| 121. |
- Stickley, Andrew
(författare)
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On Interpersonal Violence in Russia in the Present and the Past : A Sociological Study
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For much of the twentieth century researchers in the West knew little about the phenomenon of interpersonal violence in Russia as the Soviet authorities kept the vital and criminal justice statistics of violence secret. It was not until the Soviet Union was in its final death throes that these statistics were officially released for the first time in over fifty years. They showed that at least in terms of its level of lethal violence, Russia was one of the most violent countries in the industrialized world. Since that time, the sharp rise in violent mortality that has occurred in post-Soviet Russia during the transition period has attracted the attention of many researchers in both the East and West. The studies that have resulted have done much to enhance our understanding of violence in contemporary Russia. However, there are still many questions to be answered. For example, was Russia a violent country in much earlier periods of its history and are there particular social and/or cultural processes that have been important in explaining the occurrence of violence in Russia across time?To address these and other questions I have made use of the vital statistics data of homicide from tsarist and Soviet Russia, as well as individual-level survey data on violence from the contemporary period. By doing this it has been possible to show that there was a high level of lethal interpersonal violence in Russia throughout those periods of the twentieth century for which data exist and that Soviet Russia became comparatively more violent between the end of the tsarist and Soviet periods. Moreover, alcohol seems to have played an extremely important role in the occurrence of both lethal and non-lethal violence across time. In relation to this, I have focused on the particular drinking culture in Russia as a possible explanatory mechanism for the occurrence of violence, in conjunction with the Russian state’s dependence on the taxable revenue alcohol generated – which in both tsarist and Soviet Russia prevented any prolonged attempts to act against the deleterious effects of alcohol. The high level of violence in Russian society also highlights the problems that the Russian authorities had when trying to impose order on a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. This might explain why even by the end of the Soviet period, rates of lethal violence were highest in those places (i.e. Siberia and rural Russia more generally) where the state’s presence is likely to have been at its weakest.The consequences of interpersonal violence have become a serious public health issue in contemporary Russia. The lesson that ‘might makes right’ seems to be learnt at an early age by some men who may subsequently model their behaviour on what they have witnessed in their childhood homes, with alcohol acting to facilitate the occurrence of violence in some instances. Any attempt to address the issue of violence in Russia must therefore focus on the specifics of the Russian drinking culture, as it is likely that if this can be changed, a reduction in levels of serious interpersonal injury can also be achieved. However, it may be the case, that it is not only changes in the drinking culture which are necessary, but also perhaps, the way in which violence is seen in Russian society traditionally, both by the state and its citizens – as a means of resolving both relatively minor and more intractable problems.
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| 122. |
- Stiernstedt, Fredrik, 1981-
(författare)
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Från radiofabrik till mediehus : medieförändring och medieproduktion på MTG-radio
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is a study of how the Swedish media company MTG Radio has developed new strategies and production practices in relation to technological change, new competition and media convergence during the first decade of the 2000s. During this period the media landscape in general has been marked by digitization, the rise of new media platforms and competition from new media companies. The study engages in an ethnographical perspective on media production, but also takes its starting point in political-economic theories on media work (Banks 2007, Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011, Ryan 1992) in order to raise questions about the relation between technological and organizational changes and relations of power in production. Empirically, the thesis builds on interviews with production staff as well as an analysis of production documents and content produced by MTG Radio.The analysis shows that digital production technologies contribute to anincreased automation and centralization of control over editorial decisions, and hence to “de-skilling” (Braverman 1974/1999, Örnebring 2010). On the other hand, strategies of multiplatform production and the organizational changes taking place contribute to an “upskilling” (Edgell 2012) and give DJs and presenters more autonomy and control within production. This strengthened autonomy involves their possibilities for reflexivity and critical self-evaluation, as well as their control over content and production. Finally, the thesis connects these results to the more overarching question of alienation, arguing that upskilling and increased autonomy do not automatically create better jobs within the media house, or necessarily represent emancipatory possibilities within media work, as has been argued in previous research and theory.
