During Sweden's economic crisis in the early 1990s a governmental committe of prominent economic and political experts were gathered to produce an analysis of and suggestions to the solution of that crisis. The committe produced a report that became widely commented in the media and in parliment. The report anc the reception of it gives us insights in how the boundaries between social science and politics are created an how new fields of expertise is added to a science. This thesis uses a constructivist approach to explore how the techniques of the economic science were made into credible means of knowöedge production outside of the field where it traditionally holds epistemological authority. Working from the assumption that language does things to the objects that it describes I claim that the episode investigated in this thesis was shaped by the committee's ability to define the economic crissi and thus making it into a knowable object. The cultural space of the episode was shaped by the actor's moves to enrol the committiee's report rather than examining it, making the credibility contest stacked in favour of the committee's concept of the social order.

The thesis explores issues relating to transformative change in the context of marine governance in the Coral Triangle, and the effects of such change processes on policy, stakeholder relations and management activities. Paper 1 studies how change-oriented actors (institutional entrepreneurs) operating at the international level can introduce and purposefully navigate large-scalechange processes. Paper 2 studies the impact of resource inequality on multi-stakeholder collaboration, and tackles the literature of boundary work so as to increase its usefulness for understanding complex, multi-level governance initiatives. Paper 3 explores how narratives about the marine environment are entwined with and influence critical aspects of marine ecosystem governance such as resource allocation, day-to-day management actions, stakeholder relations, and long-term ecological monitoring. Paper 4 investigates how actors at the local level can capture opportunities at higher institutional levels while at the same time catalyzing local potential for change by focusing on the interplay between strategies,opportunity and context. The results show that institutional entrepreneurship requires understanding of how strategies can be matched with opportunity and context, for example by offering a way for other actors to address key priorities and add value to their organizations. The results also show that behind the scene organizing is often a precondition for the introduction of transformative change. Shifting the process from an informal track to a formal track where ideas about transformative change can be deliberated among a broader set ofstakeholders is thus a major challenge. Moreover, a strong narrative is key to successfully introducing and driving transformative change. In this sense, the ability to articulate and distribute a narrative which tells a compelling story about the broader system is critical. Finally, power dynamics are constantly at play in transformation processes due to resource asymmetries. The thesis shows that differences in resources may influence the credibility, legitimacy, and salience of transformative change. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: In press.</p>

This thesis is about medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds who work in Sweden. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds, this thesis explores the medical doctors’ feeling of professional belonging and boundary work. This thesis focuses mainly on the doctors’ experiences of being part of the Swedish medical profession while, at the same time, being regarded as ‘different’ from their Swedish medical counterparts. It starts off with the idea that medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds may have, or could be regarded as having, contradictory social positions. By virtue of being part of the Swedish medical profession, they belong to one of the most privileged groups in Swedish society. However, due to their immigrant background these doctors do not necessarily occupy a privileged position either within their profession or in society in general. This thesis shows that doctors with immigrant backgrounds feel that they are not perceived as full-fledged doctors, which seem related to how they are somewhat ‘othered'. The results show that these doctors cope with being seen as different from doctor with non-immigrant backgrounds, by using the notion of ‘migranthood’ as a resource in negotiations in everyday work life but they also do what they can to overcome the boundaries of ‘Swedishness’. Belonging should therefore be seen as having a formal and an informal side, as getting a Swedish license does not automatically mean that you feel belonging to, in this case, the Swedish medical profession. This seems to put doctors with immigrant backgrounds in a somewhat outsider within position, which seems having to do with boundaries between who is included in the ‘us’ and in the ‘them’. Lastly, these findings indicate that sociologists need to expand the understanding of professional groups to also include boundary work within these groups. In order to do so, this thesis argues that sociological theory on professional groups could be combined with sociological theory about social positions as that is one way to understand the outsider-within position that these doctors (and presumably other skilled migrants) have to cope with.

