In this study I search for the real understanding of the Lauclanian concept of ”populism” from both the viewpoint of William Connollys essentially contested concepts and the conceptual historian Reinhart Koselleck. My starting point for the analysis takes its inspiration from the more contemporary notion of ”constructing the social” but tries to focus on a result that can be free from the highly abstract discourse theory put forward by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The result is a peculiar paradox in which the concept of populism reconstructed by Laclau not only is contested but contested in such way that even the meaning of the word could lose its contextual use in place of another – the political. At the same time, the concepts favorability through a more common usage (or in Koselleckian terminology, its more democratized meaning) must be acknowledged, and in relation to the leftist political parties that uses this theoretic, strategic and analytical conceptual category it instead becomes much clearer why its usage is applied but also favoured by Laclau. It could be said that it is the most effective concept in determining the strategic discursive landscape and to shape it in favour of a future left-wing populist movement. At the same time, the concepts claim of being more democratic is not entirely as convincing in regard to the signifier that must be as empty as possible to fulfill the populistic demands of its political subjects. This means that its value entirely comes from the political subjects meaningful projection, and in one way only can be said to engage with these subjects through the channeling of the already expected dissent and disaffection of the people behind the discursive and overdetermined identities.

The study seeks to explore the assigned role of culture in the discourse of sustainable development. It combines a conceptual-historical analysis of the concept of cultural sustainability and sustainable development with an analysis of ideas with cultural policy models as a theoretical tool as ideal types. It addresses cultural sustainability as an essentially contested concept, maps a context of leading contributions to the meaning and conceptual history of cultural sustainability and sustainable development and applicates Fornäs four cultural concepts to address different meanings of cultural sustainability. The concept is then explored in its absence in A New European Agenda for Culture by the European Commission. The study also explores how the agenda is implemented in projects throughout the Swedish participation in the Creative Europe program and how it effects the meaning of cultural sustainability. The role of culture in A New European Agenda for Culture seems to be an instrumental view of the capacity culture possesses in bringing people together and to bring creativity into businesses, which also is represented in Creative Europe. The instrumental view of culture and the esthetic cultural concept that permeate cultural policy, may influence the ability for cultural sustainability to be accepted as the fourth pillar of sustainability.

In a democracy it is the citizens who choose their leaders. Through elections, the people constitute government to preside over public affairs. However, in several African countries the quality of the elections has been vitiated by fraud, incompetence, unequal playing field and violence. Part of the problem is historical. Within the first decade of attaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s, many African regimes rapidly descended into autocracy and many countries formally recognised one-party regimes. Despite many one-party regimes having been abolished after the democratisation wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s, challenges of holding free and fair elections persist. Several elections held since this democratic wave were generally not considered by independent observers as free and fair. Indeed Africa has become well known for flawed elections, such as was the case in the 2007 elections in Kenya, the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and the 2010 elections in Ivory Coast. Due to the stifled democratic climate, where even elections had a predetermined outcome, coups became a common and regular method of showing discontent or removing government. While the phenomenon of problematic elections is going on, at the continental level, Africa seems to be making renewed commitment towards democratic governance. With the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) through the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in 2000, the AU, inter alia, committed to promoting “democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance” and seems determined to depart from the legacy of poor governance. It is in view of the foregoing background that this research sought to investigate the challenges the judiciary in Africa has faced in adjudicating presidential election disputes. And, in light of the growing trend towards establishing common African democratic standards and seeking collective solutions, the research also sought to explore the viability of establishing a continental supranational mechanism for resolving disputed presidential elections through adjudication. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LLD

Depuis une décennie se rencontrent de plus en plus nombreux des malades d'un genre particulier. Présentant des symptômes variés et souvent invalidants, ils en attribuent la responsabilité à des facteurs environnementaux très spécifiques : produits de la chimie de synthèse pour les personnes hypersensibles chimiques multiples (MCS), rayonnements électromagnétiques artificiels pour les personnes électro-hypersensibles (EHS). La définition, l'existence même de ces maladies font l'objet de controverses autant politiques que scientifiques, que la littérature sociologique a déjà bien décrites. L'expérience de leurs victimes est en revanche peu connue – ce à quoi cette recherche propose de remédier, en s'interrogeant sur ce que signifie concrètement le fait de souffrir d'une hypersensibilité environnementale.Quatre manières de répondre à cette question seront explorées. La première renvoie à l'expérience de l'hypersensibilité, à ses manifestations symptomatiques ressenties dans l'évidence simultanée de leur corporéité et de leur origine environnementale. La seconde recouvre le raisonnement étiologique grâce auquel cette origine est reconnue et crédibilisée. La troisième a trait aux stratégies que les hypersensibles déploient contre leur mal, qui s'inscrivent dans le double registre du soin et de la mise à distance. Enfin, dernière dimension de leur expérience : la profonde transformation des rapports sociaux qu'entraîne le fait de souffrir d'une maladie controversée. Il s'agira d'étudier comment ces quatre dimensions se nouent, à l'aide d'une démarche ethnographique et inductive. / For about two decades, the number of people claiming to suffer from multiple chemical sensitivity or electromagnetic hypersensitivity has been steadily increasing in France.T hese persons experience various and sometimes quite disabling somatic symptoms, which they attribute to exposure either to chemicals or to anthropogenic electromagnetic fields. The definition, and even the existence of these diseases are controversial. They are not legally recognized and their victims resort to self-diagnosis. However, this is not a cognitively easy task. Its implications are also far-reaching: it results in a radical change in their views of themselves, their environment and their community, as well as significant alterations in their daily lives and behaviour. It is thus an interesting phenomenon to explain for a cognitive sociology concerned with how mental representations evolve and influence conduct. Such is the purpose of this thesis. The analysis relies mostly on ethnographic materials and is conducted in a comprehensive and ecological perspective. It falls into three stages. The first one is devoted to an exploration of the controversies aroused by environmental sensitivities, so as to clarify their lack of legitimacy. The second one deals with the subjective experience and biographical trajectories of environmentally sensitive persons. The last one tries to explain the appearance and persistence of their conviction that they are hypersensitive with a utilitarian model in which emotions play a prominent role. To conclude, a comparison is outlined with other epidemics of medically unexplained symptoms.

