| 1. |
- Sharif, Hassan, 1973-
(författare)
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”Här i Sverige måste man gå i skolan för att få respekt” : Nyanlända ungdomar i den svenska gymnasieskolans introduktionsutbildning
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about 16 newly arrived students from Iraq enrolled in the introductory programme for newcomers, in two Swedish upper secondary schools during the academic year 2010/11. The study focuses on the newly arrived students’ possession of cultural, social, educational and linguistic capital and their migration experience as well as their plans for future studies. The theoretical framework is based on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER). Of crucial importance is the sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad, who bridges Bourdieu and migration studies. Also, general sociological concepts like class, gender and ethnicity are used. Traditional ethnographic approaches such as observations, informal conversations and interviews are the main methods.The empirical results show that the newly arrived students have varying degrees of inherited assets, although the majority came from more affluent backgrounds. They also differed with regard to their school background. The ones who went to public schools in Iraq described the Iraqi educational system as authoritarian institution in which they had to conform to collective norms and values. Those who went to private international schools reported that their schools were similar to those in Sweden, but significantly more demanding. The youths also had assets that had little value in the Swedish educational system. One example is the ability to speak several languages like Arabic, Kurdish, Syriac and Chaldean.Newly arrived students usually have no experience of the Swedish school system and cannot speak Swedish. This limitation defines them as a disadvantaged group when they enter the Swedish educational system, in programmes specially designed for them. Furthermore, the newly arrived students are spatially and symbolically segregated from other students and are thus poorly integrated in into the schools’ ordinary activities. The newly arrived students quickly become aware of that they do not master the language and that they are not familiar with the study norms and roles in Sweden. However, the students express high educational aspirations and emphasize education as a key factor in achieving respectability. Or, in Bourdieu’s sense, success in the Swedish educational system represents symbolic capital, for the Swedish born population as well as for as members of their own ethnic group.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Hassler, Björn, 1964-
(författare)
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The strategy of assistance : Swedish environmental support to the Baltic states 1991-1996
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sweden has provided considerable amounts of environmental assistance to the Baltic States since their regained independence. To explain the existence and character of this support program, the rationales behind the Swedish policy have to be analyzed.This dissertation uses a rational choice approach, where it is assumed that the Swedish support to the Baltic States in the 1991-1996 period primarily was guided by self-interest. It is shown that there has been remarkable agreement among the political parties concerning the environmental support to the Baltic States during the whole period. This makes the unitary actor assumption reasonable. Swedish foreign aid history and earlier international environmental cooperation is provided as a background to the analysis of the support policy.It is shown that Sweden tended to favor support projects where the environmental impact had a trans-boundary character, thus implying that Swedish environmental interests were affected. This choice of policy introduced a bias in the allocation of environmental investments in the Baltic States, as they have been required to fmance the largest part of the investments with local funding. The consequence has been that issue-areas that have not been attractive to foreign aid providers have been neglected.
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| 4. |
- Lecusay, Robert A., 1974-
(författare)
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Telementoring Physics: University-Community After-school Collaborations and the Mediation of the Formal/ Informal Divide
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For several decades improvement of science education has been a major concern of policy makers concerned that the U.S. is a “nation at risk” owing to the dearth of students pursing careers in science. Recent policy proposals have argued that provision of broadband digital connectivity to organizations in the informal sector would increase the reach of the formal, academic sector to raise the overall level of science literacy in the country.This dissertation reports on a longitudinal study of a physics telementoring activity jointly run by a university-community collaborative at a community learning center. The activity implemented a digital infrastructure that exceeds the technical and social-institutional arrangements promoted by policy makers. In addition to broadband internet access (for tele-conferencing between students at the community center and physicists at a university), supplemented by digital software designed to promote physics education, the activity included the presence of a collaborating researcher/tutor at the community learning center to coordinate and document the instructional activities.The current research revealed a fundamental contradiction between the logic, goals, and practices of the physics instructors, and the corresponding logic, goals, and practices of the participants at the community learning center. This contradiction revolves around a contrast between the physicists’ formal, logocentric ways of understanding expressed in the ability to explain the scientific rules underlying physical phenomena and the informal, pragmatic orientation of the youth and adults at the learning center.The observations in this dissertation should remind techno-enthusiasts, especially in the arena of public education policy, that there are no turnkey solutions in “distance” science education. Technically “connecting” people is not equivalent to creating conditions that expand opportunities to learn and a functioning socio-technical system that supports learning. Secondly, for designers and practitioners of informal learning in community-university collaborative settings, it is critically important to understand distance learning activities as developing “cross-cultural, ” collaborative encounters, the results of which are more likely to be hybrids of different ways of learning and knowing than the conversion of informal learning into a tool for instruction that will allow youth to “think like physicists.”
