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- Dauriach, Alice, 1991-
(författare)
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Financial institutions, companies, and the biosphere
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- International organisations, governments and civil society have become increasingly vocal in their demands that financial institutions take social and environmental responsibility for the companies they invest in. Some financial institutions have started to assume this responsibility in practice by building international alliances and standards, by reallocating their capital, and by trying to influence corporate policies towards environmental and social goals. Through their ability to allocate and price capital, financial institutions are sometimes believed to be a leverage point to enact rapid and large-scale change towards sustainability. The influence these financial institutions have is still under-researched, however, especially on companies in sectors associated with changes in the biosphere which pose severe risks to human development. In this thesis, I ask: to what extent can financial institutions advance biosphere-based sustainability through their investments in companies? I have three main aims. The first one is to identify key companies and financial institutions which can be linked to changes in the biosphere that pose severe risks to human wellbeing. I select the most critical commodity production sectors driving large-scale biosphere change using insights from social-ecological systems science. I focus on economic activities that result in anthropogenic land use changes that either affect known tipping points in the climate system (the Amazon rainforest), or that increase the risk of emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. The second aim is to develop methods to assess the degree of influence that financial institutions have on corporate activities, drawing from finance research and management theory. I investigate the relationship between financial institutions and large companies, and especially to what extent companies are reliant on different financial flows for their operations, in order to determine through which mechanisms financial institutions could exert influence on them, if at all. Assessing the potential influence of financial institutions on companies requires combining existing methods and bringing together disconnected sources of data about environmental impact, business activity, investments, and financing sources. The third aim is to analyse what factors pose limits to financial influence.Paper 1 analyses the role played by financial institutions as owners in industries associated with anthropogenic land use changes and, as a result, increased zoonotic disease risks. We identify publicly listed companies present in nine regional case studies, as well as the financial institutions that invest in them. We analyse those financial institutions’ potential influence based on both their ownership size and their position in the network of owners.Paper 2 examines the origin of loans obtained by all companies operating in the high deforestation-risk sectors of mineral production, soy trade or cattle trade in the Brazilian Amazon. We assess to what extent companies rely on relatively unaccountable sources of credit, notably credit from secrecy jurisdictions and transnational intra-company credit, which may limit the potential for influence from financial institutions.In conclusion, I find that financial institutions have an important role to play in many sectors and regions analysed, but that this role is limited by a number of factors. These factors include the prevalence of non-financial shareholders in some companies, especially in case studies in the Global South, and the reliance of companies on internal finance and financial flows from secrecy jurisdictions. Companies themselves, and the inner workings of their corporate groups – their private owners, their subsidiaries in various countries, their ethical stance – seem to also be of great importance.
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| 2. |
- Möller, Cecilia, 1977-
(författare)
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Transforming geographies of tourism and gender : Exploring women's livelihood strategies and practices within tourism in Latvia
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores different geographies of tourism, gender, work and livelihood in post-socialist Latvia. The study puts focus on the overall transformation process and the reshaping of the tourism sector, in how Latvia is reimagined both as a nation state and as a tourism destination. One central aim is to analyse the transformation process as genderised, and how existing gender identities in general and femininities more specifically are being transformed and mirrored within tourism. The thesis first contain an analysis of how Latvian tourism-marketing carries genderised meanings and identities, based on three interrelated ‘geographies’ as part of the transforming ‘national common space’: geographies of neo-nationalism, geographies of Europeanisation and geographies of relic-communism. These hold certain imaginations and conceptions of space and place, and include aims and priorities of the transition process. Secondly, focus is placed on the changing conditions for women’s livelihood within rural tourism in the Cēsis district, and spa/health tourism in Jūrmala. The thesis has mainly a qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews and text analysis, but the case studies also comprise a survey. The thesis illustrates how tourism becomes an arena for reclaiming a Latvian national identity rooted in a pre-Soviet past, while also manifesting a Western European identity, and negotiating the remains of the controversial Soviet heritage. This process reveals, for example, traditional feminised features of the nation state, portraying women as the ‘mothers’ of the nation. Two case studies of female employees and entrepreneurs within rural tourism and spa/health tourism also show how women negotiate different ideals of femininities, including ‘traditional’, ‘Western’ and ‘socialist’ ideals, through their everyday livelihood practices within both the public and the private sphere. Their negotiations for a more independent livelihood are also affected by structural factors, such as wages and taxes, but also by the local socio-cultural context and related gender identities, including class, family structure, age and ethnicity.
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| 3. |
- Yang, Tao, 1966-
(författare)
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The Effect of Guanxi on the Foreign Market Entry Process into China : The Swedish Case
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Business network theory believes that foreign market entry of a firm is the result of the interactions between the actors of the firm and the network. The foreign country’s network conditions will inevitably influence the process. When entering into China, the Western firms have to face some new network conditions that derive from its socio-cultural environment. The purpose of the thesis is to test one of the cultural specialties, guanxi’s effect on the foreign market entry process of the Western firms into China. Using data collected from Swedish firms established in China, this study finds that the market entry process of Western firms into China appear to show some different features compared with that into Western country markets. It takes more time to become established in China, more social activities and more non-business actors are involved in the process. These social activities within business circles are shown to contribute to the longer establishment time for Western firms operating in China. Moreover, establishment in China is more time-consuming for manufacturing firms than service firms. It requires, among other things, that expatriates actively take part in both business and social activities in China and make efforts to maintain social ties with their Chinese counterparts. The findings contribute to the business network theory by suggesting the existence of a social dimension to the business relationships and the need of a multi-level perspective of business relationships and networks.
