The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how the phenomenon of trade with hair from Indian women, can be regarded as a case of gendered commodification of human body parts. It is illustrated with the assistance of postcolonial scholar Appadurai (1986), Scheper-Hughes (2001) and Sharp (2000) theories on commodification. Also, feminist perspectives by Mohanty (1997) and Sharp (2000), as well as theories on hair’s cultural and religious meanings in India developed by Olivielle (1998) and Miller (1998), are moreover applied to show of how the trade can be seen as gendered. By using the method of qualitative text analysis, an extensive bank of material on the topic has been investigated and later analysed. The first main conclusion is that women’s hair can be seen as being commodified given that it has achieved an economic value, has been objectified (become a product) and reduced into different parts when it is shaved off in temples and later made into wigs and hair-extensions.  The second main conclusion is that the trade is gendered because women perform underpaid work in the processing of hair. Accordingly, Indian women’s hair has specific properties and is therefore more attractive to the market and gendered cultural and religious notions tied to women’s hair can possibly be important for the existence of the market with Indian women’s hair.

Even though abortion is legal, the implementation of access to safe abortion is extremely complex and depends on the socio-economic and political context. In Tunisia, abortion has been legal for 50 years, yet the country still struggles with implementing safe abortion into health care services. The main aim of this thesis is to examine what problems to abortion access women face in Tunisia. This is done through a qualitative content analysis of five Tunisian NGOs, focusing on what they present as the problems, but also what they present as the reasons and the solution to these issues. Using political culture and the conceptualisation of abortion stigma as theoretical framework, this study explores whether attitudes toward abortion in society is congruent with the liberal abortion law and policies, as a way of understanding how women can have problems accessing abortion. The findings are that according to NGOs, women have trouble getting abortions due to economical, organisational, ideological, and political reasons: The emergence of conservative forces, consequences of economic struggles, the lack of information, discrimination from health providers, and lack of attention from the state make abortion services in the public sector increasingly difficult to obtain. More than previous research, the NGOs touched upon intersectional vulnerability as a reason for increased difficulties for women and an issue that needed to be resolved. These results open up for future research on the viewpoint of NGOs, as well as the ‘access paradox’ of abortion implementation.

Uppsatsen syfte är att analysera på vilka sätt som kurdiska kvinnliga soldater har framställts i svenska medier, samt om framställningen skiljer sig från den i brittiska och franska medier. De centrala frågeställningarna är på vilka sätt framställs kvinnliga kurdiska soldater i svenska medier? Samt, skiljer sig presentationen av kurdiska kvinnliga soldater i svenska medier från den i franska och brittiska medier? Om ja, i sådana fall hur? Uppsatsen bygger på postkolonial feminism, Edward Saids exotifieringsteori, socialkonstruktivism samt diskurs som teoretiskt ramverk. Datainsamling har skett med hjälp av dokumentanalys av 5 artiklar i olika svenska nyhetstidningar och har analyserats med hjälp av kritisk diskursanalytisk metod. Uppsatsen finner att diskurserna i de franska och brittiska medierna även går att finna i de svenska medierna, vilket får konsekvenserna att stereotypa könsroller och orientalistiska uppfattningar. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att lyfta hur kurdiska kvinnliga soldater framställs och positionernas i media. Med hjälp av de valda teorierna och metoden har detta kunnat göras. / kurdiska kvinnliga soldater, exotifiering, diskursanalys, postkolonial feminism, YPJ, PKK, Peshmerga, könsroller

Trots att medvetenheten om väpnade konflikters påverkan på kvinnor har ökat under de senaste åren är kvinnor fortfarande underrepresenterade i fredsprocesser, i vilka DDR-program är en viktig del av. Problemet idag är att många kvinnosoldater inte får delta i DDR-processer och lämnas utan återintegreringsstöd efter konflikt, vilket hindrar länders fredsbyggande. Denna studie syftar till att studera anledningar till lågt kvinnligt deltagande i DDR-processer i två konfliktdrabbade länder som genomgått DDR-processer under 2000-talet. Studien har utförts genom att bygga upp en egen analysram utifrån det teoretiska antagandet om att DDR-processer misslyckas att ta hänsyn till kvinnosoldaters olika behov och erfarenheter, vilket begränsar deras möjligheter att delta. Studien kommer fram till att den främsta anledningen till lågt kvinnligt deltagande i dessa DDR-processer var kvinnosoldaters rädsla för stigma att associeras med den väpnade konflikten. Rädslan för stigma grundar sig i samhällets konservativa syn på de traditionella könsrollerna. Eftersom att kvinnosoldaters roll i konflikten avviker sig från de könsrollerna kan de utsättas för stigmatisering.

No description available.

No description available.

One of the military establishments that have gained considerable power and autonomy, and it is out of reach of civilian control, is the Royal Thai Army (RTA). In Thailand, coups have become the norm for change of political leadership and government, and has evolved in a cyclical pattern – starting with a coup, followed by an election and a short period of open politics, before a crisis leading to another coup. The majority of Thai people support military interventions when the government is incapable of ruling, but at the same time appear to desire a democratic state and democratic institutions.  With frequent military intervention, democracy in Thailand is fragile. When compared to other cases of military coups in other parts of the world, military takeovers are often violent and not approved of by its own citizens. Therefore, the case of Thailand is unusual and relevant because the latest interventions (2006 and 2014) were considered bloodless, and the RTA succeeded in gaining power and legitimacy from the support of the people without accomplishing political takeovers through armed and violent means. The strategic arguments the RTA uses to gain justificiation can be related to the discourses of security, corruption and monarchy, and it is apparent that the military has been using the rhetorics of the discourses to legitimize their coups.

No description available.

This study has made use of an experimental method to investigate if and how exposure to an integrated 'socioeconomic- and climate justice' framing, and a 'catastrophe' framing, alter Swedish post highschool students attitudes towards climate change mitigation efforts, both on a personal- and societal level. The experiment was conducted through 287 surveys where equal shares of the respondents were given different stimuli through a short text at the beginning of the surveys. Results indicate that contrary to the hypotheses, exposure to the 'catastrophe' frame had a larger and more positive effect on especially attitudes towards personal climate change mitigation efforts, but also to some extent on societal efforts, than did exposure to a 'justice' framing. This is possibly due to the salience of catastrophe framings in the Swedish public discourse, and /or the integrated approach the educational system has taken on the subject of sustainable development.

After many years of climate negotiations, a universally binding agreement has become the main objective for many scientists and politicians in the field of international climate negotiations. The highly anticipated climate conference in Paris 2015 has been portrayed as a success by politicians, newspapers and international organisations worldwide. It seems reasonable to assume that the binding part of the agreement is one of the reasons to its perceived significance given the fact that a binding agreement, historically, has been difficult to achieve. Although the agreement has been celebrated and praised by several influential organisations such as the UN, this perspective has not been uncontradicted. Organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth challenge the assumption that this is a milestone for humanity. This thesis seeks to explore this disagreement with a framing analysis. It is possible to identify two separate frames combatting for their beliefs to become perceived as the truth. The ”Successframe” is illustrated by the Swedish government. The successframe is challenged by the environmental organisations in what can be referred to as a counterframe, in this essay the counterframe is called the ”failureframe”. This thesis uses a theoretical framework inspired by Benford and Snow (2000), to explore why the successframe has become the dominating frame in the public discourse when discussing the Paris agreement.