| 1. |
- Isgren, Ellinor
(författare)
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Between Nature and Modernity : Agroecology as an alternative development pathway: the case of Uganda
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Agricultural modernization has massively increased global food supply, but at a high environmental cost. Today many are calling for an agricultural ‘paradigm shift’, including several mainstream institutions. But to what? In recent years, agroecology has gained credence as an alternative approach that seeks to understand and manage farms as complex agroecosystems. From a development perspective, it is argued to not only hold potential for sustainable agriculture, but also as a model for inclusive development thanks to its particular applicability in sites dominated by small-scale low-capital farming. Uganda is one of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa where much hope is currently placed in gricultural development for poverty alleviation, economic growth and food security. Yet despite its promise to resolve tensions between development and environmental sustainability, agroecology remains largely ignored.The aim of this thesis is to understand if and how agroecology has potential to constitute a desirable and viable alternative pathway of agricultural development, and to provide insights about its achievability in Uganda. I do so by employing a research strategy rooted in critical modernity, critical realism and emancipatory social science, and by combining fieldwork methods and secondary material via an interdisciplinary approach. The thesis is structured around three interlinked tasks. First, I provide a critique of conventional agricultural modernization where I identify limitations and contradictions internal to this model of development, and explain the emergence and persistence of the particularly problematic form of agrarian politics in Uganda under the NRM regime. Second, I scrutinize the claim that agroecology offers a sustainable and viable model of agricultural development, and argue that there is convincing evidence for its potential to do so. When analyzing how this alternative is being implemented in Uganda today, and by whom, I find that agroecology is typically pursued by actors in civil society and academia as a form of smallholder-oriented ‘modernization from below’. Agroecology contributes by providing principles for sustainable and locally adapted agriculture. However, I also find substantial barriers to agroecology that are structural in kind, and require more overt confrontation of ‘modernization from above’. Third, therefore, I analyze the conditions for political engagement and broader mobilization for agroecology within Ugandan civil society, by looking at its historical formation and current strategies at national and local level.Beyond insights about the specific dynamics of agrarian change in Uganda, the thesis makes two main contributions: 1) it theorizes agroecology and its role in agricultural development, thus taking steps forward towards rethinking agricultural modernity, and 2) it advances the maturing field of sustainability science by using emancipatory social science to promote its critical problem-solving agenda.
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| 2. |
- Knobblock, Ina
(författare)
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Writing-Weaving Sámi Feminisms : Stories and Conversations
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation explores, illuminates, and analyses Sámi feminist knowledges, conceptualised as diverse and fluid feminist knowledges that both arise within and create Sámi realities. Centrally, it contributes to and exemplifies Sámi inquiry and conversations where different people continuously create and re-create Sámi feminisms in various contexts. This study focuses on feminist articulations and dialogue from a Sámi context, Sámi feminist theoretical, epistemic, and methodological approaches, and Sámi feminist contributions to gender studies, especially in the Swedish context. First, the study contributes to reworking hegemonic gender studies in Sweden. For example, it discusses Sámi feminist erasure in Swedish feminist scholarship, gendered settler colonialism, and the intersections of gender and Indigeneity. In dialogue with previous Sámi feminist scholarship and global Indigenous feminist theories, the author argues that gendered settler colonialism against the Sámi people manifests and continues to manifest in several ways. These manifestations include gendered colonial law, the gendered impact on Sámi economies, gendered violence and its colonial intersections, the interplay of gender and religion, and gendered and sexualised epistemicide. Second, the study foregrounds a shift in the analysis of gender within Indigenous studies from the tradition’s margins to the centre. For example, it foregrounds Indigenous and Sámi feminist contributions to understandings and enactments of decolonisation and resurgence – the critical examination and dismantling of colonial structures of power and a (re)imagination and (re)creation of the world grounded in Indigenous experiences and world-making practices. Contrary to being a divisive force in the struggle against settler colonial dispossession, the author conceptualises Sámi feminisms as integral to inclusive processes of decolonisation and resurgence. By exploring the visions and strengths of Sámi feminisms, the dissertation centres on the contributions of Sámi feminisms to Indigenous healing, regeneration, and thriving. Third, the study contributes to feminist epistemologies and methodologies. Significantly, it foregrounds Indigenous and Sámi epistemes as relational, interconnected, and response-able ways of knowing, being, and doing beyond colonial world-making practices. To conceptualise Sámi feminist inquiry in a way that resonates with Indigenous epistemes, it introduces the conceptualisation of related knowledges. Furthermore, the study explores and develops Sámi feminist methodologies using three approaches: writing-weaving, learning in conversations, and mujttalit – storytelling and remembering. Finally, the study contributes to the broader scholarly project of developing an analysis of Nordic colonialisms, especially on the settler colonial impact on Sámi life-worlds. The main body of the dissertation comprises an introductory essay and seven articles, including individually written and co-authored texts.
