| 1. |
- Dahl, Matilda, 1978-
(författare)
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States under scrutiny
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Opinions, rankings and evaluations of states’ development are proliferating. In the context of the transformation and EU accession of the Baltic States, there were many organizations involved in the scrutiny of their efforts to become accepted as modern and European. This scrutiny directed towards states can be seen as a new practice of transnational regulation. Especially in times of major transformation, as was the case in the Baltic States after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, monitoring and evaluation of achievements can be expected to shape how reforms were prioritized and how problems were perceived. In order to gain a better understanding of these transformations it is necessary to study the practice of organizations that scrutinize the states.The aim of the thesis is to analyze the role of scrutiny as a practice of transnational regulation. By analyzing how international organizations scrutinize states, this thesis adds knowledge to how transforming states are constructed in the everyday practices of scrutiny. A main argument is that by evaluating and reporting on states, international organizations can be seen as ‘auditors’ of transformations in states. The thesis compares three such ‘auditors’ and their respective relations to the states under scrutiny, namely: the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the NGO Transparency International. The thesis contributes to discussions about the role of transnational regulation in the transformation of states. By comparing the three cases of scrutiny it is concluded that scrutiny produces both comfort and critique for and about these transforming states. In addition, through processes of scrutinizing, states are constructed as auditable and comparable. Scrutiny also inscribes states into a story about progress, it thus offers hope about reforms and of a better future.
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| 2. |
- Aidukaite, Jolanta, 1968-
(författare)
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The Emergence of the Post-Socialist Welfare State
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways.The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research.Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society.Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too.The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families.In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Linus, 1979-
(författare)
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Alternativ television
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- This dissertation analyses social critique, communication critique and aestheticalcritique in television produced by artists. Theoretically it draws on researchon alternative media, TV studies, especially genre analysis and narratology,and media aesthetics. It conducts a text-production study of three examplesof alternative television from the period 2004-2008: ContemporaryArt Center TV (CAC TV): A show produced by the CAC in Vilnius, Lithuaniaand aired on a commercial TV-channel; Good TV who aired video art ona local public access channel in Stockholm, Sweden; and Candyland TV, apirate transmission from an art gallery in central Stockholm.Empirically it builds on TV-texts, web sites and documents, as well asinterviews with participants. Through a study of form and stylistics, relationto conventional genres and modes of narration, it engages in a discussionabout the features of a critical, alternative media text.The study shows how these televisions work in a tradition of alternativetelevision and connects them to tactics and aesthetical forms as found inhistorical examples, but also how this type of formalist media critiquemight inform an understanding of alternative media. From the analysis ofrelations between social and formalist aspects of alternative television, adistinction between alternative as ”alternative worldview” and as ”alternativeexpressions” is suggested, a distinction that contributes to the developmentof theory in the study of alternative media.
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| 4. |
- Bedford, Sofie, 1975-
(författare)
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Islamic Activism in Azerbaijan
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Post-Soviet Azerbaijan is often portrayed as a very secular country. Thus the mobilization of mosque communities in the late 1990s and their conflictual relationship with the authorities came as a surprise. The main aim of the dissertation is to shed light on this mobilization, focusing on the Sunni Abu Bakr and the Shi’ite Juma mosque communities in Baku. On the premise that Islamic mobilization may be interpreted as a “social movement”, internal, contextual and interactional aspects of mobilization have been studied. The analysis is chiefly based on interviews conducted in Baku in 2004/2005 with Imams, worshippers, religious and secular authorities. The study finds that young people looking for new approaches to religion have been drawn to these communities, where they encounter an independent, educated, conscientious clergy and, indeed, a “new” religion. This “sovereign” Islam does not go down well with authorities who fear politicization of religion. The Soviet heritage has provided them with a view of religion as something that should not be publicly displayed and with the institutions to control religion. Another key feature whose impact on state policy towards religious organizations cannot be underestimated is the fear of imported radicalism. A look at Islamic mobilization in North Caucasus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan reveals many similarities, yet one momentous difference is the harsher repression in these contexts, which decreases the chances of a non-radical mobilization. The thesis concludes that the role of the state in mobilization processes in non-democratic contexts is crucial but counterintuitive, as the regimes’ efforts to stop the mobilization of movements actually leads to its intensification. In Azerbaijan, official pressure brings community members closer together and strengthens their resolve, rather than putting an end to mobilization. It also puts a spotlight on these communities which lights up the way for others in search of something new.
