This thesis explores constructions of meaning, or frames, surrounding the policy of women’s hours in public debates and municipal settings, using newspaper articles and municipal documents as main empirical sources. Departing from the puzzle of how women’s hours are depicted as both gender equitable and gender inequitable in the debate, the thesis draws on previous research of how gender equality and multiculturalism relates to each other, potentially producing tensions in policymaking and discourse. Although Sweden has often been noted for its exceptionality in both dimensions, research suggests that multiculturalism has lost its favorable status in Sweden. To understand the impact framing may have on institutions, analysis is grounded feminist discursive institutionalism. The analysis is realized in two steps. First, the analysis identifies four frames, two supporting and two opposing, most prominently used to construct and depict women’s hours in public debate. Second, the analysis zooms in on the three municipalities Västerås, Haninge and Västervik, exploring the relationship between framing and outcomes. The thesis finds that the frames of women’s hours are often involved in culturalist language, depicting women’s hours as a Muslim policy, or, implicitly, depicting women’s hours as a gender equal policy by connecting it to other women than Muslim. In relation to institutional outcomes, the thesis finds that if the policy is constructed in a Muslim-culturalist language - that is, diagnosed as a Muslim practice - it leads to disapproval. If the policy is constructed as a gender equal policy beneficial to “all” women, it seems more accessible to keep. In line with previous research, the findings are suggestive of how the idea of multiculturalism as a problem seems to have become salient while gender equality remains a highly attractive master frame, contributing to how the policy of women’s hours is adopted only if successfully connected to other groups of women than Muslim.

No description available.

The regulation and administration of aviation within this country is greatly influenced by a core set of beliefs concerning the safety of aircraft and their operation. This core set of beliefs is referred to as the ontology of aviation safety because it is grounded in a particular reference to reality. The ontology of aviation safety is founded upon the beliefs that aviation operations are either "safe" or "unsafe", that accidents ore preventable, and that if accidents happen then culpability is attributable. These core beliefs support and objectified/reified view of safety which represents a particular reality. Language, more than any other attribute, separates man from other animals. It is through language that man communicates his most profound feelings and ideas. A very basic premise of this dissertation is that language usage reflects beliefs and values. The use of the terms "safe" and "unsafe" when referring to aircraft operations represents the belief that "safe" is an attainable state, in other words, it represents an objectified/reified view of aviation safety. A hermeneutic interpretive approach was used to examine language use within various aviation texts to include: newspaper articles, speeches by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials, testimony by FAA officials before Congress, and selected books concerning aviation safety. By referring to aviation operations as either "safe" or "unsafe" in discourse and dialogue, an objectified/reified view of aviation safety is subtly perpetuated. This view is deeply rooted in the Amierican concept of aviation safety. / Ph. D.

This dissertation traces Social Security policymaking through most of its post-enactment history in search of ideational processes and schema in path-dependent, path-shaping, and path-breaking modes of institutional persistence and change. The study is grounded in the historical institutionalist literature, specifically the recent debate about the utility of path dependence frameworks in incorporating institutional change, with a particular focus on ideas as stimuli. As a case for tracing path-dependent policy processes, Social Security is overbroad. This breadth requires focusing more narrowly on the interaction between the major coalitions, business/conservative and liberal/labor, on retirement and disability pension (but not health care) issues through the venue of Social Security Advisory Councils. Council is used as a catch-all label for the six-decade succession of (mostly) citizen groups appointed by the secretary of HEW, Senate Finance Committee, and, in one case, the president to deliberate questions of Social Security policy and recommend changes, often enacted into law. A pattern-matching analysis points to a moderate level of path dependence, indicating that the exchange of ideas between coalitions fits the larger consensual pattern of give and take around an existing arrangement. An ideational narrative reveals early negotiations over the emphasis placed on equity versus adequacy, with manifestly ideational exchanges in the 1996 Council's deliberations marking a turning point in the coalitional interaction. A key implication of this research for the application of path dependence frameworks to U.S. political institutions like Social Security is to buttress moderate path dependence arguments, for instance, those advanced by Hacker and Pierson (2002), and to discount the relevance of path-shaping narratives that have been fashioned from European examples (Cox 2004). Yet the research also modifies understanding of path dependence as a self-perpetuating function of increasing returns by identifying an ideational strand that bound both coalitions to social insurance principles. Path-breaking developments apparent in the 1996 Council further implicated new ideas as institutional factors contributing to the loss of historical consensus on Social Security, bolstering the notion of ideational processes as an element of institutional persistence and pressing the argument for further research into ideas as dynamic elements fostering institutional change. / Ph. D.