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| 3. |
- Linehagen, Frida, 1981-
(författare)
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Gender (in)equality within the Swedish Armed Forces : Resistance and Functional Disinclination
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Historically and traditionally, military work has been closely associated with men. However, the post-Cold War normalization process has brought about a transformation in both the Swedish Armed Forces themselves and the perception of the organization. Normative concerns, including gender equality, have gained significant prominence, compelling the armed forces to embark onvarious initiatives aimed at achieving a more gender-balanced structure. Despite the extensive profiling and efforts made by the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) over the past decades, women currently make up only 11.9% of the military personnel.This dissertation examines how (in)equality manifests itself in the military profession today, in view of the substantial changes that have occurred. The dissertation encompasses both the experiences of personnel and the actions of the organisation. By doing so, it sheds light on the gradual advancement of gender equality within the SAF, attributing this delay to resistance against change that becomes evident at the structural, organizational, and professional levels. This resistance is further explained through the concept of "functional disinclination," which emerges from the empirical studies presented in this dissertation.Utilizing a range of data and methodologies, the dissertation collectively highlights an organizational incapacity to align with the normative demands set forth. The barriers to achieving gender equality are not merely reflective of resistance; they also form a recurring pattern that impedes the implementation of normative changes
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| 4. |
- Antonsdottir, Hildur Fjola
(författare)
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Decentring Criminal Law : Understandings of Justice by Victim-Survivors of Sexual Violence and their Implications for Different Justice Strategies
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The compilation dissertation is shaped by the ambition of Critical Theory, which is to imagine an alternative and emancipatory political reality to the status quo, where people who have been subjected to sexual violence are recognised and enjoy parity of participation in social life. More specifically, it aims to understand how victim-survivors of sexual violence in Iceland perceive, experience, and understand justice; and how, in a Nordic socio-legal context, this knowledge can be used to expand and develop strategies which are capable of meeting the justice interests of victim-survivors within and outside of the criminal justice system. The dissertation contributes to a broad survivor-centred justice agenda which entails the decentring of criminal law in the imaginary space of justice.Paper I analyses how Danish and Norwegian legal policy documents represent the “problem” of victims’ legal status and rights, and the assumptions underpinning arguments for and against strengthening victims’ rights. Paper II explores how victim-survivors experience the criminal justice process in Iceland. Paper III analyses victim-survivors’ experiences of different non-traditional, formal and informal, justice mechanisms and practices in Iceland. Paper IV examines victim-survivors’ views on civil tort claims and monetary compensation in Iceland.In the context of Nordic legal policies, the study shows that the status and rights of victims in the criminal justice procedure are subject to different interpretations of legal principles, which opens up the question of procedural justice to principles of social justice. In line with principles of social justice, being assigned the legal status of a witness in the criminal case with limited procedural rights is understood as a form of injustice by survivors. While the meaning of justice is comprised of several factors, the study highlights how experiences of justice can be connected to notions of space and the ability to exercise one’s freedoms. In the context of tort law, the study finds that pursuing civil claims can risk social and legal judgement and that monetary compensation does not align with survivors’ ideas of justice. It is suggested that state intervention is needed to counteract social norms that undermine survivors’ access to justice, and to incentivise offender accountability to better meet survivors’ justice interests. Finally, the study discusses the possible implications of the development of multiple formal and informal justice processes and practices and its revolutionary potential.
