| 101. |
- Philipson, Joakim, 1958-
(författare)
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The Purpose of Evolution : the 'struggle for existence' in the Russian-Jewish press 1860-1900
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In late 19th century Russia, Darwinism was viewed as a measuring-rod of modernity. Thus, the Jewish reception of Darwinism may serve as an indicator of the extent to which the Jews in Russia were part of the modernization of Russian society. But the Darwinian concept of evolution of species through natural selection is considered incompatible with a teleological worldview, including a God-given plan for creation. This thesis addresses a twofold problem. One concerns the difficulties of reconciling Darwinism with Judaism and its traditional view of a God-given purpose in creation. The other problem is to explain the possible motives of the Jewish intellectuals for using Darwinian concepts such as the ‘struggle for existence’ in journal articles in the emerging Russian-Jewish press. The study employs discourse analysis, and the concept of isomorphism from institutional theory, for the examination of key concepts, citations, implied readers and purposes in a selection of journal articles from the Russian-Jewish press of the period 1860-1900. Contrasting with the lively general Russian debate on Darwinism, the results show that the Jews in Russia were rather reluctant to discuss Darwinism in the Russian-Jewish press. Censorship, other constraints and imminent problems facing the Jews, such as defence against growing anti-Semitism, are indicated as possible causes of the minimal evidence of a Jewish reception of Darwinism that was found. It was only to the extent that Darwinian concepts such as the ‘struggle for existence’ could be employed to address these more pressing issues that they were they found useful in a Jewish context. The results further imply that the integration between Russian and Jewish intellectuals during this period was weak, as reflected by the insignificant number of references to Russian sources in the selection of Jewish journal articles that were examined.
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| 102. |
- Poikolainen Rosén, Anton, 1992-
(författare)
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Noticing nature : exploring more-than-human-centred design in urban farming
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis articulates, theorises and furthers the concept of “more-than-human-centred design” by studying the use and design of technology for noticing nature and caring for nature. The emerging field of more-than-human-centred design focuses on the mutual interdependence between humans and non-humans (e.g. organisms such as animals, plants and microbes, as well as autonomous technologies). It is a step away from seeing other organisms as inferior to humans or valuable only as resources. This implies that design research frameworks and methods need to be remade. How can we design for and with other organisms? What needs to be accommodated in a paradigm that allows for more-than-human-centred design? What are concrete design examples and implications of this kind of thinking? In short, there is a need to investigate what it means to design for more-than-human worlds.This is investigated in the thesis through a series of studies and design experiments, including ethnography (participant observation, interviews, surveys and workshops), design projects (design ideation, development and analysis of prototypes) and design critique of existing artefacts. Most of these studies are conducted within a four-year ethnography of a regenerative urban farming community in Stockholm, Sweden.The thesis draws on posthuman theory. This theory examines the implications of expanding concern and subjectivities beyond the human, and aims to understand the human subject and its relationship to the world in a non-anthropocentric light. Phenomenological analysis is further applied to articulate and understand the human-technology-nature relationship as it is experienced first-person.The thesis contributes an articulation of a more-than-human-centred design programme. Here, two design implications are suggested, “expanding the sensible” and “design for sensory-rich experiences”. Methods for noticing the more-than-human world are suggested, along with principles for designing for and with other organisms, such as finding leverage points in systems and providing a scaffold for naturally occurring processes. The meaning of “design”, “the designer” and “the user” is discussed. Lastly, a manifesto for more-than-human-centred design is proposed.
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| 103. |
- Polanska Vergara, Dominika, 1980-
(författare)
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The emergence of enclaves of wealth and poverty : A sociological study of residential differentiation in post-communist Poland
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the fall of communism, some crucial political, economic and social changes have been taking place in the former communist societies. The objective of the thesis is to examine the processes of residential differentiation taking place in the urban landscape of the Polish city of Gdańsk after the introduction of the capitalist system. The focus is on different forms of residential differentiation and the social, economic and historical factors behind these forms. The empirical material that forms the basis of the thesis consists of interviews, newspaper articles, a questionnaire, official (national and local) reports and documents.Study I examines the way in which different social, economic, historical and physical conditions coincide in the formation of space and the processes of decline in the period of transformation in Poland. The focus lies on a specific residential area in the center of Gdańsk and the lack of improvements in this particular area, which would stop its successive decline.Study II explains the emergence of gated communities in the post-communist urban context and discusses the reasons for their increasing numbers and popularity. The main argument is that the popularity of gated communities is tightly intertwined with the communist past, emerging in reaction to the housing conditions that prevailed under communism.Study III investigates how social class markers are constructed in the discourse on gated communities in post-socialist Poland. The “new” capitalistic system, with its inherent social divisions, is described in the discourse as creating demands for “new” forms of housing, where gates function as separators, protectors and class identifiers.Study IV concentrates on the support for the formation of gated communities in the legal and regulatory framework in Poland since 1989. The paper asserts that the outcome of liberal politics and legal regulation in the country is the neglect of spatial planning and imprecise urban policies.
