I denna uppsats studeras konstruktionen av bilden som ges i svensk tidningsmedias presentation av två svenska politiker vad gäller föräldraskap, kön och manlighet i relation till det politiska ledarskapet. För att genomföra studien bygger uppsatsen på teorier och tidigare forskning inom CSM- kritiska studier på män, inklusive teorier från svenska forskare såsom Klinth och Klinth & Johansson inom forskning om föräldraförsäkringen och män. I tidigare forskning har det konstaterats att politiken bygger på en manlig norm, men att föräldraskapet bygger på en kvinnlig norm, därav är det av intresse att se hur den manliga normen förändras eller samverkar med föräldraskapet i relation till politiskt ledarskap. Analysen genomfördes därför genom att studera presentationen av Gustav Fridolin och Birgitta Ohlsson, två rikskända politiker som båda blivit föräldrar inom en ganska nära tid. I uppsatsens analys visas att det finns delade meningar i uppfattningen om hur föräldraskapet ska moderniseras eller frigöras från traditionella sociala mönster i studien om Gustav Fridolin och Birgitta Ohlsson i relation till föräldraskapet, samt att det förekommer två tydliga diskurser i ämnesområdet.

USA har nu hört och sett Rysslands tendenser till maktanspråk i Europa och vilka medel man är villig och kapabel att använda sig av. Detta föranleder NATO att rusta upp sina resurser och vidare fördjupa säkerhetsdilemmat i Europa. Att bibehålla och expandera ett starkt NATO i Europa även efter kalla krigets slut har visat på USA:s förmåga att navigera världspolitiken på ett proaktivt sätt utan att löpa några risker för den egna nationella säkerheten. USA:s engagemang på den Europeiska arenan ska primärt tolkas som en strategi för att balansera upp Ryssland och bara sekundärt som en idealistisk ambition att värna om regional fred och säkerhet. Vi kan således utläsa att ingen av aktörerna är intresserade av status quooch den process av maktmaximering som pågått i Europa sedan långt tillbaka fortsatt lika aktiv.

Studien avhandlar ett brittiskt kompani under mission i Afghanistan och hur deras operationer står sig i förhållande till David Kilcullens twenty-eight articles. Förbandet hade som uppgift att söka stridskontakt med motståndaren inom ett kompaniområde i syfte att isolera striderna och möjliggöra uppbyggnadsprojekt i Sangin provinsen i Afghanistan. Slutsatserna är att kompaniet uppträdde mer som ett reguljärt skyttekompani och hade inte någon tydlig counterinsurgency metodik i enlighet med Kilcullens teori.

Bomullstextilier är en av de mest återkommande råvarorna i textilierproduktion, trots att medvetenheten om dess miljöpåfrestande framställning ökat är den fortfarande en av de viktigaste globala handelsvarorna. I och med den globala handeln har företagens agerande utvecklats från att ha en lokal produktion och försäljning till att handla med olika leverantörer och underleverantörer över hela världen. Det långa ledet leverantörer som krävs för att framställa bomullstextilier kan tillsammans med andra faktorer, som kulturella och etiska skillnader, leda till komplikationer när det kommer till uppföljningen av företagens krav på leverantörerna. Studien har en kvalitativ utgångspunkt där huvudfokus är att undersöka svenska företags möjligheter att påverka och förhindra dessa komplikationer för att uppnå en miljömässigt hållbar produktion. Insamlingen av primärdata har till stor del bestått av 5 genomförda intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom området. Det teoretiska ramverket utgår från företagens Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vilket behandlar både dess ansvar samt dess skyldigheter. Studien har identifierat olika verktyg och implementeringsproblem som företagen möter men visar samtidigt företagens möjligheter att på egen hand påverka produktionens utkomst.

‘Democracy’ has been frequently praised by the Chinese political leadership, while liberal democratic institutions have remained conspicuously absent under CPC one-party rule. This study explores the discourse on democracy in the newspaper China Daily between the years 2007 and 2017 to determine how the concept is articulated in a Chinese presumably alternate discourse on democracy. Fifty articles published between 2007 and 2017 are sampled, and a discourse analysis is performed to identify prominent themes featured in these articles concerning democracy. The sample is then further divided in two subsamples with a cutoff in 2012, to investigate whether there has been a qualitative shift in the discourse since the accession to power of Xi Jinping. The analysis shows that - and how – the discourse treats China largely as a particular democracy, frequently contrasted with ‘Western-style democracy’, and downplays certain democratic principles and institutions in favor of alternative ones. It also shows that an overall shift in tone seems to have occurred since the accession of Xi, from optimistic and progressive to a more negative one.