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| 4. |
- Bergquist, Daniel A., 1976-
(författare)
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Colonised Coasts : Aquaculture and Emergy Flows in the World System: Cases from Sri Lanka and the Philippines
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis conceives aquaculture as a transfer of resources within and between different parts of the world system. It is argued that due to inappropriate human-nature interactions, resources tend to flow from the South to the North, as a process of coastal colonisation. To study this resource transfer, coastal aquaculture is ap-proached from a transdisciplinary perspective, integrating natural, social, economic and spatial aspects. By combining world system theory and general systems theory, a systems view is adopted to relate aquaculture to forces of global capitalism, and analyse interactions between social and ecological processes at local and global levels. Emergy (energy memory) synthesis and participatory research methodologies were applied to two cases of aquaculture in Sri Lanka and the Philippines; monocul-ture of the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) and milkfish (Chanos chanos), and polyculture of the two species together with mudcrab (Scylla serrata). The study reveals that semi-intensive shrimp monoculture in Sri Lanka generates few benefits for poor local people, and depends much on external inputs such as fry, feed and fuels, which implies negative environmental effects at local as well as global levels. Extensive polyculture in the Philippines involves more local people, and implies lower dependence on external inputs. Still, since benefits accrue mostly to elites, and mangroves are negatively affected, neither case is viable for sustainable poverty alleviation. Nevertheless, the study offers several insights into how sustainability assessment may be more transdisciplinary, and points to several factors affecting sustainability and fairness in aquaculture; the most important being mangrove con-version, local people involvement, and dependence on external inputs. Given that mangrove conversion is counteracted, extensive polyculture practices may also prove more viable in times of decreasing resources availability, and if policies are developed that favour resource efficient polyculture, and local small-scale and re-source poor farmers, instead of the global North.
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| 5. |
- Bäcklin, Emelie, et al.
(författare)
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Pulmonary volumes and signs of chronic airflow limitation in quantitative computed tomography
- 2024
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Ingår i: Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging. - : Wiley. - 1475-0961 .- 1475-097X. ; 44:4, s. 340-348
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundComputed tomography (CT) offers pulmonary volumetric quantification but is not commonly used in healthy individuals due to radiation concerns. Chronic airflow limitation (CAL) is one of the diagnostic criteria for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), where early diagnosis is important. Our aim was to present reference values for chest CT volumetric and radiodensity measurements and explore their potential in detecting early signs of CAL.MethodsFrom the population-based Swedish CArdioPulmonarybioImage Study (SCAPIS), 294 participants aged 50–64, were categorized into non-CAL (n = 258) and CAL (n = 36) groups based on spirometry. From inspiratory and expiratory CT images we compared lung volumes, mean lung density (MLD), percentage of low attenuation volume (LAV%) and LAV cluster volume between groups, and against reference values from static pulmonary function test (PFT).ResultsThe CAL group exhibited larger lung volumes, higher LAV%, increased LAV cluster volume and lower MLD compared to the non-CAL group. Lung volumes significantly deviated from PFT values. Expiratory measurements yielded more reliable results for identifying CAL compared to inspiratory. Using a cut-off value of 0.6 for expiratory LAV%, we achieved sensitivity, specificity and positive/negative predictive values of 72%, 85% and 40%/96%, respectively.ConclusionWe present volumetric reference values from inspiratory and expiratory chest CT images for a middle-aged healthy cohort. These results are not directly comparable to those from PFTs. Measures of MLD and LAV can be valuable in the evaluation of suspected CAL. Further validation and refinement are necessary to demonstrate its potential as a decision support tool for early detection of COPD.
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| 6. |
- Dawidson, Karin E. K., 1975-
(författare)
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Property fragmentation : Redistribution of land and housing during the Romanian democratisation process
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the context of democratisation in the early 1990s, the governments in Central and East Europe (CEE) had to decide how to deal with property that had been confiscated under state socialism. Nationalised housing and collectivised land were to a varying extent returned to former owners and their heirs by means of restitution, as well as being distributed to other citizens who were in possession of the users’ rights to such properties. This thesis examines the spatial impacts, in terms of ownership patterns, of the way the redistribution of nationalised housing and collectivised land has been dealt with politically and at the local level in post-socialist Romania. It also locates the Romanian property reforms in relation to those of the rest of CEE. The impact of political directives on the property redistribution is analysed in relation to both structural influences, such as democratisation and antecedent property regimes, and implementation patterns in varied place-contexts. The thesis demonstrates that restitution was stifled due to disagreements between leftist and rightist political blocs, with the latter arguing for restitution whilst their opponents wrote the first restitution laws. A re-privatisation law allowed for the public sale of nationalised housing to tenants and thereby blocked the implementation of a restitution law, thus constituting a dilemma for constitutional democracy. In liberal place-contexts in West Romania, these obstacles to housing restitution were in part avoided. By contrast, land restitution was most widespread in the east, a stronghold of the left. This was because the legislation gives priority to restitution in areas of this kind, where smaller land-holdings dominated prior to 1945. The left-wing government pursued an electoral strategy of distributing small properties to a large number of citizens, and to current users in particular. This resulted in a fragmentation of historical property.
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