| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Larue, Thomas, 1973-
(author)
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Agents in Brussels: Delegation and democracy in the European Union
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation explores delegation and democracy within the European Union (EU). The EU now constitutes one of the cornerstones of the democratic systems of its member states. The most vital instrument of democracy is lawmaking, which increasingly occurs at the European level. Many different actors contribute to the shaping of EU legislation. Among the most important of these are national bureaucrats representing their member states in Council negotiations. This thesis focuses on these bureaucrats. In particular it analyzes the delegation and accountability relationship between member states’ governments and their national bureaucrats stationed at the permanent representations (PRs) in Brussels. It is based on semi-structured elite interviews with 80 French and Swedish senior civil servants in Brussels, Paris and Stockholm.Using an explorative and descriptive comparative case study of two EU member states, France and Sweden, the dissertation seeks to describe and analyse how delegation between member states’ capitals and Brussels are affected by: i) the coordination and preparation of EU issues in member states’ government offices, ii) the organisation and functioning of the permanent representations, and, most importantly, iii) existing accountability mechanisms. Applying a principal-agent approach, this study shows that the delegation between governments and their Brussels-based bureaucrats is adequate, despite relatively weak delegation and accountability designs. The study identifies institutional divergence between France and Sweden as regards the design of national systems of EU delegation, particularly monitoring and reporting requirements, where Sweden seems to have a more developed system. Both countries have similar contract design and screening and selection systems for employing national agents stationed at the PRs. The impact of domestic coordination of EU affairs is important in order to understand processes of both preference formation precedent to delegation and of preference transfer through instructions. In this case it is obvious that French coordination is more efficient. The functions of the permanent representation also influence delegation between national and European levels. For example, administrative procedures in the PRs in Brussels have had effects on the drafting of instructions, something that is particularly notable in the Swedish case.The study identifies several central problems as regards delegation between bureaucrats in Brussels and governments in member states’ capitals. The first problem has to do with the ongoing blurring of political and bureaucratic dimensions. This inhibits the ability of principals (in our case member state governments) to hold their agents (Brussels-based bureaucrats) accountable. The second problem identified by this study as regards the working of democracy is the distinction between formal and informal processes. One conclusion is that informal processes should be formalised or made more transparent. Opacity in lawmaking processes has detrimental effects on long-term legitimacy of democratic systems. Holding de facto lawmaking bureaucrats, caught in a cross-pressure between national demands and European ambitions, accountable is essential for democracy. The dissertation includes practical suggestions as to how to improve delegation, and argues that additional research on both the roles and power of bureaucrats as well as issues of cross-pressure is necessary.
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| 3. |
- Rönnberg, Linda, 1977-
(author)
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Tid för reformering : Försöksverksamheten med slopad timplan i grundskolan
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In 1999, the Swedish Parliament decided to launch an experiment to test the idea of replacing, at the compulsory educational level, the national time schedule with localized control of schedules. This was in keeping with strategies of deregulation, decentralisation and increased local autonomy that had dominated Swedish education policy, particularly since the 1990s. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the initiation, decision, implementation and consequences of this experiment The analytical framework combines several different approaches and theories from the literature on public policy and policy analysis. The framework encompasses four dimensions, which cover the experiment’s origins, local application in the classroom setting and consequences. On the empirical level, findings are based on interviews with 32 municipal school directors, and head teachers, teachers and pupils in three schools participating in the experiment, as well as written sources from schools, municipalities, and the national level. The thesis shows that the policy problem the experiment was intended to resolve was represented in an inconsistent manner: On the one hand, the experiment was perceived as a driving force for change; on the other hand, it was seen as legitimising a change that had already taken place. Furthermore, the experiment was formulated in vague terms, which accorded far-reaching discretionary space to the schools. The program’s causal theory expressed by the policy makers was complex, containing a multifaceted chain of presumptions on a range of activities and processes through which the experiment ultimately would lead to improved opportunities for pupils to reach the educational objectives. Empirically, this prediction proved to be invalid as student achievement did not increase. The degree of implementation at the local level varied according to the comprehension, capability and willingness of those involved to carry out the experiment. The courses of action taken by the schools frequently could have been undertaken within the existing legislative framework, as they mostly concerned new ways of working and organising staff and pupils. An assessment of the objectives attained showed that, even if elements of developmental work corresponding to the direction stated in the policy documents were observed, the experiment did not emerge as the primary explanatory factor for this result Thus, the net impact of the experiment can be questioned. If judged against the criterion of adaptiveness, the results are more successful than if the experiment is assessed according to goal-attainment and the validity of the program theory. The experiment was found to integrate, alter and accommodate itself readily to local needs. The thesis illustrates the complexity of formulating and implementing policy in a decentralised context and points to important aspects in the historical background of the programme, which often tend to be overlooked when policy is analysed and discussed. At the same time, the study sheds light on the significant role played by street-level implementation actors in the educational context.
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| 4. |
- Wide, Jessika, 1971-
(author)
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Kvinnors politiska representation i ett jämförande perspektiv - nationell och lokal nivå
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women’s political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women’s political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation. The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world’s parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women’s political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women’s political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002. The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.
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| 5. |
- Johansson, Tomas, 1970-
(author)
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Samarbete mellan gymnasieskolan och näringslivet : en studie av lokala partnerskap i fyra kommuner
- 2004
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The national curriculum and the School Act emphasize the importance of establishing partnerships between schools and local businesses. The formation of partnerships was expected to be facilitated by the decentralization reforms that took place in the beginning of the 1990’s. These reforms gave schools and municipalities greater scope for adjusting education to meet local circumstances. However, central government has not made financial resources available for stimulating the establishment of school-business partnerships, nor does it penalize municipalities that do not set up such partnerships. The questions in focus in this study are: why do partnerships arise, how are they organised and what factors are important in achieving a partnership which can function in practice? Urban regime theory is applied to explain why collaborations occur and policy network theory is used to analyse how they are organised. A further aim of the study is to examine whether the partnerships can be defined as urban regimes. The study was based on case studies of four upper secondary schools in Sweden, each in a different municipality. These municipalities are all industrialized, but the structure of their industrial base varies. Two are dominated by one or a few major companies whereas the others are characterized by the predominance of many small businesses. The study focuses on how three vocational study programmes – industry, electricity and building - collaborate with local businesses. The study shows that the main explanation of why a partnership arises is that both partners believe that they can gain something by collaborating. For schools, the main reason for establishing a partnership with business is a belief that this will make the vocational education programmes more attractive for pupils. Through partnerships, schools can get access not only to practical experience for their pupils, but also help from business with developing the content of courses and some financial contributions. However, the economic benefits are of limited importance compared with the perceived gains in terms of the development of the educational content of the courses. This goes against results from studies in other countries. For business, it is particularly important to be able to influence decisions about the content of local education. By doing so, they hope to ensure that the pupils, after having completed their education, will enter the local labour market with more relevant qualifications. My research shows that several requirements have to be present for a successful partnership to be established. First, there must be a commitment and firm intentions from both partners. Second, size of the businesses involved in the partnerships is important for how they are organized. Larger businesses tend to see the partnership from a more long term perspective. However, it is also possible to organize collaborations with smaller businesses if they can be united under a common organisation. Third, specific actors make a difference in the partnerships. Devoted and interested key actors who are closely associated with the partnership are very important for the continuity of the partnership The study suggests that urban regime theory and policy network theory are useful for understanding why and how partnerships between schools and businesses are established and retained. However, it can not be concluded that these collaborations in themselves are urban regimes at a more local level. This would require that their focus was much more long-term.
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| 6. |
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50 år med Statsvetenskap i Umeå
- 2015
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Editorial collection (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Statsvetenskapliga institutionen vid Umeå universitet etablerades samtidigt som Umeå universitet invigdes 1965. Denna bok berättar historien om institutionens första femtio år. Den ger inblickar i viktiga händelser, avgörande beslut, genomgående tendenser och tongivande förändringar. Det är en historia med både glädjeämnen och besvikelser, framgångar och motgångar.Att institutionen överlevt, expanderat och delvis kunnat förnya sig vittnar dock om att den i grunden utgör en livskraftig och dynamisk akademisk miljö med engagerade och kompetenta medarbetare.
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| 7. |
- Alldén, Susanne, 1979-
(author)
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How do international norms travel? : Women’s political rights in Cambodia and Timor-Leste
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- How do international norms travel, via statebuilding efforts, into post-conflict settings, and how do international and national actors interact in this process? These are the main questions addressed in this thesis. The empirical focus is the spreading and rooting of the norm of women’s political rights in Cambodia and Timor-Leste, two countries in which international actors have played a significant role in statebuilding efforts. Although statebuilding has increasingly become a part of UN peacebuilding missions, we still lack a thorough understanding of how much, and in what ways, the international community can successfully promote change. This is important in view of the fact that the key to success ultimately depends on how the receiving community responds to the presence and efforts of international actors to promote new social norms. This study analyzes the interaction between international and national actors engaged in the promotion of women’s political rights as part of the effort to advance democracy. Three institutional developments are examined in detail – electoral rules and regulations, the establishment of a national gender equality/women’s machinery and the strengthening of the local government structure. The study uses a modified norm diffusion approach and makes two theoretical contributions to the literature. First, I place the norm diffusion process in a post-conflict context. Second, I add the concept of capability to function in order to conceptualize and study the internalization of the norm. The thesis is based on both an analysis of written material and semi-structured interviews. A total of 65 interviews were conducted during three research trips to each of the countries between 2007 and 2009. In general, the four empirical chapters reveal that the interaction between international and national actors has predominantly been characterized by international actors setting the agenda, with varying degrees of consultation and collaboration with national actors. While norm institutionalization has been rather high in both countries, norm internalization lags behind. This is explained by discriminating ways of life and attitudes, lack of resources and time. Norm internalization is higher in Timor-Leste, in part because national actors have adapted the norm of women’s political rights to fit the local setting, but also due to their openness to international influences. The empirical study underscores that international actors can push for change and norm adherence, but their efforts are not enough. In the end, national actors have to buy into the message that international actors try to convey. The strengths and weaknesses that have been uncovered in the Cambodian and Timorese case studies presented here should be carefully considered as international actors, led by the UN, embark upon future statebuilding missions around the globe.
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| 8. |
- Andersson, Eva-Lotta, 1966-
(author)
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Kön och ansvar i sjukförsäkringen : En studie av utredningstexter 1944 - 2006
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In recent decades, the welfare state has changed as a result of various market adaptations and privatisations. The state’s responsibility for the provision of welfare has diminished and responsibility has been shifted onto the market, the family and civil society.The aim of this thesis is to examine how shifting the responsibility for sickness insurance between the state, the market and the family interacts with ideas and beliefs about gender, and what the consequences are for the eligibility to receive sickness benefit insurance of those who are insured. The material consists of governmental inquiries into the Swedish sickness insurance system from 1944 to 2006, the texts of which have been analysed using discourse analysis.The study shows that the division of responsibility studied in the texts, in various ways, worked to create a hierarchy and to maintain the separation between different categories, and thus has contributed to create gender-defined positions. The design of the sickness insurance system is shaped by gender-defined interpretative frameworks.In the texts I study how divisions of responsibility is characterised by ideas and beliefs about gender. The first period is dominated by an interpretive framework in which the man is the provider and the woman is provided for. These ideas and beliefs about gender characterise the division of responsibility, and those who are insured are separated into gender-defined groups by the way in which responsibility for different parts of the insurance system are divided between the state, the market and the family. As a result, gender-defined status positions are created, with men as policy holders and women as beneficiaries.The second period is dominated by an interpretive framework based on equality of treatment. It is characterised by ideas that both men and women contribute to supporting the household through paid work. Differentiation between the sexes decreases as women, to a much greater extent, positioned as wage-earners, while those who work in the home become increasingly marginalised as they are perceived as old-fashioned.In the third period, economic interpretive frameworks and concepts relating to insurability come, increasingly, to the fore. Differentiation increases as the responsibility is shifted to the market and the individual. The roles of beneficiary and the policy holder return, although the division is not as clearly defined by gender as it was in the first period.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Staffan, 1969-
(author)
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Corruption in Sweden : Exploring Danger Zones and Change.
