The concept of producing energy from biomass has, for the last two decades, occupied attention of policy-makers, private industries, researchers and civil societies around the world. The highly contested and contingent character of the biofuel production, its entanglement in the nexus of three problematic issues of energy, climate and agriculture, as well as its injection into the current socioeconomic arrangements, is what makes it timely to analyse. The thesis sheds light on the state of international debate on bioenergy by looking at deliberations of three major global institutions: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Energy Agency (IEA) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The primary aim is to trace and analyse how the concept of bioenergy is conceptualized and contextualized in assessments, reports, policy papers and other documents issued by FAO, IEA and IPCC in the 1990-2010 period. The secondary aim of the thesis, based on results derived from the primary objective, is set to problematize and reflect upon currently dominating socioeconomic arrangements that the concept of biomass-derived energy is inserted into. The research questions are organized around four distinctively contentious issues in the debate: biofuel production in developing countries, the food vs. fuel dilemma, bioenergy as a win-win-win solution and the future role of the second-generation bioenergy technology. The research questions are operationalized by applying four theoretical perspectives: the world-economy, Michel Foucault’s genealogy, discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, and Fredric Jameson’s critical approach. The institutional debate illustrates that, while bioenergy appears to be an easy, plausible and thus attractive patch able to temporarily fix societal challenges of energy insecurity, climate change and agricultural crisis without changing much in the socioeconomic structure, its implementation exposes internal discrepancies of the hegemonic capitalist system. Whether bioenergy could actually function as a feasible win-win-win solution is of secondary importance. It is its economic feasibility expressed in the pressure on cost-effectiveness that matters the most but, at the same time, causes serious internal discrepancies in conceptualizations pursued by the organizations. The results point to two main conclusions. On the one hand, bioenergy is inevitably entrapped by the rules and arrangements of the hegemonic system that, in turn, cause internal contradictions. On the other hand, the institutional debate attempts to stabilize the shaky conceptualization of bioenergy, so that it can appear consistent and plausible, even if the possibility of reaching the closure of meaning fades away, with more conflicts on the rise. Furthermore, the results also show that the three international organizations exhibit uniform patterns of argumentations and the way they similarly discuss biomass-derived energy illustrates the objective to stabilize the meaning and adjust the concept of bioenergy to the hegemonic system. / Under de senaste två decennierna har idén om att producera energi av biomassa rönt stor uppmärksamhet bland forskare, företagare, beslutsfattare och i samhället i övrigt. De förhållandevis många kontroverser och alternativ som är förbundna med produktion av biobränslen, deras koppling till de tre problemområdena energi, klimat och jordbruk, samt deras etablering inom samtida geopolitiska, socioekonomiska och miljömässiga sammanhang, gör dem till en aktuell fråga att analysera. Avhandlingen belyser den internationella debatten genom att fokusera överväganden och ståndpunkter inom tre globala institutioner: FN:s mat- och jordbruksorgan (FAO), Internationella Energiorganet (IEA) och FN:s klimatpanel (IPCC). Huvudsyftet är spåra och analysera hur begreppet bioenergi formas och kontextualiseras i bedömningsrapporter och policydokument producerade av FAO, IEA och IPCC under perioden 1990-2010. Ett ytterligare syfte är att problematisera och reflektera över de socioekonomiska förhållanden som bioenergibegreppet ingår i. Forskningsfrågorna är formulerade utifrån fyra kontroversiella områden i debatten: biobränsleproduktion i utvecklingsländer, dilemmat mat kontra biobränsle, bioenergi som en ”win-win-win-lösning” och den framtida roll som tillskrivs andra generationens bioteknologi. Forskningsfrågorna operationaliseras genom att var och en knyts till ett av fyra teoretiska perspektiv: världssystemteori, Michel Foucaults genealogi, Ernesto Laclaus och Chantal Mouffes diskursteori respektive Fredric Jamesons kritiska ansats. I debatten framställs ofta bioenergi som ett enkelt och rimligt alternativ med kapacitet att tillfälligt lösa samhälleliga utmaningar som energi-osäkerhet, klimatförändringar och jordbrukskrisen, dock utan att den socioekonomiska strukturen ändras nämnvärt. Analysen visar emellertid att begreppsliggörandet istället påvisar interna diskrepanser i det hegemoniska, kapitalistiska systemet. Huruvida bioenergi verkligen kan fungera som en sådan ”win-win-win”- lösning framstår som sekundärt i dessa texter. Det är kostnadseffektiviteten som har störst betydelse, men samtidigt skapar man här allvarliga begreppsliga diskrepanser inom organisationerna. Utfallet av analysen pekar på två huvudslutsatser. Å ena sidan är bioenergin oundvikligen låst av det hegemoniska systemets struktur och de motsägelser som det rymmer. Å andra sidan tycks debatten inom organisationerna söka efter en stabilisering av det instabila begreppsliggörandet av bioenergin så att den framstår som konsistent och möjlig. Vidare visar analysen också att de tre organisationerna har liknande argumentationsmönster, och det likartade sätt på vilket de diskuterar energi från biomassa illustrerar en stabilisering av mening inom diskursen där bioenergibegreppet anpassas till det hegemoniska systemet.

