This study aims to show how teachers talk about their teaching with regards to gender in relation to literature.We have interviewed four teachers of Swedish for upper secondary school to discover how they feel about, and understand, the fact that gender is a factor in the teaching of literature and that they should present to the students literature written by both male and female authors. To analyze the interviews we use Sannersted's (1991) theory about teachers as street-level-bureaucrats ("närbyråkrater"). He states that teachers are persons who have to follow what politicians have decided but they are fairly free to choose how they do it, but to be able to follow a decision as closely as possible three qualifications have to be met. The teachers have to understand the decision, be able to follow it and want to follow it. We find that the teachers that we have interviewed are aware that they discuss gender issues with their students and they all claim that they present a variation of authors to their students. However, they all express concern that there might be some problems with regards to the material availble, it being very dominated by male authors.

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<p><p>When speaking about service encounters, one most often speaks about encounters in the private sector and about customers. This study explores the public sector and the service encounter between street-level bureaucrats and clients as opposed to the encounter between salesmen and customers. The focus lies on the conflicting demands that the bureaucrat is experiencing and how she handles the emotional labour that this conflict brings. The conflicting demands have been identified as commercial, bureaucratic and social, all of which are put into the context of the opposing demands of client and organisation.</p></p>

When speaking about service encounters, one most often speaks about encounters in the private sector and about customers. This study explores the public sector and the service encounter between street-level bureaucrats and clients as opposed to the encounter between salesmen and customers. The focus lies on the conflicting demands that the bureaucrat is experiencing and how she handles the emotional labour that this conflict brings. The conflicting demands have been identified as commercial, bureaucratic and social, all of which are put into the context of the opposing demands of client and organisation.

This study aimed to investigate how teachers work methodically in subjects such as social studies and mathematics in high school, with the educational task of educating students to become good democratic citizens. According to the National Agency for Education's curriculum, the educational task of educating students to become adequate democratic citizens should permeate all subjects in school. In addition, the study aimed to investigate how these teachers worked to implement fundamental value issues in their teaching. The results of the survey indicate that there are no major differences between the subjects in how teachers work with various assignments in education and values. It rather reflects the personal values, personality, and interests among teachers. Therefore, clearer guidelines for teachers would have been preferable when it comes to the upbringing assignment and fundamental value issues in order to gain an increased understanding and meaning of the assignments themselves, both for students and teachers.

This dissertation consists of three articles about colorism and its relevance to public administration (PA), with specific focus on local policing. The overarching arguments are: 1) our lack of focus on the nuanced factors related to race have hindered our ability to adequately respond to biased criminal justice (CJ) outcomes; and 2) there are hidden patterns of biased behaviors that originate at the street-level, and these patterns have the propensity to impact every aspect of CJ. Colorism could serve as a more comprehensive approach to addressing racial bias. Colorism is a system of disadvantage and privilege based on skin color, with a bias for lighter skin. Article I introduces colorism to the field of PA, and it uses data on workplace colorism complaints to illustrate how colorism currently intersects with PA. In addition, the article uses scenarios to demonstrate the potential impact colorism might have at the street-level. Article II builds upon the descriptions of colorism provided in Article I by simulating a conceptual model of colorism and local policing. The major finding of this study is that, counter to the expectations of the experiment, those in the middle of the skin color spectrum experienced higher rates of incarceration when aggressive steps were taken to counter colorism. The major contributions from this project include a conceptual model that describes the relationship between the distinct levels of colorism�"individual, interactive and institutional. In Article III, I explore two conceptual models of interactive colorism in a local policing context. In the first model, bias behaviors are less likely to receive a challenge. In the second model, biased behaviors are likely to be challenged by counter-behaviors (e.g., fair policing). Subject-matter experts and non-subject-matter experts were used to select the model that most accurately depicts the phenomenon. I used online focus groups and phone interviews with police officers, theorists (e.g., sociologists, psychologists), and non-subject-matter experts to gather feedback. Majority of the informants recommended that future research on interactive colorism be framed as a bidirectional phenomenon. The informants provided additional considerations for future research, such as the variation in police culture across police departments. / PHD

