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| 3. |
- Andersson, Johanna, 1981
(författare)
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Locked-in collaboration
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Collaboration, employed in defining a problem, finding a solution, and implementing it, has been proposed as a solution to a range of problems framed as wicked or complex. Collaboration can be justified based on instrumental, normative, and value-based reasoning. All approaches start in what collaboration is not: it is not demarcated, silo-based organization, but instead endeavours to achieve comprehensive and holistic perspectives and measures of service delivery. This has resulted in a great deal of research taking a normative and evaluative ap- proach to collaboration. In contrast, this thesis contributes to the growing critical stream of collaboration research. The overall aim of the thesis is to explain how collaboration has come to be a taken-for-granted solution and the possible consequences of this. The material was generated through a study of legally regulated inter- organizational collaboration (referred to by the acronym “FINSAM”) in the Swedish public sector implemented through local coordination associations. The coordination associations implement regulated collaboration between the Swe- dish National Employment Agency, the National Social Insurance Office, county councils, and municipal councils. Each local coordination association has a joint board and a pooled budget, which is to be used to finance measures targeting individuals in need of coordinated rehabilitation. The study was conducted through fieldwork in two local coordination associations, as well as in confer- ences and seminars addressing FINSAM in general. The findings indicate that collaboration in local coordination associations is organized in a project-like way alongside ordinary organizational practice. Two different approaches to organization were identified: the coordination association as either an actor or an arena. Depending on approach the coordination association will be more or less demarcated from ordinary organizational practice. De- marcation is strengthened through the construction of accountability. When local coordination associations are held accountable they are treated as hierarchical organizations with only vertical, but no horizontal, responsibilities. Horizontal practice and outcome are downplayed when accountability is constructed. The findings also indicate that the values attributed to this collaboration, together with its ordering narratives and its impact on legitimacy, create a dynamic result- ing in reduced need and latitude to problematize collaboration, which is taken for granted as the solution. This perceived decreased need for problematizing is connected to the pooled budget and the way the collaboration is understood: as something unique and better suited to handling the identified problems. The conclusion is that collaboration has become locked in within project-like organizations and organizing, and locked in as a solution through the rationalized myth of collaboration. The law governing FINSAM and specially allocated reources in pooled budgets strengthens this lock-in.
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| 4. |
- Carlsson, Julia, 1980
(författare)
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När idéer får liv - Om intraprenader i tre kommuner : Sustainable ideas - the idea of "contracting in" in three Swedish municipalities
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the early 2000s an idea regarding how to organise the Swedish public sector, called internal contracts, attracted attention from many different public authorities in Sweden. Organising in the form of internal contracts means that units within a public authority are given more autonomy to run their own affairs. A distinct feature of the internal contracts model is that it is said to combine characteristics from both public and private organisations, combining the best of both worlds. However, the popularity of internal contracts was short-lived, and just a few years later it seemed to be out of fashion. A few municipalities, however, constitute examples of where internal contracts were subscribed to and supported for a longer period of time. These municipalities showed that theories relating to fashions for ideas, and what causes fluctuations in fashions, are not sufficient to explain variations in the lifecycles of ideas. There are variations in the life cycles of fashionable ideas, with some seeming to disappear as soon as they arise while others remain influential over a longer period of time. Why is this? The popularity and use of ideas is not only the result of gaining legitimacy in an institutional environment, as has long been suggested, but also the result of individual interpretations of ideas, in the context in which they are introduced. Ideas are changed and modified, or translated, as they travel in and between organisations. In turn, translations affect the ways in which ideas are perceived and whether or not they are considered legitimate and supported by the people who receive them. The fate of ideas thus lies in the hands of people, each of whom may accept, modify or deflect them, as well as add to them or let them drop. The study suggests a model for how the life-cycle of ideas can be understood based on how, by whom, when and where they are translated. It illustrates how (1) the receiver of ideas, (2) the carrier of the ideas and (3) characteristics assigned to ideas affect translations and thereby, whether their life-cycles are to become short or long. The study also highlights the fact that ideas are often revivals of earlier ideas rather than new ones, suggesting that ideas seldom die, but are instead given more or less attention in different times and spaces. In addition, in studying the process, not just the ups and downs in popularity, the study shows that what makes ideas come to life, and stay alive, is the result of continuous work. People need to be convinced on a continuous basis that ideas are attractive. Finally, the study contributes to further understanding institutionalisation. What affects translation also affects whether actions are repeated, and over time become taken for granted in an organisation.