The well-known outcome of the 1988 federal election – a Conservative Party majority in Parliament and an effective “yes” to the question of whether or not the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States was desired – tends to obscure the importance of the process by which a large non-party based opposition movement sought to cultivate and organize the public’s understanding of the election’s central premise. While the opposition movement failed to have Prime Minister Brian Mulroney removed from power, the discursive process that the movement both created and was the driving force behind, is key to understanding the historical context of the debate over free trade itself. This thesis will illustrate that there existed a discursive process amongst the efforts of the anti-free trade movement from 1985-1988 to cultivate, organize, and mobilize public opposition to Mulroney’s neo-liberal economic policies, through re-framing those objections into a larger and more deeply-rooted Canadian historical narrative. A discourse analysis was conducted using the various public education materials produced by major anti-free trade civil society organizations in Canada. The examination of that discourse revealed three major stages in the overall process: First, organizations relied heavily on classic paradigms of an anti-continentalist narrative to reinforce what was different between the two countries creating an us and them paradigm and building a case for Canadian exceptionalism. Second, there was an intensification of the us and them language into a more defined us versus them, or them against us, dichotomy. Third, the anti-free trade movement sought to effectively translate the previously established civic opposition into pragmatic political action in preparation for a national election campaign. The results show that there was an evolution in the ways members of the civil society opposition framed and evolved their arguments in order to turn their “issues” into more of a “crisis.” By employing (and expanding on) discursive tools used within that public narrative to generate fear of the other to validate illusions of self, and to construct believable threats to the collective, the more “micro” discussion over the growing pervasiveness of neo-liberalism took on a hyper-nationalistic and symbolic routine, one that mirrored the iconic political and electoral debates in 1891 and 1911, both of which had also been based upon the potential for free trade with the United States. Most of all, the evidence points to a popular opposition movement against free trade, which not only significantly pre-dated the official political opposition, but in some respects created its message and focus.

No description available.

Debattsidan i Dagens Nyheter har sedan 1980-talet varit en av Sveriges viktigaste opinionsbildare, och den fyller en värdefull funktion för fri åsiktsbildning i en väl fungerande demokrati. Denna studie fokuserar på hur debattsidan förändrats under de senaste 25 åren med utgångspunkt i kön (vem får oftast komma till tals på debattsidan, kvinnor eller män? – och hur har könsfördelningen utvecklats sedan 1980- talet?) och roll (exempelvis politiker, chefer och forskare). Vi har gjort en kvantitativ undersökning med början första helåret som DN Debatt hade en egen sida i tidningen, 1985, fram till 2010. Med hjälp av konstruerade veckor har sju dagar per år slumpmässigt valts ut. Resultaten visar att av våra författare (n = 498) är 75,3 procent av de undersökta författarna män, och 24,7 procent är kvinnor. Skillnaden mellan kvinnor och män minskar. Politiker är den största yrkesgruppen, och andelen politiker ökar ytterligare. Forskarna har legat på en relativt jämn nivå medan företagen publiceras på DN Debatt i allt högre grad. / The daily discussion feature ”DN Debatt” within the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has been one of the country’s most influencial opinion formers since the 1980’s. With the starting point in theories within media and communication, we hade studied this important institution with focus on how the gender distribution and the authors’ professional roles – for example politicians, researchers and journalists – have changed over the last 25 years. The results show that of our total population of authors (n = 498), 75,3 percent are men and 24,7 percent are women. The difference between men and women is decreasing. The professional roles that dominate our study are politicians, followed by researchers, journalists, CEOs and other representatives from companies, authorities and organizations. The ”common man” without some kind of established professional role is not published on DN Debatt.

