Despite an extensive system of Port state controls (PSC) on ships, inspection loopholes in European control functions have been reported. Furthermore, risk factors associated with fatigue, stress and a poorly developed safety culture on board ships have been identified in earlier research. These combined risk factors may pose a serious threat to maritime safety. With this as a point of departure, this thesis aims to investigate the perceived work situation for Swedish inspectors from an inspector’s point of view concerning professional challenges, status and identity for inspectors and the perceived quality of Paris MoU inspection system and the Swedish inspection organization. In this study, the activities of Swedish PSC inspectors are viewed as a profession and the inspectors are viewed as bureaucrats. One of the principals for bureaucracy is that its servants should exercise their authority according to the common good, be autonomous, rational, reliable and responsible. The results indicate that organizational and management reforms have put the PSC bureaucrat under pressure to become more market oriented. Due to the responsibilities inherent in the profession of inspector within the complex structure of shipping, these organizational and management reforms conflict with the PSC inspector’s autonomy and professional role. Inspectors perceive that their expertise and integrity are vital for the success of their work. They also consider the high degree of control that the Swedish inspection organization exercises on the inspectors’ work as limiting to their autonomy and ability to make professional decisions. Some level of control may fulfil a need of support from the Swedish inspection organization, but too much control hampers the professional self-sufficiency and freedom of action. The inspectors in this study reveal considerable ambivalence towards the quality and complexity of ship safety inspections carried out in Sweden and within the Paris MoU system. / <p>The research has been funded by, the Swedish Mercantile Marine Foundation.</p>

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

No description available.

This research thesis investigates news journalists?? role in the promotion and protection of peace and human rights. I explore how news journalists do not just have the ability, through the discursive selections they make, to be a catalyst for peace and non-violent solutions, it is their obligation under international human rights. My study links arguments about universal ethics for media based on international human rights with the practical and analytical approach of ??peace journalism??. The main argument rests on the idea that objectivity or impartiality in news journalism does not equal ethical neutrality since there is always a discursive selection made by the news journalists. In order to monitor whether news journalists discursive selections comply with the international human rights obligations, I have explored how the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) report A Last Resort? were covered in three Australian newspapers when it was published in 2004. The HREOC report was a testament of human rights abuses by the Australian Federal Governments towards children in Australian detention centres. I establish that health professionals were a significant group for both HREOC??s main findings and recommendations and a key group for the contextualisation of the human rights violations explored and exposed in the HREOC report. Informed by conflict analysis and peace studies theories I argue HREOC establish how the detention policy equals ??structural violence?? that caused ??direct violence??, which was justified and normalised because ??cultural violence??. I use discourse analysis to explore the discursive selections in the newspapers, and establish that the report received limited coverage and health professionals were omitted in the news while the political conflict was reported. This trivialised the report and health professionals?? role, which led to the naturalisation and normalisation of the violence. I finally reinforce these finding by exploring alternatives to the coverage using a peace journalism framework, which further clarifies the subjective nature of the discursive selection.

Thesis (M.S.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-67).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (February 23, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-126)

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-45).

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves 82-86.

Thesis (M.S.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-67).