| 1. |
- Linke, Sebastian, 1974, et al.
(author)
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More than just a carding system: Labour implications of the EU’s illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing policy in Thailand
- 2021
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In: Marine Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0308-597X. ; 127
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Globally, the EU plays a leading role in combating Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. Specifically, the EU exercises normative power to influence regulatory strategies and governing frameworks in third countries. In 2015, the EU issued Thailand a yellow card, indicating that economic sanctions would be implemented unless IUU fishing practices were eliminated. Concurrently, revelations about ‘modern slavery’ in Thailand's fishing industry had received international attention, through media and NGOs, exposing slavery-like practices among migrant fishworkers. Conventionally, the EU IUU policy addresses only issues of catch and environmental sustainability. This paper explores how an initial bilateral dialogue was bifurcated into two dialogues: a Fishery Dialogue and a Labour Dialogue. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with involved actors, expert opinions, field-visits and secondary documents, we ask: How were labour issues integrated into the bilateral dialogue, and what consequences emerged from the IUU policy for Thai fisheries management? Tracing the bilateral dialogue between EU and Thai governments, we argue that Thailand's fisheries reform was a result of both fisheries’ sustainability concerns and the kind of labour rights valued by the EU. Our Normative Power Europe approach shows how norms of labour rights shaped the reform through policies and implementation. We maintain that this unique case-study reveals how the EU incorporates a broad-based normative approach that goes beyond catch sustainability.
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| 2. |
- Powell, Stina, et al.
(author)
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‘Are we to become a gender university?’ Facets of resistance to a gender equality project
- 2018
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In: Gender, Work and Organization. - : Blackwell Publishing Ltd. - 0968-6673 .- 1468-0432. ; 25:2, s. 127-143
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gender equality (GE) is something ‘we cannot not want’. Indeed, the pursuit of equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for all women and men throughout a society freed from gendered oppression is widely visible in recent organizational GE initiatives. In practice, however, GE initiatives often fail in challenging gendered norms and at effecting deep-seated change. In fact, GE measures tend to encounter resistance, with a gap between saying and doing. Using a GE project at a Swedish university, we examined the changing nature of reactions to GE objectives seeking to understand why gender inequality persists in academia. We used ‘resistance’ to identify multiple, complex reactions to the project, focusing on the discursive practices of GE. Focusing our contextual analysis on change and changes in reactions enabled a process-oriented analysis that revealed gaps where change is possible. Thus, we argue that studying change makes it possible to identify points in time where gendered discriminatory norms are more likely to occur. However, analysing discursive practices does not itself lead to change nor to action. Rather, demands for change must start with answering, in a collaborative way, what problem we are trying to solve when we start a new GE project, in order to be relevant to the specific context. Otherwise, GE risks being the captive of consensus politics and gender inequality will persist.
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| 3. |
- Gallardo, Gloria, et al.
(author)
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We adapt … but is it good or bad? Locating the political ecology and social-ecological systems debate in reindeer herding in the Swedish Sub-Arctic
- 2017
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In: Journal of Political Ecology. - Arizona : The University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 24:1, s. 667-691
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Abstract Reindeer herding (RDH) is a livelihood strategy deeply connected to Sami cultural tradition. This article explores the implications of two theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping complex socioenvironmental relationships of RDH in Subarctic Sweden. Based on joint fieldwork, two teams – one that aligns itself with political ecology (PE) and the other with social-ecological systems (SES) – compared PE and SES approaches of understanding RDH. Our purpose was twofold: 1) to describe the situation of Sami RDH through the lenses of PE and SES, exploring how the two approaches interpret the same empirical data; 2) to present an analytical comparison of the ontological and epistemological assumptions of this work, also inferring different courses of action to instigate change for the sustainability of RDH. Key informants from four sameby in the Kiruna region expressed strong support for the continuation of RDH as a cultural and economic practice. Concerns about the current situation raised by Sami representatives centered on the cumulative negative impacts on RDH from mining, forestry and tourism. PE and SES researchers offered dissimilar interpretations of the key aspects of the RDH socio-economic situation, namely: the nature and scale of RDH systems; the ubiquitous role of conflict; and conceptualizations of responses to changing socioenvironmental conditions. Due to these disparities, PE and SES analyses have radically divergent sociopolitical implications for what ought to be done to redress the current RDH situation.
