Suchergebnisse

In the EU, some farmers depend farming for their livelihoods, while others use the land for other reasons, e.g., to embrace a new, more environmentally friendly lifestyle. But regardless of their approach to land use, farmers' choices are affected by the various actors of the sector and by society as farmers are an inseparable part of both. Such effects are in some cases perceptible and in some not so, but they are part of the mechanism that composes farmers' cognitive selves and that defines to an extent the orientation of their values. This exogenous and endogenous influence that is followed by the co-construction of one's cognitive self can be seen also in the values expressed by farmers on subjects other than the narrow choice of how and what to farm. Their own definition of what constitutes a good farmer and their view of themselves regarding nature and their relationship with it are a direct result of this. This paper examines and contrasts farmers' values elicited through qualitative interviews in Sweden and Greece. The values expressed were mapped and analysed to identify and discuss a range of related concepts such as ideas of the good farmers and what inhibits or motivates them, their unique relationship with nature that is reflected in their practice as 'businesspeople' or 'stewards'. The values revealed by the analysis, in combination with the different contexts in which the interviewees were situated, reflected their practice and allow insights into the sector and its people.

The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women's political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women's political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation. The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world's parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women's political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women's political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002. The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.