Opin vísindi
Opin vísindi er varðveislusafn vísindaefnis og doktorsritgerða í opnum aðgangi á vegum íslenskra háskóla og Landsbókasafns Íslands - Háskólabókasafns.
Opinn aðgangur að rannsóknaniðurstöðum er í samræmi við 10. gr. laga nr. 3/2003 um opinberan stuðning við vísindarannsóknir sem og kröfur innlendra og erlendra rannsóknasjóða. Markmiðið með opnum aðgangi er að niðurstöður rannsókna séu aðgengilegar sem flestum óhindrað og án endurgjalds á rafrænu formi. Vistun í varðveislusafninu er varanleg og ætlað að tryggja aðgang að vísindaefni íslenskra háskóla í opnum aðgangi um ókomna tíð. Varðveislusafnið Opin vísindi er tengt við rannsóknagáttina IRIS og rannsóknaniðurstöður í opnum aðgangi sem eru skráðar í IRIS eru um leið vistaðar og gerðar aðgengilegar til framtíðar í varðveislusafninu. Með því að safna þessu efni saman í eitt safn verður aðgangur að því einfaldur og þægilegur fyrir alla sem vilja kynna sér það og geta þannig notið þess öfluga vísindastarfs sem fram fer í háskólum landsins.
Varðveislusafnið er OpenAIRE / OpenAIREplus samhæft og samrýmist kröfum sem gerðar eru um birtingu rannsóknaniðurstaðna úr verkefnum sem styrkt eru úr evrópsku rannsóknaáætlununum FP7 og H2020.
Varðveislusafnið notar opna hugbúnaðinn DSpace.
Opinn aðgangur að rannsóknaniðurstöðum er í samræmi við 10. gr. laga nr. 3/2003 um opinberan stuðning við vísindarannsóknir sem og kröfur innlendra og erlendra rannsóknasjóða. Markmiðið með opnum aðgangi er að niðurstöður rannsókna séu aðgengilegar sem flestum óhindrað og án endurgjalds á rafrænu formi. Vistun í varðveislusafninu er varanleg og ætlað að tryggja aðgang að vísindaefni íslenskra háskóla í opnum aðgangi um ókomna tíð. Varðveislusafnið Opin vísindi er tengt við rannsóknagáttina IRIS og rannsóknaniðurstöður í opnum aðgangi sem eru skráðar í IRIS eru um leið vistaðar og gerðar aðgengilegar til framtíðar í varðveislusafninu. Með því að safna þessu efni saman í eitt safn verður aðgangur að því einfaldur og þægilegur fyrir alla sem vilja kynna sér það og geta þannig notið þess öfluga vísindastarfs sem fram fer í háskólum landsins.
Varðveislusafnið er OpenAIRE / OpenAIREplus samhæft og samrýmist kröfum sem gerðar eru um birtingu rannsóknaniðurstaðna úr verkefnum sem styrkt eru úr evrópsku rannsóknaáætlununum FP7 og H2020.
Varðveislusafnið notar opna hugbúnaðinn DSpace.
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“What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The Role of Gender in Time Used on Care, Love and Work among Doctorate Holders
(2026-05-22) Hjálmsdóttir, Andrea; Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir; Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology and Folkloristics (UI); Félagsfræði-, mannfræði- og þjóðfræðideild (HÍ); School of Social Sciences (UI); Félagsvísindasvið (HÍ)
Over the last few decades, the share of doctorate degrees earned by women has increased considerably. Despite this trend, there is a scarcity of studies addressing gender disparities among doctorate holders, working within and outside academia. Although accounting for a relatively small portion of the labour force, doctorate holders' experiences are important, as they can provide an important insight into how well-educated people who often enjoy privileged working arrangements and flexibility, negotiate gender roles at home and in the workplace. The main aim of the research introduced in this thesis was to gain a better understanding of how and if time used on care, love labour and work, influences gendered outcomes on the career trajectories of doctorate holders working within and outside academia.