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| 5. |
- Carlström, Eric, 1957
(författare)
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I skuggan av Ädel - integrering i kommunal vård och omsorg
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The starting-point of this study is the subject of difficulties in integration. Is it possible to control the integration of occupational groups within an organization? To answer this question the welfare departments of four municipalities were examined. Two occupational groups were chosen by their overlapping tasks, long history and separated growth. These two groups, social welfare workers who peform home-help services, and trained nurses who perform homemedical care, have as an effect of legislation from one day to another been amalgamated in a common organization. This process too place in 1992 by a reform named "Ädelreformen". That year the municipalities in Sweden were directed to integrate home-help services with homemedical care. Social workers and nurses have, after the reform, in a common organization continued to represent different legislations and occupational traditions during the process of integration that began with "Ädelreformen". An exposition of studies on integration points out that integration is regarded as something good by legislators and managers but is often characterized by conflicts, especially between two parties with different occupational perspectives and overlapping areas. This study is focused on understanding management control promoting integration. Three types of control of special importance to this study are: need of resources, right of dispositions, and regulation. Integration is supported by a mutual need of resources between the subordinated parties. Need of resources occur when one party depends on another party for survival and growth. The right of disposition is resources protected by the executives. Such protection supports integration among the parties while the risk of exploiting and asymmetry are reduced. During conflict and differentiation a superior party, the executives, can contribute to stabilization by regulation. Regulation consists of rules from the superior party that state how the interchange of resources should be done between the subordinated parties. Four municipalities have been examined in order to answer the question of this study. Interviews were carried out in each municipality, with executives and subordinated parties, individually and in groups of staff, totally 28 interviews with 85 respondents in total. The four municipalities performed different types of management control. Those were neglect control, market control, partiality control and symmetrical control. Neglect control is when the executive lacks insight in the relation of the subordinated parties. The lack of insight contributes to an unregulated relation between the parties and weak rights of dispositions. The parties compete and claim the resources of the opposite party. Market control brings a strong need of resources to the subordinated parties. A purchaser-provider split allows the parties to accomplish resources by negotiations. Partiality control is when the executives support one of two subordinate parties. The weaker party is exploited by the opposite party. Symmetrical control implies secured rights of disposition. When symmetrical control is performed by the executives the mutual interchange between the parties is regulated. That prevents isolating and differentiating strategies. The result and the main contribution of this study is that management control matters and increases the possibilities of integration. When the executive establish distinct rules, strong rights of dispositions and need or resources, mutual interchange is promoted. Those three components in combination reinforce integration. The mutual interchange then repeated will make the integration grow stronger.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Ek, Emma, 1977
(författare)
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De granskade. Om hur offentliga verksamheter görs granskningsbara
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During recent decades audits have taken on a more prominent role in governance, in Sweden and in the Western world as a whole. Audit is used in this context as an umbrella designation for control methods such as inspection, auditing, evaluation, accreditation and certification. What these control methods have in common is that they entail external, (presumably) independent authorities or companies inspecting and assessing various phenomena. A number of auditing bodies scrutinise and provide assessments, and in so doing govern organisations at a distance. This dissertation is about audit in the making. It describes what takes place when operations are made the object of auditing and what happens in organisations while being audited. The question that is answered is: how is auditability achieved? In distinction from many other studies on audits, the auditees have a prominent position in answering this question. The auditing that is at the centre of the study is state inspection within schools and elderly care. In the dissertation episodes and events in the realisation of these audits are described. The analysis is based