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Political science research in Sweden depends heavily on external financing. The Swedish Research Council and the Riksbankens jubileumsfond have long played a major role in this. A list of applicants who received research grants from those two organizations in 2007 is presented. Adapted from the source document.

The change in regional governance in Sweden is regularly understood in terms of a shift from 'government' to 'governance', from a redistributive policy to a policy that aims to encourage regional innovation, competitiveness and growth. This shift also includes the adoption of global policy models, such as 'clusters'. In the literature on the global spread of policies it has been argued that a market for global policies has developed. This is not least evident through the expansion of global consultancy firms, international policy organisations as well as a cosmopolitan elite of travelling policy technocrats. Theoretically and methodologically this study contributes to scholarly discussions of how new forms of governance can be analysed, and especially how governmentality studies can be utilised and combined with analyses of the messy political practices of specific policies and programs. The study analyses the discursive shift in regional policy in Sweden: contested elements erased, conflicts concealed and the political order produced. By empirically departing from a 'cluster policy network' lodged within a Swedish region, cluster policy is analysed as an assemblage of global circuits of knowledge, expertise and local relations of power. A broad range of materials for analysis have been generated through interviews, participant observations and documents. The production of policy knowledge is an overarching political rationality of contemporary forms of regional governance, translated into technologies such as benchmarking, regional comparisons, competitions, evaluations and best-practice. Based on the empirical analyses it is argued that the lack of power critique and a hyper-rational representation of knowledge produce an international market for legitimacy. It is further argued that five characteristics of the policy regime ('the regional cluster orchestra') contributes to the reproduction of the policy regime, and relations of domination. ; Baksidestext Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i vad som har beskrivits som en marknad för globala policymodeller. I Sverige har klusterbegreppet, med ursprung i ekonomisk och geografisk teoribildning, fått stort genomslag i regionalpolitiken. I den samtida regionalpolitiken har också produktionen av olika former av policykunskap utvecklats till centrala styrningsteknologier: benchmarking, best practice, utvärderingar, uppföljningar, mätningar och konkurrensutsatta tävlingar om regionala utvecklingsmedel. Genom kunskap och ständigt lärande ska Sveriges regioner frälsas. I avhandlingen studeras den scen där ett regionalt förankrat policynätverk agerar och den kunskap som produceras. Regionalpolitikens rationalitet innebär att det blir centralt för regionerna att agera som enhetliga aktörer och visa upp en lyckad och framgångsrik fasad. Det argumenteras för att bristen på maktanalys, och en hyperrationell syn på kunskap i regionalpolitiken innebär att regionalpolitikens styrningsteknologier producerar en internationell marknad för legitimitet som i sin tur reproducerar ordningen och döljer dominansrelationer.

Three tense events involving the US Army and the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache nations in Oklahoma in the decades after the end of the Great Plains Wars seemed destined to end in violence: The Ghost Dance in 1890−91, the death of three Kiowa boys in a blizzard in 1891 and the transfer of Geronimo and around three hundred Chiricahua Apache Indians to Oklahoma in 1895. In all of these events a US Cavalry officer, Hugh Lenox Scott, played a key role as a soldier-diplomat. Through his linguistic skills and inter-cultural competence, Scott, assisted by Iseeo, a Kiowa army scout and close friend of Scott's, managed to prevent the three situations from erupting in violence. These outcomes are in stark contrast to what happened around the same time in the Northern Plains, where violence erupted on several occasions, most conspicuously at Wounded Knee in December 1890, when US troops killed between 150 and 200 Lakota Indians. The purpose of this micro historical study is to highlight how the military, in concrete action, could promote peace and development in their dealings with American Indians and to explore the significance of personal relations, tolerance and trust for the maintenance of peace. These factors were crucial for the more peaceful development on the Southern Plains compared with in the north. In promoting peace, moreover, Scott not only acted as a diplomat in relation to the Indians; he also successfully advised his superior commanders not to send troops into the field in order to uphold order and quell any possible unrest. Such deployment of troops, Scott was convinced, was like putting a keg of gunpowder in front of an open fire and risked sparking uncontrolled and lethal violence between the soldiers and the Indians, to the detriment of the latter, as happened at Wounded Knee. Based on his long service as a soldier-diplomat, Scott later in life developed a general theory about the military as a peacemaking institution. According to Scott, it was politicians and the people who made war and the task of the military was to conquer the peace. His styling of the US soldier as the "harbinger of peace and mercy", however, depended on Scott ignoring the many instances when the US military had failed to maintain peace and order, both in relation to the American Indians and in colonies overseas. ; Förmedlare i imperialistisk expansion: Möten och kontakter i USA:s gränsland (1876−1916)

The 18th century went from a state of economic stagnation, which occurred in the last century, caused by rampant inflation, climate change and the Thirty Years' War, to a state of economic growth based on population growth, banking expansion and commercial and agricultural. revolution. These changes founded the technological and social elements necessary for an era of industrialization that would take shape in the next century. Within this historical context, the foundations of classical economic thought appear, represented by Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, etc. The writing carries out a bibliographic and hermeneutical analysis of the economic thought of the eighteenth century through, on the one hand, the review of the theoretical contributions of these thinkers and the most important conclusions made by later scholars, on the other hand, the theoretical interpretation of the foundations of the economic thought of the eighteenth century. This analysis is built on six arguments: law and natural order, income, the value of work, trade, demography, and freedom. The objective of the article is to present the arguments of the most important thinkers of the eighteenth century as the foundation of a Modernity characterized by the economic growth based on the free market.