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| 5. |
- Berglund, Jenny, 1968-
(författare)
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Teaching Islam : Islamic Religious Education at Three Muslim Schools in Sweden
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- This study concerns the formulation of Islamic religious education (IRE) at three Swedish Muslim schools which offered IRE as an extra curricular subject, one to three hours per week. The study contributes to the understanding of how IRE is formed as a confessional school subject within the framework and under the jurisdiction of the Swedish school system. The meaning of the studied IRE was construed as a way of building connectedness between pupils to both the common Islamic tradition and the Swedish society, but also highlighting and establishing connections between these two entities. The primary finding is that it is inaccurate to speak about IRE in homogeneous terms since the content varies distinctively between different schools. In addition, it has been found that the educational questions considered by the involved teachers are similar to those considered by many other types of teachers. Although classroom observations and teacher interviews showed that the general content of all three IRE classrooms included the teaching of the Quran, Islamic history through religious narratives and song, specific content variations were evident. Differences concerned approaches to the teaching of the Quran, ways of using religious narratives and genre of songs. Therefore pupils in each school received somewhat different answers to local and global questions that were raised in the classrooms, indicating somewhat different interpretations of Islam. These differences suggest that the depiction of IRE as a transmission of Islam to the younger generation is not accurate since it leads to the impression that religions are insulated entities that are capable of being passed from one generation to the next without any change taking place. Instead this study shows that the teachers translate the content of IRE according to their perception of what is vital for their pupils to know and suitable for them to comprehend since they constantly choose content and negote its meaning.
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| 6. |
- Blomqvist, Håkan, 1951-
(författare)
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Nation, ras och civilisation i svensk arbetarrörelse före nazismen
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Ideas of nationalism, race and anti-Semitism are usually connected to right wing ideology and politics. This thesis, however, is studying them in the context of the socialist labour movement. That a radical left wing patriotism, inspired by the French revolution, developed intertwined with workers’ internationalism is well known. But this left wing nationalism has, in the Swedish case, been characterised as an “internal” tool for obtaining democratic rights and social reforms and not directed against other peoples and nations. Inspired by postcolonial studies of whiteness the thesis examines the views of development of mankind and of national difference expressed in Swedish socialist publicity since the 1850’s up to the late 1920’s. Empirical studies of magazines, brochures and books show that it is possible to distinguish a trace of socialist whiteness in the production of ideas from the labour movement, influenced by liberal radicalism. Here, by socialist whiteness is not primarily meant identities of skin colour but ideas that the working class was the true and purest part of the nation and that socialism primarily was of concern to the white races on top of the chain of development. How this whiteness could be counter-posed to peoples and races considered different or “lower placed”, such as Slavs and Jews, has been of particular interest. In opposition to import of foreign labour, “usury Jews” and Tsarist Russia, arguments of socialist whiteness could be developed. With the Russian October revolution in 1917 bolshevism could be described as an Asian threat under Jewish leadership, alien to Swedish labour. Eugenic concerns for the Swedish race also found spokespersons in the socialist milieu of the 1910’s and 20’s. When fascism in the 1920’s captured the most radical themes of socialist whiteness ideas of Jewish threat and race purity could no longer be combined with defence of democratic ideals and find a public space in social democracy.
