The purpose of this study is to analyze if the workmethods in the European Commission's crisis management had post-bureaucratic characteristics, more specifically less hierarchy, horizontal communication, collective decision-making and own responsibility, during the Greek debt crisis 2010-2015. To carry out an analysis this study identifies four characteristics of a post-bureaucratic organization, in order to use the theory as a tool to clearly identify if there are any post-bureaucratic characteristics in the Commission's workmethods during the Greek crisis 2010-2015. The material used in the study is based on published reports from the European Parliament, European Court of Auditors, International Monetary Fund and the European Commission where facts on the European Commission’s crisis management are presented. This study's analysis shows that post-bureaucratic characteristics can be identified on the workmethods the Commission used in some situations during the Greek debt crisis 2010-2015. The study's conclusion is summarized by the fact that the European Commission’s workmethods in relation to post-bureaucratic characteristics are only found in some instances. Therefore the study can not conclude that the European Commission is a post-bureaucratic organization during the Greek crisis 2010-2015.

This study aims to analyze the policy success of the two economic adjustment programmes introduced to solve the Greek debt crisis to better understand the EU's change and development after dealing with crises. The analysis uses McConnell’s (2010) policy evaluation framework, which enables the study to see what degree/spectrum of policy success occurred and which of the five policy areas were more or less successful. The findings of this study conclude that the crisis management policies are leaning towards the spectrum of success and that there is an incentive to suggest that policy success is a factor contributing to the EU's organizational change and development, but that more research is needed to confirm it as a significant factor. Furthermore, the study does reveal which policy success areas can be a bigger cause for the EU’s change and development, them being more achieved implementation, the targeted policy group/actor seeing benefit without damaging other groups/actors, and there being minor opposition aimed towards the policies introduced in crises.

The FOCUS project is undertaking a range of research and piloting tasks which aim to improve understanding of dynamic integration and to assist the implementation of effective practices. As part of this work a detailed programme of qualitative research has been undertaken in four countries. This report presents the country-specific findings of this research, which will be further consolidated in a cross-site analysis to be completed in the coming months. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with members of the receiving communities and with members of the arriving communities in a total of 10 site in four countries which have different experiences of migration from Syria in recent years (Sweden, Germany, Jordan, Croatia). 

The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of and knowledge about the meaning of a present leadership from an employee perspective and to identify which expectations employees have of a present leader. The meaning of a present leadership is a relatively unexplored area, shown by previous research. Qualitative method has been used in the study, in order to be able to analyze the empirical material and answer the aim and  purpose questions of the study. In order to define the work, the focus has been on public HVB operations, the data material consists of interviews with employees from different public HVB. The results of the study show that there are several important factors, such as physical presence, mental presence, trust and relationships, participation, confirmation, openness and receptivity, that are significant for a present leadership. The meaning of a present leadership differs between the respondents of the study, even if some of them have similar perceptions. Based on a constructivist theory, it can be concluded that employees' ideas about present leadership are based, to a large extent, on the concept of leadership, which is something that is constructed by  each individual by themselves. This leads them to creating their own expectations of their managers and how a manager should exercise leadership. 

Segregation is frequently described as a consequence of the global restructuring of social, economic, and political expansions in which multicultural cities, like Malmö, become part of them. This study aims to highlight how visions of housing segregation and exclusion in the city of Malmö has been represented in the local policy documents (Master Plans) through the last three decades and to understand how a newly emerged glocal actor, known as BID Malmö, have impacted the urban governance in the city. In order to investigate these developments, this study applies two analytical frameworks. In terms of policy analysis, it employs a what’s the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach and for the conceptualization of BID Malmö applies the theory of the Global City. Policy analysis shows that urban segregation has been persistent in the city of Malmö through the last three decades, however the representation of problem has shifted vibrantly from placing citizens as the main cause of housing segregation during 1990s to an arena that includes contingent processes and practices that need to be tackled. Policy analysis also shows that Malmö municipality, through shifting the burden of responsibility, now promotes partnership between public and private actors to reduce exclusion based on specific district needs. Moreover, this study argues that the city of Malmö, because of the cross-border network of global cities, is now a space where one can identify formation of new types of global politics of place where informal political actors are emerging and can actually impact the urban governance. Finally, this study maintains that the city of Malmö, along with its newly emerged glocalized actor, fit into the theory of the Global City, by Saskia Sassen. Therefore, this study has also a deductive qualitative analysis.

In recent decades, the international community has been dominated by discussions about the legitimacy of humanitarian interventions. In connection with this discussion, we have been able to see different point of views from different actors, including world leaders, where the question is whether emphasis should be placed on sovereignty or on the protection of human rights. The humanitarian intervention in Kosovo in 1999 carried out by NATO, led by the United States, is a clear example where there were divided opinions on whether an intervention is necessary and in accordance with the norms of the international community. Previous research shows that world leaders' positions and actions in the international arena can be explained by norms and by constructivist theory

This essay examines statements made by the key actors and former presidents, Bill Clinton and Slobodan Milosevic, in connection with the intervention in Kosovo in 1999. With the aim of examining the norms and principles that support world leaders' arguments in connection with humanitarian interventions, with the support of an argumentative analysis. The analysis shows that there are similarities between Clinton's and Milosevic's norms and perceptions of the world in general, despite their opposing views on the intervention in Kosovo. 