on ethnographically inspired fieldwork. Building on Miller and Rose’s perspective on governmentality, the study has as its starting-point the technologies and the varying contexts in which these are manifested: in reports, on websites, in everyday routines and meetings between the auditors and the auditees etc. The study shows that being the subject of audit requires extensive work. Auditability is achieved through a large portion of predictability where each step in the process is acknowledged. This predictability entails much more than providing advance notification of audits. It is a way of organising and executing the audit, where the auditees are not just a part of the object being audited, but also the extended arm of the audit authority. They supply the representations that the audit authority needs in order to describe and assess the operation. In achieving auditability the auditees do more than deliver information about the organisation. Auditability also entails making the audit meaningful and useful (it is for our benefit). This is done mainly by (re)interpreting the auditing as an educational opportunity which also normalises the process (it is nothing to be afraid of). Technically auditability is a question of how the object being audited and the benchmarks used are made comparable. The study shows that auditability is achieved through the construction of an object that is defined on the basis of benchmarks and is consequently comparable. In the audit studied there is no formalised report that can be e-mailed to the audit authority, printed out, submitted or put in an envelope. Rather, describing and defining the operation is an important aspect of auditing. The description is undertaken for a specific purpose, namely to act as underlying data for the assessment. It is therefore not surprising that the object and the benchmark are comparable, as the object is defined precisely for this purpose. What the study contributes to previous research is, firstly, bringing the auditees into the debate on how auditability is created. The study also contributes to a less static picture of how organisations are made receptive to auditing: that receptibility entails much more than installing systems that continuously supply the information about the organisation that the auditors need. The study also contributes to problematise the division into auditors and audited by showing that the boundaries are by no means always clear-cut. Finally the study shows that how auditability is achieved partially explains what is being auditable.
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| 9. |
- Erikson, Malgorzata, 1960
(författare)
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Lokala politiska ledare - ett kollage av diskurser
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to save what is left of the public trust in the political system, one of the most important tasks is to relegitimize the politicians. The general image of this group, the negative stereotypes and the lack of understanding of their complex duties, must be balanced, and the intention behind this study is to make a small contribution towards a more nuanced picture. The aim of the study is to try, through discourse analyses, to answer the questions: How do political leaders, i.e. members of the municipal executive committees, interpret their roles as politicians, including their relations with others and the circumstances under which they work? And which consequences do these interpretations have on their political practice and their status in society? A number of politicians in two Swedish municipalities have been interviewed, and I have observed on several occasions how these politicians interact in political meetings. It is the text constructed during these interviews and observations that represent the data collected for this study. In the dissertation I have consistently tried to carry three theoretical perspectives with me, perspectives that help me to sort my empirical findings and make them meaningful in a context outside my cases. The first of these three is the power incorporated in the discourses. From theories of freedom and structural oppression I have tried to find examples of how discourses limit our thoughts and how some groups benefit while others suffer. One of the main goals of my study has been to erase the oversimplified image of our politicians. But as it turns out, they are not afraid of creating stereotypes of their own, both of themselves, and - which is the second theoretical theme of the dissertation - of mass media. The third and final theme has been the alleged conflict between leadership and democracy. Theories of democracy and leadership are created by two different scientific disciplines, political science and organization and management studies, where the latter more often than not concentrates on the private sector. In the study I show how the ideals from a managerial discourse collides with a more traditional idealistic one, and how these two discourses are fighting each other, thus forcing the politicians to take sides. This is sometimes difficult since the battle is fought inside the head of individual politicians. I also try to point out how the discourse of organizational democracy slides between these two other discourse.