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| 104. |
- Porsani, Juliana
(författare)
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Livelihood Implications of Large-Scale Land Concessions in Mozambique : A case of family farmers’ endurance
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the process and the implications of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) for local livelihoods, especially the livelihoods of those who make a living from farming. These individuals were historically known as peasants and are now more commonly referred to as smallholders, small-scale farmers or family farmers. What happens to their livelihoods as land under their control is allocated to investors?Promoters of LSLAs stress that when land acquisitions are preceded by community consultations, there may be synergism between investors’ activities and local livelihoods. Accordingly, local farmers are expected to gain from, for example, closer ties to the market and new livelihood alternatives such as formal employment. Differently, critical voices contend that despite sound legislation on the matter, in practice LSLAs constitute drivers of dispossession, being therefore disguised land grabs. This research seeks to fill a knowledge gap on the immediate local livelihood implications of LSLAs. By employing a case study design in Mozambique (one of the countries targeted by recent LSLAs), this thesis adds empirical evidence that is crucial to the above-named theoretical debate involving LSLAs.The analyzed case is pivoted by a Chinese company that in 2012 was granted 20,000 hectares in the lower Limpopo region. Despite legislation that asserts the legality of customary land occupation, in practice, land was seized without adequate consultation and compensation. Consequently, local farmers lost the most fertile areas. Nonetheless, farmers were able to regain or maintain access to farmland that was more peripheral and of worse quality. Concomitantly, the company generated a small number of jobs and created a contract farming scheme that, despite bottlenecks, benefited farmers who were able to handle risk. In general, families who lost land and those who entered the contract farming scheme strive to keep a foothold on farmland – a strategy that is partly explained by the economic rationale of seeking to meet the consumption needs of current and future generations. Additionally, family land is embedded with symbolic value (illustrated, for example, by individuals’ relations with ancestors buried in family land). The existence of symbolic and thus immaterial values that land embodies poses insurmountable challenges to the idea that it is possible to achieve fair compensation for the loss of land and the environment in general.This study shows the renewed pressure (now through the hands of private actors backed by public efforts) placed on family farmers, derived livelihood trends (i.e., the overall precarization of family farming, the widening of economic inequality, and the feminization of poverty), and family farmers’ continuous endurance. Ultimately, this study illustrates local processes and livelihood implications of LSLAs in Mozambique, and likely also in contexts marked by similar democratic deficits and renewed incursions over valuable land that is intensively used.
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| 105. |
- Rehnberg, Hanna Sofia, 1973-
(författare)
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Organisationer berättar : Narrativitet som resurs i strategisk kommunikation
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The subject of this thesis is the communicative practice of strategic storytelling. The aim of the study is to analyse how storytelling is used and handled by organizations to reach comprehensive organizational goals. Within the all-embracing cultural context of modern Western society, here discussed through the concept of the new economy, strategic storytelling is explored in four areas: organizational discourses of strategic storytelling, narrativity as a resource to create and express values connected to the organization, storytelling as a practice of recontextualization and storytelling as an interactive tool. The data consists mainly of strategic stories but also of interviews, observations and documents collected from four Swedish organizations: two companies, a municipality and a congregation of the Church of Sweden. Applying a narratological, social semiotic and dialogical perspective the study investigates how narrativity is used by organizations as a resource to create identification and relations with and among stakeholders.The analyses in the study indicate that meaning is created in different layers. The structural resources of stories are used in various combinations to make organizations appear in specific ways in different situations. Furthermore, the picture of the organization is shaped not only by the stories themselves but also by the very fact that the organization is using storytelling. The potential of recontextualization that is characteristic of narratives is shown to be essential in offering possibilities of identification and a sense of community through storytelling. Furthermore, the fact that a story is told by an individual is shown to play a crucial role in creating a personalized picture of the organization.In strategic storytelling the interpersonal function seems to dominate over the ideational. This is a major finding of the analysis. More specifically, ideation is used as a tool to create interpersonal relations. The study also indicates that strategic storytelling comes with different possibilities and complications depending on what kind of organization is using it. Moreover, it is proposed that narrative as a form of communication fits perfectly within the broader cultural context of the new economy, characterized by commercialization, informalization, individualization and management practices founded on the strategic use of values.