My thesis will dispute one of the most essential threats experienced by the young South Caucasian states since restoring their state sovereignity from Russia. Russia follows an agressive foreign political course and implements a direct menace for these newly independent states. It became obvious due to the military occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August of 2008 and supporting the local separatists. The main goal of thesis is to analyse and eloborate on the main motivations of the Russian government's policy towards Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. My research question seeks to examine how domestic and international political factors formulated and structured the foreign policy of Russia towards the South Caucasian states. In addition, the theoretical framework will take into consideration the neo-classical realism theory of international relations. I wll use qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis and it will help me to analyse three essential factors formulated the Russian policy in the South Caucaus. The thesis recognized the fact that the Russian elite consider the close cooperation of the Caucasian states with NATO as a danger for their interests in their traditional zone of influence. The thesis will underline the significance of President Putin in Russia since the state is authoritarian and he could be considered as the main desicion-maker in foreign policy. Yet, Vladimir Putin is not an absolute power symbol as Joseph Stalin and modern Russia is not the Soviet Union. Putin depends on the statements of the various fractions in Russian society. The thesis will complete with idea that three factors explain the reasons of the assertive forein policy of Russia towards the South Caucasian states. 

This thesis examines how member nations manage their national identities within the supranational context of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) and the significance of the ESC in creating a shared European identity. Patterns of identification and attitudes relating to culture, ethnicity/nationality, religion/faith, and gender/sex are discovered by studying the winning submissions from 1998 to 2022 through content analysis and discourse analysis. The ESC acts as a soft power instrument by encouraging member nations' sense of solidarity and cultivating respect for and understanding of other cultures. It serves as a platform for cross- cultural dialogue, self-promotion, and nation branding, fostering diplomatic connections and providing opportunities for commercial and cultural exchanges. 

The ESC emphasizes the dichotomy between national and European identity, but it also demonstrates how these identities intersect and support one another. It advances the formation of a European identity while giving states a forum to showcase their national and cultural identities. The ESC influences notions of European identity and defines what it means to be European. 

Sammanfattning

Mobilitetsplaneringen har växt fram från globala trender som stärks av urbaniseringen, den tekniska utvecklingen och nya mobilitetsbehov. Mobilitetsplaneringen framför nya krav gällande sociala, ekonomiska och hållbara aspekter och är i behov av nya mobilitetslösningar. Bäst praktik, används inom internationella och nationella nätverk, för att dela nya lösningar, processer och innovationer. En mobilitetslösning som delas genom kunskapsdelningsmetoden bäst praktik, är det nya fenomenet mobilitetshus. Idag saknas en gemensam definition av mobilitetshus, vilket skapar oklarhet för mobilitetsplaneringen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka fenomenet mobilitetshus; dels vilken funktion ett mobilitetshus är tänkt att fylla och vilka transportbehov det är tänkt att adressera och dels att undersöka planeringen av bäst praktik angående mobilitetshus i Sverige. Studien undersöker exempel på befintliga och planerade mobilitetshus i Sverige. Studiens valda metoder grundas av befintlig teori och metodologi gällande bäst praktik. Kunskapsdelningen av bäst praktik kommer att förstås som en diskursiv process. Metoderna har ett förhållningssätt till befintlig data som innefattar Sveriges planering av det nya fenomenet mobilitetshus. Genom dokumentstudie, litteraturstudie och platsbesök, samlas en omfattande data för bäst praktik angående mobilitetshus i Sverige. Studiens resultat för de empiriska frågeställningarna delger att det finns en otydlighet av mobilitetshus definition och innehåll. Studien konstaterar att det saknas uppföljningsdokument, som redogör mobilitetshusens inverkan, resultat och funktion i staden. Studien rekommenderar att planeringen med bäst praktik angående mobilitetshus skulle kunna underlättas, genom att skapagemensamma förståelser av vad för “problem” mobilitetshus ska förväntas lösa i staden. I studien framkommer även att bäst praktik som kunskapsdelningsmetod, bidrar till en läroprocess. Lärprocessen tydliggörs vid undersökningen av befintliga och planerade mobilitetshus i Sverige.

This research paper has focused on Twitter and Meta (Facebook). The research paper will present their commitments towards human rights as stated within their CSR reports. The company’s will be compared through comparative method and the material will be coded with a content analysis method. The material selected is CSR reports, NGO reports, law cases and official statements. With institutional theory and stakeholder theory the research paper presents a human rights perspective and discuss the credibility of the companies. The focus will be on selected variables, these variables being: Access to information, Right to privacy, and Freedom of expression. A comparison will be the structure of the analysis. The findings will be presented within the conclusion and the research questions will be answered in an adequate way and discuss the credibility and legitimacy of the companies. The discussion will present the variables and the future within social media.

Som följd av Rysslands invasion av Ukraina har Sveriges säkerhetspolitik varit högt upp på dagordningen. Därför undersöker uppsatsen varför Sverige skickade stöd till Ukraina efter den ryska invasionen. Frågeställningen som besvaras är "På vilka sätt kan realismen och liberalismen förklara varför den svenska regeringen valde att skicka stöd till Ukraina?" Och på vilka sätt har realismen och liberalismen påverkat det praktiska genomförandet av svenskt stöd till Ukraina?" Material som har varit grunden för undersökningen är presskonferenser och pressmeddelande från Sveriges regering. Teorin som styr analysen är två idétraditioner, realism och liberalism. Metoden som används är kvalitativ textanalys, där materialet klassificeras och sedan analyseras kritiskt utifrån idétraditionerna. Tidigare forskning visar på att realism och liberalism har haft påverkan på länders agerande i krig genom historien. Realismen har förklarat Rysslands agerande mot Ukraina vid annekteringen av Krimhalvön. Det grundade sig i den ryska statens rädsla för hotet mot statens överlevnad, och den ryska statens makt runt om i världen. USA:s ändamål med kriget mot Irak var enligt liberalismen, spridningen av den amerikanska demokratin och friheten. Uppsatsens slutsats ser likheter mellan Sveriges agerande och Rysslands agerande. Den svenska statens överlevnad är hotad, enligt realismen, på grund av Ryssland invasion av Ukraina. Liberalismens förklaring är hotet mot den europeiska säkerhetsordningen som därmed påverkar Sverige.