The importance of policy networks and the need to treat networks seriously have long been emphasized within the field of policy science. However, not many attempts have been made to investigate the explanatory power of policy networks using the tools and theoretical concepts provided by social network analysis (SNA). This historical limitation is the central undertaking of the current thesis, which sets out to clarify the possible relationship between network structure and the organizing capacities and performance of policy networks. Not only is the aim to elucidate how different network qualities affect performance, but the thesis also has a methodological aim of indicating in what ways SNA contributes to and enhances policy network research. Based on the theoretical concepts policy, networks, institutions, and social capital, an analytical framework is formed. A set of hypotheses regarding how network structures are believed to affect the performance of policy networks is suggested. Two particular network qualities-namely, network closure and network heterogeneity-are proposed as central for the process and its outcome. The former reflects the internal structure of a network in terms of density and centralization, while the latter reflects how the network is connected to other networks and addresses its level of diversity and cross-boundary character. The empirical part of the thesis consists of three case studies, in which policy processes within different policy sectors are studied. The empirical analysis confirms the existence of a relationship between network structure and performance. As the level of network closure increases, so does the capability to prioritize, thereby enhancing efficiency. However, the level of network heterogeneity is positively related to the function of resource mobilization, which, in turn, is a central prerequisite for improved effectiveness. The thesis concludes that a significant explanatory power exists in the concept of policy networks and that SNA is a promising way to explore its possibilities, enhancing policy research and the conceptual and theoretical developments within the field. Finally, the implications of the findings for contemporary policy making and public administration are discussed. / Godkänd; 2008; 20080519 (ysko)

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In this thesis I interrogate the concept of respect for animals, or intrinsic value, in the new Swedish Animal Welfare Act adopted in 2018. I draw on poststructural theory and conceptual input from political theory as well as Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach. Through the WPR method I analyze government propositions and official government reports between 2011 and 2018, related to the new animal welfare act. The previous Animal Welfare Act from 1988 is used to assess conceptual change in the thirty years that have passed between the two animal welfare acts. Even though respect for animals does not have material legal impact for the animals and cannot be said to constitute a conceptual shift compared to the previous law adopted in 1988, I draw attention to the political implications of the introduction of respect for animals. By analyzing the problem representations and the conceptual logics in the documents, I show how discourses around competitiveness, profitability and productivity in the animal-based food sector were aligned with the global threats of climate change mitigation and antimicrobial resistance, and how these values were seen as state responsibilities while the protection of animals’ intrinsic value became seen as an individual moral responsibility. As a consequence the policy question of what the recognition of animals’ intrinsic value in the law ought to mean as a political issue of justice remained unaddressed. I also show how the emphasis on science in the balancing of animal interests against economic interests has limiting effects on citizens’ political agency.

The overall aim of this master’s thesis is to increase our understanding about the framing of gender in EU’s development policies. To reflect to this aim, the thesis examines how gender is framed in EU’s development cooperation with Ethiopia in the governance sector. The EU is collectively the biggest donor for international aid in the world, while claiming to be “a global front-runner” in promoting gender equality as a key political objective of its external action. However, previous research has criticized the EU’s gender policies, explaining that gender is not mainstreamed in all the policies and that gender equality is often motivated on instrumentalist arguments. The previous research is however somewhat outdated, lacking the consideration of effects of the SDG’s and the improved gender equality policies by the EU. Previous studies are furthermore mostly concerned with country comparisons and therefore selecting one field of study and one country could shed light to matters that may have been left unnoticed in previous research. Therefore, based on previous research and theories focusing on gender equality and development, WID and GAD, this study analyses how the EU is framing gender. This study is designed as an in-depth case study which uses a frame analysis and interviews as a method to study the research question. The main findings of this study are that both references to WID and GAD framing of gender are actively used in EU’s development policies. Even though these approaches are contradictory in many ways they seem to be overlapping in several cases, presenting women as a vulnerable group that needs to be empowered. Arguments for WID approach include instrumentalist arguments, women seen ass add-ons’ to the development structures, women seen as a vulnerable and homogenized group and the effects of the girl effect. Arguments supporting GAD approach include women’s rights framing, patriarchal system framing, women’s empowerment framing and the social justice framing.

