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1. Nichiren, Soka Gakkai and Komeito : a question of political attitude -- 2. Aspiration for the good society : in support of a political party -- 3. A case of interpretation? : Komeito supporters as political pawns, right-wing collaborators, or political actors -- 4. Women, social change and realising political ideals -- 5. July 2009 to July 2010 : the beginning of a new way of politics in Japan? -- 6. Religion, Soka Gakkai Buddhists and political participation.

Satire is to an increasing extent a part of the formation of our political consciousness. But what happens when political matters are expressed through satire? The purpose of this article is to investigate a satirical mode of expression, namely parody, in order to determine the contribution that parody lends to satire as well as making an assessment of the critical potential of parody itself. I argue that parody can be understood as an instance of Derridean deconstruction and that its critical potential lies in its ability to destabilize political assumptions that are taken for granted in our society. ; Satire er i stigende grad med til at forme vores politiske bevidsthed. Men hvad sker der, når politiske emner bliver formuleret igennem satire? Formålet med denne artikel er at undersøge en af de mest udbredte udtryksformer inden for politisk satire, nemlig parodi, med henblik på at afdække parodiens bidrag til satire, samt at foretage en vurdering af parodiens kritiske potentiale. Jeg argumenterer for, at parodi kan forstås som en form for dekonstruktion, og at dens kritiske potentiale ligger i dens evne til at destabilisere politiske antagelser, der bliver taget for givet i vores samfund.

The rules governing lack of conformity in consumer sales are to be found in the Danish Sale of Goods Act (The Act). The Act constitutes inter alia a legitimate definition of lack of conformity of goods in consumer conditions. Generally, guarantees are not within the formalities of Danish law. They have been regulated by ordinary contractual law; the Marketing Practices Act will implement the Directive in this regard. According to the interpretation of the Directive and The Act, present Danish law must be altered in a number of (minor) requests in order to conform with the Directive. In Denmark a working group will put forward proposals for amendments to The Act.

This article analyses participants' reasoning for their city's membership in transnational municipal networks and the extent to which this changes over time. Theoretically, we build on new-institutional theory and conclude that although parts of the members' reasoning have rational components, a discursive institutional perspective improves the understanding of cities' membership of transnational municipal networks. This perspective uncovers how important aspects of transnational municipal network participation are motivated by a different logic than that of measurable output. Cities use transnational municipal networks as sources of internal and external legitimacy, to legitimatise their position in domestic politics and their international position among other 'global' cities. ; publishedVersion

Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) are increasing in size, scope and number on the global arena. They reflect a tendency for city governments to coordinate environmental action through networked forms of governance. In this article, we argue that a new generation of TMNs has entered the global scene to help cities steer their efforts to handle environmental issues. In contrast to the characteristics of older TMNs as public, inclusive, and self-governed, new-generation TMNs are influenced by private actors, they are exclusive, and employ enforcement mechanisms to secure the fulfilment of network goals. To underline the diversity of TMNs and thus better understand urban networked governance, we present a case study of the 100 Resilient Cities initiative covering its conduct in 2013–2019. Looking at its actor composition and membership terms, we identify a hybrid nature different from the one described in earlier literature on European TMNs primarily. This subscription to a hybrid form of governance calls for a larger discussion on the implications of this shift in governance type and on the extent to which hybridisation implies a shift of power from the public to the private sphere.

AbstractResearch within the field of sustainable development has documented a number of network initiatives taken by corporations in order to manage financial, social, and environmental pressures. So far, the focus of the research has been to address the concerns raised by a number of external stakeholders. As such, research attention has been paid to the reactive corporate response rather than to the proactive communication of the sustainability message with the purpose of developing and driving corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. Only recently, a few papers have emerged on the issue. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the field by proposing a theoretical analysis of the organizational and communicative bases of CSR and sustainability networks. Resource dependence theory and social network theory are used to form the theoretical framework set up for understanding how governments build relations with local networks, including corporations. The framework is tested on an example from Denmark. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the control assumptions embedded in some textbooks on management coaching with a view to uncovering the potentialities and constraints applying to the individual's self‐realisation project.Design/methodology/approachBy means of a qualitative discourse analysis of selected works on management coaching, the paper examines the rhetorical articulation of the management coaching concept in terms of established discourses of managing and controlling the individual.FindingsAs a result of the findings, the paper categorises the management coaching literature into two types: employee and executive coaching, respectively. It demonstrates that employee coaching seems to involve action control and direct monitoring, while executive coaching involves control of the spirit as well as results/achievements, thereby generating tight constraints on the individual's self‐realisation project. It concludes that coaching can be a stronger disciplining technique than control by numbers.Originality/valueThe paper provides insight into how writing on management coaching may help to construct power structures and social relationships reflected in society. There have been other studies analysing, for example, how performance measurements produce power structures and social relationships, but to the best of one's knowledge none of these has focused on management coaching – nor have they drawn on discourse analysis, which allows one to discern the social orders of popular management practices.

Purpose– The goal of this paper is to provide insight into how global social responsibility is performed through economic, mental and even physical investment and engagement by consumers and organisations.Design/methodology/approach– An illustrative analysis from the corporate website and blogs of an ethical organisation is undertaken. The analytical approach is communicative and inspired by discourse and legitimation studies and more particularly based on the framework of legitimation in discourse and communication developed by Theo van Leeuwen.Findings– The paper claims that new forms of value creation and a new relational logic of ethics – a so-called "logic of matter" – are emerging. From the three types of relational logic of matter ethics – an ethics of care, an ethics of reversibility and an ethics of activism – the ethics of activism plays the most important role in our material.Research limitations/implications– The analytical examples presented in this paper demonstrate how the new relational ethics seem to transcend the dichotomy of self-interest and the interests of the other.Practical implications– The paper provides insights into understanding how new forms of relational and reversible relationships are constructed.Originality/value– To the authors' knowledge, similar studies on the emergence of new relational studies in light of the new economy have not previously been undertaken.

In the autumn of 2020 professor and director of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Kwesi Aning, visited DIIS. He has had a long career in both academia and policymaking with the African Union and the United Nations, and he has written extensively on security dynamics and politics across West Africa. This report is the product of several structured conversations between Aning and researchers at DIIS in Copenhagen, which have been edited into eight texts that discuss key security challenges and megatrends in contemporary West Africa, ranging from illegal mining and organized crime to international interventions and piracy. One of Aning's points is that the West African states are in crisis - more so than in the early years of the post-Cold War era. A key reason for this is popular disappointments in the face of economic inequality; reversals in the application of democratic principles; a demographic boom; and climate change resulting in environmental disasters and degradation. Together, these factors compound the failure of states to maintain optimism and live up to the expectations of their populations. Countries from outside the region that make the decision to intervene, and that design the interventions, must have a fundamental understanding of the contexts in which they intervene and of their own limitations. Only then will external actors be able to support further steps taken in the region to mitigate some of the challenges that West Africa faces, challenges which have led to conflict in the past, and may lead not just to new and renewed conflicts, but also to the spread of existing ones.