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| 10. |
- Eriksson, Nomie, 1955
(författare)
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Friska vindar i sjukvården. Stöd och hinder vid förändringar i professionella organisationer
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Implementation of decisions in professional organisations is characterized by the board making decisions for the professions to perform. In this thesis a decision concerning how process directed method of working in medical service is studied. The implementation was studied at two hospitals and units with similar medical alignment. Earlier research shows that medical service is hard to change. The aim with this study is to identify what supports and what hinders the professions’ implementation of a new working method and to explain why. The professions are registered nurses and physicians. They have good knowledge of the medical service and a great interest in good performance for patients as well as themselves. Characteristic is that they carry out decisions if they correspond with their norms and values which describe how medical service is to be performed, i.e. the institutions of medical service. Process directed method of working diverts from the traditional working methods in medical service. The activities in medical service are synchronized into a logical chain without repetitions. It gives a standardized medical service for all the patients included in one group of patients or one diagnosis. The new way of working changes what medical service is offered, where it is performed and by whom. The working method gives medical, as well as administrative, changes. Medically, questioning and changing alters the contents of medical service. Administratively, the medical service directing and organisation is changed. The overall view on medical service is developed with this working method, whether it is performed in one or several units. Established facts for the implementation of the working method is development of the dialogue, which is held between the professions, by real enthusiasts and offers from each hospital management respectively about education and stimuli. The professions’ satisfaction with the new working method also supports the change. Hindering the implementation of the method are activities such as rounds, reports and documentation and they are hard to adapt into the processes since they have developed into ceremonies that could wear traces of path dependence. On top of this there is a general expressed conception of lack of time, which also has developed into a ceremony. Despite that the study showed that existing institutions agree with the decided working method and the implementation is strong when it comes to available bases, the grade of implementation varies and problems of implementation are identified. If the organisation is marked by contentment, the existing working method will be preserved. If the decision is forced upon the professions they will re-form it or re-interpret it. If path dependent activities exist, only parts of the working method are changed which the professions’ experience as frustrating. However, if the professions participate in the implementation of process directed working method through dialogue, real enthusiasts and education and stimuli, the traditional working method will change.
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| 11. |
- Fihn, Glenn, 1965
(författare)
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Normer och reformer. Den landskommunala och stadskommunala budgetens och redovisningens historia 1862-1968
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- At the center of this study is the development of norms for the Swedish municipal budget and accounting in its historic context. By historic context, we refer here to the aspects of the course of history, which concern municipal expansion and institutional change. The study aims at describing and explaining how and why reforms were made in the norms for budget and accounting within the municipal sector of cities and rural municipalities during the period 1862-1968. Why and how budget and accounting reforms were made or, more precisely, which factors were behind the development of the norms for municipal budget and accounting, and whether regulation were put in place voluntarily or through state mandates, are the two queistions that are posed in the study. The reforms of the norms for budget and accounting which are studied more closely, are the proposals which were developed by the predecessors of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities, as well as the proposals for municipal financial statistics forms which Statistics Sweden developed until the 1960s. Based on previous research in the area, three hypotheses were formulated concerning how and why norms for the municipal budget and accounting change. The first one contained an assumption that the regulations around municipal finances and the norms for municipal budget and accounting follow the municipal expansion. The second one contained an assumption that the development of the design of the municipal budget and accounting system, occurs in an interaction between the state and the municipal levels. The third one contained an assumption that here was a difference in budget and accounting between the cities and the rural municipalities, but that these differences have been erased as the differences beween town and country disappeared. The study reveals that municipal expansion and institutional change have an impact on the development of norms for budget and accounting. The breakthrough of municipal business operations at the turn of century in 1900 and the periods of increased financing through borrowing and the accompanying attempts by the state to regulate the loan management were particularly important. The study also shows that the state and the municipalities through direct or indirect interaction have futhered the reforms of the norms of municipal budget and accounting. Finally it is shown that the difference between norms of the budget and accounting of cities and rural municipalities was reinforced until the 1940s only to be completely erased in a short period of time.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Johansson, Patrik, 1967
