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- Engvall, Johan, 1979-
(författare)
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The State as Investment Market : An Analytical Framework for Interpreting Politics and Bureaucracy in Kyrgyzstan
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What type of state has emerged in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, and what kind of theoretical framework must we develop to understand its behavior and performance? This study argues that the logic of political and bureaucratic organization follows that of an investment market in which public offices are purchased with the expectation of yielding a favorable return. This theory represents a novel perspective on the post-communist state which has hitherto either been premised on modernization theory or emphasized a robustly personalistic logic of political organization.There is a serial of linkages to this argument. First, the decisive factor for public employment is unofficial financial payments rather than merits or personal ties. The sums involved in the exchange are far greater than conventional “bribery.” The market for public offices, intimately connected from top to bottom in the state hierarchy, pertains to a much more unified system than the one found in the literature which treats political and administrative, high and low level corruption as distinct and unrelated forms. Second, individuals invest in public offices in order to convert the rights, assets and powers connected to officialdom into private capital. In this political economy, alternative markets for enrichment are subordinated to the state and poorly functioning. Third, the abundance of pecuniary corruption in Kyrgyzstan is standardized, entrenched and predictable norms of behavior in this type of state. The key to success on this market is the ability to control the supply of “public” goods and services in exchange for unofficial payments.Finally, the risk for systemic instability increases when more reasonably inclusive personal connections and money is no longer sufficient and access to the state for earning and investing is manipulated by narrow personalistic ties. This creates pressure for returning to a more competitive market as opposed to a monopolistic order.
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- Ericson-Lidman, Eva, 1960-
(författare)
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The complicated struggle to be a support : meanings of being a co-worker, supervisor and closely connected to a person developing burnout
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to illuminate meanings of being a co-worker, supervisor and closely connected to a person developing burnout, and to describe perceptions of signs preceding burnout. The thesis comprises four papers and is based on qualitative data. In papers I and II, the data material consisted of interviews with 15 female coworkers of a person developing burnout, in paper III, interviews with 12 supervisors to care providers suffering from burnout, and in paper IV, interviews on two occasions with 5 people closely connected to a person developing burnout. Thematic content analysis (I) and phenomenological-hermeneutic method (II, III, IV) was used to analyse/interpret the interview text. The findings show that the coworkers retrospectively recalled different signs preceding their workmate’s burnout. They describe that their workmate was struggling to manage alone and was showing self-sacrifice. Co-workers also describe that their workmates were struggling to achieve unattainable goals and were becoming distanced and isolated. Finally, the co-workers describe that their workmates were showing signs of falling apart (I). Meanings of being a female co-worker to a person developing burnout are struggling, on the one hand to understand and help the person with symptoms of burnout, and on the other to manage one’s own work. This burdensome situation means that the co-workers are filled with contradictory and frustrating feelings and when the workmate is finally sick-listed, troubled conscience arise in the coworkers (II). Meanings of being a supervisor for care providers suffering from burnout are struggling to help the care provider continue to work, but being responsible for the unit, the supervisors are forced to ensure that the work is carried out. As the situation proceeds, supervisors are trapped in a predicament, unable to help and feeling inadequate. When the care provider is sick-listed, feelings of self-blame arise. When the time comes for rehabilitation the supervisors are once again caught between conflicting demands in a seemingly impossible mission (III). Meanings of being closely connected to a person suffering from burnout are putting one’s life on hold in order to help the person, striving to stand by to the person developing burnout, regardless of one’s own needs. Those closely connected are saving the face of the person developing burnout in order to protect them from stress. As the situation proceeds, those closely connected carry the burden alone in this strained situation and sometimes they are treated with disrespect by the person developing burnout, a situation which reveals their own suffering. Striving to find recuperation engenders troubled conscience. This situation reveals a huge need for support for those closely connected to a person developing burnout (IV). The comprehensive understanding is that meanings of being a co-worker, supervisor and closely connected to a person developing burnout are, on the one hand, a complicated struggle to support the person and on the other to shoulder a heavy burden. They try to do everything they can to help and support the person developing burnout (II-IV), these attempts, however, do not seem to reach through (I-IV). Co-workers describe signs that something is the matter (I), but they (co-workers, supervisors and those closely connected) do not understand what is happening (IIIV). This burdensome situation is full of conflict for those involved, torn between the complicated struggle to support the person developing burnout and to manage this burdensome situation. Faced with their own shortcomings, troubled conscience arises. The comprehensive understanding of the four papers (I-IV) are discussed and reflected on with the help of social support theories and the ideas of the Danish philosopher Lögstrup’s thoughts about the ethical demand.