This study examines the science/policy interactions in global health science and technology governance. It focuses on the institutional design of organizations that sit at the interface of science and policy, conceptualizing them as Boundary Organizations (BOs). The analysis considers how the institutional design of BOs affect boundary-work. The study examines two case studies, UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee and the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. The study examines the ways in which boundary-work is carried out and finds that the concept of a BO demonstrates an institutionalization of science/policy interactions and the analysis of these two cases show that there are different ways that boundary-work is practiced as a function of the design of BOs. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis is about medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds who work in Sweden. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds, this thesis explores the medical doctors’ feeling of professional belonging and boundary work. This thesis focuses mainly on the doctors’ experiences of being part of the Swedish medical profession while, at the same time, being regarded as ‘different’ from their Swedish medical counterparts. It starts off with the idea that medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds may have, or could be regarded as having, contradictory social positions. By virtue of being part of the Swedish medical profession, they belong to one of the most privileged groups in Swedish society. However, due to their immigrant background these doctors do not necessarily occupy a privileged position either within their profession or in society in general. This thesis shows that doctors with immigrant backgrounds feel that they are not perceived as full-fledged doctors, which seem related to how they are somewhat ‘othered'. The results show that these doctors cope with being seen as different from doctor with non-immigrant backgrounds, by using the notion of ‘migranthood’ as a resource in negotiations in everyday work life but they also do what they can to overcome the boundaries of ‘Swedishness’. Belonging should therefore be seen as having a formal and an informal side, as getting a Swedish license does not automatically mean that you feel belonging to, in this case, the Swedish medical profession. This seems to put doctors with immigrant backgrounds in a somewhat outsider within position, which seems having to do with boundaries between who is included in the ‘us’ and in the ‘them’. Lastly, these findings indicate that sociologists need to expand the understanding of professional groups to also include boundary work within these groups. In order to do so, this thesis argues that sociological theory on professional groups could be combined with sociological theory about social positions as that is one way to understand the outsider-within position that these doctors (and presumably other skilled migrants) have to cope with.

This dissertation investigates how legal and policy professionals have legally constructed the economic policy and governance of the EU since the beginning of the Eurozone crisis onwards. It follows the legal and policy professionals who received the mandate to enable and consolidate solutions, as well as defend these solutions in court. By tracing the practices and trajectories of these agents, I show how, during an unfolding crisis, economic policy and governance becomes legally constructed and changes the terms of legitimation for EU economic governance. The stakes involved for the professionals involved also change. In this way, the dissertation speaks to the question of how intrusive political power has been legitimated during the Eurozone crisis and what this means for the legitimacy of European governance. Theoretically, this thesis develops a Bourdieusian field approach that is adapted to the transnational and diachronic context of the Eurozone crisis, as it unfolded from the end of 2009 until the adjudication of key high-profile court cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Drawing on boundary work, bricolage, and network interactions to analyse the practices of legal and policy professionals, the process of enabling and consolidating solutions is elaborated. Attention is given to how this process engenders stakes for the professionals in this emerging euro-crisis law field, and what this means for emerging legal terms of legitimation for economic governance.Methodologically, field-based and social network analysis are combined in two distinct ways. First, by employing a temporally-focussed network analysis, which caters for change by measuring the shifting centrality of legal and policy professionals over time, I show which professionals have had a high-level of involvement in dealing with crisis issues. This then permits the construction of a referral network based on how these professionals refer to their peers. The involvement of the professionals is further articulated as their accumulated symbolic capital: i.e. their involvement together with being perceived to know well. From this, I infer a species of symbolic capital unique to being part of the Eurozone crisis policy response: juridical capital.This dissertation adds to scholarship on the Eurozone crisis by creating a theoretical framework based on Bourdieusian fields, which utilises a network analytical approach to show how the practices and interactions of legal and policy professionals reconfigure the transnational contexts that are implicated in the crisis policy response. Moreover, it is shown how these professionals’ practices enable solutions that are contested before the Court of Justice of the European Union, putting the Court in a position where it has to bring the definitional power of the law to bear on the actions of EU institutions and the Eurogroup. The Court must decide how responsibility should be attributed. The dissertation shows how legal and policy professionals developed practices, using jurisdictional and constitutionalising logics, and deployed at different times during the crisis, enabled and consolidated processes of legal integration and differentiation. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Previous research has shown that institutional logics are the frame of reference used by individuals to make sense of their everyday life. This thesis aims to understand how such logics are displayed by actors in the public, private and non-profit sector and how they influence the construction of intersectoral collaboration for social innovation in a Swedish context. The aim is fulfilled through the research questions (i) How are institutional logics expressed by the informants? (ii) Do the interpretations of the ideal institutional logics influence the construction of boundary work? This is analyzed through the framework of boundary work.  This qualitative study was conducted through in-depth interviews with ten actors working in different sectors all participating in a coalition hosted by Mötesplats Social Innovation. The empirics demonstrate that the respondents display logics through four sub-themes; economic resources, incentives for activities through meaningfulness, source of authority and salient values. Various logics in the three sectors result in differences between the sectors. These differences lead to an advantage for intersectoral collaboration; thus, sectors hold different competencies and resources, resulting in fruitful collaboration, but also come with disadvantages such as unclear responsibilities, causing hindrance to collaborate. Actors base their actions in accordance with prevailing characteristics within the logic of their sector. Some characteristics overlap between sectors, and this answers research question two. Similar sectors tend to collaborate more than others, in this case, the public and non-profit, based on similar salient values and incentives for activities through meaningfulness but also due to a dependency from the non-profit sector’s side on the public sector for achieving economic resources. Further, logics create hindrances for intersectoral collaboration through its material attributes and lack of financial resources seems as the main hindrance to collaborate intersectoral for social innovation.