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| 4. |
- Aguiar Borges, Luciane, 1969, et al.
(author)
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Reviewing Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools through Critical Heritage Studies
- 2020
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In: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 12:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reports on a critical review of how cultural heritage is addressed in two internationally well-known and used neighborhood assessment tools (NSAs): BREEAM Communities (BREEAM-C) and LEED Neighborhood Design (LEED-ND). The review was done through a discourse analysis in which critical heritage studies, together with a conceptual linking of heritage to sustainability, served as the point of departure. The review showed that while aspects related to heritage are present in both NSAs, heritage is re-presented as primarily being a matter of safeguarding material expressions of culture, such as buildings and other artifacts, while natural elements and immaterial-related practices are disregarded. Moreover, the NSAs institutionalize heritage as a field of formal knowledge and expert-dominated over the informal knowledge of communities.
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| 5. |
- Otto, Opira
(author)
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Trust, identity and beer : institutional arrangements for agricultural labour in Isunga village in Kiryandongo district, midwestern Uganda
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis explores the role and influence of institutions on agricultural labour transactions in Isunga village in Kiryandongo District, Midwestern Uganda. It primarily focuses on how farmers structure, maintain and enforce their labour relationships during crop farming. The study is based on semi-structured interviews of twenty households and unstructured interviews with representatives of farmers associations. These interviews show that other than household labour, the other common labour arrangements in the village include farm work sharing, labour exchanges and casual wage labour. Farm work sharing and labour exchanges involve farmers temporarily pooling their labour into work groups to complete tasks such as planting, weeding or harvesting crops on members' farms in succession. This is done under strict rules and rewarded with 'good' beer and food. Against this background, the study asks what institutions really are, why they matter and what we can learn about them. Literature suggests that institutions influence labour transactions by their effects on transaction costs and the protection of contractual rights. However, literature does not suggest which institutions are best for agricultural labour transactions. Taking institutions to be the 'rules of the game', with farmers as 'players' who strategically use these rules to their advantage, the study focused on the interaction between institutions and farmers. The major findings of the study are: (a) farmers' choices of institutions are influenced by the characteristics of transactions, the costs of using institutions for handling labour dealings, the fairness and predictability of the outcome of contract enforcement mechanisms, and socio-cultural factors such as kin/ethnic status, morality and affection, (b) formal institutions in Isunga are either weak, ineffective or absent. So, farmers rely heavily on institutions embedded in social norms and networks to structure their transactional relationships, to ensure the performance of the respective parties, and to settle disputes if they arise. The study concludes that agricultural labour transactions in Isunga involve judgements of personal characteristics and social roles expressed as reputation and trustworthiness.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Caselunghe, Elvira, et al.
