This thesis explores the work experiences and life histories of a group of Latina migrant women who work in specific sectors of the service industry in Atlanta, Georgia. I focus on janitorial/custodial as well as domestic labor in order to confront the social issue of the continued devaluation and exploitation of feminized wage work. This ethnography reveals how education and English proficiency tie into how migrant labor is viewed in the United States specifically, and asks how Latina migrant women might be able to achieve labor legitimacy in the future. My findings are based on in-depth interviews that I collected from ten Latina migrant women who live and work in the Atlanta metro-area.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

Jämställdhetsintegrering är i Sverige den huvudsakliga strategin för att nå de jämställdhetspolitiska målen. Strategin går ut på att ett jämställdhetsperspektiv ska finnas inom alla områden, nivåer och processer i beslutsfattande och utförande av politik. Strategin har används sedan 90-talet men några tydliga effekter har inte kunnat påvisas och samhället är fortfarande inte jämställt. Inom forskningen har jämställdhetsintegreringens transformativa potential ifrågasatts. Man menar att strategin när den sätts i praktiken anpassas till etablerad politik och processer snarare än att förändra dem. Det är jämställdhetsintegreringens transformativa potential som undersöks i denna uppsats genom en fallstudie av för teorin kritiska fall. Strategier, styrdokument och utvärderingar studeras i tre svenska kommuner. Slutsatsen är att jämställdhetsintegreringen i dessa gynnsamma fall inte är genomgående transformativ utan att det sker en viss teknokratisering och avpolitisering av jämställdhetsarbetet. Därmed ger den stöd till forskningen som menar att jämställdhetsintegrering inte uppfyller sin transformativa potential när den sätts i praktiken.

This study examined global studies programs which emerged as a seemingly new field of knowledge in Canadian universities, beginning in 1998. These programs arose within the context of a number of transformational processes in higher education, namely internationalization, the introduction of global citizenship, an accent on civic engagement, and interdisciplinarity. By analysing institutional motivations and the personal convictions of the initiators of the new programs, the study identified a problematic lack of cohesion within the growing field of global studies in Canada. The principal method of analysis adopted in this study was the first-hand examination of a number of specific cases at different universities or institutions of higher learning, in the form of extensive interviews with leading individuals in the relevant programs. Additionally, university policy documents, reports of Canadian organizations (e.g. AUCC), and program websites were consulted in order to examine trends in global studies programs in Canada. An in-depth review of existing literature on the conceptualization of global studies as well as an analysis of diverse data collected made it possible to identify a number of problems, foremost of which was a disconnect between the theoretical aspirations for the emerging field and the understanding of global studies due to a lack of consensus in Canada on a definition of global studies. It was revealed that a common understanding of global studies in Canada is lacking. Furthermore, the analysis brought to light the diverse ideas behind the conceptualization of global studies programs, and the ways in which the personal ideas of the programs’ founders interacted with a variety of motives for designing these kinds of programs at different universities. An examination of the composition of the programs revealed their indeterminate character, as well as a remarkable overlap with the field of international development. Finally, the study offers recommendations for the leaders in global studies in Canada and provides suggestions for future research.

Intricate Fictions: Cartography and the Contemporary African Novel examines the relationship between narrative and mapping practices in recent African novels. Considering the continent's well-documented history as a site of cartographical projection, I ask how its literary output remaps this space in the years following colonial rule. This project responds to calls for increased attentiveness to space in African literature, employing an interdisciplinary methodology that puts critical cartography into conversation with African literary criticism and globalization studies. I trace a trajectory from post-independence novels writing against colonial depictions of the continent to contemporary novels interested in engaging the instability concomitant with globalization and its attendant diasporas, migrations, and challenges to epistemological categories such as the nation. These novels develop what I term dynamic cartography, a mode of space-writing characterized by fluidity, disjunction, and mobility. This study brings to the fore a corpus of works that embody the spatial tensions of the contemporary era, raising provocative questions about our metageographical and cartographical tendencies. As absolute frameworks of time and space give way, new modes of space-writing continue to blur the boundaries between the map and the novel, offering further avenues of analysis. Ultimately, I pursue these avenues in order to contend that as global space becomes increasingly dynamic, so too do the genres that represent that global space. Contemporary African novels, composed with a profound awareness of geographical transformation, are thus also positioned at the forefront of generic transformation. / English