In the past years growing interest in alternative forms of food supply chains has incentivised researchers to investigate the role of retailers in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) mainly in the United States, Canada and the EU, with little attention paid to SFSC retailer interaction in the German context specifically. The aim of this thesis to contribute to the existing literature by investigating how the country's presumed institutional conditions affect the viability of selling via retailers for a certain type of SFSC producer. The location of the study was northern Hamburg, Germany. Six semi-structured interviews, substituted with four questionnaires, were conducted with micro- to large-scale producers involved in local SFSC schemes and selling via branches of the supermarket chain Edeka, and a group of producers who did not sell via this retailer. A document analysis of statements of producers and other stakeholders on the cities intention to support local agriculture by creating additional demand provided an overview of the effects of agricultural circumstances and policies had on SFSC. The interviews were analysed by applying Stevenson and Pirogs 'values-based supply chain' framework and showed that only micro- or mid- to large scale producers profited from the cooperation, which in the latter case was more of a partnership of convenience. In combination with the document analysis, which found limited land and capital access, expensive certification, as well as the need for more training in marketing and demand to impact local farmers, this conclusion indicates that additional outlets are not the only tools the city has to support local, especially small scale, agriculture.

This thesis explores perceptions and preferences on regional action in EU-related frameworks among regional actors in Western Sweden. Building upon the literature on Europeanisation and the Fusion approach, three dimensions of Europeanisation are clarified and explored– download, upload and crossload – and together with a set of five variables that constitute the Micro Fusion Framework; a comprehensive analytical tool is developed. The thesis analyses the intense debate among the members of West Sweden that took place from 2011 to 2013 that focused on how to functionally organise the regional office in Brussels in order to meet future challenges. Surprisingly, the members eventually decided to terminate their cooperation and close the jointly owned office in Brussels in spite of the fact that it has been widely regarded as successful and effective. Diverging perceptions and preferences is understood in terms of three positions on regional action; a download-, upload- and a coherent oriented position. Finally, the thesis presents the empirical findings and discusses in relation to three fusion scenarios, infusion, defusion and clustered fusion. In terms of Micro Fusion Framework, the dynamics shaping why West Sweden was finally regarded as a dysfunctional arena for regional action are explained by a shift of attention and action among regional actors in Western Sweden that led to pressure for further institutional adaptation in order to meet the demand of how 'to get the best out of the EU'. Further, this redefinition of how to handle EU-affairs within the upload-oriented position was accompanied by positive attitudes towards the potential to bypass the state and thereby pursue regional priorities directly in Brussels given the compound nature of the EU. In contrast, those regional actors that are found to be more download-oriented often question the benefits of uploading activities in practice and advocate close relations to the state. A coherent oriented position recognises the importance of activities related to both of the vertical dimensions of Europeanisation. ; I avhandlingen studeras regionala aktörers uppfattningar och attityder till regionalt handlande i EU-relaterade frågor. För att hantera EU-frågor etableras ofta regionala representationskontor i Bryssel. Ett av de största och framgångsrikaste regionala kontoren i Bryssel var West Sweden som representerade västsvenska kommuner och regioners intressen i EU. År 2011 inleds en intern diskussion bland dess medlemmar om hur kontoret bör utvecklas för att möta nya utmaningar i en föränderlig omvärld. Diskussionerna är intensiva, och något överraskande beslutar dess medlemmar att lägga ned verksamheten ett par år senare. I avhandlingen analyseras diskussionen utifrån ett europeiseringsperspektiv. Med hjälp av en analysram som definierar tre dimensioner av europeiseringsprocesser identifieras tre olika positioner i diskussionen; en download-, upload- respektive sammanhållen position. Det kan vara frestande att förstå West Swedens nedläggning som ett uttryck för att subnationella aktörer "drar sig tillbaka" och föredrar aktiviteter inom nationalstatens domäner. Avhandlingen argumenterar för att så är inte fallet. Nedläggningen av West Sweden förstås som en konsekvens av ökade spänningar mellan regionala aktörer som anammar ett download- respektive upload-orienterat förhållningssätt.

La acción colectiva en episodios de dominación pura es una actividad natural de los sujetos dominados en el escenario público. Este trabajo es una discusión teórica a la obra "Los dominados y el arte de la resistencia" de James Scott. El objetivo es examinar las categorías analíticas y herramientas metodológicas utilizadas por el autor en la lectura de las sociedades subalternas y su relación con los grupos dominantes. Los hallazgos se fundamentaron en cinco categorías desarrolladas a través del análisis documental e informativo. El papel del Estado, los discursos, la ideología, infrapolítica y cultura se rescataron en la obra de Scott. El principal resultado es una innovadora literatura para el estudio de la dominación como proceso político a través de micro eventos, desde la mirada de los dominados. Finalmente se concluye con sugerencias para nuevas agendas de investigación que apliquen este enfoque teórico.

This article focuses on political talk in the media. Taking the point of departure in discourse & conversation analysis the aim is to study relations & methods on a micro level in two forms of staged talk; the interaction in live interviews & the practices of quoting in edited news reports. The study of live interviews is based on programs broadcasted during the Swedish election campaigns 2002 & 2006. The study shows how relations of power are negotiated in interaction. Methods used by the politicians to deal with delicate situations created by the questions asked are analyzed. The analysis of edited news reports shows how techniques of quoting have been part of a process moving the stage of the political debate more & more into the media. Quoting is a flexible resource frequently used by journalists in the dramatization of news stories & the re-contextualization of others voices. Adapted from the source document.