- 2002
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this dissertation I study corruption in the public sector in Sweden, a country which the literature regards as having few corruption problems. Sweden is therefore classified as a “least corrupt” case, and such countries are seldom studied in corruption research. My work is thus an effort to fill a gap in the literature. This research is also motivated by a conviction that such a case provides a fertile ground for studying danger zones for corruption. For example, this work allows me to explore how institutional and contextual changes impact on corruption and danger zones. Though the main focus of this work is on Sweden, I also have comparative ambitions. First, I locate Sweden in a cross-national context. I then study corruption in Sweden using a comparative methodology and with an eye to international comparisons. I apply a combined theoretical approach and a multi-method investigation based on several empirical sources and both quantitative and qualitative techniques. This research strategy enables me to capture a phenomenon (corruption) that is more difficult to identify in countries with relatively few obvious corruption scandals than it is in countries in which the phenomenon has traditionally been studied. Regarding danger zones for corruption, the results show that some of the zones identified in the international literature, such as public procurement, are also important in Sweden. For the Swedish case, my empirical research also identifies the types of corruption that occur, perceptions of danger zones and corruption, how corruption changes over time, and how corruption is fought. With regard to the latter, one conclusion is that ingrained (male) sub-cultures can be problematic and may need to be opened up using a combination of measures like promoting a more heterogeneous group of politicians, creating more transparent proceedings in decision groups and conducting more effective audits. The research also highlights the importance of adapting control measures to existing structures of delegation. For example, if delegation arrangements are changed to improve efficiency and cut costs, new accountability measures may be necessary. In general, delegation and control structures should be structured in such a way as to make the cost of shirking quite high. Finally, based on the results of this multi-method investigation, I conclude that one avenue for further corruption research is to connect our knowledge of danger zones to what we know about mechanisms effecting corrupt behaviour, and then to apply this to discussions of new models of the politics of management in multi-level governance.
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Therese, 1978-
(author)
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En gemensam europeisk skogspolitik? : En integrationsteoretisk studie av ett politikområde på tillväxt
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines efforts to integrate a “new” policy sector – forest and forestry – into the European Union (EU). There is currently no legal foundation for a common forest policy and some member states (not least Sweden), as well as parts of the forestry sector, have been strongly opposed to one. At the same time, administrative units and structures within the EU have been created and they and some member states have promoted a common policy. This raises the question how can we understand and explain this?The purpose of this dissertation is to problematise, map and analyse mainly Swedish actors’ attitudes to efforts to create a common forest policy within the EU. The study is based on neofunctionalism, which is a classic theory of integration, but it uses newer theorising (from intergovernmentalism and modern versions of neofunctionalism) to address some of the weaknesses of the approach.I investigate the role, preferences and strategies of the main actors. This includes EU institutions and member states. I also map European industry interests and other associations, interest groups and active networks and study their role in the process. In these multi-national settings, I pay particular (although not exclusive) attention to their Swedish members. Within Sweden, I examine how governmental and non-governmental forest actors behave vis-à-vis the EU.The empirical investigation shows that some of Swedish actors, for example the private forest owners’ organisation and forest industries associations, have change their preferences and strate gies over time. They have come to believe that whether they like it or not, other policy areas affect forest and forestry both directly and indirectly. Because of this, they now take the position that it is better to promote a limited European forest policy rather than remaining aloof and risk the creation of a much more comprehensive and centralised policy. At the same time (and for now at least), the Swedish government and most party politicians remain opposed to any attempt to formalise a forest policy within the EU.This study contributes new knowledge about how new policy areas become integrated within EU, including knowledge about the roles that different actors can have in such processes. The results are of interest to researchers, decision makers and the interested public. They can also influence thinking about Sweden’s influence in, and relation to, EU forest policy.Based on the empirical results, my theoretical conclusion is that organised interests have an important role in the integration process. The integration process of forest and forestry is not driven by one actor, but by many different actors, who operate on different levels and who have different interests.This study shows that forest and forestry-related questions have come to the EU, and they will remain there. The important question for the future is not if there will be some kind of European level policy on forest and forestry, but rather what form European policy will take.
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| 11. |
- Barnes, Philippa, 1990-
(author)
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When processes collide : leadership, legitimacy and liberation in Palestine
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Palestinian national movement leadership has long been intertwined with thecontext of the national movement processes – liberation, peace and statebuilding. Over time, as these processes have not come to fruition, the numerousleadership groups have had to negotiate their relationships with these processesas both the groups and processes increasingly overlap, creating significantobservable points of tension within Palestinian politics. There are currentlymultiple levels of leadership across the national movement: two representativegoverning institutions – the Palestine Liberation Organisation and thePalestinian Authority; two dominant political movements – Fatah and Hamas;and numerous popular resistance initiatives such as the Boycott, Divestment andSanctions movement coalition that has different levels of endorsement (or lackof) by the other leaderships. This thesis seeks to map the Palestinian nationalliberation movement leadership, examining the inter-relations between themultiple leadership groups and internal (i.e. intra-Palestinian) legitimacies.Examining the internal legitimacies of the Palestinian leaderships results in anexpansion of how internal legitimacy can be conceptualised. For the historicalperiod (1958-2008) analysed, I found revolutionary, representative,oppositional, institutional, democratic and moral legitimacy types within thePalestinian case. Furthermore, these were all attributed to respective nationalmovement processes. Analysing the recent period (2016-2017) requires the useof a relational approach to further develop understandings of legitimacy. Thisapproach transforms legitimacy into a process of (de)legitimisation, whichinteracts with the national movement processes and helps us capture and analysethe complexities of the Palestinian case – that of concurrent, multiple andcontending perspectives. I found the continuation of the liberation and statebuilding processes as simultaneous bases of legitimisation to be a critical point oftension within the tandem legitimisation-delegitisimation process. Engaging arelational approach demonstrated the need for ongoing leadershipreconstruction. I conclude that, in order to negotiate the interactions andcontestations between the multiple and dynamic processes that underlielegitimacy, leaderships face an ultimatum of ‘reconstruct or delegitimise’. WherePalestinian leadership groups have stagnated and not engaged with a process ofreconstruction, we see processes of delegitimisation arising that can explain thecurrent leadership complexities within the Palestinian national movement.
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| 12. |
- Benerdal, Malin, 1984-
(author)
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Nationell utvärderingspolicy : utformning och förändring på grundskoleområdet 1988-2014
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Evaluation has grown in both volume and scope across levels and sectors in recent decades, particularly in the school sector. Despite this growth, there is insufficient knowledge about how and in what ways evaluations are formed, institutionalized and used in education governance and education reforms. This thesis addresses some of these issues by studying evaluation policy. The aim of the thesis is to explore and analyse the design and possible changes in national evaluation policy in compulsory education during two periods of extensive education reforms (1988-1994 and 2008-2014).The theoretical framework builds on evaluation research and policy studies, particularly the literature on policy design. These two strands of literature are supplemented with additional analytical tools from historical institutionalism regarding policy change. Drawing on previous research, a definition of evaluation policy that incorporates the policy context and also enables studying an implicit policy is proposed. On the empirical level, the findings are based on official policy documents, material produced by national government agencies as well as evaluations and evaluation systems.The thesis shows that during the first period (1988-1994), the evaluation policy was characterized as a means of helping to implement the extensive reforms. Evaluations were to be conducted on all levels of the school system to promote development on each executive level. The policy design reflected evaluation as a learning and capacity-building tool. Schools and municipalities were positioned as owners and co-creators of evaluation knowledge. During the second period (2008-2014), the evaluation policy was partially revised in order to come to terms with inadequate evaluations and declining school results. The policy included more sanctions and hortatory tools, and more emphasis was placed on comparisons and rankings. The evaluation policy was based on the assumption that local actors should and will act on evaluative knowledge created by the agencies and international actors, and that they could be motivated to do so by the threat of, for example sanctions or issues of ranking and comparisons.The evaluation policy design was largely stable over time. However, three more incremental but significant changes were identified: i) the policy design element “agents and implementation structures” was altered, ii) the evaluation policy expanded and iii) became more directed towards national and external control. These changes also indicated more negative implications for democracy during the second period. In relation to evaluations’ democratic function the analysis showed that the evaluation policy mainly strengthened the legitimizing and controlling function, whereas the enlightenment function was not prominent.This implies a risk that issues that may be relevant from a broader democratic and societal perspective may be overlooked and not subjected to evaluation. The thesis also acknowledges and illustrates the importance of uncovering and reconstructing evaluation policies, policies that are partly veiled, since also implicit policies will have democratic implications.
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| 13. |
- Bjärstig, Therese, Docent, 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Jämställd viltförvaltning : En studie av Svenska Jägareförbundets utbildningssatsning och förutsättningarna för en ökad kvinnorepresentation
- 2021
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Jämställdhetspolitiken har sedan mitten av 1970-talet haft en central ställning i den svenska offentliga debatten. Ett område där frågan om kvinnlig representation först på senare tid har uppmärksammats är inom jakt och viltförvaltning. Denna rapport bygger på följeforskning som genomförts 2019-2021 i anslutning till Svenska Jägareförbundets (SJF) projekt “Jämställd viltförvaltning”. Projektets planering, genomförande och utfall utvärderas, och synen på kön, sociala normer och mångfald bland deltagarna i projektets utbildning ”Älgförvaltning, ekologi och människa” undersöks. Det huvudsakliga empiriska materialet utgörs av skriftliga svar på tre frågor som deltagarna besvarat, en kurs- respektive processutvärdering, samt deltagande observationer. Centrala frågeställningar är om, och i så fall på vilket sätt, de kvinnliga och manliga deltagarnas synsätt skiljer sig åt och vilka implikationer detta ger för jämställdhetsarbetet och en ökad kvinnorepresentation. Vi diskuterar hur deltagarnas synsätt kan förstås och länkar detta till kön och genus; en möjlig förändring av könsroller och sociala normer; samt en ökad mångfald inom älgförvaltningen. Vad gäller deltagarna så råder en stor enighet att det finns kvinnliga respektive manliga egenskaper, men delade meningar om dessa främst är biologiska eller socialt konstruerade. En majoritet anser att det sker anpassning till en manlig norm och vi identifierar tre huvudsakliga normer: prestationsnormen, arbetsfördelningsnormen och hårdhetsnormen. Det är dock nästan uteslutande kvinnliga deltagare som ger mer specifika beskrivningar av normer och normanpassningar. När det gäller mångfald så anser en majoritet av deltagarna att arbetet i älgförvaltningsgrupperna påverkas i positiv riktning av en större mångfald. Rapporten lyfter vikten av fortsatt forskning om förändring av könsroller och normer, samt av mångfald inom viltförvaltningen. Fortsatta utbildningsinsatser inom SJF behövs för att nå uppsatt mål om ökad kvinnorepresentation. Utbildningen bör därför revideras och ges på nytt, men då rekommenderas att jämställdhet ges samma tyngd som övriga delar i utbildningen, och utgör ett examinerande inslag. Andra mer övergripande rekommendationer inför SJF:s fortsatta jämställdhetsarbete innefattar ett aktivt ledarskap inom organisationen vad gäller jämställdhetsfrågor, översyn av potentiellt exkluderande strukturer, att genom ett normkritiskt förhållningssätt arbeta för att synliggöra förgivettagna sanningar, ifrågasätta normer och könsroller etc. och på så sätt bättre förstå och även potentiellt kunna påverka rådande kultur och traditioner, etablering av kvinnliga mentorer och nätverk, samt en översyn av rekryteringsrutiner inför framtida nomineringsomgångar till landets älgförvaltningsgrupper.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
- Blomgren, Magnus, 1966-
(author)
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Cross-Pressure and Political Representation in Europe : A comparative study of MEPs and the intra-party arena
- 2003
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation explores political representation and its manifestation within the European Union (EU). The main purpose is to examine the representative roles of Members of the European Parliament (MEP) in the context of cross–pressure between the national level and the EU level. This involves an analysis of how the MEPs under-stand their roles, how they organize their work, and how they have voted in the European Parliament (EP) in 1999-2002. It also includes a study of how national party organizations adapt to the EU environment and how this influences the MEPs link to the national arena. The study is based on various sources, such as interviews, formal documents and voting data. The most under-researched part of the cross-pressure has been the national link and the empirical focus of the thesis is on that link. It is a comparative study of parties in Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden. In each country, three parties were selected (social democratic, right-wing and green parties). By using a focused comparative method, and by controlling for certain independent variables, the ambition is to go beyond description and identify explanations for why MEPs adopt certain roles. The overall picture that emerges is of a relatively weak link between MEPs and the national level. To a certain extent, MEPs express frustration over their limited role in the national arena and over the lack of input from the national arena in their work at the European level. Most of the parties struggle to include MEPs in their organizational set-up, and the MEPs experience a growing hostility within the parties toward them. In general, the lack of interest and knowledge in the national arena, concerning the EU in general and specifically the work of the MEPs, obscures the role of the MEPs. They become EU ambassadors at the national level, rather than elected representatives at the EU level. The dissertation also tests variables that are thought to influence MEPs’ roles: the type of electoral system, popular opinion on EU issues, whether their party is in government, the party’s ideological heritage, and if the party organizes more advanced coordination mechanisms. The main result is that the working assumption that MEPs are influenced by characteristics in the national arena is shown to be largely correct. That is, some of the identified aspects of the national political context do influence how the MEPs understand their roles. For example, the character of the electoral system influences attitudes among the MEPs. However, that relationship is not as simple and straightforward as much of the literature suggests. Rather, the results in this study suggest that the most important aspect of the relationship between the national level and the MEPs is whether parties or others (such as national parliamentarians) actively engage in the work of the MEPs. It matters how parties design the relationship between the levels, especially for how and where MEPs direct their main attention, but also in terms of how MEPs vote in the EP. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of further research into how parties facilitate the link between the national and the EU level.