At the centre of this study lies one of the critical questions faced by (late-)modern society, namely that of taking care of the long-lived radioactive waste from nuclear power production. The problems of nuclear waste management are pictured as embracing a complex web of essential issues for society today, in terms of both its capacities and its shortcomings – so called core issues. The principal aim of the thesis is to examine the nuclear waste discourse in Malå, Västerbotten, from a critical discourse analytical perspective, through applying the approach developed by Michel Foucault in The Order of Discourse. During the 1990s, the municipality of Malå played a prominent role as a candidate site for the geological disposal of Sweden’s spent nuclear fuel. A five-year process culminated in a local referendum on whether detailed site investigations should be permitted within the community. Following the result no further investigations have been undertaken. The discourse analysis is carried out through a study of opinion formation in the municipality during the period October 1992 to October 1997. Two main types of empirical material have been collected: interviews with opinion leaders (politicians, activists, journalists, information professionals, etc.) and contemporaneous mass media content (the local newspaper and regional television news). In the empirical analysis, a review is made of the workings of the external and internal control mechanisms within the discourse; that is to say, how they serve to set limits on the content and form of the sense-making process concerning nuclear waste management. Important themes in the opinion forming process in Malå include information and expertise, opposition and legitimacy, the centre/periphery relationship and the themes of mistrust, partitioning and rejection. Among other themes identified as being marginalised or absent, one example is the Samish citizens’ views on the nuclear question. Four actors play a prominent role as authors of the discourse, namely the nuclear industry, the experts, Greenpeace and the mass media. The voices of resistance groups are also significant. Representatives from authorities and civil servants were most likely to take the commentary role in the discourse, along with journalists. In the concluding analysis of the nuclear waste discourse in Malå, two main types of desire for truth, which form the discourse’s main order, are identified. The stronger concerns the will to know, which places the expert with a scientific background as the principal truth-teller. The other is ‘ordinary’ people’s desire, which influences the content and form of the opinion formation. It is also concluded that the mass media institutions play a significant role in this context, not least as mediators. Reflections on contemporary ‘core issues’ to which the analysis bears witness, such as the crisis of democracy, are also included. In addition, the implications of applying the Foucaultian research programme to a study of the nuclear question have been considered.

The title of this essay is Project: The Veil – an investigation of the trends in the Swedish veil debate compared with the veil debate in France and Great Britain written by Cecilia Lindvall. The purpose of the paper is to analyze how the argument has been conducted by the Swedish politicians from the time when the veil was first recognized in Swedish media up until today. The questions I wanted to answer was each countries definition of the three concepts secularization, freedom of religion and multiculturalism, how Islam as a faith with Muslims has developed in Sweden, France and Great Britain and each countries integration politics with the politicians attitude towards the veil. The method being used is a qualitative study with three kind of theories for analysis; two who derives from a feminist point of view where the first one advocates for the rights of each women, the second for the rights of religious groups and a third theory which discusses different models of integration logics. The study shows that Swedish politicians turned from a negative approach to the veil to advocate the rights of every woman‟s right to wear religious cloth. Sweden and Great Britain chooses similar direction in their national integration program – which protects group rights – while France promotes individual rights on a basis of assimilation politics.

