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- Olsson, Erik J, et al.
(författare)
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What Price Equality? The Academic Cost of Government Supervised Gender Mainstreaming at Swedish Universities
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 10:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article is focused on gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities in the period from 2016-2019. Our research questions are: (a) In what form was gender mainstreaming introduced and did the form itself affect scholar's academic rights? (b) Was the process in question compatible with international standards of institutional autonomy? (c) What effect did gender mainstreaming have on scholars' ability to exercise their academic rights in accordance with international standards? Using the UNESCO Recommendations Concerning the Status of Higher-education Teaching Personnel (1997) as our international standard, we conclude that gender mainstreaming was introduced as a form of identity politics though government action and de facto supervision; that the latter was problematic from the perspective of institutional autonomy; that the choice of gender studies as a preferred scientific framework for university policy had a chilling effect on inquiry and free speech in other areas of research; and, finally, that gender mainstreaming led to violations of some scholars' individual rights. The findings may be taken into account in evaluations of the outcome of gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities, all things considered.
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- Sörensen, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Shadow Management : Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democratic Legitimacy through Ombudsmen with Cases Studies from Swedish Higher Education
- 2020
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Ingår i: Societies. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-4698. ; 10:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector effectively erode the core (liberal) democratic values of the rule of law and transparency. The tension between public law and managerially-influenced governmental policy is in practice resolved by the emergence of what we call “shadow management” in public administration, whereby managerial decisions that clash with constitutional and administrative law are dealt with in internal memos or consultancy reports and hidden from public view. The consequence is a duality in the public sector, which potentially reduces public trust in institutions and undermines their democratic legitimacy. Finally, we argue that when governmental neoliberal policy clashes with legal requirements, the likely effect is that the popular institution of the (governmental or parliamentary) ombudsman, originally introduced for legal supervision over civil servants, takes on the new deceptive role of providing pseudo-legal justification for neoliberal reform, making neoliberalism and ombudsmen a particularly problematic combination from a democratic and legal perspective. We support our contentions by a case study of Swedish higher education and hypothesize that the mechanisms we highlight are general in nature.
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- Sörensen, Jens
(författare)
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War as Social Transformation: Wealth Class, Power and an Illiberal Economy in Serbia
- 2003
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Ingår i: Civil Wars. - 1369-8249. ; 6:4, s. 55-82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analyses changes in the social structure and stratification of Serbian society in the 1990 ‘s and the development of an illiberal economy. These developments are discussed in context of three competing theoretical frameworks here called: the ‘transitional’ perspective, the ‘social breakdown’ interpretation, and the perspective of ‘social transformation’. The article argues that the two former perspectives imply assumptions of ‘transition to liberal democracy and market economy, in the first case, and the possibility of ‘reconstruction’ of shattered institutions and processes, in the second and that these assumptions need further scrutiny. The metaphor ‘social transformation’ instead emphasizes the importance of considering the ‘actually’ existing forms of political economy, survival strategies, social networks, and processes in the region without assuming linear developments of ‘reconstruction’, or ‘transition’ towards liberal‐democracy cum market economy. The ‘language’ we use to describe and identify problems, i.e. how we conceptualise, are central also to the policy‐implications they have. The development of illiberal forms of economy in the former Yugoslav space, in this case Serbia, may be considered part of a political project in itself. The ‘sources’ on parallel, often extra‐legal, economic forms of activity are very scarce and there is a huge methodological problem in how to access and analyse the character, scope and meaning of this. However, the phenomenon is too important to be avoided just due to a lack of sources, and preliminary analysis and discussion is necessary even though it has of necessity to be based on ‘soft’ sources. In this article such ‘soft’ material includes local newspaper material, informal interviews with local informants and preliminary estimations. After having discussed the economy of inflation, examples of black‐grey forms of economy, individual survival‐strategies, and changes in the stratification of Serbian society this article identifies forces within Serbian society which are supportive of what may be termed the illiberal project and those forces ranged against it. While it may be premature to base any conclusion for which forces may be in the longer‐term be sustainable, there is utility in research into both the nature of the illiberal economy, the social networks and forces benefiting from it and the level of cohesion/fragmentation amongst the opposition/resistance to it.
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