Suchergebnisse

Since the early 1950's the foreign policy of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) towards Sweden and the other Western European states was dominated by a striving for diplomatic recognition. This thesis examines that striving through an analysis of the East German-Swedish relations from 1949 until 1972. The main focus is on the years 1954-1972. The thesis draws mainly on East German archival material from the ruling communist party SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) and the GDR foreign ministry. A starting point of the thesis is that GDR generally used all its contacts abroad to further its foreign political goals. GDR's efforts to develop the relations with Sweden on seven different areas are investigated. An important aim is to analyse GDR's political utilisation of areas, such as culture and traffic, that normally are not considered political or studied by traditional political history. The application of the concept of public diplomacy is central in this context. The analysis of the Ostseewoche (Baltic Week) is a significant part of the investigation of areas that traditionally not are considered as being part of foreign policy. The Osteewoche was a week filled with cultural activities and sport. The analysis of the inaugural ceremony and other activities of the Ostseewoche shows that even official East German ceremonies were used for purposes of foreign policy. However, GDR's relations with Sweden on the normal foreign policy arenas such as diplomacy and economy are also analysed. Great weight is given to analysing the perceptions of the political elite and the foreign policy actors to understand why certain actions were taken and why certain elements were significant of the GDR foreign policy. The question of which political instruments were the most important to the East German efforts to improve the relations with Sweden is also investigated. An important result of the thesis is that GDR had a comprehensive strategy for the development of the relations with Sweden. The main elements of this strategy were in place 1958 and did largely not change since. The spreading of a positive GDR-image was a very significant element of the East German foreign policy. Sweden was one of the most important Western European countries to the GDR foreign policy during this period of time.

In Uganda, the energy sector like the rest of the economy has suffered severe setback during the 1970s and l980s, the years of political problems in that country. It has been seen that middle class households and even the upper class are reverting from the more efficient and cleaner fuels i.e. electricity and gas, to woodfuel in form of charcoal due partly to the unrealiability of the clean fuels and partly to their high prices and that of the appliances required in their utilisation. This report is a result of a Minor Field Study to evaluate the energy situation in Uganda with the aim of establishing the possibilities of introducing biogas systems in the countryside. It came out during the study that the country faces fuel shortage in the urban areas and some parts of the rural areas and the situation is deteriorating with time. Factors contributing to this situation include inefficient use of fuelwood and charcoal, the rapid population increase without corresponding technological development, rapid growth of the urban areas and the intensive exploitation without replanting of forest products for other purposes. The report gives a general description of biogas production, its characteristics, and its use for cooking, lighting, heating, driving of engines, generating of electricity and curing of tobacco. There is an outline of safety precautions during the production and use of the gas. Conditions for the introduction of biogas systems in the rural areas of Uganda are also outlined and these include, energy needs, availability of technical know-how, availability of building material and availability of organic materials for biogas production. It is pointed out in the report that all these conditions are fairly satisfactorily fulfilled as it concerns the Ugandan situation. The Chinese Pilot Project consisting of seven plants in the eastern part of Uganda is examined. Some plants have managerial problems but the biggest problem is that the project has no technical backup in terms of repairs and servicing, whenever problems arise. There is hardly any data being collected from the plants and no visible follow-up. The local extension staff do not have knowledge about the functioning of the units and therefore they are not useful to the unit owners in terms of advice and repairs. Some differences in basic conditions as relates to biogas technology transfer are briefly examined It turns out that the pilot plants are very expensive. There is an observation on the likely effects of introducing biogas systems in rural Uganda. It is likely that if care is not taken, the project can increase the labour burden on some members of the society. The health conditions in the society should improve and the environment conservated. There then comes an economic analysis which points out that research is needed to produce a cheaper design.

The aim of this study is to investigate the 1993 reform and the process where control and management philosophies, systems of rules and regulations are assumed to apply both to the centuries of academic tradition of specific characteristics of organisation and cultural norms. Based on documents, educational political intentions and the plans of action which hereby arise I attempt to analyse the impact of the reform. New planning and control systems and goal and achievement-related allocation of resources are being introduced at the same time as the country's seats of learning are becoming independent authorities with the right to create their own internal organisation. The new government wants to achieve a decentralisation of decisions-making, responsibility and authority, and to follow up and evaluate operations and results. A particular enquiry has been set up, RUT-93, with the aim of studying the position the individual establishments of higher education take in practice towards the aims of the reform, intentions and to the new possibilities for freedom that are provided. From a qualitative point of view I analyse how the country's seats of learning react and act in relation to these new preconditions on the basis of a questionnaire and a referral from the RUT-93 enquiry, as well as my own additional empirical material in the form of personal interviews. I reach the conclusion that the state authorities use the concept of freedom to explain a moving away from a centrally controlled system at the same time that strengthened central control is perceived at the country's seats of learning, as connections are made between allocation of resources and demands for achievement, follow-up and results attained. The strategy behind the RUT-93 enquiry is to ensure that a process of reform survives even if the right-wing government were to lose power after one mandate period. The activities for which initiative is taken, however, acquire the nature of predictability as the aims of the reform and the directives of the report are viewed as being indeterminate and unclear for the country's seats of learning. I feel I have discovered at least four different horizons of interpretation for how the country's seats oflearning view the reform: the discourse of tradition, an organisational perspective, a power perspective and an undergraduate education perspective. It also appears to be the case that the traditional academic exercise of power is expected to be replaced by a model of control and management of a 'top-down' nature which applies to society as a whole and where control of aims, economy and results is the guiding principle. There also seems to be a connection between the concepts of fraternity, management and democracy, where the concept of classic academic is often associated with and even used synonymously with concepts such as fraternal, democratic, nonhierarchical and 'bottom-up' -Ollented, while the concept of management-oriented is often used as an explanation of a hierarchy or a 'top-down' philosophy of some kind. I have tried to describe how the 1993 reform of higher education must be understood on the basis of the existential, societal, historical and gender-dependent fabric so that it does not hang loose and floating. A summarising conclusion contains the plausible fact that both state authorities and tax-payers have an interest in the fact that the operations which are run at higher education establishments is in concord with what is happening in society in general, which, however, does necessarily mean that operations must be run or controlled on the basis of the same principles or rules as other state authorities and even less on the basis of what applies to organisations and companies. ; Licentiatavhandling framlagd vid Lärarhögskolan, Stockholmsuniversitet den 12 mars, 1997. Opponent: Agneta Linné, Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm.