The Swedish sports movement has in recent years raised an age related drop-out problematic. Just like their Scandinavian neighbours the Swedish sports movement appeal less adolescent participants as they grow older. This was largely explained by scholars and the Swedish sports movement as a competitive rationale. Therefore The Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet) has introduced a subject of change to become a more inclusive sports movement where people can exercise independently of their competitive commitment. The purpose of the study was to investigate how the national sports associations will manage members’ lifelong commitment to sport. Attitudes to changes was evaluated through the use of interviews with executives and employees in the national sports associations in order to know how the suggested changes will be received. Overall, the participants present elements of a strong competitive culture that tries to prevent the proposed change. Some aspects consisted of time consuming processes, conflicts and differentiated organizing ideas within all organizations. Even though many sports associations argue they have challenging conditions, there are people within the organizations who try to neglect a competitive sports ideal. New forms of ideas might still attract more people to organized sports movement. The main conclusion is that the competitive logic is maintained within the national sports associations. Change of the sports movement’s behaviour patterns will always act in comparison to the historically competitive rationale and therefore also be influenced by it.

This thesis explores the development of public policy aimed at achieving adult life-long participation in sport in Australia, Finland and New Zealand. Adult life-long participation has frequently been claimed as an aspiration of sport policy in Australia, Finland and New Zealand. This study identifies the characteristics of the sport systems and sport policy process in each of the three countries and outlines the development of policy concerning participation in sport amongst adults. A case study approach was adopted focusing on each of the three countries in turn. Adopting a qualitative methodology the study utilised document analysis and semi-structured interviews to elicit data regarding the development of, and factors impacting upon, the development of sport for all. Focusing upon the meso-level of analysis, policy networks was found to be a useful lens through which to view Finland, drawing attention to a policy subsystem where there has been a consistent focus on sport for all over the last 40 years. The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) provided the greatest utility for providing insights into Australia and New Zealand. The ACF drew attention to competing coalitions within the New Zealand and Australian sport sub-systems highlighting the tensions that had surfaced between elite and mass sport development. Despite little evidence in Australia, Finland or New Zealand of a policy or strategy that could be 'pulled off the shelf and called adult life long participation the findings indicated that Finland has been able to achieve high levels of adult participation in sport. Over the last 40 years successive Finnish governments have been consistent in their approach with regard to the role of national and local government in promoting Sf A. In contrast the Australian federal government has consistently expressed a desire to increase levels of sport participation amongst all Australians, however, despite consistent exhortations policy implementation has failed to reflect the rhetoric. Recent changes to the New Zealand sport policy landscape have made identifying a clear sport development pathway difficult, however, grassroots sport appears to have remained outside the current public policy focus. This study concludes that despite the existence of broadly similar factors such as rising levels of obesity, declining levels of physical activity and continued aspirations for sporting success, quite different sport policy approaches have been adopted in each of the three countries. This draws attention to the role of domestic factors, such as the distinctive socio-economic political and cultural systems in shaping the direction of, and salience of, sport policy to government.

The study investigates the relationship between state repression and mass mobilization in resilient autocratic regimes. Using qualitative methods, I examine the question: How can state repression lead to mass participation of society in the nonviolent resistance movement? Developing Brian Martin’s (2012) theory, I hypothesize that framing of state repression by the regime and the opposition influence public perception and, in turn, participation levels. Four contemporary cases are analyzed: The Belarus Election Fraud Resistance 2020-2021, the Belarus Antiwar Resistance 2022, the Russia Navalny Resistance 2021, and the Russia Antiwar Resistance 2022. The findings acquired through the Structured Focused Comparison generally support the theory, demonstrating that well-organized and present opposition can effectively counter state strategies and encourage people with divided and negative perceptions of repression to take risks and join the nonviolent movement. Yet, the negative perception of repression alone is not enough to mobilize the masses in the face of high levels of repression. The magnitude of repression might affect people's motivations to join the nonviolent movement. The study emphasizes the importance of supporting opposition figures and organizations in repressive regimes to strengthen their capacity to mobilize the masses and suggests further research on the deterrent effect of repression.