This research project is primarily a case study about planning practice and its affect on peacebuilding activities in Belfast and Jerusalem. The primary method of data collection is semi-structured interviews with planners, policymakers, and community leaders involved in peacebuilding activities in the study cities. The primary data collection is triangulated with a literature review and a number of supplementary planning documents, books, and videos on the subject matter. The data has been analyzed using the lens of fundamental human needs, as laid out by Max-Neef, who sees all human needs as equally important rather than hierarchical as some human need theories are. Both Belfast and Jerusalem have centralized planning systems based on the British Town Planning model. Planning in both cities is frequently viewed as a contentious issue, most especially around housing issues. In both cities, one population group is characterized as “bursting” at the seams in terms of housing need, while the other population group feels endangered. Security issues are critical in both cities resulting in the building of security barriers, which ultimately change patterns of free movement in the city and affect the imagined city of both sides of the conflict. The barriers affect the ability to meet other fundamental human needs as well, such as the need for participation and understanding. Despite the clear problems in these cities, there are some indications of success as well. Northern Ireland ran a hugely successful public consultation on the direction the citizens want the government to go in. The resounding answer was for a shared future and some planners and urban leaders have taken this to heart and are working hard to build and define shared spaces in the urban fabric. This work is happening at all levels of the community and several excellent projects have been a positive result of cross-community work aimed at building understanding. In Jerusalem several organizations and various planners are working on similar goals to empower the disadvantaged Palestinian community and instill more justice in the planning system.

This research project is primarily a case study about planning practice and its affect on peacebuilding activities in Belfast and Jerusalem. The primary method of data collection is semi-structured interviews with planners, policymakers, and community leaders involved in peacebuilding activities in the study cities. The primary data collection is triangulated with a literature review and a number of supplementary planning documents, books, and videos on the subject matter. The data has been analyzed using the lens of fundamental human needs, as laid out by Max-Neef, who sees all human needs as equally important rather than hierarchical as some human need theories are. Both Belfast and Jerusalem have centralized planning systems based on the British Town Planning model. Planning in both cities is frequently viewed as a contentious issue, most especially around housing issues. In both cities, one population group is characterized as “bursting” at the seams in terms of housing need, while the other population group feels endangered. Security issues are critical in both cities resulting in the building of security barriers, which ultimately change patterns of free movement in the city and affect the imagined city of both sides of the conflict. The barriers affect the ability to meet other fundamental human needs as well, such as the need for participation and understanding. Despite the clear problems in these cities, there are some indications of success as well. Northern Ireland ran a hugely successful public consultation on the direction the citizens want the government to go in. The resounding answer was for a shared future and some planners and urban leaders have taken this to heart and are working hard to build and define shared spaces in the urban fabric. This work is happening at all levels of the community and several excellent projects have been a positive result of cross-community work aimed at building understanding. In Jerusalem several organizations and various planners are working on similar goals to empower the disadvantaged Palestinian community and instill more justice in the planning system.

This dissertation is an empirical study of the scientific literacy of 28 young adults (aged 18-26 years) in the context of their decision making about the health risks of mobile phones. The issue of possible health effects is one of a number of socioscientific issues now confronting adults in the 'knowledge/risk' society where scientific knowledge plays an increasingly significant role in people's lives. The focus of interest is the young people's responses to the uncertain science of 'science in the making' (Latour, 1987) and their positioning of this scientific knowledge in their risk assessments. The study is based on an interactive model of the public understanding of science and applies a critical realist and moderate social constructionist methodology. Data construction included focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews. The stimulus for discussion in the focus groups was a recent television news report presenting contradictory scientific research findings about whether mobile phones pose significant health risks. In the individual interviews understanding of the nature of science and risk judgments were explored. Data analysis involved a coding of the discourse in terms of themes and issues and interpretation of these in terms of the theoretical framework of the thesis. A major finding was that these young people interpreted the uncertainty of the scientific knowledge mainly in social terms and with limited understanding of the role of theory in interpreting data. They talked spontaneously of risk but did not draw on scientific knowledge or risk estimates in their judgment about mobile phone safety. Findings have important implications for science education and suggest a broadened conception of scientific literacy which includes critical dimensions and risk literacy. It is argued that this functional scientific literacy is essential for effective citizenship in contemporary society.