The findings draw on quantitative and qualitative research data. In terms of quantitative data longitudinal individual register data from Iceland between 1997 and 2017 was used and the population analysed were doctoral graduates holding five to 20-year-old degrees. The average total earnings of male and female doctorate holders were compared in relative values, either depending on their field of study or employment within or outside academia. The findings based on the qualitative data are derived from two datasets: the first dataset comprised 32 open-ended interviews conducted with doctorate holders in Iceland, 16 men and 16 women, working within and outside academia; the second dataset comprised open-ended interviews with five men and five women working in a higher education institution in British Columbia, Canada.
The findings from the quantitative study reveal a continuous gender gap in total earnings between the fifth and the tenth career years, regardless of the field of study or whether employment is within or outside academia. The novelty from the findings based on the qualitative data is mainly two folded: firstly, it provides multifaceted findings on work-family balance among doctorate holders working within and outside academia. The academics expressed more complex feelings about their daily lives than those working outside academia. The findings suggest that women, academics especially, experience limitless, boundaryless and invisible labour, both at home and at work, causing them considerable stress, while the men, within and outside academia, can selectively distance themselves from burdening caring roles at home and at work. Despite all the participants enjoying privileged working arrangements and flexibility, the participants in this research described having difficulties drawing lines around working hours. This applied especially to the participating academics, who, despite enjoying the most working arrangement flexibility, described working in a 'greedy' institution that absorbed all their time.
Secondly, the findings offer a new insight into the different, yet strikingly similar, realities of academics in Iceland and Canada. This is a new perspective, to my knowledge. The most significant national difference observed in the findings was that welfare policies and having access to the extended family, played a role in career decisions among Icelanders. However, the similarities among Canadians and Icelanders in terms of stress experienced were remarkable, as the institutional structures of the academia as a workplace tailor the academics' working life very closely. The success of Iceland in terms of gender equality compared to Canada, is undermined by the structures of higher education institutions that demand long working hours and commitment and fosters competition.
The study offers new insights by leveraging love labour and care as theoretical tools for analysing work-family balance and the career trajectories of doctorate holders working in and outside academia. Despite advancement in gender equality and implementation of several initiatives to advance gender equality by the government of Iceland, the findings of this thesis reveal highly traditional gendered division of labour among doctorate holders, illustrated by the fact that undertaking primary care is not central to men's identity. Such divisions of labour are maintained by patriarchal organizational structures and gendered power relations, resulting in highly gendered outcomes both at home and in the workplaces
Citizen trust in local government in the Nordic Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2024-11-01) Baldersheim, Harald; Haug, Are Vegaard; Eyþórsson, Grétar Þór; Vegard Haug, Are; Faculty of Business Administration
This chapter examines trust in local government among Nordic citizens after more than two years of pandemic and concomitant government interventions in citizens’ daily lives. It has been widely assumed that citizens’ pandemic experiences have jeopardised their trust in government and have most likely led to a decline in trust. Is this also the case in the Nordic countries? Or have the traditionally high levels of trust observed in the North – sometimes referred to as ‘the Nordic gold’ (Andreasson 2017) – survived the pandemic and even possibly been augmented? These are the core issues addressed in this chapter. The analyses presented here go beyond many previous studies of trust by contextualising the issue of trust explicitly within the pandemic experiences of individual citizens and by focussing especially on trust in local institutions. In a comparative perspective, local government is of particular importance in the Nordic countries (Ladner et al. 2019). As demonstrated in previous chapters, the pandemic disrupted local government operations across the board and required adjustment and flexibility to keep a minimum of services running. Local government is the level of government where citizens are most likely to have had the closest encounters with public authorities and their handling of the pandemic. Therefore, charting citizen trust in local government is likely to yield the most reliable account of what citizens’ experiences were like in their encounters with government institutions during the pandemic.
Voter turnout in local elections – the impact of municipal amalgamations. : A study of 28 cases in Iceland
(2025-12-16) Eyþórsson, Grétar Þór; Faculty of Business Administration
In this article I deal with analyzing whether amalgamations of municipalities do affect the voters‘ participation in elections when it comes to the new merged municipality. I use data from six different local government elections in Iceland; the elections 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. I have looked at 28 different municipal amalgamations implemented under that period with 102 municipalities involved. The main question is if the voter turnout in these amalgamated municipalities changes, not least due to the impact of size on democracy. Municipal population size is considered to have a negative effect on democracy as stated in the classic work of Dahl and Tufte (1973). I use accessible data from Statistics Iceland (www.hagstofa.is). The main result is that there is no clear evidence that increased size of municipality through amalgamations ultimately leads to lower voter turnout. However, what is found is that voter turnout seems to go down in pure urban amalgamations and tends to go up in pure rural amalgamations. Communities that are structurally and culturally similar, seem to develop in the same direction looking at voter turnout.
