Sustainability Issue #3 October 2009

This is printed from sustainability.formas.se, last updated 9/17/2009 12:33:26 PM

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How did the research turn out? What were the findings? Researchers themselves report briefly on the research they have undertaken with funding support from the Formas Research Council.

Editor: Margaretha Nordahl

Immigrant entrepreneurs in the urban built environment

Relations between entrepreneurship, property management and the urban built environment which support viable development
Gabriella Olshammar (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Department of Conservation, Göteborg University.
Email: gabriella.olshammar@icug.gu.se

There is a clear political intention to make it easier for immigrants to become integrated into Swedish society, one of the manifestations of which is an interest in their taking their place in working life as entrepreneurs. However, in this context it is seldom that reference is made to buildings and premises and the fact that the business must be located somewhere. Questions of location, the type of premises and the way the businesses are treated by the landlords are not looked into in greater detail.

The objective of this project was to investigate the significance of the urban built environment for the opportunities that immigrants have to become entrepreneurs and thus more integrated into Swedish working life. The task came to be limited to an investigation of how some players have formulated their support for entreneurship and integration. The key result is that there is similarity between the social projects and activities to create integration and entrepreneurship, on the one hand, and between property management and entrepreneurship on the other hand. Both are activities where increased professionalisation has resulted in a certain degree of stereotypification of those being supported. The research shows that the supporting activities, in general, are based on narrow ideas of how the successful business should function, how the integrated immigrant should behave and the needs which the tenants of premises have. Projects and activities offer to all the same kinds of solutions which have been defined by those who provide the support, and which are not based on the competence which the recipient of the support has. At the same time, there are options where generative business environments have developed spontaneously without any supportive activities or projects. A large availability of premises of different standards and rent levels is a potential that can be relied on to at least the same degree as support activities and specifically targeted projects.

New and improved methods for the detection of foodborne viruses
Jonas Blomberg (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Academic Hospital, Uppsala University.
Email: jonas.blomberg@medsci.uu.se

Foodborne infection is a serious problem. The aim of this project was therefore to create rational and sensitive methods for the detection of such viruses. It was also the intention to create methods that are specially suited for analyses of foods in large volumes of samples.

A novel food safety approach – in situ repression of microbial virulence
Peter Rådström (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Chemistry Centre, Lund University.
Email: peter.radstrom@tmb.lu.se

Every year, a large number of people fall ill through eating foods infected by microorganisms. The Swedish Food Administration estimates that 500,000 people in Sweden are affected every year, which is estimated to cost society at least MSEK 1000. In order to prevent and predict the occurrence of pathogenic microorganisms in food, new strategies must be applied.

Owing to the new molecular biology which is based on the entire genome of the organism, there has been a breakthrough in our knowledge of the ability of microorganisms to cause disease. This knowledge can in future be used in improving quantitative microbial risk analyses and in formulating foods which subdue the ability of microorganisms to cause food poisoning. The safety of foods can in this way be controlled in a way that is completely different from that before.

Traditionally, the risk of food poisoning is evaluated with reference to the prevalence and levels of pathogenic microorganisms. It is however not the organisms as such that make us ill, but their ability to generate harmful substances and to infect and circumvent our immune defence system, i.e. their virulence factors and virulence mechanisms. Recent research has shown that virulence can be rapidly changed and spread further to wildly different species. Care should therefore be taken in assuming that a certain type of virulence is associated with a certain species. It is therefore not enough to analyse only the prevalence of certain species in food, but this must be complemented with virulence analyses. The degree of virulence is also influenced by the food environment of the microorganism.

Responsible for this page: Birgitta Bruzelius

Journal links

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