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Recent advances in game theory and experimental social science provide insights for the study of corruption and abuse of power in local politics. We survey the evidence from theoretical and experimental research and illustrate findings and problems with two examples from a survey among local politicians and officials in Sweden. The most simplified theoretical models, such as the prisoner's dilemma, fail to capture the distinction between group loyal behavior at different levels. There are several grey zones between pro-social behavior and corruption. These grey zones can be considered corruption danger zones. While Sweden is typically seen as a non-corrupt society, there are several situations where local politicians and officials must make choices in these corruption danger zones. Both formal institutions and informal norms influence these choices, and the views among politicians can vary substantially regarding what behavior is considered acceptable. Communication, openness and public debate can help the fight against corruption. Adapted from the source document.

The constitutionally-based right of access to documents has a long history in Sweden and is considered crucial to Swedish democracy. On entering the EU in 1995, Sweden declared that public access to official records forms part of Sweden's constitutional, political and cultural heritage. The members of the EU for their part declared that they took it for granted that Sweden would fully comply with Community (now Union) law with respect to openness and transparency. Sweden continues to push for transparency when EU legislation that potentially contains secrecy clauses is negotiated. It turns out, however, that EU membership does pose challenges to the strong Swedish right of access to documents. The protection of personal data is controversial in Sweden to the extent that the stricter EU legislation clashes with the traditionally weak protection of privacy in Swedish law; the Swedish right of access to information has largely outweighed the right to privacy. Large amounts of publicly available personal data are amassed in databases by private actors for commercial reasons, under the protection of the Swedish constitution. This is causing problems, especially since Sweden considers Swedish constitutional law to precede EU legislation in the field of access to information. Sweden will somehow have to solve the dilemmas caused by the differing traditions of transparency between itself and other EU member states. Official Swedish inquiries and the EU Regulation will provide many answers to these questions in 2016.

Mass media play a critical role through the production of news in influencing how citizens have their perceptions and opinions shaped. This article intends to delve into the role of news production in creating knowledge and shaping public perception and opinion within the Syrian case and demonstrates that news is not an accidental occurrence, neither in terms of subject or timing. Articles on specific issues, such as the reaction to the chemical weapons attack of August 2013 and the allegations of "industrial killings" by the Syrian government, appearing in the mass media, are subjected to analysis based on the theoretical notions outlined in the paper. These two cases hint that the timing and nature of these specific news events are not as "random" and coincidental as would seem at first glance.

This thesis investigates the strategic stance of a political brand and the factors that affect its positioning. The question related to the positioning of a political brand is complex. Nowadays, political leaders should be able to define the characteristics of their political brand. To succeed in the political arena, they must understand, identify, and utilize the most appropriate mechanism of communication to create an accurate perception of their political image in the market that is strictly linked to the characteristics of their brand and to reach these targets. For these reasons, it is mandatory to have measurement methods and comparable results over time. It was decided to divide the overall research problem into four different research questions to explore and explain the mechanism of political brand creation and the interaction between political brands and the electorate and to do so through four different papers. In paper 1, the political environment has been observed and studied. Subsequently, a theory of consumer and product orientation has been identified and utilized to both understand and to strategize how politicians can better position and present themselves to the public and voters. Paper 2 proposes a methodology to measure political positioning and constituent perception. The specific aim of the research is to explore interrelations between a political party's positioning in two different periods to discover possible discrepancies and changes over time. Paper 3 investigates whether the negative impact of a political brand can influence a country's brand. The fourth paper tried to measure how the quality, readability, and frequencies of political messages could provide insight into the effectiveness of viral communication using a political blog. This thesis contributes to the understanding that influence in a political environment happens in a bidirectional manner, where politicians are influenced by voter sentiment and voters are influenced by politicians. The key strategic question then ...

When do states allow nonstate actors (NSAs) to observe negotiations at intergovernmental meetings? Previous studies have identified the need for states to close negotiations when the issues under discussion are sensitive. This paper argues that sensitivity alone cannot adequately explain the dynamic of closing down negotiations to observers. Questions that have received little attention in the literature include which issues are considered sensitive and how the decision is made to move the negotiations behind closed doors. This paper examines the practices of NSA involvement in climate diplomacy from three analytical perspectives: functional efficiency, political dynamics, and historical institutionalism. Based on interviews and UNFCCC documents, this paper suggests that to understand the issue of openness in negotiations, institutional factors and the politics of NSA involvement need to be better scrutinized. The paper shows that each perspective has particular advantages when analyzing different dimensions of the negotiations, with implications of how we understand the role of NSAs in global environmental governance. ; Funding agencies: Swedish Research Council [421-2011-1862]; Formas [2011-779]

Nordic approaches to ensure gender equality in the labour market are garnering more and more interest the world over. This think-piece, written by Iselin Løvslett Danbolt, reviews and discusses Nordic solutions for boosting gender balance in leadership. While it is no longer possible to ignore the benefits of gender diversity in business and politics, the Nordic countries have used different approaches to get more women than ever into leadership positions and company boards, such as gender parity quotas and corporate governance codes. However, there is more work to be done, as prevailing mind-sets and practices are still barriers for women to crack the glass ceiling. The think-piece raises key points for discussion on gender equality in the Nordic region, giving input into ongoing Nordic cooperation and the International Labour Organization's Women at Work Centenary Initiative.