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| 123. |
- Svenonius, Ola, 1979-
(författare)
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Sensitising Urban Transport Security : Surveillance and Policing in Berlin, Stockholm, and Warsaw
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The city as a focal point of both domestic and international security policy is characteristic of the 21st century security landscape in Europe. Amidst the 'War on Terror' and the pan-European battle against organised crime, the city is the location where global processes are actually taking place. Urban security is the local policy response both to such global threats as terrorism and local ones, such as violent crime. Public transport systems in particular came under threat after the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, Madrid in 2004, and London in 2005. This doctoral thesis studies security policy in three public transport systems – Berlin, Stockholm, and Warsaw – from a comparative perspective focusing on the conditions that made new and very specific understandings of security possible.The study argues that urban transport security has undergone radical changes during the last ten years. While transport authorities and the police used to conceive security as related solely to crime rates, today the focus of security practices consists of passengers' perceptions. The study shows how this shift is paralleled by a new discourse of 'security as emotion', and how it came into being. It concentrates specifically on the central role that surveillance and private policing assumes as the security policy shifts objectives to the inner life of the passengers. Today, complex governance networks of both public and private actors manage security in the three cities. The analysis shows how passengers are constructed in the urban security policy as children, consumers, and citizens. These different 'roles' constitute the passenger in the eye of urban security governance characterised by technocracy, 'friendly security', and individual responsibility. The introduction of new governance models for public administration, the legacy of European communist regimes, and rising fear of crime are central conditions for this new, sensitised urban transport security.
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| 124. |
- Svensson, Jenny, 1977-
(författare)
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The Regulation of Rule-Following : Imitation and Soft Regulation in the European Union
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Present times are sometimes referred to as "the golden era of regulation", as more and more areas of social life are regulated. But regulation is not only increasing; it is also changing. New regulators are emerging, and they are issuing new kinds of rules. These new kinds of regulation are frequently not legally binding, and are therefore labelled soft regulation as opposed to hard law. It is not compulsory to follow soft rules but many actors - including sovereign states - still do, and the thesis asks the question why this is so. Why do even states, which are powerful regulators themselves, abide by soft regulation, and wherein lies the regulative power of soft rules? Through an in-depth study of the European Union's pre-accession instrument Twinning an answer to the question of the power of soft regulation has been arrived at. Treating Twinning as a critical case of soft regulation, and using theories of imitation to grasp the meaning and evolution of Twinning projects, makes it possible to define three regulative elements involved in soft regulation. These are the combinative, co-productive and constitutive elements of soft regulation, from which the thesis suggests that it derives its power. First of all, soft regulation combines different kinds of rules, the regulation of identity and the regulation of activity, and a variety of sources of legitimacy. Second, it depends on regulators and regulatees interacting to co-produce regulation. And third, as its main result, it constitutes the rule-followers as formal, rational, and modern organisations. Accordingly, soft regulation has rather impressive regulative capabilities, builds on complex, dynamic, and social interactions, and embodies as well as promotes some of Western society's most strongly institutionalised ideas. The thesis argues that it is through these characteristics that actors, including states, are compelled to follow soft rules.
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| 125. |
- Søvik, Margrethe
(författare)
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Support, resistance and pragmatism : An examination of motivation in language policy in Kharkiv, Ukraine
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Ukrainian society has gone through vast changes since independence in 1991 and in this thesis some of these social changes are discussed through the prism of language policy. The main topic of the study is language policy (conceptualised as language practices, language beliefs, and language management) in the eastern Ukrainian city Kharkiv. This topic is examined within a framework focusing on motivation, allowing for a study of how people in Kharkiv describe, explain and rationalise language policy in the context of change in society. Ukrainian is the only state language in Ukraine, but Russian is widely used in Ukrainian society, and in Kharkiv Russian is the predominantly used language. One specific topic of the study is how young Ukrainians perceive the role granted the Ukrainian language in on-going processes of nation-building, related to the formation of a national identity. This is contrasted with discussions on individual linguistic rights and what is considered reasonable to demand from the Ukrainian population in terms of language practices. Further, the study examines the concept of language conflict, notably what kinds of conflict can be identified in and extracted from discussions on the role of language in society. This examination shows that it is not necessarily a case of potential conflict between groups or individuals, but also that individuals may struggle with internal conflict. This study demonstrates how language conflict is not about language, but rather about social positions, interests and value systems. This also illustrates the fact that the three components of language policy are not necessarily interrelated and consistent. Especially language practices and language beliefs are often at odds. Fieldwork was carried out in Kharkiv 2003-2005 and the study relies on a combination of methods (in-depth individual interviews, group interviews and a large-scale questionnaire).
