| 1. |
- Ljungkvist, Kristin, 1977-
(författare)
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The Global City 2.0 : An International Political Actor Beyond Economism?
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to increase our understanding of the Global City’s pursuit of what can be regarded as independent foreign and security policies, despite the fact that such policies have traditionally been considered to be a core function of central governments. By studying how the Global City’s role in the globalized world is constructed in local public narratives as the local government develops and pursues specific international policies, the thesis argues, we can come closer to an understanding of what it means to be and to govern a Global City, and why its local government find it to be in the city’s interest to claim international political authority. A core claim is that Global City-hood as a specific type of collective identity can play a constitutive part in such interest formation.The study seeks to make three contributions, one of empirical nature and two of theoretical nature. The empirical contribution involves furthering our understanding of New York City’s local role conception as a Global City. This is also closely related to the first theoretical contribution whereby the case study of New York City as a most important case serves to develop our general understanding of what meanings are attached to contemporary Global City-hood from a local perspective. The second theoretical contribution involves outlining a new way of studying the Global City as international political actor by developing an interdisciplinary analytical framework combining insights from the Global Cities literature, studies on Urban Politics and International Relations respectively.The analysis shows that even as the Global City engages in issues such as global environmental governance or counterterrorism, such pursuit will be framed and rationalized in terms of the city’s economic growth. The quest for growth and global competitiveness are not necessarily the only available meanings attached to the being and governing of the contemporary Global City. However, there seems to be a remarkable persistency and attraction in economistic ideas and an economistic conception of the Global City.
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| 2. |
- Danielsson, Anna, 1980-
(författare)
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On the Power of Informal Economies and the Informal Economies of Power : Rethinking Informality, Resilience and Violence in Kosovo
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the 1970s, the concept of “economic informality” has served as focal point for a comprehensive scholarly thinking and the development of policy initiatives enhanced by international organisations. Yet, informality displays a puzzling resilience. The problematique of this book concerns the lenses through which informality has been constituted, studied and acted upon as an empirical phenomenon. By developing a critical understanding of informality as object of study, the book uncovers the historical, scholarly and practitioner contexts in which contemporary conceptualisations of informality are constituted.The author argues that three dominant and conventional approaches to informality systematically fail to account for how the reasons behind people's participation in informal economic activities are constituted by an internal and hierarchically structured social order. To transcend the identified shortcomings of the established approaches, the book rethinks informality through a comprehensive power analysis and highlights the importance of hierarchy, covert violence and domination. A central assumption of this rethinking is that informality constitutes a social phenomenon that emerges and is expressed through social practices, which over time and across space have become institutionalised to the point that informality is considered commonsensical and unchangeable. By putting the reconceptualisation to use through the thinking of Pierre Bourdieu, the book performs an empirical analysis of the nexus between resilience, symbolic violence and informal economic practices in Kosovo from the late 1980s until 2011. Based on primary research material, the analysis offers a unique insight into informal dynamics and illuminates the workings of an intrinsic, circular, malleable and ambiguous system of domination that would otherwise remain hidden.By engaging the empirical, theoretical and meta-theoretical level at the same time, the book explores the twofold constitution of informality as a social phenomenon and brings to light a new understanding of the resilience of the informal. As such, the reconceptualisation forms a critical intervention into scholarly and practitioner discussions about informality. By revealing mechanisms of domination, the book offers an alternative and fruitful account of the socio-historical weave within which practices of informality in Kosovo crystallise.
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| 3. |
- Jonsson, Michael, 1978-
(författare)
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A Farewell to Arms : Motivational Change and Divergence Inside FARC-EP 2002-2010
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How can motivational change and divergence inside a rebel group be explained and what does this imply for our understanding of civil wars? In contemporary research, these questions have received limited attention. In many studies, motives are either overlooked, inferred from a single type of motive indicator or assumed to be narrow, static over time and homogenous throughout the organization. But this leaves researchers largely unable to explain phenomena such as large-scale defections, intra-rebel factionalism and principal-agent problems inside insurgencies.Departing from this criticism, the study analyzes motivational change and divergence inside FARC-EP in 2002-2010, a period of decline during which more than 15 500 guerilla members defected from the guerilla. Four FARC fronts (the 16th, 21st, 47th and 48th) were selected for structured, focused comparison over time, based on the expectation that differing functions of these units should also result in motivational change within and divergence between them. The case-studies build on unique data, including 26 in-depth interviews and 694 survey-responses from these fronts, triangulated against a wide set of primary and secondary sources, including defection statistics.The study finds significant indications of motivational divergence between the four fronts, but only partially along the dimensions originally expected. Functions such as financing, recruitment and propaganda show limited evidence of influencing motives in the expected direction, whereas the intensive combat experienced by the 47th front is clearly associated with more security-motivated enrollment and forced recruitment. Together, increased counterinsurgency operations, internal paranoia and harsh punishments influenced combatants’ security perception, which was one of the strongest motives for defections from FARC, in spite of risks not having been widely considered at the time of enrollment. Beyond this, the role of mid-level commanders is found to be of fundamental importance for understanding motivational change and divergence. In the 16th front, change in the leadership resulted in unprecedented levels of defection and in the 21st, widespread corruption was justified by alleged leadership graft. Mid-level commanders influence motives through leadership by example, tactical skills and monitoring and enforcement of disciplinary codes. In conclusion, the study shows combatant motives to be susceptible to change and divergence even inside a hierarchically organized and disciplined insurgent group such as FARC.