This thesis aims to investigate how the problem of climate change and the view of responsibility is constructed discursively in a weighty governing document such as the Paris Agreement, and how this contributes to the construction of the discourse around climate-driven migration. This is examined using critical discourse analysis and a discourse framework with three ideal-type discourses that construct the migrant and the view of responsibility differently: the security discourse, the rights discourse and the resilience discourse. The results show that the Paris Agreement formulates the problem of climate change in a way that downplays the burden of responsibility for the rich countries, which are responsible for the historically largest share of greenhouse gasemissions. Furthermore, the agreement helps to reproduce a resilience discourse and thereby construct an image of the migrant as an entrepreneurial subject who is responsible for having chosen to migrate due to a changing climate. This risks having effects in policy and decision-making where the climate issue is depoliticized and an increasingly smaller responsibility is imposed on historically responsible countries in the form of political actions such as emission reductions, and an increasing responsibility is placed on those affected by climate change to adapt to these through, for example, migration.

In this essay I examine how problems concerning contributions to civil society are presented in the Democracy Conditions Inquiry (SOU 2019: 35) on stricter democratic conditions. Given that civil society research indicates that the public sector has become more closely associated with civil society, it is interesting to study the changed relationship in relation to the stricter benefit reform. With a critical approach, the phenomenon of shrinking civic space is combined with Carol Bacchi's policy method What's the Problem Represented to be (WPR) in order to analyze the state's notions of undemocratic civil society and to put the concept of shrinking civil society space within a Swedish context.

The study of today's civil society discourse shows that the undemocratic civil society is assumed to be hindered by increased controls by both the public donors and the organizations themselves. For this, civil society organizations appear to need to have complete control over their activities. With today's problem representation and solution proposals, the state thus constructs a new civil society role characterized by securitization, control, and suspicion. Thus, modern democracy discourse is identified in collaboration with the security discourse to contribute to a division of civil society with binary effects that form a basis for discussing the effect shrinking space. The study also shows an absence of the special nature of civil society and that internal and external power relations under the new democratic conditions can have unfavorable effects for newer, more controversial, and marginalized civil society groups.

Like indicators of time, season and weather, hours or days, and dates of spring, summer, fall, and winter, social indicators guide and monitor social conditions of human beings. This chapter presents a new composite indicator. The Happy Well-Being Index (HWI) is based on general utilitarian principle and the assumption that underlying cultural values will ‘always be crucial in promoting technology and design’ in determining human actions and behavior and the measurement of happiness, wisdom and human well-being. Designed with a value of a function of ecological footprint per capita, subjective life satisfaction and life expectancy at birth, to guide, monitor, and promote a truly sustainable development process—a development that improves the quality of human life and support ecosystems at the global level. With the near-arithmetic structure of some of the best-known multidimensional well-being measures, it is built to ensure extensive democratic support for the choices to be converted to sustainable growth and development. As an index it covers the essential things that are important to humans—well-being, sustainability, long life, and happiness that can be perceived through the spectrum of planetary well-being and human well-beings, with the assumption that both are commonly linked and positively influenced each other.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes explicit reference to children’s right to say what they think about matters relating to the quality of their lives and to have these opinions taken into account in accordance with their levels of competence and maturity. The voting results showed that over two-thirds (68.1%) of the children polled “educating every child” as their first top priority; the issue “putting children first and caring for every child” was placed second by 65.4% of the respondents; 50.1% of them placed the issue “fighting poverty and HIV/AIDS” as their third priority; followed by 37.6% who said “hearing and listening to children’s voices” is very crucial; 35.6% placed their fifth priority to be “not using children as weapons of war” while 27% of the children said “protecting the earth—investing in children” must be sixth on their list of top priorities. Other things thought to be important by these children included stopping crime, child abuse and family violence, racism/xenophobia, muti (black magic) ritual killing of children (especially the albinos), forced child marriage (Ukuthwala), racism and xenophobia, rape, drugs and shooting at schools, and other evils. They also advocate better education in general for children, computer literacy, good parenting, child-friendly government, peace and tranquility (absence of stress), and active involvement in environmental planning. The full burden of children’s rights has to be “shouldered” and internally operationalized by UN specialized agencies. Within that context, the Sangraal of successful implementation and cross-cultural sustainability of children’s rights can be limned as resemblant to the proper alignment of the sun, the moon, and the stars. “Irokotinditindi Irokotinditindi” phenomenon. Sadly, competing agendas—HIV/AIDS, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and COVID-19 pandemics implementation of Education for All and Millennium Development goals have taken priority over the pursuit of children’s rights models, in many countries. A rights approach built on effective health promotion model and based on an interlace of Bourdieu’s Sociology that helps break poverty cycles and depicts children as social actors, and by all means an end in themselves is recommended. Suggestions for future research and practice are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to compare cross-cultural variability to learning in Australian, Canadian, Hong Kong, Nigerian and South African global samples using Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ: Biggs, The learning process questionnaire (LPQ) manual. Australian Council for Educational Research, 1987; Australian Psychologist, 23, 197–206, 1988; British Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 3–19, 1993). Different formal indices aimed at identifying the motives and strategies that comprise those approaches that emphasise creative, analytical, learning skills, as well as practical thinking or open-minded reasoning and memory-related skills, were identified and operationalized. The empirical exploration of the framework was applied to the analysis of 602 participants; data subsumed to different robust constructs. The assumption of male variability in learning strategies is questioned. The interaction of gender and culture is likened to two sides of the same coin (proverbial hedgehog vs fox), which is meant to enhance human learning. Results uphold cross-cultural support for the dimensions of deep and surface strategies; despite the differences in learning conceptualizations, the strategies utilized by students in the Western educational context are similar to those used by their African counterparts. In addition, discussion focuses on the implications of this desideratum for scale development, taxonomy construction, and theory building that are generalizable to a wide range of cultures.  Of course, a full examination of these novel differences requires more thorough, systematic fine-ingrained inquiry.