Landnutzungsänderungen, Habitatverlust und Fragmentierung gehören zu den Hauptursachen des weltweiten Biodiversitätsrückgangs. In Mitteleuropa zählen Kalkmagerrasen zu den artenreichsten Lebensräumen. Sie weisen eine hohe Vielfalt an xero- und thermophilen Pflanzen- und Invertebratenarten auf, sind jedoch zunehmend durch landwirtschaftliche Intensivierung und Nutzungsaufgabe gefährdet. Sie sind auf Beweidung und Mahd angewiesen, was jedoch für die Landwirte heutzutage unwirtschaftlich geworden ist. Daher finden sich zunehmend kleine Fragmente innerhalb einer für die meisten der spezialisierten Magerrasenarten ungeeigneten, von intensiver Landwirtschaft geprägten Umgebung. Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit untersucht den Einfluss der Fragmentgröße, der Habitatkonnektivität, der Zusammensetzung der umgebenden Landschaft und der Pflanzenartenzahl auf die Zusammensetzung der Zikadengemeinschaft. Zikaden sind eine überaus artenreiche Gruppe phytophager Insekten mit enger Bindung an die Vegetationsstruktur und -zusammensetzung. In der Umgebung von Göttingen wählten wir 14 große (>1 ha) und 14 kleine (<1 ha) Kalkmagerrasenflächen entlang von Gradienten zunehmender Konnektivität mit anderen Magerrasenflächen, zunehmender Pflanzenartenzahl und zunehmender Landschaftskomplexität, d.h. dem Prozentsatz Ackerfläche innerhalb eines 500 m-Radius, aus. Zunehmende Isolation verringerte die Zikadenartenzahl in einfachen (von Feldern geprägten), jedoch nicht in komplexen Landschaften. Dieser Effekt wurde von den Generalisten getrieben. Die Artenzahl der Generalisten nahm auf kleinen Fragmenten mit zunehmender Konnektivität zu, wogegen sie auf großen Flächen unverändert blieb. Weiterhin nahm die Artenzahl der Generalisten mit steigender Pflanzenartenzahl auf vernetzten Magerrasen stärker zu als auf unvernetzten. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Insektenartenvielfalt auf Kalkmagerrasenfragmenten nicht nur durch Konnektivität allein geprägt wird, sondern vielmehr von einem Zusammenspiel aus Konnektivität, Landschaftszusammensetzung und Pflanzenartenzahl bestimmt wird. Im zweiten Teil dieser Arbeit verfolgen wir das Ziel, zur Lösung der sogenannten SLOSS-Debatte (“Single Large Or Several Small”) beizutragen, in der diskutiert wird, ob es besser ist, wenige große oder mehrere kleine Fragmente eines Habitattyps zu erhalten. Man nimmt an, dass kleine Fragmente aufgrund der größeren abgedeckten geographischen Distanzen eine größere Heterogenität und dadurch eine höhere Gesamtartenzahl aufweisen. Dagegen weisen große Fragmente stabilere Lebensraumbedingungen und größere Populationen auf. Neben Zikaden und Pflanzen wurden auch Daten zu Wanzen und 114 Schnecken aufgenommen. Sowohl die Gesamtartenzahl aller vier Taxa als auch die Zahl der Spezialisten war auf mehreren kleinen Fragmenten wesentlich höher als auf einem oder zwei großen Fragmenten gleicher Gesamtgröße. Jedoch war die Artenzusammensetzung auf großen und kleinen Fragmenten unterschiedlich und einige der seltensten Spezialisten waren an große Flächen gebunden. Hingegen spielte die Zusammensetzung der umgebenden Landschaft keine wichtige Rolle für Artenzahl und -zusammensetzung. Diese Ergebnisse stellen den Fokus auf entweder große oder kleine Habitatfragmente infrage. Für einen erfolgreichen Biodiversitätserhalt ist daher der Schutz sowohl großer als auch kleiner Habitatfragmente zwingend notwendig. Im dritten Teil dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir den Einfluss der Bewirtschaftungsart (Beweidung, Mahd, Nutzungsaufgabe), der Landschaftszusammensetzung und Konnektivität auf die Artenzahl, Artenzusammensetzung und merkmalsbasierte Reaktionen (Körpergröße und Rote Liste-Status) von neun Taxa: Pflanzen, Schmetterlinge, Bienen, Heuschrecken, Schwebfliegen, Spinnen, Wanzen, Kurzflügler und Zikaden. Wir wählten 30 kleine Kalkmagerrasenfragmente (<1 ha) entlang von unabhängigen Konnektivitäts- und Landschaftskomplexitätsgradienten aus. Ein zunehmender Prozentsatz an Ackerfläche in der Umgebung der Fragmente führte zu einem Verlust von 29 % der Gesamtartenzahl. Wir nehmen an, dass Landschaften, die von Ackerfläche dominiert werden, weniger Alternativhabitat und Nahrungsressourcen bieten, was zu einer verringerten Artenzahl führt. Habitatkonnektivität erhöhte im Allgemeinen die Artenzahl. Dieser Effekt war bei den großen, vermutlich ausbreitungsfähigeren Arten eines Taxons stärker ausgeprägt als bei den kleinen Arten. Beweidung hatte einen deutlich negativeren Einfluss auf die Artenzahl als Mahd (einmal jährlich) oder kurzzeitige Nutzungsaufgabe (5-15 Jahre). Der Grund dafür könnte der durch Beweidung verursachte größere Schaden und die Entnahme der Nahrungsressourcen phytophager Insekten sein. Zudem führte jeder der drei Bewirtschaftungsweisen zu einer unterschiedlichen Artenzusammensetzung aller Taxa. Daher sollte die bevorzugte Bewirtschaftungsoption kleiner Kalkmagerrasenfragmente ein Wechsel zwischen Mahd und kurzzeitiger Nutzungsaufgabe in Kombination mit einer Diversifizierung der umgebenden Landschaft sein. Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass die allgemein verbreitete Konzentration auf große Habitatfragmente überdacht werden sollte, da der Schutz sowohl kleiner als auch großer Fragmente unerlässlich ist. Bei der Planung von Schutzmaßnahmen für fragmentierte Offenlandlebensräume sind lokale Einflüsse wie Fragmentgröße und Bewirtschaftung zwar wichtig, aber nicht ausreichend: Landschaftsfaktoren wie Habitatkonnektivität und Landschaftszusammensetzung müssen ebenfalls in die Schutzbemühungen mit einbezogen werden um das langfristige Überleben von spezialisierten Pflanzen- und Invertebratenarten zu sichern.

