Henriksson, I & Jönsson, M. Den svenska glasburken. En diskursanalys av Statens Offentliga Utredningar/ The Swedish glass jar. A discourse analysis of official government reports. Examensarbete i Socialt arbete 30 poäng. Malmö högskola: Hälsa och Samhälle, enheten för Hälsa och Samhälle, 2011.The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the representations that are created in official government reports on the "immigrant" and how, or whether this changed over time. We analyzed five different official government reports from the years 1972, 1989, 1995, 2003 and 2010. This is a discourse analysis where we analyze government reports with focus on how they create "the other" of the people who are classified as refugees or immigrants, and what representations are created. The theories we use in our work is about how discrimination appear primarily through the written language. We used a lot of the research made by social scientists Ylva Brune and Kristina Boréus, both as a theoretical framework and methodology to go through with the analysis. The results showed significant changes in awareness about the subject but not as big changes in how they actually created "the immigrant”.We argue that there is a need for social workers to engage in critical analyses of state polices as they in many ways shape the frame of our work. Thought this essay we hope to contribute to a more nuanced and less dichotomous discussion on issues of migration.

Each of the fifty U.S. state constitutions establishes a fundamental framework for governmental operations within the state. Described by previous scholarship as the state's political technology, state constitutions delineate formal gubernatorial and legislative authority. Extant literature has focused on gubernatorial and legislative relations from the standpoint of the contemporary contextual political factors associated with individuals serving in the respective offices. Although useful, this focus limits a deeper understanding about how state constitutions, as a point of departure, might affect the way in which governors and legislators interact in the policy process. Specifically examined by this research is how variation in design might impact the ability of governors and state legislatures to achieve preferred policy alternatives. This is addressed through the divergence between the governor's proposed budget and the state legislature's enacted budget. To analyze potential influences of this divergence, state budgets from 27 U.S. states over a recent period of eleven years were collected and coded according to policy areas. Data were used to test hypothesized effects of state constitutional design of formal authority. Based on Tobit model estimation and predicted values of divergence derived from alternative constitutional design scenarios, some state constitutional factors affect the ability of governors and state legislatures to achieve preferred policy alternatives. Salient constitutional variables include gubernatorial and legislative budget authority, institutional control, and duration in service factors. The empirical focus of this research contributes to a more enriched understanding of state constitutions as political technologies. In essence, the design of state constitutional authority has the potential to affect how governors and state legislatures interact in the policy process. In addition to contributing to state constitutional theory, these findings enrich the understanding of the design of authority by reformers and citizens. / Ph. D.

This study investigates the impact of bounded rationality on information security decisions in public Swedish authorities. The research addresses how cognitive limitations and organizational dynamics shape decisions in this area. Utilizing qualitative research methods, in-depth interviews and document analysis, the study provides nuanced insights into decision-making processes. A thematic analysis identifies six recurring themes influencing decision-making: Awareness & Knowledge, Individual Characteristics, Organizational Culture & Behavioral Patterns, Organization & Execution, Regulatory Frameworks & Management, Responsibility & Obligation.  The findings reveal significant influences and barriers in implementing effective security strategies, making a theoretical contribution to information security management in public sectors. This research highlights the importance of understanding human behavior in information security, offering insights to shape strategic directions for policy and practical implementation to enhance organizational and national cybersecurity resilience.

This thesis was planned as an -interdisciplinary work, a possible exemplar of 'a peace study' (see Appendix 5). It offers an analysis of the situation of the Asian children of immigrant families, socially and racially disadvantaged in Britain, in the Bradford school system from the mid-1970's to 1980*, and their relative success in terms of external examination assessment in comparison with their peers. This is seen against the backcloth of pioneering Local Authority policies to support their education and observations of practice in schools. The findings are generalised as models of what is perceived by the policy-makers and practitioners to be progress towards racial justice and peace. It is argued that the British school system has shown limited facility to offer equal opportunity of success to pupils in socially disadvantaged groups and that this is borne out in an analysis of the situation of the Asian pupils in the County Upper schools in Bradford (CB), less likely to be allocated to external examination-orientated groups or to gain success in these than their peers. There are indications that their potential may not be being realised. It is argued that while language support for the bilingual child is important, account should also be taken of a more general cultural dominance in the school system and stereotyped low expectations from teachers which may feed racial bias in institutions. The data show that the LEA policies, though benevolent in intention, demonstrate institutional racism in effect. With four case studies from observations in Bradford schools, models are developed for practice that has potential for power-sharing and greater equity of opportunity -for pupils, involving respect for cultural diversity and antiracist education strategies supporting and supported by community participation in schools. It is argued that white educationists need to listen to black clients, pupils and their parents, involving them in dialogue to ascertain their real needs, to implement appropriate policy. As there was a considerable lapse of time between the field work research and writing up of this thesis, and its final presentation, an addendum (with bibliography) reviews some of the research and literature in the fleld since 1980. This situates the field work historically. The issues raised and discussed in the context of the 1970's are still far from being solved. The additional work stregthens, rather than changes my original conclusion that society is locked into a cycle of inequality. A counter-hegemony must emerge from 'grass-roots', community initiatives with a values-base linked not to self-seeking or confrontational power group politics but to a notion of the common good.

