In the contemporary critique of the welfare state a common target is taxation. The consequences of the high levels of taxes collected by the modern state, the critics argue, are slowdown in economic growth, high unemployment, and declining public legitimacy for taxes and state provided welfare. This thesis explores the political support for taxation in Sweden, the epitome of high-tax-society. The thesis consists of one introductory chapter and five journal articles. The first objective of the thesis is to examine whether a trend of increasing tax discontent has occurred in Sweden since the early 1980s up to present. The second objective is to study public attitudes to the 'Tax Reform of the Century' implemented in 1991. The third objective is to analyse whether public tax preferences and patterns of social conflict observed in Sweden tend to be unique in a cross-national context. Of particular interest is to analyse how relationships between structural locations and tax preferences are affected by the institutional context within which they are embedded. This is the fourth objective of the thesis. The following conclusions are drawn. First, no long-term trend of increasing discontent with taxes can be distinguished in Sweden, but there are some indications that discontent may have increased during the most recent years. Second, attitudes towards taxation are multidimensional and patterns of conflict vary across dimensions. Preferences regarding redistributive properties of taxation are primarily structured by social class. Generalised discontent with taxes tends to be associated with trust in political institutions. Third, the social bases of political support for progressive taxation appears to be different in Sweden compared to other countries examined. While class is the single most important determinant in Sweden, the lack of class divisions is evident in the United States and Britain. It is argued that patterns of tax policy conflict are strongly influenced by institutional configurations of organised social protection and government social spending priorities. / digitalisering@umu

Since the mid-1990s, American Internet service providers (ISPs) have enjoyed immunity from liability for defamation under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. As Congress originally intended in 1996, Section 230 has strongly protected freedom of online speech and allowed ISPs to thrive with little fear of being sued for online users' comments. Such extraordinary statutory immunity for ISPs reflects American free-speech tradition that freedom of speech is preferred to reputation. Although the Internet landscape has changed over the past 20 years, American courts have applied Section 230 to shield ISPs almost invariably. ISPs won in 83 of 85 cases in 1997 to 2014. Nearly all types of ISPs have been held to be eligible to immunity unless they are original online speakers. Even when ISPs have operated websites that have left digital "scarlet letters" on individuals, they have not been liable if the ISPs did not "create or develop" the defamatory contents. Bloggers, as website operators, could be immunized even when they exercised the "traditional editorial functions" unlike the traditional journalists. By contrast, ISPs in the United Kingdom could not enjoy such absolute immunity. Following the U.K. tradition of plaintiff-friendly libel law, the Defamation Act 1996 did not adopt any separate provision for ISP liability. Under Section 1, ISPs in England are subject to liability for defamation by third parties if they are notified of harmful online contents but fail to remove the postings promptly. Meanwhile, the new Defamation Act 2013 provides a separate provision for ISP liability. Section 5 is novel because ISP liability hinges on whether the original speaker is identifiable. I suggest that CDA Section 230 should be revised. One possible way of revising Section 230 is borrowing from the U.K. Defamation Act 2013. But such adoption is not compellingly urgent. It needs time to see what impact the new U.K. defamation law will have on freedom of speech. Regardless, the U.K. experience with ISP liability will provide a useful comparative framework to rebalance free speech with reputation on the Internet.

No / This study presents a cross-national examination of e-government adoption in the United Kingdom and the United States. The results of partial least squares analysis indicate that disposition to trust is positively related to internet trust and government trust. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have a significant impact on intention to use. Internet trust has a positive effect on intention to use. We conclude by highlighting cultural differences in e-government adoption.

