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- Jansson, Jenny, 1979-
(författare)
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Manufacturing Consensus : The Making of the Swedish Reformist Working Class
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The 1910s were a precarious time for the labor movement. The Russian Revolution in 1917 sparked a trend towards radicalization among labor organizations and communist organizations spread all over Europe. These organizations challenged existing notions of the “worker,” causing an identity crisis in class organizations. Suddenly, there were not only workers, but different kinds of workers, promoting not only social democracy and syndicalism, but also communism. The labor movement became fragmented. This was very much the case in Sweden. However, despite the conflict situation during the interwar period, the Swedish workers were integrated into a strong cohesive labor movement, united under the banner of reformism which, in turn, paved the way for a strong social democracy.How was this possible? This study presents an explanation of why the Swedish working class so unanimously adopted reformism. Its thesis is that the leadership of the Trade Union Confederation (LO) was well aware of the identity problems the leftwing factions had created for the reformist unions. Because of this, the leadership decided to take actions. As “identity entrepreneurs” the leaders re-formed the notion of the worker by constructing an organizational identity that downplayed class struggle and embraced discipline, peaceful solutions to labor market problems, and cooperation with the employers. This notion was inculcated in the workers through popular education. The book shows that ABF study circles became the main tool of the Trade Union Confederation’s identity policy in the 1920s and 1930s and its successful outcome paved the way for the renowned “Swedish Model.”
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| 2. |
- Larsson, Oscar, 1978-
(författare)
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The Governmentality of Meta-governance : Identifying Theoretical and Empirical Challenges of Network Governance in the Political Field of Security and Beyond
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Meta-governance recently emerged in the field of governance as a new approach which claims that its use enables modern states to overcome problems associated with network governance. This thesis shares the view that networks are an important feature of contemporary politics which must be taken seriously, but it also maintains that networks pose substantial analytical and political challenges. It proceeds to investigate the potential possibilities and problems associated with meta-governance on both theoretical and empirical levels.The theoretical discussion examines meta-governance in relation to governmentality, and it puts forward the claim that meta-governance may be understood as a specific type of neo-liberal governmentality. The meta-governance perspective regards networks as a complementary structure to traditional administration that can be utilized in the implementation and realization of public policy, but which also preserves the self-regulating and flexible character of networks. This generates a contradiction between the goals of public management and the character of networks that requires further investigation.The combination of the specific dynamics of the political field of security, the diminishing role of sovereign powers, the emergence of security networks, and the meta-governance stance adopted by the Swedish state constitutes a situation that should have been favorable for the successful employment of meta-governance. The empirical investigation of meta-governance is divided into two parts. The first part reviews the historical process involved and shows how the Swedish government and public authorities have adopted a meta-governance stance. The second analyzes the specific instruments and strategies that have been deployed in the governance of security communications and in the management of Sweden’s new security communications system which is an important aspect of security networks. The historical study together with the analysis of the meta-governance tools deployed reveals that the meta-governors neither reached the goals specified, nor fulfilled the overall purpose of successful security communications.I argue on the basis of the theoretical and empirical findings obtained in the present study that it is very difficult to successfully employ meta-governance in respect to security and crisis management, and that we have sound reasons to suspect that meta-governance will run into similar difficulties in other political fields as well. I conclude that meta-governance is a far more difficult practice than has been anticipated by existing theories and policy recommendations. Turning to meta-governance as a way to govern and control organizations may in fact lead to further fragmentation and distortion of public politics.
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| 3. |
- Holm, Malin
(författare)
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The Rise of Online Counterpublics? : The Limits of Inclusion in a Digital Age
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores how online platforms mediate the reproduction of privilege, by employing the concept of counterpublics. The term, which has been central to the feminist critique of mainstream public sphere theory, denotes the alternative publics that emerge in response to various exclusions by dominant publics with the goal of targeting and influencing the same. Because the emergence of counterpublics has traditionally been understood as offering the possibility for historically marginalized groups to come together and challenge dominant public discourses, empirical research has often focused on “good” or “progressive” counterpublics. However, the recent rise of racist, antifeminist and climate change denying counter-discourses online, formed by groups that claim to be marginalized from mainstream publics, raises new issues of how we can understand and analyze power and privilege in the public spheres. This thesis therefore sheds light on how privilege is reproduced in the context of online counterpublic dynamics. A revitalized power perspective on the public spheres is developed and subsequently used to analyze the reproduction of privilege in three empirical case studies. First, the rationales behind the broader inclusion of (certain) counterpublics in the dominant public sphere through comment sections is investigated by means of interviews with Swedish mainstream news media editors. Second, the formation of an antifeminist counterpublic on Swedish political blogs is analyzed, with a specific focus on how the privileged position of the antifeminist net-activists facilitated its emergence. Last, it is explored how self-identified white feminists were enabled by Twitter’s architecture to reproduce asymmetrical power relations within the hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen; a counterpublic initiated by women of color to question their exclusion from mainstream feminism and online feminist platforms. The thesis demonstrates that while online platforms have provided historically marginalized groups with new possibilities to form counterpublics, these venues at the same time pose new challenges to their inclusion. In particular, online platforms provide privileged groups with new possibilities to influence dominant public discourses directly as well as more indirectly through competition with structurally marginalized groups in the emergence of counterpublics.
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