The well-known outcome of the 1988 federal election – a Conservative Party majority in Parliament and an effective “yes” to the question of whether or not the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States was desired – tends to obscure the importance of the process by which a large non-party based opposition movement sought to cultivate and organize the public’s understanding of the election’s central premise. While the opposition movement failed to have Prime Minister Brian Mulroney removed from power, the discursive process that the movement both created and was the driving force behind, is key to understanding the historical context of the debate over free trade itself. This thesis will illustrate that there existed a discursive process amongst the efforts of the anti-free trade movement from 1985-1988 to cultivate, organize, and mobilize public opposition to Mulroney’s neo-liberal economic policies, through re-framing those objections into a larger and more deeply-rooted Canadian historical narrative. A discourse analysis was conducted using the various public education materials produced by major anti-free trade civil society organizations in Canada. The examination of that discourse revealed three major stages in the overall process: First, organizations relied heavily on classic paradigms of an anti-continentalist narrative to reinforce what was different between the two countries creating an us and them paradigm and building a case for Canadian exceptionalism. Second, there was an intensification of the us and them language into a more defined us versus them, or them against us, dichotomy. Third, the anti-free trade movement sought to effectively translate the previously established civic opposition into pragmatic political action in preparation for a national election campaign. The results show that there was an evolution in the ways members of the civil society opposition framed and evolved their arguments in order to turn their “issues” into more of a “crisis.” By employing (and expanding on) discursive tools used within that public narrative to generate fear of the other to validate illusions of self, and to construct believable threats to the collective, the more “micro” discussion over the growing pervasiveness of neo-liberalism took on a hyper-nationalistic and symbolic routine, one that mirrored the iconic political and electoral debates in 1891 and 1911, both of which had also been based upon the potential for free trade with the United States. Most of all, the evidence points to a popular opposition movement against free trade, which not only significantly pre-dated the official political opposition, but in some respects created its message and focus.

Introduction Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East occupying the majority of the Arabia Peninsula. In 1934 the exploration of oil propelled this country from one of the poorest to one of the highest in per capita income. Islamic law forms the basis of Saudi Arabia's constitution, its civil and penal codes and guides the Saudis in their daily and family lifestyles, governing morals, dress, eating habits and business dealings. Between 1970 and 1980, there was a sharp increase in the rate of population. Currently the population is estimated at 20.8 million with a projected increase to 44.8 million by the year 2025, with approximately 49% under the age of 20. This rise in population has implications for the health care industry, of which expatriates make up more that 85% of the country's health care system. Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the social and cultural experiences associated with living and working as a registered nurse in a major teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia and to identify and understand how to develop critical thinking skills in Saudi nurses during a nursing education/intervention program in Saudi Arabia. Methodology The researcher reviewed the literature on critical thinking, which allowed the construction of a conceptual model (Appendix 1) to guide teaching and evaluation of critical thinking skills and maintained the focus on dialogue to stimulate interaction and participation in order to promote critical thinking abilities in Saudi nurses. This study adopted ethnography as a methodology and utilised Spradley's (1979)ethnographic research cyclical tasks for data collection and analysis, which are explained in the exploratory, descriptive and explanatory phases of the research. The researcher was a participant observer and collected ethnographic data in the social situation. A variety of data collection methods were employed, which included observation of students and clinical instructors, evaluation of clinical instructors teaching techniques in utilising critical thinking strategies, evaluation of students' responses in the use of critical thinking strategies, focus group interviews of students and clinical instructors and informal interviews conducted within the hospital setting with