‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) have become predominant frameworks connecting business to society that have spread across the globe. They comprise a shared set of ideas and practices, such as those promoted in global reporting standards and by international organisations such as the UN Global Compact. Nonetheless, both are constructed and reproduced by companies in relation to context-specific social institutions, including norms and conventions shaping company engagement in social issues. Using a neo-institutionalist theoretical framework, the thesis examines constructions of social responsibility in discourse and within institutional contexts, across regions that are not often compared in the research terrain: two West European welfare states (Sweden and the UK) and two emerging African economies (South Africa and Mauritius). The purpose of the thesis is to add to the literature on CSR and SRI with a sociologically informed perspective that is comparative and connects institutional theory with social constructionism and a Foucauldian perspective on power. The thesis analyses how perceptions of CSR and SRI are constructed in relation to the social institutions that encase companies’ engagement with social issues, such as national level welfare configurations and the institution of financial investments. The main argument in this thesis is that CSR and SRI need to be seen as contextually constructed, in discourse and practice, in ways that draw the boundaries and set the conditions for company engagement with social issues. The thesis comprises three articles. Article 1 is a content analysis of company self-reporting on CSR and the article examines how the content given to CSR relates to broader welfare configurations and as such differs in four national settings across the divide between emerging African economies and Western welfare states. Article 2 is a discourse analysis that examines interpretative repertoires occurring in company self-reporting across the same set of four countries. The interpretative repertoires are analysed as discursive practices where power intersects with the production of knowledge on CSR. Article 3 focuses on SRI and examines responsible investing as a form of institutional work that institutional investors engage in. Based on an interview study with institutional investors in Sweden, the article analyses institutional work as a process that has the effect of both institutional creation and maintenance and it connects these institutional processes to the construction of meaning on SRI. In its entirety the thesis contributes a sociological perspective on how prevailing understandings of corporate social responsibility come into being and are reproduced. / Uppfattningar om företags samhällsansvar har begreppsliggjorts i huvudsak genom idéer om ’corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) och ’ansvarsfulla investeringar’. Under de senaste decennierna har dessa begrepp utvecklats till att bli vanligt förkommande och har spridits över världen. Som globala koncept medför de en gemensam uppsättning av idéer och metoder, såsom de som förs fram i internationella standarder för företags CSR rapportering, och utav internationella organisationer såsom FN:s Global Compact. Ändå skiljer de sig åt mellan olika kontexter och är konstruerade och återges av företag i förhållande till sociala sammanhang. Begreppen ges mening i relation till sociala institutioner i form av normer och konventioner som redan omger företag och sociala frågor. Baserat på nyinstitutionell teori undersöker avhandlingen konstruktioner av samhällsansvar och ansvarstagande, i diskurs och i institutionella sammanhang, över regioner som inte ofta jämförs i forskningen kring skillnader i företags samhällsansvar: två Västeuropeiska välfärdsstater (Sverige och Storbritannien) och två tillväxtekonomier i södra Afrika (Sydafrika och Mauritius). Syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra till litteraturen kring CSR och ansvarsfulla investeringar med ett sociologiskt perspektiv som är jämförande och för samman institutionell teori med social konstruktionism och Foucaults perspektiv på makt. Avhandlingen analyserar hur föreställningar om CSR och ansvarsfulla investeringar konstrueras i förhållande till de sociala institutioner som omger företags engagemang i samhällsfrågor, och belyser speciellt vikten av samhällets välfärdssystem och konventioner kring finansiella investeringar som betydelsefulla för dessa begrepp. Huvudargumentet i denna avhandling är att CSR och ansvarsfulla investeringar måste ses som kontextuellt skapade, i diskurs och praxis, på ett sätt som drar gränserna och skapar förutsättningarna för företags engagemang i samhällsfrågor. Avhandlingen omfattar tre artiklar. Artikel 1 är en innehållsanalys av företags självrapportering om CSR och artikeln undersöker hur innehållet som ges till CSR i självrapporteringen relaterar till hur samhället i övrigt hanterar välfärd och sociala frågor. Artikeln visar på hur CSR på så sätt skiljer sig åt mellan fyra olika länder där två är tillväxtekonomier i södra Afrika och två är Västeuropeiska välfärdsstater. Artikel 2 är en diskursanalys som undersöker språkliga repertoarer (interpretative repertoires) som förekommer i företags självrapportering om CSR, i samma uppsättning av fyra länder. Repertoarerna analyseras som tillämpandet av diskurs och de synliggör hur makt är av betydelse i skapandet av diskurser kring CSR. Artikel 3 fokuserar på ansvarfulla investeringar och undersöker detta som en form av aktivt skapande och återskapande av samhällsinstitutioner. Baserat på en intervjustudie med institutionella investerare i Sverige analyseras ansvarfullt investerande som en process som på samma gång innebär både skapande av en ny social institution, ansvarsfulla investeringar, och återskapande av en existerande institution, finansiella investeringar. Skapandet av nya idéer inom ramarna för en existerande institution påverkar innebörden i ansvarsfulla investeringar. I sin helhet bidrar avhandlingen med ett sociologiskt perspektiv på hur uppfattningar om företags samhällsansvar skapas och återskapas. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

The aim of this study is to analyse the Moderate Party and the Swedish Democrats idea development in the issue of migration in 2010-2018. The inquiry consists of the following two research questions. How has the Moderate Party and the Swedish Democrats positions regarding migration developed in 2010-2018? How can institutional theories explain the Moderate Party and the Swedish Democrats idea development? The study is encompassed by three theoretical perspectives also recognised as rational-choice institutionalism, historical institutionalism and discursive institutionalism. In regard to the methodological approach, the study employs the comparative case study design with the most-similar system and is essentially an idea analytical study. The main results reveal that both the Moderate Party and the Swedish Democrats have adjusted their migration policies but to different degrees. The Swedish Democrats promote similar policies in 2010 as in 2018 with smaller alterations while the Moderate Party has customised larger alterations, distinguishing the party’s migration policy from 2010 and 2018. These policy alterations are primarily explained as a result of rational action, societal discourses and critical junctures.

