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- Eriksson, Annika
(författare)
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En gangster kunde kanske älska sin mor : Produktionen av moraliska klichéer i amerikanska polis- och deckarserier
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study, American police- and detective-series are analysed. I focus on the portrayal of the criminals, especially the moral aspect. The series can be regarded as moral tales. The morality is embedded in the characters that populate the different episodes. There are two major categories of criminals in the series; the essentialized criminals and the ones that commit crimes due to circumstances. This categorization concerns the explanations of the crimes, how the criminals’ fundamental motives are depicted. Different attributes contribute to the construction of the characters as complete entities. The depiction of regret or the lack thereof is an essential aspect of the morality connected with the different culprits. Regret opens up for inclusion, while the lack of remorse and regret serve as a tool for exclusion from society. Respect and disrespect between offender and police/detective are also of significance for the presentation of morality. The portrayal of respect/disrespect can be interpreted in terms of a ”we” and ”them” construction: The disrespect that the essentialized villains show can be seen as a denial of the moral and social order and the police/detectives treatment of these villains can in turn be seen as a way of preserving this order, to keep unwelcome intruders away. The police and the detectives are thus engaged in a process of exclusion. In the same way, the respectful treatment of the other criminals — the situational criminals — can be seen as a recognition of the moral sphere, of including those that deserves to be incorporated. The episodes can be seen as status degradation ceremonies in the case of the essentialized criminals, and in regard to the other offenders, as ceremonies of restoration. The episodes constitute trials where the offender’s character is in focus. With this line of thought as a background, one can approach punishment as a form of moral communication. The episodes can thus be seen as a part of the punishment’s symbolic frame. In this, a certain cultural order is expressed that is not reducible to the series internal clichés. As such, the offenders that inhabit the series are valuable in that the viewer is a part of this symbolic frame.
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- Jannisa, Gudmund
(författare)
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The Crocodile's Tears : East Timor in the Making
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- On 7 December 1975 Indonesian troops invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which had unilaterally declared itself independent on 28 November the same year. The immediate background to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor was that the old regime in Portugal was overthrown in April 1974, resulting in a decolonisation programme for Portugal's colonies. Immediately after the invasion Indonesia installed a provisional government and now regards East Timor (Timor Timur in Bahasa Indonesia) as the Indonesian Republic's twenty-seventh province. The period 1975-1989 was in East Timor characterised first by war, later by isolation and fear. From 1989, in which year East Timor was opened up for visitors by the Indonesian authorities, resistance against the occupation has been manifested in a multitude of ways, both by those living inside East Timor and among the East Timorese in exile. This was highlighted when, in December 1996, José Ramos Horta and Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in trying to resolve the conflict. The thesis presents the conflict in a historic perspective where the growth of Indonesian and East Timorese nationalisms are seen as two distinct historical processes which are shaped by their respective positions in the pre-colonial maritime trade of Asia, the impact of colonialism (Dutch and Portuguese respectively) and modern history in a global sense, especially from W.W.II onwards. The hypothesis of the study is that there exists among the East Timorese a sense of community feeling which by Benedict Anderson has been called an 'imagined community'. The aim of the thesis is to describe the historical background to the conflict and to establish the factors (historical/ethnic/linguistic etc.) which have led to the formation of this 'imagined community'in the sense that Benedict Anderson discusses this concept. The study ends with a discussion about the possibility to find solutions to the conflict, a possibility which is greatly enhanced by the East Timorese resistance' willingness to take part in 'talks without preconditions' under the auspices of the UN.
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- Jönhill, Jan Inge
(författare)
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Samhället som system och dess ekologiska omvärld. En studie i Niklas Luhmanns sociologiska systemteori
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part is an exposé of Niklas Luhmann’s comprehensive sociological systems theory. Systems theory is a theory focusing upon the distinction between system and environment. In the first chapter the systems theoretical foundations as related to theory of science, its basic methodology, its central concepts and their historical development are presented and discussed. In the second and third chapter the presentation and discussion takes its point of departure in the two primary levels of analysis: the theory of social systems as communication systems; and the as well special as general theory of society as social system, respectively. One of Luhmann’s many challenging thesis – inspired by the phenomenology of Schutz and the second order cybernetics of von Foerster – is that the sociologist primarily is an observer of observations of (other) observations; another that social systems operate as autopoietic systems, i.e. as self-referential and “self-producing”, operatively closed, but cognitively open systems. The theory of society comprises of four parts: 1) the theory of communication media, 2) of evolution, 3) of differentiation, and 4) of society’s self-description. According to the theory of differentiation, the systems of economy, politics, law, science, family, etc., are operating as functions systems in the system of society. One conclusion of the analysis is that in modern society the distinction between inclusion and exclusion is a main, guiding distinction for the understanding of how persons are connected to society. The second part of the thesis is a systems theoretical analysis of the ecological environmental problems of society, thereby showing the relevance of systems theory in the understanding a contemporary sociological issue. The analysis is carried out around three theses: 1) Society can only relate and react to the environmental problem through communication; 2) Modern society is, to a high degree, dependent upon technology. Therefore, it is exposed to risks. Risk should be seen mainly as a form of danger caused by decisions of one’s own. Risk is thus not contrary to security, but a distinction between danger and risk; 3) Functional differentiation, which is shown to have a lot of advantages to the modern complex society, also causes great difficulties in attempting to solve environmental problems. However, this insight brings, as is shown, the only key to solutions. The environmental issue makes more urgent not only the development of an ”environmental sociology”, but first and foremost a general theory of society.