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| 16. |
- Bolin, Niklas, 1977-
(author)
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Målsättning riksdagen : Ett aktörsperspektiv på nya partiers inträde i det nationella parlamentet
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During much of the 20th century, the national party systems of Western Europe remained largely unchanged. However, beginning in the 1970s, these frozen party systems slowly started to melt. As the number of parties has increased, the question of what explains new party entrance has also attracted more scholarly interest. Despite this increased attention, the study of new political parties still suffers from a structuralist bias. The implication is that the fates of new parties are decided almost exclusively by external factors. Some scholars focus on the institutional environment; others emphasize sociological explanations, such as the formation of new cleavages in society. Yet such non-actor-centred perspectives risk being excessively deterministic. They also struggle to explain why some parties succeed in gaining entrance to legislatures while others, seemingly under the same external circumstances, fail. In this thesis, therefore, a new way to study parties and their path to parliament is proposed. Starting with the notion that external conditions alone cannot explain new party entrance, the thesis takes an agency-based perspective. Three sets of strategies are identified as being important means for a party to influence its chances of getting into parliament. They concern the party's resources, its political project and its external relations. In what ways can supply and management of resources, policies and relations with other parties affect the potential for becoming a parliamentary party? Through four in-depth case studies of new entrants into the Swedish national parliament, the Riksdag, the thesis concludes that there are some important commonalities in their paths to parliament. Especially with regard to their resources and their political project, the empirical evidence supports the initial premise: new party entrance is unthinkable without successful strategic behaviour.
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| 17. |
- Carlbaum, Sara, 1981-
(author)
-
Blir du anställningsbar lille/a vän? : Diskursiva konstruktioner av framtida medborgare i gymnasiereformer 1971-2011
- 2012
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- School is one of the most important institutions society has for fostering its future citizens. Education policy can be seen as an important arena for the discursive struggle over the meaning of education, not only what it is for, its goals and purposes, but also its deficiencies. Education policies are not mirrors of reality but include a power dimension in describing the problems to be solved. Thus, a specific question or a particular phenomenon is given a certain value and meaning. The different articulations involved in representations of problems construct certain subject positions of citizenship which are not open for everyone. This makes it essential to deconstruct these gendered, racialized and classed subject positions. In the same way as in the beginning of the 1990s, the Swedish school system is currently facing changes. The most recent reform of upper secondary education, implemented in 2011, needs to be viewed in a historical perspective. This thesis analyses discursive continuity and change with regard to representations of the problems, goals and purposes of upper secondary education during the period 1971-2011. Focus is also placed on changes and continuities in how the good future citizen is constructed and in what ways gender, class and ethnicity are produced in these constructions. The theoretical framework is inspired and informed by discourse theory, feminist theory and theories on citizenship. Adopting this approach, I analyse government policy documents concerning upper secondary education reforms. The analysis shows not only changes, but also the importance of continuities in the dominating discourses of a school for all (1971-1989); a school for lifelong learning (1990-2005); and a school for the labour market (2006-2011). A shift from integration to differentiation is revealed in which the silencing of signifiers, such as democracy, equality and multiculturalism, lead to a risk of unequal opportunities for people to politicize their experience and situation. The previous demands for retraining and flexibility, for emancipation and lifelong learning are marginalised in favour of employability, skill supply and entrepreneurship. The constructions of good future citizens as consumers become instead constructions of citizens as products for business and growth. A male productive worker and male entrepreneur are constructed, privileging a white middle class. Neo-liberal and neo-conservative influences, reinforce the individual’s responsibility to become included in what is constructed as a desired citizenship.
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| 18. |
- Eckerberg, Katarina, Professor emerita, 1953-, et al.
(author)
-
The Nature of Rural Development : The Case of Sweden
- 2001
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This is a scoping study in a project initiated by WWF1 and partners into the nature of rural development in Europe. The project analyses rural development policies and practices in a range of countries with a view to developing a more robust model for sustainable, integrated rural development in the European Union. The scoping study has been supported by WWF and the British countryside agencies and undertaken by IEEP3, CRE4 and a consortium of independent consultants in 10 different European countries, over the period May to December 2000. The countries chosen include 6 EU Member States (Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK), 3 accession countries (Hungary, Latvia, Poland) and Switzerland, which has pursuedits own approach outside the EU. The aim of this study has been to investigate actors, institutions and attitudes towards rural development, in order to help clarify key issues in working towards sustainability. It has started with a broad list of potential areas of interest, as follows:The driving forces for rural changeInstitutions and institutional arrangements for rural developmentNational perspectives on rural development principles and policiesThe role of the environment in rural development policies and outcomesThe role of social values (participation, equity, etc) in rural developmentThe resourcing of rural development policyThe role of the urban–rural interfaceAccountability versus flexibility and innovation, in policy delivery
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| 19. |
- Edström, Håkan
(author)
-
Hur styrs försvarsmakten? : Politisk och militär syn på försvarsdoktrin under 1990-talet
- 2003
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Is there a common notion amongst the political and military leadership in Sweden on how to defend the country? Several events in the arena of international politics during the 20th century argue for the importance of coherence between political and military thinking. Different focus during peacetime has subsequently caused fatal consequences in times of war. This thesis studies a less obvious case: Sweden, a small-state, during the 1990’s in the aftermath of the Cold War. In the effort of identifying inconsistency between the political and military level the study deals with a more comprehensive issue for any democratic society: How shall the elected political leadership exercise control over an authority (subordinated the government and) with deeply rooted professional values and with authority vested in it of crucial importance for national survival? Although several of government authorities play key roles in this respect the Armed Forces stands out to be the single most important entity. The thesis approaches the problem by studying one measure of control: the defence doctrine. The doctrine is analysed by studying various documents provided by the political decisionsprocess and with interviews involving a significant number of actors in the politico-military leaderships. The purpose has been to identify whether there is any inconsistency prevailing in the perception of values to be protected by the Armed Forces in case or war, what poses threat to these values and finally how to counter the threats. Hence, the political and military views on defence doctrine are examined. The last element of the doctrine, how to deal with the perceived threats, is embodied in the strategy for countering threats. Comparative studies involving Norway and Finland have been made to provide relevant references for the findings and provide a framework for elaboration on the differences between political and military priorities encapsulated in the research hypothesis. In addition, the research hypothesis involved the assumption that technical, tactical and operational decisions would serve as explanations for any inconsistency between military and political priorities. Piecemealed low-level decisions were assumed to unintentionally diverge bottom- up perceptions and create tensions if the politico-military interaction is not fully functional or if the politicians do not fully comprehend the implications of their decisions. The empirical findings suggest differences in the consistency of the politico-military leadership when comparing Sweden with Norway and Finland. For Sweden, the findings suggest a relative good politico-military adherence regarding values and threat perceptions. However there is a disparity in the views on what strategy to adopt and the military leadership has a more offensive mindset than the political leadership. The empirical data has primarily been collected from processes. To provide a better explanation for the findings the structure of security policymaking has been adopted in a new conceptual model based on Edward Luttwak’s ‘vertical dimension’.
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| 20. |
- Eklund, Niklas, 1964-
(author)
-
Sweden and Poland Entering the EU : Comparative Patterns of Adaptive Organization and Cognition
- 2005
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is a comparative study of how elites in Sweden and Poland approach and make sense of EU membership. It begins with the observation that the public debates in several EU member countries are becoming increasingly politicized around a dichotomy, i.e. enthusiasm and skepticism vis-à-vis European integration. Whereas a lot of research in this field covers the characteristics of the European integration process itself, fewer studies focus upon the cognitive complexity involved in national strategic policy choices. The aim of this thesis is to explore, compare and contrast the organizational and cognitive aspects of how Sweden and Poland entered the EU and thereby to contribute to an understanding of how national policymakers in Europe believe that national and supranational integration can work together. The theoretical point of departure is Stein Rokkan’s model of political integration, which emphasizes the importance of functional and territorial political cleavages in the development of modern European nation states. The model is used to identify political actors and structures that are transnationalizing forces in Europe and to determine in what ways they form a challenge to national governments in the process of adaptation to the EU. Representing different theoretical points of intersection in the Rokkanian model, these challenges are defined as Integration, Trade and Industry, Functional Regionalism and Territorial Regionalism. The empirical analysis builds on these theoretical categories and covers three different areas. First, the ways in which adaptation to the EU was organized by the governments of Sweden (1988-1994) and Poland (1998-2004) are scrutinized. Second, documents concerning the strategic policy deliberation of both organizations are analyzed in the light of Rokkanian integration categories. Third, the results of two sets of research interviews, one in each country, are analyzed. A major conclusion drawn in the study is that Rokkanian integration theory holds the key to an understanding of how national policymakers believe that European integration can be segmented and how supranational integration in the economic sphere can evolve separately from other areas of social and political integration. Although from very different countries and political experiences, elites in Sweden and Poland show remarkable cognitive similarities. Another contribution to a cross-national understanding of adaptation to the EU is the cognitive model, which is developed on the basis of empirical study. The model expands upon and goes beyond the simple dichotomy of Enthusiasts and Skeptics in the discussion about European integration. Two new categories are introduced and defined as Voluntarists and Pragmatists. The argument is that new cognitive categories are necessary to improve the description and analysis of how national policy makers in Europe set up long-term political goals and manage complex issues in the process of European integration.