(författare)
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I skandalers spår. Minskad legitimitet i svensk offentlig sektor
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This book deals with the subject of scandals in the Swedish public sector and, therewith, the legitimacy of organisations. Scandals lead to a loss of legitimacy for the organisations involved. As a result of the social reaction that may be provoked by the disclosure of scandalous behaviour, the organisation is compelled to try and restore its legitimacy. Scandals provide an opportunity to generate more knowledge about the process in which the organisation’s legitimacy is reduced and the way in which the legitimacy can be restored. The research question in this book is: What do scandals in the Swedish public sector signify? The first section of the book focuses on what scandals are, what scandal processes look like and what the characteristic features of scandals in the Swedish public sector are as they are narrated by the media. The second section of the book, takes a closer look at the loss of legitimacy brought about by a scandal and what that means for the organisation. In scandals in the Swedish public sector, players in leading positions are linked to some transgression, often of a financial nature. The less expected the transgression is, the stronger the public reaction is and the more the organisation’s legitimacy diminishes. Because the scrutiny is so tough after a scandal, it becomes difficult for the organization to decouple as usual. By observing others and paying attention to external reactions, the organisation adapts itself to the demands of external pressure. Simultaneously, the organisation prepares itself for the possibility of future scandals. When the members of the organisation perceive that those outside the organisation consider it is living up to external expectations it is an indication that its legitimacy has now entered the process of restoration, which helps the organisation perceive it is regaining strength. When the organisational legitimacy is restored, external pressure returns to normal.
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| 15. |
- Johansson, Susanne, 1975
(författare)
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Dom under trettio, vem bryr sig och varför? Ungdomars värderingar och politiska deltagande : Those under thirty: who cares and why? Young people's values and political participation
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Dom under trettio, vem bryr sig och varför? kastar nytt ljus över en vedertagen bild av ungdomars värderingar och politiska deltagande. Är ungdomar verkligen så annorlunda när det kommer till politiskt deltagande och deltar alla ungdomar på samma sätt? Att ungdomar utmålas som annorlunda kan förklaras av att de inte deltar i samma utsträckning som andra grupper eller av att de deltar på andra sätt. Enligt den vedertagna bilden förmodas ungdomars politiska beteenden på långsikt resultera i negativa konsekvenser för det politiska systemet: ungdomar som inte deltar eller ungdomar som deltar på fel sätt är ett potentiellt problem för demokratin! Boken lyfter fram flera skäl för att den vedertagna bilden av ungdomsgruppen bör ifrågasättas. Ett skäl är ungdomars värderingar. Ungdomar är mer av individualister och därmed väljer de hellre deltagandeformer som går utanför det parlamentariska systemet. Ett annat skäl är att deras ålder och sociala resursstyrka kan förklara hur de deltar. I avhandlingen prövas i vilken utsträckning ungdomsgruppens politiska deltagande kan förstås med utgångspunkt i värderingar, resursstyrka eller ålder. Empiriskt baseras avhandlingen på medborgarundersökningar och främst på en särskild undersökning av 3 000 ungdomar i åldern 15-29 år boende i Västra Götaland.
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| 16. |
- Johansson, Tobias, 1977
(författare)
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Förvaltningens gräns mot marknaden. Om mekanismer bakom och effekter av kommunernas marknadsutnyttjande
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Varför anlitar vissa kommuner externa leverantörer i stor utsträckning medan andra kommuner i väldigt liten utsträckning överlåter produktionen och tillhandahållandet av service och välfärdstjänster på externa leverantörer? Vad utmärker egenregiproduktion och nyttjandet av externa leverantörer och i vilka fall är det ena att föredra framför det andra? Har valet av organiseringssätt någon betydelse för verksamhetens presterande? Dessa frågor är centrala spörsmål som behandlas och undersökts i föreliggande bok.
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| 17. |
- Karlsson, David, 1974
(författare)
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En chimär av endräkt. Ideologiska dimensioner i kommunal kulturpolitik. : An Illusion of Consensus. Ideological Dimensions of Cultural Politics in Local Government.
