| 11. |
- Aidukaite, Jolanta
(author)
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The Emergence of the Post-Socialist Welfare State - The Case of the Baltic States : Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- 2004
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways.The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research.Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society. Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too. The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families. In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.
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| 12. |
- Andén, Lovisa
(author)
-
Litteratur och erfarenhet i Merleau-Pontys läsning av Proust, Valéry och Stendhal
- 2017
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to explore the relation between literary expression and experience in Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy. The principal focus is Merleau-Ponty’s investigations into literature, in two of his first courses at Collège de France, 1953- 1954: Sur le problème de la parole (On the Problem of Speech) and Recherches sur l’usage littéraire du langage (Research on the Literary Use of Language). While the former remains unpublished, the latter was finally published in 2013. At the time of his premature death, Merleau-Ponty left thousands of pages of working notes. They were supposed to contribute to a major philosophical work, the planned title of which was Être et monde (Being and world). Merleau-Ponty had planned to undertake an extensive examination of language in the last part of the work. However, in the absence of this text, the courses on literary language afford us the possibility of sketching the direction that this research might have taken.The examination of literary language use is, for Merleau-Ponty, made possible by an understanding of language found in Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistics. Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of Saussurean linguistics anticipates the structuralist reading that was later to dominate the intellectual scene. Instead of reading the linguistics of Saussure in opposition to phenomenology, he finds in the former an ally that allows him to think Husserlian phenomenology further.In the course notes, Merleau-Ponty explores the relation between sensible experience and linguistic expressions through close readings of Proust, Valéry and Stendhal. In the writing of Marcel Proust, he finds a writer that perpetually examines his experience, searching for expressions that are capable of bringing it forth. In Stendhal’s writing, Merleau-Ponty finds a literary method that makes the world appear through the “small true facts” that describe it. Finally, in Paul Valéry’s poetic writing he finds a writer superimposing words over other words, in order to create new significations. In their literary writing he finds a capacity to seize the world anew, beyond our habitual preconceptions of it, thus bringing us closer to the experience we already perceive.
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| 13. |
- Andersson, Linus, 1979-
(author)
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Alternativ television : former av kritik i konstnärlig TV-produktion
- 2012
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation analyses social critique, communication critique and aestheticalcritique in television produced by artists. Theoretically it draws on researchon alternative media, TV studies, especially genre analysis and narratology,and media aesthetics. It conducts a text-production study of three examplesof alternative television from the period 2004-2008: ContemporaryArt Center TV (CAC TV): A show produced by the CAC in Vilnius, Lithuaniaand aired on a commercial TV-channel; Good TV who aired video art ona local public access channel in Stockholm, Sweden; and Candyland TV, apirate transmission from an art gallery in central Stockholm.Empirically it builds on TV-texts, web sites and documents, as well asinterviews with participants. Through a study of form and stylistics, relationto conventional genres and modes of narration, it engages in a discussionabout the features of a critical, alternative media text.The study shows how these televisions work in a tradition of alternativetelevision and connects them to tactics and aesthetical forms as found inhistorical examples, but also how this type of formalist media critiquemight inform an understanding of alternative media. From the analysis ofrelations between social and formalist aspects of alternative television, adistinction between alternative as ”alternative worldview” and as ”alternativeexpressions” is suggested, a distinction that contributes to the developmentof theory in the study of alternative media.
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| 14. |
- Andersson, Martin, 1988-
(author)
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Migration i 1600-talets Sverige : Älvsborgs lösen 1613–1618
- 2018
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is a study of migration in the early seventeenth-century Swedish feudal society, and of its migration regime; that is the political, legal and economic structures that shaped the migration patterns. The most important sources are taxation records from Älvsborgs lösen, containing demographic migration data for large parts of the Swedish realm 1613–1618. The migration regime is also studied through sources such as legislation and legal records.Migration rates and migration distances are analysed for households and for servants. Although most migration was short-distance, different social groups had different migration patterns. Further, urban migration patterns, inter-regional and international migration are analysed. Concerning migration rates, the study shows that migration was as common in seventeenth-century Sweden as in other parts of Europe (including England), and also as common as in the nineteenth century. In the thesis, legislation and legal practices concerning the mobility of tenants and servants, as well as concerning urban migration, international migration and forced migration (banishments and deportations) are studied. The study of the migration regime found that since not only rural but ideally also urban production was geographically fixed, regulating migration and population mobility was an important issue within the Swedish feudal society. The results confirm the fundamental importance of migration for the Swedish seventeenth-century feudal society, in which labour was free while the means of production were immobile. Through comparisons with historical research on other regions, this result is evidently not only valid for seventeenth-century Sweden, but may be generalized also for other feudal societies.
