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- Backlund Rambaree, Brita, 1977-
(author)
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Contextualising Constructions of Corporate Social Responsibility : Social Embeddedness in Discourse and Institutional Contexts
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- ‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) have become predominant frameworks connecting business to society that have spread across the globe. They comprise a shared set of ideas and practices, such as those promoted in global reporting standards and by international organisations such as the UN Global Compact. Nonetheless, both are constructed and reproduced by companies in relation to context-specific social institutions, including norms and conventions shaping company engagement in social issues. Using a neo-institutionalist theoretical framework, the thesis examines constructions of social responsibility in discourse and within institutional contexts, across regions that are not often compared in the research terrain: two West European welfare states (Sweden and the UK) and two emerging African economies (South Africa and Mauritius). The purpose of the thesis is to add to the literature on CSR and SRI with a sociologically informed perspective that is comparative and connects institutional theory with social constructionism and a Foucauldian perspective on power. The thesis analyses how perceptions of CSR and SRI are constructed in relation to the social institutions that encase companies’ engagement with social issues, such as national level welfare configurations and the institution of financial investments. The main argument in this thesis is that CSR and SRI need to be seen as contextually constructed, in discourse and practice, in ways that draw the boundaries and set the conditions for company engagement with social issues.The thesis comprises three articles. Article 1 is a content analysis of company self-reporting on CSR and the article examines how the content given to CSR relates to broader welfare configurations and as such differs in four national settings across the divide between emerging African economies and Western welfare states. Article 2 is a discourse analysis that examines interpretative repertoires occurring in company self-reporting across the same set of four countries. The interpretative repertoires are analysed as discursive practices where power intersects with the production of knowledge on CSR. Article 3 focuses on SRI and examines responsible investing as a form of institutional work that institutional investors engage in. Based on an interview study with institutional investors in Sweden, the article analyses institutional work as a process that has the effect of both institutional creation and maintenance and it connects these institutional processes to the construction of meaning on SRI. In its entirety the thesis contributes a sociological perspective on how prevailing understandings of corporate social responsibility come into being and are reproduced.
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- Barthel, Stephan, 1968-
(author)
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Recalling Urban Nature : Linking City People to Ecosystem Services
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Societal development is dependent on the generation of ecosystem services (ES) to sustain it; however, many ES are degrading. This thesis investigates how social-ecological features behind practices of actor groups shape the generation of ES. The empirical basis is case studies in the urban landscape of Stockholm, Sweden, and the methodological approach is interdisciplinary. Paper I shows that the urban landscape owes it current flow of ES to co-evolutionary processes and that governance with the aim of sustaining ES must take into account historical property rights and the involvement of a diversity of actor groups, as well as ecological processes of the larger landscape. Paper II studies allotment gardens, cemeteries and city parks in relation to the generation of pollination, seed dispersal and pest regulation. Differences in social features behind practice are reflected primary as higher abundance of pollinators in the informally managed allotment gardens and as differences in the compositions of seed dispersers and insectivores’ birds. Thus, voluntary and often ignored actor groups, motivated by sense-of-place, support the generation of some ES here. Paper III shows how practice, linked to ES generation, is retained and stored among allotment gardeners, and modified and transmitted through time, by means of social-ecological memory (SE-memory). SE-memory is an emergent property of a dual process of participation and reification and it facilitates monitoring of local change and links practice, often in habits, to place specific processes that underlie provisioning ES. Paper IV explores how spatial scale mismatches between ecological process and processes of management can be bridged by a spatially explicit and flexible social network structure of governance. Urban ES are a product of human driven co-evolution, consequently sustaining ES in urban landscapes is not about conservation without people, but shaped by and dependent on management practice by people. Practice that links to generation of ES are facilitated by SE-memory of local actors that holds long term management rights. Consequently, local communities of ecosystem practice, which contribute to the production of ES should explicitly be taken into account in urban green governance.
