The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), particularly the Internet, has attracted huge attention. Despite the attention paid to research into Internet use in homes, government agencies and business firms, little attention has been paid to other types of organisations such as civil society organisations (CSOs).

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Civil society has come to dominate the discourses of development and social change for the last few decades. This thesis is a critical engagement with the liberal ideas of civil society; it specifically explores the politics that surfaces in the civic sphere in the context of caste inequalities through the study of Dalit socio-political organisations that occupy the margins of civil society in India. This ethnography of Dalit politics interrogates the intersections of caste and civil society in current globalised times and spaces through exploration into post-Panther phase of Dalit politics in rural Maharashtra. The focus is on two socio-political movements; one is Manavi Hakk Abhiyan (MHA), a grassroots Dalit organisation with international networks and the other is Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) a national Dalit political party. This study offers insights into the dynamic nature of caste and its vitality in constructing localised form/s of civil society in India. A common running theme in the thesis is Dalit politics of resistance and their struggle to access justice through the state despite the continued denial of justice to Dalits through fragmented institutions of the state. The study, thus, observes how the participation of Dalit movements in claiming democratic citizenship through party politics occurs alongside the marginalisation of Dalit assertion in electoral politics. Looking beyond the state, the thesis charts the relationships between Dalits and the external relational fields within which they operate: it details the vernacular modes of communication in the civic sphere where protests and violence are important modes; the innovative uses of caste and cultural repertoires by Dalit movements in challenging caste hierarchy and forming collective identities of protest; and finally, the context of global associational revolution and engagement of NGOs and INGOs as new associations in Dalit politics of resistance. This thesis contributes to the larger debates on the makings of caste and civil society in India and argues that caste and Dalit movements have a key role in constructing localised forms of civility and civil society that challenge the dynamic hierarchies and exclusions of caste.

The thesis analyses how NGOs define the meaning of civil society in Namibia through their everyday work. Based on 12 months fieldwork at the national umbrella for NGOs the thesis shows that this definition was mainly shaped by NGOs’ administration of the everyday rather than the outcome of ideological debates about how to “do good”. The thesis examines how dominant NGO practices reflect the basic tension between NGOs’ activists claims and the bureaucratic reality of their work and in doing so speaks to debates about NGO agency, accountability and their relevance for development. The thesis shows how organisations use formal criteria in reporting, networking, advocacy, fundraising and branding to continuously redefine what activism ought to be about and how “proper” civic organisations ought to behave. NGOs write reports to enhance their accountability and transparency, but the correct reporting form also delineates what counts as proper civic activism. They present networking as civil society’s main coordinating mechanism, but meetings always call for more coordination and hence additional meetings. Advocacy does not only concern the relations between civic organisations and the government, but NGOs also use these relations to justify surveillance and control within civil society. Competitive fundraising does not blindly follow donors’ demands, rather, through it NGOs create a canon of fundable and thus legitimate projects. Finally, the branding of civic activism is not simply concerned with the promotion of civil society organisations, but is seen as an attempt to create a unified corporate image with a sharp distinction between proper and improper civic activism. Struggles over meaning are therefore shifted into contestations around technicalities. The administration of the everyday in civil society thus becomes the prime means to decide how to “do good”.

The thesis explores international donors’ promotion of civil society in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan since the mid 2000s with a particular focus on how policy changes in the promotion of civil society have influenced Kyrgyz non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their relations with the state. The thesis is based on tenmonths field research, which involved ninety semi-structured interviews with nineteen donors, forty-seven NGOs, six community based organisations, and three representatives of local authorities, together with two small-scale surveys with twenty-five NGO employees and thirty-three NGO leaders. The key finding is that donors’ focus on civil society promotion in Kyrgyzstan has decreased since the mid 2000s rather their agenda now aims at state capacity-building. Donors’ more limited funding to NGOs is targeted toward the promotion of NGOs’ advocacy role and the encouragement of collaborative relations between NGOs and the state. These findings indicate a shift from donors’ civil society promotion in the 1990s where the key stress was on building civil society in Kyrgyzstan from scratch. Consequently, the thesis discusses the return of the state to donor agenda and the interaction between the state, donors, and NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. These changes have impacted the NGOs sector in Kyrgyzstan. The research has revealed that, as a result of these changes, NGOs are becoming more professional and formal. The thesis argues that reduced donor funding has resulted in a stronger competition among NGOs for funds, while increased interaction with the state institutions has also placed pressure on NGOs to become more professional and to increase their institutional capacity. The thesis suggests that relations between the state and NGOs are characterised by apparently contradictory elements in which both cooperation and counterbalance feature. Notwithstanding the prevailing trend toward NGO professionalisation and formalisation, the thesis argues that NGOs also display other features such as voluntarism, philanthropy, and constituency responsiveness. Consequently, the thesis makes a contribution to the literature on civil society in Central Asia by providing a detailed account of the complex and diverse NGO sector in Kyrgyzstan.

