Social enterprises are hybrid organizations that tackle societal challenges by using conventional business models. Being hybrid organizations means that social enterprises pursue dual objectives: social (developmental) and financial. By taking performance, subsidization and internationalization perspectives, this thesis contributes to understanding the hybridity of social enterprises and how this hybridity drives their general operations and key decisions such as foreign market selection and targeting strategy. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Droughts can have far-reaching and devastating effects on all sectors of society and ecology and future changes to drought and flood patterns are uncertain. This uncertainty has led to a lax response from local officials in dealing with mitigation and adaptation, particularly in Sweden. As such, this study focused on providing more localized estimates of future drought trends in Sweden so that policy makers can make informed decisions. To assess impacts to different sectors, the results from ten different climate model simulations between 1961-2100 under different emission scenarios, along with hydrological model simulations, were evaluated throughout Sweden for 50 different catchments using a variety of meteorological and hydrological drought indices. We projected a consistent and significant increase in drought severity, duration, and intensity over the course of the 21st century in many parts of Sweden under both moderate and high emission scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). However, models were in less agreement on the sign of change of drought frequency. These results are highly consistent with more regional pan-European studies on drought, but also show significant departures due to local catchment-specific variability in some forms of drought. Local impacts to agriculture, energy production, water supply, public health, and fresh-water ecosystems are briefly discussed. These results are likely underestimates of future drought due to biases in the models. Improved formulations of drought indices along with a more robust statistical handling of the model output could reduce these uncertainties. / Torka kan ha förödande effekter på samhälle och ekosystem. På grund av ökande nederbörder och temperaturer är förändringar i torka och översvämningar osäkra. Dessa osäkerheter har lett till slappa åtgärder från politiker och lokala tjänstemän vars syfte är att anpassa samhället inför torka och översvämningar. I och med detta fokuserade denna studie på att ge mer lokaliserade uppskattningar av framtida torktrender i Sverige så att beslutsfattare kan fatta välgrundade beslut. För detta utvärderades resultat från olika klimatmodeller och simuleringar av avrinnesområden mellan 1961-2100 under olika utsläppsscenarier. Dessa utfördes i hela Sverige för 50 olika avrinningsområden för att bedöma effekterna av framtida torka på olika samhällsfunktioner, så som jordbruk, energiproduktion, vattenförsörjning, folkhälsa, och ekosystem. De flesta modellerna visade en överensstämmande ökning av torkans magnitud, varaktighet och intensitet under 2007-2100 i många delar av Sverige under både måttliga och höga utsläppsscenarier. Modellerna var dock mindre överens om förändring av torkfrekvensen. Dessa resultat överensstämmer mycket väl med mer regionala studier av Europa men visar också tydliga skillnader på grund av lokal variation, vilket har olika effekter på olika samhällsfunktioner. Det visade sig även att klimatmodellerna och våra metoder hade en tendens att överskatta bland annat nederbörd, vilket innebär att dessa resultat sannolikt är underskattningar av framtida torka.

Individual food choices have a considerable impact on public health and the environment. The incidence of nutrition-related diseases has been continuously increasing during the last decades. Diets higher in plant-based foods have shown to be healthier and more environmentally sustainable.Many urban social innovation projects based on citizen engagement and community building are able to influence food consumption habits. However, there is a large variety of projects, which target specific population groups and focus on different sustainability issues. To understand how social innovation projects located in Germany, and especially Berlin, use citizen engagement and community creation to encourage nutritious and sustainable food choices, the research team conducted a qualitative research study consisting of semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The results were compared and validated using different social change, social innovation, network and leadership theories. When people with various backgrounds come together over a shared purpose and interact with each other, they can influence each other’s opinions and behaviors. A physical community setting was shown to be efficient to create awareness about sustainable and nutritious food choices. In order to include all population groups, citizens need to feel heard and understood, and have to be directly engaged in the decision-making process. A need for a leadership figure or a democratic leadership group is highlighted, and a combination of ‘transformational leadership’ and ‘authentic leadership’ styles proved to be the most effective. Urban food social innovation projects tend to cooperate with each other, as well as with other leaders and organizations, influencing them and serving as role models. These findings can help social innovation projects that implement citizen engagement and community building practices to efficiently promote nutritious and plant-based food choices among an urban population. Since this study is based on a limited number of organizations in Berlin and other regions of Germany, further research in other urban and/or rural environments is needed.