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| 15. |
- Andersson, Pernilla, 1969-
(author)
-
The Responsible Business Person : Studies of business education for sustainability
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Calls for the inclusion of sustainable development in the business curriculum have increased significantly in the wake of the financial crisis and increased concerns around climate change. This has led to the appearance of new initiatives and the development of new teaching approaches. This thesis explores business education at the upper secondary school level in Sweden following the inclusion of the concept of sustainable development in the curriculum. Drawing on poststructuralist discourse theory, the overarching purpose is to identify the roles of a responsible business person that are articulated in business education and to discuss how these roles could enable students to address sustainability issues. The thesis consists of four studies, based on textbook analyses, teacher interviews and classroom observations. Three categories of roles have been identified, implying that a business person is expected to either adapt to, add or create ethical values. These three categories are compared with the roles indicated in the environmental discourses constructed by Dryzek and the responsibility regimes developed by Pellizzoni. Drawing on Dryzek’s and Pellizzoni’s reasoning about which qualities are important for addressing sustainability issues, it is concluded that the roles identified in the studies could mean that students are unequipped (the adapting role), ill-equipped (the adding role) or better equipped (the creating role) to address uncertain and complex sustainability issues. The articles include empirical examples that illustrate how and in which situations specific roles are articulated, privileged or taken up. The examples also indicate how the scope for business students’ subjectivities are facilitated or hampered. It is suggested that the illustrative empirical examples could be used for critical reflection in order to enhance students’capabilities of addressing uncertain and complex sustainability issues and to improve educational quality in terms of scope for subjectivity.
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| 16. |
- Annell, Cecilia, 1965-
(author)
-
Begärets politiska potential : Feministiska motståndsstrategier i Elin Wägners Pennskaftet, Gabriele Reuters Aus guter Familie, Hilma Angered-Strandbergs Lydia Vik och Grete Meisel-Hess Die Intellektuellen
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation investigates the way that feminist resistance is expressed in two Swedish and two German so-called New Woman novels from the turn of the twentieth century: Elin Wägner’s Pennskaftet (1910, Penwoman), Gabriele Reuter’s Aus guter Familie (1895, From a Good Family), Hilma Angered-Strandberg’s Lydia Vik (1904), and Grete Meisel-Hess’s Die Intellektuellen (1911).The theoretical apparatus is comprised by the work of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Jacques Lacan, and Jessica Benjamin. By introducing a psychoanalytic and feminist perspective, this dissertation seeks to develop the possibilities for agency and resistance within the framework of Foucault’s theories. It investigates four textual and contextually grounded strategies of resistance that are prominent in these novels: individuality, openness, desire, and eugenics.This study demonstrates how Gabriele Reuter, Grete Meisel-Hess, and Hilma Angered-Strandberg, inspired by the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ellen Key, depict feminine individuality in relation to a scientific and philosophical discourse that specifically denied women individuality. The authors anchor individuality in a corporality that was similarly denied to women by a bourgeois and dogmatic Christian discourse.Openness and wit function as resistance strategies in Elin Wägner’s Pennskaftet. Humorous rejoinders and narrative comments can disarm a conservative. An open attitude towards the emancipation project could also help to resolve the conflicts between different feminist positions and between different women.Desire functions as an important resistance strategy in each of the novels examined. It is variously represented as a vital instinct, a desire for knowledge, and a sexual desire, as in Gabriele Reuter’s Aus guter Familie – or as a desire for suffrage, as in Pennskaftet, or for maternity legislation, as in Grete Meisel-Hess’s Die Intellektuellen. By formulating a notion of feminine desire, turn-of-the-century feminists were able both to seize control of sexuality from the church and to wrest morality from the grasp of the bourgeoisie. These resistance strategies could also have a biopolitical character: in Grete Meisel-Hess’s Die Intellektuellen, woman is placed at the service of humanity on eugenicist grounds, and her good qualities are seen as capable of promoting humanity’s progress.This dissertation shows that in these novels desire at the individual level serves to reinforce feminine subjectivity. Love is seen as associated with an intensified sense of life and as a precondition of creativity. At the social level, desire also functions as the basis for a feeling of solidarity among women that instils in them courage and an urge to persevere in the suffrage struggle, this latter a highly protracted process. In this way desire acquires political potential.A framing chapter on context provides the intellectual and philosophical backgrounds of the various strategies of resistance. It is followed by four analytical chapters, each of which addresses one novel.