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is a common misconception about local government politics that for some reason it is supposed to be less ideological than national or international politics. But if by “ideo¬logical” we mean “based on values” there is no way that any act or field of politics could be deemed less ideological than another. When we decide to act or not, and when we choose between alternative actions, we always consider the options and pick what we conceive of as the best choice for the moment. Volition and the eval¬uation of alternatives are part of every rational (and free) action and hence, if we regard politics as action, or at least plans for action, all politics is based on values. The general aim of this study is to contribute to the ongoing debate on the problems of local democracy: both by emphasising the importance of ideo¬logical conscious¬ness even in local politics; and by trying to provide instruments that help to make actually existing ideological dimensions visible and easier to understand. Another aim of this study is therefore to say something about the connection between the democratic institutions in a representative democracy and the ideological beliefs of its representatives. The study focuses on cultural politics in Swedish local government, with the prime motive for choosing this focus being that this policy area could be seen as somewhat of a symbol of the consensus spirit that traditionally has characterized local government in this country. A survey was sent out in the year 2000 to all the members of local committees responsible for culture in Sweden (close to 2,700 people). The results from this survey comprise the main data source for this study. After having examined the ideological beliefs of these politicians, the conclusion of the study is that they are far less unanimous than they believe themselves to be. The party system, however, fails to reflect many of the key ideological dimensions that are essential in this policy area. How the municipalities choose to organize their committees is also important, while politicians in specialised committees for cultural affairs tend to be more protective about their sector; a result partly due to the fact that specialised committees attract certain groups of representatives who are more interested in cultural issues. In fact, social identity and personal experience from the field of responsibility are often more important in explaining which politicians have which ideological beliefs than party membership.
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| 18. |
- Kastberg Weichselberger, Gustaf, 1976
(författare)
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Kundvalsmodeller. Kundvalsmodeller. En studie av marknadsskapare och skapade marknader i kommuner och landsting
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation voucher systems are studied. Client choice models have over the past decade been introduced as parts of municipal operations. One important observation, and point of departure, is that client-choice models are based on a public organization that designs a market and that this organization remains a market designer even after the market is established. The purpose of this study is to understand how the market designer manages the market solution. Therefore, the overall guiding question is how may the market designer's actions be interpreted? What do the market designers do and why do they do it? The dissertation is founded on theories from sociology, focusing particularly on system theory and actor-network theory. Case studies are the empirical data in this study and interviews are the main sources of information. A total of 56 interviews were made. The first case study is a voucher system that was introduced within pre-school and school in the town of Staffanstorp. The second case study is a client-choice model within the at-home assistance for elderly in the town of Nacka and the third case is a voucher system that was introduced within the maternity care division of the general health care system in Göteborg, Västra Götalandsregionen. A model is introduced which explains why the market designers have pursued certain courses of action and why they have cared for these markets to different extents and with different focus. Two concepts constitute the core of the explanatory model: reflexivity and attention. One important contributionof this study concerns the changing nature of the market designer. The market designers' characteristics vary depending on whether the driving force in the process are civil servants or politicians and whether the issue is politically contentious or viewed as non-political. The conclusions also show how important it is that the role of the market designer is highlighted and understood. In particular, this is true with regard to the importance of the role of the market designer in creating conditions for a situation characterized by a wide range of choices, comptetition and high quality services. The results of the study also indicate that the perspective has contributed to develop he knowledge about the relationship between the different market models' positions and the political system.
