic situation and, more recently, to social capital. However, there have been relatively few studies about the social capital-depression relationship in Eastern Europe. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the association between different forms of social capital and self-rated depression in Moscow. Differences between men and women will also be examined, with a special focus on women.

METHODS: Data was obtained from the Moscow Health Survey, which was conducted in 2004 with 1190 Muscovites aged 18 years or above. For depression, a single-item self-reported measure was used. Social capital was operationalised through five questions about different forms of social relations. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to estimate the association between social capital and self-rated depression, separately for men and women.

RESULTS: More women (48 %) than men (36 %) reported that they had felt depressed during the last year. An association was found between social capital and reported depression only among women. Women who were divorced or widowed or who had little contact with relatives had higher odds of reporting depression than those with more family contact. Women who regularly engaged with people from different age groups outside of their families were also more likely to report depression than those with less regular contact.

CONCLUSIONS: Social capital can be a mixed blessing for women. Different forms of social relations can lead to different health outcomes, both positive and negative. Although the family is important for women's mental health in Moscow, extra-familial relations across age groups can be mentally distressing. This suggests that even though social capital can be a valuable resource for mental health, some of its forms can be mentally deleterious to maintain, especially for women. More research is needed on both sides to social capital. A special focus should be placed on bridging social relations among women in order to better understand the complex association between social capital and depression in Russia and elsewhere.