中文摘要 本文主要的研究目的是要檢視泰國學生運動在1973∼1992年間泰國政治發展過程中所扮演的角色。相較於其它多數相關研究，本文不僅僅只是追溯時間序列上所呈現的事件，更要探究其後所代表的意涵與價值。同時，透過瞭解學生運動的興起、發展與轉型過程，來評估其對泰國民主化及市民社會力量增強所帶來的貢獻。 1973∼1992年的二十年間，泰國一共經歷了三次重要的民主轉型階段，同時也發生了三次大規模全國性群眾運動，分別是1973年的10月學運、1976年的第二次學運以及1992年的黑色5月事件。1973年的事件是起因於他儂(Thanom Kittikachon)政權施行威權統治，進而引發大規模政治抗議的結果，而此次由學生所領導的事件，可說是泰國大規模社會運動的濫觴；1976年的二次學運是針對軍方態度的跋扈及對群眾請求漠視的反動；1992年的5月運動則是要要求執政當局制定具有民主本質的憲法，同時也欲推翻未經民選過程卻出任首相的蘇欽達(Suchinda Kraprayoon)。 本文立基於這三個轉型階段與三個歷史轉折點，來探討以下議題：在什麼樣的政治機會下，導致了學運的興起、發展與轉型？其後的歷史背景與相關意涵為何？是什麼原因讓學生變成行動主義者，並且號召其它群眾參與政治？文化及思想意識如何影響學運的發展與轉型？學生運動如何影響泰國的政治發展？ 本研究主要是利用政治發展理論（political development theory）來分析泰國學生運動與政治發展間的關聯性，進而探究其在泰國政治轉型中所扮演的角色為何。同時並觀察外在政治環境的變化，特別是軍方政權的態度與行為模式、學生動員群眾的方式，尤其是與其它組織的結盟策略以及運動帶給一般群眾的認知與文化思想信念等變數，來分析學生運動成功或失敗的原因。 透過運用政治發展理論對上述三個歷史轉型階段的分析，本文發現（1）、泰國學生運動扮演了社會力量代言人(agent)的角色，透過學生運動的努力，喚醒了弱勢階層長久以來遭受壓抑的政治意識，並影響中產階級對民主的觀念，最後造成了軍人脫離政治及民主化的落實。(2)、由學生運動所引發的「由下而上」(bottom-up)改革力量以及群眾運動，將是觀察泰國政治發展的重要指標，這種來自民間的政治參與，會是未來影響政府決策及督促政治發展的最重要力量。(3)、泰國學生運動的發展脈絡印證了政治發展理論中由變遷—進步的結果。透過激烈的革命手段來達成演化的目的，最終促成了國家政治體系的進步。 最後，本研究認為，在學生運動帶動下的市民社會抗爭獲得成功之後，其信心與力量都更為鞏固，同時人民已認知到集體力量的重要性，日後統治階層若想再藉由武力的方式來鎮壓民眾的聲音，恐將難以成功，而泰國的政治應該會更加朝向民主鞏固的路途邁進。 / Abstract This thesis examines the role of the Thai student movements in the political development process that took place in Thailand between 1973 and 1992. Most studies of the student movements in Thailand take the presence of a movement as something that can be traced simply through sequential events. Things occur and results materialize. This research has a different purpose: first, to explore not only what happened, but also how it happened. Second, to examine its emergence, development and transformation. Finally, to evaluate the contribution it has made to the expansion of civil society and democratization. Here this research attempts to answer such questions as: what internal conditions facilitated the emergence and development of the movements and how? What was the historical context in which the movement emerged and how was the emergence related to this context? How and why were students able to become activists, and then recruit others so as to sustain a voluntary social formation? And how did the elements of culture and ideology affect the development and transformation? The main subjects of this research are three pro-democracy demonstrations: the student movement of 1973, the bloody October of 1976, and the May uprising of 1992. The analysis of the Thai student movements is guided by political development theory to better understand the relationship between student movement and political development. Through this study, three conclusions have been drawn: (1) Thai student movement played the role as the agent of social force. Through its efforts, the political awareness of the civil society has thus been waken up, leading to the break down of the military. (2) Student movement brought about the “the bottom-up” reform forceand created the political space for mass participation. This kind of “bottom-up” reform force will be playing the leading role affecting government’s attitude and policies. (3) The Thai student movement verifies the hypothesis of the political development theory. Through drastic mass movements, it leads to a real progress of the political system. A comparison of the three cases shows that the development and expansion of civil society led by student movements, and the success of mass struggle make people understand the importance of collective action. It would be a quite difficult thing for the ruling class using violent means to stifle people’s demands in the future, and Thailand will be getting closer to the goal of the consolidation of democracy.