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| 5. |
- Rabe, Linn, 1984-
(författare)
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Participation and Legitimacy : Actor Involvement for Nature Conservation
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This PhD thesis in environmental science aims to contribute to the theoretical and empirical understanding of the relation between participation and legitimacy in multi-level environmental governance.It is widely assumed that actor involvement has great potential to improve the legitimacy of nature conservation through long-term acceptance and target achievement. However, local resource conflicts problematize the way a relation between participation and legitimacy is depicted on other administrative levels. Studies exploring the effect that participation has on legitimacy are relatively rare, especially in multi-level arrangements of coastal conservation.In this thesis the relation between participation and legitimacy on the local level is examined, as well as how this relation is conditioned by multi-level governance and power. The relation is empirical studied with two local implementation processes of the Helsinki Convention’s network of marine protected areas (HELCOM MPAs). The cases are located in Sweden.Sweden and the Baltic Sea region are in the forefront of participation in nature conservation, and therefore act as a strong case for the exploration of institutional participation. However, despite apparent political will and international support, the efficiency of actor involvement for nature conservation has been questioned, also for the HELCOM MPA and especially on the local level.Based on the results of this study, I question the assumption that weak legitimacy predominantly is an issue of insufficient information sharing. The findings show that involving actors to legitimize the adoption of strict adherence to a pre-established model of conservation likely fails to create long term support for conservation. Instead, relocation of power to the affected actors seems essential in order to make participation establish legitimacy. It appears important to create room for local influence in the design, management and implementation of a particular conservation area in the particular place/context. In both examined cases, there are elements of participation that support legitimacy, for example the development of a shared vision. There are also elements that hamper legitimacy, such as, for example, the high expectations different actors have on participation to reach consensus on protective values. These unmet expectations seem to fuel conflicts of interests among actors on different levels.
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| 6. |
- Rehnlund, Mathilde, 1982-
(författare)
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Getting the transport right - for what? : What transport policy can tell us about the construction of sustainability
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis studies transport as a governing tool that shapes the physical environment and human society, as well as having environmental impacts. The aim is to learn what policy for transport can say about what sustainability means and does. My focus is Stockholm municipal policy between 2007 and 2017, a period of sustainability concerns and large transport project agreements.Using the What’s the problem represented to be? approach, I look at measures proposed for the ‘right’ transport of people and ask: what kind of ‘tool’ is transport produced to be, and how is sustainability constructed?The transport system is one of the most visible parts of the built environment and recognized for its negative impact on environmental and human health. As co-constitutive of social practices, transport is far from a mere technical issue. Despite this, transport policy studies are often technical in approach. Since policy is not a neutral response to pre-existing ‘problems’, I consider transport policy to be part of a creative process for the whole of society.A main contribution to the field of sustainable transport is a view of transport as a tool for governing and inherently political. Stockholm is frequently hailed as a ‘green’ city. I was interested to explore this ‘best case’ scenario and see what might consolidate the two seemingly opposing aims of greener transport and more car use. I find that Stockholm policy for transport is permeated with technological optimism, reliance on individual choices, and concern for economic growth. Policy measures construct transport as a tool to affirm the commuter paradigm and promote urban expansion. Attention to the sustainability of transport concentrates on emissions from transport work, which is to be addressed by individual consumption choices. Sustainability is associated with efficiency, technological innovation, and above all urbanity. The proposals paradoxically construct the subject as both co-responsible for problem and solution (the conscious or irresponsible consumer), and as a cog in the wheel for economic growth (the commuting worker). This disregards both the homo ludens and the citizen: play and the political. These aspects become subordinated while policy enhances the role of work.
