This study is about drought. At the same time, it is about a community of nomadic livestock producers in the drylands of eastern Morocco. Drought is connected to these Arab pastoralists in numerous ways. In fact, it is impossible to understand the social and economic dynamics currently unfolding in the high plateaus without understanding what drought is and does. Even though defining drought may seem straightforward, it turns out that vastly different notions coexist within the study area, each related to a specific constellation (or assemblage) of actors. In this dissertation, I explore those notions of drought and the assemblages they are entangled with, focusing on key elements of the livestock economy and the tribal community. I hope this study will contribute to knowledge on three levels. First and foremost, empirically: I collect and connect knowledge on an under-studied and marginalized pastoral community in rural Morocco. My insights stem from qualitative and quantitative fieldwork, including a household survey. The second level is methodological: by deploying actor-network theory and assemblage thinking, I tap into theories that have largely been absent from studies of the Middle East and North Africa. As my assemblage approach to drought in eastern Morocco demonstrates, this can generate innovative insights into processes of socio-economic transformation. And third, on a conceptual level, I propose a new way of thinking about drought – a phenomenon of pressing global concern far beyond the high plateaus of eastern Morocco.

We live in a world driven by fast technologies. The same technologies that make information more accessible have created a dilemma by which the same conduits have also enabled access to mass amounts of counter-factual information. It is the assertion of this thesis project that counter- factual information poses a growing risk to the security and stability in liberal democratic societies and warrants a proportional response. The body of work which follows will explore what I have characterized as an information crisis. The information crisis, so presented, is a multi-faceted issue. It's constituent causes and outcomes concern both scholars of security studies and sociology. To address breadth of scope and immediacy of the crisis, the conceptual framework purposed in this project offers an interface between actor-network theory and security studies (ANT-security interface). Actor-network theory is a material-semiotic approach that preferences engagement with human and technological actants as an assemblage. Or, in other words, a network of relationships. The first chapter will introduce the dimensions of the information crisis, providing relevant examples of how counter-factual information embodies a human, and societal security issue. It will delineate important concepts such as misinformation, and...

With the large amount of research constantly being conducted, all documenting important aspects of multiple phenomena, what makes some scientific claims, and not others, stand out from a sea of possibilities to become staple pieces of knowledge? Utilizing the controversy surrounding the use of heritability studies in criminological research as a case study, this thesis analysed the rhetoric at play in two articles presenting competing arguments to (a) identify some of the discursive devices and strategies used in the production of scientific knowledge and ignorance, (b) illustrate that the production of scientific facts is first and foremost a social endeavour, (c) show that knowledge and ignorance are a part of a duality, (d) explain how the same established scientific information can be used in new claims to generate varied forms of scientific knowledge and ignorance, and (e) illustrate how the production of scientific knowledge and ignorance oftentimes involves appealing to audiences’ emotions. Four main ignorance producing strategies were documented, namely denial, dismissal, diversion, and displacement, each of which were used in a number of ways to increase the facticity of scientific claims over that of competing ones. Acknowledging its strengths as a unique mode of knowledge, this study also underlines the importance to get comfortable with the uncertainties and conflicts at the heart of science.

The mobile payments industry, which is currently at an early stage of development, is taking the direction to be established mainly as an NFC-based industry, and, moreover, led by the mobile digital wallets setting. A mobile digital wallet is a complete payment app for your NFC-enabled mobile phone that enables consumers to pay at stores at the point of sale with a mobile phone. The digital wallet, which is associated with a credit card, integrates all payment-related services like the management and storage of receipts, coupons and offers, and loyalty cards. Currently, there are three big partnerships going ahead of the NFC mPayments stream: Google Wallet, VISA’s Digital Wallet and ISIS Mobile Wallet. Each one of these three mobile digital wallets is led by an actor coming from a different industry of origin. Google Wallet is led by Google, an internet and technology actor. VISA’s Digital Wallet is managed by Visa, a traditional payment processor. And ISIS Mobile Wallet is led by three of the largest US telecom operators: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Thus, applying a business network theory to analyse how the industry of origin of the mobile digital wallet affects the interaction within the partnership formed is a unique and perfectly fitted opportunity. The aim of this Master Thesis was to analyse the influence, regarding interaction, of the origin industry of the leading partners on the NFC-based mobile digital wallet partnerships of the mobile payments developing industry. A literature review on business network theory was conducted, in order to identify key features of the business landscape affecting interaction on business networks, as well as an industry analysis of the mobile payments developing industry. Then, the business network theory approach was applied to the study of the mobile payments digital wallet setting, conducting a discussion based both on the industry analysis performed and a set of interviews with experts on the mobile payments industry.