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- Georgieva, Elka R., et al.
(författare)
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Secondary structure conversions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ribonucleotide reductase protein R2 under varying pH and temperature conditions
- 2008
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Ingår i: Biophysical Chemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4622. ; 137:43-48
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The structural properties of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) ribonucleotide reductase R2 protein were studied under varying pH and temperature conditions by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy as well as dynamic light scattering (DLS). Under physiological conditions this protein has a high alpha-helical content, similar to the corresponding protein from other species, e.g. mouse. Decreasing the pH induced significant structure conversions. When pH was below 6.5 an aggregated structure was observed and reached a maximum at pH 4. The aggregated state of this protein was verified by DLS and was found to be rich in beta-structure. This amyloid-like structure transformed into a molten globule state with high temperature stability (between 25 and 80 degrees C) at pH below 3. The corresponding mouse protein R2 under similar conditions showed no evidence of an aggregated state around pH 4.
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- Hedin, Astrid
(författare)
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Before the Breakdown of the Saltsjöbaden Spirit of Labour Market Cooperation : The Swedish Employers’ Confederation and workplace democracy in the 1960s
- 2019
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of History. - : Routledge. - 0346-8755 .- 1502-7716. ; 44:5, s. 591-616
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The 1976 Swedish landmark law on workplace democracy, Medbestämmandelagen (MBL), has traditionally been regarded as a victory of social democracy over recalcitrant employers. In contrast, this article shows how, in fact, before the law, the Swedish Employers’ Confederation (SAF) was the main driver behind Swedish research on work life reform, and the main promoter of employer-union dialogue on the matter. Crucially, in the 1960s, SAF endorsed the internationally pioneering thinking of economist Eric Rhenman, who argued that conflict within the firm between managers and unions was unavoidable, healthy, and could be good for business if framed in a productive manner. Today, this line of management thinking is termed the Scandinavian Cooperative Advantage. However, in the early 1970s, Swedish social democracy radicalized abruptly. The SAF board initially interpreted the new radicalism as a masquerade to appease activists. SAF assumed that, behind the scenes, the Swedish spirit of consensus-oriented labour market dialogue would prevail, as it had since the 1938 Saltsjöbaden agreement. And assuredly, the actual effects of the MBL law proved to be considerably less radical than advertised, and broadly compatible with Rhenman’s thinking. Still, social democracy’s new ideological rhetoric helped prompt SAF’s late 1970s shift from cooperation to conflict.
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- Hedin, Astrid
(författare)
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Book review of Wohlforth, William (ed.) Cold War Endgame: Oral History, Analysis, Debates
- 2004
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Ingår i: Political Studies Review. - : SAGE Publications. - 1478-9302 .- 1478-9299. ; 2:3, s. 414-415
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Recension (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is an exceptionally well-constructed volume of combined empirical and theoretical interest. The first third features protocols from a 1996 conference assembling nine former high US and Soviet officials. ‘The Cold War was something we tried to kill together – the United States and the Soviet Union’, says Alexander Bessmertnykh, deputy foreign minister of the Soviet Union 1986–1990, and co-organizer of the ‘Endgame’ conference with former US secretary of state James Baker (p. 23). How did it come to this? Did Gorbachev's enlightened ideas win out over the Soviet military–industrial complex, or did realist challenges compel the policy change?Zubok and English both praise the personality and leadership of Michail Gorbachev, claiming a normative rather than instrumental role for ideas in the process. Gorbachev was part of a generation for whom the events in Hungary 1956 was a formative experience, setting their aversion to violence. Détente then made possible personal contact with the West, allowing Western social-democratic ideas of a new just and democratic world order to take root among Soviet intellectuals. Ideas that eventually led up to Gorbachev's historical 1988 speech in the UN assembly, where he declared that universal human values should take precedence over the international class struggle.Continuing an earlier exchange in the journal International Security, Wohlforth and Brooks contest English's claim that the Soviet economy could have sustained Soviet world power ‘well into the next century’ (p. 245). The Soviet ideological turn was highly probabilistic. By the early 1980s, the USSR was spending roughly 40 percent of the state budget on armaments, helplessly isolated from a rapidly globalizing world economy. With its detailed dialogue, the debate signals an ongoing shift to a more pragmatic and empirically grounded style of international relations theorizing, emphasizing complexity, contingency and multi-causality.
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