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- Kebede, Teketel Abebe
(författare)
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`Tenants of the State' : The Limitations of Revolutionary Agrarian Transformation in Ethiopia, 1974-1991
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study is about the agrarian reforms and policies of the military regime in Ethiopia in the period of its rule between 1974 and 1991. It is a descriptive and qualitative study of a set of agrarian policies which seeks to establish both the unrealized potential of the early and baisc reforms such as the 1975 Land Reform and Peasant Associations and the limitations of subsquent policies of collectivization, compulsory villagization, resettlement and centralized command procurement. An empirical case study of the effects of one of the policies, namely the villagization program is undertaken. The study seeks to place the description and analysis of the agrarian policies into a number of relevant contexts. First, an attempt was made to relate the discussion to questions of forms of peasant cooperation and state policy disincentive ont the one hand and the exigencies of prolonged war and rural conflict on agrarian policies on the other. Secondly, agarain policies are placed in theoretical framework through discussions of various perspectives and debates on subjects such as agarian transformation (socialist and capitalist), peasantry, state agrarian intervention and state-peasant relations. Thirdly, the study attempts to situate the analysis of the agaraian policies in relevant historical and politico-ideological contexts through a more or less detailed presentation of agrarian relations in Ethiopia before 1974 and the 1974 Ethiopian popular movement and analyze how these backgraound conditions influenced the nature and outcomes of the agarian policies of the military regime. The potentials and limitations of the agrarian policies of the regime are assessed in relation to the myth and reality of agrarian transition/transformation in Ethiopia in the period under consideration, the problems of rural institutions and state-peasant relations and the scholarly quest for comprehensive explanations of the Ethiopian experience in agarian policies. Finally, based on the Ethiopian experience the study raises issues such as forms of peasaqnt organization, organization of agricultural production and above all problems of state-peasant relations as major problem areas for future research both for equitable and broad-based agricultural growth as well as for peasant emancipation and participation which had been the promises of the 1974 popular movement but whose potentials failed to be realized to the fullest extent possible.
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- Leppänen, Vesa
(författare)
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Structures of District Nurse : Patient Interaction
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is about social interaction between Swedish district nurses and patients when they meet to perform such routine things as to measure blood pressures or give injections. Conversation analytic methodology is used to explicate interactional structures and to understand how they come about; (i) how tests and treatments are achieved; (ii) how concerns are introduced; (iii) how test results are talked about; and (iv) how advice is given and responded to. These interactional structures are also related to the institutional contexts to which nurses and patients are oriented when they interact. Thus, a more traditional ethnographic approach is used as a complement to conversation analytic methodology. Data consists of ethnographic material, primarily nurses’ textbooks, interviews with nurses, and observations of nurses’ meetings with patients. Data also consists of 64 audio and video recordings of encounters between 17 nurses and 58 patients. 32 of these recordings have been transcribed and analyzed in detail. District nurse-patient interactions occur in rather straightforward ways. This interpretation is strengthened by comparisons between these interactions and interactions in other institutional settings (between health visitors and first-time mothers, HIV counselors and clients, doctors and patients). The main reason for the straightforwardnesses is found in the nature of district nurses’ work: They meet patients in order to perform tests and treatments, which are unproblematic manual activities. The verbal activities that are generated during these meetings tend to become rather straightforward.
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| 8. |
- Lindquist, Per
(författare)
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Det klyvbara ämnet : Diskursiva ordningar i svensk kärnkraftspolitik 1972-1980
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study applies a qualitative discourse theoretical method to analyse the central argumentation in the parliamentary debate on nuclear power in Sweden during 19721980, reconstructed from official documents such as governmental and parliamentary bills, committee reports, parliamentary debate protocols, and official commission reports. Particular concern is directed to the process in which various discursive orders emerging within the political debate tend to have a structuring influence on the political argumentation regarding what can be said, by whom this can be said, and how this can be said. It is argued that these discursive orders have a profound, and in a systems theoretical sense self-dynamic influence, going beyond the original intentions of the political actors, on how the energy policy issue is interpreted and constructed. It is argued, furthermore, that these discursive orders actively exploit the political context of meaning by deliberately instrumentalising and incorporating competing argumentative elements into their own cognitive structure. In other words, the dominant political system incorporates the arguments of the political opposition and of the environmental and anti-nuclear movements in order to consolidate its political power. The discourse theoretical analysis of the Swedish nuclear power debate in that sense unveils a deep resistance against a true political discourse, in the sense of Habermas, as a rational and domination-free process of reaching mutual understanding.
