This thesis aims to interconnect a theory of normative power Europe with the activities of the EU and its affect on the Western Balkans. The theoretical concept of normative power is based on the assumption of the EU as a normative actor who is able through its norms, values and principles to become a major civilian actor in international relations, especially in the area of conflict management. The theoretical part of the paper therefore focuses on the concept of normative power EU (NPE) as it is presented by Ian Manners, and how its normative character is reflected in the common security and defense policy. It is analysed how the NPE is diffused in selected countries of the Western Balkans through four chosen transfer mechanisms by Manners that comprise the operationalization of the thesis at the same time. Therefore the aim of this work is to contribute to the further broadening the debate over the EU's role in the international system, but also to find out how the norms and values are transmitted in selected countries of the near neighborhood - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. All of this with regard to democracy, human and minority rights, peaceful settlement of disputes, good governance etc., which encompass the basic values of the EU. The selected operationalization has allowed...

Von der Beobachtung miteinander korrespondierender Zeitdiagnosen ausgehend, wird in diesem Beitrag eine weite Perspektive auf Ökonomisierung eingenommen. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie und warum sich Ökonomisierung nach wie vor so hartnäckig hält. Wir schlagen in Abgrenzung zu einschlägigen aktuellen Theorieangeboten vor, einer institutionentheoretischen Deutung zu folgen, die eine gesellschaftstheoretische Ebene der funktionalen Differenzierung mit der subjektiven Ebene der Handlungspraxis dergestalt verbindet, dass die ökonomische Intrusion sinnrekonstruktiv erschlossen werden kann. Zentral für unsere Argumentation sind normative Leitbilder, die für jede Institution charakteristisch sind. In einem sozialkonstruktivistischen Verständnis arbeiten wir heraus, dass in der Spätmoderne Institutionen maßgeblich von den autonomiegetriebenen Gestaltungsabsichten der Subjekte erhalten und verändert werden. Mit dieser Perspektive wollen wir am Beispiel des Arbeitslebens mithilfe des Konzeptes des Berufsethos zeigen, wie sich die Logik der Ökonomisierung typischerweise als praktisches Ausbalancieren von Leitbildkonkurrenz manifestiert. Wir arbeiten dabei heraus, dass Ökonomisierung idealtypisch auf drei Arten subjektiv bewältigt wird: durch offensive Verweigerung, affirmative Anpassung oder widerwillige Anpassung. Anhand einer sekundäranalytischen Rekapitulation dreier empirischer Studien in unterschiedlichen professionellen Feldern, versuchen wir nahezulegen, wie der dritte Typus wirksam ist. Die Subjekte institutionalisieren damit, so unser Fazit, einen Dauerkonflikt zwischen ökonomischen und nicht-ökonomischen Leitbildern, und verhindern sowohl eine vollständige Entdifferenzierung, als auch eine autonome Weiterentwicklung normativer Leitbilder.

With the majority of the oceans lying outside the borders of national jurisdiction, it is not easy to preserve them healthy and secure as the ‘shared responsibility’ is not recognized unambiguously in the global world. The recent turn to the maritime sphere is visible in the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development that has been widely advocated by the EU. The latter’s commitment to sustainable ocean governance involves action beyond borders, which has a considerable impact on the global maritime sphere as well as on developing countries depending on the seas. On the one hand, the EU’s pursuit of sustainable ocean governance is informed by the norms and values that the organization possesses and tries to promote in its response to global challenges. On the other, the normative principles and the EU’s flowery rhetoric serve as a mean to rationalize Union’s pursuit of self-interest. This study analyses both dimensions of the organization’s engagement in the maritime sphere, considering oceans as a ‘placeful’ environment that has to be treated in the same way as the land is. By exploring the external dimension of EU’s action in the field, the thesis allows to see that EU’s pursuit of sustainable ocean governance has to be understood as a process in which the strategic aims are imbued with genuine moral concerns. Nevertheless, those can sometimes be undermined by the material policy outcomes visible in the West African coastal states such as Mauritania and Senegal.