From the earliest Christian missionary endeavours, when St. Paul made himself to become "all things to all men" (1 Cor. 9:19-22), Christian missionaries have avowed the principle of 'identification' - the sympathetic adaptation of one's behaviour and message to the culture within which one engages in missiop. But the precise nature of this 'identification' seems to have undergone significant changes as the 'Christian' West came to dominate the rest of the world idealogically, politically, and economically. Utilizing representative sources of the period, this study attempts to portray missionary identification as it was understood and practiced by Protestant missionaries between 1860 and 1910. The record is examined at several levels: Anglo-American Missionary Conference reports are used to paint the broad picture of missionary attitudes and concerns; the London Missionary Society - with special reference to its activities and personnel in Central Africa and Central China - serves to fill in the details of the larger canvas. The result depicts Protestant missionaries of the time as having been so enmeshed in European civilization as to preclude any significant adaptation to non-Western life - in either theory or practice. Materially, socially, politically, economically, educationally, and religiously, the missionary remained a European. Even in the linguistic sphere, missionary identification came gradually to mean the instruction of natives in the English language. While exceeding any degree of identification which might have been attempted or achieved by any other group of Westerners (such as adventurers, explorers, merchants, colonists, and colonial officials), missionary identification was severely truncated by the powerful press and pull of their own Eurocentrism, and by their self-conscious awareness that they were the incarnation of European superiority in virtually every sphere.

Since the 1930s Lucha Libre Mexicana, Mexican wrestling, has evolved as a manifestation of popular culture combining spectacle, sport, theatre and ritual. Lucha Libre Mexicana, an event based performance using the mask, connects and reconnects to myth, stories, and ritual that societies, in this case the Mexican, need in order to find meaning within daily events and the contradictions and questions that confront every individual. This research analyses the cultural meanings of Lucha Libre Mexicana from the point of view of a diasporic artist and contextualizes knowledge to determine artistic practice. Identity and the construction of identity are explored throughout this thesis. The various aspects of Lucha Libre Mexicana such as the masks, the holds, the wrestlers themselves, and the performative nature of the spectacle, serve as referents to make connections to the artist’s own culture and the idea of constructed Mexicanness. This study includes a number of practice-based inquiries that are the result of the analysis and reflection on Lucha Libre and diasporic Mexicanness. The study reveals the manner by which creative processes including thinking in materials enable the artist scholar to acquire knowledge and thematic understanding. This thesis demonstrates how the traditional icons of the Mexican luchador and his mask acquire an even stronger iconic and symbolic value, emblematic of justice, outside the Lucha Libre ring. The study contributes to the field of cultural studies by adding to the understanding of the historical timeline of the development of Lucha Libre Mexicana. A large body of original work developed from the investigations and analyses of the subjects and issues discussed.

The argument of this thesis is that the early success of building DCMR does not mean real consolidation without active non-governmental actors and a dynamic civil society. Drawing attention to the non-state side of civil-military relations is crucial to improving the quality of DCMR. The thesis claims, that the horizontal dimension of the Hungarian CMR has undergone a long and complex learning process. Nevertheless, the civil society component of the Hungarian CMR received less attention and its development was slow and controversial. This process is shown by the case of three types of NGOs (protest, research and educator, and cultural organizations) in Hungary between the late 1980s and 2002. Today tendencies are promising because these organizations are more diverse than earlier and the improving economy could provide additional resources for them. Nevertheless, the state support for improving this activity remained very important but it calls for considering increasingly democratic values. Furthermore, the current status of the defense- and military-related civil society calls for promotion from NATO and the European Union as well. It would be important increasing the attractiveness this field and as a result the civilian participation in it, which could be the basis of the improvement of the quality of democratic civil-military relations.

The act on public procurement of concessions. An analysis of the new law and the future of concessions.

Upphandling är i dagsläget mer aktuellt än någonsin. Den 1 januari 2017 trädde de reviderade lagarna om upphandling kraft,vilket lett till att en del problem försvunnit och en del nya har uppkommit. Lagarna ska reglera köpen för alla de upphandlingspliktiga inköp som det offentliga gör. De upphandlingspliktiga inköpen hade 2014 ett värde på cirka 634 miljarder kronor, vilket motsvarar 18,3 procent av Sveriges BNP. Konsultmäkleri är en bransch som vuxit fram de senaste åren,4 trots att det låter tämligen onödigt att köpa konsulter via konsulter. Konsultmäklaren blir ytterligare en kostnad som läggs till på inköpet av en vara eller tjänst. Branschen för dock med sig vissa frågor och besvär. Användandet av konsultmäklare i olika former är i stor utsträckning väldigt kritiserat, något som syntes när Storstockholms lokaltrafik (SL) upphandlande konsultmäklare, för ett årligt värde om 600 - 800 miljoner, och Konkurrensverket fick ta emot flertalet klagomål om upphandlingen. Ärendet avskrevs slutligen av Konkurrensverket, men diskussioner om lagligheten och lämpligheten av upplägget har efterföljt. Efter SL:s upphandling har användandet av konsultmäklare dykt upp i ett flertal andra upphandlingar. Till exempel upphandlade Upplands Väsby kommun konsultmäklare för att täcka bland annat sitt behov för arkitekttjänster. I januari 2017 presenterade Konkurrensverket och Upphandlingsmyndigheten rapporten om mellanhänder, som de arbetat på sedan hösten 2015. Rapporten mottogs väl av olika praktiker, trots att rapporten inte ger något konkret svar om lagligheten bakom upplägget. Det har länge varit oklart hur konsultmäklare ska användas. Praktiker och Konkurrensverket är oense om lagligheten bakom upplägget och något slutgiltigt svar på diskussionen kommer troligtvis inte komma inom en snar framtid.