According to the strategy for Nordic co-operation in education and research the Nordic countries should remove obstacles for free movement for students and researchers in the Nordic region. One goal with this report has been to identify obstacles for organizing joint programmes on master level. The Nordic Council of Ministers has until now financed, in co-operation with universities, 23 Nordic Master Programmes. Minimum of three higher education institutions develop joint programmes, that will attract both Nordic and non-Nordic students. The report gives an overview of the legislation in relation to joint degrees in the Nordic countries. It also has recommendations for the Nordic Master Programme and offers separate thematic documents like a template for a joint diploma. The report will hopefully serve as practical guide book for those in the process of planning or building up joint master programmes. Hopefully, the report also makes a contribution to developing other international joint programmes.

Sheathed in the glamour of filmmaking and technical innovation, participatory video (PV) is often evangelised as a communication for development methodology that intrinsically fosters transformative social and political change. Such celebratory notions, however, can obscure the complexity facing participatory video practice in achieving significant response to the inequities PV participants face. In reply, I offer the principles of representation, recognition and response as a potential pathway for more meaningful citizen engagement and action. Doing so challenges the idea that using PV primarily to help people on the margins represent their concerns through film is enough to shift deep-rooted inequities of power. Rather, my argument suggests that participatory video approaches aimed at raising citizen voice require a broader framing of practice: one that positions key decision-makers watching the films to both value marginalised voice, and responsively listen.

By describing and analysing normative uncertainties and the commercial immaturity in Swedish ice hockey (Swedish Hockey League/Swedish Ice Hockey Association), this article focuses on the tension and dialectics in Swedish sport; increasingly greater commercial attempts (i.e. entrepreneurship, 'Americanization', multi-arenas, innovations and public limited companies) have to be mixed with a generally non-profit making organization (e.g. the Swedish Sports Confederation) and its traditional values of health, democracy and youth sports and fosterage. In this respect, the elite ice hockey clubs are situated in a legal culture of two parallel norm systems: the tradition of self-regulation in sport and in civil law (e.g. commercial law). Indeed, the incoherent blend of idealism and commercialism in Swedish elite hockey appears to be fertile ground for hazardous (sports) management and indebtedness. This mix of 'uncertainty' and 'immaturity' has given rise to various financial trickeries and negligence, which have subsequently developed into legal matters. Consequently, the legal system appears to have become a playground for Swedish ice hockey. This article reflects on the reasons and the rationale in this frictional development by focusing on a legal case that comes under the Business Reorganisation Act. The analysis reveals support for a 'soft' juridification process in Swedish ice hockey in order to handle the charging tension of the two parallel norm systems.

The chapter explores the formative relationship between perceptions of macro-politics and everyday micro-politics in the Republic of Georgia. "Politics" in the Georgian context, I suggest, may be understood as a grey zone that is simultaneously, in emic terms, considered highly uncertain, immoral, and external to ordinary life and yet, analytically speaking, formative of everyday concerns and micro-political interactions. I discuss different aspects of perceptions of politics as opaque and inaccessible and the consequences this bear for people's engagement and disengagement with their socio-political surroundings. I argue that due to a profound lack of trust in public institutions and political personae everyday social and economic security is pursued 'invisibly' through personal networks, connections and informal transactions. 'Invisibly', in the sense that these connections are often known only to the people involved – at least as characterized by the perceived outsider. Finally, I propose that everyday responses to political opacity and uncertainty, in the end, contribute to their reproduction in perception and experience. That is, the idea of public macro-politics as being opaque and uncertain, and the ways in which citizens appropriate and act towards this idea, in the end, produces and reproduces political practice as such. Micro-politics – maintaining and relying on informal networks and connections – is simultaneously a response to an uncertain macro-political reality and the continuing production and confirmation of this reality across socio-political scale.

What characterizes the multidisciplinary field of communication for development today? And how do the Master's programme in Communication for Development (ComDev) at Malmö University, the Glocal Times web magazine and Malmö University and Roskilde University's joint bi-national research centre Ørecomm position themselves vis-à-vis this field of research and practice?

Aim: The aim of this presentation is to map out and analyse how Swedish football fandom, as a lived and mediated experience, is being formed and transformed by football fans themselves on internet sites run by fans. Background: The technological development of media has changed ways of communication among fans. Fans can present themselves and their activities in a perspective they chose instead of relying on official club information or newspapers not seldom presenting fans as a problem rather than as a resource. In that way the new mediated experience allows for a broader audience to move from mere spectator to participant (cultural citizenship), and for the empowerment of fans. These experiences can be used to question who is the righteous member of a football club or carrier of the football culture. The project will map out and analyse these activities. In addition, the notion of new media technologies as enabling fans will be critically examined. It is possible that despite the growing membership action on the internet sites, the real power of the football clubs is still in the hands of the club board and the owners. Furthermore, not all groups (in relation to gender and social class for example) have equal access to new media technologies. Furthermore the question of how the football club should be organized is of importance. Not the least, the question of the influence of commercialization on a membership organization or the democratic process. This is, however, not isolated to fandom cultures. It is an important question for societal change over-all as a pivotal question is: who is to decide to what extent market forces are to influence the society? A gender perspective will be used. Methods and source material: An empirical starting point for this study is a comparison between different fan sites. The sites will be studied using content analysis. In addition, moderators of the sites will be interviewed using a semi-structure interview technique.

One of the interesting developments over the last decade in communication and social change theory is the beginnings of efforts to engage with theoretical traditions and concerns that have not typically provided frameworks for understanding CSC. The special issue of Glocal Times (2012) simultaneously published with the Nordicom Review with its articles on causumerism and the politics of international development is perhaps the best example available of new thinking in the field.