Die Studie beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen der von Deutschland geschlossenen bilateralen Investitionsschutzverträge (Bilateral Investment Treaties, BITs) auf die wirtschaftliche, soziale und ökologische Regulierung von ausländischen Investitionen. Die Analyse der 137 deutschen BITs sowie die Auswertung relevanter Schiedsgerichtsentscheidungen hat folgende zentrale Ergebnisse hinsichtlich der Einschränkung staatlicher Regulierungsmöglichkeiten ergeben: <br><br> Aufgrund eines breiten Enteignungsbegriffs kann eine umweltpolitische Regulierung, die wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen auf ausländische Investoren hat, eine Verpflichtung zur Entschädigung nach sich ziehen, denn den deutschen BITs ist nicht klar zu entnehmen, dass staatliche Regulierung im Regelfall nicht als Enteignung gelten sollte. <br><br> Empirisch kann weder eine Verbindung zwischen dem Abschluss von BITs und einem Anstieg des Investitionsvolumens noch ein Automatismus zwischen dem Zufluss von privatem Kapital und wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung hergestellt werden. Im Gegenteil sind sogar staatliche Maßnahmen, die für kapitalimportierende Länder eine Möglichkeit wären, den wirtschaftlichen Nutzen von ausländischen Investitionen zu erhöhen, durch Regelungen in den BITs untersagt. Problematisch im Bereich geistiges Eigentum ist, dass Rechtsinhaber vor einem internationalen Schiedsgericht Entschädigung einklagen können, wenn staatliche Regulierung im öffentlichen Interesse zu einem enteignungsgleichen Eingriff führt. <br><br> Dienstleistungen unterliegen aufgrund ihrer Eigenschaften besonders stark der staatlichen Regulierung, so dass auch hier Konflikte bezüglich des Enteignungsschutzes und des Grundsatzes der gerechten und billigen Behandlung entstehen. Bei der Beteiligung privater Unternehmen in der Daseinsvorsorge ist problematisch, dass jede Verletzung vertraglicher Zusicherungen durch den Gaststaat aufgrund der Abschirmungsklausel als Verstoß gegen die deutschen BITs gilt. Damit erschweren die Verträge, die häufig über lange Zeiträume geschlossen sind, Reaktionen staatlicher Stellen auf neu auftretende Regulierungsbedürfnisse. <br><br> Im Bereich des Arbeitnehmerschutzes und der Sozialpolitik kann in bestimmten Konstellationen die Verschärfung von Arbeitsstandards gegen die Abschirmungsklausel verstoßen oder die Umverteilung von Land ohne volle Entschädigung mit dem Enteignungsschutz in Konflikt geraten. Bei der Besteuerung ausländischer Investoren können insbesondere Widersprüchlichkeiten im Steuerrecht, die sich zuungunsten ausländischer Investoren auswirken, als Verstoß gegen den Grundsatz der Inländerbehandlung interpretiert werden, selbst wenn ihnen keine protektionistische Intention zugrunde liegt. <br><br> Auch das Investor-to-State Verfahren trägt dazu bei, dass der Ausgleich zwischen Investitionsschutz und legitimen staatlichen Regulierungsinteressen teilweise nur unzureichend gelingt. Das liegt unter anderem an seiner Nichtöffentlichkeit, der fragmentarischen Natur der Entscheidungen und der fehlenden Nähe der Schiedsgerichte zu den tatsächlichen und rechtlichen Hintergründen der Streitigkeiten. <br><br> Als Konsequenz aus den genannten Problembereichen werden Reformvorschläge für deutsche bilaterale Investitionsabkommen als ein erster Schritt zur Schaffung eines Gleichgewichts zwischen Investorenrechten und Investorenpflichten entwickelt. Durch eine Reform sollten den Gaststaaten größere Handlungsspielräume eröffnet und ihre Flexibilität erhöht werden, um den ökonomischen Nutzen ausländischer Investitionen für Entwicklungsländer zu steigern und allen Ländern eine Regulierung von Investitionen im öffentlichen Interesse zu ermöglichen.