Integration in municipal cultural activities – A study on organization and institutional theory. The purpose of the study is to provide knowledge on how local municipal cultural activities and civil servants understand and work with integration. The study is characterized as a case study. It is based on two selected local municipal cultural activities. Officials from each municipal cultural activities were interviewed for the paper. Documents from the cultural units and from municipal cultural units represent empirical material. The paper shows certain aspects that are important among the officials when they discuss integration in relation to cultural activities. Officials reconnect to the outside world’s importance to translate integration in relation to culture. The current social climate incorporated when cultural activities molded and planning cultural activities. It emerges from informants that new events or storytelling has been used to address the need to indorse the integration of newcomers.

Abstract Whether the public affairs are executed by central or local government in Taiwan is based on the constitution, law and orders. The clauses of constitution were derived from the ¡§Principle of proper separation of competence¡¨, asserted first by Dr. Sun Yet-sen. From these clauses local and central governments in Taiwan should deal with different things which are properly divided according to their nature. But those clauses were not executed because of the unpredicted failure in mainland. For the reasons to initiate and regulate the local-self government institution, many acts and decrees had enacted after 1949, which gradually twisted the meaning of previous clauses that are ought to be obeyed. Besides, the increasing chaos happened recently about the struggle of expenditure in local and central authorities, showed the problems as the result of deviation. This thesis elaborates on the articles of institution which combines the clauses in the constitution and the ultimate aim of local self-government, includes democracy, separation of power in vertical level, and how the local governments are protected by law. This thesis also describes and analyses the whole juristic construction in separating local and central affairs, and, with a new-institutionalist approach, tries to find the key factors which make this institution evolved, changed and disobeyed the principles which they should be fulfilled. With these factors, this thesis finds that the deviation of the institution which is ought to be fulfilled is evolved by the ¡§path¡¨, the way it changed the previous aim or purpose. Consequently, once the ¡§path¡¨ had formatted, the actors of institution-local governments and central governments, will not obey the constitutional clauses and will keep exercising the deviated system of institution about the separation of central and local affairs.

In recent years, methodology of new institutionalism has gradually been the crucial feature of the researches on constitutional system. By pointing out the political actors who affect constitutional operation, the context of institution that constructs constitutional rules, and the social structure accompanied with constitutional culture, etc., the new institutionalism even replaces the old institutionalism in constitutional analysis. However, due to incompatible roots in methodology, new institutionalism has raised more and more disputes. In addition, derived from the same origin that presented historically and methodically, new institutionalism and its old counterpart share some assumptions that make it difficult to divide on institutional approach. Therefore, by the comparative viewpoint of old and new institutionalism approaches, this thesis will integrate them into the analysis of institutional change, and apply to the constitutional change in R.O.C. (1947-2007). Through this way, this thesis will base on the design and operation of the constitutional system of R.O.C. and carry on cause and effect analysis according to the historical context. By several specific time sequences of the path of institutional change, include: crucial moments and changes of the system origin, institutional structure and crisis met, interactive actors¡¦ preferences and tactics, this thesis will also plan to observe the starting point, development of the path and assess its prospect. Moreover, abide by the old and new institutionalism approaches are derived from the same origin, meanwhile, the concepts of ¡§constitution¡¨ and ¡§constitutionalism¡¨ also do combine with them, the purpose of this thesis is to confirm the dimensions of ¡§constitutional law¡¨, ¡§constitutional operation¡¨ and ¡§spirit of constitutionalism¡¨ in Taiwan¡¦s semi-presidential system. Thus, by the comparative viewpoint of old and new institutionalism approaches, this thesis will analyze three main problems of Taiwan¡¦s constitutional operations revealed by the president-premier-Legislative Yuan interactions through the perspectives of ¡§constitutional law¡¨, ¡§constitutional operation¡¨ and ¡§spirit of constitutionalism.¡¨ The concern of this thesis is to establish a new analytical framework which could find out constitutional problems effectively, and propose the solutions.

