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Cabala is a small, rural village of mestizo and indigena people in the Ecuadorian Andes. Since the local haciendas were disbanded in 1962 the economy and population of the village have both declined and the remaining villagers have increased their engagement in the money economy. Nevertheless most contemporary villagers were suspicious of urban Ecuador which they perceived as being organised exclusively according to trade transactions and saw themselves as belonging to a distinct moral community characterised by participation in exchange relations. Cabalano society was largely ordered according to the logic of a 'good faith economy' and any breach of the obligations inherent in exchange relations threatened not just the relationships between participants but the social order of the whole village. Transgressions of the social order were minimised by the stress most villagers placed on the correct performance of social roles and the maintenance of personal reputations. Thus the social and political order of the village was weighted towards conservatism and I describe how awareness of public scrutiny of their behaviour influenced how most villagers behaved towards members of their own household, managed their responses to the world and treated illness. At the same time, however, many villagers were able to manipulate public opinion, at least sometimes, and were able to both initiate, and adapt to, changes in the social order. Furthermore increased engagement in the money economy suggests that villagers were aware they could choose to order their social relations according to a different logic but chose not to. In the conclusion to the work, therefore, I argue that most villagers made an active choice to stress the importance of exchange relations in order to resist the perceived anomie of the modern, Ecuadorian state.

Sammanfattning Författare: Pontus Assarsson Handledare: Torbjörn AnderssonHögskola: Malmö Universitet, Institutionen för Lärande och Samhälle, Idrottsvetenskap Syfte: Syftet är att öka förståelsen för hur social ordning skapas och upprätthålls på gym i Malmö. Metod: Tio gymanläggningar i Malmö har besökts av mig personligen där semistrukturerade intervjuer (n=10) genomförts medgymanläggningsansvariga platschefer. Resultat: Den sociala ordningen på gym i Malmö förstås som att det råder konsensus på ytan men att denna konsensuskultur endast ärskenbar eftersom motsättningar och sociala problem ändå uppstår.För detta har kontrollsystem och turordningsregler upprättats vilkaförstås som övervaknings- och disciplineringsanordningar somomformar misskötsamma Malmöbor till rediga individer.Nyckelord: Social ordning, gymbransch, intervjuer, sociologi. / AbstractAuthor: Pontus AssarssonAdvisor: Torbjörn AnderssonUniversity: Malmö University, Institution of Learning and Society,Sport SciencePurpose: The purpose is to increase our understanding of how social order iscreated and maintained at gyms in Malmö.Method: Ten gym facilities in Malmö have been visited by me personally,here semi-structured interviews (n=10) were carried out with site-responsible managers.Results: The social order at gyms in Malmö is understood by the fact thatthere is consensus on the surface but that this consensus culture isonly apparent because contradictions and social problemsnevertheless arise. For this, control systems and ordering measureshave been established which are understood as monitoring anddisciplining devices that transform misleading Malmö residentsinto tidy individuals.Keywords: Social order, gym industry, interviews, sociology.

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What organized crime is and how it can be prevented are two of the key questions in both organized crime research and criminal policy. However, despite many attempts, organized crime research, the criminal justice system and criminal policy have failed to provide a shared and recognized conceptual definition of organized crime, which has opened the door to political interpretations. Organized crime is presented as an objective reality—mostly based on anecdotal empirical evidence and generic descriptions—and has been understood, as being intrinsically different from social organization, and this has been a justification for treating organized crime conceptually separately. In this dissertation, the concept of organized crime is deconstructed and analyzed. Based on five studies and an introductory chapter, I argue that organized crime is an overarching concept based on an abstraction of different underlying concepts, such as gang, mafia, and network, which are in turn semi-overarching and overlapping abstractions of different crime phenomena, such as syndicates, street-gangs, and drug networks. This combination of a generic concept based on underlying concepts, which are themselves subject to similar conceptual difficulties, has given rise to a conceptual confusion surrounding the term and the concept of organized crime. The consequences of this conceptual confusion are not only an issue of semantics, but have implications for our understanding of the nature of criminal collaboration as well as both legal and policy consequences. By combining different observers, methods and empirical materials relating to dimensions of criminal collaboration, I illustrate the strong analogies that exist between forms of criminal collaboration and the theory of social organization. I argue in this dissertation that criminal organizing is not intrinsically different from social organizing. In fact, the dissertation illustrates the existence of strong analogies between patterns of criminal organizing and the elements of social organizations. But depending on time and context, some actions and forms of organizing are defined as criminal, and are then, intentionally or unintentionally, presumed to be intrinsically different from social organizing. Since the basis of my argument is that criminal organizing is not intrinsically different from social organizing, I advocate that the study of organized crime needs to return to the basic principles of social organization in order to understand the emergence of, and the underlying mechanism that gives rise to, the forms of criminal collaboration that we seek to explain. To this end, a new general analytical framework, “criminal organizing”, that brings the different forms of criminal organizations and their dimensions together under a single analytical tool, is proposed as an example of how organizational sociology can advance organized crime research and clarify the chaotic concept of organized crime. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 5: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