Diese Studie konzentriert sich auf eine vergleichende Erforschung über lebenslange Lernmotivation und deren Einflussfaktoren in China und Deutschland. Da das lebenslange Lernen ein weithin anerkanntes System ist, welches internationale Bedeutung, reichliche Konnotation, Multiplex-Programmen und komplexe Verzweigungen enthält, scheinen die Erforschung und Analyse über das lebenslange Lernen und konkretes Lernverhalten, Strategien, Theorien, Performanz und Einflussfaktoren immer extrem schwierig zu sein. Zum Analysieren der konkreten Lernerfahrungen sowie Einstellungen und Gedanken von normalen Personen über das lebenslange Lernen werden biographische Erzählung Interview als Instrument der Datenerhebung und die Erforschung Schritte vom Grounded Theory als Forschungsmethode verwendet. Insofern ist eine empirische Theorie auf unseren Forschungsgegenstand zu entwickeln. Die interviewten Personen für dieser Studie besteht aus 20 ausgewählten chinesischen und 20 ausgewählten Deutschen mit unterschiedlichem Hintergrund und Konventionen. Untersucht werden die ganzen Lernerfahrungen und Ansichten von ihnen über die Motivationen und Einflussfaktoren auf ihr eigenes lebenslanges Lernen. Basiert auf einen Analyseprozess von offenen, axialen und selektiven Codierung kann man feststellen, dass die Lernmotivationen und Einflussfaktoren auf lebenslanges Lernen vor allem aus vier Hauptgruppen, nämlich Familie, Gesellschaft, Individuum, sowie Schulen bzw. Mitschüler und Lehrer kommen. Zum Beschreiben der Zusammenhänge zwischen diesen Faktoren und den typischen Kategorien von Einflussfaktoren in den einzelnen Ländern zu beschreiben, werden sie in „Postmoderne“, „Scandinavian“, „Transformation“ und „Traditionelle Asiatische“ Typen mit dem „Ideal-Typ“ als Leitgedanke eingeteilt . In der konkreten Analyse der Arten der Motivation und Einflussfaktoren auf lebenslanges Lernen von Deutschen und Chinesen, werden die „Autonome“ und „Autoritären“ Features auf der y-Koordinate, und die „Individuell“ und „Sozial“ Faktoren auf die x-Koordinate beschriftet, damit die Cluster-Formen der Faktoren in den einzelnen Ländern auf die Diagramme zeichnet werden können. Die konkrete Analyse der Einflussfaktoren und Motivationen beruht auf dem allgemeinen Hintergrund der nationalen Bedingungen und der Realität der Bildungsentwicklung in jedem Land. Jede Hauptkategorie der Einflussfaktoren und Motivationen hat seinen tiefen Grund von der konkreten Makro-, Meso- und Mikrorealität, wie die nationalen Geschichte, Gesetzessystem, Bildungseinrichtungen, Lehr- und Lernpraktiken, wirtschaftliche Situationen, Gesamt Figuration und Bildungskulturen, sowie das Bildungssystem. Durch Analysieren und Vergleichen kann festgestellt werden, dass jedes Land oder Region ihre eigenen Eigenschaften, Implementierungsmethode oder Merkmale des lebenslangen Lernens sowie ihrer Bildungspolitik, Bildungserfahrungen, Lernmethoden, Prinzipien, Lern- und Lehrerfahrungen hat. Zur Verbesserung der Bildungsreformation und deren Fortschritt könnte man erfolgreiche Erfahrungen und Geschichte als Referenz verwenden, damit eigenes erfolgversprechendes Bildungssystem bzw. erfolgversprechende Bildungspolitik gründet werden könnte. Auf der Grundlage von Schlussfolgerungen und Ergebnisse dieser Erforschung sind Vorschläge und Anleitung für die Förderungen des lebenslangen Lernens zu erschließen, die sich in der Zukunft nicht nur in China und Deutschland, aber auch in anderen Industrie- und Entwicklungsländern für verbesserte Leistungen in diesem Bereich anbieten.

