Violence is put in a specific context when the police are the perpetrator of violence rendering violence possibly legitimate through sovereignty. The possibility of legitimization of police violence raises important questions of how such violence is legitimized and how resistance is conceived of and defined. I have interviewed seven people in Sweden from different backgrounds, all of whom share the experience of having been subjugated to police violence, including threats, harassments and physical violence.This paper analyzes the performativity of police violence through the relations between police violence, power, sovereignty, subjectstatus and resistance, in order to understand how police violence is being legitimized and to understand its consequenses with respect to those subjugated to it. I’ve also analyzed if this violence is being politicized and, in that case, how politicization is made possible. Performativity implies an understanding where those relations aswell as understandings of it are framing which actions are made possible and rendered real while those very actions themselves also animates those understandings. Those framings are to be understood as neither unambiguous nor ever-lasting.In order to analyze power relations considerate of different backgrounds and experiences where the relationship between the police and those who are subjected to police violence aren’t formulated in political terms I’ve chosen to analyze power relations through subjectstatus and sovereignty. Subjectstatus signifies to which extent we are acknowledged as subjects and thus granted raison d’être through such status. Sovereignty is understood as the power structure giving meaning to the police actions of violence. Thus, I am not analyzing structures of power or identity such as class and gender. Instead I analyze to what extent we are acknowledged as subjects through the concept of subjectstatus where for instance gender and class may be included.The perception of yourself through others is of significance for the risk of being subjected to police violence where the very experience of being violated carry consequences for how we are perceived. Legitimized police violence in itself denies victimstatus to those being violated, thus explaining why the victims of police violence are seldom seen as subjugated to violence. The possibility of police violence being rendered legitimate are materialized through sovereignty where police violence can be understood as a way of outlining the boundaries through which sovereignty acknowledges some subjects the freedom from violence in ambiguous ways.A subject wielding resistance can be conceived of as being in a subject-position, rendering police violence legitimate. The very acts of police violence carry the power to define what is to be understood as resistance. Such subject-positions are advantageous to the police since they entail the possibility of rendering police violence legitimate when someone who is violated by the police can be construed as wielding resistance after the violations. Thus police violence and sovereignty entail their own prerequisites for being rendered real. When the framings of police violence are being materialized through that very violence they can be understood as hegemonic, making police violence hard to politicize. / <p>Masteruppsats i genusvetenskap</p>

Human rights are commonly taken to include both behavioral freedoms, such as a right to express opinions, and safeguards against the behaviors of others, such as a right not to be tortured. I examine the claim by Allen Buchanan and others that democracy should be considered a human right. I discuss what human rights are, what they do, and what they obligate moral agents to do, comparing this framework to attributes of democracy. I conclude that while democracy itself is both too nebulous and too specific to be the subject of a human right, it may be proper to speak of a human right to state self-determination.

Postpartum Depression: Standardizing Motherhood? by Pamela J. Regus Under the Direction of Wendy S. Simonds ABSTRACT An expansion of the medicalization of Postpartum Depression (PPD) is evident in increased screening for maternal depression that begins in pregnancy and continues in the postpartum period, and in the growing number of medical professionals alerted to watch for signs of maternal distress. Although a definitive etiology ofPPDremains elusive, the scientific and medical fields – highly imbued with authority to create knowledge in Western society – promote essentialist views of motherhood that espouse “natural” attributes such as maternal instincts and tendencies to nurture. Mothers who struggle with these standards of motherhood are then defined as being ill and become patients under the care of the medical profession until they can perform adequately in their motherhood roles, or they face social condemnation and legal repercussions for being “bad” mothers. Because characteristics of the “normal” postpartum period are said to be similar to symptoms of general depression, how do some women come to identify their postpartum experiences as depression while others do not? Does the choice of traditional obstetrics or an alternative, such as midwifery, make a difference in the incidence of postpartum depression? And what changes in the social support network occur in a woman’s life as a result of a diagnosis ofPPD? Using Foucault’s theory of docility, critical constructionism, and postmodern feminism as the theoretical focus, and in-depth interviews as the research method, I compare the postpartum experiences of mothers who have been diagnosed with postpartum depression with mothers who have not been diagnosed. The sample includes mothers who gave birth with the assistance of obstetrics and mothers who gave birth with the assistance of certified nurse-midwives. In order to examine the differences in approaches to and treatment of postpartum depression, I also interview a sample of obstetricians and certified nurse-midwives. Findings show that medical professionals use gender-normative assessments, such as physical appearance, language, and nurturing tendencies to determine whether the mother is performing as expected; if not, she is defined as ill and treated with antidepressant medication. Although the majority of mothers in the sample experienced feelings of depression in the postpartum period, many resisted diagnosis and medication. Mothers found the greatest support in their peers, rather than those closest to them, citing the ability to talk candidly about the struggles they face in their motherhood roles as the way to avert or heal from PPD. This finding highlights the enforcement of normative motherhood within the social institutions of the family and medicine; thus, cultural change from ideological representations of motherhood may come about through peer relationships. INDEX WORDS: Postpartum depression, Motherhood, Medicalization, Expansion of medical control, Maternal behavior, Childbearing years, Normative motherhood