The theme of this research is smart power in Iran’s foreign policy toward Arab national security in the Middle East [Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen]. This important and influential topic was explained and analyzed on the regional and international political scene. Also, it highlighted how the IRI managed in employing this type of power in its foreign policy with the purpose to penetrate Arab national security and exporting its Islamic revolution to the Arab surrounding, and the gains it had made, in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, and in line with what is stipulated in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran 1979. The study examined the case studies of Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen during the time period (2003- 2015), where 2003 witnessed a significant turning point that contributed to reviving Iran’s dual-strategy to expand in the Arab world and reshaping its map and regimes in preparation for exporting its Islamic revolution to it and extending its control over it, relying on its hard and soft power instruments on the one hand, and taking advantage of some regional and international shifts that turned the balance of power in favor of Iran - such as the US-led occupation of Iraq, the strategic buffer for the Arab region, in addition to the outbreak of the Arab Spring in late 2010, which crowned in the Iranian-backed Houthis group’s seizure of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in late 2014- that made the Middle East a fertile soil and conducive atmosphere to the implementation of Iranian agendas on the other hand. The research depended on Nay’s smart power model and Waltz’s neo-realism theory, as exclusive analytical frameworks. As well an interpretive case study was utilized as the main research method whose findings were derived from primary and secondary databases. The research concluded that the IRI had succeeded in employing smart power in its foreign policy, enabling it to occupy three Arab countries, which are considered fundamental pillars of Arab national security. This, in turn, has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the IRI poses an existential danger and a serious threat to the Arab nation and its national security, as evidenced by the research databases.

Recent research shows that new types of high-skilled administrators, what we in this article label organisational professionals, have amplified their presence in public sector organisations in relation to other types of public sector employees. Our purpose is to analyse how organisational accountability can be seen as a driver behind the expansion of organisational professionals. Intensified political and administrative pressures seem to be driving this process, but there also seems to be internal turfs in which the different parts of the government administration seek to hold each other accountable, a process possibly amplified by professionalising ambitions of the organisational professionals. The article concludes that the bureaucratising effect of accountability demands ought to be highlighted more in critical research of accountability. The study is based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with public sector professionals in Sweden from different policy sectors and government levels.

The UN Economic Sanctions on Iraq represent a distinct case in terms of their differential and gender-specific implications. The study's objectives have been to investigate the impacts of these sanctions on the lives of ordinary Iraqi women and how these sanctions changed their lives. Through an exhaustive content analysis of data from Iraqi women's interviews, archives, and governmental and non-governmental sources, the study concludes that the impacts of these economic sanctions have been twofold: the physical and the psychological impacts. As a result, the suffering the Iraqi women endured along with the rest of the Iraqi society has underscored the importance of renewed thinking on the mechanism of these coercive sanctions in light of the challenges they pose to the basic human rights of the target communities. 

Far right parties in Europe are growing and gaining more voters, and so are the Sweden Democrats, a Swedish far right nationalistic party.  This paper’s main theory ”The voter median model” was first introduced by Anthony Downs and further developed by Pippa Norris. The model will be used together with party debates and voter surveys in order to explain a higher voter turnout for far populist rights. The main purpose is to put Swedish political parties and voters’ preferences in comparison with the voter median model, in order to explain why more Swedish voters’ to a larger extent vote for the Sweden democrats. The theory’s main point is that too similar politics between traditional parties makes it harder for the voters to see the parties’ different agendas and political goals. Therefore, the voters are driven to vote for parties on either side to make a difference. The main purpose is to find out how it can be used to explain a rise in right wing populism, in this case in Sweden. This thesis` conclusion is that the similarities in party politics political goals between different parties bears relevance to explain factors for higher voter turnout. This will be made through the voter median model 

This thesis aimed to explore which organizational ideal type dominated the Swedish Sports Confederation's central governing documents and how this could potentially construct the athletes involved. The chosen ideal types were "associative fostering" and "competitive fostering" (Peterson 2002). To identify these ideal types within the documents, a coding scheme was used to concretize the ideal types' inherent goals and logic. Subsequently, the theory of social entrepreneurship was chosen as it could connect the ideal types with overarching ideological currents in society which affect the organization of elite sports initiatives.

The theory of governmentality, operationalized through rationality and technology and subject formation, was employed. This theory was used partly to identify the various rationalities and technologies produced by neoliberalism, and to place the athlete within this context to examine the potential impact on the individual. By identifying neoliberal technologies, it was observed that goal management and economization significantly influence sports, primarily in favor of competitive fostering. Beyond this ideal type, the Swedish Sports Confederation has been fragmented in some aspects through projectification. Despite external pressures, the federation remains committed to its nonprofit roots and continuously applies educational programs internally on how to relate to what they describe as Sweden's largest popular movement.