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| 106. |
- Rindzeviciute, Egle, 1978-
(författare)
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Constructing Soviet Cultural Policy : Cybernetics and Governance in Lithuania after World War II
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Efter första världskriget var Sovjetunionen en av de första moderna stater som uttryckligen ägnade sig åt att övervaka och styra kulturen, vilket tog sig formen av en formaliserad och institutionaliserad statlig kulturpolitik. I denna övervakningsoch styrningsprocess försåg vetenskap och teknologi staten med konceptuella och materiella resurser vilka användes för att definiera såväl själva processen som föremålet för den. Efter andra världskriget gav utvecklingen inom naturvetenskap och teknik upphov till en ny vetenskap som behandlade frågor kring kontroll och kommunikation, Norbert Wieners cybernetik, vilken fick en bred tillämpning inte enbart inom ingenjörsvetenskapen utan även i frågor som rörde förståelsen av människor, maskiner och samhällen. Denna avhandling undersöker hur cybernetiken påverkade utformningen av den sovjetiska kulturpolitiken. Fokus ligger särskilt på sovjetiska Litauen. Det huvudsakliga argumentet är att en särskilt inflytelserik diskurs rörande cybernetisk styrning och övervakning utformades i Sovjetunionen från 50-talet och framåt. Som ett resultat av en överföring från tekniska och vetenskapliga diskurser var denna diskurs användbar inte bara som ett verktyg för att tjäna staten utan kunde även användas av kulturella aktörer för att kritisera själva sovjetsystemet. Genom att analysera organisatoriska praktiker och officiella och samhälleliga diskurser avslöjar denna studie komplexiteten i förhållandet mellan styrning och övervakning, kultur och vetenskap och teknologi.
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| 107. |
- Ringarp, Johanna
(författare)
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Professionens problematik : lärarkårens kommunalisering och välfärdsstatens förvandling.
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- On 8 December 1989, the Swedish Parliament resolved that the state regulation of teaching positions would be terminated beginning on 1 January 1991. The parliament’s decision came on after fierce debates that took place in both teacher staff rooms and in public in 1989. Almost 20 years later, the reform still gives rise to controversy, and current political debates also touch on the possibility of once again centralizing schools. Some view the reform as the beginning of the schools’ decline and the de-professionalization of the teaching profession, while others praise the skillful union work. The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the development of the welfare state, with a special focus on the educational area, and to examine how changes in the control system affected the teaching profession’s room for maneuver. The dissertation provides evidence of de-professionalization of those teacher groups that previously hewed closest to the classic ideals of the profession. Teachers also believed that the status of their profession had diminished with the elimination of the state regulation of teaching positions, and that they had become just another group of people employed by the municipality. In this instance, the sense of de-professionalization was linked to the fact that historically teachers were among the few individuals in society who had a formal education and thereby retained a certain social authority and acceptance. Another conclusion is that the municipalization of the teaching profession was not an impulsive decision but rather one of the Social Democrats’ long-term goals. During the post-war period, the welfare state had established a solid foothold in Sweden. Regardless of their political leanings, the Swedish people had supported the notion that the state would take care of education and health care, and a strong, centralized bureaucracy came into being. In the 1970s and 1980s the strong state was increasingly criticized by both the right and the left. Moreover, the thinking of the times, which focused on increased individualization and privatization, was fueled by management ideas that influenced the West. Instead of traditional regulation, goal- and result-oriented regulation started to control the public services. In the spirit and pace of the times a financial group within the Social Democratic party called into question the welfare expansion of previous generations. By advancing the idea that the municipalities’ financial situation was better than that of the state, both the decentralization enthusiasts outside of the party and those within the Social Democratic Party who considered the municipalities to be the foundation of the welfare state, went along with the decision to municipalize the teaching staff.