Retrofitting of existing buildings is essential to reach reduction targets in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. In the current practice of a retrofit decision process, professionals perform energy audits, and construct dynamic simulation models to benchmark the performance of existing buildings and predict the effect of retrofit interventions. In order to enhance the reliability of simulation models, they typically calibrate simulation models based on monitored energy use data. The calibration techniques used for this purpose are manual and expert-driven. The current practice has major drawbacks: (1) the modeling and calibration methods do not scale to large portfolio of buildings due to their high costs and heavy reliance on expertise, and (2) the resulting deterministic models do not provide insight into underperforming risks associated with each retrofit intervention. This thesis has developed a new retrofit analysis framework that is suitable for large-scale analysis and risk-conscious decision-making. The framework is based on the use of normative models and Bayesian calibration techniques. Normative models are light-weight quasi-steady state energy models that can scale up to large sets of buildings, i.e. to city and regional scale. In addition, they do not require modeling expertise since they follow a set of modeling rules that produce a standard measure for energy performance. The normative models are calibrated under a Bayesian approach such that the resulting calibrated models quantify uncertainties in the energy outcomes of a building. Bayesian calibration models can also incorporate additional uncertainties associated with retrofit interventions to generate probability distributions of retrofit performance. Probabilistic outputs can be straightforwardly translated into a measure that quantifies underperforming risks of retrofit interventions and thus enable decision making relative to the decision-makers' rational objectives and risk attitude. This thesis demonstrates the feasibility of the new framework on retrofit applications by verifying the following two hypotheses: (1) normative models supported by Bayesian calibration have sufficient model fidelity to adequately support retrofit decisions, and (2) they can support risk-conscious decision-making by explicitly quantifying risks associated with retrofit options. The first and second hypotheses are examined through case studies that compare outcomes from the calibrated normative model with those from a similarly calibrated transient simulation model and compare decisions derived by the proposed framework with those derived by standard practices respectively. The new framework will enable cost-effective retrofit analysis at urban scale with explicit management of uncertainties.

This study examines the European Union normative power in Sub-Saharan African countries. It is based upon theoretical researches on normative power and official publications about EU’s normative power in Africa. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the EU’s role in Africa as normative power. The following questions are posed: What are the reasons of exercising normative power by the EU in Africa? What are the main areas the EU acts as normative power in African continent? And what are the results of EU normative power activity in Africa? The theoretical approach assumes that the EU is no longer a normative power. But, nevertheless, it can exercise normative power. The study is conducted with a qualitative method research. The results show that the EU as a normative power pursues egoistic motives in Africa. But its normative power becomes limited by some factors: growing economic development of Africa, growing EU military power. This confirms the theory. / <p>Hope, You agree to use the thesis only for lawful purposes, and in a way that does not infringe the rights of, restrict or inhibit anyone else's use and enjoyment of the thesis. Remember you should ask authors' permission to use the thesis.</p>

