| 1. |
- Jukkala, Tanya, 1981-
(författare)
-
Suicide in Russia : A macro-sociological study
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This work constitutes a macro-sociological study of suicide. The empirical focus is on suicide mortality in Russia, which is among the highest in the world and has, moreover, developed in a dramatic manner over the second half of the 20th century. Suicide mortality in contemporary Russia is here placed within the context of development over a longer time period through empirical studies on 1) the general and sex- and age-specific developments in suicide over the period 1870–2007, 2) underlying dynamics of Russian suicide mortality 1956–2005 pertaining to differences between age groups, time periods, and particular generations and 3) the continuity in the aggregate-level relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality from late Tsarist period to post-World War II Russia. In addition, a fourth study explores an alternative to Émile Durkheim’s dominating macro-sociological perspective on suicide by making use of Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems. With the help of Luhmann’s macro-sociological perspective it is possible to consider suicide and its causes also in terms of processes at the individual level (i.e. at the level of psychic systems) in a manner that contrasts with the ‘holistic’ perspective of Durkheim. The results of the empirical studies show that Russian suicide mortality, despite its exceptionally high level and dramatic changes in the contemporary period, shares many similarities with the patterns seen in Western countries when examined over a longer time period. Societal modernization in particular seems to have contributed to the increased rate of suicide in Russia in a manner similar to what happened earlier in Western Europe. In addition, the positive relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and suicide mortality proved to be remarkably stable across the past one and a half centuries. These results were interpreted using the Luhmannian perspective on suicide developed in this work.
|
|
| 2. |
- McWilliams, Anna, 1975-
(författare)
-
An Archaeology of the Iron Curtain : Material and Metaphor
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Iron Curtain was seen as the divider between East and West in Cold War Europe. The term is closely connected to the Cold War and expressions such as ‘behind the Iron Curtain’ or ‘after the fall of the Iron Curtain’ are common within historical discussions in the second half of the twentieth century. Even if the term was used regularly as a metaphor there was also a material side with a series of highly militarised borders running throughout Europe. The metaphor and the material borders developed together and individually, sometimes intertwined and sometimes separate.In my research I have carried out two fieldwork studies at sites that can be considered part of the former Iron Curtain. The first study area is located between Italy and Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia) in which the division between the two towns of Nova Gorica on the Slovenian side and Gorizia on the Italian side was investigated. The second study area is located on the border between Austria and Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) within two national parks. A smaller study was also carried out in Berlin as the Berlin Wall is considered of major importance in the context of the Iron Curtain. This research has resulted in large quantities of sources and information and a constant need to re-evaluate the methods used within an archaeology of a more recent past.This thesis falls within what is usually referred to as contemporary archaeology, a fairly young sub-discipline of archaeology. Few large research projects have so far been published, and methods have been described as still somewhat experimental. Through my fieldwork it has been possible to acknowledge and highlight the problems and opportunities within contemporary archaeology. It has become clear how the materials stretch both through time and place demonstrating the complex process of how the material that archaeologists investigate can be created. The material of the Iron Curtain, is also well worth studying in its own right.
|
|
| 3. |
- Aasmundsen, Hans Geir, 1967-
(författare)
-
Pentecostalism, Globalisation and Society in Contemporary Argentina
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In Argentina, Pentecostalism had a breakthrough in the early 1980s, and today more than 10 per cent of the population are Pentecostals. The revival coincided with a socio-political transformation of Argentinean society. After half a century of dictatorships and Peronism, democracy was restored, and structural changes paved the way for a certain “autonomisation” of politics, law, economy, science and religion. The "new" form of society that developed resembles what in this study is called a Western model, which to a large degree is currently being diffused on a global scale. This work examines the new religious sphere and how Pentecostals relate to society at large, and the political and judicial sphere in particular.Social systems theory and an idea of communication as constitutive of social spheres, such as religious, political and judicial ones, form the theoretical foundation for the study. Methods that have been used are fieldwork, interviews and analyses of written material. It is concluded that evangelisation and transformation are of major concern to Pentecostals in contemporary Argentina and that this follows a global trend. Evangelisation has always been important to, even a hallmark of, Pentecostalism. What has become as important is the urge for transformation, of the individual, the family and society. This leads to increased socio-political engagement. However, Pentecostals do not have a “fixed” idea of how society should be organised, i.e., they do not yet have a full-fledged political theology, a public theology or what could be called a Pentecostal ideology. This is mainly because they experience a lack of “compatibility” between the Pentecostal and the political communication. Their approaches to socio-political concerns seem to be based on an understanding of certain “values” as the fundamental building block of society.