The study addresses the outward cross-border linking of the Swedish economy and its most important transnational corporations during the 20th century. It explores the aggregate level of Swedish industry, and most importantly, the firm level of a group of eight long-standing transnational corporations, which during the post-1945 period represented roughly half of Sweden’s foreign industrial activity in terms of employment, e.g., Alfa Laval, ASEA, Ericsson, Sandvik, SKF, AGA, Electrolux and Atlas Copco. Since most of these corporations existed already a century ago it was possible to explore their historical trajectories within the general process of globalization. Hence, the study contributes to the testing of the globalization thesis with a small, open, developed economy as the point of reference. Based on aggregate national data and data on levels of foreign activity of Swedish transnational corporations the study presents a phase model of globalization, identifying first an ‘initial phase’ of globalization from ca 1871 to 1929, second a ‘stagnation phase’ (1930-1949), then a third ‘expansion phase’ (1950-1979) and finally, a ‘highlight of globalization’ phase, beginning in 1980 and continuing into the 21st century. In order to gain deeper insights into the historical process of Sweden’s outward economic linking it then looked in more detail at the eight firms mentioned above. Employing a quantitative formal model of foreign corporate activity, the study focusses on changes in the relative magnitude of foreign employment and sales (‘intensity’) and on the geographical distribution of foreign subsidiaries (‘extensity’). The two former categories are combined into an ‘index of transnationality’, which serves as a principal analytical tool for uncovering long-term change. The study concludes that for Swedish industry and its largest transnational corporations the term globalization represents more of a historical, continuous long-term trend than an exclusively contemporary development. In fact, the only period in time when we see a general stagnation in the positive trends was 1930-1945. Moreover, the study found at least two periods of rapid outward linking on the part of some of the most important Swedish corporations, apart from the current one, that is, the decade and a half preceding World War I and the 1960s. Nevertheless, levels of relative magnitude of activity abroad and of geographical spread attained by Swedish industry and its transnational corporations during the last two decades, were in many respects unprecedented. Findings on the variations in the actual pace of globalization during the whole 20th century demonstrated firstly, that positive change in geographical spread of the group of long-standing transnational corporations proceeded at an increasing pace when calculated in absolute terms. For the 1960-1999 period, the existence of positive long-term trends in the magnitude of both foreign sales and foreign employment were discovered. Also, there was an acceleration of the pace at which foreign sales increased over time, when calculated in absolute terms.

The overall aim of this thesis is to analyse the social consequences of a transnational corporation(TNC) from the global North investing capital in the global South, and the communal processes that evolve in response. The study highlights the TNC’s construction of leadership and domination in the areas in which it settles, as well as the forces of popular resistance to the TNC’s exploitation of the region’s natural resources and the resulting socio-environmental conditions. The study is based on empirical fieldwork (including 22 interviews) carried out in Uruguay and Argentina related to the establishment of a pulp mill by Botnia/UPM. The analyses focus on discursive processes whereby the TNC establishes itself in the community. The found patterns are discussed in the thesis based on the following themes: “Making the TNC indispensible” ; “Dominating the spaces of communication” ; “Controlling the narratives” ; “Contradictions of external and internal colonialism” and “Establishing and maintaining hegemony”. All of these have to do with socio-political and discursive strategies and circumstances whereby the TNC—symbolically and materially— becomes a powerful force in the country and community where it establishes itself. This creates certain social positions, and gives rise to tensions within a number of areas. In relation to these processes, the thesis also highlights the formation and mobilization of resistance against the changing social, cultural and economic conditions created through the arrival of the TNC. What appears to be crucial for the deployment of a successful counter-force is the creation of spaces for organisation, for practices of resistance and to sustain democratic values and practices. This makes the social movement an autonomous voice that incarnates disobedience against thestate, the juridical international apparatus and the hegemonic practices of TNCs.

Background: The past decades two trends has been detected in the society. First of all, the new economy has brought along globalisation as a striking trend, and secondly we have been hit by some kind o f"projectification". The two trends seem to work against each other on several levels and global companies have a hard time coping with both at the same time. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe how an international development project is organised and show what impacts a MNC structure has on its projects concerning management and communication. Method: In order to reach an understanding, a qualitative case study was performed, and several interviews with people within a Ericsson project was made. In addition, Ericsson internal material and project documentation was used. Findings: We found that the global structure very much has an impact on the project studied and that it did not have the characteristics that, literature of today describes, is common for projects. Since the project consist of several independent subsidiary we would not like to call it a project organised in a matrix, but rather described as an "intra-corporational consortium". Because of this structure, there are implications for management and communication as well. The management, we believe, is more done by "good will", and there is a strong resistance for communicating since there is a belief that information will handle all problems.

In this thesis, transnational adoption is used as an illustrative example to address the tension between caring and differentiating aspects of the discursive practice of Swedish welfare. Drawing mainly upon postcolonial conceptualizations of nation and family, the discursive constitution of transnational adoption, transnational adoptees, and transnational adoptive families as objects of knowledge is explored. The analysis focuses on how national and familial belonging and difference are constructed. The empirical material consists of political reports, research reports, social work handbooks and educational material, published between 1997 and 2008. As the relationship between discourse and knowledge is of particular interest, Michel Foucault’s archeology is used as a methodological perspective. While the knowledge produced on transnational adoption could be read as well-intended concern, it may at the same time be read as a process where normalization and racialization come into effect, and where a particular image of Sweden is constructed. I suggest a reading that can be summarized in terms of the logic of blood and roots. Transnational adoptees are racialized through essentialist notions of national, cultural and ethnic belonging. They are ascribed a split identity, and are advised to cultivate their belonging to their birth families and birth places. Transnational adoptees of color are ascribed a difference in relation to their adoptive families as well as the Swedish national family, both imagined as white. Within the adoptive family, the assumed lack of family resemblances is portrayed as a continuous source of problems. These problems are naturalized by the way this knowledge on transnational adoption is institutionalized. Seeking psychological counseling is constructed as a responsible parental act. In the discursive practice of Swedish welfare, the national inclusion of the adoptive family is conditioned by a differentiating logic.