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| 5. |
- Beerens, Ralf Josef Johanna
(författare)
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Improving disaster response evaluations : Supporting advances in disaster risk management through the enhancement of response evaluation usefulness
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Future disasters or crises are difficult to predict and therefore hard to prepare for. However, while a specific event might not have happened, it can be simulated in an exercise. The evaluation of performance during such an exercise can provide important information regarding the current state of preparedness, and used to improve the response to future events. For this to happen, evaluation products must be perceived as useful by the end user. Unfortunately, it appears that this is not the case. Both evaluations and their products are rarely used to their full extent or, in extreme cases, are regarded as paper-pushing exercises.The first part of this research characterises current evaluation practice, both in the scientific literature and in Dutch practice, based on a scoping study, document and content analyses, and expert judgements. The findings highlight that despite a recent increase in research attention, few studies focus on disaster management exercise evaluation. It is unclear whether current evaluations achieve their purpose, or how they contribute to disaster preparedness. Both theory and practice tend to view, and present evaluations in isolation. This limited focus creates a fragmented field that lacks coherence and depth. Furthermore, most evaluation documentation fails to justify or discuss the rational underlying the selected methods, and their link to the overall purpose or context of the exercise. The process of collecting and analysing contextual, evidence-based data, and using it to reach conclusions and make recommendations lacks methodological transparency and rigour. Consequently, professionals lack reliable guidance when designing evaluations.Therefore, the second part of this research aimed to gain an insights into what make evaluations useful, and suggest improvements. In particular, it highlights the values associated with the methodology used to record and present evaluation outcomes to end users. The notion of an ‘evaluation description’ is introduced to support the identification of four components that are assumed to influence the usefulness of an evaluation: its purpose, object description, analysis and conclusion. Survey experiments identified that how these elements – notably, the analysis and/ or conclusions – are documented significantly influences the usefulness of the product. Furthermore, different components are more useful depending on the purpose of the report (for learning or accountability). Crisis management professionals expect the analysis to go beyond the object of the evaluation, and focus on the broader context. They expect a rigorous evaluation to provide them with evidence-based judgements that deliver actionable conclusions and support future learning.Overall, this research shows that the design and execution of evaluations should provide systematic, rigorous, evidence-based and actionable outcomes. It suggests some ways to manage both the process and the products of an evaluation to improve its usefulness. Finally, it underlines that it is not the evaluation itself that leads to improvement, but its use. Evaluation should, therefore, be seen as a means to an end.
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| 6. |
- BOGADÓTTIR, RAGNHEIDUR
(författare)
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Time-space Appropriation in the Inka Empire : A Study of Imperial Metabolism
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyzes some aspects of the appropriation of labor time and natural space in the Inka Empire (ca. AD 1400 – 1532) in order to illuminate the cultural organization of Inka imperial metabolism. Rather than understanding Inka imperialism simply as a political process with socioecological consequences, it is investigated as an ecological process organized through specific cultural categories. The Inka imperial economy is conceptualized in terms of transfers of time and space between different categories of people. The thesis thus addresses long-standing questions regarding the economic operation of the Inka Empire as well as central issues in general social theory. It demonstrates how imperial power is based on biophysical flows of embodied labor and land, organized by specific cultural permutations of reciprocity and redistribution. The thesis focuses on estimating these flows through analyses of time-space appropriation. This is done by reconstructing, on the basis of archaeological, historical and ethnographic data, the production processes of three emblematic Inka artifacts: textiles, chicha (maize beer), and stone walls.
