This thesis examines the interaction in the network of international and regional organizations in setting the norms, rules and strategic directions for international development and governance of global information society. Situated within the theoretical framework of international regime theory and Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, it uses the “Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI): An action framework to build ICT infrastructure in Africa” as its case study. Based on the empirical evidences gathered from the historical policy document analysis and qualitative semi-structured interviews, it provides a critical analysis of how the diffusion of global neoliberal agenda through the international organizations shaped the AISI policy prescriptions. It analyzes the challenges confronting the AISI implementation and ICTs for development agenda in Africa. In view of the inherent contradictions between the transnational character of the AISI and the national characters of the region, it examines the implication of these problems and suggests potential ways of addressing them. It concludes by stressing the importance of contextual local institutional forces and cultural ethos in the ICT policies and development process in Africa.

<p>During recent years, resilience theory – originally developed in systems ecology – has advanced as a new approach to sustainable development. However, it is still more of an academic theory than a discourse informing environmental politics. The aim of this essay is to study resilience theory as a potential environmental discourse in the making and to outline the political implications it might induce. To gain a more comprehensive knowledge of resilience theory, I study it in relation to already existing environmental discourses. Following earlier research on environmental discourses I define the discourses of ecological modernization, green governmentality and civic environmentalism as occupying the discursive space of environmental politics. Further, I define six central components as characteristics for all environmental discourses. Outlining how both the existing environmental discourses and resilience theory relates to these components enables an understanding of both the political implications of resilience theory and of resilience theory as an environmental discourse in relation to existing environmental discourses. The six central discourse components I define are 1) the view on the nation-state; 2) the view on capitalism; 3) the view on civil society; 4) the view on political order; 5) the view on knowledge; 6) the view on human-nature relations. By doing an empirical textual analysis of academic texts on resilience theory I show that resilience theory assigns a limited role for the nation-state and a very important role for civil society and local actors when it comes to environmental politics. Its view on local actors and civil society is closely related to its relativist view on knowledge. Resilience theory views capitalism as a root of many environmental problems but with some political control and with changing perspectives this can be altered. Furthermore, resilience theory seems to advocate a weak bottom-up perspective on political order. Finally, resilience theory views human-nature relations as relations characterized by human adaptation to the prerequisites of nature. In conclusion, I argue that the empirical analysis show that resilience theory, as an environmental discourse, to a great extent resembles a subdivision of civic environmentalism called participatory multilateralism.</p>

<p>Uppsatsen handlar om arrangerade äktenskap och kärleksäktenskap i storstadsmiljö i dagens Turkiet. Den belyser främst hur ett äktenskapsarrangemang går till och huruvida inflyttningen från landsbygd till städer har påverkat dem. Jag använder mig av ett inifrånperspektiv genom att intervjua turkiska kvinnor men gör även kopplingar till artiklar som belyser just moderniseringens effekter på äktenskapsformer.</p> / <p>This essay is about marriages in an urban setting in contemporary Turkey. It exemplifies how a marriage arrangement is done and whether the migration into cities from the country has influenced them. I will mainly give an insider perspective by interviewing Turkish women but the essay also relates to articles about modernization’s effects on marriage forms.</p>

The modernist Islamic Movement sought to reconcile modern values and Islamic faith and attempted to express these values through an Islamic discourse and to reform political, religious and educational institutions along modernist lines. However, such a movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran raised controversy among the traditional leadership and secular intellectual groups. <br>The aim of this paper is to discuss how far modernist Islam could progress in an islamic republic with an old tradition.

The author distinguishes between three types of Islamic states. A first type uses Islam as political legitimation (Saudi Arabia). In contrast, the second type uses Islam merely as a political framework. In Iran, for instance, religious values are maintained while at the same time democratic elements, such as elections, can be found. Egypt is mentioned as an example of the third type of state that ranges between a secular and a religious political system. Looking at the modernization process in Egypt more closely, the author claims that without good governance the efforts of the state will be useless and religious extremism may dominate.