The ongoing transformation of the Russian society largely consists in changes in the institutional framework constraining actors' behavior in the emerging market economy. While we have a substantial knowledge about the functioning of a market economy we know very little about how to create such a system. The transition in Eastern Europe offers an opportunity to acquire new knowledge about the prerequisites for the establishment of a market economy. This thesis is based upon research performed in a project called "Institutions and the Emergence of Markets - Transition in the Russian Forest Sector" conducted between 1997 and 2001 at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. The purpose of the study was to identify institutional hurdles for the reformation of the Russian forest sector. The task was approached through a series of case studies of the institutional problems hampering developments in the forest sector of eight Russian regions. Data describing the behavior of forest enterprises was obtained through an interview survey among enterprise leaders in each one of the eight regions. The so-called Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework provided a common design for the eight case study reports comprising the first phase of the project. One such case study report is included in this thesis - the one dealing with institutional problems in the forest sector of the Arkhangelsk Oblast. Based on the previous eight case studies an integrating analysis was made with the purpose of identifying more general characteristics of the institutional framework embedding the Russian forest sector. The results of the analysis were reported in a journal article published in 2001. This article is also included in the thesis. In a third and final phase of the project, the results of the previous studies were disseminated through a series of policy exercises to forest stakeholders in four of the eight case study regions, the purpose being to see if a participatory policy formulation process could be established among regional forest stakeholders. The third paper included in this thesis reports on the results of the policy exercises conducted in the regions of Murmansk, Karelia, and Arkhangelsk in the autumn of 2000 and the spring of 2001. As this thesis illustrates, transforming the old Soviet command economy into a modern market system is a formidably complex task. The reforms taken early during the transition (e.g., privatization and price liberalization) triggered a series of spontaneous changes in the economy actually threatening to bankrupt many Russian enterprises and ultimately to upset the entire social order. However, the development also triggered its own response in that it made many market non-viable enterprises enter the so- called virtual economy. Here enterprises exchanged goods and services through barter trade thus avoiding true market competition. In fact, many of the rules-in-use (institutions) constraining the behavior of actors in the virtual economy originated in the old Soviet command system. A major problem with the virtual economy is that it maintains the sub-optimal resource allocation typical of the command economy. The findings reported in this thesis empirically corroborate central hypotheses generated by the theory of the virtual economy. Some ideas are also explored about ways to disentangle the institutional deadlock preventing a large part of the forest enterprises from restructuring to become viable in the emerging Russian market economy. The study arrived at the very general conclusion that there are no easy top- down procedures that automatically will lead to an efficiently functioning Russian market economy. The results contest the claims made by the "shock therapy" school of (mainly western) reform advisors to the Russian government. While certain basic reform measures could not be introduced gradually, there was no ground for expecting rapid automatic and profound positive changes in the institutional framework constraining actors' behavior in the Russian economy. On the contrary, the institutional deadlock characterizing the Russian economy will take a long time (and quite innovative thinking) to disentangle. The problem consists in envisaging a way to introduce institutional changes with the multiple purpose of improving the efficiency of the economy (raising people's standard of living) while at the same time improving the workings of democracy and doing so in a society where the existing institutional framework does not work properly. The study led to a number of specific conclusions relating to the possibilities of reforming the Russian forest sector, making the institutional framework constraining actors' behavior more conducive to economic efficiency. It was found that there is a need for changes throughout the entire institutional hierarchy, ranging from constitutional rules, through collective choice rules, to operational rules. Separation of duties and obligations between the political and economic spheres of society should be an underlying principle in all these changes. It was also suggested that policies for improving the institutional framework governing the Russian regional forest sector should be elaborated in a dialogue with the stakeholders who are directly affected by malfunctioning of the sector. The study showed that the use of policy exercises for elaborating improved forest policies seems feasible although the Russian civil society is (still) not sufficiently developed to allow participatory policy formulation procedures to work effectively. / Godkänd; 2004; 20070116 (haneit)