|
|
| 4. |
- Feldmann Eellend, Beate, 1971-
(författare)
-
Visionära planer och vardagliga praktiker : Postmilitära landskap i Östersjöområdet
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the years after WWII the Baltic Sea Area developed into an area strongly divided between East and West. Because of the tensions between the blocs, the coastal areas where strongly militarized and prepared for war.The new political situation after 1989 propelled an international military disarmament and closing down of bases, training areas around Europe. Since the Baltic Sea Area was one of the heaviest militarized part of Europe the question of disarmament here is of particularly great economic, social and cultural importance.This study is about the post-military landscape in the Baltic Sea Area with examples from Dejevo on the Estonian island Saaremaa, Dranske on the (East)German island Rügen and Fårösund on the Swedish island Gotland.The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the process where the military landscape of the Cold War is transformed in order to be incorporated in the macro-regional endeavors for unity in the new Europe. I want to analyze the implications that planning visions have on the everyday life of people. A following aim is to shed light on the challenges that urban planning has to face in this transformation. Three research questions frame the study. The first question analyzes the process where the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea after the end of the Cold War are disarmed and transformed, from a landscape of production of military services and objects into a landscape of consumption for recreation and tourism. The second question takes its point of departure in the relation between planning visions and everyday life. The third question concerns the matter of the past and analyzes what aspects of the military landscape are emphasized respectively pushed aside in the transformation into post-military landscape.The study is based on interviews with inhabitants and local planners as well as macro-regional and local planning documents, articles and photographs.
|
|
| 5. |
- Fröhlig, Florence, 1971-
(författare)
-
Painful legacy of World War II: Nazi forced enlistment : Alsatian/Mosellan Prisoners of War and the Soviet Prison Camp of Tambov
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation concerns the legacy of the Nazi forced enlistment during World War II and focuses more precisely on the case of Alsace/Moselle. Many of these French men, enlisted by force from 1942 in the German army, were sent to the Eastern Front and experienced Soviet prison camps.The aim of this thesis is to examine how knowledge and memories about forced enlistment and Soviet captivity have been remembered, commemorated, communicated and passed on since the Alsatian/Mosellan POWs (Prisoners of War) carried the tokens of enemies or traitors when reintegrating their motherland, France.Four strategies dealing with the experiences of forced enlistment and of internment in Soviet prison camps are examined. I present how the first and most common strategy, i.e. avoidance, is contributing to an individual and collective construction of silence. Then I argue that a second strategy, the constitution of families of remembrance, is helping them to articulate and narrate their experiences (third strategy). The fourth strategy is the organisation of pilgrimages (emic term) to the former prison camp of Tambov, where the majority of the Alsatian/Mosellan POWs were gathered during the war. This last strategy actualises the issue of the transmission of the war experiences given that pilgrimages bring together three to four generations. Through fieldwork observations of the journeys I show how the pilgrims engage with a sense of the past. They remember and reassess the meaning of the past in terms of the social, cultural and political needs of the present. The importance of place and the aspect of self-in-place are thoughtfully analysed in order to highlight the process of passing on the memory of Tambov.I conclude by arguing that the agents of remembrance interviewed for the purpose of this thesis are engaged in turning the tangible and intangible legacies of World War II into heritage. This is done by releasing the legacy of forced enlistment and internment in Soviet prison camp from the private/familial sphere and inscribing it in the public sphere. Yet, the agency of the former POWs and their descendants shows how to let pass a past “that does not want to pass” in a contemporary European context.