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| 126. |
- Tessmann, Anna
(författare)
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On the Good Faith : A Fourfold Discursive Construction of Zoroastrianism in Contemporary Russia
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Zoroastrianism is ascribed to the teachings of the legendary prophet Zarathustra and originated in ancient times. It was developed within the area populated by the Iranian peoples, and following the Arab conquest, it formed into a diaspora. In modern Russia it has evolved since the endof the Soviet era. It has become an attractive object of cultural productiondue to its association with Oriental philosophies and religions and its rearticulation since the modern era in Europe.The lasting appeal of Zoroastrianism evidenced by centuries of book publishingin Russia was enlivened in the 1990s. A new, religious, and even occult dimension was introduced with the appearance of neo-Zoroastrian groups with their own publications and online websites (dedicated to Zoroastrianism). This study focuses on the intersectional relationships and topical analysis of different Zoroastrian themes in modern Russia.
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| 127. |
- Turunen, Jaakko, 1978-
(författare)
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Semiotics of Politics : Dialogicality of Parliamentary Talk
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Parliamentary talk, despite its central place in politics, has not been the focus of many qualitative studies. The present study investigates how parliamentary talk emerges in a dialogue between different arguments in the parliament. At the same time, this is a study of politics, of how human interaction gives birth to laws that regulate life in two contemporary democracies, Slovakia and Poland. It provides a close-reading of two political debates: on the state language in Slovakia and on gender parity in Poland.This study draws on hermeneutic and semiotic thinkers such as Gadamer, Bakhtin and Lotman to elaborate a dialogical understanding of language that can provide the basis for a method of textual analysis. The dialogical understanding of language emphasises that text and talk must be studied in the context of an interaction. The unit of analysis is a pair of utterances, a question and an answer. Until an utterance has been interpreted, it carries only the potential of meaning; its meaning is materialised by the responses it receives.The study further argues that conversation analysis and its tools can usefully be applied to the study of political debate. The method provides for the analysis of the dynamics between micro-scale interaction in the parliament and the macro-scale dynamics of culture. These dynamics assume two different forms that Lotman termed as “translation” and “explosion”.The study shows that parliamentary debate is characterised by a constantly evolving topic of discussion, namely that the meaning of the bill at the start of the debate and at the end of the debate are really two different bills. This is not because the content of the bill has undergone changes, but because in the course of the debate, the bill has generated new cultural connections. Casting a vote in support of the bill does not approve just the bill itself but a whole set of interconnected political, social and cultural values—what Lotman approached as the semiosphere. This study suggests Lotman’s cultural semiotics can provide for “imperfect hermeneutics” that is sensitive to the dynamic and contested nature of tradition in politics whilst acknowledging the inevitability of culture in mediating political talk.
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| 128. |
- Visuri, Ingela, 1976-
(författare)
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Varieties of Supernatural Experience : the Case of High-Functioning Autism
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- It is argued in the cognitive science of religion (CSR) that the empathic ability to ‘mindread’ others underpins the experience of supernatural communication with gods, ghosts, and spirits. As autism is characterized by mentalizing difficulties, CSR scholars have expected autistic individuals would find supernatural agency incomprehensible. This thesis however turns the question around: why do autistic individuals engage intimately in supernatural relations, despite the social difficulties they face in everyday life?The thesis aims to provide new insights on autistic and religious cognition through examination of supernatural descriptions provided by 17 young, high-functioning autistic adults (16–21 years of age) who label themselves as ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’. The research questions explore: (1) cognitive aspects of experienced interaction with invisible agents, compared with human interaction, (2) the prevalence of unusual embodied experiences (e.g. feeling touch and seeing visions without external input) and its role in attributions of supernatural agency, and (3) the psychological function of parasocial (fiction-based) interaction in imaginary realms.This interdisciplinary project draws on work undertaken in the cognitive science of religion, cognitive and critical autism research, and psychological anthropology. Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to enable a kaleidoscopic outlook on the topics explored, and to promote a dialogue between idiographically and nomothetically oriented scholars. The study provides first-person perspectives on religious and autistic cognition, which is understood as dynamic interaction between embrained, embodied, encultured and situated input.It is argued in Publication I that ‘bodiless’ interaction facilitates mentalizing, also in relation to invisible agents, as no cross-modal synchronization of mimicry, body language and intonation is required. Publication II examines the prevalence of unusual, embodied experiences in autism, and it is proposed that supernatural attributions offer enchantment and sense-making of potentially frightening experiences. Results from Publication III suggest that imaginary worlds and parasocial relations function as ‘simulators’ that autistic individuals use to rehearse social interaction. Publication IV offers a theoretical and methodological discussion regarding the study of atypical cognition. Importantly, this thesis illustrates that these imaginative autistic participants are not drawn to supernatural frame- works in spite of, but because of the supernatural and parasocial characters these provide.