This thesis measures the extent of the impact of the EU’s management of its migration flow in the aftermath of the ‘Summer of Migration’ on its legitimacy and normative power towards external actors.  Although historically funded and legitimated by its commitment to Human Rights values, the EU has failed to manage effectively and ethically the migration crisis indenpently. Building upon Buchanan’s constructivist approach of the strategies of legitimation used by IOs in IR, this thesis argues that this failure, by shedding light on the union’s weaknesses and pressuring it into to unethical external deals, deteriorates its image towards external actors and provides delegitimating tools to competitors of the EU in a global context of post-US hegemony, feeding power struggles in a shifting polarized world. By creating a theoretical bridge between EU internal policies and their external consequences, this thesis investigates interconnexions and causality effects between the structural flaws of the CEAS, the 2016 EU/Turkey deal and the loss of legitimacy of the EU. The arguments defended by this thesis are supported by an empirical research based on the critical discourse analysis of the evolutions of Turkish leaders’ speeches given at the UN General Assembly debates between 2009 and 2019. Using methods deriving from Discourse Historical Analysis (DHA), the analysis of the speeches pinpoints the role of the EU’s management of the migration crisis in the shift from positive to negative discourses of Turkish leaders towards the union. Finally, the study considers that the normative arguments related to the non-commitment of the EU to its upheld HR values has become a semantic tool of delegitimation for Turkey against the EU, and to promote itself as a new leader of IR.

The purpose of this essay is to analyse the problem of the rational justification of value judgments. To a large extent, I have used Taylor's account of the technique of justification (verification, validation, vindication, and rational choice of a way of life), as this is presented in his book, Normative Discourse. To a lesser extent, I have also used Baier's account of the technique of validation, as it is presented in his book, The Moral Point of View. I have attempted to show that it is possible to justify value judgments, despite the logical dichotomy between factual statements and evaluative statements. 'Justification' is taken as proof of correctness: that is, a statement is said to be justified if it is proven to be correct. On Taylor's technique, justification is possible, although only incompletely so. It is possible to prove that a value judgment is the correct one to make from within the perspective provided by a given way of life. Justification cannot be complete since the adoption of the perspective cannot be justified. On Baier's technique of validation, complete justification can be achieved: once it has been shown that an evaluatum meets the criteria in terms of which it was judged, and that these criteria are relevant (valid) for judging that object since the object must meet these criteria in order effectively to realize its purpose, nothing more needs to be shown. Although Baier's account allows for complete justification while Taylor's allows for only incomplete justification, Baier's account cannot be used to replace that of Taylor. They are appropriate in different contexts. While Baier's account of validation is appropriate for judgments of use-value, Taylor's account is appropriate for value judgments other than those of use-value. Accordingly, justification is possible using either technique, although complete justification may be possible only in the context of judgments of use-value. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The European Union, viewing itself as a normative actor, employs various means to disseminate its normative power within its member states, candidate countries, and the global context. The ERASMUS+ program comprises one of the tools designed to enhance the EU's international presence by facilitating cross-cultural interactions among participants and fostering group affiliations. This study aims to explore this impact on ERASMUS+ participants from EU candidate countries like Albania, employing constructivist concepts. By conducting interviews with both mobile and non-mobile Albanian exchange students, leading a comparative analysis, this research seeks to offer deeper insights into the extent to which the normative power of the EU influences these participants and their European identity formation. The guiding hypothesis, that participating in an ERASMUS+ program successfully shifts the identities of the students towards a more pro-European stance, has been verified through the discourse analysis of the interviewees answers. Hence, the normative power of the European Union is present and strengthened through this tool in the candidate countries.