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| 4. |
- 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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| 5. |
- Björnehed, Emma, 1978-
(författare)
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Ideas in Conflict : The effect of frames in the Nepal conflict and peace process
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 1996 the state of Nepal was challenged by a Maoist insurgency, resulting in a decade-long civil war. During the course of the subsequent peace process the parliamentary parties found themselves agreeing to significant political changes, including a republican constitution. This study approaches the Nepal case on the assumption that the discursive aspect of social relations is one important factor in understanding how specific events unfold and why actors do one thing and not another.Two frames are investigated using frame analysis in terms of their representation of problem, cause and solution: a terrorism frame from the period of conflict and a peace frame from the period of conflict resolution. The terrorism frame is categorised as a negative frame and the peace frame as a positive frame. This overarching difference is found to have implications for the effects of the respective frames.In contrast to traditional frame analysis, which tends to focus on the success of a frame and the effects on a specific audience, this study investigates the effects of frames on the actors involved in the framing process in terms of their perceived manoeuvrability for action. This approach is formalised in a model of four types of logic of actor effects that is applied to the Nepal case. The analysis of frame effects is based on first-hand interviews with key actors, such as former prime ministers and top leaders of political parties and civil society. From this material, the study gives insight into how the two frames influenced the actors’ perceived manoeuvrability. This actor-centred approach shows that the frames affected the actors in both enabling and restrictive ways and thus influenced the outcome in Nepal. For example, it is shown that frames created during the conflict were considered a prerequisite for the legitimate use of military force. The study also shows the unintended effects of framing, captured in the model as the effect of self-entrapment, and highlights the coercive character of ideas in making actors perceive themselves as forced to take a certain action or position.
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| 6. |
- Friedner Parrat, Charlotta, 1980-
(författare)
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Change, Institutions, and International Organisations : Essays on the English School of International Relations
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall topic of this thesis is the English School understanding of international order, which I approach specifically by analysing the English School idea of international institutions and their change. The purpose is to develop the theory in a meta-theoretically conscious and coherent way. The three essays in this volume are independent in relation to each other, yet in some ways cumulative. Essays I and II aim to address primarily the question of how to conceptualise the current international order of multilateralism and international organisations. Essay I uses the empirical issue of UN reform to formulate one English School conceptualisation of international order, building specifically on the School’s central theme of international institutions. Essay II theoretically develops the tools of the English School for capturing how international institutions, according to English School theory the fundaments of international order, might change. Essay III approaches the meta-theoretical question of how change itself is understood in the English School, and how different theoretical readings of what we might mean by change give rise to different approaches to the normative question of what might be improvement in the international order. I argue that an internally coherent understanding of change in international society should emphasise change in institutions, made intelligible by ex-post narratives which contribute to establishing the discursive connection between practices and their normative legitimation, and guided by a sustained normative debate on the nature of improvement. This understanding of change signifies a much-needed addition to the English School toolbox, and brings a promise of a meta-theoretical grounding of the theory. In addition, it opens for similar theoretical inquiries into other IR theories.
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| 7. |
- Norman, Ludvig, 1976-
(författare)
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From Friends to Foes : Institutional Conflict and Supranational Influence in the European Union
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to rethink the way we study supranational influence in the European Union. Through an in-depth engagement with the processes which led to two of the most controversial rulings of the European Court of Justice in the 2000s the thesis seeks to redefine the analytical tools we bring to the study of institutional conflict and supranational influence in the EU. In the first case, which arose in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), the European Commission convinced the Court that criminal sanctions should be made available as an implementation tool for Community legislation. In the second case, arising in the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the Court recognized a competence for the supranational development policy in the field of weapons proliferation in third countries. Thus, in spite of intense protests from the Council and the Member States, the Commission was able to bring two issues of principal importance from the intergovernmental areas of EU decision making in to the supranational framework of the EU. The thesis argues that the generally formulated assumptions regarding agents and institutions on which existing theories rely make them unable to make sense of the seemingly conflicting dynamics of the processes that led to these outcomes. The thesis contributes theoretically by developing an alternative analytical framework that is able to identify the previously unacknowledged social mechanisms that help explain why institutional conflict erupted and why the Court ruled in favour of the Commission in these cases; a framework which can be of relevance for EU studies and the study of international political orders more generally. The mechanisms identified also carry theoretical implications for sociological institutionalist and constructivist theorization of institutional change. Empirically the thesis contributes by supplying detailed insights in two defining moments in the development of the JHA and the CFSP.
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