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| 21. |
- Eriksson, Kalle, 1991-
(author)
-
Politicising automation : ideas on work, technology, and agency in the Swedish political debate
- 2024
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Over the last decade, rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and other automation technologies have sparked extensive and sometimes heated debates over the wider societal impacts of ongoing technological shifts. Even if there is wide agreement that policymaking will play a crucial role for how the future of automation will unfold, these debates tend to emphasise the technical and economic aspects of labour automation while largely overlooking its inherently political dimensions. In recent years, critical scholars within the social sciences have sought to challenge this narrow focus by bringing attention to the various biased effects that automation processes give rise to in terms of justice and power, but automation of labour as a political issue in and of itself remains underexplored. Given the broad acknowledgement of the importance of policymaking, what is especially needed is an increased understanding of how policymakers themselves interpret this issue, as well as their own roles in relation to it. This thesis aims to narrow this knowledge gap by examining the manifest and latent political ideas that underpin the ways in which Swedish policymakers interpret and negotiate the issue of automation, to thereby gain a fuller understanding of what key values that are at stake in the Swedish automation debate. To do so, an ideational analysis has been conducted using parliamentary documents, media and party texts, as well as semi-structured interviews with policymakers as data.The analysis shows that while Swedish policymakers generally perceive automation of labour as a non-contentious issue in Swedish politics, their ideas on the matter are informed by underlying normative and empirical assumptions that lead to conflicting conclusions regarding both the desirability of increased automation and the roles of policymaking for governing the technologies in question. The analysis also finds that actors’ views on automation are tightly connected to their views on a range of related, more fundamental, political issues – such as the character and values of human labour, and the role of the state in relation to the market. Since these related issues are indeed quite ideologically polarising in the Swedish context, the findings indicate that also automation is a more polarising issue than many policymakers perceive it to be. In other words, while the issue has yet to cause any explicit political conflicts in the Swedish debate, the identified disparities and ideational tensions clearly suggest that automation is not merely a technological inevitability but a complex, politically charged arena where different, if often latent, visions of the future contend.Thus, the portrayal of automation as a politically neutral phenomenon risks obscuring its inherently contestable character and preventing the critical ideological debates that therefore ought to surround it. By bringing our attention to the different and sometimes conflicting political ideas that automation is subject to, the thesis aims to contribute to a more politicised automation debate in which said ideas are not shied away from but openly contested and deliberated over. Such a debate would not only be more democratic, but also more likely to realise some of the unprecedented opportunities that automation technologies grant us.
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| 22. |
- Eriksson, Katarina, 1977-
(author)
-
Spelar adressen någon roll? : En studie av områdeseffekter på medborgares politiska deltagande
- 2007
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this study is to describe and explain (individual level) public political participation, with particular focus on the significance of the local, geographical context. Studies of political participation have traditionally focused on individual level explanations. Here, however, the question of the significance of place, is also raised i.e. does place have an effect on the probability of the individual to take political action? Such causal relationships are known as contextual (or neighbourhood) effects. These occur when contextual factors affect individual behaviour so that it varies systematically between different contexts, even after controlling for individual level predictors. Although empirical research has been lacking, there is a widespread assumption that place of residence can have both positive and negative effects on outcomes at the level of the individual. This is the case especially with regard to urban residential segregation, which is believed to cause self-generating, negative effects on the political engagement of citizens. My line of argument is that contextual effects cannot be taken for granted; rather they must be tested empirically in a systematic way, using individual level data and appropriate techniques. Political participation is operationalised in terms of: voting in local elections, contacting local officials, and participating in manifestations. The local, geographical context is operationalised in two ways; as Swedish municipalities and as city districts. The latter is done using case studies of two Swedish cities; Umeå, a medium-sized town with moderate socioeconomic segregation, and Göteborg, a large city with extensive polarisation. Survey data is used and analysed by means of multilevel analysis, a technique developed especially for hierarchical data and contextual analysis of individual level outcomes. The results do not provide strong support for the hypothesis of contextual effects on public political participation. There are, in several cases, strong, bivariate relationships between socioeconomic composition and political participation at the aggregate level. However, this is not confirmed in analyses of individual level data. The variation between individuals residing in different places is significant in only one case; when the context is operationalised as municipalities and the dependent variable is participation in manifestations. This variation cannot, however, be explained neither by individual level SES/political engagement nor by socioeconomic composition at the municipal level. An analysis of crosslevel interactions shows that employed persons residing in affluent districts of Göteborg have a higher probability to vote and to participate in contacting than employed persons living in poor neighbourhoods. Similarly, individuals with an immigrant background living in affluent districts in Göteborg are more likely to vote than those living in poor areas. These results give some support for the hypothesis of contextual effects on political participation. However, as the number of observations in this particular analysis is very small, the results are not robust and, consequently, must be interpreted with caution. In order to identify relevant individual level predictors, the SES and CV-models are applied. The results indicate that socioeconomic variables such as employment status and education are important predictors of voting. However, when it comes to contacting officials and participating in manifestations, socio-political resources such as political engagement and organisational membership are better as predictors of political participation.
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| 23. |
- Eriksson, Max, 1981-
(author)
-
Changing attitudes to Swedish wolf policy : wolf return, rural areas, and political alienation
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In 1966, the grey wolf was listed as a protected species in Sweden. Since then, the Swedish wolf population has increased in size, making human-wolf encounters more common, particularly in rural areas. Previous qualitative research has shown that segments of the rural population perceive the wolf to be incompatible with traditional rural life. Some also believe that the return of the wolf was orchestrated by urban interests, and perceive the wolf policy as a vehicle for the consolidation of urban power in rural areas. Thus, the return of the wolf can be assumed to aggravate pre-existing urban-rural tensions, resulting in conflicts over wolf policy, which Swedish wolf governance could be ill-equipped to handle. In view of this, this thesis is an examination of,how environmental, socio-political, and institutional factors affect varia-tions in public attitudes to the Swedish wolf policy over time, and discuss their policy implications.Drawing on extensive survey material collected in Sweden in 2004, 2009, and 2014, the wolf policy is approached from a political science perspective. This thesis is an attempt to bridge a number of existing gaps in literature related to wolves and policy, individual and collective level explanatory factors, and attitude change. The underlying assumption is that environmental, socio-political and institutional factors are likely to impact attitudes to wolf policy. Environmental change is found to be relevant, as direct experiences with wolf have increased over time, a development that was also associated with an increase of support for a more restrictive wolf policy (Paper I). Regarding socio-political change, politically alienated individuals were less likely to support the current wolf policy, and more likely to favor either more, or less restrictive policy options compared to other individuals. Rural areas displayed higher levels of political alienation than urban areas, and people living in rural areas were more likely to favor a more restrictive wolf policy (Paper II). Furthermore, individuals living in municipalities in which a high proportion of residents had grown up in a rural area, tended to favor a more restrictive wolf policy, an effect which could also be associated with political alienation (Paper III). Finally, institutional change was examined through an analysis of public support for the actors within the Wildlife Management Delegations (WMDs). In general, the interest groups represented in WMDs where found to reflect the representation preferred by the public. However, findings show a fundamental value divide in relation to natural resources, among the Swedish public, which is also reflected within the WMDs (Paper IV).The return of the wolf has caused part of the general public to want fewer wolves in Sweden. This attitudinal change is related to a growing divide between urban-rural areas in Sweden, and associated with a general pattern of political alienation. Thus, the wolf policy has become a symbolic issue around which rural citizens rally their fight against urban interests for political autonomy.
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| 24. |
- Feltenius, David, 1974-
(author)
-
En pluralistisk maktordning? : om pensionärsorganisationernas politiska inflytande
- 2004
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In 1991, the Swedish Social Democratic government established the Pensioners’ Council at the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Council’s purpose and structure were spelled out by the Government in a Commission of Inquiry Directive. According to this, the Council is to be a forum for deliberations between the Government and pensioners’ organizations. At the municipal level, Senior Citizens Councils have existed since the 1970s. They fill a similar purpose to that of the Pensioners’ Council at the central level, namely to be an arena for political discussions between representatives from pensioners’ organizations and the municipality. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, I describe the influence of pensioners’ organizations on the establishment of the pensioners’ councils and their political influence – potential as well as actual – in these councils. Second, I seek to explain the influence of pensioners’ organizations from a power resources perspective. By doing so, I hope to contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between the welfare state and organized interests. Does this relationship imply the existence of a corporatist or pluralistic power structure? Finally, I also hope to contribute to our understanding of the future development of the welfare state in the light of a global economy and aging population. The empirical investigation on the central level suggests that pensioners’ organizations influenced the decision to establish the Pensioners’ Council. Moreover, they had actual as well as potential political influence through the council since the early 1990s. There success in influencing government policy is due to the fact that pensioners’ organizations represent an important voting group and their employees have expert knowledge. At the local level, the empirical investigation suggests that pensioners’ organizations had influence on decisions made by municipalities to establish Senior Citizens Councils. However, opportunities to influence vary at the local level, and pensioners’ organizations actual political influence is limited. This limited influence can be explained as a consequence of pensioners’ organizations lack of an important power resource at the local level – employed expertise. It is argued in the dissertation that the empirical results do not suggest an existence of a corporatist power structure in social issues. Rather, they point to a pluralistic power structure – i.e. along side producer organizations, other organizations (such as those for welfare consumers) also have an important power position. This, in turn, limits the ability of politicians to cut welfare spending. The case of pensioners’ organizations therefore suggests that we cannot expect any drastic downsizing of the Swedish welfare state due to factors such as the globalization of the economy. In light of the aging population, the empirical results suggest that politicians will have to seek other solutions to be able to meet the challenge of financing welfare programs targeting the elderly than making drastic cutbacks in those programs.
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| 25. |
- Feltenius, David, 1974-, et al.
(author)
-
Med företaget som förebild? : Om kommunal hemtjänst i en marknadiserad äldreomsorg
- 2024
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I denna rapport sammanfattar vi de huvudsakliga resultaten från forskningsprojektet ”Med företaget som förebild? Om kommunal hemtjänst i en marknadiserad äldreomsorg”. I projektet har vi analyserat den offentliga utföraren av hemtjänst i kommuner som valt att införa lagen om valfrihetssystem (LOV). Tillämpandet av den lagen gör det möjligt för äldre personer med ett beviljat biståndsbeslut att kunna välja utförare av hemtjänst. Som en följd av LOV har det därför i många kommuner uppstått en blandning av offentliga, idéburna och privata hemtjänstutförare – en så kallad välfärdsmix.Införandet av LOV och välfärdsmixen har inneburit förändrade förutsättningar för den offentliga utföraren av hemtjänst. Från att ha varit den enda utföraren inom hemtjänsten, konkurrerar den offentliga utföraren numera med andra utförare. Det kan uttryckas som att samtidigt som marknaden har trätt in i kommunerna, har kommunerna även trätt in på marknaden. Frågan är vad som sker med den offentliga utföraren i denna kontext av marknadisering och konkurrens.Mot den bakgrunden undersöker vi vilka tillvägagångssätt som offentliga utförare använder sig av i en kontext av valfrihetssystem. Handlar det om tillvägagångssätt i termer av konvergens eller divergens i förhållande till idén om det privata företaget? Konvergens innebär att kommunal hemtjänst använder idén om det privata företaget som förebild för verksamheten. Med divergens avses det motsatta, nämligen att kommunen använder det privata företaget som motpol för den egna verksamheten.För att kunna besvara forskningsfrågan har vi studerat den offentliga utföraren av hemtjänst i sex kommuner utifrån följande aspekter: Organisering, beteckning och logotyp, profilering, uppföljning och kontroll, incitamentsstrukturer samt marknadsföring. Det huvudsakliga material som använts till studien består av intervjuer med kommunpolitiker, tjänstemän och enhetschefer inom hemtjänst. Detta har kompletterats med dokument och annat skriftligt material.Resultatet av studien visar att den offentliga utförarens tillvägagångssätt huvudsakligen präglas av divergens i förhållande till idéen om det privata företaget. Det finns flera uttryck för det, som att den offentliga utföraren utgör en integrerad del av den kommunala förvaltningen, att det endast sporadiskt förekommer försök att profilera och marknadsföra verksamheten samt frånvaron av incitamentssystem. Även om den dominerande bilden av den offentliga utförarens tillvägagångssätt huvudsakligen präglas av divergens i förhållande till idén om det privata företaget, finns också inslag av konvergens. Det märks främst genom att hemtjänsten är en ”mätande verksamhet” med inslag av bland annat tidsstyrning av insatserna, men även att äldre personer med hemtjänst benämns ”kund”.
