This thesis engages in and contributes to the current debate of marketization on the potential consequences of the seemingly increasing marketization of non-governmental organizations and the emerge of for-profit actors in humanitarian work, focusing on one of the biggest actors in humanitarian aid; Médecines Sans Frontières (MSF). By interviewing three highly positioned representatives from the organization, examining a report on the matter as well as MSF website several aspects of marketization identified in the literature were searched for, such as: market language/concepts, commercialization, private sector funding and professionalization. The study shows that all these aspects of marketization can be traced in the work of MSF. Moreover, the study reveals that marketization appears to shape how MSF view and relate to other actors working with humanitarian aid, non-profit as well as for-profit actors. A fundamental difference that can be seen is that while MSF view for-profit actors in a very positive way and as partners of collaboration, non-profit actors (similar to themselves) are portrayed and seen as competition. Hence, the study suggest that the increasing marketization appears to foster increased competition between non-profit actors – potentially undermining coordination – while at the same time potentially increasing the potential for coordination between for-profit and non-profit actors. This study also suggests that more research should be conducted, analyzing other NGOs in a similar way as well as analyzing to what extent this competitive view affects a well functioning coordination in humanitarian actions on the ground.

This doctoral thesis focuses on certain private actors that operate transnationally in fields relevant to administrative law, such as food security, environmental protection, pharmaceuticals and medical device regulation. We are only interested in some of the activities carried out by these private actors, concretely those which have an effect that we have termed “regulatory impact”. In this work, we use the term “regulatory” as a meta-juridical concept, in order to understand the capacity that characterizes the activities of our transnational private actors to influence the final recipients in the respective fields. These activities do not result in the coercive imposition of a certain behaviour or an obligation on recipients (whether public or private subjects). Instead, they materialise through a series of varied acts with a flexible nature and a non-binding nature (e.g. technical norms or private standards, guidelines, recommendations or other instruments). However, these activities have considerable multiplier effects on the analysed fields as a consequence of their possible impact (in particular, on the protection of certain fundamental rights recognised at an European level). This makes their study from a legal-administrative perspective all the more relevant. In our view, the branch of administrative law is perhaps the most experienced in this matter. In particular, administrative doctrine has shown the greatest interest in understanding how far certain private actors may intervene in the regulatory chain in a way that is analogous or parallel –and not substitutive– to that of the Public Administration itself in these or other comparable fields. Depending on the case studies, administrative law can be a tool for finding out and understanding how our private legal actors operate transnationally and how they carry out their activities. Likewise, many of the internal rules and codes of conduct that make up the internal policy of our private actors contain procedural criteria or practices. These rules include some of the cultural values of administrative law, particularly participation and transparency. These criteria or practices have a certain similarity to those typically procedural principles of a legal-administrative nature that govern the activity of the Public Administration. The participation and transparency function as “strategies” which, in certain cases, set out to substantiate said activities of some private actors, in order to put in place harmonized and more efficient instruments in the various sectors in which they operate. On the one hand, with the incorporation of the practice of participation, some private actors recognize multiple subjects and stakeholders the opportunity to take part in the regulatory task, in order to give voice to their claims and deliberate collectively. On the other, sometimes the practice of transparency allows the global community to know and understand how these private actors carry out their activities. As a basis, we rely on extant studies in administrative doctrine pertaining to associated matters and fields. We intend to address, in this context and from a subjective viewpoint, the meaning of such practices and criteria and how they operate within the structural framework of transnational private actors. / Nuestra tesis doctoral toma en consideración algunos actores privados que operan a nivel transnacional en sectores de relevancia para el Derecho administrativo, tales como la seguridad alimentaria, la protección ambiental, la regulación farmacéutica y de los dispositivos sanitarios. De esos actores privados nos interesan sólo algunas de las actividades que prestan y que aquí denominamos de “impacto regulador”. Ese “impacto regulador” se presenta en nuestro trabajo como un concepto meta-jurídico que empleamos de manera amplia para comprender la capacidad que caracteriza las actividades que prestan nuestros actores privados transnacionales para influir sobre los destinatarios finales en los respectivos sectores. Conviene indicar que esas actividades no se traducen en la imposición coactiva de un determinado comportamiento o una obligación a sus destinatarios (ya sean sujetos públicos como privados), pues se materializan a través de una serie de actos de diversa índole –tales como normas técnicas o estándares privados, directrices, recomendaciones u otros instrumentos– de naturaleza flexible y de carácter no vinculante. No obstante, y como se verá, son considerables los efectos multiplicadores que tales actividades despliegan sobre los sectores objeto de análisis, como consecuencia del impacto que pudieran generar –en particular sobre la protección de determinados derechos fundamentales reconocidos a nivel europeo– y de ahí su relevancia para ser estudiado desde la perspectiva jurídico-administrativa. Y es que consideramos que la rama del Derecho administrativo es, quizás, la más experimentada en este campo, máxime cuando es la doctrina administrativista la que mayor interés ha demostrado en comprender en qué medida ciertos actores privados pueden llegar a intervenir en la cadena regulatoria de forma análoga o paralela –que no sustitutiva– a como lo ha podido venir haciendo hasta ahora la propia Administración en esos u otros ámbitos análogos. En función de los casos de estudio, el Derecho administrativo podría interesarse por conocer y comprender cómo nuestros actores de naturaleza jurídica privada operan a nivel transnacional y llevan a cabo sus actividades de impacto regulador. Observamos, además, que buena parte de los reglamentos internos y códigos de conducta que conforman la política interna de nuestros actores privados contienen criterios o prácticas de procedimiento que guardan una cierta similitud con aquellas normas típicamente procedimentales de naturaleza jurídico-administrativa que rigen la actividad de la Administración. Estas representan, por analogía y de manera abstracta, algunos de los valores de la cultura del Derecho administrativo como son, en particular, la participación y la transparencia. En algunos casos, tales criterios o prácticas permiten a determinadas realidades privadas –especialmente aquellas donde han adquirido carta de naturaleza– poner en marcha instrumentos armonizados y más eficientes en los diversos sectores en los que estos se proyectan. Por un lado, con la incorporación de la práctica de la participación, algunos actores privados reconocen a múltiples sujetos e intereses especialmente relevantes la oportunidad de intervenir en la tarea regulatoria, a fin de dar voz a sus pretensiones, deliberar y decidir de manera compartida. Por otro lado, la práctica de la transparencia permite a la comunidad global, si cabe, conocer y comprender cómo llevan a cabo sus actividades. En este orden de cosas, y desde el plano subjetivo, con nuestro trabajo pretendemos indagar –apoyándonos en los estudios ya realizados por parte de la doctrina administrativista en materias y sectores concomitantes– sobre el verdadero sentido de tales criterios o prácticas y de qué manera operan dentro de este marco estructural de actores privados transnacionales.

Children’s sexuality has historically been, and still is, a taboo subject. Children with sexual behavioral problems is a fenomen difficult to define because it varies depending on time, situation, and culture, which can make it difficult for social workers to assess. This essay has studied the construction of children with sexual behavior problems in interviews with social workers’ based on Bacchi's (2009) discourse analytical method and theory to achieve the purpose of the study. The essay has led to an understanding of how the construction of children with sexual behavior problems affect the social work and these children. The empirical material consisted of semi-structured interviews with ten social workers who work with children with sexual behavior problems. The interviews resulted in both equivalent and conflicting discourses in the field of social work. The equivalent discourses construct children with sexual behavior problems as a problem that needs to be remedied. The results showed that there is a battle of power between different discourses to achieve the dominant discourse that can win people's understanding of how children with sexual behavior problems should be understood and treated, above all between private actors.