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| 17. |
- Asghar, Naveed, 1983-
(author)
-
Ticks and Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus : From Nature to Infection
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Vector-borne diseases are an increasing global threat to humans due to climate changes, elevating the risk of infections transmitted by mosquitos, ticks, and other arthropod vectors. Ixodes ricinus, a common tick in Europe, transmits dangerous tick-borne pathogens to humans. Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a vector-borne disease caused by TBE virus (TBEV). Climate change has contributed to increased tick abundance and incidence of tick-borne diseases, and between 10,000 and 15,000 human TBE cases are reported annually in Europe and Asia. TBEV shows a patchy geographical distribution pattern where each patch represents a natural focus. In nature, TBEV is maintained within the tick-rodent enzootic cycle. Co-feeding is the main route for TBEV transmission from infected to uninfected ticks and for maintenance within the natural foci. The increasing number of TBE cases in Scandinavia highlights the importance of characterizing additional TBEV sequences and of identifying novel natural foci, and in this work we sequenced and phylogenetically characterized four TBEV strains: Saringe-2009 (from a blood-fed nymph), JP-296 (from a questing adult male), JP-554 (from a questing adult male), and Mandal-2009 (from a pool of questing nymphs, n = 10). Mandal-2009 represents a TBEV genome from a natural focus in southern Norway. Saringe-2009 is from a natural endemic focus in northern Stockholm, Sweden, and JP-296 and JP-554 originate from a natural focus “Torö” in southern Stockholm. In addition, we have studied the effect of different biotic and abiotic factors on population dynamics of I. ricinus in southern Stockholm and observed significant spatiotemporal variations in tick activity patterns. Seasonal synchrony of immature stages and total tick abundance are important factors for the probability of horizontal transmission of TBEV among co-feeding ticks. We found that the probability of co-occurrence of larvae, nymphs, and female adults was highest during early summer whereas increasing vegetation height and increasing amounts of forest and open water around the study sites had a significant negative effect on co-occurrence of larvae, nymphs, and female adults.The proximal part of the 3 ́non-coding region (3 ́NCR) of TBEV contains an internal poly(A) tract, and genomic analysis of Saringe-2009 revealed variability in the poly(A) tract indicating the existence of different variants within the TBEV pool of Saringe-2009. Like other RNA viruses, TBEV exists as swarms of unique variants called quasispecies. Because Saringe-2009 came from an engorged nymph that had been feeding on blood for >60 h, we propose that Saringe-2009 represents a putative shift in the TBEV pool when the virus switches from ectothermic/tick to endothermic/mammalian environments. We investigated the role of poly(A) tract variability in replication and virulence of TBEV by generating two infectious clones of the TBEV strain Toro-2003, one with a short/wild-type (A)3C(A)6 poly(A) tract and one with a long (A)3C(A)38 poly(A) tract. The infectious clone with the long poly(A) tract showed poor replication in cell culture but was more virulent in C57BL/6 mice than the wild-type clone. RNA folding predictions of the TBEV genomes suggested that insertion of a long poly(A) tract abolishes a stem loop structure at the beginning of the 3 ́NCR. Next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis of the TBEV genomes after passaging in cell culture and/or mouse brain revealed molecular determinants and quasispecies structure that might contribute to the observed differences in virulence. Our findings suggest that the long poly(A) tract imparts instability to the TBEV genome resulting in higher quasispecies diversity that in turn contributes to TBEV virulence. Phylogenetic analysis of Saringe-2009, JP-296, JP-554, and Mandal-2009 predicted a strong evolutionary relationship among the four strains. They clustered with Toro-2003, the first TBEV strain from Torö, demonstrating a Scandinavian clade. Except for the proximal part of the 3 ́NCR, TBEV is highly conserved in its genomic structure. Genomic analysis revealed that Mandal-2009 contains a truncated 3 ́NCR similar to the highly virulent strain Hypr, whereas JP-296 and JP-554 have a genomic organization identical to Toro-2003, the prototypic TBEV strain from the same natural focus. NGS revealed significantly higher quasispecies diversity for JP-296 and JP-554 compared to Mandal-2009. In addition, single nucleotide polymerphism (SNP) analysis showed that 40% of the SNPs were common between quasispecies populations of JP-296 and JP-554, indicating the persistence and maintenance of TBEV quasispecies within the natural focus.Taken together, these findings indicate the importance of environmental factors for the occurrence pattern of the different life-stages of the tick vector, which are important for the persistence of TBEV in nature. Our findings also show that the selection pressure exerted by specific host also affects the population structure of the TBEV quasispecies. In addition, our results further demonstrate that the evolution of quasispecies has effect on TBEV virulence in mice.