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| 26. |
- Hagberg, Lovisa, 1970-
(author)
-
Finding a place for green politics : political space-time, globalisation and new environmental policy concepts
- 2003
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The overarching aim of this dissertation is to rethink green ideas for change in political space-time against the background of globalisation. It is based on two avenues of investigation. First, green ideas are contrasted with the analyses of current changes in political space-time found in the globalisation literature. Second, the kinds of political space-time that emerge in the encounter between two environmental policy concepts and environmental policy practice are studied. The policy concepts are river basin management and critical loads, both of which were launched as solutions to the problems policy-actors perceive in existing constructions of political space-time. Although the spatial reconfigurations entailed by processes of globalisation do not necessarily contradict green ideas, the temporalities of green theory and theories of globalisation are less easily reconciled. In terms of place, globalisation may lead to an increased interest in defending places, that is, the engagement with a politics of place. It is suggested that one could distinguish between politics of and politics in place, and that bioregionalism and other green theories concerned with place should strive towards the latter. The study of river basin management and critical loads raises important questions regarding the problem of scale in environmental politics. Whereas critical load deals with the problem of difference within a territory by abstraction, river basin management has also involved ideas about the importance of creating a sense of and care for place. Both concepts illustrate the challenge involved in considering the dynamic temporalities of nature in politics. New timeframes for environmental politics appear due to increased emphasis on issues of recovery from environmental change. It is observed that concepts like river basin management may carry very different spatial interpretations, for example, there is a difference in whether the river basin is understood in functional terms or as a container. Moreover, it is noted that different kinds of politics are at play in both cases. This suggests the possibility for greens to politicise political space-time at the margin, that is, in contexts which are not explicitly to do with spatio-temporal change. Finally, the study of green theory and theories of globalisation, and river basin management and critical loads, suggest that it is important to consider political space and time together. The possibility of developing a green politics of presence is offered as a potential first step in such an effort.
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| 27. |
- Hellström, Johan, 1976-
(author)
-
Dynamic Interactions : National Political Parties, Voters and European Integration
- 2009
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis consists of an introduction and four self-contained papers, designated I-IV, which extend previous research on national political parties and voters in Western Europe. More specifically, the issues addressed are parties’ positions and voters’ opinions on European integration and their dynamic interactions, i.e. the extent to which parties’ influence voters’ opinions, voters influence parties, and the conditions under which they influence each other. All four papers make contributions to both the content of the research field and methodology (statistical techniques) applied. Paper I re-examines and evaluates several hypotheses regarding the way national political parties position themselves with respect to European integration. Based on analysis of panel data on references to Europe in the election manifestos of political parties in 16 West European countries between 1970 and 2003, I present evidence that their stances on European integration have been largely determined by their ideology, here measured by the locations of the parties within party families and their general orientation along the left/right ideological continuum. The results indicate that the influence of ideology has diminished over time and parties have adopted more favourable positions towards the European project, but it is too early to ignore the connection between left/right and pro/anti integration, since many marginal parties are still taking oppositional stances that are strongly related to their ideological commitments. In Paper II, I discuss how configurational comparative methods (i.e. Qualitative Comparative Analysis, QCA) and statistical methods can be combined to provide tests for the sufficiency of any given set of combination of causal conditions. The potential utility of the mixed-method approach for analyzing political phenomena is demonstrated by applying it to cross-national data regarding party-based Euroscepti¬cism in Western Europe. The findings show that oppositional stances to European integration are mainly restricted to non-governmental ideological fringe parties on both the left and right. Further, radical left parties with Eurosceptical positions are largely restricted to countries with social democratic (i.e. Nordic) welfare state regimes. The empirical example presented in this paper demonstrates that configurational methods can be successfully combined with related statistical methods. Paper III examines and evaluates the link between electorates’ opinions and national political parties’ positions on European integration, i.e. the extent to which political parties lead and/or follow public opinion on this issue. Applying a method for causal modelling to panel data concerning political parties’ positions and voters’ opinions in 15 countries from 1973 to 2003, I find (contrary to previous investigations of this relationship) that there is little empirical support for an electoral connection or reciprocal causation between party positions and electorates’ opinion regarding European integration. Parties have an influence on voter opinions, but they are largely unresponsive to changes in voter opinion. In Paper IV, I examine when parties do (and do not) influence voters’ opinions about EU policy issues. According to previous research, whether parties are able to persuade their constituents to adopt their standpoints depends on several conditions: characteristics and preferences of individual voters, intra-party factors, inter-party factors and several factors that affect the salience of EU issues at the domestic level. Applying hierarchical linear models to data concerning voters’ opinions and political parties’ positions in 14 West European countries, I present findings regarding the conditions under which parties are actually able to influence voters’ opinions concerning European integration.
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| 28. |
- Hörnström, Lisa, 1977-
(author)
-
Redistributive regionalism : Narratives on regionalisation in the Nordic periphery
- 2010
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During the last decades a stronger role for the regions has developed in many West European countries. To a significant degree this regionalisation trend has coincided with European integration. The key change in the role of the regional level has been with regard to its status as an agent of regional development. In most West European countries there has been a shift from an approach to regional policy that has focused on redistributive measures from the centre in which the regions play a relatively weak role to a perspective that is sometimes labelled “new regionalism” in which the focus is on the region taking responsibility for its own development. In this new regionalist perspective, which is both descriptive and normative, the region is considered as the appropriate arena for both economic activities and decision-making. In the political systems of the Nordic countries the regional level has traditionally been in a relatively weak position and regional policy has emphasized centralisation and redistributive measures. Not unexpectedly, the pan-European trend toward a stronger role for the region has also found its way to the Nordic countries. The aim of this study is to describe and analyze if and to what extent key actors in three peripheral regions, situated in countries with a strong tradition of redistribution from the centre and a weak role for the regional level, have embraced the new regionalist perspective. The three regions are Troms in Norway, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa in Finland and Västerbotten in Sweden. All are peripherally located with small populations and economies that rely heavily on natural resources. The analysis is based on interviews with regional and local politicians, civil servants, and business representatives. The empirical material is presented in the form of narratives formulated by the regional actors who express their views on regional policy and the role of the region. The results of the study show that regional actors in the three peripheries express similar narratives. To a certain degree actors have embraced the new regionalist perspective in the sense that they see the regional level as an important coordinator for development initiatives and measures. However, the actors’ claims for a stronger regional level must be understood in the context of the unitary state. In this context, the actors’ perspective combines the new regionalist and the centralist redistributive approach, one that can be labelled ‘redistributive regionalism’. The state remains the key actor and is expected to guarantee equal conditions in all parts of the country. The emphasis on strengthening the administrative region is more pronounced in Troms and Västerbotten than in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, where instead there is a stronger focus on the functional region. Actors in the three regions do not see any contradiction between a strong state and increased regional influence on development issues. In sum, the study finds that the new regionalist perspective has been embraced to a certain extent but that it has been adapted to national characteristics, as well as to the specific conditions in the three regions.
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| 29. |
- Johansson, Johanna, 1983-
(author)
-
Constructing and contesting the legitimacy of private forest governance : The case of forest certification in Sweden
- 2013
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In recent decades, political scientists have devoted substantial attention to the changing role of the state towards more inclusion of non-state actors in policymaking. This deliberative turn, or move towards governance, may signal inability to handle complex problems without cooperation with nonstate actors. On the other hand, governance is frequently credited with generating legitimate decision-making processes and results. In some instances, non-governmental actors have even taken the lead in policymaking. One archetype of such private governance, which has received significant scholarly attention, is forest certification. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is frequently described as the most democratic and therefore legitimate forest certification organization since it grants equal voting rights to three stakeholder groups in the formulation of criteria for responsible forestry: environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), social groups (indigenous peoples and labor organizations) and forest owners. However, in Sweden, a country often described as a role model in forest certification, the FSC has increasingly received critique for failing to generate legitimate processes and results, and recently three of five ENGOs have chosen to exit the FSC organization. Such processes of de-legitimation have received little attention in the forest certification literature.This thesis therefore provides a critical assessment of the legitimacy of forest certification in Sweden. Legitimacy is analyzed through concerned stakeholders’ perceptions of both procedural qualities (input legitimacy) and problem-solving capacity (output legitimacy). This study of legitimacy is combined with an assessment of the ability of certification to enhance environmental protection, defined as changes in both forest management practices and biophysical conditions. The thesis focuses not the least on legitimacy on the local level, which is where the actual implementation takes place. Today local studies of the legitimacy of forest certification are rare.Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied and a number of sources are analyzed: forest monitoring data, survey data, interviews with and documents produced by the participating stakeholders. Papers I and IV analyze the perceived legitimacy of forest certification, while Papers II and III analyze forest certification schemes’ ability to enhance environmental protection.The results show that a process of de-legitimation is occurring in Swedish forest certification. In particular, certification has lost legitimacy with ENGOs, which increasingly consider Swedish forest certification to lack both input legitimacy and output legitimacy. Moreover, although the Swedish FSC standard pays attention to reindeer husbandry, the results show that reindeer herders consider themselves to have limited power to influence long-term forest planning and management (low output legitimacy). The forest industry, on the other hand, increasingly grants legitimacy to forest certification due to customer demands, which are created not the least by pressures from international ENGOs and by EU regulation. The results also show that Swedish forest companies have paid more attention to their environmental practices after obtaining certification. However, to what extent these changes result in positive environmental impacts remains uncertain, especially since forests in Sweden grow slowly, which requires analyses over time. There are also measurement problems resulting from the low certification rate among small-scale forest owners and from the fact that certified small-scale owners tend to be more active in their management.These findings highlight that research on private forest governance should not neglect the role of the state, neither as a buyer nor as a regulator. These findings also suggest that further research should pay attention to power asymmetries in private governance and develop methods for better understanding and evaluating the certification schemes’ environmental and social impacts.
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| 30. |
- Johansson, Patrik, 1971-
(author)
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Peace by repatriation : Concepts, cases, and conditions
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The focus of this study is the assumption that the return of refugees is a necessary condition for the establishment of sustainable peace after armed conflict. This assumption is often made in the peacebuilding literature as well as by policy makers, but it has rarely been the object of systematic analysis. The purpose of the study, therefore, is to test this assumption, which I label the “peace-by-repatriation thesis.” I adopt a two-step approach to analyzing the peace-by-repatriation thesis. The first step is to formulate an analytical framework. The second step is to use the framework to test the peace-by-repatriation thesis on a medium number of cases. The formulation of the analytical framework starts with an examination of previous research. I trace the theoretical foundations of the peace-by-repatriation thesis in research on peacebuilding, forced migration, and partition. The analytical framework is further informed by case studies of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Nagorno-Karabakh, two cases that represent opposing perceptions of repatriation as a condition for peace. I adopt a set-theoretic approach to test the peace-by-repatriation thesis. I describe in some detail how the key concepts of the analytical framework are operationalized. I select and code forty-three cases—terminated conflicts that caused large-scale displacement—and use fuzzy-set analysis to test the peace-by-repatriation thesis. The analysis shows that repatriation is not a necessary condition for sustainable peace. Instead, ending displacement—irrespective of how this is done—turns out to be an important condition for peace. This result is consistent across tests of different combinations of cases and tests using alternative operationalizations of key concepts. Taken together, the fuzzy-set analysis and the case studies suggest that the relationship between repatriation and peace will vary from case to case and that pre-war interethnic relations is one of the circumstances that affect that relationship.
