Natural resource–based economies are typically embedded in rural networks of production. In recent years, however, the privatisation of access rights and the organisation of markets have substantially transformed some of these rural economies. By using the case of the Icelandic coastal fisheries, this ethnographic study shows, on one hand, how property rights–based management regimes and markets have reconfigured rural economies by disentangling fishers from their community ties, leading to increasing investment and technological development in the industry. On the other hand, the case shows how daily economic ‘coping’ has re-entangled fishers in a web of money-mediated relations that have economised economic expectations from cost-awareness to increasing profit-making in the industry. This economisation of the fisheries’ economy, however, not only reconfigures forms of coordination and network ties, but also changes the social practices that lie at the heart of economic value itself: fishing and processing. Hence, the study shows how artisanal and labour-intensive industries cope with the ‘primacy of the economy’ not only by rationalising their operations towards economic efficiency, but also by recontextualising traditional forms of knowledge and technology for the collective construction of a new 'quality'-oriented market-niche. The consequences of this coping, however, are twofold: while on one hand this development has led to the valorisation of line-caught fish, coastal fisheries have become objects of financial speculation, leading to a paradoxical cycle of investment and technological problem-solving that is pushing the temporal and spatial boundaries of coastal fisheries in local networks of production. As a consequence, the meaning of ‘small boats’ as social backbone and symbol of rural independence is being contested. This study is not only of interest to scholars dealing with processes of economisation and marketisation of rural networks of production and natural resources, but also for those interested more generally in the role of markets, technology and changing economic practices of evaluation and valuation in contemporary capitalism.

The building industry economic situation has shown a continuous descending tendency starting from 2008 in the field of efficiency and future development. Individual building companies have to undertake previously banned optimisation processes that affected both the company itself and its employees. Moreover, when assessing the role of the state and its involvement in the stabilisation of the current "bitter" situation, we cannot but state that such an involvement is zero. Therefore, this paper has two core objectives: the first one is to "define methods of the economisation of the personnel management in the building industry" and to "identify the economic policy of the state relative to building organisations and to determine the impacts of such policy on the behaviour of building organisations".

The context of the rental housing market in Sweden has changed substantially in recent decades as neoliberal housing policies have been introduced. One prominent example is the 2011 “Allbolagen” reform that reframed the conditions of the public housing sector whilst destabilising the collective bargaining system for rent-setting. In effect, ”business-like principles” now define the rules for housing provision. Nevertheless, existing housing institutions, specifically the Swedish Union of Tenants (SUT), continue to be crucial national stakeholders and hold central positions in shaping the direction of housing policy. It is critical to widen the understanding of these ongoing developments in relation to a broader global neoliberal scheme and address how the very democratic idea of housing as fulfilling a greater public purpose can arguably be discursively dismantled from within, and moreover, the possibilities and constraints political actors have in defining such direction. Thus, this thesis aims to explore the role of the Swedish Union of Tenants in shaping the direction of housing policy in relation to this globalised neoliberal landscape. The thesis presents a qualitative study of the negotiation and consultation process (2005-2010) that led up to the new Allbolagen legislation in 2011. Building on officially stated positions and semi-structured interviews with representatives of the SUT, the key analytical findings suggest that the organisation’s significant role in shaping the outcome can be understood through the ways they opposed the neoliberal form of reasoning. The result influenced by the SUT ought to be better understood through their emphasis on the political, the language of collective power and tenants’ rights as citizens’ rights, that challenged the economised rationality that had paved for a reform. In so doing, it is making visible inherent power struggles in the Swedish housing realm.

Som en följd av att det ekonomiska och kulturella fältet förts samman i större grad, har en ekonomisk logik och terminologi gjort sitt intåg i kultursektorn. Kulturen har kommit att uppmärksammas och erkännas som en viktig ingrediens för ekonomisk tillväxt och samhällsutveckling, något som påverkar vad den förväntas leda till. Kulturpolitiken har bidragit med att sprida idéer om kulturen, samt ställa högre krav på kulturfältet vad gäller mätning, styrning och redovisning. Att kulturen ekonomiserats och behövt anpassa sig till en managementdiskurs blir allt tydligare. Frågan är hur dessa idéer kommit att påverka kulturbidragsorganisationer i deras syn på kultur, då dessa har en nyckelroll i att bestämma vilken typ av kultur som skapas. Uppsatsen syftar till att öka förståelsen kring vad den ökade ekonomiseringen kan ha haft för inverkan på kulturen, närmare bestämt vad kulturen förväntas leda till för att få bidrag. Detta undersöktes genom en flerfallsstudie av två kulturbidrags-organisationer: Kulturbryggan och Postkodlotteriets kulturstiftelse, samt genom kompletterande röster från kulturutövare. Studien visar att inga av samtliga respondenter anser att kulturen bör förväntas leda till ekonomisk tillväxt. Däremot behöver den visa på ett ekonomiskt värde för att kunna legitimeras. I studien går det även att utläsa ökade ekonomiska krav på mätbarhet, redovisning och utvärdering samt ett användande av ett ekonomiskt språkbruk bland respondenterna. Den ökade ekonomiseringen har även medfört ett större administrativt arbete för kulturorganisationer och kulturutövare, vilket påverkar arbetet med kärnverksamheten.