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- Törnqvist, Maria, 1975-
(författare)
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Könspolitik på gränsen : Debatterna om varannan damernas och Thamprofessurerna
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation examines the struggle over concepts and categories in Swedish gender politics. The provocative issue of quotas for women is used to explore these processes and the boundaries of the gender equality project. The study employs a discourse analysis of two intense media debates: gender quotas in the political sphere whereby every other seat in parliament is reserved for a woman (‘varannan damernas’) and a proposal to create 30 professorships and use positive action principles in the hiring process (‘Thamprofessurerna’). The design of the study is comparative, analysing two debates on seemingly similar policies that were put forward as a remedy for gender inequality and under-representation, but with very different outcomes. The central questions posed are: what are the conditions under which gender politics can be justified in different arenas of social life? When and why do certain visions, problem definitions and solutions succeed or fail to get recognized?This study argues that the discursive terrain of competing ideas and visions, partly embedded in the two fields, open or limit the possibilities for contested gender policies to gain acceptance. The analysis shows that whereas the policy of ‘every other seat’ is accepted and integrated into the political field in a way that creates new political possibilities for women, the attempts to increase the number of women with the help of positive action is met with resistance in the debate over the academy. Notions of democracy as representation pave the way for gender quotas in the political system, whereas ideas of meritocracy and individual creativity hinder the reception of positive action measures within the academy.
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| 2. |
- Windell, Karolina, 1976-
(författare)
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Corporate Social Responsibility under Construction : Ideas, Translations, and Institutional Change
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Although ideas about the social responsibility of business have a long history, the debate over corporate social responsibility (CSR) has escalated worldwide during the past decade under the label of CSR. This thesis contributes to new-institutional organizational approaches by exploring how and why CSR has been constructed into a widespread idea and by introducing a discussion on the interrelationship between ideas and institutional change. Using interviews, documents, and participant observation, the thesis explores actors and activities that contributed to the formation and circulation of CSR. In particular, the study examines actor groups mobilizing CSR, the expansion and presentation of CSR in the media, the development of CSR consulting, and CSR conferences. The findings demonstrate that CSR was translated in field-wide processes involving multisectoral actor groups. CSR was collectively mobilized in interplay and contestations among actor groups that translated it in accordance with their disparate interests. In this way ambiguous forms and meanings for CSR were created, resulting in non-clarification over time. The findings suggest that translation processes are set in motion through contestations that draw attention to an idea. It appears from these results that CSR developed from criticism advanced by various actor groups in the corporate environment into a management idea developed by corporations. The idea embodied new assumptions about the scope of corporate responsibilities that both reinforced and challenged the institutional model of the corporation. The results suggest that management ideas that appear to be short-lived fads may have long-term consequences, partly because they are historically rooted and partly because of their potential to elicit fundamental debates that challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about corporate behavior. The thesis concludes that management ideas should be taken seriously, as they can be part of long-term processes of incremental and consequential change.
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| 3. |
- Ek, Arne, 1950-
(författare)
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Att konstruera en uppslutning kring den enda vägen : Om folkrörelsers modernisering i skuggan av det östeuropeiska systemskiftet
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about some Swedish organizations that are connected to the labour movement and their actions to cope with the new hegemony around market liberalism. After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90-ties, the liberal order, meaning market economy and democracy reduced to the election of elites, has become totally domineering both in the western and in the former communist world. Even left wing oriented organizations have adopted their operations and activities accordingly, especially in their internal governing structure. The organizations that I have studied, mainly the Swedish Tenants organization at its local level of Stockholm, developed during the 70-ties and the 80-ties a participatorier member structure. The “Swedish model” of consensus/corporative decision-making and agreement, used by them on the national level for decades, was during that period introduced also on local and regional levels. In the 90-ties these organizations, according to earlier studies, have instead adapted a more costumer-oriented and elite-democratic way of operating and governing. These later changes could be seen as contradicting both the development of the 80-ties and the basic values of those organizations. My questions are therefore how these changes became possible and my aim is to study how the active members have contributed to this development. Using a constructionist theoretical perspective and discourse analysis, I am showing how this potential conflict between a participatory and an elite-democratic model can be reconciled by a discursive construction. The active members have in fact been able see these changes just as a modernization of their organization. From their point-of-view their organization still works in a participatory democratic way. My analysis shows how this ambiguousness and potential paradox became possible thru internal discourses and under influence from the liberal hegemony.
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| 4. |
- Fogde, Marinette, 1977-
(författare)
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The work of job seeking : studies on career advice for white-collar workers
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In contemporary working life, training and guidance on how to write a curriculum vitae (CV) or succeed at an interview are fundamental features of job seeking. This kind of training and guidance, which emphasizes communicative skills and performance, entails ideals and norms in the process of becoming employed. This study focuses in particular on guidance by a Swedish white-collar union and how students at universities negotiate career advice. Central questions are: What kind of characteristics, values and moral obligations are constructed as ideals for job seekers? How is the governing of job seekers linked to the social and political context? How is governing and self-governing constructed in the interaction between career coaches and students? How is the subject position as a job seeker negotiated? These questions are explored in four separate but interrelated articles. The empirical material includes analyses of texts, fieldwork data and interviews. The theoretical framework is inspired by the Foucauldian concept of governmentality and the concept of discursive positioning.Findings indicate that job seeking is constructed in terms of self-marketing of individuals and the moral qualities are being active and ambitious in terms of job searching as well as taking responsibility in working on and displaying one’s personality. The study also points to ambiguities in career advice and obstacles to working on the self to become “sellable”. The career discourse is interspersed with other discourses (as national identity and gender) and other subject positions in these discourses. The technology of self-esteem is a technology for mobilizing the students in this context. In terms of “self-work”, this study shows how the students and future white-collar workers negotiate and work on their self to become employable. In addition, it is argued that career advice must be understood in relation to ideals of employability, flexibility and self-help discourses.
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