Volunteer tourism is a globally, popular and well-known field in which anyone may participate. During recent years the industry has increasingly received some criticism, in contrast to the otherwise quite commonly positive view of it. Hence, this thesis is taking a closer look at the industry and the discourse surrounding it and how the public opinion has changed during the last years. It will bring into light the impact volunteer tourism has both on the local communities and the volunteer tourists themselves. This will be done with respect to the following cases; positive, critical and seeing both sides of the discourse. The data derives from secondary and tertiary sources, the majority from articles from four of the world’s biggest newspapers. Post-Development theory will be used to identify the ideas regarding the discourse, which will be done with an approach of structured, focused comparison and critical discourse analysis. Additionally it will aim to identify the pros and cons with volunteer tourism and discuss why one of the perspectives might require more attention than it has had up until now. Significantly though, it will aim to provide the reader with an overall and objective view of the field.

This study examines the slave narratives The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself and The Bondwoman’s Narrative to determine the way in which these texts depict the economics of labor in slave society. Taking into account the specific socio-historical contexts in which these narratives were written, this study analyzes the way in which the representations of labor in these narratives interrogate slavery and address issues relating to the social relations and power dynamics of their respective societies. Emphasis is given to the way in which the gender complexities of slavery merge with the dynamics of labor thereby underscoring some of the peculiarities of the female slave experience.

In the context of nationalism and sovereignty studies emerging since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this thesis provides an economic, rather than political, perspective of Tatarstan’s success in negotiating sovereignty claims with Russia, arguing that what lay behind Tatarstan’s demands for extensive political and economic rights was not mass nationalist mobilization, but the desire for control over natural resources by the Tatarstani elite dominated by former Soviet functionaries of indigenous nationality. In addition, this paper examines the importance of continuity among the local political elites, contrasting Tatarstan’s approach with that of Chechnya’s uncompromising separatist drive and the resulting years of civil conflict. Finally, the most recent page in the history of Russian-Tatarstani relations, the gradual reduction of the republic’s autonomy in connection with President Putin’s centralizing reforms, confirms my principal argument that control over resources is more important to the Tatarstani elites than political power as such.

In the context of nationalism and sovereignty studies emerging since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this thesis provides an economic, rather than political, perspective of Tatarstan’s success in negotiating sovereignty claims with Russia, arguing that what lay behind Tatarstan’s demands for extensive political and economic rights was not mass nationalist mobilization, but the desire for control over natural resources by the Tatarstani elite dominated by former Soviet functionaries of indigenous nationality. In addition, this paper examines the importance of continuity among the local political elites, contrasting Tatarstan’s approach with that of Chechnya’s uncompromising separatist drive and the resulting years of civil conflict. Finally, the most recent page in the history of Russian-Tatarstani relations, the gradual reduction of the republic’s autonomy in connection with President Putin’s centralizing reforms, confirms my principal argument that control over resources is more important to the Tatarstani elites than political power as such.

xv, 142 p. : ill. (some col.) / Young Latina women are at risk for unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections. Researchers have suggested that factors such as self-efficacy and relationship power dynamics may contribute to difficulty in negotiating safe sex practices. For women in heterosexual relationships, the most common prevention practice--condom use--requires partner cooperation. Sociocultural variables related to gender role socialization can adversely affect a woman's ability to negotiate condom use. I developed and tested a model of sociocultural predictors of Latina women's safe sex practices. The predictors included ethnic identity, acculturation, womanist identity, gender role attitudes, sexual self-efficacy, and sexual relationship power. I surveyed 210 young adult Latina women via an online survey that was disseminated across the United States via social networking websites and email. I used path analysis to investigate the fit of the hypothesized model with the data, first to predict condom use and second to predict sexual history exploration. Results indicated that the hypothesized model predicting the safe sex practice of exploring a partner's sexual history had a good fit to the data, whereas the model predicting condom use did not provide an adequate fit to the data. These findings suggest that young adult Latinas' exploration of a partner's sexual history is more likely to occur when women have stronger ethnic identity and womanist identity, more egalitarian gender role attitudes, and higher levels of partner dominance and control in their relationship. The model accounted for 16% of the variance in sexual history exploration. Although the variance explained was low, this model is still informative of the factors that contribute to sexual history exploration. Exploring a potential partner's history is an important aspect of safe sex practices that can have major implications for healthy sexual decision-making. Understanding an individual's cultural identity via ethnic and womanist identity, as well as considering sociocultural (e.g., gender role attitudes) and interpersonal (e.g., relationship power) factors, can inform prevention efforts that will contribute to safe sex behavioral outcomes. Other factors that may contribute to safe sex practice outcomes that were not accounted for by the models are noted. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. / Committee in charge: Dr. Ellen H. McWhirter, Chairperson; Dr. Linda Forrest, Member; Dr. Joseph Stevens, Member; Dr. Lynn Fujiwara, Outside Member