Although there is an increasing interest in social sciences amongst policy makers in financial services and investment organisations, not enough is known about the way financial organisations and activities interact with their social environments. In particular, there is a need for more research into the way financial activities are integrated into broader social structures. This thesis will report on a comparative study analysing the practices of financial organisations and their employees in two very different social environments: the UK and Chile. From 38 in-depth interviews with financial practitioners in London, Edinburgh and Santiago de Chile about their job trajectories and experiences, it was possible to analyse the practices of financial organisations in the UK and Chile, with an emphasis on the way they interact with global financial trends and local distributions of power and resources. A sociological account of organisational processes such as recruitment, socialisation, staff allocation, promotion and organisation of work within firms in these countries allowed for description and analysis of the way firms’ practices are related to their social (structural, symbolic and institutional) contexts. The research shows that Chile’s position in the global financial market and local distribution of resources encourage more traditional organisational practices, especially in terms of recruitment, socialisation, staff allocation and promotion, as well as activities performed and the way services are provided. In the UK, on the other hand, all of the above-mentioned processes are more technical, formally designed and competitive.

This thesis examines the moderating role of trade union representation in addressing the gap in employer-provided training between permanent workers and workers with fixed-term contracts (FTCs) from a cross-country, comparative perspective. The impact of trade union representation is measured on two different levels: (1) access to trade union representation at the workplace at the individual-level (2) average trade union representation at the country-level, measured as trade union power. The statistical analyses are performed using data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and multilevel modelling. Our result suggests that, across the European countries, workers with FTCs receive less employer-paid training than permanent workers. Regarding the impact of trade union representation, statistically significant result is found only at the individual-level, where access to trade union representation increases employer-paid training regardless of employment contract. For the interaction between access to trade union representation at the individual-level and FTC, no significant relationship is found. However, the models with the cross-level interaction between trade union power and FTC indicate that employer-paid training increases for permanent workers only. Our findings suggest that trade union representation at the workplace could operate as an equalizer between permanent workers and FTC workers, while at the country-level, their lobbying effect is beneficial for permanent workers only

In a world of presumed nation-states, nation has been, and still is, an intrinsic part of political legitimization and identity formation. Thus, it is clear that the understanding of nationality and people's relationship too it is of great importance for our understanding of how a stable society, partly built on nationality, can prevail in a world of migration consisting of individuals with diverging moral, religious and cultural conceptions. This thesis examines national sentiments in a cross-country comparative perspective. It consists of an introductory chapter and five articles. The first objective is to study the relationship between policy regimes and supposedly related national sentiments. The question is whether there are differences in national sentiments that can be derived from differences in policy regimes or whether there are more universal features to be found. In examining this we have the possibility to further understand what factors that help to create and sustain national sentiments. The second objective is to study the relation between different national sentiments and other complex attitudes such as xenophobia and protectionism. This includes the study of national identities as well as of nationalism. The following conclusions are drawn. First, it appears that we need to reconsider the almost taken for granted assumption of a correspondence between regime types prevalent in a certain society and people's sentiments towards such a society. Second, there exist substantial cross­country similarities in the effect that different national sentiments have. It is shown that people who have more civic forms of national sentiments are clearly less inclined to hold derogatory preconceptions about people perceived as not belonging to the group, compared the ideas held by those who have more ethnic national sentiments. Moreover, the findings also supply empirical evidence supporting the notion that a clear-cut positive nationalism can never exist. All in all, it is shown that multicultural ideas are something worth striving for on an individual level. Moreover, the results seem to indicate that a liberal form of multiculturalism is preferable to a more communitarian version, which is explored and supported in the normative exposé of the two forms of multiculturalism. / digitalisering@umu