The public concern for sustainability issues is ever increasing whilst the trust in corporations is decreasing. CEOs now see sustainability concern and compliance as an important component in retaining their competitive advantage and regaining the trust of their surrounding community. For these reasons it is important to find new manners of uniting societal improvement with business, requiring new forms of competencies. This study has investigated what sustainability education is actually central to the industrial engineering profile, as well as what of this is then covered in the programs. The study involved two phases. The first involved interviewing experts as to what was central for these engineers to learn, resulting in a content list. The second phase involved mapping the instances of this content in the five largest industrial engineering programs (covering circa 74% of these students) as well as the associated challenges to broaching this content. The first phase was primarily qualitative whilst the second phase was largely quantitative, though each data point consisted of a qualitative interview. Five key insights can be drawn from the study regardless of normative stand-point. 1) The sustainability topics that were deemed relevant cover a vast area of disciplines and aspects. 2) There is a skewedness in the content covered, favouring the environmental aspects. 3) There is a lack of integrative instances where the knowledge from different sources and perspectives is synthesized. 4) The key challenges revolve around concept definition and communication. 5) The normativity, interconnectedness and pedagogics contribute with uncertainty and complexity in the assessment of sustainability education. The study is finalized with a synthesis of the various insights to arrive at the conclusion that having sustainable business practice as the aim of the programs, establishing common content goals and employing active learning approach would circumvent many of the perceived challenges as well as align the programs with the need of the industry. This study contributes with deeper understanding of the sustainability education required and provided to industrial engineering students in Sweden. As such the study has practical applications for the programs studied. The theoretical implications of this study lie in the empirical data achieved regarding the topics of relevance to these engineers, showing high levels of agreement with current literature, as well as the perceived challenges to broaching this content in the current curricula. Furthermore it provides empirical data as to the sustainability education received at different programs. / Allmänhetens intresse över hållbarhetsfrågor ökar samtidigt som tilliten för företag minskar. Företagsledare ser numera hållbarhet som en viktig komponent i att bibehålla deras konkurrenskraft och att återfå allmänhetens tillit. Det är således viktigt att finna nya sätt att förena samhällsnytta med företagande, vilket kräver nya sorters kompetens inom hållbarhetsområdet. Denna studie har undersökt vilka hållbarhetsämnen som är centrala för industriell ekonomistudenten, givet deras profil i näringslivet, samt vad av detta som berörs i programmen. Studien var indelad i två faser. Den första ämnade till att skapa en lista av de, för dessa ingenjörer, centrala ämnen genom intervjuer med experter inom området. Den andra fasen kartlagde de ämnen som berördes inom de fem största industriell ekonomiprogrammen (täckandes cirka 74% av studenterna) samt vilka utmaningar som associerades till detta arbete. Den första fasen var till stora delar kvalitativ. Den efterföljande fasen var en kvantitativ kartläggning där varje datapunkt representerade en kvalitativ intervju. Ur studien uppkom fem nyckelinsikter, som står sig oavsett normativ ståndpunkt. Dessa inkluderade: 1) De hållbarhetsämnen som ansågs relevanta för denna målgrupp spänner en vid area av discipliner och aspekter. 2) Fördelningen på ämnen som täcks inom programmen påvisar en preferens mot den miljömässiga aspekten. 3) Det finns en brist på integrerande instanser i utbildningarna, där kunskap från olika aspekter och källor sammankopplas. 4) Nyckelutmaningarna centreras runt definiering och kommunikation. 5) Normativitet, sammankoppling och pedagogik bidrar alla till osäkerhet och komplexitet i bedömning av hållbarhetsutbildningar. Studien avslutas med en syntes av de olika insikterna för att komma till slutsatsen att hållbart företagande som övergripande syfte för utbildningarna, en gemensam målbild för innehållet samt komplettering med ”active learning” metodiker skulle övervinna många av de uppfattade utmaningarna samtidigt som det skulle uppfylla näringslivets kompetensbehov för framtida konkurrenskraft. Denna studie bidrar till förståelsen över vilken hållbarhetsutbildning som bedrivs och vilken som anses behövd av industriell ekonomistudenter i Sverige. Studien har därmed praktiska implikationer för de program som studerades. Teoretiska bidrag inkluderas av den empiriska data som framtagits gällande relevanta hållbarhetsämnen vilka uppvisar hög konvergens med litteraturen inom ämnen, samt de upplevda utmaningar kring att inkludera detta ämne i befintliga program. Vidare bidrar studien med empirisk data kring det som faktiskt berörs idag på de olika industriell ekonomiprogrammen.

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[pt] A presente dissertação tem como principal objetivo analisar o engajamento do Brasil nos debates normativos sobre segurança internacional, em especial os que envolvem a temática da reconstrução estatal e a construção da paz, enquanto um agente contestador através da construção e da prática do Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding. Para realizar tal análise partiu-se do debate sobre normas nas Relações Internacionais para entender como uma norma surge, se consolida e pode ser contestada. Assim, para analisar essa atuação normativa do Brasil buscou-se analisar dois processos de reconstrução estatal e consolidação da paz nos quais a presença brasileira é e foi bastante significativa tanto em termos militares quanto em termos políticos: Guiné-Bissau e Haiti. A partir desses casos foi buscado entender como que o Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding contesta e, no limite, legitima uma visão tradicional de construção da paz. Por fim, são apresentadas as consequências dessas práticas para as normas de segurança internacional. / [en] The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze Brazil s engagement in the normative debates on international security, especially those that involve the theme of Statebuilding and peacebuilding, as a contestation agent through the construction and practice of the Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding. In order to carry out this analysis, we started with the debate on norms in International Relations to understand how a norm emerges, is consolidated and can be contested. Thus, in order to analyze this normative action in Brazil, we sought to analyze two processes of statebuilding and peacebuilding in which the Brazilian presence is and was quite significant both in military and in political terms: Guinea-Bissau and Haiti. From these cases it was sought to understand how the Brazilian Way of Peacebuilding contests and, in the limit, legitimizes a traditional vision of peacebuilding. Finally, the consequences of these practices for international security norms are presented.