relevant informants. The use of multi-methods provided the opportunity to examine more fully the richness and complexities of the culture, by gathering data from various sources to validate the consistency of information to reflect the multiple realities of this cultural group. Cultural domains were identified after examining field notes and interviews for terms and clues repeatedly verbalised by informants, in particular students. The researcher organised the domains to formulate taxonomies, leading to cultural themes, which are answered within the research questions in Chapter 8. The research questions for this study are as follows: Research questions 1. What are the issues related to the implementation of critical thinking in a Professional Development Program to improve critical thinking in Saudi nurses? 2. What major elements are involved in creating and sustaining the Saudi Arabian nursing profession? 3. How might Saudi culture be used to support the development of professional nursing identity? Implications for the study This study has the potential to make a significant contribution to nursing education in Saudi Arabia in promoting critical thinking in nurses and in curriculum development for the following reasons. First, didactic instruction was replaced with an interactive approach by utilising critical thinking strategies and devices to facilitate the development of critical thinking abilities. Second, working with a conceptual framework or model made it easier to manage complex multifaceted concepts, such as critical thinking. The model maintained the focus on dialogue and experiential learning thereby assisting students and staff to integrate theory and practice. This model was effective for the program and if duplicated by other programs, could create a learning environment that would allow the effective development and evaluation of critical thinking. The model is reflected in Appendix 1. Recommendations for the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia * To establish the Nursing Practice Act which subsequently leads to the formation of a National Nursing Registration Board. * To transfer nursing into the higher education sectors, to be on par with their Western counterparts. To foster career incentives for men to meet the cultural needs of the people, increase Saudi nurses in the workforce and to raise the image of nursing. * To enact Saudiisation policy. * To incorporate Islamic nursing history into diploma nursing and other nursing educational programs and implemented into the workplace, government policy and the media. * To construct separate male and female hospitals to solve the gender issues. * To systematically collect, collate and analyse nursing data. * To develop continuing education programs to meet educational needs of nurses.

在目前國際社會中，社會變遷讓分裂主義成為一個全球普遍存在的時代議題。考慮到越來越多的國際組織出現，及世界潮流也逐步朝向無國界的道路發展，全球化在公民社會上也開始扮演另一個重要影響的角色。分裂主義和全球化本是兩個矛盾無法共融的概念，歐洲卻是表現這兩個概念間產生關聯的最好例子，歐盟各會員國透過一體化來展現力量，但歐洲中的一些國家及某些區域又具有強烈的分離主義，這兩者彼此是無法共通的，但是現實又已經形成交集，因此也導致出一個有趣的辯論與分析。 這些分裂主義運動不僅現時在歐洲各國擴散，在世界各國也形成一股風潮。英國、西班牙和加拿大這些國家，都處於分裂邊緣的發展，使單一國家的概念被大幅度挑戰。而分裂主義會成為如此熱門的議題，是因為最近世界經濟與社會的變化，鼓勵更多國家的公民與團體，往這麼個方向走出，如2014年克里米亞與烏克蘭分離事件、蘇格蘭公投，讓分離議題持續成為國際社會必須關注的焦點。蘇格蘭分裂主義的公投運動，自2014年以來一直是國際社會關注的焦點，主要的原因是這裡面意涵著，包含了兩個相互衝突的概念:蘇格蘭想要從英國獨立的分裂性，卻又支持全球化的互助性。因此，根據全球化分析加諸於分裂運動上的限制，將蘇格蘭做為全球化-分裂主義的個案研究，本研究提供有趣的見解與論斷，提供分裂運動各個面向的議題，在面臨全球化是否成為獨立成功可能性的參考。 / Separatism has never been as prevalent as it is now with the current shifts occurring in the international society. Globalization has been another prominent influence in the global community as well considering there have been more international institutions enacted and the world is increasingly becoming a borderless one. Separatism and globalization are two contradictory concepts and a prime example of the linkage between the two concepts can be seen through European integration and the regional separatist movements in Europe. Both are paradoxical and thus, they make for an interesting debate. Not only are these separatist movements widespread in countries of Europe but has become prominent in many countries all around the world. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain and Canada are on the verge of splitting up and with vivid alterations in society such as Putin’s annexation of Crimea and Scotland’s referendum in 2014, the topic of separatism has been at the forefront of the international community nowadays. Scotland’s separatist movement has been the one to watch since 2014 and the reason for this is because it encompasses both the conflicting concepts separatism and globalization considering Scotland supports globalization but also wishes for separation from the rest of the United Kingdom. Therefore, placing Scotland as the case study in the context of the globalization-separatism debate will offer interesting insights as to the constraints that globalization places on separatist movements, but also, the possibilities of a separatist movement becoming independent in the face of globalization.