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| 108. |
- Rodin, Johnny
(författare)
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Rethinking Russian Federalism : The Politics of Intergovernmental Relations and Federal Reforms at the Turn of the Millenium
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In Russia federalism and the design of federal institutions have been greatly debated topics ever since the beginning of the 1990s. When the newly elected Russian president Vladimir Putin introduced a number of federal reforms in May 2000 it represented the culmination of a debate on federalism that had been triggered by the political and economic crisis of 1998. In many ways these reforms entailed a different perspective on federalism, or in the terminology of this thesis a new “federal paradigm”, from the one that had dominated most of the Yeltsin era. At the same time the relations between federal and regional authorities, often referred to as intergovernmental relations, appeared to become less confrontational and fragmented than before. This work examines this latest stage in the Russian state-building process.In particular two elements are scrutinized. The first is the shift of federal paradigms that the federal reforms reflected. Combining organisation theory and historical institutionalism it is argued that the origins of federal paradigm shifts often can be traced to the federal system itself. In Russia the failure of the federal system manifested through the political and economic crisis of 1998 changed many governmental actors’ views on federalism. However, it was not until Putin became president that the new federal paradigm could consolidate.The second element concerns the connections between the new federal paradigm and the mode of intergovernmental relations. This work presents the argument that the way in which federalism is interpreted and conceptualised by governmental actors is important for the variation of intergovernmental relations across and within federal systems. Deriving from federal theory and some comparisons with other federal systems it is concluded that the federal paradigm that Putin represented in his first presidential term was on the whole more conducive for coordinate intergovernmental relations, at least in the short term.
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| 109. |
- Ross Solberg, Anne
(författare)
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The Mahdi Wears Armani : An Analysis of the Harun Yahya Enterprise
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The prolific Turkish author Harun Yahya attracted international attention after thousands of unsolicited copies of his large-format and lavishly illustrated book Atlas of Creation were sent free of charge from Istanbul, Turkey, to schools, universities and state leaders worldwide in 2007. This book stunt drew attention to Islamic creationism as a growing phenomenon, and to Harun Yahya as its most prominent proponent globally. Harun Yahya is allegedly the pen name of the Turkish author and preacher Adnan Oktar. Behind the brand name “Harun Yahya”, a highly prosperous religious enterprise is in operation, devoted not merely to the debunking of Darwinism, but also to the promotion of Islam. Backed by his supporters, Oktar channels vast financial resources into producing numerous books, dvds, websites and lately also television shows promoting his message.The aim of this dissertation is to shed light on the Harun Yahya enterprise by examining selected texts published in the framework of the enterprise. It describes, analyzes and contextualizes four key themes in the works of Harun Yahya, namely conspiracy theories, nationalism/neo-Ottomanism, creationism and apocalypticism/Mahdism. The dissertation traces the development of the enterprise from a religious community emerging in Turkey in the mid-1980s to a global da‘wa enterprise, and examines the way in which its discourse has changed over time.The dissertation’s point of departure is the notion that the Harun Yahya enterprise and the ideas it promotes must primarily be understood within the Turkish context from which it emerged. Drawing on analytical frameworks from social movement theory and rhetorical analysis as well as contemporary perspectives on Islamic da‘wa and activism, the study approaches Harun Yahya as a religious entrepreneur seeking market shares in the contemporary market for Islamic proselytism by adopting and adapting popular discourses both in the Turkish and global contexts. It examines how the Harun Yahya enterprise employs rhetorical and argumentative strategies in order to promote not merely a certain interpretation of Islam, but also increasingly Adnan Oktar and the Harun Yahya enterprise itself, by rhetorically placing its efforts into a cosmological framework.
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| 110. |
- Rydback, Michelle, Doktorand, 1976-
(författare)
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Healthcare Service Marketing in Medical Tourism : An Emerging Market Study
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Medical tourism (MT) enables patients to satisfy their healthcare needs by traveling outside their country of residence to obtain medical treatment. The increasing number of scientific publications, different countries’ engagement in providing care for foreigners, and patients heading abroad to receive healthcare indicate the growth and popularity of MT. This industry’s development exposes the healthcare sector to a competitive environment. As a result, marketing has become a significant part of healthcare providers’ operations and survival. Research into how these providers promote their services is limited. This limitation is further apparent for healthcare providers located in less popular destinations, such as emerging market (EM) countries. This dissertation therefore focuses on MT service providers in an EM, the Philippines.This study aims to examine how service providers in an EM country market healthcare services internationally. This thesis consists of four articles. Through qualitative case-based research, this study concentrates on hospitals, clinics, and medical tourism facilitators that play a central role in service delivery within the MT industry. The results from this thesis show that to efficiently market healthcare, service providers have to build trust, establish reliable networks, and offer customized and supplementary services.This dissertation is positioned to contribute to relevance and diversity in service marketing research and the budding healthcare service marketing while sustaining MT literature through studying service providers in an EM context. Although this study was based on one EM, it offers an in-depth understanding of how the marketing of healthcare services is being implemented. This knowledge is not only important for the practicing medical tourism destination countries, but also for patients, managers, policymakers, and researchers in the patients’ home country. Future studies could focus on the perspective of consumers. Accordingly, this study is an initial step toward a deeper understanding of the marketing of commercialized healthcare.
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