The method used to analyze the source material was an idea-critical analysis with an actor focus on the Swedish Sports Confederation. The goal was to find ideological currents in the text that could provide answers as to whether there was a predominant ideal type that had gained more prominence in the organizational directions, without necessarily conducting interviews or observing multiple training sessions across different sports.

In summary, the findings indicate a significant neoliberal influence on Swedish sports governance, emphasizing competitive fostering through goal management and economic rationalities. The analysis highlights the federation's efforts to balance these pressures while maintaining its nonprofit roots and fostering associative education. This complex interplay between external neoliberal forces and internal organizational ideals reveals the nuanced construction of athletes within the Swedish sports system. 

This study investigates how to enhance Sámi participation in EU Arctic policymaking processes by adopting and adapting participatory practices from the Arctic Council. Through a qualitative content analysis of policy documents and elite interviews, the study identifies that the EU can learn from the Arctic Council by recognizing the Sámi as internal actors, developing their collaborative platforms, and integrating Indigenous Knowledge into policymaking processes. This thesis develops a conceptual framework, integrating the concepts of procedural and intergovernmental self-determination, epistemic belonging, and organizational interdependency to define meaningful Indigenous participation and influence, which guides the analysis. Using this framework, the study contrasts the Arctic Council’s successful practices, where Indigenous Peoples Organizations are treated as equals, with the EU’s tendency to view the Sámi as an external Indigenous group outside of EU borders. The study identifies opportunities for the EU to translate participatory mechanisms that reflect the Sámi’s unique position and integrate their knowledge, as well as barriers such as treaty and resource constraints. By translating Artic Council practices into soft-law, the EU can create an inclusive atmosphere, contributing to meaningful Sámi participation.  

During the year 2020, the world witnessed the reignition of an old conflict over the disputed land of Nagorno-Karabakh, between the countries of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Throughout the duration of conflict, curiosity arose with the different implementations of Enemy Images and how both countries used said enemy images. As both countries have their respective claims towards the land, either based on ethnic or historic facts, they did not shy away from pointing fingers at one another. Following the conflict, questions started formulating as to; how are the countries similar or different in the way they depict the “other’’; how are the countries visually depicting each other; how are they trying legitimize their actions; and how are two countries trying to depict themselves as the victim?Thus, a qualitative comparative case study analysis is implemented to help understand this phenomenon. Using readily available online data (i.e. new sources) allowed the researcher to compare the two countries and see how there is more to enemy images, and how they were used for legitimacy. The outcome of the study presented both similarities and differences between the two countries, and how they legitimize themselves towards the audience, through tools such as victimhood.

Somali women have suffered at the hands of the patriarchy for as long as they have known. It is well established that the civil war in 1991 created irreparable damage to the Somali people. Nevertheless, it opened doors for women to experience autonomy for the first time. The impact it has had on the men has been contrasting, causing them to separate from their manhood. This thesis aimed to determine how migration has solved the empowerment-disempowerment dichotomy Somali women have faced for centuries. To do this, we will explore the dynamics of maternal politics, using a concept referred to as political motherhood. We then utilised political motherhood and conducted a qualitative analysis using four semi-structured interviews with a prominent group known as the “Mothers of Rinkeby” internationally. These women have been working to prevent crime in Rinkeby. Our results show a considerable correspondence between fleeing Somalia and how women of the Somali diaspora long to dismantle the patriarchal values deeply ingrained in their culture. Meanwhile, the husbands and fathers are absent. We conclude that Somali diaspora women are not only empowered now, but they are working to change the flawed patriarchal system upheld in Somali culture.

The flow of political aid into civil society organizations has sparked extensive debates and controversies surrounding the impact of foreign aid on the efficacy of said organizations in recipient countries. These discussions explore foreign aid through theoretical and empirical lenses, investigating its implications on global, regional, and national levels of analysis. Consequently, fundamental notions of geopolitics, development, and normative considerations within the realm of International Relations (IR) have been called into question. By employing the theory of hegemony and the concept of agency, this paper aims to enhance our understanding of the interplay between the agency of civil society organizations and foreign aid. It addresses the question of What analyzing the agency of civil society organizations in Lebanon reveals about the possibilities for transforming the hegemonic relationships within foreign aid? The examination of Robert Cox’s contextualization of Gramsci's theory of hegemony in IR, combined with James C. Scott’s observation of peasant resistance in rural Malaysia, lays the foundation for this study. This study calls attention to the often-overlooked ability of civil society organizations to not only challenge but reshape the prevailing hegemonic dynamics of foreign aid. More importantly, this study instigates a nuanced exploration of agency, resistance, and the transformative capacity of CSOs derived from local perspectives and the subculture and values of the civil society in Lebanon

For many years human trafficking has transcended national borders and posed a major challenge to countries around the world. The European Union is one of many supranational organizations that has prioritized the eradication of sex trafficking on their policy agenda. Public policies not only contain aims and approaches to achieve objectives, but they also contain a problematization of the issue at hand. The way a phenomenon is constructed in public policies can influence society and its citizens in terms of how the issue and those involved should be perceived. The aim of this study is to examine the way EU represents sex trafficking in their public policies. In order to achieve the research objective, the following two policy documents by the Union have been examined, namely Directive 2011/36/EU and The strategy towards the eradication of sex trafficking in human beings 2012–2016. A discourse analysis has been applied in this study. The method of choice is Carol Bacchis What’s the problem represented to be. The questions presented in Bacchis approach, and the theory of Governmentality has been applied to analyze the policies at hand. The result of this study showcases that human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is constructed as an issue of inadequate legal action, crime against human rights, benefiting gender-based inequality and jeopardizing democratic values and the safety within the Union and its member states. Trafficking victims are represented as forced participants in trafficking, a perception that doesn’t necessarily correspond with reality. EU’s problem representation promotes gender stereotypes while also excluding and silencing other perspectives. 