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| 31. |
- Jämte, Jan, 1979-
(author)
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Antirasismens många ansikten
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the anti-racist movement in Sweden by describing its development from the early 1930s to the mid-2000s. It pays special attention to mapping and analyzing the ideas that have motivated anti-racist activities and their importance for mobilizing support and movement activity. Using the theoretical toolbox of the framing perspective, the strengths, weaknesses, possibilities and limitations of different anti-racist frames are discussed, as are the consequences of different types of intra-movement frame disputes and frame contests with external actors.By tracing and describing the historical development of the movement and different types of anti-racist frames, I create a typology of different anti-racist actors - what I call pragmatic, radical and moderate anti-racists. The activities of these types of actors are described throughout the long and winding history of the movement. In the thesis, the movement’s history is divided into four waves of protest. The movement’s roots stretch back to the 1930s and the struggle against Fascism and Nazism. It continues during the 1960s and onwards with the anti-apartheid movement, the 1980s mass mobilizations against domestic racist groups and the intensified struggles of the last decades against racist extremism, right-wing populism and various aspects of structural racism. Based on the typology, three cases are selected for further scrutiny. Pragmatic anti-racism is studied through the activities of Stoppa rasismen (Stop racism) in the 1980s, radical anti-racism through Antifascistisk aktion (Antifascist action, also known as AFA) during the 1990s and moderate anti-racism through Samling mot rasism och diskriminering (Gathering against racism and discrimination) at the turn of the millennium. By gaining access to extensive empirical material I have been able to follow each case from its first steps to its downfall. The material has been gathered from a variety of sources using different qualitative techniques. I have conducted semi-structured interviews with activists and analyzed protocols, pamphlets, journals, internal bulletins, mails, posters, speeches, web pages that have been disbanded, pictures, films and books.The analysis shows that the different types of actors face different challenges, and have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to mobilizing consensus and fostering participation. However, the three actors have also faced common challenges when trying to mobilize against racism given the national context, the self-image of Sweden as a tolerant, open and egalitarian country and the dominant views of racism, which taken together has turned racism into a serious but fairly marginal problem. The analysis also shows the effects of frame disputes and frame contests with regard to diagnostic, prognostic and motivational aspects of framing. At times the dividing lines have led to a broadening of the movement and its work, creating a wide mobilization potential and a strong multitudinous movement. During other periods the differences have contributed to long and profound conflicts that have drained the organizations and activists of time, resources and energy. Instead of focusing on combating their opponents, the anti-racist groups have been engulfed in internal strife, which has severely fragmented, divided and weakened the movement and hindered mobilization – contributing to turning the movement into a dispersed “milieu” by the mid-2000s. The thesis concludes with a chapter discussing how the empirical applicability of the framing perspective can be improved.
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| 32. |
- Karlsson Bazarschi, Johanna, 1981-
(author)
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Mot en beredskap för kriser och krig? : Svenska kommuners prioriteringar och handlingsutrymme under hot i förändring
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In recent years, the security structure in Europe has taken a turn for the worse and the threat of inter-state war has moved up on the political agenda. Sweden, for long a neutral and ostensibly peaceful nation, is no exception in this international political trajectory. As a response to changing threat images, both in the face of grey-zone activities and Russian hostility toward Ukraine, the government declared in 2015 that Sweden’s total defence should be (re)built after decades of substantial downscaling. In this process of renewal of the total defence concept, Swedish municipalities find themselves not only as key actors in the crisis preparedness system, but now also as designated novel security actors. Sweden’s 290 municipalities represent a plethora of differences in terms of geography, economy, infrastructure, social and political structures while being responsible for the same essential welfare functions. How do municipalities view the changing national preparedness demands? How are preparedness measures prioritized in relation to everyday welfare needs?The aim of this thesis is to understand and explain Swedish municipalities’ perceptions and priorities in the intersection between peacetime crisis preparedness and civil defence, through a socio-technical systems’ perspective. To that end, an ideational analysis has been conducted on policy documents and interviews with municipal representatives, supplemented by a questionnaire. The study shows that the unclear national guidance and instructions given to municipalities create prioritization challenges at the local level. While no indications of preparedness measures being prioritized at the expense of core municipal welfare tasks have been found in this study, the ever-increasing governmental demands may change this order of priority. The dissertation further shows that local level representatives perceive of a general lack of understanding about municipal realities and conditions from the national government, administrative authorities and county council boards. Despite internal and external obstacles however, Swedish municipalities do accept the system changes, and continuously work toward strengthening their civil preparedness based on local capacities and resources.
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| 33. |
- Lauri, Marcus, 1973-
(author)
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Narratives of governing : rationalization, responsibility and resistance in social work
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- For many years, Sweden has had a reputation for having a comprehensive and women friendly welfare state. However, as in many other European countries during the past few decades, the organization and governing of welfare has undergone profound changes. Through interviews with social workers and the application of theories of governmentality, this thesis analyzes the expressions and consequences of such current organization and governing.One result is that the introduction of meticulous documentation practices of social workers contact with clients, regulate their interaction and constitute a control over both client and social worker. Another result is that the current organization fragments labor and awards more authority to managers, which functions to produce loyalty to the organization and management, rather than clients. This is expressed in demands not to voice protest, as it is said to create a bad mood. It is also expressed in demands to spend as little as possible on clients; short duration of treatment, preference for outpatient treatment and by making it difficult to receive financial support. This austerity is legitimized through the intermeshing of different ideals; budget awareness, evidence that supports short and outpatient treatment and that clients in order to change their course of life should to be allowed or coerced into taking individual responsibility.Another important finding is that the current governing and organization of social work produce distance and detachment, and thus discourage caring subjects. This is a complex process in which an assemblage of different techniques and rationalities undermines the cultivation of a relationship between social worker and client. 1) The ideal of evidence-based practice favors rigid methods over a flexible and holistic approach. 2) Ideals of rationality, closely connected to notions of masculinity and professionalism, value objectivity and devalue and deter the surfacing of emotions. 3) Meticulous practices of documentation reduce the amount of time available to meet clients. 4) Ideals and particular methods designed to promote individual responsibility in clients legitimize social workers distancing themselves from clients’ dependency and needs. 5) A division of labor, in either assessment or treatment, reduces time spent with clients for those who work with assessment and ultimately engage in the rationing of resources. 6) Standardized digital templates, installed to aid in assessments, regulate and proceduralize interactions with the client. 7) Austerity, heavy workloads, individualized responsibility and stress further accentuate distance, as detachment becomes a means to cope with arduous working conditions.The transformation of social work described above produces alienation and a fragmentation of social workers’ collective subjects. Simultaneously, an ethos of caring makes some social workers work extra hard to provide for clients, which ultimately covers for flaws in the system. Although such an ethos of caring allows for the further exploitation of social workers, it is also understood as a means of resistance, which in turn also forms the basis for organized resistance.
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| 34. |
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| 35. |
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| 36. |
- Löf, Annette, 1979-
(author)
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Challenging Adaptability : Analysing the Governance of Reindeer Husbandry in Sweden
- 2014
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We live in a complex, interconnected and constantly changing world. Human driven global climate change is now a local reality that reinforces the inherent need for adaptability in human systems. Adaptability, the capacity to adapt to disturbance and change and navigate system transformation, can be understood as a function of socio-political interactions. The capacity of governing systems to deal with novel challenges through novel forms of interaction is a key issue in the governance literature, but which is only beginning to be explored. We therefore know little of how global change will impact the local level and how institutions and governing systems will respond.The need for adaptability is likely to be more pronounced for tightly coupled human-environmental systems. Indigenous and natural resource dependent communities in general, and in the Northern hemisphere in particular, are among the most exposed to ongoing and projected climate change. In Sweden, reindeer husbandry is an Indigenous Sami livelihood and extensive land-use practice highly exposed to weather conditions and increasing competition over land and resources. Whereas herders struggle to deal with the challenges that now confront them, the practice is also known as resilient and sustainable, having withstood large-scale social, ecological and economic change before.The aim with this thesis is to explore adaptability from a governancetheoretical perspective in the case of Sami reindeer husbandry in Sweden. The thesis thereby contributes to the emerging literatures on governance and adaptability and addresses empirically identified needs.Theoretically, the thesis draws on Kooiman’s interactive governance framework, which offers a multidimensional approach to governance analysis where structural aspects are addressed through modes (self-, coand hierarchical governing) and intentional aspects through governing elements (images, instruments and action). While conceptually encompassing, the framework has rarely been employed in empirical analyses. In advancing an operationalisation of the framework based on governing orders (operational, institutional and meta-order), the thesis thereby makes a theoretical contribution.Designed as a qualitative case study, the thesis explores how reindeer husbandry is governed and how governing has changed over time (institutional and meta-order); how the governing system restricts or facilitates adaptation and transformation (operational order); and how a governance-theoretical perspective can contribute to our understanding of adaptability. Methods include document analysis, focus groups, interviews and participatory observation. Studies focussing the operational order have been conducted in collaboration with Vilhelmina North reindeer herding community in Västerbotten county, Sweden.The results show that only marginal change has occurred over time and state actors still dominate governing interactions. The governing system is riddled with inconsistencies among governing elements and particularly problematic is the lack of coherence between different meta-order images and between different actors. This gives rise to divergent and conflicting views as to ‘what’ the system of reindeer husbandry is and explains some of the observed governing inaction and limited problem-solving capacity of the governing system. Herders are currently highly restricted in their opportunities for adaptation and transformation and the governing system therefore acts restricting rather than facilitating on adaptability. By adopting a governance-theoretical approach, adaptability as a system quality has been decomposed and challenged and the important role of governing images and power in determining adaptability has been highlighted. It has called attention to questions such as who is forced to adapt, how images and governing interactions are constructed, and how different socio-political actors can exercise influence over the governing system and interactions taking place therein.The thesis calls for more critical and empirical research on adaptability and argues that future studies need to situate and balance adaptability against other fundamental values and rights. In the case of reindeer husbandry, efforts are needed to create a better internal fit between governing elements as well as between involved socio-political actors. This could enable more equal governing interactions with other land-users and thereby contribute to mitigating conflicts as well as increasing adaptability.
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| 37. |
- Mancheva, Irina, 1982-
(author)
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Forest water governance : challenges in cross-sectoral and multi-level collaboration
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Forests and water are highly interconnected with forestry practices negatively affecting forest water. In the last five decades, the Swedish state has enacted multiple policy changes and allocated significant resources towards the implementation of soft policy instruments to alleviate the effects on forest water. The European Union Water Framework Directive has further raised the legal requirements for water protection, including within the forest sector. However, these efforts have largely failed thus far. Forests and water are governed by two separate sectors, each with its own polycentric governance system and policy goals that are often conflicting. The governance mode of these systems is determined by a unique combination of policy instruments and a varying degree of centralisation depending on state involvement. Since governing forest water requires collaboration between the forest and water sector governance systems, it entails interplay between the two systems on different ecological scales. The aim of this thesis is to explore and explain the challenges related to the governance of a resource that requires cross-sectoral multi-level governance and to examine the role of the state in those interactions. The thesis includes a mix of quantitative (survey and aerial photographs) and qualitative (interviews, analysis of documents and meeting observations) research methods for investigating forest water governance across national, regional and local levels. Empirically, it involves four case studies analysing units embedded in the larger case – namely cross-sectoral governance of forest water.The results show that within the current structure of Swedish forest water governance there is minimal cross-sectoral collaboration, with an exception being at the national level. Regional and local implementation of the outputs produced at national level relies mainly on the forest sector, with little to no coordination with water sector institutions at the regional district or river basin levels. Moreover, power asymmetries between the two sectors are transposed to the collaborative process which affects participants’ capacity to influence the governance of forest water. Since the studied cases show that most of the financial resources for forest water protection are provided top-down, the role of the state in initiating and maintaining collaboration is crucial. The thesis confirms previous research findings that water governance requires a more centralised polycentric governance system. Combining polycentric governance (including at the river basin scale) with centralised state-coordination is a potential solution to problems that require cross-sectoral and multi-level governance interplay. Further inquiry into cross-sectoral governance of natural resources could develop a better understanding of how coordination in polycentric governance systems at different ecological scales could be structured to mitigate policy goal conflicts across sectors and institutional levels, thus fostering more effective governance.