The overall topic of this thesis is the English School understanding of international order, which I approach specifically by analysing the English School idea of international institutions and their change. The purpose is to develop the theory in a meta-theoretically conscious and coherent way. The three essays in this volume are independent in relation to each other, yet in some ways cumulative. Essays I and II aim to address primarily the question of how to conceptualise the current international order of multilateralism and international organisations. Essay I uses the empirical issue of UN reform to formulate one English School conceptualisation of international order, building specifically on the School’s central theme of international institutions. Essay II theoretically develops the tools of the English School for capturing how international institutions, according to English School theory the fundaments of international order, might change. Essay III approaches the meta-theoretical question of how change itself is understood in the English School, and how different theoretical readings of what we might mean by change give rise to different approaches to the normative question of what might be improvement in the international order. I argue that an internally coherent understanding of change in international society should emphasise change in institutions, made intelligible by ex-post narratives which contribute to establishing the discursive connection between practices and their normative legitimation, and guided by a sustained normative debate on the nature of improvement. This understanding of change signifies a much-needed addition to the English School toolbox, and brings a promise of a meta-theoretical grounding of the theory. In addition, it opens for similar theoretical inquiries into other IR theories.

Including civil society organizations in the policy process is a distinctive trait of democratic governance. But, while being highly valuable from a democratic point of view, not all civil society organizations are represented in the policy process. This dissertation draws attention to the role of the government in shaping the representation of civil society organizations in the Swedish government consultation referred to as the ‘remiss procedure’. The overall aim is to increase empirical and theoretical understanding of civil society organizations’ access to the national Swedish policy process. Drawing on various empirical data sources, it analyzes how access has changed during the second half of the 20th century, the factors influencing access, and the significance of the access provided by the government. The results are based on four empirical studies, and show that the government has encouraged an increasing number and more diverse types of civil society organizations to be represented in the remiss procedure. In addition, organizations with plenty of resources, such as labor and business organizations, are not overrepresented. However, access is slightly skewed in favor of civil society organizations with an insider position within other access points at national government level, which is consistent with a privileged pluralistic pattern of interest representation. In addition, civil society organizations seem to be invited into an arena for political influence of less relevance. Theoretically, the dissertation moves beyond the neo-corporatist perspective that dominated Swedish research during the second half of the 20th century by drawing attention to five different theoretical lenses: pluralism, neo-corporatism, political opportunity structures, policy network theory, and resource exchange theory. It concludes that a variety of theories are needed for access to be understood.

On the 3rd of December 1989, Venezuelans went to the polls for the first time to directly elect their local and regional political leaders. A process of government decentralization was initiated with direct elections of municipal mayors and regional state governors. Since 1958, the political system had been dominated by two political parties, the social democratic AD (Acción Democrática) and Christian democratic COPEI, both strongly centralized parties. The system of strongly dominant political parties is often referred to as partyarchy, with penetration of organized social and political activities. Notwithstanding, the AD-COPEI partyarchy experienced a relatively rapid process of undermining from 1989, losing control over important mayordomes, governorships and municipal councils. The municipal, regional and national elections of 1998 and 2000 changed the political panorama even more. Several entirely new political parties have emerged. The MVR (Movimiento V República) party of current President Hugo Chávez presents the most dramatic and rapid rise in this context. But similarly, other parties associated with decentralization have achieved increased political influence.Theoretically, a combination of actors rational choice, and, more process-structural approaches, helps to theoretically understand the political transformations related to decentralization and its implications for the party system. The study demonstrates that the party system and political decentralization are Intimately connected and dependent of each other. This study describes and analyzes the "encounter" between the Venezuelan party system and the decentralization reform. / <p>Forskningsämne: Latin American studies/Latinamerikastudier</p>