Landscape management is often referred to as a holistic concept, which deals with large-scale processes and multidisciplinary manners in regards to natural resource use with ecological and livelihood considerations. Seen in this light, landscape transformation should be understood within the context of the human-nature relationship, viewing human activities and their institutions as an essential part of the system rather than as external agents. When it comes to the landscape planning and management related to cotton farming in Gujarat, there has been diversity of interest groups such as local communities, governments, corporations and non-governmental organisations. In the present study, I examine two case studies of cotton production pertaining to the Gujarat region in order to study the opportunities and challenges faced by local farmers in the process of developing agriculture. In the first case study on Cotton Improvement Program in the nineteenth century, I highlight the socioecological consequences of the colonial cotton project and how it relates to the social dynamics of networks and agricultural landscape management. The second case study examines current debates regarding the social, economic and environmental impacts of genetically modified (GM) cotton on India’s social and natural landscape. This thesis emphasises that there are recursive motifs between the two case studies in terms of the local resistances, power relations and possible environmental effects, which can be explained through the state of ‘global core’ and ‘periphery’, and partly the framework of ecologically unequal exchange. The analysis of recurring patterns concludes that exploring the narratives of local experiences offers a number of significant details that show complex power dynamics manifested through constant struggles and resistances by ‘peripheral agent’.

Drinking water supply insecurity is globally on the rise, and prevalent in most low and middle-income urban areas. Multiple responses have emerged to cope with the lack of a reliable and equitable supply of safe and sufficient drinking water in cities, which presents a wide range of social-ecological implications. Yet, many of the analyses to date are focused on predominantly technological, ecological, and economic perspectives, overlooking broader cultural and political dimensions. What are the elements and the interrelationship between them that sustain the lack of drinking water supply security at an urban scale? The empirical case study is located in Mexico City, the capital city of one of the most drinking water-insecure countries globally and among the world’s five largest metropolitan areas. Qualitative data is elicited from a literature review and semi-structured interviews with key experts and urban stakeholders. The results provide an integrated understanding of the proposed system structure that created and maintain the water supply problem in the long-term. Hindrances include knowledge lock-ins and critical dynamics that inhibit the political support to transition towards a drinking water security scenario. This study shows that drinking water supply crisis in the study area and other cities with similar conditions need to be understood as multi-dimensional and from a system perspective, by challenging underlying assumptions and embracing interconnectedness. Key feedback mechanisms are presented in causal loop diagrams, allowing the exploration of higher-order leverage points to reduce existing path-dependencies as one increasingly important research area, and potentially relevant for decision-makers.