|
|
| 6. |
- Hemby Elmfeldt, Elisabeth, 1960-
(författare)
-
Historiemåleri och bilder av vardag : Tatjana Nazarenkos konstnärskap i 1970-talets Sovjet
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on the Soviet painter Tatyana Nazarenko and her position as an influential artist in the Soviet Union of the 1970’s, a decade when Nazarenko depicted everyday life and events from Russian history. The main purpose of this thesis is to shed light upon the importance of especially these motifs in their historical, political and aesthetic context. In this way, the thesis is a study of the artist’s work in a contextual perspective. In order to understand the general conditions for Soviet Art in the 1970´s, and Tatyana Nazarenko´s picture world, the official State-regulated Art is given attention, as Socialist Realism came to be the normative frame of reference for artistic life and the individual artists. Artistic life in the Soviet Union was well regulated and official Art dominated from the early 1930´s until the collapse of the Soviet Union, while especially during the 1970´s, became subjected to so-called unofficial Art, also known as underground. The unofficial, as well as the official Art, became important for Tatyana Nazarenko, for, while not belonging to either side, she came to have a constant relationship with them. She belonged, however, to a small art circle, balancing between the official direction and criticism of the system, later known as permitted. This thesis clarifies the relationship between what is defined as official, permitted and unofficial Art. In exposing her aesthetic strategies, it is shown in what way she deviates from the official and how far the artist could extend the permitted limitations. On the question of her aesthetic strategies a further question arises of how an awareness of history is expressed in motif and form. Finally, the importance of women’s experience in her picture world is discussed. Picture material in this thesis is composed partly of some thirty works from Tatyana Nazarenko´s own production and partly of works with a contextualized and comparative function, encompassing some fifty works taken from Soviet Art History. A few examples from Western Art History constitute further comparative material. The motifs consist mainly of depictions of historical events and pictures of everyday life i.e. genre pictures.
|
|
| 7. |
- Henriksson, Oskar, 1979-
(författare)
-
Genetic connectivity of fish in the Western Indian Ocean
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An almost unbroken fringing reef runs along the east coast of Africa, the lagoon inside the reef is the foundation of almost all artisanal fisheries. It is a low-tech fishery conducted by many people. Some areas can have up to 19 fishermen per square kilometer. High fishing pressures, coupled with declining fish stocks has led to changes in mean size and reproductive age of many exploited species. There is a vital and urgent need for scientifically based management systems, including the utilization of genetic information to guide management practices.This thesis aims to investigate the presence of genetic structures in the western Indian Ocean. In order to do that we first investigated the historical patterns of connectivity throughout the region (paper I). In papers II and III we focused on local scale connectivity in Kenya and Tanzania and finally in paper IV we investigate the large-scale contemporary gene flow throughout the Western Indian Ocean. In paper III we also investigate the temporal genetic variation at one site and compare it to the small-scale genetic variation along a stretch of the Kenyan coastline. Some overall conclusions that can be drawn from my body of work are: there are genetic structures present in the western Indian Ocean even though the apparent lack of physical barriers. Major oceanic currents aid evolutionary dispersal patterns. A single geographic site need not be genetically homogenous or temporally stable. Island sites are genetically more homogenous than mainland sites.In conclusion, there are clear and distinct genetic structures present especially in Siganus sutor, the most targeted fish for the artisanal fishery in East Africa.
|
|
| 8. |
- Kharkina, Anna, 1975-
(författare)
-
From Kinship to Global Brand : The Discourse on Culture in Nordic Cooperation after World War II
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This work analyzes the political instrumentalization of culture. Specifically, it studies how this is done through cultural policy within Western democracies. The analysis takes, as an example, official Nordic cultural cooperation in the post-war period. During this time, cultural exchange among Nordic countries became the subject of political attention establishing itself as part of the Nordic inter-governmental cooperation framework.This work focuses on three key moments in the history of official Nordic cultural cooperation: (i) the failure of the NORDEK plan (a plan which envisaged extensive economic cooperation between the Nordic countries) and the establishment of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 1971; (ii) the collapse of the Soviet system at the end of the 1980s - beginning of the 1990s; and (iii) the movement towards promoting the Nordic region on the global market in the first decade of the 2000s.The analysis traces the lack of convergence between the official arm’s length principle in cultural policy and how cultural cooperation actually worked. The results of the research both demonstrate the various ways culture was instrumentalized and also prove that the politically defined concept of culture can receive different interpretations in the official discourse depending on current political goals.