Instauré en 1991, le droit à la privatisation gratuite de son logement a favorisé l'accession des anciens locataires soviétiques au statut de propriétaire, transformant du même coup les immeubles collectifs en copropriétés. Sur la base d'une enquête ethnographique, cette thèse étudie la mise en œuvre du nouveau Code du logement (2005) à Moscou, qui réorganise la gestion publique de l'habitat collectif autour de l'assemblée générale des copropriétaires. Contribution à l'analyse du changement social postcommuniste, cette recherche examine comment la copropriété passe du statut de texte abstrait au statut de pratiques sociales situées. Combinant les apports de la sociologie de l'État, de la sociologie des mobilisations et de l'étude des rapports ordinaires au droit, ce travail se focalise sur trois groupes d'acteurs : les agents subalternes de l'administration de Moscou ayant recours à des pratiques illégales pour mettre en œuvre localement la nouvelle législation ; des acteurs politiques tournés vers la vulgarisation et le conseil juridique dans la perspective de défendre les droits des habitants et, enfin, certains habitants particulièrement engagés dans les affaires de leur immeuble. En s'appuyant sur une approche wébérienne des usages sociaux du droit, cette recherche montre que infractions légales, batailles d'interprétation de la législation, ainsi qu'appropriations profanes du droit sont autant de mécanismes à travers lesquels le régime copropriétaire acquiert une véritable existence sociale. L'analyse de ces rapports et concurrences donne à voir la fabrique de nouvelles pratiques habitantes et subjectivités postcommunistes, reconfigurant les rapports ordinaires à l'État et au marché. / Introduced in 1991, the right to free privatization of own’s own housing favored a double transformation: of tenants into owners, and of collective housing into condominium buildings. Based on an ethnographic investigation in Moscow, this dissertation examines the implementation of the new Housing Code (2005). This legal shift led to a renewed governance of collective housing, now centered around the general meeting of owners. A contribution to post-communist social change, this research is also an investigation into the sociology of law. Based on a Weberian approach to the social practices of the law, it examines how the legal regime of joint ownership went from being abstract text to the status of social practices located. Drawing upon the sociology of the State, the study of mobilizations and researches on legal consciousness, the dissertations focuses on three groups of actors central to the construction of the new legal system. The first one consist of the lower-level agents of the Moscow administration, who resort to illegal practices in an attempt to locally implement the new legislation. The second includes local politicians, geared towards the dissemination of legal knowledge and literacy in an attempt to defend the rights of the inhabitants. The third one encompasses inhabitants particularly involved in the organization of their buildings’ administration. The dissertation focuses on three mechanisms through which the new legal system came into being: legal offenses, controversies around the interpretation of the legislation, and layperson’s appropriation of the law. The analysis sheds lights onto the making of these new was of inhabiting the space, as well as on the crafting of postcommunist subjectivities that reconfigure the relationships between the State and the market.