I dagens Europa är stora löneskillnader mellan kvinnor och män samt låg representation av kvinnor på höga befattningar fortfarande ett stort problem. Mot bakgrund av detta har EU framlagt ett lagförslag om kvotering till börsbolagens styrelser. Debatten om jämställdhet är livlig och högaktuell. Parallellt med detta agerar näringslivet i en kamp om kompetensen där jämställdhet anses vara en viktig komponent för att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Då studien antar ett nyinstitutionellt perspektiv har antagandet varit att organisationerna anpassar sig till omgivande krav för att vinna social legitimitet och således att jämställdhet är en viktig legitimitetsskapande faktor i denna process. Detta medför att jämställdhet är på väg mot en utveckling som innebär att den institutionaliserade jämställdheten blir allt mer löskopplad från organisationen. I samband med detta har studien avgränsat sig till två uppmärksammade fall där stora företag inom näringslivet samverkat för att offentligt hantera jämställdhet. Syftet har varit att undersöka hur dessa organisationer agerat utifrån omgivande krav på jämställdhet. Då detta innefattar att undersöka handlingar och meningsskapande valdes för studien ett diskursanalytiskt förfarande för att undersöka de rapporter och texter som organisationerna själva producerat för sitt offentliga framträdande. Även en intervju genomfördes med en av initiativtagarna. Resultatet visar att två tydliga mönster kan urskönjas i olika former av institutionell påverkan. Den legitimitetsskapande mekanismen ligger i uppfattningen om jämställdhet som ett kvantitativt mått som innefattar andel kvinnor. Organisationernas anpassning skiljer sig något åt då den ena tydligare härleds till att uteslutande skydda medlemmarnas autonomi medan den andra uppvisar vad som tolkas som ett försök till standardisering av jämställdhet i näringslivet. Kanske följer jämställdhet en utveckling från lag till standard. / In Europe today the wage gap between men and women and the low representation of women in top positions remains a major problem. Because of this, the EU has tabled a bill on quotas for listed companies' boards. The debate on gender equality is lively and topical.  In parallel with this act the enterprise companies is competing to attract the most competent employees and gender is considered an important component of being an attractive employer. As the study adopts a perspective of new institutionalism the assumption has been that the organizations adapts to ambient requirements to overcome social legitimacy and thus gender equality is an important factor of legitimacy in this process. This means that gender equality is moving towards a development whereby the institutionalized gender equality is becoming more loose coupled from the organization. In this context, the study has limited itself to two high-profile cases in which large companies in the industry worked together to publicly address the issues of gender equality. The aim has been to investigate how these organizations acted on surrounding equality requirements. This includes to examine the reports and texts that organizations themselves produced for its public appearance to find their purpose and underlying ideas of gender. Also, an interview was conducted with one of the initiators. Because of this a discourse analysis procedure were chosen for this study. The results shows that two distinct patterns can be detected throughout the various forms of institutional impact. The legitimacy formation mechanism lies in the quantitative discourse that includes participation of women. The organizations’ adaptation differs slightly. One clearly deduced to mainly protect members' autonomy while the second shows what is interpreted as an attempt at standardization of gender equality in the enterprise business. Maybe that the gender equality throughout these cases is following a development from a bill towards a standard.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur professionella inom elevhälsan på tre skolor samt en specialenhet inom barn och ungdomspsykiatrin förhåller sig till sociala perspektiv hos barn och ungdomar där det finns misstanke om ADHD samt hur ser möjligheterna och förutsättningar för ett sådant förhållningssätt. Hur ser elevhälsan och BUP på orsaksförklaringar för denna målgrupp där misstanke om ADHD föreligger. Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsansats och är baserad på sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med socionomer och psykologer inom elevhälsan och BUP. Analysen av resultatet har skett med nysinstitutionell organisationsteori. Resultatet visar att de professionella ansåg att det var av stor vikt att granska de sociala perspektiven vid misstanke om ADHD. De intervjuade kunde i sina respektive verksamheter urskilja en rad orsaksförklaringar i barn och ungdomars sociala miljö hos dem med ett beteende likt ADHD, utöver en neuropsykiatrisk förklaringsmodell. Faktorer som ansågs vara speciellt problematiska var uppväxtmiljö och en resurssvag skolmiljö som ställer högre krav på barn och ungdomars självständighet. Majoriteten av de professionella menar att möjligheterna och förutsättningarna för att anlägga ett socialt perspektiv i fall hos barn och ungdomar med beteende likt ADHD försvåras av organisatoriska och ekonomiska orsaker. Respondenterna utrycker att socionomens med sin yrkeskunnighet ej alltid ses som självklar när det kommer till misstanke och utredning av ADHD. Respondenterna menar att läkaren och till viss del psykologer har mandat att sätta diagnosen ADHD. Detta menar respondenterna har lett till en mer ensidigt tolkning av beteende likt ADHD där den neuropsykiatriska förklaringsmodellen i många fall dominerar när man misstänker eller utreder ett barn för beteende likt ADHD. De intervjuade önskar ett mer nyanserat perspektiv vid misstanke om ADHD där man kan utreda olika orsaksförklaringar i större utsträckning. / The aim of the study was to examine attitudes of healthcare and support workers, in three Swedish primary schools and one special unit for child and adolescence mental health (BUP), towards the social aspects of children and adolescence with suspicion of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study further aimed to investigate to what extent the health services provide opportunities and favourable conditions for stimulating a social perspective when there is a suspicion of ADHD, and what explanations health services professionals give where suspicion of ADHD exists. The study was carried out using qualitative methods and was based on seven semi-structured interviews with social workers and psychologists within educational health and support services and BUP. The outcomes of the interviews were analysed using an organisational theory based on neo-institutionalism. The results showed that health services professionals considered the social perspective to be of high relevance when investigating cases of suspected ADHD. Interviewees from different operational areas were able to identify a number of potential causes to a behavior like ADHD in the children’s social environments in addition to the neuropsychological explanation model. A number of potential factors were identified by the interviewees, including the children’s upbringing environment and a lack of resources in schools, where higher and higher demands of independence are put on children and adolescence. A majority of the interviewed health care professionals pointed to a high degree of difficulty in applying a social perspective explanatory model to children exhibiting behaviour reminiscent of ADHD due to organisational and economic circumstances. The general view was that this was made difficult due to the lesser or greater influence of particular professional groups, leading to what the interviewees referred to as a one-sided interpretation of behaviour similar to ADHD favouring the neuropsychological model. The interviewees desired a wider perspective when a suspected case of ADHD emerges where one can utilise the different explanatory models to a greater extent.