|
|
| 9. |
- Lind, Emma, 1974-
(författare)
-
Genetic response to pollution in sticklebacks; natural selection in the wild
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The last century, humans have been altering almost all natural environments at an accelerating rate, including the Baltic Sea that has highly eutrophicated areas and many coastal industries such as Pulp-mills. For animals living in a habitat that changes there are basically two alternatives, either to cope with the change or become locally extinct. This thesis aims to investigate if recent anthropogenic disturbance in the Baltic Sea can affect natural populations on a genetic level through natural selection.First, we found a fine-scale genetic structure in three-spine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations along the Swedish coast (paper I), indicating limited gene-flow between populations in geographic proximity. Different genetic markers, specifically Amplified Fragment Lenght Polymorpism (AFLP, and microsatellites, gave different results, highlighting the heterogeneous character of genomes which demonstrates that it is important to choose a genetic marker that is relevant for the question at hand. With a population genomic approach, and a multilocus genetic marker (AFLP), we detected convergent evolution in genotype composition in stickleback populations living in environments affected by pulp-mill effluent (paper II) and in highly eutrophicated environments (paper III), compared to adjacent reference populations. We found loci, in both studies (paper II, III), that were different from a neutral distribution and thus probably under divergent selection for the habitat differences investigated. The selective effect from pulp-mill effluents were more pronounced, but the two different habitats had mutual characters (AFLP loci). In paper IV, we converted five anonymous AFLP loci to sequenced markers and aligned them to the stickleback genome. Four out of five loci aligned within, or close to, coding regions on chromosome I, chromosome VIII, chromosome XIX and chromosome XX. One of the loci, located on chromosome VIII and identified as under divergent selection in both paper II and III, has been identified in other studies as to be under selection for fresh water adaptation, including Baltic Sea stickleback populations.In conclusion, anthropogenic alterations of natural environments can have evolutionary consequences, probably adaptive, for the animals living there and the evolutionary response exhibited by natural populations can be very fast.
|
|
| 10. |
- Moberg, Jessica
(författare)
-
Piety, Intimacy and Mobility : A Case Study of Charismatic Christianity in Present-day Stockholm
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Stockholm County is a post-industrial Swedish region characterized by high levels of mobility and technologization as well as ethnic and religious diversity. Among its religious minorities exist various strands of charismatic Christianity, some of which originate from the Pentecostal revival of the early 20th century and some of which belong to more recent movements.The aim of this ethnographic study is to examine how affiliates of the multicultural charismatic Christian congregation New Life Church practice religiosity within the context of their personal daily lives, within the framework of the general congregation and in terms of their involvements with other religious organizations in the area of Stockholm.Beginning with the assumption that the practice of contemporary religiosity and the development of a religious identity are part of an ongoing process of habituation, the study describes how practitioners cultivate a form of charismatic piety characterized by certain embodied orientations, patterns of ritualization and narrative genres. To shed further light on this process, it draws upon a variety of theories concerning ritualization, embodiment, performance, narratives and materiality. Apart from this, the study also constitutes an attempt to explore and measure the impact on the practitioners’ religiosity of late modern developments such as urbanization, detraditionalization and global mobility as well as the growing absorption in consumerism, emotional intimacy and the unfolding of the “authentic” inner self.While pursuing these ends, the study also calls into question previous assumptions about charismatic Christianity in Sweden, most particularly the assumption that today’s practitioners remain inclined to be entirely faithful to one given institution and its system of beliefs and practices. Indeed this view is directly challenged herein by the finding that contemporary charismatics are far more inclined to eclectically appropriate elements and models of thoughts from various contexts of origin as well as to affiliate with and/or visit multiple Christian institutions.
|
|