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| 7. |
- Boalt, Elin, 1976-
(författare)
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Ecology and evolution of tolerance in two cruciferous species
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Tolerance to herbivory is the ability of plants to maintain fitness in spite of damage. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the genetic variation and expression of tolerance within species, determine whether and in what conditions tolerance has negative side-effects, and how tolerance is affected by different ecological factors. Tolerance is investigated with special focus on the effects of different damage types, competitive regimes, history of herbivory, and polyploidization in plants. Studies are conducted as a literature review and three experiments on two cruciferous species Raphanus raphanistrum and Cardamine pratensis.In the tolerance experiments, plants are subjected to artificial damage solely, or in a combination with natural damage. A literature review was conducted in order to investigate the effects of damage method. We found that traits related to tolerance, such as growth and fitness were not as sensitive in regard to damage method as measures of induced chemical traits, or measures of secondary herbivory.Genetic variation of tolerance was demonstrated within populations of R. raphanistrum and between subspecies of C. pratensis. In R. raphanistrum, traits involved in floral display and male fitness were positively associated with plant tolerance to herbivore damage. A potential cost of tolerance was demonstrated as a negative correlation between levels of tolerance in high and low competitive regimes. I found no evidence of other proposed costs of tolerance in terms of highly tolerant plants suffering of reduced fitness in the absence of herbivores or trade-offs in terms of a negative association between tolerance to apical and leaf damage, or between tolerance and competitive ability. In C. pratensis, higher ploidy level in plants involved higher levels of tolerance measured as clonal reproduction. Furthermore, populations exposed to higher levels of herbivory had better tolerance than populations exposed to lower levels of herbivory. In this thesis, I demonstrate evidence of different components for the evolution of tolerance in plants: genotypic variation, selective factors in terms of costs and ploidization, and selective agents in terms of changing environment or herbivore pressure.
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| 8. |
- Bornemark, Jonna
(författare)
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Kunskapens gräns, gränsens vetande
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Hur gränsen mellan det egna och det främmande ska dras är en central fråga inom den fenomenologiska traditionen, en fråga som här undersöks i ett religionsfilosofiskt sammanhang. På vilket sätt kan vi överskrida oss själva mot det främmande och ogripbara, och på vilket sätt är denna möjlighet förbunden med vår egen kroppslighet?Dessa teman utvecklas i en serie diskussioner av filosofer som Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler och Edith Stein. Redan i Husserls analyser av transcendensen, tidsmedvetandet och kroppsligheten framträder en bestämd gräns för den objektiverande kunskapen, även om han i sista hand alltid uppfattade den som ett ideal. I Schelers och Steins religionsfilosofier utvecklas därefter en kritik av denna kunskapssyn, bland annat i form av en analys av kärleken (Scheler) och mystiken (Stein), men hos ingen av dem fårkroppsligheten en central ställning.I den avslutande delen, som analyserar den mystika erfarenhetens uttryck hos den medetida beginen Mechthild von Magdeburg, utvecklas en fenomenologi som förbinder transcendens med kroppslighet och sinnlighet. Därmed undersöks en gränsens fenomenologi snarare än fenomenologins gräns.Jonna Bornemark är forskare och lärare på Södertörns högskola. Boken är hennes doktorsavhandling.
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| 9. |
- Burman, Anders, 1971-
(författare)
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Politik i sak : C.J.L. Almqvists samhällstänkande 1839-1851
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- This thesis concerns the political ideas of the Swedish author, journalist and thinker Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793–1866). The main source material consists of his theoretical works and the slightly more than 700 articles that he wrote for newspapers such as Aftonbladet and Jönköpingsbladet between 1839 and 1851. The study consists of an introduction and ten chapters dealing with various aspects of Almqvist’s political thinking, among them his view of man, history, religion and educational policy as well as his commitment to the Scandinavist movement and his standpoint in the question of the Swedish representative system.The dissertation shows that Almqvist had well-reasoned ideas in all these areas and that he argued from a liberal point of view throughout. He was a political reformist who emphasized individualism, freedom and tolerance. He also had confidence in man’s ability to decide his own destiny and a negative attitude towards the old privilege society and all kinds of institutions regarded as irrational. In addition, he believed that society becomes more and more democratic and that in the long run all adults, even women, servants and unpropertied, should become citizens with political rights, even if it was still not time for a truly democratic system. So even if Almqvist had an ideal of a consistent democracy with universal suffrage, he did not consider the society of his day to be ready for such a reform. First, the people have to raise their level of political awareness and learn what a democratic form of government really implies. In that process the educational system, the press and political associations may have an important function.Almqvist always tried to combine his utopian visions with concrete reform proposals. He did not only dream of a utopian society; he also tried to show some possible paths towards attaining that society. Besides the utopian feature in his political thinking, there is an unmistakable striving after concreteness and a desire to exert an influence on the contemporary society.