This PhD study centres on analysing the changing employment service portfolios available to disadvantaged people out of work in Britain and Germany. Looking at the recent wave of comparative studies on ‘activation’ reforms, it springs to mind that the question of the changing portfolio of ‘active’ labour market policy (ALMP) measures has received only little attention in the sense of a rigorous comparative analysis. In order to address that gap, this study develops a novel normative and analytical perspective for the study of ALMP, which then is applied to the empirical cases Britain and Germany. I first develop the concept of personalisation as the normative and analytical framework for the analysis of ALMP. I show that the diversity of ALMP portfolios, which is a precondition for a personalised service provision, can serve as a proxy for measuring personalisation. Equipped with this analytical tool, the analysis subsequently focuses on the changes to ALMP portfolios over the past 15 years in terms of diversity. It is shown that during this period both Britain and Germany reformed working-age benefits in a way that led to a closer integration of the benefit system at an institutional level. Taking the policy rhetoric that closer integration will lead to more ‘personalised’ (UK) or more ‘tailor-made’ (Germany) services as a starting point, I analyse whether these developments at an institutional level have indeed led to a more personalised, or more diverse, provision of employment services. This study looks in particular at the situation of those groups in the two countries who have been most affected by recent integration reforms. These have primarily been claimants of second-tier working-age benefits, namely incapacity related benefits in the UK, and ‘Sozialhilfe’ (SH, social assistance) and ‘Arbeitslosengeld II’ (ALGII, Unemployment Benefit II) in Germany. I find that in both countries, employment services for claimants of these second-tier benefits have become more diverse in the wake of the integration reforms of the past 10 to 15 years, thereby increasing their personalisation potential. However, the two countries have each followed very specific reform trajectories. While the volume and coverage of ALMP have increased in both countries, the portfolio of services for second-tier claimants today is much more diverse in Germany than in Britain. This is primarily due to the existence of a large volume of services directed at claimants more distant from the labour market that follow a social integration & employability approach. These services are more marginal in Britain, where measures that follow a work-first approach are dominant. This divergent development is indicative of major and persistent differences in terms of ideational context as well as institutional (operational) factors. New Public Management reforms have influenced operational policy to different degrees in the two countries, effectively limiting the diversity of employment services in Britain more than in Germany.

My thesis presents a comparison of English and Turkish Early Years/Kindergarten teachers’ understandings and practices of outdoor activities. Comparative research provides a wider understanding of the two different cultures’ current circumstances in outdoor activities. Such research provides in-depth understanding of educational aspects in different cultures, and produces enhancement opportunities for educational pedagogies (Alexander, 2001). I had been conscious of possible differences in cultural perception of childhood and its temporal effects on historical developments as well as on the way children play and engage in outdoor activities and this informed my approach. This thesis was based on ethnographic research involving two sets of observations and interviews exploring English and Turkish teachers’ perceptions and practices of outdoor activities. The observations and interviews were held both before and after an intervention that I introduced. This intervention used social media to allow teachers to exchange photographs and comments about their outdoor learning practices and share ideas across the two countries. Four main themes emerged from the research: professional learning in the early years, barriers, freedom and pedagogic roles. The interaction that allowed them to see different practices had a notable impact on the teachers; enhancing their approach to outdoor activities and contributing to their professional development. Therefore, this research reveals the importance of cross-cultural research as well as the practicality of the new model: The Online Interactive Professional Learning Model based on the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT).