Refugee camps have long been considered places of extreme population control. Yet the Za’atari camp, created in Jordan in 2012, soon became famous for frequent refugee demonstrations, sit-ins and stone-throwing. This important capacity for mobilization has been linked to the informal leadership network of ‘street leaders’ that emerged a few months after the camps’ creation (Clarke, 2018). This network challenges the representations of refugees as voiceless victims, and questions the ability of aid organizations to foster community empowerment. It also highlights the power implications of regular organizational practices in refugee camps, and showing how NGOs affect their beneficiaries, it is relevant to the discussion of downward accountability. Thus, studying Za’atari’s power dynamics is crucial to identify conditions of refugee empowerment and improve downward accountability frameworks. In this thesis, this analysis of power dynamics is undertaken with the four-dimensional framework developed by Lukes (1974) and following scholars, which has never been used on refugee camps. The first dimension has to do with individual capacity to influence other’s choices, the second with the limits brought by institutional practices, the third with the meanings assigned to behaviors and the fourth with the socialization processes that teach self-discipline. The thesis studies how a four-dimensional analysis of Za’ataricamp can capture both the extent of camp authorities’ control on residents and the refugees’ capacity to empower themselves. Through the analysis of organizational, journalistic and academic literature, it identifies dimensions of power exercised by and on the camp’s actors at two moments: the street leaders’ rise, and the difficulties of a governance plan implemented to reestablish control. The thesis shows that street leaders were allowed to emerge due to limits in the camp governance’s first dimension and inability to use the second and third dimension, which street leaders, as part of thecommunity, could yield. Moreover, the governance’s plan to restore control encountered difficulties because it was founded on a restrictive one-dimensional view of power linked to the perception of street leaders as mafia-like bosses, refugees as helpless victims and camps as places of containment and order, limiting the authorities’ third dimension. By identifying new factors that were not present in other studies of Za’atari, the findings demonstrate the relevance of the framework to render the complexity of humanitarian settings and encourages its use on other cases. It also reminds the need for aid professionals to work with their beneficiaries’ agency to provide quality services.

The Amazon has experienced rapid forest loss in the past decades due to the growing colonization, infrastructure development and commercial agriculture expansion. Understanding the underlying social, political and economic drivers of deforestation is key to curb deforestation of the Amazon basin. However, analysis of deforestation has primarily been conducted in Brazil and there is a need to study this phenomenon in other countries such as Colombia. This research intends to contribute to this growing body of knowledge to better understand drivers and processes of deforestation in the Northwestern Colombian Amazon by unpacking the causal mechanism underpinning deforestation. To achieve this, I a used Theory-building Process-tracing approach to conceptualize the underlying logics of deforestation in the region. Data collection included qualitative text analysis of policy documents, articles, reports, and grey literature, and virtual semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local actors. Interviews’ format was adapted due to current travelling and social restrictions. Findings indicate that the power vacuum resulting from FARC guerrilla demobilization acted as a window of opportunity for peasants, squatters, narco-traffickers, cattle ranchers, landlords and other investors to access public lands and capitalize from converting forests to coca crops and pastures for cattle ranching. Capital accumulation has increased actors’ ability to reshape the landscape and societal organization by accumulating different forms and sources of power. Traditional elites, and old and emerging narco-bourgeoisie have capitalized on preexisting power asymmetries by disproportionally accumulating different social power seeking to consolidate territorial hegemony. Powerful actors exercise attained sources and forms of power to dispose historically marginalized groups – such as indigenous communities, peasants, and squatters – from their means of subsistence and production, resulting in the instauration of a capitalist economy based on land rent and drug trafficking. All this has deepened forest loss, inequalities and conflict over land access between actors.

Background: The curriculum for both adapted upper secondary school and adapted compulsory school states that everyone within the school must use the curriculum. Nevertheless, it is stated in the introductory chapter of the curriculum that the curriculum is aimed to all teachers and for all teachers. It shows an exclusion of other professions, including student assistants, which are so important for students in need of adaptations. Along with them, the school's goal is to provide the right conditions for the students and the conditions come from the staff but also from the collaboration meeting that the school staff has together with other professions and relatives of the students.Aim: The purpose of the study is to interpret and understand the picture of how student assistants at an adapted school, experience power structures and power relations that they may encounter in a collaborative process. The issues related to the purpose are: What perceptions do student assistants have about their participation and influence in a collaboration process and what perceptions do the student assistants have about their room for manoeuvre in a collaborative process.Methods: I have done a qualitative semi-structured interview study. Where I interviewed five student assistants.Results: The results show that the student assistants may participate before the collaboration meeting but not in the meeting. The results also show that they have room for manoeuvre that they can use when they encounter resistance in the operations.Conclusions: The result of the study showed that there is a balance of power based on mandate and status within the organisation because the educators and principals have the overall decisive decision-making.