Past research suggests that members of devalued groups recognize their group is discriminated against. Do the implicit responses of members of these groups demonstrate the same pattern? I argue that they do not and that this is due to a motivated protection of members of devalued groups’ social identity. Study 1 demonstrates that, at an explicit level African-Canadians recognize that their group is discriminated against, but at an implicit level African-Canadians think that most people like their group to a greater extent than do European-Canadians. Study 2 replicates this implicit finding but demonstrates that devalued and majority groups do not have different implicit normative regard about a non-devalued group. Study 3 again replicates the implicit finding with Muslim participants while demonstrating that, when affirmed, this group difference disappears. Study 4 demonstrates that implicit normative regard can predict collective action over and above implicit attitudes and explicit normative regard. The implications for social identity theory and collective action are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose with this dissertation is to examine the individual–firm commitment between auditors and exempted firms from the client perspective and how it is influenced by relational influencing factors. The impact of these factors is investigated through a three component model incorporating affective, calculative and normative commitment.   Method: The study encompasses a triangular research method and can be seen as a twofold complementary approach. The choice of methodology seeks to qualitatively investigate how auditors actively work to impact the level of trust, social bonds and satisfaction as well as the level of commitment in their relationship with the exempted firm. The intention is to complement the findings from the qualitative study with quantitatively measured factors from the client’s perspective using a survey strategy.   Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that micro-firms are predominantly affectively committed to their auditor based on positive feelings of attachment and less due to normative and calculative reasons. Trust and satisfaction proved to be the most significant factors in ensuring long-term and enduring relationships between auditors and micro-firms.   Implications: Affective commitment proved to be the most significant construct in explaining the characteristics of the auditor-micro firm relation in this study. By critically evaluating the relationship, the auditor can assess to which degree trust, social bonds and satisfaction can be implemented to strengthen the commitment of the exempted firm, thus influencing their long-term staying intention.

<p>In this thesis, I take up two important issues for understanding neurobiological systems: normative functions and information. After introducing the topic and my methodology in chapters 1 and 2, chapter 3 contains an extended critique of the most prominent theory of biological functions, the selected-effects theory of functions. My arguments center on the influential recent selected-effects theory arguing that it has trouble accounting for certain cases and does not seem to capture the sense of malfunction employed in the neurosciences. Chapter 4 defends an alternative theory of normative biological functions that I label the statistical fitness theory. Roughly, this theory holds that tokens of a trait type have the normative function to do something y if it is typical for tokens of that type of trait to y and their doing y contributes to the inclusive fitness of the organism that possesses the trait. In turn, this theory defines malfunctioning trait tokens as those whose effects that typically make positive contributions to fitness fall below the "normal" range in the population. Chapter 5 argues that several other recently popular theories of normative functions have significant flaws. </p><p>Chapter 6 takes up the issue of a certain kind of information, namely natural, propositional information. I provide a general framework that explains when signals carry this kind of information about their signifieds based upon stable, perfect correlations holding between the two. Hence, I label this the "stable correlation theory". I also argue that there are good reasons to think that neurons in our brains carry natural, propositional information and that their ability to do so is also grounded in stable correlations.</p> / Dissertation

During Nov.2008 to Apr. 2009, firms in Taiwan encountered dramatic financial crisis, and this impact made unemployment rate still climbing and economic depression. In order to reduce the impact from financial tsunami, every firm takes some strategies to resist it. The objective of our study is to find out the influence from financial tsunami on the listed companies. More importantly, we base on the three mechanisms (mimetic force, normative force and coercive force) of institutional theory and the perspectives of population theory to analyze why firms choose those strategies. We collect and analyze 201 returned questionnaires. We find when firms face both high market force, mimetic force and coercive, they tend to choose manipulation strategies. When firms face both low market force, mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to choose compromise strategies. When firms face high market force and low mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to use defiance strategies. When firms face low market force and high mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to use acquiescence strategies.

In 2008-2009, firms in Taiwan encountered dramatic financial tsunami, and this crisis made unemployment rate still climbing and economic depression. In order to reduce the impact from financial tsunami, every firm chooses some strategies to resist it. The purpose of our study is to find out the influence from financial tsunami on the listed companies. More importantly, we base on the three mechanisms (mimetic force, normative force and coercive force) of institutional theory to analyze the real reason for choosing strategies. We collect and analyze 201 returned questionnaires. The finding of this study is that the main factor of choosing strategies is from the mimetic force and normative force. In fact, the enterprise is affected by mimetic pressure deeply, and then it would tend to use the passive strategies. The enterprise is affected by normative pressure deeply, and then it would tend to use the active strategy. Interestingly, whether the enterprise is affected by coercive pressure or not, it doesn¡¦t affect the strategies choosing.