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| 18. |
- Bartonek, Anders, 1977-
(author)
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Philosophie im Konjunktiv : Nichtidentität als Ort der Möglichkeit des Utopischen in der negativen Dialektik Theodor W. Adornos
- 2010
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study "Philosophie im Konjunktiv. Nichtidentität als Ort der Möglichkeit des Utopischen in der negativen Dialektik Theodor W. Adornos" (Subjunctive Philosophy. Nonidentity as the Place for the Possibility of the Utopian in the Negative Dialectics of Theodor W. Adorno) deals with Adorno’s utopian thinking and asks on what it depends and on what it is founded. Moreover, the study asks the question wherein the possibility of fundamental societal change can be found and on what it can be founded. This study develops an answer to these questions through the analysis of the concepts of the nonidentity and the nonidentical – central concepts in Negative Dialectics –, which in the theory of Adorno constitute a place at which thinking and human beings are not fully absorbed by and integrated in philosophical and scientific systems or in the structure of society. Within the nonidentical the subsuming identities of philosophy and society are broken up. Therefore, the possibility of the utopian appears in this break of the identical. Here, the emancipation of the nonidentical could be realized: an emancipation, however, which is made possible in the nonidentical. The utopian thinking and the possibility of the utopian on the one hand, and nonidentity and the nonidentical on the other hand, are – this is the main claim of the study – inseparable. In developing this answer the study also tries to solve a certain problem in the discussion of Adorno’s philosophy, namely the difficulty in connecting the critical dimensions of his thinking - which are dominating his work and directed against the tradition of philosophy (and science) and capitalist society - with its utopian motives, through which he is calling for change in different ways. Finally, it is argued that Adornos’s thinking, which attempts to realize the utopian and to transcend reality on the basis of nonidentity, must be understood as a subjunctive philosophy.
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| 19. |
- Bedford, Sofie
(author)
-
Islamic Activism in Azerbaijan : Repression and Mobilization in a Post-Soviet Context
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Post-Soviet Azerbaijan is often portrayed as a very secular country. Thus the mobilization of mosque communities in the late 1990s and their conflictual relationship with the authorities came as a surprise. The main aim of the dissertation is to shed light on this mobilization, focusing on the Sunni Abu Bakr and the Shi’ite Juma mosque communities in Baku. On the premise that Islamic mobilization may be interpreted as a “social movement”, internal, contextual and interactional aspects of mobilization have been studied. The analysis is chiefly based on interviews conducted in Baku in 2004/2005 with Imams, worshippers, religious and secular authorities. The study finds that young people looking for new approaches to religion have been drawn to these communities, where they encounter an independent, educated, conscientious clergy and, indeed, a “new” religion. This “sovereign” Islam does not go down well with authorities who fear politicization of religion. The Soviet heritage has provided them with a view of religion as something that should not be publicly displayed and with the institutions to control religion. Another key feature whose impact on state policy towards religious organizations cannot be underestimated is the fear of imported radicalism. A look at Islamic mobilization in North Caucasus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reveals many similarities, yet one momentous difference is the harsher repression in these contexts, which decreases the chances of a non-radical mobilization. The thesis concludes that the role of the state in mobilization processes in non-democratic contexts is crucial but counterintuitive, as the regimes’ efforts to stop the mobilization of movements actually leads to its intensification. In Azerbaijan, official pressure brings community members closer together and strengthens their resolve, rather than putting an end to mobilization. It also puts a spotlight on these communities which lights up the way for others in search of something new.
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| 20. |
- Bekkin, Renat, 1978-
(author)
-
People of reliable loyalty… : Muftiates and the State in Modern Russia
- 2020
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation presents a full-fledged portrait of the muftiate (spiritual administration of Muslims) in modern Russia. Designed initially for the purpose of controlling religious activity, over time the institution of the muftiate was appropriated by Muslims and became a key factor in preserving national identity for different ethnic groups of Tatars. In modern Russia numerous muftiates play the controversial role of administrative bodies responsible for the enforcement of some aspects of domestic and foreign policy on behalf of the state.Bekkin’s research focuses on muftiates in the European part of Russia, examining both their historical development and their functioning in the modern context. The analysis draws on academic literature, written and oral texts produced by the ministers of the Islamic religion, and archival sources, as well as numerous interviews with current and former muftis and other Islamic bureaucrats. Following Douglass North’s theory of institutions, the author distinguishes between the muftiate as an institution and the muftiate as a religious organization. In the first case the muftiate encompasses a set of rules (restrictions) that are both formal (reflected in the laws, charters of spiritual administrations of Muslims) and informal (not reflected in the legislation). Individual Islamic religious organizations (muftiates in a narrow sense) function according to these rules. By analyzing both the formal and informal precepts which regulate the status and the activity of spiritual administrations of Muslims in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and continue to do so in modern Russia, the author makes an attempt to explain the viability of the institution of the muftiate.Basing himself in the theory of the economics of religion, the author treats Russian muftiates as firms competing in the Islamic segment of the religious market. He applies economic principles in analyzing how the muftiates interact with each other, with other religious organizations in Russia, and with the Russian state. The author provides his own classification of muftiates in Russia, depending on the role they play in the religious market.
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