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Thesis (M.Dev. (Planning and Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study provides a theoretical foundation for researchers to investigate the effects of rural development non-governmental organisations’ governance on societal transformation. The research also assessed the mission statements from a non-profit organisation perspective, considering their operational activities in trying to address NGOs’ governance. Although, historically, these statements have been used almost exclusively in a management context. The nine components of a mission statement provide direction for the researcher to examine statements and practitioners to create and modify the statements. This study marries the rural development non governmental organisations’ governance and societal transformation literature. Creating a fruitful new area for marketing research and practice. The recommendations will hopefully give guide and recommend tools for aligning NGOs operational activities with their mission statements to promote good governance practice. The study investigated the effects of rural development non-governmental organisations’ governance on societal transformation. The aim was to investigate the types of rural development actions and role players in Elansdoorn Moutse, to analyse the governance of the actions of rural development role players, to examine the scales and profiles of NGOs acting in rural development, to delineate the effects of rural development NGOs’ governance on societal transformation, and to propose measures for improved governance of actions and enhancement of societal transformation credential of rural development NGOs in developing countries. The study found that if rural development NGOs were well governed, they would have the power and potential to transform the society. / University of Limpopo (UL)

In 1872, Mormon plural wife, educator, and suffragist Lucinda Lee Dalton began writing fiery political essays and insightful poetry for the Woman's Exponent from her small community in southern Utah. Through her writings Dalton endeavors to shape the opinions of Exponent readers by working within public discourse toward the goal of equality for women. At times both optimistic and troubled, she uses the rhetorical strategies of humor, irony, reason, identification, and persuasion to educate men and women on disparities and to encourage women to participate actively in their own emancipation. She often engages in a dialogical process with other writers by crafting both polemic and poetic responses to specific writings in order to work toward greater insight on critical issues. As an essayist Dalton defends her religion, calls for the expansion of women's political and economic opportunities, and asserts that the elevation of women is crucial to achieving the potential of both sexes. As a poet she is a compelling writer who reveals in her poems her apprehensions and aspirations, her faith and feminism. Much of her poetry reflects the same commitment to reform that is clear in her essays, and she uses both genres do effective political work. This thesis uses a pluralist approach to recover Lu Dalton as an important early Mormon writer. It articulates her merit as a representative voice by evaluating the historical context and rhetorical function of her published writings in which she actively calls for broad societal reform, writing on women's roles, political rights, and relationship with God and men.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur gängmedlemmar lyckats lämna sitt gäng. Denna kvalitativa studie undersöker fyra gängmedlemmars personliga resa ut ur sina respektive gäng, och hur de upplevde samhällsinsatser och ibland bristen på dem. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer som analyserades med en tematisk analys. Under litteratursökningens gång upptäcktes en märkbar kunskapslucka i tillgänglig forskning om hur människor lämnar kriminella gäng. Det finns dock studier gjorda om vägen in i ett gäng. Resultatet av intervjuerna har tolkats utifrån push- och pull-teorin och teorin om sociala band. Resultaten tyder på att majoriteten av de tillfrågade lämnade sina gäng på grund av rädsla för att bli skjutna, antingen för sig själv eller familjemedlemmar. En annan viktig anledning till att de tillfrågade lämnade sina gäng var för att de hade yttre motiv och möjligheter, såsom: en ny relation, att skaffa barn eller att flytta till en annan stad. Personer som har lämnat gängkriminalitet upplevde ofta samhällsinsatserna som otillräckliga och därmed bristande. Enligt deras upplevelse litade socialarbetaren inte helt på eller lyssnade på dem. Andra typer av insatser som respondenterna hade önskat var: familjebehandling i hemmet, mentorskap eller olika återinträdesinsatser för att bli bättre integrerade i samhället efter att ha lämnat ett gäng. Studien visade att det finns ett behov av ytterligare forskning gällande utfallet av olika insatser. Det behövs också ytterligare forskning kring socialarbetarens roll, vad de kan göra och vad de bör göra, för att underlätta vägen ut ur ett gäng. / The purpose of the study is to investigate how gang members succeeded in quitting their gang. This qualitative study examines the personal journey of four gang-members out of their respective gangs, and how they experienced the societal efforts and sometimes the lack of them. The study was carried out with the help of semi-structured interviews which were analyzed with a thematic analysis. Surprisingly, there was a noticeable gap in available research in how people leave criminal gangs. There are however studies done on the way into a gang. The result of the interviews have been interpreted based on the push- and pull-theory and the theory of social bonds. The results indicate that the majority of respondents left their gangs due to fear of getting shot, either themselves or family members. Another major reason why the respondents left their gangs is because they had other external motivations and opportunities, such as: a new relationship, having a child, or simply relocating to another city. However, the former gang members often experienced that societal interventions were lacking. In their experience the social worker didn't fully trust or listen to them. Examples of interventions that could have benefitted, according to the respondents, are: family treatment at home, mentorship, or re-entry interventions to get better integrated into society after leaving a gang. The study showed that there's a need for further research regarding the potential outcome of each type of intervention. There is also a need for further research regarding the role of social workers, what they can do, and what they should do, in order to facilitate the way out of a gang.

The thesis takes a research through design approach to identify the potential of a storytelling board game concept to raise awareness about societal challenges. Knowledge of existing serious game examples illustrating the social issues, designing a board game prototype iteratively, and evaluating with co-creation sessions helped to comprehend the potential of the subject. The thesis, with an iterative process, focuses on one case study, designing a board game called “Can you survive?”. The game uses storytelling to relay stories about refugees’ hardships caused by language and communication barriers to its players. The research process was supported by several co-creation workshops, including game playing and focus group sessions, to advance the board game in terms of making it more impactful and evolving the rules while gathering insights about the game and the players’ thoughts about the game topic. As a result of the research process, the final version of the board game was designed. The study demonstrates that a board game using narrative elements can be a cooperative tool to communicate societal issues with the goal of raising awareness. The results show the players agree that the game drives them to understand the challenges based on the subject and develop different points of view. Even if the case study focuses only on the experience of the ups and downs of the language barrier refugees deal with, it may also be applicable to some other social issues. The study also shows that co-creation sessions to test the prototype with the target groups brought unconsidered perspectives that advance the game mechanics and help to make it more impactful. Having a limited amount of research and design about storytelling game concepts illustrating the serious topics by using board games, this thesis offers that serious game design researchers should consider the storytelling board games aimed at raising attention on societal issues since it helps players to engage, motivate and create empathy. Moreover, it stresses the possibility of serious game design concepts to be used to promote awareness of social problems, not only for training or education purposes.

This study seeks to investigate the relationship between human development factors and domestic stock markets using a multiple linear regression model. Despite efforts to improve the model's explanatory power, the findings indicate that the model fails to confirm the research question. Nevertheless, the model uncovers a discernible trend in the dataset, albeit with limited explanatory capacity. These results highlight the complexity of the interplay between human development factors and domestic stock markets and suggest the need for further research and alternative modeling approaches to deepen the understanding of this relationship. / Denna studie syftar till att undersöka sambandet mellan faktorer som rör mänsklig utveckling och inhemska aktiemarknader genom användning av en multipel linjär regressionsmodell. Trots försök att förbättra modellens förklaringskraft, visar resultaten att modellen misslyckas med att bekräfta forskningsfrågan. Trots det upptäcker modellen en urskiljbar trend i datasetet, även om dess förklaringskraft är begränsad. Dessa resultat betonar komplexiteten i samspelet mellan faktorer som rör mänsklig utveckling och inhemska aktiemarknader, och föreslår behovet av ytterligare forskning och alternativa modeller för att fördjupa förståelsen av detta förhållande