This essay examines policy discourses in the 30th Baltic Parliamentary Conference held in 2021. By examining several policy proposals from the resolution adopted by the participants, as well as related key documents and speeches from parliamentarians, the underlying assumptions and logics shaping these policys are examined. The thesis analyses whether there are gendered patterns in the policy discourses. The policy areas examined are about cooperation, identity, climate, and the environment. The material is analysed by combining the theory feminist discursive institutionalism and by using Carol Bacchi's method "What's the problem represented to be?". The conclusions are that there are many underlying problematisations that contribute to shaping policies in the 30th Baltic Sea Conference, which are supported by hidden gender coded language. The problematisations underpinning the policys are ”hiding” other ways of evaluating and shaping problems, solutions, and policy areas.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:14:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5288.pdf: 5245279 bytes, checksum: cd4e6554887f5aea197bb69243a6250a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-03 / This research aims to analyze the Brazilian Senate s Foreign Affairs Committee (CRE) according to the Discursive Institutionalism and the Political Discourse theories. This discursive study have sought to verify whether the CRE actually has an important institutional and discursive role in foreign policy making, which is typically deemed to be a preponderant power of the Executive branch, letting little room for the Legislative branch. This thesis argues that Brazilian foreign policy is public policy such as any else, even though foreign policy has the unique feature of usually being negotiated overseas by the Executive branch before the domestic political negotiation due to constitutional and organizational reasons. The methods of institutional analysis are deployed under a discursive perspective in order to demonstrate that the Brazilian Congress and its standing committees were endowed with legislative means of discursive participation in the foreign policy making, and, also, are analyzed the speeches of the senators to show that even those discursive means are subject to political discourse favoring the expansion and the improvement of their own efficacy, which presents the senators as interested participants in the foreign policy discussion. The CRE s political discourse also shows that political parties are important in that discussion, and they are analyzed in an ideological dimension in a left-right continuum in foreign policy done in this work and in their position inside congressional coalition groups, government or opposition. The speeches in the committee are researched through Discursive Textual Analysis on ideological (right-left) cleavage and on congressional coalition (government-opposition) cleavage, on the programmatic ideas of the political parties and on the specific political ideas in the metatexts made from the speeches about foreign affairs. The main results are: the CRE s political discourse has an intrinsically party matter, in which the ideas of the senators reverberate their party programmatic ideas during their coordinative discourse (inside the political instance), the importance of the discursive function of the Senate and of the CRE is crucial for foreign policy making, and the Brazilian foreign policy towards leftist regimes in Latin America was the main issue causing dissent in the committee between 2003 and 2012. / Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar a Comissão de Relações Exteriores e Defesa Nacional do Senado (CRE) com base na teoria do institucionalismo discursivo e do discurso político. Neste estudo discursivo, buscou-se verificar se a CRE tem um papel institucional e discursivo importante para a elaboração da política externa, tipicamente considerada como uma atribuição preponderante do Poder Executivo em que caberia muito pouco ao Poder Legislativo. Esta tese argumenta que a política externa é uma política pública como as demais, apesar da peculiaridade de se haver uma negociação internacional pelo Poder Executivo que, por questões constitucionais e organizacionais, antecede a fase de negociação política doméstica. São utilizados métodos de análise institucional sob um prisma discursivo para demonstrar que o Congresso Nacional e suas comissões foram dotados de meios legislativos de participação discursiva em da política externa brasileira, e é feita uma análise dos pronunciamentos dos senadores para mostrar que esses próprios meios institucionais discursivos são objetos de um discurso político em favor da ampliação e do melhoramento de sua eficácia, o que faz dos senadores participantes interessados da discussão da política externa. Também é verificada uma importância dos partidos políticos no discurso político da CRE, analisados em sua dimensão ideológica em um continuum esquerda-direita em política externa elaborado neste trabalho e pelo pertencimento a blocos parlamentares governistas e oposicionistas. Os pronunciamentos dos senadores na comissão são investigados por meio da Análise Textual Discursiva sobre a clivagem ideológica direita-esquerda e a clivagem da coalizão parlamentar governo-oposição, sobre as ideias programáticas dos partidos políticos e sobre as ideias políticas específicas presentes nos metatextos construídos a partir dos pronunciamentos dos senadores quanto à política externa. Os resultados atestam que o discurso político na CRE tem um teor eminentemente partidário, onde as ideias dos senadores repercutem as ideias programáticas dos partidos políticos em seu discurso coordenativo (na instância política), que há uma crucial importância da função discursiva do Senado e da CRE na elaboração da política externa e que a política externa do Brasil para os países latinos com governos de esquerda foi a principal questão de dissenso na comissão entre 2003 e 2012.