The aim of this study is to examine european unions peace foster stakes in Gaza, since the Israeli military invasion 7th of october. Out of the sources that were used to construct this essay, the majority are from the European union itself. This essay is based on primary sources to answer the question: how does the eu foster peace in Gaza since the outbreak of the humanitarian crisis? This work is based on a qualitative content analysis and the theoretical basis is made up of two theories. Normative power Europe and Civilian power theory. Previous research presents EU:s engagement in the arab-Israel conflict and the EU:s strengthen relationship with Israel alongside the neglected humanitarian situation in Gaza.

This study shows that the EU has carried out many peace-promoting efforts that aim to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, for example through its support for a two-state solution. The study also showed deficiencies in its ability to act out of a normative basis and highlighted the lack of demands in Israel. The study also indicates that eu shifted from being a normative power to being a civilian power in its attempts to promote peace in Gaza. This study is relevant as the EU pursues an enlargement policy and continues to face external humanitarian crises.

Using the concept of standards and a framework examining strategic responses to institutional processes, this article aims to understand why a municipality has resisted to implement elite football's stadium requirements and, from this perspective, assesses the options municipalities actually have to refuse implementing them. At first, the municipality in focus, Angelholm in Sweden, demonstrated a lack of awareness of the intrinsic power of standards and the ways in which they can influence municipal decisions. However, as it emerged that the standards contradicted other municipal priorities, the municipality became more critical and eventually decided not to follow them. Another finding of the study is that municipalities, as the 'adopters' of elite football standards, cannot affect how these standards are written. Therefore, the options to accept or decline them are perceived to be limited. Consequently, standards constitute a central form of governance within local sport policy.

The Swedish far-right party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), came to power in 2022 and is currently the second-largest party in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. While it has been propagandizing an anti-migrant discourse, another newly founded party has been producing a counter-discourse. The newly created Nyans party claims to represent migrants and minorities in Sweden. However, its discourse uses controversial issues that could potentially misrepresent those communities. Our study aimed to analyze Nyans’ Facebook posts published in the month leading up to the 2022 elections. Through our analysis process, which lasted from January to August 2023, we applied a critical discourse analysis approach to uncover the relationship between sociocultural issues and their social, political, and ideological contexts. The results reveal that Nyans’ discourse focused on opposing left-wing parties and aligned itself with the far-right. The discourse aligned with misinformation campaigns on social media when addressing sociocultural issues. These issues include the childcare law, the burning of the Qur’an, and the veil, which are pertinent to a particular perspective in the Muslim community and do not necessarily represent immigrants or minorities.

This thesis aimed to answer how the European Union performed as a 'global actor' in the Russia and Ukraine war from 2014 until 2022 using theoretical approaches of international relations theories. Furthermore, realist scholars define the concept of actorness as an entity capable of military decisions. At the same time, the constructivist believes that actorness is defined by other capabilities that impact the global arena. The thesis discusses the realist thinking that the European Union is not a global actor yet due to its lack of military powers. Whereas constructivism states that the European Union is a global actor, placing other means of power forward such as normative, civilian, and economic capabilities through examples. The European Union's performance as a global actor in the Russia and Ukraine conflict has not effectively stopped the war, as it has escalated despite the gradual economic sanctions imposed in 2014. The sanctions imposed by the European Union have not been effective in the past as Russia managed to blow the economic pressures over due to each other's economic interdependence. Therefore, the European Union launched its sixth package of economic sanctions in 2022 and might see success as it decided a total ban Russia's natural resources in the upcoming year. However, that remains a matter of speculation as the European Union is a global actor in progress, and the practical growth of its foreign policy is under exercise and will be discussed better in the future.

Even after the colonial legacy in Africa terminated, the time of exploitation and dependency was not over yet, but rather continues under the term known as neo-colonialism. Neo- colonialism can be observed all over the world, especially in Africa, where neo-colonialism through economic dependency, cultural hegemony, political influence, and military engagement contributes to the perpetuation of poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment in the neo-colonized countries while benefiting the neocolonial powers and their elite allies. This paper examines these neo-colonial dynamics with three case studies of three distinct examples — China, France, and Russia — with different aims, strategies, and historical backgrounds concerning colonialism. Their dynamics in Africa will be analyzed using the theoretical concept of neo-colonialism, which was constructed out of existing literature, and examined with a comparative analysis using qualitative and quantitative data. This paper concludes that all three countries practice different sorts of neo-colonialism in Africa, emphasizing their engagement on varying features like economic, military, cultural, or political means. This comparative study contributes to the existing research on neo-colonial practices by extensively analyzing each case and delivering new insight by comparing these.

Despite significant institutional changes and refinements since its creation in 2004, the ENP(European Neighborhood Policy) remains a major tool available to the EU for providing incentivesfor reform and stability in non-member states through the diffusion of its norms and rules.Earlier studies, drawing on the Europeanization conceptual framework, have been mostly concernedabout how and by which mechanisms compliance with EU rules takes place, rather thanfocusing on whether and to what extent it occurs. By contrast, this article assesses the actorness ofthe EU in three countries of the South Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), viewingactorness as composed of three dimensions – capability, opportunity, and presence – enabling andconstraining the aspirations of the EU to be an international actor in the South Caucasus.

