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- Giandomenico, Jessica, 1974-
(författare)
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Power Asymmetry Revisited : Reconciling EU Foreign Policy Goals and Enlargement Conditionality in the Western Balkans
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The EU is assumed to have a strong top-down transformative power over the states applying for membership. This leverage is based on a power asymmetry where the applicant states want to join the EU more than the EU wants to enlarge, and that the applicant states gain more than the member states from the enlargement.This thesis criticises the assumption of a strong top-down power over EU applicant states. There is growing evidence that this power asymmetry is not as strong as initially assumed. A historical institutionalist approach is used to explain how the power is weakened through the design of the conditionality and the management of the enlargement policy. The first study shows how the member states are locked up in a path dependent pattern where their capacity to act is limited. Lock-in effects narrow down the options to act for the EU member states, giving priority to political considerations over technical standards and thus limits its transformative power. In addition to that the EU has demonstrated a strategic interest in the Western Balkans, further undermining the power asymmetry. The second study demonstrates how the EU has limited capacity to influence the implementation of the conditionality, leaving much room for interpretation to the domestic actors. The design of the EU conditionality, with its focus on formal structures and rules, is not adequate to address also the desired normative transformation of the applicant states. The EU can provoke formal changes, but layers of the old structures and habits remain beyond the reach of the EU’s transformative power. Together these two studies demonstrate that the EU’s assumed top-down control over applicant states has some built-in weaknesses both at the Brussels level and in the applicant states, and that those weaknesses affect the transformative power of the EU. The tendency to give priority to political considerations over strict conditionality, in combination with limited scope of the conditionality, demonstrate that the power asymmetry is not that asymmetric, and that the EU does not have the institutional capacity to be the normative power and change agent it strives to be.
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| 2. |
- Kristmansson, Per
(författare)
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Livets händelser i glesbygd och tätbygd : En livsbanestudie av ålderskohorten 1968–1971
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, from a life course perspective I´m going to study thetiming of a number of life course events in sparsely populated areas and urban areas in acohort of people born 1968-1971. The second part of the aim is to analyze how the timing ofthe life course events in a later stage of life affects the residential choice, with special focuson owning the dwelling, in the above mentioned geographical areas.The life course events in focus are; leaving the parental home, the first cohabitation or thefirst marriage, the first childbearing and the first separation or divorce.The results state that there are significant differences between sparsely populated and urbanareas in the cohort, in timing for at least three out of the four life events. The difference inaverage age between sparsely populated and urban areas is biggest for leaving the parentalhome and for the first cohabitation or marriage with the rural individuals being the youngest.The same pattern is also visible for the first child but the difference in timing between the twogeographical areas are less distinct for that event. For separations and divorces there are noclear differences in timing.Linear regressions show that educational level is of crucial importance for the timing ofthe life events. An increasing level of education leads to a later life event. Different economicvariables such as income support, unemployment allowance and disposable income also havean influence on the timing of the events. But the significance of the effect of these variableson the average age is stronger in the urban areas than in the sparsely populated districts. Itseems that in sparsely populated areas there are other variables that play an essential rolewhen it comes to the timing of the events in the life course. One possible aspect, but not investigatedhere, could be the impact of the wider family context.Finally, a control for how the different timing of the life events in the two geographicalcontexts affects the residential choice at least ten years after the events has been done. Itshows that the general pattern concerning the residential choice of the cohort is that 90 percentin sparsely populated areas and 70 percent in the urban areas defined as suburbs lives inowned villas. It seems that, in this cohort, house owning is an overrepresented way of residenceregardless the individuals geographical identity.The results also shows that people in the cohort, regardless if and when the four life eventshas taken place in the younger ages, to a large extent in the later life still lives in the sametype of municipality (sparsely populated or urban). In other words, it is not possible to findany strong correlations between the timing of the life events and residential choice in a laterstage of life.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Nygren, Thomas, 1972-
(författare)
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Erfarna lärares historiedidaktiska insikter och undervisningsstrategier
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study has been to investigate, through the narratives of ex-perienced teachers, insights and strategies in the teaching of history in upper secondary school. Based on a flexible grounded theory, life history and theories of pedagogical content knowledge, seven experienced history teachers have been interviewed about their conceptions of history teaching.Development of insights into history teaching and the formation of knowledge can be described as involving both a refinement of practice and more revolutionary turning points. These insights emphasize that good knowledge of the subject is central for legitimacy and creativity. History teaching in Sweden is described as increasingly international and contem-porary, and focussed on students’ learning from various points of view. Varied teaching is stressed with the teacher in centre and also being able to take the role of arranger. Of importance is also the handling of teaching in history as a foundation course as well as an advanced or specialized course.Influences from other subjects have had a diverse impact at the same time as personal interests and experiences, as well as external influences, have been important for the development of strategies. History teachers’ teaching strategies may be described in terms of 1) multiperspectivity, where different points of view and interpretations of history are central; 2) narrative history, where through both major and minor stories, a chronological structure and animation of the subject of history are strived after; 3) social scientific history, which uses history to explain contemporary society through making comparisons and seeking general patterns; and 4) an eclectic strategy, which strives after varieties of an individualised teaching of history by allowing students to make their ways into history in diverse ways. The experienced history teachers’ narratives make evident how the subject of history can be transformed, they demonstrate different conceivable ways of teaching history and reveal its complexity.The teachers’ narratives show how, through their strategies in interaction with their insights in history teaching, they have created an overview and structure in the complex reality of teaching history. The teachers’ insights and strategies constitute a practice based contribution to a more experience informed practice and research on the teaching of history.
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