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| 7. |
- Remling, Elise, 1986-
(författare)
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Adaptation, now? : Exploring the Politics of Climate Adaptation through Poststructuralist Discourse Theory
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Increasing evidence of anthropogenic climate change and the recognition that warming is likely to go beyond 2°C raises the need for responses that help people cope with the anticipated changes. The rise of attention to so-called climate adaptation on political agendas at the local, national and international scale has come about with a hastily growing field of academic knowledge production. But while adaptation choices are inherently political, adaptation has been largely considered a ‘problem free’ process and ‘tame’ challenge; only a relatively small strand of scholarly work engages in critical enquiry into the idea of adaptation, the discursive practices through which it is imagined, and related questions of power and politics.Responding to calls for more attention to the socio-political dimensions of adaptation and for conceptually embedded research, this thesis investigates the creation, interpretation and use of adaptation as a concept in research, policy and practice. Drawing on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory and the so-called Logics of Critical Explanation in particular, it develops a perspective through which the politics of adaptation can be investigated in a theoretically and methodologically consistent and transparent manner. Through a close analysis of official adaptation discourses at the international level, the EU level, and the national level in Germany, the thesis enquires into the discursive practices around adaptation responses and what these different discourses open up or limit in terms of broader implications for political action.The contributions of the thesis are empirical, methodological and conceptual. In addition to providing critical insights into contemporary understandings of adaptation, including revealing some depoliticising ‘building blocks’ in conventional adaptation discourses, the thesis makes two important conceptual contributions to the growing field of critical adaptation studies: (1) It suggests that the increasing interconnectedness between people and places makes it impossible to know whether adaptation efforts undertaken have in reality reduced net vulnerability or simply shuffled vulnerability across the board. Ignoring the potential for such redistributive effects can have significant consequences in practice and will likely lead to unsustainable and, in the long run, maladaptive outcomes. (2) It argues that non-rational and affective dimensions are vital to the emergence of adaptation responses and that paying attention to them is important if critical scholarship is to understand and intervene in the persistence of techno-managerial approaches to adaptation. Furthermore, to the field of critical policy studies this thesis makes a methodological contribution by developing a new analytical framework for poststructuralist policy analysis.
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| 8. |
- Stalmokaitė, Ignė
(författare)
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New Tides in Shipping : Studying incumbent firms in maritime energy transitions
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Shipping is a cornerstone of global transportation responsible for moving large volumes of traded goods. At the same time, negative environmental impacts of shipping operations have attracted growing concerns. Although recognised as the most energy-efficient mode of transportation compared to air and land-based transport, maritime transportation contributes significantly to air-borne emissions, alongside other types of pollutants. Hence, it is apparent that alternatives to highly polluting conventional marine fuels, i.e., crude oil or diesel, have to be found in shipping, just as in other sectors. Responding to calls for a greater attention to actors’ roles in transitions, as well as for broader sectoral coverage of empirical work in the field of sustainability transition studies, this doctoral thesis explores the role of incumbents (established shipping firms) in the early stages of maritime energy transitions. Focusing on incumbents is a relatively recent, yet rapidly evolving, stream of research in sustainability transitions studies, with increasing evidence showing heterogeneity and strategic variety in incumbent activities in various transition contexts. By drawing on a multi-level perspective from the socio-technical transition literature, the dynamic capabilities approach from the strategic management literature, and structuration theory, this thesis contributes new knowledge on “how” and “why” frontrunner incumbent shipping firms engage with maritime niche technologies and alternative energy solutions as well as what strategies they adopt to overcome increasing environmental sustainability pressures. These are the topics that have so far received scant attention in sustainability transitions studies. The thesis utilises a qualitative case study approach to study the selection of firms from passenger, vehicle carrier and container shipping business segments that are active in environmental work. The findings of this thesis indicate that the roles of shipping firms in the early stage of maritime energy transitions are diverse and more complex than often accounted for in sustainability transitions literature. It is demonstrated that due to increased regulatory, social and competitive pressures, firms’ activities with regards to engagement in maritime niche technologies and alternative energy have shifted from reactive to a mix of strategies where a portfolio of solutions are pursued at the same time across and within individual firms. While adoption of incremental end-of-pipe technologies reinforces dependence on the fossil fuel energy system, a parallel engagement and experimentation with alternative energy solutions indicates that incumbent firms can also adopt a central role in niche development activities.