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| 7. |
- Fischer, Josefine
(författare)
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Knowledge Compromise(d)? Ways and values of coproduction in academia
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with the colonisation of the university by market forces. The object of inquiry is coproduction of academic knowledge between academic and non-academic actors in newly established universities and university colleges in Sweden. The development of knowledge as a main competitive advantage for commercial companies, and the shift in policies accompanying this development, provides an explanation for the introduction of market mechanisms into the governance of university research. The main contribution of the thesis, however, is the analyses of three coproducing research centres – in service research, engineering and collaborative media – on the basis of epistemology, interpreted as different knowledge cultures. In most policy accounts knowledge is treated as homogeneous, which is problematic as it conceals differences in academic disciplines’ relations to the object or phenomenon of inquiry. Such differences have bearing on publication patterns, prospects of generating academic credibility and possibilities to engage external partners in coproduction relationships. Importantly, this has an impact on the prospects of attracting various sources of funding that are of significance for newly established universities and university colleges with fewer fixed resources than the old universities. It is argued that not only are we witnessing a colonisation of the entire university by market forces, but also a colonisation of social science and humanities by science - scientific perspectives and work ways and the technical knowledge interest.
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| 8. |
- Karlsson, Michael
(författare)
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Nätjournalistik : En explorativ fallstudie av digitala mediers karaktärsdrag på fyra nyhetssajter
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last decade the Internet has become a widely used source of information for the average person and also a publishing tool for media corporations. The transition of journalism from one medium to another is one with important implications as the world wide public consumption of online news grows. This dissertation puts focus on how journalistic content changes when it's published on the World Wide Web compared to the traditional newspaper. The explicit aim of this dissertation is to explore and theoretically test the net-based characteristics of interaction, convergence and, continuous flow of information in the context of the user interface of four major Swedish news websites and to explore how these characteristics could influence journalistic values, norms and media logics. The theoretical framework is composed of two basic perspectives. The first is based on the theoretical core assumption that the introduction and spread of communication technology transforms the symbolic content and the patterns of communication compared to the previous dominant cultural medium of communication. The second theoretical perspective is based on the current western liberal norms, ideals, and practices of journalism. In essence, In essence, this has to do with the normative views surrounding journalistic objectivity whereby news publishers are supposed to deliver true and fair journalistic content to citizens so they can make informed decisions as members of the deliberative democracy. The study is based on an experimental non-probability selection content analysis of websites. The empirical material has been collected during 2004-2005 from the major Swedish websites aftonbladet.se, expressen.se, dn.se and svd.se. The results of the study shows a number of important things. Interaction is widely present in the form of hyperlinks and e-mailing opportunities, but it does not take the form of public conversational interaction. There is not one single instance in the study where readers and publishers meet in a public dialogue about news content. This shows that it is still the producers that are heard in the news, although the technical means allow consumers to be heard. Very few news items, less then five percent, features any form of convergent elements like moving image or sounds along with text. The study of continuing flow of information confirms the assumption that websites have moved toward a less predictable publishing rhythm. In print newspapers, content changes once every 24 hours and all at once. This is not the case on websites. This study clearly shows that news items disappear from the first page within 24 hours, but not all news items disappear within those 24 hours. In the material studied here, the news cycle seems to be shorter than 24 hours and there is more than one top news story every day. The study of the continuing flow of information also shows that the news items themselves changes during the course of a day. Eight different indicators of how the news material changes was found: 1) The news is updated often 2) The news is updated without readers being aware 3) The author of the article change 4) Sources come and go 5) The meaning of the news changes 6) News stories disappear from the website 7) Pictures and graphics are changed or removed 8) Information that is promised is not delivered. The non transparent and coming-out-of-a-black-box-tendency of the print medium gives the news in traditional newspapers a monolithic appearance. If people follow news on the Internet, over time they are likely to discover that news stories are rather more like works in progress than they are finished products. Parts, but not all, of both the gathering and the processing of news material are visible to the audience. Rather then being delivered as the only and true version of reality, news stories on the Internet have more of a provisory multi-meaning characteristic to them. If this is practised in most online journalism, we may stand on a brink of a new kind of journalism and journalistic norms.