In asking ‘How do queer Palestinian womyn ‘queer’ Palestinian identity”, the present research focuses on the various forms of traditional, narrative, and creative resistance practices of Palestinian womyn who challenge the following three narratives: 1) the national narrative which tags ‘queer’ as ‘Other’ and which posits the national movement at the top of the hierarchy of struggles; 2) the colonial narrative which is sustained by the Israeli public relations campaigns aiming to portray Israel as a modern, progressive, safe gay haven for queers, in opposition to a Palestine and Arab World which are said to be integrally homophobic, barbaric, regressive, etc. in an attempt to ‘pinkwash’ the occupation; and 3) the neocolonial narrative in which Western and Israeli Jewish queer movements reproduce colonial dynamics in their attempt to ‘save’ Palestinian queers who are deemed to be powerless, voiceless victims in need of saving.

The diasporic resources and transnational flows of the Black diaspora have increasingly been of concern to scholars. However, the making of the Black diaspora in Canada has often been overlooked, and the use of sport to connect migrants to the homeland has been virtually ignored. This study uses African, Black and Caribbean diaspora lenses to examine the ways that first generation Caribbean-Canadians use cricket to maintain their association with people, places, spaces, and memories of home. In this multi-sited ethnography I examine a group I call the Mavericks Cricket and Social Club (MCSC), an assembly of first generation migrants from the Anglo-Caribbean. My objective to “follow the people” took me to parties, fundraising dances, banquets, and cricket games throughout the Greater Toronto Area on weekends from early May to late September in 2008 and 2009. I also traveled with approximately 30 MCSC members to observe and participate in tours and tournaments in Barbados, England, and St. Lucia and conducted 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with male players and male and female supporters. I found that the Caribbean diaspora is maintained through liming (hanging out) at cricket matches and social events. Speaking in their native Patois language, eating traditional Caribbean foods, and consuming alcohol are significant means of creating spaces in which Caribbean-Canadians can network with other members of the diaspora. Furthermore, diasporas are preserved through return visits, not only to their nations of origin, but to a more broadly defined homeland, found in other Caribbean countries, England, the United States and elsewhere in Canada. This study shows that while diasporas may form a unified communitas they also reinforce class, gender, nation and ethnicity hierarchies and exclusions in diasporic spaces. For example, women and Indo-Caribbeans are mainly absent from or marginalized at the cricket grounds, which celebrates a masculine, Afro-Caribbean culture. Corporeal practices such as sports, and their related social activities, can be deployed as diasporic resources that create a sense of deterritorialized community for first generation Caribbean migrants.

Universal suffrage is a guiding principle of democracy. However, it has a long history of being selectively denied. While many of these exclusions have dissipated in twentieth century rights revolutions’, the right to vote is still widely withheld for prisoners. This paper looks at criminal disenfranchisement, its origins, development, and contemporary manifestations. Part I will discuss the history of criminal disenfranchisement to trace its development from a tool of social exclusion to a collateral consequence of criminal conviction. Part II will look at the judicial treatment of contemporary disenfranchisement laws through a selection of representative case studies. Part III will consider how the representative cases form a trend towards criminal enfranchisement, and the implications of this trend for future constitutional challenges in jurisdictions where such laws persist. This paper argues that this trend, while tangible, is tentative and its force may be strengthened through a transnational judicial dialogue.

Universal suffrage is a guiding principle of democracy. However, it has a long history of being selectively denied. While many of these exclusions have dissipated in twentieth century rights revolutions’, the right to vote is still widely withheld for prisoners. This paper looks at criminal disenfranchisement, its origins, development, and contemporary manifestations. Part I will discuss the history of criminal disenfranchisement to trace its development from a tool of social exclusion to a collateral consequence of criminal conviction. Part II will look at the judicial treatment of contemporary disenfranchisement laws through a selection of representative case studies. Part III will consider how the representative cases form a trend towards criminal enfranchisement, and the implications of this trend for future constitutional challenges in jurisdictions where such laws persist. This paper argues that this trend, while tangible, is tentative and its force may be strengthened through a transnational judicial dialogue.

This study investigates the participation of cinema in the continuing debates over Mexican national identity. Part one lays out the problem of defining “Mexicanness” in contemporary society, and demonstrates that during the 1990s a new attitude emerged amongst a younger generation that sought to redefine the image of the cosmopolitan Mexican urbanite. This section is devoted to the problematics of traditional discourses on Mexican identity, as well as to a theoretical shift away from a nationalist paradigm of identity formation towards a more flexible model that takes into consideration the global processes shaping contemporary Mexico. Part 2 analyzes three early Mexican films made by Guillermo Del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, respectively Cronos (1993), Y tu mamá también (2001), and Amores perros (2000). I demonstrate through a heuristic model of the Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic how these films allegorize Mexico’s “coming to age tale” under the weight of political and economic changes. Part 3 shifts to the Hollywood films by these directors. Using a scalar concept, I illustrate how these directors’ works yield a new model for understanding the interconnectedness between the national and the transnational in a way that neither term is necessarily privileged, but rather coextensive.