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<p>Preschool is a central part of Swedish family life. The manner in which the state regulates preschool through laws, ordinances, and various kinds of written objectives has an impact on many people in the Swedish society. </p><p>The thesis examines the development of preschool state regulation from the 1940s until 2008. The starting point of the study is a draft for a new Education Act, put forward in 2003, which proposed that preschool should be integrated into the school system as a new form of school. The purpose of the study is to generate knowledge about the state regulation of Swedish preschool, and how it has contributed to the shaping of preschool as a societal institution. Questions considered in the analysis are how regulation delimits preschool as a social category, what role this regulation assigns preschool in relation to other actors and societal institutions involved in early childhood education and care, and what principles this regulation is based on.</p><p>The study has evolved within the research tradition of curriculum theory as developed in studies in educational politics. The analysis is carried out as a text analysis, where the concepts of boundary work, official classification and activity system serve as important analytical tools. Texts produced within the formal chain of decision and legislation: directives for committees, government white papers, ministerial task forces, bills, legislative texts etc., form the empirical foundation for the study. </p><p>The analysis shows that economic as well as legal and ideological governing instruments are used in the shaping of the framework of preschool. These frameworks are indicated in the form of different boundary markers that delimit preschool as a specific category and arrange it in relation to other categories. The boundaries indicated by these boundary markers have been subject to extensive discussion during the formulation process. Through this boundary work, preschool has been constructed as a full time preschool, commissioned to provide both education and care. The boundaries of this commission are in some respects indistinct and contain several overlapping elements with regards to family, social services and school. At the same time, preschool holds a fixed core with more distinct boundaries, in the form of a part time public preschool delimited by time and age and regulated by far-reaching legislation regarding the rights of children to attend. Owing to this construction, preschool may balance several different and partly contradictory demands placed on it by other institutions and by different interest groups, while at the same time maintaining a core of identity of its own. In that sense, preschool may be described as a boundary object. Thus, when it is suggested that preschool should constitute a form of school and be placed in the more formal regulation structures of the school system, the balance of this construction is challenged. </p>

La recherche scientifique biomédicale dans le domaine des cellules souches et plus largement de la médecine régénérative offre aujourd’hui des promesses d’applications thérapeutiques révolutionnaires pour de nombreuses maladies. Pourtant, il semble que pour certains, ces avancées pourraient servir d’autres desseins, notamment en ce qui concerne l’amélioration biologique de l’humain vers des objectifs de contrôle voire d’inversion du processus de vieillissement. Beaucoup de ceux qui tiennent à ces idées appartiennent à un mouvement, dit transhumaniste, où ils s’accordent sur des idées et valeurs communes concernant l’avenir de l’humain. Plus que cela, certains de ces acteurs transhumanistes prennent activement part à la recherche scientifique et orientent celle-ci vers les valeurs qu’ils soutiennent, touchant ainsi aux frontières de disciplines scientifiques établies et à la démarcation entre science et pseudoscience. En s’appuyant sur les concepts de recherche confinée / recherche de plein air, de forum hybride et de travail aux frontières, la présente recherche explore la place que les chercheurs transhumanistes occupent dans la recherche scientifique institutionnelle et se questionne sur la façon et les moyens qu’ils mettent en oeuvre pour y prendre part. À partir de la constitution et de l’analyse d’un corpus documentaire transhumaniste sur les cellules souches, mais aussi en décrivant le réseau auquel les chercheurs transhumanistes appartiennent, l’étude apporte une perspective nouvelle sur le mouvement transhumaniste. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les chercheurs transhumanistes ne se cantonnent pas à produire des discours et des représentations de leurs idées et de leurs valeurs, mais participent activement à la réalisation de celles-ci en menant eux-mêmes des recherches et en infiltrant la recherche scientifique institutionnelle. / Biomedical research in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine promise a wide array of revolutionary therapeutic applications for many diseases. Yet for some those advances could serve other purposes, particularly in regards to the biological improvement of humans, means of control and even the reversing of aging process. Many of those who share these ideas belong to a movement called transhumanism. Some of these actors are actively involved in scientific research and steer it in accord with their personal values. Up to a point were they reach the outer limits of science into what we can only describe as pseudoscience. Based on the concepts of confined research / research in the wild, hybrid forum and boundary work, this master thesis explores the role of transhumanist researchers involved in institutional scientific research by questioning their ways and means. For this analysis, we produced a transhumanist documentary corpus on stem cells and studied the relations of transhumanist researchers as a network. This study provides a new perspective on the transhumanist movement. We agrue that transhumanist researchers are not confined to the representations of their ideas and values through discourse, but actively partake in the achievement of transhumanist’s objectives by conducting research within institutional scientific research structures.