This thesis draws on an ethnographic research in Ghana to question mainstream views on decentralisation that local level institutions can be consciously crafted to enlist the participation of marginal actors in governance thereby leading to efficiency and equity in development. The research explores the everyday practice of local governance in Ntonaboma, a resettlement community in the Eastern region of Ghana by using participant observation and interviews. Evidence from the study reveals that first decentralisation is not a technical or managerial exercise but rather a societal practice taking place among heterogeneous actors with diverse interest and values. Secondly, the interactions occurring among these diverse actors are mediated through the interplay of a variety of institutions at the local level. Thirdly, the complex and dynamic character of decentralisation at the community level make the specificities of context very relevant in understanding the transformative potentials of decentralisation especially how it impacts on people and their social organisation. The study places emphasis on the application of agency, institutions and authority in local governance approaches. Evidence from the study suggests that institutionalised decentralisation inadequately provides possibilities for ordinary people to transform the nature of their interactions within the community. The thesis raises further questions about the simplistic and instrumental use of institutions in local governance approaches. The study notes that institutions are not static and do not determine outcomes but are informed by the prevailing conditions at the community level. Thus, the actions of actors and specificities of the locality do shape institutions. The study emphasises the role of existing institutions and socially embedded principles in village governance. It thus suggests that, the process of decentralisation is a political process mediated through diverse institutions and with varied outcomes for different individuals. The study concludes by exploring implications for local governance and decentralisation to making local governance pro-poor.

Influence has been studied across many different domains including sociology, statistics, marketing, network theory, psychology, social media, politics, and web search. In each of these domains, being able to measure and rank various degrees of influence has useful applications. For example, measuring influence in web search allows internet users to discover useful content more quickly. However, many of these algorithms measure influence across networks and graphs that are mathematically static. This project explores influence measurement within the context of linear time invariant (LTI) systems. While dynamical networks do have mathematical models for quantifying influence on a node-to-node basis, to the best of our knowledge, there are no proposed mathematical formulations that measure aggregate level influence across an entire dynamical network. The dynamics associated with each link, which can differ from one link to another, add additional complexity to the problem. Because of this complexity, many of the static-graph approaches used in web search do not achieve the desired outcome for dynamical networks. In this work we build upon concepts from PageRank and systems theory introduce two new methods for measuring influence within dynamical networks: 1) Dynamical Responsive Page Rank (DRPR) and 2) Aggregated Targeted Reachability (ATR). We then compare and analyze and compare results with these new methods.

Traditionally, systems of constitutional democracy fell into two categories: parliamentary sovereignty, characterized by the omnipotence of Parliament and the absence of any substantive limitations on its power; and judicial supremacy, characterized by the presence of restrictions on legislative power in the form of a judicially enforced, written constitution containing a bill of rights. Recently, scholars have noted that Canada’s Charter regime includes elements of both traditional systems and have proposed new ways of understanding the apparent “sharing” of legal authority between courts and legislatures in Canada. These “new models” incorporate several key features of the traditional models but purport to be distinctive, and more accurate, accounts of how legal authority is allocated. Key features of the new models include a bill of rights, judicial review of legislation, and the preservation of legislative finality over the bill of rights through an “override” mechanism. However, these new models fail to capture the division of lawmaking power that is formally entrenched in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In addition, they do not provide an adequate account of how the legislative finality provided through the “override” mechanism distinguishes the new models from legislative supremacy. A proposed “hybrid” model accommodates the formal division of legal power in the Charter and raises new questions about the extent of legislative finality in Canadian constitutionalism. The hybrid model also explains Canada’s supposed lapse into de facto judicial supremacy as an indication of a nuanced and compartmentalized form of legislative supremacy. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Democratic governance was traditionally thought to require a choice between parliamentary sovereignty, with no restrictions on legislative power, and judicial supremacy, with restrictions on legislative power in the form of a judicially enforced, written constitution containing a bill of rights. Recently, scholars noting that Canada’s legal system includes elements of both traditional systems have proposed new ways of understanding the “sharing” of legal authority between courts and legislatures. These “new models” incorporate a bill of rights but allow legislatures to ignore or override these rights, thus preserving an element of parliamentary sovereignty. However, these new models fail to capture the division of lawmaking power that is formally entrenched in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A new “hybrid” model accurately reflects this formal division of legal power and raises new challenges to the other new models of constitutionalism.