(author)
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Forskningsperspektiv på naturvägledning
- 2012
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Literature study shows a lack of Swedish nature interpretation research. The Swedish Centre for Nature Interpretation (SCNI) was established in 2007 by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences. One task of SCNI is to initiate research on nature interpretation. This research overview is intended to provide a jumping-off point. The main purpose was to investigate Swedish research that contributes to development of theory and practice in nature interpretation. In addition, research from other Nordic countries as well as international research was reviewed. A literature search for Swedish scientific publications on nature interpretation, explicitly, revealed a scarcity of such research in Sweden. Of course identifying such studies depends, in part, on how “nature interpretation” and “research” are defined. There are actually a number of Swedish researchers who work with topics that are relevant to nature interpretation, and to some extent this research is also published in scientific media. However, there is a larger quantity of educational literature. Overall, the main finding of this literature search is that nature interpretation research has not been conducted in Sweden, to date. However, relevant studies were found in such areas as outdoor recreation, nature tourism, education for sustainable development, outdoor education, environmental history, museology and environmental psychology. Various key words have been used in the selected databases, since “nature interpretation” generates no scientific hits. Definitions and pedagogical principles for nature interpretation are described in the first part of the report. Then international nature interpretation research and some different occurring theories are presented. Emphasis is then put on Swedish and Nordic research that is relevant for developing nature interpretation. The main findings below include conclusions from both the international and the Swedish/Nordic research and indicate some possible directions for development of nature interpretation research, in Sweden and elsewhere. NATURE INTERPRETATION CAN BE BOTH A MEANS OR AN END IN ITSELF There is a need for scientific development of nature interpretation evaluation principles. In Sweden, but also elsewhere, a common goal for publicly financed nature interpretation is to influence people in the direction of sustainable development. Research on interpretation evaluation is needed in order to know whether various activities correspond to our expectations. Also, there is a need to question whether this goal of influencing people is transparent and democratic enough. Internationally, there are both researchers who claim that interpretation can have a positive effect on environmental attitudes and behavior, and those who claim that effective evaluation methodologies for exploring such relationships need further development. Worldwide, interpretive evaluation research has focused heavily on knowledge gain and impacts on attitudes and behaviour, but it has seldom partitioned out the role of the emotional aspects of nature experience, although interpretation instructions stress revelation and provocation for instance. The notion of “participants gaining knowledge” could be widened and include mutual and experiential learning processes. Unlike environmental education, interpretation usually is a rather time limited activity. That could also be a reason to why long term interpretation effects are difficult to evaluate. If any effects appear, it would still be difficult to distinguish what has generated them. Nature interpretation is sometimes seen as a means for fulfilling a greater objective, but in other cases it is seen as an end in itself. For instance, within outdoor recreation, nature interpretation activities could be considered an end in themselves. Whereas nature interpretation efforts within state run nature conservation could be a means for legitimating and promoting poli-tical nature conservation decisions. NATURE INTERPRETATION AS A COMMUNICATIVE ACT The literature review indicated that the number of Swedish or international publications focusing on the communicative act of nature interpretation from an interactional micro perspective seems to be limited. What is happening within and between the persons during a nature interpretation session? How does the interpretation process really occur? Is the interpreter or the participant the one who makes the interpretation for instance? What kind of learning is taking place? CRITICAL RESEARCH ON NATURE INTERPRETATION COULD DEVELOP THEORY AND PRACTICE When discussing what Swedish nature interpretation research could concentrate on, there is not only a need to discuss the topics, but also different scientific approaches that could facilitate a greater understanding. Much of the Nordic research referred in this report is carried out within a positivistic research tradition doing quantitative studies. When approaching social science there are also some publications within hermeneutic research tradition. Critical research tradition, however, is rare among the studies reviewed. Since nature interpretation is not a natural science phenomenon, but a social one, nature interpretation research based on social constructivism has an obvious importance in further development of Swedish nature interpretation research. The role of nature interpretation in society could be better understood by analyzing what discourses characterize Swedish nature interpretation practice today. What ideas of man and nature are taken for granted which could affect the content and format of nature interpretation? Nature interpretation contributes to constructing our