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- Bergvall, Olof, 1988-
(author)
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Cohomology of arrangements and moduli spaces
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis mainly concerns the cohomology of the moduli spaces ℳ3[2] and ℳ3,1[2] of genus 3 curves with level 2 structure without respectively with a marked point and some of their natural subspaces. A genus 3 curve which is not hyperelliptic can be realized as a plane quartic and the moduli spaces ?[2] and ?1[2] of plane quartics without respectively with a marked point are given special attention. The spaces considered come with a natural action of the symplectic group Sp(6,?2) and their cohomology groups thus become Sp(6,?2)-representations. All computations are therefore Sp(6,?2)-equivariant. We also study the mixed Hodge structures of these cohomology groups.The computations for ℳ3[2] are mainly via point counts over finite fields while the computations for ℳ3,1[2] primarily uses a description due to Looijenga in terms of arrangements associated to root systems. This leads us to the computation of the cohomology of complements of toric arrangements associated to root systems. These varieties come with an action of the corresponding Weyl group and the computations are equivariant with respect to this action.
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- Bergvall, Olof
(author)
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Cohomology of the moduli space of curves of genus three with level two structure
- 2014
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this thesis we investigate the moduli space M3[2] of curves of genus 3 equipped with a symplectic level 2 structure. In particular, we are interested in the cohomology of this space. We obtain cohomological information by decomposing M3[2] into a disjoint union of two natural subspaces, Q[2] and H3[2], and then making S7- resp. S8-equivariantpoint counts of each of these spaces separately.
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- Biamba, Cresantus
(author)
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Implementing the Millennium Development Goals 2000-2015 : Has Education Made a Difference?
- 2013
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Book (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In recent years there has been a growing body of literature on the interconnectedness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the need to maximize opportunities for education and their linkages. The existing empirical studies confirm some of the arguments about the benefits of education and the linkages to the MDGs.With the developmental outcomes of basic education in mind, this desk study set out to examine in what ways, and under what conditions investment in education is important in relation to the millennium development goals. It provides a synthesis of research on the potential contribution of basic education to achieving the MDGs, focusing on key texts produced by the international institutions. Within this review a key focal point will be the context in which education appears to impact the various MDGs outcomes, which is referred to as the ―enabling environment‖. The report sought to explore the evidence about the contribution of basic education to poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs within certain countries or regions. It considered the critical support systems, policy environments and national capacities upon which good quality basic education depends, and assessed the role of basic education in developing and sustaining these.In response to the global call to achieve the MDGs by 2015, many countries are making remarkable progress demonstrating that setting bold, collective goals in the fight against poverty yields results. Expanding access and improving the quality of education are both imperative for MDG progress. A balance must be struck to move both objectives forward.
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- Biamba, Cresantus, 1964-
(author)
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The Role of Principals in Government Secondary Schools in Cameroon: Demands, Constraints and Choices : A Case Study of Eight Secondary Schools
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The main aim of this research was to explore the present role of the secondary school principals and the challenges they face in carrying out their duties in the Northwest region of Cameroon. The research, which was exploratory and conducted in the interpretive paradigm, is a case study which was carried out at eight secondary schools. Working in an interpretivist research paradigm within a qualitative research design, the study used semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis methods.The researcher shadowed each principal for a week of intensive observation and interviewing.The findings reveal that tradition, culture and political contexts are crucial factors in understanding what the secondary school principals in Cameroon do and how they conceptualize principalship. The findings show that discussions with parents, staff and desk work were found to be the major job functions taking up most of the principals' time. The findings reveal that principals are agents of accountability and management; they are involved with different regional and local services; are concerned with the safety and security of students; and their day is extended through participation in parent teacher associations and with other local community activities.However, the findings also indicate the multi-varied nature of the principal's role. The principal's day was generally hectic in pace, varied in its composition, discontinuous and superficial in any pursuit of tasks, with the unexpected always as one of the few certainties of the job. The dominant model was that of the transactional leader in fixing things, managing and coping in order to maintain the smooth operation of the school.Results indicated that deputy principals presented similar feedback to that presented by principals. The major difference being in the way deputy principals perceived tomorrow’s principalship ─ one beyond the transactional model of principal as administrator to the transformational model of principal as leading professional.
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