Civic engagement and trust among immigrants in Iceland
(2026-03-01) Eythórsson, Grétar Thór; Guðmundsson, Birgir; Faculty of Business Administration; Faculty of Social Sciences
The composition of the Icelandic population has undergone a considerable transformation in a relatively short period of time. A medley of different cultural influences brought about by an increased number of immigrants has coloured the traditionally monolithic and culturally homogeneous Icelandic society. In early January 2025, immigrants constituted some 18,9 per cent of the total population, and their number had been rising considerably over the previous two decades, their number being some 7,4 per cent of the total population in 2012. The largest number of immigrants reside in the capital area in Iceland and represent 67,7 per cent of all immigrants. However, the proportion of immigrants among the population in different regions of the country is considerable, about 33 per cent in the South -West peninsula (Suðurnes) and some 24,5 per cent in the Westfjords (Vestfirðir) (Statistics Iceland, 2025). In this paper, we aim to establish how these massive demographic changes impact the civic culture in Iceland. We assess, with the help of specifically designed indices constructed based on empirical data, the extent to which immigrants in Iceland have become part of the civic culture upon which the Icelandic democratic society rests. As far as we know, this is the first time empirical – numerical criteria have been applied to the civic engagement of immigrants in Iceland. The definition of immigrants follows the one used by Statistics Iceland and defines an immigrant as a person who was born abroad and has both parents and grandparents born abroad (Statistics Iceland, 2018). Immigrants in Iceland come from all over the world, although the largest single group comes from Poland (Statistics Iceland, 2025). Thus, they bring with them a variety of new ideas and cultural traditions, some of which are highly visible such as restaurants and culinary cultures, while other ideas might be more hidden such as their attitudes towards the role of government or civic engagement.
Amalgamation reforms in Iceland : How strategies have shaped conflicts and outcomes
(2026-03-01) Eythórsson, Grétar Thór; Faculty of Business Administration
Municipal amalgamation reforms tend to meet resistance and opposition from the municipalities involved. Such territorial reforms can lead to great changes for the municipalities, as well as their inhabitants, since some may have had their jurisdictional boundaries for a long time. Therefore, it is no wonder that conflicts can occur in connection with such reforms (Baldersheim & Rose, 2010). Such shuffling involving not merely municipal boundaries, but also the political landscape, the structure of municipal administration and service delivery, can lead to comprehensive changes for everyone involved. The Norwegian political scientists Baldersheim and Rose (2010) argue that whether such or suggested changes will lead to conflicts can depend on the strategies used during implementation. They also connect this with the institutional context – national and local – and presented an analytical framework in which institutional context determines both the choice of reform strategy and the pattern of conflicts arising from the reform. All this then determines the outcome. Steiner et al. (2016) examined patterns of conflict related to territorial reforms in European countries using this framework. They based their investigation on surveys among experts in 11 European countries. Their main findings were that top-down initiatives and comprehensive reforms were more likely to trigger conflicts and resistance, while more incremental and bottom-up-oriented approaches would probably engender less struggle and defiance, if any. In this article, I take a closer look at Iceland, one of the eleven countries from the Steiner (et al. 2016) study, and use Baldersheim and Rose’s (2010) framework to analyze two cases of municipal structure reforms. Specifically, the Icelandic national authorities have twice tried to implement a comprehensive territorial reform at the local level. This has been done by setting up referendums in majority of the municipalities, first in 1993 and later in 2005. Neither of these reforms (or reform attempts) ended up being successful. To better explain what brought about these outcomes I address the following research questions: What reform strategies were used in the municipal structural reforms in Iceland 1993 and 2005? Were there any conflicts connected to them and if so, what kind of conflicts? Which were the outcomes of these reforms and can they be seen as consequences of the strategies that were used and the conflicts that came up?
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