nature experiences, something that is seldom analysed. What values and rationalities holds the Swedish nature interpretation discourses? These questions require a critical dimension of nature interpretation research. Another division to make is research that looks for improving nature interpretation practice (how to do good interpretation), versus research that looks for understanding the phenomenon of nature interpretation (research about interpretation). Both kinds are needed. EXAMPLES ON CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF NATURE INTERPRETATION Some discussions in museology are highly relevant to nature interpretation as well. A quote by Ella Johansson (2001) about open air museums illustrates several of the inherent paradoxes in interpretation that could be interesting to further investigate. “… some contrary – or maybe complementary – aspects are lasting and necessary features in a museum: authenticity versus scene, critical distance versus deep empathy, creating knowledge versus ideology, education versus Sunday pleasure.” The content and format of nature interpretation is always a mental and social product, where the involved individuals decide what phenomena and objects are paid attention to and what questions and explanations are suggested. Søren Kruse (2002) argues that “the interpreter designs the participants’ nature visits and determines thereby frames for their nature experiences”. He further writes that: “Nature interpretation is in the centre of the normative minefield of pedagogics, where one could ask oneself: With what right can the nature interpreters claim that their design of nature visits is better than the nature contact designed by the participants themselves? My point of departure is that nature interpretation is not an interpretation of nature, but a production and reproduction of socially constructed descriptions of nature and our relations with it.” THE NEED OF ADVANCING NATURE INTERPRETATION RESEARCH IN SWEDEN Advancement of Swedish research on nature interpretation is needed for several reasons. There are national prerequisites that are unique, such as the Swedish right of public access to nature. Swedish nature interpretation is not yet systematically evaluated from a scientific point of view. There are also a number of educational programmes in Swedish universities within nature guidance and nature interpretation, and connecting these educational efforts to research would strengthen their quality. However, nature interpretation is not a research discipline, but rather a topic that requires research from various perspectives. That interdisciplinary context could be treated by different branches – from public health science, to cultural studies, to forest sciences, if it is combined with communication science, pedagogics or similar fields. Environmental psychology, marketing and media sciences could also provide knowledge about behavioural impacts that nature interpretation often aims for in a general context.
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| 9. |
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Land and Hydropolitics in the Nile River Basin : Challenges and New Investments
- 2016
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Nile River Basin supports the livelihoods of millions of people in Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, principally as water for agriculture and hydropower. The resource is the focus of much contested development, not only between upstream and downstream neighbours, but also from countries outside the region. This book investigates the water, land and energy nexus in the Nile Basin.It explains how the current surge in land and energy investments, both by foreign actors as well as domestic investors, affects already strained transboundary relations in the region and how investments are intertwined within wider contexts of Nile Basin history, politics and economy. Overall, the book presents a range of perspectives, drawing on political science, international relations theory, sociology, history and political ecology.
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| 10. |
- Bergeå, Hanna, et al.
(author)
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Dialogprocessen om allemansrätten : underlag för utveckling av dialogmetodik och dialogkompetens
- 2013
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Under 2012 och 2013 har avdelningen för Miljökommunikation vid SLU fungerat som rådgivare till Naturvårdsverket i planeringen och genomförandet av en dialogprocess om allemansrätten och dess tillämpning. Denna rapport har tillkommit som ett avslutande led i detta uppdrag. Syftet med rapporten är att stödja utveckling av dialogmetodik och dialogkompetens inom naturresurshanteringen genom att redogöra för och kritiskt diskutera de erfarenheter som vi gjort av att arbeta med en omtvistad och komplex samhällsfråga genom dialog. I rapporten redogör vi för de tankar och teorier som har väglett planeringen av dialogprocessen och diskuterar vad vi, så här i efterhand, anser att vi kunde ha gjort annorlunda. Syftet med rapporten är alltså inte att diskutera dialogprocessens innehåll och/eller hur olika aktörer och intressen ser på frågor som rör allemansrätten. Rapporten ska ses som ett underlag för hur den som ansvarar för en dialogprocess bör planera, genomföra och förhålla sig till deltagarna och det som sker. Rapporten består av följande fem delar: 1. Viktiga förutsättningar och ramar för upplägg och planering av dialogprocessen 2. Händelseutvecklingen i de fem möten som processen bestod av 3. Deltagarnas åsikter om processen, vad de tycker att de lärt sig 4. Deltagarnas rapportering av lärdomar från dialogprocessen till sina hemorganisationer 5. Diskussioner och rekommendationer
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