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| 9. |
- Mathieu, Christopher
(författare)
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The Moral Life of the Party : Moral Argumentation and the Creation of Meaning in the Europe Policy Debates of the Christian and Left-Socialist Parties in Denmark and Sweden 1990-1996
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis analyzes moral argumentation and meaning creation in the process of programmatic policy formulation in the Christian People's Party and Socialist People's Party in Denmark, and the Christian Democratic Party and Left Party in Sweden, focusing specifically on their policy deliberations about the European Community and the European Union from 1990-1996. The primary emphasis is not on policy outcomes per se, but rather on how moral argumentation as a form of policy deliberation is created and sustained in political parties. Contrary to contentions from two traditions skeptical towards the centrality of moral argumentation in the formulation of party policy, the "economistic"/rational choice, respective basic value relativism traditions, it is found that policy deliberation is carried out primarily in terms of substantive moral arguments rather than utility maximization, aggregating or mere procedural agreement. Similar mechanisms in each of the four parties studied create settings in which moral argumentation is carried out and sustained. In party settings moral argumentation is facilitated by the "objectification" of the normative - via the group process of evaluating and ranking current normative contentions in terms of previously evaluated and ranked normative contentions. In this way moral contentions are given varying degrees of support from a common legitimating authority - the party - and a series of collectively affirmed positions and "traditions" exist to refer to. Surreptitiously, through moral argumentation the meaning of the objects of political deliberation is created by the way they are related to central values and goals of the party. It is subsequently through reference to these socially established meanings that policy debates are carried out. Ultimately it is concluded that the norm of moral argumentation is founded upon the belief among party members, and actual operation, of these parties as moral communities.
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| 10. |
- Munk, Martin D
(författare)
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Livsbaner gennem et felt : En analyse af eliteidraetsudøveres sociale mobilitet og rekonversioner af kapital i det sociale rum
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis deals with a theoretical outline of the theory of reconversions in the light of the social space, with an analysis of top level athletes' mobility and strategies of reconversions in their trajectories through the relative autonomous field of sports. Some disciplines in this field have much autonomy, others less, and are positioned according to a state of distribution of the specific capital, accumulated in the consequence of previous struggles. Trajectories and classes are not reproduced in a mechanical way, there are specific effects in those. By the concept of strategies of reconversions it is possible to determine central societal processes according to transformations and reproductions of the social world. They are defined as practices by which social groups endeavour to keep 'on the road' or even change position. In that sense social life is about struggles and converting capital. The thesis builds upon investigations of sports. In an enquete, 1990, I examined whether cycling could be characterized as a field, and included 220 schemes. In 1993, I studied athletes' trajectories through sports, and how these athletes left sports, including 538 athletes distributed on 25 disciplines in the main analysis. Some of those were interviewed, and material about achievements in international championships and the Danish population were applied. I compared central tables with French sociologists in 1994-1996. I have used correspondence analysis according to a French interpretation. The important thing with this type of analysis is that modalities with small frequencies do not get lost, and there is a possibility of using supplementary modalities and individuals. The main thing is to analyse objective relational oppositions. Correspondence analysis is used together with sociological analysis, which is more sensitive towards empirical material and thereby closer to actually social processes. Two aspects in the transitions between the field of sports and the social space are important: the relative short period of time in sports and the objective possibilities after the time in sports. It is clear that the small conversion-rate of capital into a permanent job in sports (after the active period) is closely related to the fact that Denmark is a society with private organized institutions of sports and clubs grounded upon voluntary work, and no state institutions. This is contrary to the United States and France. Fifteen per cent obtain a job in the field, and it primarily concerns athletes from 'upper' and 'middle' classes (academics, teachers and directors) and agents with large volume of sports capital. What seems to be important is the structural homology between the social space and the way in which athletes find their pathways from the field to other places in the social space; capital can be converted on certain conditions. The great amount of movements regarding sons and daughters of self-employed to working class conditions and to positions like teachers reflect a general tendency in society. The correspondence analysis shows two main positions over time, dealing with agents who pass through and spend some time of the trajectory in the field of sports. On one side there is a vocational pole with origin among dominated classes, and on the other side an academic pole primarily with origin among dominating classes. Furthermore the analysis point at a dichotomy between objective opportunities for a professional career in badminton, golf, tennis etc. and no possibilities in curling, orienteering, shooting etc. There is an effect of gravitation/struggle from the field of sports, with the possibility of converting sports capital, but the strategies of reconversions and mobility depend also on the structural homology between the field and the social space mediated by trajectories, and the structure of society.
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