How has the European Commission designed its new enlargement methodology in times of enlargement fatigue? Several studies have pointed out the French opposition to launching accession negotiation with North Macedonia and Albania in 2019 as a significant factor explaining the content of the new methodology. Traditionally, enlargement policy has been seen through the lenses of rational choice institutionalism: from this perspective, the new methodology would be resulting from such an external shock. This paper argues instead, using the discursive institutionalism framework and the concept of institutional bricolage, that the new methodology is the product of four different discourses on enlargement layered on top of each other.

Numerous studies have looked into why and how EU-supported policies are adopted in non–EU member states. However, the practical implementation of such policies has only received modest scholarly attention. This article shows that EU policies, once adopted, continue to be negotiated and resisted during their implementation phase. Based on interviews with experts involved in twelve Twinning projects in Georgia, this article aims to uncover the mechanisms behind less successful compliance with the EU acquis: insufficient administrative capacity and the politicized nature of public administration are likely to significantly affect the degree to which EU law is implemented.

Numerous studies, using the Europeanization theoretical framework, have looked into why and how EU-supported norms and policies are adopted in non EU-Member States, focusing either on the mechanisms through which they are diffused or on the local actors' responses to such demands. However, the practical implementation of such norms and policies in third countries has only received modest attention in academic and policy-related studies. Indeed, the “law in the books” is not necessarily the “law in action”. Going beyond the top-down approach that have extensively characterized Europeanization studies, this dissertation will operate a return to the “mundane face” of Europeanization and looks into how expert interactions matter for EU law implementation. It shows that those experts are highly enthusiast and willing to implement EU demands and adapted them to fit in their domestic context. They act as policy champions and show high degrees of policy saliency when fulfilling their tasks. Nevertheless, those champions operate in a difficult administrative and political environment that complicates EU law compliance, with low administrative capacity, high degree of staff turn-over, shortages of knowledgeable staff and political actors that might hinder EU law implementation if it is too costly or in contradiction with domestic vested interests.

The Virtual Water Trade (VWT) thesis has in recent years taken centre stage in the global water security and political economy discourse for its ability to mitigate water scarcity issues through global trade. However, it has been criticised for neglecting the externalities and the full social-environmental costs, which in this research is highlighted through the case of Brazil. This multivariate research critically assesses the dangers of seeing VWT as a ‘pure’ economic model by investigating the intervening variable of the structural conditions of the Brazilian government and their close intertwinement with agricultural corporations. By qualitative content analysis and empirical data supporting the arguments, the research found that agrarian corporations’ participation in an extractivist system can only thrive where the state actively guarantees the structural condition. This includes financial incentives which provide them with the hegemonic power to influence policies and amendments favouring agrarian business expansion with detrimental socio-environmental consequences for the vulnerable communities within Brazil. The research concludes that it is important to acknowledge this macro-micro linkage when formulating international agreements regarding agricultural trade, otherwise, the purpose of the Virtual Water Trade to mitigate water stress and prevent violent conflicts is instead undermined.

During the summer of 1935, approximately 20,000 Swedish women mobilized in a peaceful action - the Women's Unarmed Uprising Against War. The manifestation was a protest against rearmament and, in particular, against a militarization of everyday life that might result from a civil defense buildup. Thus, in a spirit of solidarity; women were encouraged to refuse to use gas masks or evacuate into cellars and air-raid shelters in the event of an air raid. Only then would men realize their responsibility; lay down their weapons, and solve the conflict at the negotiating table, the action was connected to a radical pacifistic tradition in which male conscientious objectors, among others, and the example of Gandhi were prominent. Liberal and Social Democrat women and members of the Swedish section of the Women?s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) carried out the action. The action was formulated in such a manner that women across the country were asked to vote for those who could serve in a women?s parliament. The goal was to create an international uprising among women by influencing the League of Nations? delegates and the women?s organizations in Geneva. In the same year, the central body of WILPF had decided to support an international peace plan, the People?s Mandate to End War. The mandate's aim was to present demands for disarmament to governments in different countries. This article examines why the Swedish women assumed a more radical position than that stated in the people?s mandate; what kinds of peace efforts in Sweden made such a radical, pacifistic women?s action possible; and what went on when the initiators attempted to influence WILPF, on an international level, into incorporating the radical protest into the people?s mandate campaign.

What were the main goals in Navalny’s political agenda and how did this influence his rhetorical approach? This paper explores how Navalny and his aspirants were disqualified as political candidates in Russian elections, and how this affected his approach to being focused on contentious politics as it became the only viable means to push for political change in the country. Two of his most viral videos are analysed to investigate the rhetorical strategies he used to set frames on the political elite, and the main answers revolved around corruption, theft, and the self-image of Medvedev and Putin. Although there were clear similarities between the two videos, the most recent “Palace for Putin” displayed new and more moral, judgmental and offensive methods than the previous “He is not Dimon to you”. Furthermore, this paper investigates the large-scale protests of 2021 and how public opinion about Navalny has developed in Russia. The expectation was that public opinion would be more favourable in recent times than it has been in the past, largely due to the massive protests which he managed to spark. However, the answer was surprisingly the opposite, as statistics tilted slightly against him rather than the other way around. Part of the explanation to this was that the highest number of people who disapproved of Navalny used state television as their main source of information, as opposed to the majority of the younger population who frequently used the internet, and thereby had a more positive view of him. When examining the protest trajectories, it was possible to find elements of Navalny’s political message amongst the people in terms of keywords and phrases that they chanted, evidence of his success above the fact of the protests themselves. The final aim was to review how the authoritarian regime responded to Navalny’s contentious politics, and in this regard, it was concluded that both domestic and international pressure moved the regime to increasingly repressive measures against Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and further deteriorated the relationship between the EU and Russia. 