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| 129. |
- Volkova, Kristina
(författare)
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Fishy behavior : persistent effects of early-life exposure to 17α-ethinylestradiol
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The synthetic estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) is an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) of concern due to its persistent nature and widespread presence in the aquatic environment. In mammals, effects of developmental EDC exposure on reproduction and behavior not only persist to adulthood after discontinued exposure, but are also inherited by several consecutive unexposed generations. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate that non-reproductive behavior in fish is highly sensitive to the influence of EE2 during development and the effects do not appear to be restored after a long recovery period in clean water. We have shown that exposure to low doses of EE2 during development results in increased anxiety in two fish species (zebrafish and guppy) and their offspring. We have also demonstrated that the effects of EE2 on anxiety are apparent in both sexes and are transgenerationally transmitted to two consecutive generations of unexposed offspring in the guppy. In order to investigate the possible biological mechanisms of the observed persistent effects on non-reproductive behavior, we also performed an RNA sequencing analysis of the whole-brain transcriptome in developmentally exposed zebrafish after remediation in clean water until adulthood. Differential expression of 33 genes in males and 62 genes in females were observed as a result of EE2 exposure, with only one gene affected in both sexes. Functional analysis revealed cholesterol biosynthesis and circadian rhythm to be the top two affected pathways in males and females, respectively. Both pathways have previously been implicated in anxiety behavior and represent possible candidates connecting the transcriptome alterations to the observed behavioral phenotype. The study represents an initial survey of the fish brain transcriptome by means of RNA sequencing after long-term recovery from developmental exposure to an estrogenic compound.
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| 130. |
- Vuorenpää, Sari, 1967-
(författare)
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Litteracitet genom interaktion
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The dissertation Litteracitet genom interaktion [‘Literacy through Interaction’] spotlights how literacy interaction can work in the primary school’s multilinguistic environments. It investigates conversations that occur in and around teaching about writing. The study material was collected from three different schools from year zero to year three, and special focus is given to what I call literacy chains. These chains are connected by the fact that they all concern a writing assignment that every pupil must complete, which in my material involves the text types narrative, factual text and poem. During the teaching sequences that unfold, there is an interplay of literary events in connection with speech, writing and various artefacts. My main object of inquiry is the interaction that occurs in these literacy chains.The dissertation demonstrates that the teachers’ lessons with the class as a whole lead to fixed conversational patterns, with pupils asked questions that require specific responses. The conversations tend to form either a so-called IRE pattern, where the reader’s initiative for a question demands a given answer in response which is then evaluated by the teacher, or a list pattern, with the pupils filling in answers.In situations involving the whole class, persistent, determined pupils are needed to break into the teacher’s monologue. When persistence wins out, from the pupil’s perspective, pupils can contribute new aspects to these conversations. In small groups and in one-on-one conversations, there are more pupil initiatives, since conversational patterns are not as fixed or predetermined.One key finding is that multilinguistic resources are sometimes made use of even though the schoolwork is usually based on a single-language conversational norm. Yet it is clear that multilingualism is a useful resource regardless of the teacher’s language background. On several occasions, we encounter participants who together construct a multilinguistic environment where languages are interwoven.All three literacy chains provide pupils with clear templates for writing, which determine what the pupils are supposed to do. The writing template in the poem chain serves as support for their writing but is not a straitjacket. This can be compared to the template for the factual text, which includes a copy of the model text.The written language norm of writing properly is communicated in great detail by the teachers to the pupils. Writing properly is not just having good, legible handwriting, but in school the writing norms to be applied in writing assignments are made relevant.On a more general level, the study illustrates that material resources vary in the schools, from green chalkboards to classroom resources that include laptops. However, schoolwork is predicated on paper-based writing. There is built-in stress, since schoolwork is governed by time, with a schedule that determines learning activities down to the minute, with them ending at a precise time. There is a race against time.
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