SKIPPER SCIENCE:

This research examines success in fishing from perspectives of science studies and the sociology of work, emphasizing the common elements between the processes of fishing, creative work and scientific practice. It focuses on the expertise of the fishing skippers as they attempt to enhance their fishing success by assessment of evidence, framing of questions and inventing ways to answer these questions. In the process they set and solve problems to deal with uncertainties and uniqueness. It is shown how the skippers develop their knwledge by recording and analyzing data, systematic observation and limited experimentation. The findings demonstrate the importance of craft work and skill in the innovative process and thus bridge the gap between sociology of work and the social studies of science.     

THE INTEGRATIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SPORT PARTICIPATION: A Study of Adolescents

The integrative and physiological effects of sport participation are investigated using data from a national survey of Icelandic adolescents. Focusing on mental health and health related behavior, the study shows more benefit from club sport than informal group sport, and, in turn, individual sport. As the physiological perspective suggests, beneficial effects are largely due to strenuousness of exercise. However, findings also suggest that club sport has an integrative effect when predicting positive aspects of mental health, an effect limited to urban communities, as comports with social integration theory.     

VIOLENT VALUES, CONDUCT NORMS, AND YOUTH AGGRESSION: A Multilevel Study in Iceland

The subculture of violence approach suggests that group adherence to values and norms that encourage violence influence aggressive behavior through two analytically separate processes: (1) internalization of values encouraging violence, and (2) social control stemming from others' adherence to conduct norms. While some attention has been paid to the former process, the research has rarely addressed the latter. We examine the individual-level and contextual effects of values that encourage violence and perceived conduct norms on youth aggression in Iceland. The results indicate that group adherence to violent values and norms influences aggression through social control as well as internalization (socialization), lending cross-cultural support to the subculture of violence perspective.