In a democracy it is the citizens who choose their leaders. Through elections, the people constitute government to preside over public affairs. However, in several African countries the quality of the elections has been vitiated by fraud, incompetence, unequal playing field and violence. Part of the problem is historical. Within the first decade of attaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s, many African regimes rapidly descended into autocracy and many countries formally recognised one-party regimes. Despite many one-party regimes having been abolished after the democratisation wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s, challenges of holding free and fair elections persist. Several elections held since this democratic wave were generally not considered by independent observers as free and fair. Indeed Africa has become well known for flawed elections, such as was the case in the 2007 elections in Kenya, the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and the 2010 elections in Ivory Coast. Due to the stifled democratic climate, where even elections had a predetermined outcome, coups became a common and regular method of showing discontent or removing government. While the phenomenon of problematic elections is going on, at the continental level, Africa seems to be making renewed commitment towards democratic governance. With the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) through the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in 2000, the AU, inter alia, committed to promoting “democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance” and seems determined to depart from the legacy of poor governance. It is in view of the foregoing background that this research sought to investigate the challenges the judiciary in Africa has faced in adjudicating presidential election disputes. And, in light of the growing trend towards establishing common African democratic standards and seeking collective solutions, the research also sought to explore the viability of establishing a continental supranational mechanism for resolving disputed presidential elections through adjudication. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

La notion d’inopérance des moyens a acquis, en particulier depuis ces dernières années, une place majeure dans le contentieux administratif français. Le juge l’utilise fréquemment dans ses décisions et les membres de la doctrine ne manquent pas de l’employer dans leurs travaux. Pourtant, aucune étude d’ampleur, consacrée spécifiquement à la notion et appréhendant l’ensemble de ses aspects, n’a, jusqu’à présent, été entreprise. Ceci explique qu’elle soit, aujourd’hui, mal connue et apparaisse, au premier abord, difficile à cerner. Les manifestations de ce caractère insaisissable sont multiples : ainsi, par exemple, l’inopérance se voit souvent confondue avec l’irrecevabilité ; de même, les raisons pour lesquelles le juge constate, dans telle ou telle espèce, l’inopérance du moyen invoqué, sont mal identifiées ; de même encore,lorsqu’ils ne sont pas tout simplement niés, les effets procéduraux de l’inopérance sont largement sous-estimés. À partir d’un examen approfondi de la jurisprudence et des pratiques adoptées par la juridiction administrative, l’étude a eu pour objet de procéder à une clarification de la notion d’inopérance des moyens. Il s’est agi, d’abord, d’en délimiter les contours et d’en déterminer le contenu, en proposant une définition de l’inopérance. Il s’est agi, ensuite, de présenter, de façon raisonnée, les facteurs susceptibles d’entraîner le caractère inopérant des moyens, en proposant une systématisation des causes de l’inopérance. Il s’est agi, enfin, d’expliciter les éléments du régime juridique de l’inopérance et la façon dont le juge les met en oeuvre, en proposant une analyse détaillée de ses conséquences. / The notion itself of the ineffectiveness of pleas has acquired, especially in recent years, a major place in the French administrative judicial procedure. The judge often refers to it in his/her decisions and the members of the legal doctrine use it in their own work. However, no significant study, devoted entirely to this concept and focusing on all its aspects, has so farbeen undertaken. This is why today this notion is little known and appears at first difficult to apprehend. Manifestations of this elusive aspect are numerous : for instance, theineffectiveness of pleas is often mistaken with the inadmissibility of pleas ; in the same way,the reasons why a judge declares, in a given case, that a plea is ineffective are poorly identified; similarly, when they are not just denied, the procedural effects of ineffective pleas are seriously underestimated. From an in-depth examination of case law and practices adopted by administrative courts, the purpose of this thesis is to clarify the notion of the ineffectiveness of pleas. First, in order to set the contours and determine the content of this concept, we will propose a definition of the ineffectiveness of pleas. Then, to describe and present, in a reasoned manner, the factors that might cause a plea to be declared ineffective, we will propose a systematization of the causes of ineffectiveness of pleas. Finally, to make explicitthe elements of the legal regime of ineffectiveness of pleas and how the judge implements them, we will provide a detailed analysis of its consequences.

This dissertation is based on my research into distinction processes (Calhoun, 1994; Cerulo 1997) between tourists and inhabitants of West Sumba in Eastern Indonesia. The imaginiaries (Castoriadis, 1987; Strauss, 2006; Lacan, 1977; Anderson, 1991; Salazar, 2012) of West Sumbanese people about foreigners also emerge from diving rumors (Bysow, 1928; Allport and Postman, 1947/1965). Their origins, dissemination, and sharpening processes, as well as their consequences will be analysed herein. This case study demonstrates how mental models of otherness are formed and reified, how they clash, and for what purposes they may be utilized. It will also analyze how imaginaries influence behavior and may lead to miscommunication in West Sumba.