Our study examining how well the guidelines, from Skolverket (School Department), aboutgrades in the course "Samhällskunskap A" are implemented in the Swedish Upper SecondarySchool. The study focus on both teachers and students. To discover which knowledge the bothgroups have, we have used two different methods. The students have answered a survey,which was based on the phrases from the course plan "Samhällskunskap A" about grades. Thesurvey wanted to see how well the students could match the correct phrases with the gradesteps (the Swedish school uses three grade steps). To see the teacher’s knowledge andopinions about the implementation, we used a shorter version of the survey that the studentsgot. We also complemented the survey with interviews to get the chance to ask more openquestions about the positive and negative aspects of the implementation. Our theory is basedon Lundquist (1992) about implementation, Rothstein (red. 2008 &amp; 2010) about legitimacyand Lipsky (2010) about teachers as Street level bureaucrats. The conclusions of the study arethat the implementation, with some exceptions, works well from the top (parliament and government) to the bottom (the students). Some of the teachers also pointed out that thecourse plan "Samhällskunskap A" is formed in a bad way. / Uppsatsen har som syfte att undersöka hur välimplementerad skolverkets riktlinjer för kursenSamhällskunskap A samt betygsättning i denna kurs är hos lärare och elever igymnasieskolan. Som teoretisk grund för denna studie utgår vi dels från Lundquist (1992)som på ett för skolverksamheten mycket applicerbart sätt beskriver implementeringen somprocess samt förutsättningar för denna. Dels från Rothstein (red. 2008 &amp; 2010) som beskriverregeringens behov av likvärdig och effektiv implementering för att bibehålla legitimitet. Dettaantagande att toppen av implementeringskedjan det vill säga riksdag och regering har etttydligt intresse av att implementeringen ska vara effektiv och likvärdig har varitgrundläggande för studien då samtliga tecken på brister i implementeringen bör tolkas som ettmisslyckande av dessa. Slutligen består studiens teoretiska beskrivning av Lipsky (2010) sombeskriver närbyråkraternas (lärarna) roll för implementeringen i verksamheten och derasbehov av frihet.Studieobjekt för studien har 40 elever ur den svenska gymnasieskolan bestående av tvåklasser från två olika skolor varit. Även tre lärare från två olika skolor har deltagit i studien.Som metod för att studera eleverna användes enkäter som även i en något nerbantad formbesvarades av lärarna för att utgöra en jämförelse. Lärarna i studien intervjuades i enhalvstrukturerad intervju som spelades in och återfinns som transkriberad bilaga tilluppsatsen.Förutom en öppen fråga ställd till eleverna via enkäten, samt de frågor rörandeimplementering samt förutsättningar för denna som ställdes till lärarna i intervjuerna utgårstudien från de så kallade nyckelord som beskriver efterfrågad kunskap för de olikabetygsstegen i Samhällskunskap A. I studien görs en oförberedd kontroll på hur väl lärare ochelever känner till dessa nyckelord och kan placera in dessa i korrekt betygssteg.Slutsatserna som studien visade på är bland annat att implementeringskedjan löpte hela vägenfrån toppen (riksdag och regering) till botten (eleverna). Denna slutsats var möjlig att dra dåeleverna visade på tydliga kunskaper om betygskriterierna i Samhällskunskap A. Övrigaslutsatser vi kunde dra utifrån det insamlade materialet pekade på olika typer av brister, varoch en i olika delar av implementeringskedjan. Vi vågar även påstå att det tolkade materialetkan tolkas som så att den absolut övervägande delen av implementeringskedjan har gjort deansträngningar som förväntas av dem för att åstadkomma en effektiv implementering. Vimenar att de brister som vi trots detta har lokaliserat beror på den enligt studien stora frihetsom lärare åtnjuter och att implementeringen inte låter sig tas längre med bibehållen frihet förlärarna. I studien har det även framkommit tecken på att brister i implementeringen beror påatt det material som ska implementeras (kursplanen) är dåligt anpassat till den verklighet somär reell i skolan. Felet återfinns i detta fall i toppen av implementeringskedjan då man harförsökt att implementera något som är bristfälligt anpassat till den verklighet som det syftartill att reglera.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The problems of the predispositions of municipal public officials and the professionalization of the public service have in the recent past come into the spotlight in service delivery protests involving poor people and unemployed youth. The criticism levelled at bureaucrats within the public service relates to administrative systems, bad policies as well as unresponsive attitudes among frontline staff. The existing perception is that South African street-level bureaucrats are lazy, uncaring, self-serving, unethical, and conceive of the poor in derogatory terms. They are generally only in public service because it is a means of employment or enrichment. Most recent literature on municipal water and free basic services focused on exposing the cost recovery drive of the state and its associated forms of oppressive neoliberal surveillance of the poor. The research sought to primarily understand the attitudes of street-level bureaucrats (SLB’s) within two B-category municipalities in the Western Cape, South Africa. This was done by identifying what motivates them to work in the public sector, how they see and interact with identified poor members of the public (usually defined as municipal indigents), what their value orientations are, and if and how principles of Batho Pele are understood by frontline workers. It explored how these principles are applied when interacting with indigent citizens in their everyday work environment. Additionally, the research explored how poor citizens view their experience of interacting with the state. A qualitative study, using semi-structured questionnaires, was conducted in the Cape Agulhas municipality which is the most southern municipality and the Matzikama municipality which is the most northern municipality of the WC on the west coast. Interviews with frontline municipal employees, senior bureaucrats and residents were conducted. The interviews were conducted, to obtain three different views on the problem, with a total of 71 participants. The participants comprised of 15 street-level bureaucrats, 8 senior staff, with a minimum of 5 years’ tenure, and a total of 43 indigent citizens. Given the sample size, composition and the demographics relating to these municipalities, the research is not generalizable. The public workers in the case studies, I found, cared deeply for the community and the community in turn are very appreciative of this. I also found that indigent citizens were not ashamed of their indigent status although there were those who outright denied being indigent and therefore were not interviewed.

This dissertation examines why planning is perceived as a barrier to the thermal improvement of conservation properties, and considers ways in which this might be addressed. The focus on thermal improvement is derived from a survey of UK scenario literature for energy management up to 2050. A further examination of the literature finds that conservation properties are particularly in need of thermal improvement; and barriers to thermal improvement are identified. A gap in the academic knowledge is found that identifies planning as a perceived barrier, but that there is no investigation of this widely held perception. The research question is therefore developed as, 'Why is English planning perceived as a barrier to the thermal improvement of conservation properties and how can it be addressed?' The dissertation methodology uses a pragmatic mixed-methods approach and research design. The first phase of the research examines 'Why planning is perceived as a barrier', by using surveys and interviews to gather evidence of the experiences and opinions of the multiple users of planning for conservation projects. Through this work, a lack of consistency and reliability in English planning is identified. The data suggests this may be due to the discretionary and fragmented nature of the English planning system which requires local authorities to interpret national policies and develop local plans and guidance. This results in local decision-making, which may not be consistent. Additionally, the research finds a perceived lack of strong national policy and guidance. This perceived lack of consistency and reliability in the application of planning is selected as the basis for validation phase of the dissertation research findings. The validation research seeks to test the perception of a lack of consistency and reliability through a Comparative Information Quality assessment adapted and developed from the discipline of Information Management. Online planning guidance for conservation projects provided by 13 London Councils is compared. The method confirms and highlights areas of inconsistency across the Councils' planning guidance. By identifying a number of areas of inconsistency, and by providing a tool that could help to ensure that policy is delivered consistently at the local level, this component of the research addresses the second part of the research question, 'How can the planning barrier be addressed?'. In conclusion, the dissertation suggests that planning is perceived as a barrier due to a lack of consistency and reliability in the planning process. Inconsistencies are identified and a recommendation is made for how these might be reduced.