Realizing the limitations of economic theories in explaining corporate governance practices, this thesis adopts an institutional approach in its attempt to understand how such issues are shaped by larger institutional contexts. Malaysia is used as a case study; and accordingly the influence of a dominant institution of Bumiputera (sons of the soil) on corporate governance practices is investigated. The thesis focuses on the emergence, institutionalization impact, and change of the Bumiputera institution; and how corporate governance practices are influenced in each stage. As a lens for analysis, this thesis integrates sociological and historical paradigms of the new institutionalisms, and extends Beckert’s (2010) framework to include the role of power as advanced by Steven Lukes (1974, 2005). This extended framework is useful in explaining how the reciprocal influence of the Bumiputera institution, social networks, cognition, and power affect the behaviour of corporate governance actors. The analysis shows that, following the commitment by the state towards Bumiputera, the Malays’ equity ownership has seen a progressive increase, although it failed to meet the specified target of 30%. Malays’ representation on corporate boards also increased. The commitment has also led to a strong state presence in the economy, through its involvement in the Government Linked Companies, established to pursue Bumiputera’s objectives. However, unintended consequences have arisen affecting both ownership and appointment. The analysis also shows that, while board appointment is largely based on social networks, the existence of the Bumiputera institution means that ethnicity matters. Appointment could be for political or legitimacy reasons. Heightened by liberalisation moves, both Bumiputera and corporate governance institutions are subject to change. However, this refers only to the regulative aspects of the institutions, which are more susceptible to change compared to their informal elements. The state’s commitment towards Bumiputera remains. This study contributes to corporate governance literature by providing evidence on how corporate governance institutions are influenced by the larger social-political and institutional context vis-à-vis the emerging economy. This study shows that: firstly, corporate governance practices are shaped by history and political contexts; hence, understanding history would enhance the understanding of corporate governance. Secondly, ownership structure and the board of directors are not just mechanisms of corporate governance; rather, they are also channels through which larger objectives, including social objectives, are being pursued. Finally, this institution of corporate governance is not driven by functional needs of capital providers, but is shaped by powerful actors. Corporate governance practices are not intended just for resolving a particular agency problem, but are a mode of response to a particular historical incident that developed in postcolonial Malaysia.