A trend has recently sprung up among several European countries, that have adopted climate laws as a way to deal with the current climate crisis. Comparing these laws, it seems as though there are vast differences between the levels of commitment to take climate action. Especially, one case seems to stand out significantly as it is much more ambitious in many regards: The Danish Climate Act of 2019.

What makes this case even more unique is that Danish civil society was heavily involved in the creation of this policy outcome. Thus, with this thesis, I hoped to explore the role of non-state actors in normative shifts in the ways countries and civil society think about and react to CC. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to answer the following puzzle: What is the role and influence of the Danish climate movement – posing as norm entrepreneurs – in the adoption of Denmark’s Climate Act? 

Using qualitative semi-structured expert interviews, three major explanatory variables were discovered that are likely to have resulted in the adoption of Denmark’s climate law. The first variable concentrates on the strong social cohesion and close relations among various actor-groups in Denmark, while the second contends that various developments intertwined and overlapped in a manner that constituted the perfect timing for the climate movement to act. Together, the interplay between these two major variables facilitated the third major finding of this research project, which argues that the effective character of the social mobilization around the cause, triggered by the strategic agency of the Danish climate movement, has led to the adoption of Denmark’s Climate Act.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of sportswashing, an attempt to improve its reputation through buying the English football club Newcastle United. The purpose of this paper is to explore through a discourse analysis how Saudi Arabia's action to acquire Newcastle United can be seen as an exercise of power, and whether and how the images presented construct and reinforce orientalist discourses about the Saudi state and the region. The discourse analysis is conducted using Laclau and Mouffe's methodology and the theoretical framework applied is Joseph Nye's soft power, Edward Said's Orientalism and hegemony. Based on the international newspaper The Guardian and the human rights organization Amnesty International, orientalist discourses have been identified and the purchase of Newcastle United has resulted in soft disempowerment effects for Saudi Arabia. Local newspaper The Chronicle also constructed orientalist discourses about the state of Saudi Arabia but legitimizes the purchase of Newcastle United making the soft power exercise successful.  

A central tenet of international law is the right to territorial integrity, a right for which states may have their reasons to interpret differently. This thesis sets out to give insights to how Russia approaches breaches to said right to territorial integrity depending on their own national interests, and how they frame said interests in the European cases of Kosovo and Crimea. This thesis uses realist, neoliberalist and constructivist lenses to shed light on this question, employing key concepts from these theories through a qualitative content analysis on documents from the United Nations Security Council as well as the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that display Russia’s position in above mentioned cases. This study reveals a change of the Russian perspective between both cases, as well as determining that Russia frames their reactions in a way that serves its own interests best.

While there have been a number of studies of the political economy of knowledge production in Central Asia, the often exploitative relations between foreign and local researcher, there has been less discussion of what Elizabeth Perry recently described as the 'scholar-state' nexus: how authoritarian rule rests on the suppression of independent academics, the 'educated acquiescence' of academia or their incorporation into the 'factory of answers'. Through the concepts of suppression, acquiescence and incorporation, this article examines how restrictions on academic freedom have an impact on knowledge production in Tajikistan.

What is the potential of inclusion of young Muslims in the Finnish media literacy education? In this thesis I answer this research question to draw a conclusion on the importance of coherently operationalizing performance indicators of inclusion in national media literacy policies, which can be transferred and utilized transnationally to counter social exclusion of young Muslims in media literacy education in Western Europe.

I define and highlight four core criteria of inclusion to evaluate policy process and input, which contribute with answering the research question posed in this thesis. Moreover, a qualitative content analysis based on a single case study approach is applied to uncover all relevant information from the primary and secondary literature concerning the case selected. Similar to a number of academic studies closely related to the topic of this thesis, I apply the theoretical framework of policy evaluation as a lense to explain and explore the phenomenon under investigation. 

Conclusively, this thesis suggests that the potential of inclusion of young Muslims in the Finnish media literacy education is moderate due to the existence of both coherently defined as well as less coherently defined goals, objectives, and related performance indicators of inclusion in the Finnish media literacy policy.

Key Words: Inclusion, media literacy policy, media literacy education, Islamist radicalization and extremism, social exclusion, transnational, young Muslims.

This thesis explores what kind of ‘problems’ Germany’s official Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) guidelines represent and aims to address this field via a poststructural policy analysis inspired by Foucauldian discourse analysis. The analysis follows six analytical questions starting with “What is the ‘problem’ represented to be?”, also known as the WPR approach by Bacchi and Goodwin. By applying such WPR approach, the analysis investigates ‘problem’ representations, embedded discourses and their power relations as well as silences, effects and alternatives within FFP. The main findings reveal how FFP problematizes equal participation, representation of and opportunities for women and marginalized people as a matter of rights and as instruments bringing peace, security and stability while also requiring special protection. Such representations predominantly entail liberal and global feminist perspectives with neoliberal tendencies. Despite standing in contrast to one another, they borrow from intersectional and postcolonial discourses and feminisms. Moreover, the liberal rights-discourse constructs women as a homogenous group while intersectionality acknowledges differences. Instead of radically questioning persisting power structures, dominant neoliberal discourses effectively construct women as important change-makers and equality as a factor everyone supposedly would benefit from the various discourses trigger an othering-effect making women and marginalized people still the other.