In the last three decades, seismic performance assessment of buried structures has evolved through the following stages : i) buried structures are not prone to seismically-induced damages, thus no need for detailed investigations, ii) eliminating soil-structure-earthquake interaction and use of seismically-induced free field ground deformations directly as the basis for seismic demand, thus producing conservative results, and finally iii) soil-structure and earthquake interaction models incorporating both kinematic and inertial interactions. As part of soil-structure and earthquake interacting models, simplified frame analysis established the state of practice and is widely used. Within the confines of this thesis, the results of simplified frame analysis based response of buried structures are compared with those of 2-D finite element dynamic analyses. For the purpose, 1-D dynamic and 2-D pseudo-dynamic analyses of free field and buried structural systems are performed for a number of generic soil, structure and earthquake combinations. The analyses results revealed that, in general, available closed form solutions are in pretty good agreement with the results of finite element analyses. However, due to the fact that dynamic analyses can model both kinematic and inertial effects / it should be preffered for the design of critical structures.

1. Einführung in die Theorie dynamischer Analysen mit Creo Simulate 2. Modalanalysen (Standard und mit Vorspannung) 3. Dynamische Analysen einschließlich Klassifizierung der Analysen; einige einfache Beispiele für eigene Studien (eine Welle unter Unwuchtanregung und ein Ein-Massen-Schwinger) sowie etliche Beispiele größerer dynamischer Systemmodelle aus unterschiedlichsten Anwendungsbereichen 4. Feedback an den Softwareentwickler PTC (Verbesserungsvorschläge und Softwarefehler) 5. Referenzen / 1. Introduction to dynamic analysis theory in Creo Simulate 2. Modal analysis (standard and with prestress) 3. Dynamic analysis, including analysis classification, some simple examples for own self-studies (shaft under unbalance excitation and a one-mass-oscillator) and several real-world examples of bigger dynamic systems 4. Feedback to the software developer PTC (enhancement requests and code issues) 5. References

1. Einführung in die Theorie dynamischer Analysen mit Creo Simulate 2. Modalanalysen (Standard und mit Vorspannung) 3. Dynamische Analysen einschließlich Klassifizierung der Analysen; einige einfache Beispiele für eigene Studien (eine Welle unter Unwuchtanregung und ein Ein-Massen-Schwinger) sowie etliche Beispiele größerer dynamischer Systemmodelle aus unterschiedlichsten Anwendungsbereichen 4. Feedback an den Softwareentwickler PTC (Verbesserungsvorschläge und Softwarefehler) 5. Referenzen / 1. Introduction to dynamic analysis theory in Creo Simulate 2. Modal analysis (standard and with prestress) 3. Dynamic analysis, including analysis classification, some simple examples for own self-studies (shaft under unbalance excitation and a one-mass-oscillator) and several real-world examples of bigger dynamic systems 4. Feedback to the software developer PTC (enhancement requests and code issues) 5. References