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Rodrigo Blomqvist, Paula, 1972
(författare)
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Närvarons politik och det mångetniska Sverige. Om att ta plats i demokratin
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This book delas with the subject of political representation and the significance of the presence of immigrants in the political process. The official stance of the Swedish democracy is that immigrants are to be represented in the political process to the same extent as the rest of the population. In practice, however, the political representation of immigrants has long remained a non-issue. The dissertation is based on the idea that in order to understand the politics of presence from an ethnic perspective, we should start from existing power structures and draw attention to the hierarchies of ethnic dominance and subordination, which separate groups of people, and which prevent and exclude the participation in society on equal conditions, based on ethniticy. The theoretical frame of reference consists of several different theoretical tools. Group representation - or the politics of presence as it is - is the central theory that is tested and developed further in the book. The book consists of two empirical parts and it focuses on the arena of municipal politics. In the first part political representation is studied, such as issues concerning recruitment to the political parties and how the candidates perceive their role as representative. This parts is based on material that was collected at the end of the 1990s until the municipal elections of 2002. Statistical analyses of survey data and qualitative analysis of interviews are the methods being used. The second empirical part tests the hypothesis, which implicitly underlies the theory of the politics of presence, that belonging to a certain ethnic group has an impact on the content of the political process. Here we follow the policy process(es) around a specific political interest (the demand for education in Finnish) that was articulated by a certain immigrant group (the Swedish Finns). Process tracing is used as method of analysis and the material mainly consists of public documents complemented by interviews. The results from this part of he disertation are based on material from a period of almost forty years. The main results are that the position in the ethnic herarchy is significant for the recruitment of candidates for municipal politics. The ethnic hierarchy variable gives a significant result both with regard to the number of municipal political offices and the status of these offices. The position in the ethnic hierarchy has an independent effect in relation to the other explanatory factors like, for example, the extent of time as a party member. It is easiset for candidates who are born in the Nordic countries, Western Europe and North America to assert themselves in the recruitment process. Next are people who were born in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Latin America. Cadidates from Asia and Africa encounter the largest difficulties. These results support the idea that the position in the ethnic hierarchy constitutes an important factor in getting knowledge of the mechanisms behind immigrants' under-representation in the political process. Furthermore, the results show that there is a cause for revising the preconditions for political representation. The study points out the need for a widened concept of representation, which takes into account the significance of representation on arenas other than the local and national parliaments. The results confirm the conclusion that immigrants change politics, but this is done through several different channels of influence (for example the administrative bureaucracy) and not only, or perhaps even mainly, through their presence in the political decision-making assemblies.
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| 25. |
- Ernits, Heiti, 1979
(författare)
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Planering på gränsen och gränsen för planering - En studie av gränsöverskridande samhällsplanering
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This exploratory thesis aims to describe and analyze how boundaries emerge, affect planning practices, and how boundaries are managed over time in order to achieve integrated planning processes. This thesis is particularly interested in how the interplay between boundary-spanning and boundary-crossing activities in relation to the organization of strategic spatial planning can be understood from an institutional perspective. The overall research question was sub-divided into three further research questions: How do boundaries emerge, and how are they managed, when planning is organized? What boundary arrangements emerge over time for the managing of boundaries? How can the choice of boundary arrangement be understood in relation to institutional orders? The thesis involves a case study of two urban planning projects and an organizational planning reform. Using a qualitative research approach, empirical data were collected through participant observations when planners collaborated, shadowing planners in their work environment, conducting semi-structured interviews with planners, hosting focus group discussions, and analyzing relevant documents. The findings of the present study demonstrate that planners face multiple challenges related to boundaries, which in turn encourages continuous transformation processes. Negotiations are revealed to play a crucial role in managing and modifying boundaries. More specifically, different and conflicting views on how boundaries should be drawn and desired characteristics of the boundaries converge in negotiation processes. Drawing on the institutional theoretical framework of the study, the organizing principles of egalitarianism and hierarchy are positioned in opposition to one another. Negotiations ultimately result in an egalitarian approach to boundary management, which involves preserving formal boundaries and organizing planning work across boundaries. An informal planning organization emerges alongside the formal planning organization, and specific boundary arrangements and approaches to organize collective action in a polycentric planning environment become institutionalized. This development, however, gives rise to new problematic boundaries between the formal and informal planning organization, which in turn leads to further negotiation and incremental changes to boundary arrangements and planning practices.
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