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| 9. |
- O Byrne, David
(författare)
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No more water, but fire next time : The conflict between environmental aims and social claims in Louisiana's post-Katrina coastal planning
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There are two levels to this thesis, the examination of the particular case and the exposition of the general approach. The case the thesis deals with is Louisiana’s coastal land-loss crisis and what can and should be done about it. I examine the current approach to coastal protection and restoration in the state of Louisiana, drawing on different economic theories of sustainable development and coastal geomorphology. Though the current plan is an improvement on previous efforts, it is still lacking in some areas. Amongst other problems, it is likely to put some fishers out of work, force them to relocate, and otherwise damage coastal communities. I argue that this is due to the critical capital approach to sustainable development that it employs which is based in utilitarian economic decisionmaking. Through a careful study of the present plan and by spotting its tensions and weaknesses, I propose an alternative approach to coastal planning which focuses on the expansion of capabilities. For this I draw on the work of Amartya Sen. I argue that this would address many problems with the current plan including those faced by the fishers. But examining the political and economic context, I find it is unlikely that the State will promote such an alternative, so I instead focus on an emergent fishers’ social movement as a potential agent of change, which can put pressure on the State to change its approach. Drawing on Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and social movement theory, in the political process tradition of Charles Tilly, I then translate this analysis into advice that might assist the movement in its struggle with the State.This thesis is also an example of a novel approach in sustainability research, which aims to make contributions at a number of levels. I propose that it provides an example of how to do interdisciplinary environmental research using the method of immanent critique; bringing together coastal geomorphology, political economy, and social movement theory. It brings together critical and problem-solving modes of research in a concrete case drawing on extended case work. I also propose a framework through which sustainability research can contribute to the practice of social movements as agent of social change towards sustainability.
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| 10. |
- Oulu, Martin
(författare)
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Fair Enough? : Ecologically Unequal Exchange, International Trade, and Environmental Justice
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) posits that contemporary international trade facilitates a net flow of resources from the peripheral global South to feed industrial processes and capital accumulation in the core North. This situation, it is argued, imperils the development of the South. Trade is a socio-metabolic process which can be analyzed through systemic aggregate approaches or LCA. Most empirical EUE methods apply the economy-wide systemic approaches. LCA is commonly used to compare embodied resource intensities of different commodities but has not been used to assess EUE. An LCA-based EUE assessment methodology which simultaneously investigates the free-market ideology is developed and tested on trade of Dutch cheese for Kenyan coffee and roses. It has two parts: i) Determination of embodied resource intensity per unit of product and ii) Determination (and comparison) of resource intensity per unit of exchange value. Specifically, the exchange of embodied land, water, energy, CO2, and labor are examined. The results confirm the EUE theory’s hypothesis. EUE theory remains marginalized in relation to mainstream economic doctrine. To enhance its utilization, the core tenets or claims of EUE theory are synthesized and translated into policy assessment criteria. The key claims are discussed in terms of i)Structure of the capitalist world-economy, ii) Valuation languages, and iii) Equity and justice. The treadmill logic of capitalism in which capital extracts ecological resources and releases waste in an endless pursuit of profits creates an expansionary dynamic which draws peripheral countries into exploitative market relations. This peripheralization is actively supported by ‘free-trade’ economic theories presented as win-win policies, while states and international politico-economic institutions such as the WTO and WorldBank provide the regulations which ensure the proper functioning of the system. Monetary valuation caps it all by obscuring the inverse relationship between thermodynamics and economics in which raw (low entropy) materials are lowly priced while processed goods which have dissipated most of their matter-energy (and thus represent high entropy) are highly priced, ensuring that surplus value and resources accumulates in industrialized countries. The dominant economic conception of the world system is being challenged by a “cultural” perspective which offers a postcolonial critique of the cultural hegemony of the Global North, beyond political economy. I apply this analytic shift to argue that EUE can also be conceived as a social process of Othering. Our understandings of economy and the environment reflect past experiences,present preoccupations, socio-cultural assumptions, and specific discursive practices – a Political Unconscious. Global environmental politics cannot be understood without considering such assumptions. Conventional hegemonic discourses of neoliberalism and ecomodernism suffer from such a political unconscious. Borrowing perspectives from postcolonial, feminist, and critical social theories, I discuss how Western science exhibit such a political unconscious and their significance for EUE. Ultimately, EUE is a political problem which can only be solved politically.
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