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| 38. |
- Miljand, Matilda, 1986-
(author)
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The potential of systematic reviews in environmental social science : an analysis of its use to evaluate and inform policy
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- There is common agreement that public policy should be formulated based onknowledge of how it works and makes impact. Both scientific knowledge andevaluations can contribute to environmental decision-making and play animportant role to inform policy development. Over the past two decades,systematic review (SR) methods have been proposed to contribute to thispurpose. SRs are literature reviews, using explicit methods for selecting andanalysing empirical data. This dissertation explores the opportunities andchallenges occurring when introducing SR methods into environmental socialscience. Two main research questions are answered: 1) What are theopportunities and challenges of applying SR methods to investigate policy issuesin general, and environmental policy issues in particular?; 2) How have SRs(process and product) been used to inform decision makers, how can they be usedand how can we understand such use?To this end, I examine how other researchers have used the SR methods (articleI); how project managers, researchers and stakeholders view the usefulness of themethods (article II); I apply a specific SR method to a policy issue (article III);and discuss the relevance of the SR methods in general to political science (articleIV). Multiple methods and materials were used, including an overview ofliterature, a realist review and interviews with project managers, researchers, andstakeholders.The findings can be summarised into four main points. Firstly, SR methods canbe used to evaluate environmental policy, but the challenges in applying themethods to social science policy research should be kept in mind. SR methodsprovide guidelines for how to make a literature review that is rigorous andmethodologically robust, with a number of benefits such as contributing with newempirical results and developing theory, methods and research design. At the same time, a number of challenges arise when they are to be applied to complexissues, heterogeneous research methods and data.Secondly, methodological pluralism should be applied in SR. Given how socialscience research is conducted (with many different methods, both qualitative andquantitative) and which issues are examined (often complex), I advocatemethodological pluralism regarding what should be considered an SR method. Itshould include both qualitative and quantitative methods, without any hierarchybetween them.Thirdly, there is need to nuance the theoretical understanding of how SRs areused and how they can be expected to be used. The findings suggest that bothvaggregative and configurative SRs will be used in different ways, including forinstrumental, conceptual and legitimising purposes. A more positive view oflegitimising use than what is often considered was revealed by the interviews,suggesting that legitimising use can also be helpful to inform policy.Fourthly, two additional benefits of SR methods can be added in relation to whatresearchers can derive from these. This includes more systematic identificationof knowledge gaps and showing where the evidence is weak or contradictory. Bysearching for all available research and then applying strict criteria for whichstudies to include, SR can provide a clearer picture of what research is availableand not. Furthermore, the very process of conducting an SR means that theresearcher who performs it must be confronted with a wider range of literatureand be forced to study the quality of the studies in a way that is rarely done. Thiscan provide insights into the consequences of different method choices as well asto literature beyond the researchers’ own disciplinary focus.
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| 39. |
- Mineur, Eva, 1975-
(author)
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Towards sustainable development : Indicators as a tool of local governance
- 2007
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Beginning in the 1990s, sustainability indicators have rapidly been developed in different political contexts to measure progress towards reaching sustainable development. Previous research has largely focused on developing models and criteria for defining indicators in order to identify scientifically sound systems. However, sustainability indicators represent more than pure aggregated data; they represent values. This thesis takes its departure in seeing indicators as socially constructed, and aims to explore the role(s) indicators play in governance for local sustainable development. The traditional environmental policy discourse characterised by rationality and efficiency became challenged in the 1990s by the Agenda 21 discourse, emphasizing the need for citizen participation for environmental governance. Notions of efficiency and participation are, however, often in conflict since achieving participation is time consuming and efficiency requires results within short time frames. Thus, a tension in governance is created which is especially apparent at the local level and in politics relating to sustinable development.In this study, Sweden is seen as an extreme case in terms of implementing sustainable development policies. Swedish local authorities have been at the international forefront in developing sustainability indicators. Here, the work surrounding seven different sustainability indicator systems in three Swedish municipalities is analysed. The overall research question relates to the tension in governance: Are the sustinability indicators driven primarily by efficiency or participatory claims? The analytical framework combines two different, yet linked theoretical approaches: an institutional approach, which captures the organizational arrangements of the indicator systems; and a discourse inspired approach, shedding light on underlying notions and ‘problem’ representations embedded in the indicator systems. Interviews with politicians and local officers and written material serve as the main empirical sources.The analysis shows that local sustainability indicators vary to a great extent regarding their scope, which implies that sustainable development is interpreted differently depending on the local context. In general, goals linked to ‘soft’ issues like democracy, awareness raising and learning tend to be less indicated than ‘hard’ issues such as pure natural scientific measures. Oftenmost, participation is interpreted in its ‘weak’ form, that is stakeholders and citizens are being informed about political decisions taken or are invitated to attend meetings. Many politicians express concern abut participatory methods that aim for empowering citizens, claiming that this is in conflict with the idea of representative democracy. Surprisingly, the more participatory driven indicator systems have not become established in the municipal organisation despite the involvement of many different stakeholders in the developing process. In contrast, the more efficiency driven systems, have been internally anchored but involved very few external stakeholdes in the process. These latter systems are therefore most likely to be used and implemented. In general, politicians’ trust in expert knowledge in policy making is high and it is difficult to involve citizens in that process. Also, because work with sustainable development issues in general, and indicators in particular, is largely seen as projects rather than processes, the efficiency ideal prevails in local policy making – maybe not in rhetoric, but certainly in practice.
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| 40. |
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| 41. |
- Norberg, Joakim, 1974-
(author)
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Ideologiska mål och utrikesdebatt : Svenska riksdagspartiers argumentation i Vietnam- och Irakfrågan
- 2008
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- It is rather often assumed that Swedish foreign policy debate is largely characterized by consensus and that foreign policy goals often are material (for example security or economic welfare). Despite this, it is possible to identify disagreement among political parties about ideological goals – i.e. the promotion of values – in Swedish foreign policy debates. This raises questions about the nature and importance of these ideological goals in such debates. To study this closer I investigate foreign policy debates about the military conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq. The purpose of the dissertation is to describe and explain the content and relative importance of the ideological goals expressed by Swedish parliamentary parties in both party and public arenas. Four parties are included in the study: the Left, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Conservatives. The theoretical framework is made up of two main parts. First, I develop a classification scheme to identify and sort the goals found in the empirical material. This scheme includes four goal types: ideological, security, economic, and other. Second, insights from literatures on foreign policy and the behaviour of political parties are used to analyze the content and importance of ideological goals. The research design used in the dissertation is comparative case studies. The empirical material is composed of documents from the internal party arena (meeting minutes, congress material, etc), the parliamentary arena (debate material) and the official arena (press material). The material has been analyzed mainly qualitatively with the help of ideational and argument analysis. In order to estimate the relative importance of ideological goals quantitative content analysis has also been used. As regards the content of ideological goals during debates about Vietnam, the empirical results show all parties discussed the promotion of humanity, democracy and states’ rights to national independence. In the Iraq conflict, all parties expressed goals about humanity, human rights, internal security/safety, democracy and states’ rights to national independence. Beyond these goals, individual or a few parties also expressed other ideological goals. However, a central result is that the parties have linked the ideological goals – which they often agree about – to different ways of reasoning. The empirical analysis also revealed that ideological goals have generally been more important than other types of goals (with the exception of the Conservative Party in the debate about Vietnam). Regarding developments over time, the importance of ideological goals was unchanged for the Social Democrats and the Liberal Party. For the Left there was a slight decrease, and for the Conservatives a significant increase. The overall conclusion about what explains the content and importance of ideological goals in the foreign policy debates studied here is that explanations at the systemic level are inadequate. Variables like the international political structure (polarity) and institutional mechanisms in the EU and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy had little explanatory power. Instead, explanations like type of foreign policy issue, party ideology and party strategy were more useful. Differences in parties’ fundamental ideological views were also discussed as an important source of difference as regards the positions and arguments that expressed ideological goals.
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| 42. |
- Olivius, Elisabeth, 1983-
(author)
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Governing Refugees through Gender Equality : Care, Control, Emancipation
- 2014
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In recent decades, international feminist activism and research has had significant success in pushing gender issues onto the international agenda and into global governance institutions and processes. The goal of gender equality is now widely accepted and codified in international legal instruments. While this appears to be a remarkable global success for feminism, widespread gender inequalities persist around the globe. This paradox has led scholars to question the extent to which feminist concepts and goals can retain their transformative potential when they are institutionalized in global governance institutions and processes. This thesis examines the institutionalization of feminist ideas in global governance through an analysis of how, and with what effects, gender equality norms are constructed, interpreted and applied in the global governance of refugees: a field that has thus far received little attention in the growing literature on feminism, gender and global governance. This aim is pursued through a case study of humanitarian aid practices in refugee camps in Bangladesh and Thailand. The study is based on interviews with humanitarian workers in these two contexts, and its theoretical framework is informed by postcolonial feminist theory and Foucauldian thought on power and governing. These analytical perspectives allows the thesis to capture how gender equality norms operate as governing tools, and situate the politics of gender equality in refugee camps in the context of global relations of power and marginalization. The findings of this thesis show that in the global governance of refugees, gender equality is rarely treated as a goal in its own right. The construction, interpretation and application of gender equality norms is mediated and shaped by the dominant governing projects in this field. Gender equality norms are either advocated on the basis of their usefulness as means for the efficient management of refugee situations, or as necessary components of a process of modernization and development of the regions from which refugees originate. These governing projects significantly limit the forms of social change and the forms of agency that are enabled. Nevertheless, gender equality norms do contribute to opening up new opportunities for refugee women and destabilizing local gendered relations of power, and they are appropriated and used by refugees in ways that challenge and go beyond humanitarian agendas.
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| 43. |
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| 44. |
- Reimerson, Elsa, 1982-
(author)
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Nature, culture, rights : exploring space for indigenous agency in protected area discourses
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- There is considerable geographical overlap between areas set aside for nature conservation or protection and Indigenous peoples’ lands, and the social, economic, and political consequences of protected areas have often been extensive for Indigenous peoples. Discourses of conservation converge with discourses of Indigenous peoples, and both carry a legacy of colonial constructs and relationships. With these overlaps as a point of departure, the purpose of this thesis is to explore how the discourses that govern nature conservation and protected areas shape the conditions for Indigenous peoples’ influence and participation in the governance and management of protected areas on their lands. I pursue this aim by analyzing, and critically examining the consequences of, the construction of Indigenous subject positions and conditions for agency in discourses of nature conservation and protected areas. The empirical focus of the thesis lies with international discourses of protected areas and Indigenous peoples and on local and national discourses articulated in relation to two cases of protected areas in Sápmi. My analytical framework builds on postcolonial theory and discourse theory. I use space for agency as a concept to describe and analyze the effects of the discursive positionings and constructions that shape the ability or capacity of individuals or group to act or to be perceived as legitimate actors.My results show twomain articulations of Indigenous subject positions in protected area discourses, which enable and restrain the space for Indigenous agency in different ways. One articulation connects Indigenous peoples to conservation through the concept of traditional knowledge, thereby positioning Indigenous subjects mainly as holders of traditional knowledge and justifying Indigenous influence by its potential contribution to conservation objectives. The other articulation focuses on the rights pertaining to Indigenous peoples as peoples, including land rights and the right to selfdetermination. These articulations are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they have potentially different consequences and indicate discursive tensions that can affect the space for Indigenous agency in relation to protected areas. Moreover, my results demonstrate the hegemony of discourses that takes conservation through area protection for granted and subordinates Indigenous land use to conservation objectives, structure Indigenous agency as “participation” in specific types of arrangement, and articulate Indigenous rights in relation to hegemonic constructions of sovereignty, self-determination, and rights. These hegemonic formations silence articulations that would challenge the authority of colonizing societies over Indigenous territories, suppress radical critique of the fundamental nature of arrangements for protected area governance and management, and subdue alternatives to discourses of contemporary liberal democracy and individual property rights.
