Documenting the histories, experiences, typologies, and outcomes of older self-employed workers in Sweden

Cal J.

Halvorsen, PhD, MSW is an assistant professor at the Boston College School of Social Work, a project lead and investigator at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, & Well-Being, and a senior research fellow at CoGenerate.

His research focuses on older workers, with emphasis on self-employment, job-training programs, and low-income workers, and has been funded by the U.S.

Social Security Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and AmeriCorps, among others. We have invited Dr.

Halvorsen to visit the research group within the Karolinska Institute’s Unit of Occupational Medicine focused on older workers due to his expertise on vulnerable older workers and knowledge of advanced methodologies, such as quasi-experimental studies and outcome-wide analyses, that complement our own expertise on working conditions, occupational medicine, and psychosocial work exposures among older workers.

We also see an opportunity for Dr. Halvorsen to work with other scholars at the Unit focused on the precarity of work, given Dr. Halvorsen’s focus on the most vulnerable self-employed older workers. A social work researcher, Dr.

Halvorsen will be able to support our efforts in our Forte-funded program, A Sustainable Working Life for All: Challenges and Opportunities.

Specifically, we have discussed analyzing job exposures among older self-employed adults, identifying life-course factors that lead to more successful self-employment outcomes later in life, and developing typologies of self-employed older adults that reflect this group’s diversity. In doing so, we would utilize several large and comprehensive datasets that are only available within Sweden.

He also plans to work with students and scholars to share his expertise on community-engaged research, advanced methodologies, and public scholarship. His visit is planned for mid-March to late-April 2024.