This dissertation examines the impact and influence of Colonel Edward House. House occupied a unique position in American history. The Texan wielded great power for most of Woodrow Wilson's presidency. House left an enduring impact on U. S. foreign policy while he served as the president's closest advisor. The project covers House's early life because it offers valuable clues as to how the colonel constructed his latter role as a presidential advisor and international figure. House believed in the idea of great men shaping history and bending events to their will. He also thought that the political arena provided the best arena to achieve greatness. Moreover, House knew due to his poor public persona and persistent illnesses had to construct a distinctive position for himself. House found that his path to greatness rested in exerting power behind the scenes. During his early years in politics he served as confidential advisor to a series of Texas governors, a position House later fillled in the Wilson administration. House found his chance to move onto the national scene through the presidential candidacy of Woodrow Wilson. He provided some key services for Wilson during the course of the 1912 campaign and quickly gained the confidence of the candidate. After Wilson's election House acted as a de facto chief of staff as he helped fill administration jobs. When the president-elect assumed office on March 4, 1913 House offered some advice on domestic policy but his ambition soon turned towards diplomacy. House believed that global politics provided the best way to achieve prominence. Though driven by ambition and ego House helped to usher in an era of American internatiionalism. His role as peace envoy, during American neutrality, marked the first time in the modern era that the U. S. involved itself in a European war. House continued his internationalist stance when America entered the war when he helped draft the Fourteen Points and an early covenant of the Fourteen Points. House was an important figure in bringing America out of its era of isolationism onto the world stage.

Within a loose framework of two ongoing and interrelated processes (globalisation and changing roles of the nation-state) family and relations between family, economy and state are studied in Greece and Sweden. Greece is in focus. Modernization, development and family in social science literature are discussed. Using the idea of the social landscape and the existence of four different types of organizations (private enterprises, nation-states, families and voluntary organizations) several advantages are achieved: care work is made visible and nation-states are seen in a wider context. Informal economy and clientelism in general and in Greece in particular are described. The role of family in maintaining such patterns is discussed and attention is paid to the mutual strengthening of family, informal economy and clientelism in a social landscape where formal, universalistic and public procedures to get access to valued resources exist side by side and interwoven with informal, particularistic and veiled ones. Traditional patriarchal ideologies are breaking up and an increasing number of women work outside the family but women's role in caring for family members in Greece is crucial. Great progress in terms of equal rights has been made. State involvement in caring activities and other reproductive work is however small. Modernization and rationalization in economy and state in the wake of EU and EMU membership challenge such phenomena as informal economy, clientelism and women's subordination. Finally development in Greece and Sweden within the EU is discussed and division of responsibilities and work with care is problematized.

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During recent years, resilience theory – originally developed in systems ecology – has advanced as a new approach to sustainable development. However, it is still more of an academic theory than a discourse informing environmental politics. The aim of this essay is to study resilience theory as a potential environmental discourse in the making and to outline the political implications it might induce. To gain a more comprehensive knowledge of resilience theory, I study it in relation to already existing environmental discourses. Following earlier research on environmental discourses I define the discourses of ecological modernization, green governmentality and civic environmentalism as occupying the discursive space of environmental politics. Further, I define six central components as characteristics for all environmental discourses. Outlining how both the existing environmental discourses and resilience theory relates to these components enables an understanding of both the political implications of resilience theory and of resilience theory as an environmental discourse in relation to existing environmental discourses. The six central discourse components I define are 1) the view on the nation-state; 2) the view on capitalism; 3) the view on civil society; 4) the view on political order; 5) the view on knowledge; 6) the view on human-nature relations. By doing an empirical textual analysis of academic texts on resilience theory I show that resilience theory assigns a limited role for the nation-state and a very important role for civil society and local actors when it comes to environmental politics. Its view on local actors and civil society is closely related to its relativist view on knowledge. Resilience theory views capitalism as a root of many environmental problems but with some political control and with changing perspectives this can be altered. Furthermore, resilience theory seems to advocate a weak bottom-up perspective on political order. Finally, resilience theory views human-nature relations as relations characterized by human adaptation to the prerequisites of nature. In conclusion, I argue that the empirical analysis show that resilience theory, as an environmental discourse, to a great extent resembles a subdivision of civic environmentalism called participatory multilateralism.

The subject of the conservation and preservation of industrial heritage was started to be handled starting from the middle of 20th Century in Europe. As in Turkey, industrial heritage concept is a subject which is in agenda in last years. Awareness about the subject increased with the help of social movements starting especially with the demolition of Ankara Maltepe Gas and Electric Factory. The Brewery of Ataturk Forest Farm should also be handled not to share the same fate with this example which was witnessed recently. In the years when Ataturk Forest Farm was founded, it was realized that industry is important for the economic development. In this sense, First Five Year Industry Plan, which was prepared with the order of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to accelerate industrialization, was taken into action in 1934 and many industrial complexes were founded according to this plan. The Brewery of Atat&uuml / rk Forest Farm is one of the reflections of First Five Year Industry Plan in Ankara. Today, the Brewery of Atat&uuml / rk Forest Farm is out of use, ill conditioned and faced with the danger of destruction. Therefore, the brewery of Atat&uuml / rk Forest Farm, which is one of the most significant examples of the industrial buildings of the Early Republican Period and located on a debated context like Atat&uuml / rk Forest Farm, should be conserved and handed down the next generations.