The position of the maternal body within patriarchy is the topic of this discussion where, rather than looking at a linear sequence of events, various aspects of this position are explored. On an individual level, the intrusion of the father into the dyadic, and potentially incestuous mother-child relationship, marks the entry of the child into the Symbolic Order, and this reflects the mythical account of creation in the Old Testament, where actual maternity is repressed in favour of a paternal monopoly in creation. Just as monotheism both represses and appropriates many aspects of the goddess cult which preceded it and which it replaces, the maternal body is repressed and appropriated within patriarchy. The acquisition of language and awareness of sexual difference marking entry into the 'Law of the Father,' are constructed on a duality of self and other, a dichotomy of inside and outside with a border, represented by the skin, separating the two. This border, separating the symbolic from its other is tenuous and ambiguous, for it is not entirely impermeable barrier. What seeps across this border, what transgresses the barrier between inside and outside, is considered by Kristeva to be abject. Positioned at the threshold separating inside and outside, abjection is the threat of the ever present, but submerged mother crossing the threshold and disrupting social order. Throughout the paper are images selected from an entire body of related visual research which is closely linked to the ideas contemplated here. / Master of Arts (Hons)

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This thesis is an empirically based, theoretical discussion of the process of decision making in relation to Library Management Systems (LMS). Although the conceptualization of the LMS decision process in rational terms, common in many LMS selection models, may be useful in different respects, here the process is viewed from a social constructivist stance. It is argued that due to the complexities involved, the potential choice of an LMS does not necessarily reflect the superiority of the chosen LMS based on objective inherent qualities. Nevertheless, libraries continually choose new systems and in many of these selection processes, the chosen system is perceived as the optimal choice. In this study, therefore focus is placed on examining the way in which this shared perception is constructed. Three theoretical views are adopted as the research framework, including Brunsson’s views on the process of decision making and its consequences, Collins’s views on methodological symmetry and construction of conceptual order, and finally Giddens’s views on duality of structure and the social order. Observations, interviews, and document studies are the methods employed in four different case studies that each lasted from 10 months to two years. In this study an array of different factors were found to be influential during the long process of the LMS decision making. It was also found that although the norms of rationality were striven for, and shared perceptions of rationality were constructed, the complexities involved did not allow a true rational choice by determination of all the options, projection of future needs, evaluation of the identified options, and selection of the optimal outcome. Instead, the different activities and happenings during the process helped construct a shared perception of the possible courses of action and optimality of the decision outcomes. Based on this study and with the help of the theoretical framework, it was suggested that an LMS choice is only one potential consequence of the LMS decision process; other consequences include legitimization, action, responsibility, and constructions of conceptual and social order. Through this study, the importance of the day-to-day actions and interactions (at micro level) and their wider implications for the construction of shared perceptions and shaping and reshaping of social structures are highlighted. This thesis contributes towards an alternative conceptualization of the process of LMS decision making. It may also have implications for the library practice, LMS related research, and educational programs within LIS. / <p>Akademisk av handling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig</p><p>granskning kl. 13:15 fredagen den 1 oktober 2010, i hörsalen M404, Högskolan i Borås.</p><p>Avhandlingen har tilldelats den prestigefyllda utmärkelsen ”The 2011 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards”. The thesis has been awarded with the prestigious honor of ”The 2011 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards”</p>