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| 10. |
- Bötker, Peter, 1969-
(författare)
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Leviatan i arkipelagen
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt)abstract
- Sedan Max Weber har många forskare påvisat tendenser till ett samband mellan svaga regeringar och starka byråkratier. Man har i sammanhanget lyft fram två faktorer som gör att en byråkrati kan komma att dominera över sina politiska principaler: Å ena sidan har man menat att eftersom politikerna omöjligen kan ha egen expertis på alla områden och kunna sköta allt vardagligt behöver de delegera uppgifter till en förvaltning. Med tiden, och om principaler byts ut ofta, leder detta till att det till sist är förvaltningen som med sin expertis tenderar att bestämma över sina politiska huvudmän. Å andra sidan har man även påpekat att eftersom staten intervenerat i allt fler samhällsområden har detta gett förvaltningen möjligheter att där etablera olika allianser som i sin tur kan användas som källa till expertis och som en påtryckargrupp för att främja förvaltningens egna syften och planer. I denna studie försöker jag med hjälp av processer i den estniska statsförvaltningen under huvudsakligen 1990−talet visa att det inte med nödvändighet existerar ett kontinuum där man å ena sidan skulle hitta starka och aktiva regeringar med rationella, neutrala och lydiga kanslier till sitt förfogande och å andra sidan svaga regeringar som domineras av kansliet.Eftersom staten snarare är en social relation än ett givet subjekt utgår jag ifrån att de politiska ledaraktörerna och förvaltningen likt en ekologisk enhet ingår i en levande kontext som också påverkar dess interna processer och flöden. Därmed kan mycket av förvaltningens interna liv förstås om man relaterar det till händelser och beroendeskap i en organisk kontext. Jag kommer således att betrakta staten som en social relation. En viktig aspekt i resonemanget i detta avsnitt blir alltså dragkampen på scenen och dess omgivning. Tanken är att denna dragkamp bestämmer statens kapacitet, aktörernas relationer på scenen och på vilket sätt dessa aktörer kan få fotfäste i det omgivande samhället. Därför väljer jag att till beskrivningen av statens position i sin omgivning även lägga massorganisationernas och folkrörelsernas roll, vilka med sin utbreddhet i samhället kan lägga en bred grund för att bära upp de aktörer som intar staten alternativt omöjliggöra för staten att i politikskapande manövrera förbi dem. I detta ligger också att staten med hjälp av sin uppburenhet eller samarbete med stora medborgerliga sammanslutningar blir djupt inbäddad i samhället. Dock har massorganisationerna och folkrörelserna under de senaste decennierna förlorat sin förmåga att samla och organisera människor.I denna avhandling kommer jag att redogöra för de faktorer som medför att medborgarsammanslutningarnas förmåga att sammanfläta staten med medborgarna försvinner. Resultatet av denna process har blivit att de politiska organisationer som intog statsarenan saknar en bred och djup inbäddning bland befolkningen. När partierna därefter tvingas att garantera sin fortsatta delaktighet i utformandet av regeringsmaskineriet måste de vända sig till väljarkåren som de saknar all organisationell samhörighet med. Detta, menar jag, har fått vidare konsekvenser för politikskapandet och statens roll i samhället, samt i förlängningen även medfört konsekvenser för statsapparatens funktioner.
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