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Moksnes, Heidi
(författare)
Mayan suffering, Mayan rights: Faith and citizenship among Catholic Tzotziles in Highland Chiapas, Mexico
2003
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the construction of citizenship by a group of highland Mayas in Mexico. The ethnographic focus is on liberation theological Catholics in the Tzotzil-speaking municipality of San Pedro Chenalhó in highland Chiapas. Through their religious affiliation and their political association Las Abejas, the Pedrano Catholics form one of the important blocs of what is today a deeply factionalized municipality. Fieldwork was carried out in two periods for a total of fourteen months in 1995 and 1996. Complementary work was conducted during a month-long visit in 1998. The fieldwork focused on the daily life, Sunday services and meetings of Pedrano Catholics. Informal interviews were also made with church members, catechists and other leaders. The study shows how Pedrano Catholics are reinterpreting the signification of the poverty and suffering that all Pedranos hold is characteristic of their lives as indigenous peasants. The converts are creating a collective identity that transcends the ethnic group and defines them as part of a universal humanity. Simultaneously, through a "moral theology of suffering," their poverty is defined as a distinguishing experience that is contrary to the will of God, and which brings them and other indigenous peasants closer to God and his grace. Evoking Christian ethics and international human rights regulations, the converts denounce their predicament and demand rights in a discourse directed at Mexican authorities as well as national and internatonal civil society. Thereby, Pedrano Catholics have developed a form for exercising active citizenship in the Mexican nation-state. This endeavor is found to be shaped by an ongoing concern among Pedranos: the construction of cohesive social collectivities that uphold alliances with patron deities for protection. The Catholic church groups and their confederate-like coordination on municipal level are structured similarly to the earlier calpul community in Chenalhó. Both levels of the Catholic community are also constituted as the entities by which the converts uphold an alliance with God that assres his guardian protection. Thus, while the Pedrano Catholic community is part onf an escalating factionalization and disintergration of Chenalhó, it provides a space where Pedrano society can be reconstituted, offering a sense of coherence and unity. At the same time, the Catholic group is constituted as part of a broader community of Catholics, and recognizes clergy of the Catholic Church as religious and political authorities. Thus, it is argued that the Catholic group exemplifies a broad change in the Maya highlands, from "closed" corporate communities to translocal, moral communities.
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Sjölander-Lindqvist, Annelie
(författare)
Local Environment at Stake : The Hallandsås Railway Tunnel in a Social and Cultural Context
2004
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
A major trend in facility siting research focuses on economic and psychological aspects of land-use regarding the location of potentially hazardous technological facilities including storage for high-level radioactive waste, landfills, chemical plants, large-scale dams, or waste incinerators. Such facilities frequently have profound environmental impact and are often understood by local citizens as intrusions on their environment that threaten landscape, place, and community. This investigation of local responses to facility siting is grounded in social anthropological theories of landscape and place. The study addresses the social and cultural impacts of the building of a railway tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge in an agricultural area in the southwest of Sweden. This tunnel project has met with technological difficulties and environmental problems such as a lowered groundwater table and toxic contamination of groundwater, soil, and surface water. A principal concern in this dissertation is how homeowners’ perceptions and views of the landscape, place, and locality—that is, their local environment—has been affected by the building of a tunnel beneath their farms and homesteads. The four articles on which the thesis build are derived from anthropological fieldwork carried out among local residents affected by the Hallandsås tunnel project. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, collaborative photography, nature walks, and participant observation at public meetings, between the years 1999 and 2003. The main findings of the study suggest that the construction of the tunnel and the subsequent environmental consequences have given rise to an increased sense among affected residents of the fragility and uncertainty of life systems and people’s livelihoods. Feelings of uncertainty regarding the future of the community and the landscape have stimulated a discourse about local history and collective memories bearing on the local environment. Shared responsibility for nature and the local environment is another theme. The building of the Hallandsås railway tunnel has both reinforced local identity within the rural community of affected residents and incited conflict as to how the natural resources of the area should be understood and interpreted. Groundwater issues play a central role in land-use disputes generated by the tunnel project. Groundwater serves as a ‘boundary object’ bordering the domains of the concerned parties: the local community and the Swedish National Rail Administration.
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Berglund, Tomas, 1967
(författare)
Attityder till arbete i Västeuropa och USA. Teoretiska perspektiv och analyser av data från sex länder : Attitudes toward Work in Western Europe and the United States - theoretical perspectives and empirical analyses of data from six countries
2001
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis studies attitudes toward work, the structural and culturai factors which are important for how individuals regard work, and the psychological processes that can generate different attitudes toward work. The empirical material analysed consists of two questionnaire surveys (Work orientatio n 1997 and 1989) under the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). The countries studied are Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Great Britain and the USA. By factor analysis, four attitude patterns are identified. The first, called an altruistic attitude, emphasizes the social value of work. The second is called a materialistic attitude and values career opportunities and high salary. In the third, an instrumental attitude, work is seen primarilyas ameans of sustenance. The fourth attitude pattern is called an individualistic attitude and values independence in work. These attitude patterns are established with varying strength in different countries. An explanatory model is tested that combines two social dimensions: hierarchy and social integration. The model forms four situations in which the different attitudes are assumed to be common. The model is tested empirically and has greatest relevance in Sweden, Germany and Norway. The altruistic attitude is most common in a situation of subordination and high loyalty toward the organization. The instrumental attitude is commonest in a subordinate position where the employee feels low loyalty toward the organization. The individualistic attitude is most widespread among professionals with low loyalty toward the organization. The materialistic attitude is commonest among managers with high loyalty toward the organization. In the other three countries, the expected patterns occur only for the instrumental attitude toward work. The thesis investigates whether three psychological processes are active in the mode!. The first process emphasizes learning: an individual draws lessons from his/her working situation and expresses perceptions that are realistic in it. The general empirical result is that the attitudes are expressed in working situations which have the characteristics that are valued by those attitudes. The instrumental attitude deviates in exhibiting a negative connection with favourable working conditions. The second process concerns the importance of identifYing with the organization's values and norms for the attitudes expressed by the individual. This is studied empirically by analysing the connections between loyalty and the different attitudes. Public employees in several countries show a strong link between loyalty to the organization and an altruistic attitude toward work. For the instrumental attitude, there is a dear negative connection with loyalty. The third process involves the significance of contradictory working situations for the individual's attitudes. These situations are defined by conflict between the individual's lhner values and his/her knowledge of externai conditions. In Sweden and Germany, the altruistic attitude is of ten expressed by private employees who are anxious about losing their jobs and, at the same time, feel highly loyal toward the organization. The individualistic attitude is expressed by individuals who have career ambitions and simultaneously feel dissatisfied about their present work. The results indicate that the altruistic and individualistic attitudes may be expressed in order to cope with contradictory working situations.
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