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| 45. |
- Rönnblom, Malin, 1967-
(author)
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Ett eget rum? : Kvinnors organisering möter etablerad politik
- 2002
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the relationship between women’s organising and established politics in three Swedish municipalities, and by way of this analysis study the construction of gender power orders. In the analysis, special emphasis is put on women’s agency. By posing questions to activists and local politicians concerning their opinions about women’s organising, the positions of women in established politics, and the concept of gender-equality, the ambition is to illuminate constructions of local gender power orders. The analysis is mainly based on interviews with activists, local politicians, and local administrators in the municipalities of Berg, Kiruna, and Robertsfors. Theoretically, the dissertation is influenced mainly by feminist theory of gender power relations and women’s agency, for example the work of Maud Eduards, and the theories about power and resistance developed by Michel Foucault. Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem?” approach is used when analysing the opinions of activists and politicians regarding the issue of gender-equality. In this approach, the way of constructing problems is the key, not “the problem” as such. The point is to constantly question phenomena that are defined as natural or self-evident, or, in other words, to deconstruct dominating discourses. When the interviews with the politicians were analysed with the ambition of discerning a dominant discourse of gender power, five limiting principles became visible; essential (in biological terms) differences between women and men, figures and complementarity, reduction, voluntariness, and co-operation. The principle of differences appears to be central, and all the principles place questions of gender-equality on the labour market. The “gap” between activists and politicians regarding the way in which gender is constructed is put forward as the main reason why women’s organising meets resistance from the sphere of local, established politics. This gap is also the central ingredient in the construction of the three local gender power orders, even if there are also other differences between the three. Key words: Women’s organising, women’s movement, gender-equality, rural areas, local politics, gender and politics, feminist theory
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| 46. |
- Saati, Abrak, 1982-
(author)
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The Participation Myth : outcomes of participatory constitution building processes on democracy
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Since the early 1990s a growing number of constitution building processes in countries transitioning from authoritarian rule or recovering from war or severe institutional crisis have involved public participation. This increase stems from an assumption made by many peacebuilding scholars and practitioners that public participation in constitution building will lead to higher levels of democracy. This assumption has not, however, been the subject of systematic or comprehensive analysis. Therefore, the overarching purpose of this thesis is to scrutinize the participation-hypothesis - as it is referred to in this study.The study is a two-step investigation. The first part begins with an analysis of twenty cases of participatory constitution building that have occurred in post-conflict states, transitioning states and countries that have experienced a severe institutional crisis. In order to differentiate the cases in terms of how much influence participants were granted, an analytical framework is developed and the cases are categorized as either false, symbolic, limited, consultative or substantial participation. The participation-hypothesis is then empirically investigated by comparing democracy levels prior to and after the process for each of the 20 cases. In order to further test the hypothesis, cases of constitution making in which there was no public participation are then added to the investigation. These cases are included as a point of reference – the democratic outcome in this group is compared with the democratic outcome in the twenty participatory processes. The empirical results reveal that there is no relationship between public participation in constitution building processes and higher levels of democracy. On the contrary, some cases that involved considerable influence for participants have not experienced improved levels of democracy, while cases with low levels of influence for participants have shown democratic improvement. Moreover, a majority of cases of constitution making without public participation have also experienced increases in their democracy scores. Therefore, the conclusion of the first part of the study is that the participation-hypothesis does not stand up to empirical scrutiny.Particularly challenging for the participation-hypothesis is the fact that the analysis in part one shows that similar participatory processes have been followed by democratic improvement in some countries and democratic decline in others. Two such cases are Kenya and Zimbabwe. While democracy levels have increased in Kenya since the conclusion of the process, they have steadily declined in Zimbabwe. In the second part of the study, these two countries are therefore the object of intense, systematic and comparative scrutiny in order to explore factors beyond participation in constitution building that might explain the different trajectories of democracy. The comparison shows that the actions of political elites – in particular their ability to cooperate with each other – is the major explanation as to why the two wind up on different paths. The importance of elite cooperation is well-established in the democratization literature. One major conclusion of this study is therefore that the participation-hypothesis needs to be informed by insights drawn from this literature.
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| 47. |
- Sahovic, Dzenan, 1975-
(author)
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Socio-cultural viability of international intervention in war-torn societies : a case study of Bosnia Herzegovina
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation explores the ‘socio-cultural dilemma’ facing international peacebuilders in war-torn societies through a case study of the post-conflict process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is done with the help of a typological approach of the grid-group Cultural Theory framework, which defines four social solidarities – or ideal type cultures – of individualism, egalitarianism, fatalism and hierarchy. A central argument in the thesis is that international intervention is culturally individualistic and/or egalitarian, thus socio-culturally unviable in war-torn societies, which are usually dominated by hierarchical and fatalist social solidarities.This underlying socio-cultural conflict is used to trace the Bosnian post-war process, where the relationship between the managing international institution – the Office of the High Representative of the International Community – and the local nationalist elites repeatedly changed in response to the failure of international policies to produce the desired result, namely broad socio-cultural change in the local politics and society. Four different periods in the process are identified: 1) ’economic conditionality’, 2) ‘Bonn Powers’, 3) ‘the concept of ownership’ and 4) ‘Euro-Atlantic integration’. Each period is defined by different culturally biased policies, supported by corresponding social relations and strategic behaviours.The individualistic and egalitarian biased approaches usually resulted in failures, as they were not viable in the local socio-cultural context. After adapting to the local context, new viable approaches produced results in specific policy areas, but at the cost of unwanted side-effects in the form of reinforcement of dominant social solidarities. The result was therefore contrary to the broad goal of the process, which was to transform the local political culture.In other words, the defining and re-defining of the OHR’s role in the Bosnian process was a consequence of the dilemma of having to make an unsatisfactory choice: either to adapt to the way the political game is played in the Bosnian socio-cultural context in order to achieve effectiveness in the policy process, or to stay true to the peacebuilders’ own cultural biases and attempt to change the local socio-cultural accordingly. In essence, it is argued, this is the socio-cultural viability dilemma that is inherent in international peacebuilding.In unveiling of the socio-cultural viability dilemma, the dissertation explores central problems in the Bosnian post-conflict process. It provides a credible explanation to a number of hitherto unexplained difficulties and paradoxes experienced in Bosnia. It concludes that the international intervention in this particular case was neither a success story nor a failure per se, but one which failed to properly address the dilemma of socio-cultural viability. The key conclusions regarding peacebuilding in general are that there should be a greater under¬¬standing of socio-cultural issues in peacebuilding in order to better manage the socio-cultural viability dilemma. Practically, this means that international peacebuilders need to adapt to local context and strive towards the goal of local ownership of the process. The aim should be to make the intervention as viable as possible, as quickly as possible, to boldly implement policies that promote changes in the local socio-cultural context, and to withdraw only after the necessary conditions for local ownership are in place.
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| 48. |
- Stark, Elin, 1985-
(author)
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Den goda skolan : i lagens namn eller en trygghetens famn? Diskurser om skolproblem i lokal media och bland skolverksamma
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis focuses on representations of school problems in Swedish local newspapers and how these can be understood in terms of discourses about “the good school”. The thesis also focuses on how these discourses are manifested among and resisted by school professionals, and on the potential consequences for schools. Representations of school problems are seen as expressions of power as they produce and reproduce values. These values, which can be referred to in terms of discourses, affect both school practices and individuals attending or working at schools. The theoretical starting point is a Foucauldian perspective on governing. The main elements adopted are Foucault’s understanding of power and the relationship between power and knowledge; how people are positioned as subjects; and how we are governed by representations of problems. The analytical approach adopted draws on Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be” (WPR) approach. Two empirical studies were conducted: a media study and an interview study.Four main problem representations could be distinguished: “the school is breaking the law”; “the working environment at the school is poor”; “the school does not listen to the students”; and “the school does not measure up to other schools”. Out of these problem representations, “the schools is breaking the law” and “the working environment at the school is poor” were the most predominant representations. Using the problem representations and their underlying assumptions as a starting point, four main discourses on “the good school” were identified: the legal discourse, the caring discourse, the democratic discourse; and the market discourse. Regarding effects of the discourses, an overall reflection is that students are positioned as active subjects with significant influence in nearly all of the discourses identified in the media study, with the exception of the caring discourse.As evident by both the embrace of and the resistance against the discourses, the dominant discourses in both the media study and the interview study are the legal discourse and the caring discourse. It is concluded that there is a discursive struggle between these discourses as to whether “the good school” is a school “in the name of the law” or “in the sense of caring”. This discursive struggle may result in possibilities for resistance against one discourse on behalf of the other.
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| 49. |
- Strandh, Veronica, 1982-
(author)
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Responding to Terrorist Attacks on Rail Bound Traffic : Challenges for Inter-organizational Collaboration
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Contemporary terrorism is becoming increasingly indiscriminate, and rail bound traffic appears to be vulnerable and at high risk for terrorist attacks. An attack targeting a train or subway system can have enormous implications, both in terms of human suffering and long-term societal consequences. This dissertation aims to analyze how public and private organizations prepare for and respond to crises emanating from terrorism targeting rail bound traffic. It also examines different practices, networks and ideas related to interorganizational collaboration. Contemporary research emphasizes the importance and advantages of collaborative action in crisis management, and the idea of inter-organizational collaboration is also embedded in policy documents and has support among practitioners. Despite this, interorganizational collaboration often turns out to be difficult in practice, and it stands out as a critical factor in many crisis situations. Hence, it is crucial to identify and better understand the challenges associated with interorganizational collaboration in the context of terrorist-induced crises. This dissertation is a contribution to this endeavor. In order to capture the inherent complexity of the topic this dissertation combines and merges literature from three research fields: crisis management research, disaster medicine research and terrorism studies.The dissertation examines international experiences of terrorist attacks directed against rail bound traffic. It identifies the way in which attacks have changed over time and analyzes the main challenges of providing pre-hospital care following a mass-casualty attack. In addition, Sweden is used to provide empirical focus in an analysis of preparedness. Relying on scenario-based interviews with central crisis management actors and actors from rail bound traffic, current preparedness practices for responding to a multi-site terrorist attack on rail bound traffic in Sweden is analyzed. The research shows that both public and private organizations have developed risk awareness about terrorist-induced crises. However, their preparedness practices are characterized by significant variations and substantial uncertainty. Scare resources are a critical factor, and actors find it difficult to invest in preparedness for seldom-occurring crises. This difficulty is accentuated by the fact that no major mass-casualty attack has taken place in Sweden. A terrorist attack differs from a routine event and poses new and different challenges for inter-organizational collaboration. A large number of organizations are supposed to work together under severe time constraints, and their work can be delayed by particular security concerns. It is assumed that rail bound traffic actors engage in collaborative crisis management; however, there appear to be few mechanisms to prepare them, in a systematic way, for managing this particular type of crisis. Among actors, inter-organizational collaboration is understood primarily from a normative view rather than from the point of view of its practical meaning. As a consequence, it is difficult to turn risk awareness and a commitment to working together into actual practical action. In addition, collaboration between different levels in the crisis management system is particularly challenging. This dissertation also identifies a tension between viewing crisis management as an example of policy-as-usual or from a crises-as-exceptions perspective.
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| 50. |
- Svensson, Anna Maria
(author)
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Rektors ledarskap : styrningssammanhang och stil
- 2010
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The role of the principal in Sweden has undergone significant changes over the past two decades. Task and responsibility has been decentralized from the national level to o the local school board affecting principals´ everyday life. At the same time a new inspection system for all schools has been introduced. These changes puts focus on how principals implement and report political decisions within established guidelines. For many principals it is a balancing act to achieve the national goals within a local context. All the above include for the principal important work with evaluations of quality in different processes in the school, especially those related to teacher performance and children’s grades and results. In the mid 1990’s a debate about the lack of evaluations and school improvement in Swedish schools started, and as a result the Government decided in 1997 that every school should write a quality assessments and that the school board should write a summery for the whole school district. Many schools had problems in the beginning with the working processes around quality assessments, and many schools view this national law only as a top-down control decision from the Government and were not able to see the school improvement part of the law. The aim of this study is to describe how principals take responsibility for the quality assessment regulation and to analyze how they act and lead their schools in relation to quality assessments. In this study, results are presented from survey data, done with 131 principals who attended the National Principal Training Program at Umeå University. A theoretical model which discusses four leadership styles is used as a theoretical background. This model has an organizational frame. After making an argument for the importance of each of these styles for understanding principals work with quality assessments, two strands are examined. First, leadership styles are described from a principal perspective and factor analysis is used to investigate if these styles can illustrate principals´ work with quality assessments. Second, important factors explaining different ways in which principals tackle the work with quality assessments is highlighted. These factors are affected by different laws and regulations and even some time local political decisions and policies which here is understood as structure and culture, and personal background, for example the principals´ age, sex, education and experience. Based on the empirical results, my theoretical conclusion is that the four leadership styles used are relevant for understanding how principals work with quality assessments. The study also shows that structure and culture are important factors when it comes to explaining how principals´ work with quality assessments. Personal background, however, are not shown as important in this study.
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