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| 9. |
- Sunden, Jenny, 1973-
(författare)
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Material virtualities : Approaching online textual embodiment
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While the Internet is often presented as a disembodied medium, various forms of bodily presence are continually introduced when people meet online. This study explores notions of embodiment in a particular text-based virtual world (here called WaterMOO) by investigating how bodies- always sexually specific- are created and rendered meaningful in online textual practices. What does it mean to be embodied online? What are the conditions of cyber-subjectivity? The argument is situated in thegrowing field of online ethnography, taking as a point of departure two years of online 'fieldwork'. Letting field sessions along with contemporary feminist and queer theory serve as a backdrop, online embodiment turns out to be located in a borderland between typists and textual machine bodies, speaking and writing, physicality and imagination.In contrast to the myth of cyberspace as a disengaged, free universe for transgender performances, textual bodies in WaterMOO are not only unmistakably human, but unmistakably human-gendered. A MOO provides its inhabitants with a fictive world open to play and imagination, but one that is also a networked social space quite different from imaginary worlds of fiction. On the other hand, these social encounters are always textual mediations, clearly drawing on literary conventions andnarrative structures that render them open to comparisons with other literary phenomenon.If initially, online textuality was seen as the ultimate realization of postmodern literary theory, this study incorporates an awareness of how acts of writing and reading are always confronted with the techno-cultural restrictions of the medium. Physical bodies do not only exist as textual figurations in online narratives, but 'the body typing' is itself indispensable to the creation of virtual bodies. The WaterMOO studyshows the need to shift the emphasis in poststructuralist literary theory - away from its engagement with textual 'surfaces' toward a theory of textuality as always materially and sexually engraved. The discussion arrives at an alternative cyberfeminist subject in terms of a she-cyborg. The she-cyborg is a figure of thought, but also a lived reality in various online spaces. She shows how (female) typists and their virtual body doubles are never full separated from each other, but rather infused with feminist politics embedded in collectivities of difference.
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| 10. |
- Svenaeus, Fredrik, 1966-
(författare)
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The hermeneutics of medicine and the phenomenology of health : steps towards a philosophy of medical practice
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study is an attempt to develop an ontology and epistemology of medicine with the aid of the philosophical theories of phenomenology and hermeneutics. Medicine, in this work, is considered to be a particular form of practice with a certain intersubjective structure, rather than an assembly of scientific theories and technologies applied in the clinic. To be more precise, medicine is suggested to be an interpretive, helping meeting between two persons - doctor or other health-care professional and patient - the goal of which is health for the ill, help-seeking party. Phenomenology and hermeneutics, mainly in the forms developed by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, are then used to more fully understand what is meant by an interpretive, helping meeting and by its goal - health. Health is characterized with the aid of the phenomenology of Heidegger, developed in his main work Sein und Zeit, as homelike being-in-the-world. Its opposite, illness, is explicated as an attunement (Befindlichkeit) of unhomelikeness, lived through every aspect of the being-in-the-world of Dasein, from body to language, and thus penetrating the entire understanding of the ill person. Medical practice, having the goal of establishing homelikeness in the patient's being-in-the-world, is then laid out, with the help of a reading of Gadamer's Wahrbeit und Methode, as a dialogic, interpretive coming together of the two different lifeworld horizons of doctor and patient. The two parties of the meeting must through this process of gradual fusion of horizons ultimately reach a to some extent shared understanding, which results in a therapeutic decision. The hermeneutics of medicine is thus, to speak with Gadamer, an applicative hermeneutics - a kind of understanding and interpretation put to work in a certain setting with a specific goal. This attentive, dialogic, goal-directed hermeneutics of medicine is shown, not to exclude, but to envelop the explanations, predictions and therapies of modern medical science. The philosophical analysis in this study is carried out through the illustrative use of clinical examples. Through choosing common types of illnesses and medical encounters, strategically placed in different paradigmatic corners of the clinical territory - streptococcal infection, chronic fatigue syndrome, prostate cancer, diabetes and stroke - the author has attempted to encompass as much as possible of the vast and diverse area of clinical practice.
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