The modularity quality function commonly employed for finding community structure in complex networksis generalized in this article to a one-parameter family of quality functions. The generalization of networkmodularity proposed in this work is based on the concept of network efficiency, a metric first proposedby V. Latora and M. Marchiori. We define the efficiency-modularity of a partition based on the differencebetween the actual and expected efficiency among nodes in a community. The one adjustable parameter inefficiency-modularity can be tuned to detect either community or anticommunity structure with a singleunified algorithm.

Public space functions are essential for society to function because they can support social exchanges and building public life. This master thesis is a study of public life that unfolds in the setting of three redesigned public spaces in Rosengård, including Bokalerna, Rosens Röda Matta, and Rosengård Centrum. Drawing on a conceptual toolbox developed from a territorial actor-network theory (ANT) I examine the socio-material exchanges that take place because of the redesigned materialities of space and explore their impact on the quality of the selected public places. I employ qualitative methods - visual ethnography and interviews - to address the questions of 1) how material topographies mediate social exchange and 2) What actors or events are important for assembling everyday sociality in the selected three public spaces.I made use of six operative concepts of anchors, base camps, multicore and monocore spaces, tickets and rides, ladders, and finally punctiform, linear and field seating to explore their impact on the quality of the selected public places in terms of affording or hindering social exchanges. My field observations of the three sites and interviews indicate that the Rosengård Centrum accommodate a more pronounced public life compared the other, and perhaps the most popular one in the district. The programmed materialities and multiple points of organised activities allow space to facilitate heterogeneous clusterings of humans and non-human entities and the formation of a diverse collective. Moreover, the organization of a mixture of monocore and multicore space in combination with sheltered anchor spots appears to be essential for assembling and stabilising human collectives and everyday sociality in Rosengård.My findings suggest that, while many of the discussions in the literature concentrate on centres of cities or large metropolitan areas, much could still be learned from a thorough study of public spaces at a finer scale and neighbourhood level.

Based on research showing the serious environmental damage associated with conventional aquaculture, coastal marine ranching has been promoted by the Chinese government as an ecological and environmentally friendly way to produce aquatic products and simultaneously restore the marine environment. However, marine ranching is a general concept and there are significant differences among the three main types. This study initially focuses on commercial marine ranching to distinguish it from other types by identifying its unique features, functions and goals. Examining institutional frameworks of commercial marine ranching operations reveals the evolving interactions and interrelations between key actors in the network. The analysis adopts a modified social network theory approach that incorporates Chinese guanxi culture in a case study of the White Dragon Islet marine ranching project to research commercial marine ranching in China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect details from each group of key actors, including the private sector, government, and local communities. Key outcomes of the research include developing a better understanding of the types of marine ranching in China and important insights into changing relationships developed from acquaintance to intimacy and then to trustworthiness within the institutional framework of a successful commercial marine ranching project. The thesis concludes by highlighting key practical implications for government policy and for commercial marine ranching practitioners to improve the implementation of such operations in China. / Graduate

Maps have longed been recognized as instruments of power and persuasion. With the recent proliferation of maps in the media and on the Internet has come an increasing desire among groups advocating for environmental and social change to have access to maps (the product) and mapping (the process) to more effectively promote their agendas. However, this is not as simple as it seems. Far from being neutral conduits of "truth," maps are constructed by a myriad of social interactions among heterogeneous actors (human and technical) that left unacknowledged can lead to an untapped potential of the power of maps. Adopting actor-network theory's (ANT) theoretical framework that accepts nonhuman entities as actors in the social, and its methodological protocols, this study contributes to the needed empirical evidence relating to the ways in which maps and mapping behave and function in society, particularly in the grassroots advocacy context and neighborhood scale, through a case study of the products, and thereby the process, of the Coalition for a Livable Future?s (CLF) Regional Equity Atlas four-year endeavor. The purpose of this study is to account for and expose the complexity of relations among data, technology, people, and organizations that underlie it and the ways in which these relations affected the atlas itself. Four interrelated themes emerge from this study. The first relates to CLF's contribution to equity mapping discourse including its participatory approach to equity mapping, its definition of equity, and the subsequent impacts of both of these things on the mapping process. The second relates more specifically to the contributions of the embedded ideologies that are integral to the GIS software that was used and the roles that they played. The third theme is the importance of process in community-based mapping projects and the recognition that they are social processes in the comprehensive sense that ANT theorists advocate. The fourth theme relates to how maps work, specifically, maps as maps versus the idea of maps.

The discovery of solidus coins on the islands of Öland and Gotland, propose a contactbetween Scandinavia and the Roman Empire during the Migration Period (AD 400-550), buthow did the Scandinavians get access to these coins? In this essay, I will study thestampidentity and coin embossing from 572 coins found on Öland and Gotland. The aim is tounderstand where the coins were minted and during which periods there was a big influx ofsolidus coins to Scandinavia. But also, to understand what European regions the people ofÖland and Gotland were in contact with. This essay will also map certain events that are vitalfor understanding why the solidus coins are found in Scandinavia.

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