Submitted by Fabielle Cheuczuk (fabielle.cheuczuk@unioeste.br) on 2018-09-12T19:04:15Z No. of bitstreams: 2 (01) Dissertação completa com nova ficha catalogtáfica (1).pdf: 2204251 bytes, checksum: 1d4781f606239e777d4d5fcae7b3d838 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-12T19:04:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 (01) Dissertação completa com nova ficha catalogtáfica (1).pdf: 2204251 bytes, checksum: 1d4781f606239e777d4d5fcae7b3d838 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-02 / The aim of our dissertation is the subversion in Paulo Freire. We used a figure of speech, that is, the spectrum which surrounds us to talk about military dictatorships and the context of Paulo Freire's life and work. We present in a dialectical form the concept of subversion, and, as an elucidative one, we list and name some subversives. subjective and objective elements of our approach to the concept of subversion have been presented, supporting the main thesis: Paulo Freire was an international subversive, in life and work, both in Brazil and in Argentina. The methodology we used was historical materialism. We emphasized comparative research since we are dealing with two countries (Brazil and Argentina). We have used two methodological approaches to prove the thesis: bibliographical and documentary. Our main aim was to find the subversivity in Paulo Freire in the biases: conceptual, political and pedagogical and the pertinence of the author to the present. The facts and the documents, besides our interpretation, showed the legacy of Paulo Freire, both in Brazil and in Argentina. In Brazil, Paulo Freire was arrested and forced into exile. On his return to the country he assumed positions of prominence, progressive positions, always in defense of the oppressed ones, while his works were used by popular educators. He is the patron of our education. In Argentina we proved that Paulo Freire's theory circulated, was appropriate and resulted in a guide to practice, especially to progressive teachers. Moreover, Paulo Freire was present in Argentina in 1973, in communion with rectors, teachers and students. After the redemocratization in Argentina, Paulo Freire returned to the country and made an analysis of the social and political conjuncture and of his own participation as international subversive. Thus, we show what the author said about Argentina, what the Argentinians said about Paulo Freire, and what the documents show about Paulo Freire in that country. Regarding the historical moment in which we live, in Brazil and Argentina, we understand that there is a "ghost that surrounds us", in other words, the phantom of dictatorships. Paulo Freire is a living theory, praxis, his life can serve as inspiration, and his works to the understanding to those who opted for the "ragged ones of this world / O objeto de nossa dissertação é a subversão em Paulo Freire. Utilizamos de uma figura de linguagem, ou seja, o espectro que nos ronda para falar das ditaduras militares e do contexto da vida e da obra de Paulo Freire. Apresentamos de forma dialética o conceito de subversão, e, como elucidativo, elencamos e nominamos alguns subversivos. Apresentamos elementos subjetivos e objetivos de nossa aproximação com o conceito de subversão e defendemos a tese principal: Paulo Freire foi um subversivo internacional, na vida e na obra, tanto no Brasil quanto na Argentina. A metodologia que utilizamos foi o materialismo histórico. Enfatizamos a pesquisa comparada por estarmos tratando de dois países (Brasil e Argentina). Fizemos uso de duas abordagens metodológicas para provar a tese: a bibliográfica e a documental. Nosso principal objetivo foi encontrar a subversividade em Paulo Freire nos vieses: conceitual, político e pedagógico e a pertinência do autor ao hodierno. Os fatos e os documentos, além de nossa interpretação, mostraram o legado de Paulo Freire, tanto no Brasil quanto na Argentina. No Brasil Paulo Freire foi preso e forçado a exilar-se. No retorno ao país assumiu cargos de relevância, posições progressistas, sempre em defesa dos oprimidos, ao mesmo tempo em que suas obras foram utilizadas pelos educadores populares. É o patrono de nossa educação. Na Argentina provamos que a teoria de Paulo Freire circulou, foi apropriada e resultou em guia da prática, em especial aos professores progressistas. Além disso, Paulo Freire esteve presente na Argentina, no ano de 1973, em comunhão com reitores, professores e alunos. Depois da redemocratização na Argentina, Paulo Freire retornou ao país e fez uma análise da conjuntura social e política e de sua própria participação como subversivo internacional. Assim, mostramos o que o autor disse sobre a Argentina, o que os argentinos disseram sobre Paulo Freire e ainda, o que os documentos mostram sobre Paulo Freire naquele país. Em relação ao momento histórico em que vivemos no Brasil e na Argentina, entendemos que há um “fantasma que nos ronda”, ou seja, o fantasma das ditaduras. Paulo Freire é teoria viva, é práxis, sua vida pode servir de inspiração, e suas obras ao entendimento àqueles que optaram pelos “esfarrapados desse mundo”