Contemporary global governance has become reliant on the expert knowledge of professional actors. Yet governance systems based on technical forms of private authority have proven highly unstable and vulnerable to crisis. How is private authority re-configured following challenges and pressures for change in times of crisis? This dissertation explores the agency exercised by a range of professional actors seeking to legitimately reassert power during periods in which their expert knowledge has become unsettled. A two-prong thesis is advanced. First, in drawing on explicitly normative discourses professional actors seek to reassert moral authority, rather than addressing flaws in their expert knowledge and emphasising their technical authority. Professional actors express attention to and involvement with a wider array of overtly ethical issues that had previously been abstracted away. Second, reassertions of authority may depend not merely on more explicit positioning within normative debates but upon the underlying ideas and values prioritised. The authority of professional actors remains precarious when value sets linked to crisis are continuously emphasised. A genealogical analysis of professional actors in Anglo-American finance since the outbreak of the most recent financial crisis in 2007 is undertaken through a revised variant of the discursive institutionalist framework. Informed by primary documents from professional actors and their associations along with original interviews and secondary media documents, the changing underpinnings of the authority of financial services providers, economists, and advisories based in the United States and United Kingdom are examined. The study contributes to a wider emphasis on the changing authority of a range of private actors as well as to an enhaced stress on both discourse and ethics in International Relations, Global/International Political Economy, and Global Governance scholarship. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation explores the persistent prominence of professional actors in Anglo-American finance since 2007. Though their legitimacy has become widely challenged with the outbreak of the most severe period of instability since the Great Depression, the power of these private actors has not entirely been dislodged. Professional actors have sought to legitimise such continued power in financial governance in novel manners since 2007. This study critically assesses attempts by professional actors to reconfigure their authority in the recent period of volatility. In interpreting how professional actors have sought to reconfigure authority, rather than explaining the ultimate success of their attempts to do so, efforts by professional actors to legitimise their power are scrutinised. Uncovering the precariousness of such attempts, this study casts further doubt on the legitimacy of both professionals as well as on-going efforts to reform financial governance that persistently rely on the authority of private actors.

This thesis investigates the intersection of a local place with the forces of globalization which destabilized existing social, cultural and economic sources of meaning and identity. The research setting is the Ontario wine industry, which appeared to be on the verge of collapse in the 1980s because of changing consumer tastes, an adverse GATT trade ruling and the effects of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. The research draws on semi-structured interviews with wine industry participants who were instrumental in the construction of the new identity and on documentary research including corporate documents, public reports and media articles to trace the evolution of the VQA from a project identity to a legitimizing identity. The introduction of voluntary industry self-regulation through the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA), an appellation of origin system, was a local response to the inclusion/exclusion logic inherent in globalization. A small sector of the industry mobilized to construct an alternative collective identity, not of resistance to global forces, but of accommodation to them. In a political expression of their collective interests, cottage wineries operating on the margins of the industry, took advantage of existing resources in the local and international domain to craft an identity for quality wines based on 100% local grapes. Institutionalizing the new identity meant negotiating ongoing relationships of power and influence to become a political actor with the authority to shape the content and meaning of a this identity. The process led to transformation of the industry and local place, and acquired legitimacy through provincial legislation that appointed the VQA as the Wine Authority. This conferred on Vintners Quality Alliance Ontario the powers of the state to enforce industry compliance with the standards which comprise the identity. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Цель данного исследования - проанализировать эффективность работы Информационно-аналитического департамента Администрации Екатеринбурга по продвижению территории, разработать программу по ее усилению. Автором работы были изучены подходы и модели продвижения территории, а также российский опыт продвижения городов. Автор разработал критерии эффективности деятельности департамента в этом направлении. Автор разработал управленческий план по усилению работы Информационно-аналитического департамента в направлении продвижения Екатеринбурга. / The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the Information and analytical Department of the Yekaterinburg administration to promote the territory, to develop a program to strengthen it. The author of the work studied the approaches and models of territory promotion, as well as the Russian experience of cities promotion. The author has established criteria for the effectiveness of the Department in this direction. The author has developed a management plan to strengthen the work of the Information and analytical Department in the direction of Yekaterinburg promotion.