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"This book grew out of the RIPE@2002 conference about broadcasting and convergence.....Re-Visionary Interpretations of the Public Enterprise [RIPE] is an initiative to strengthen collaborative relations between media scholars and practitioners. The focus of this initiative is the contemporary relevance of the remit for public service broadcasting, and public service media more generally."--P.7

Evaluation is an institutionalized practice in the western public sector with several applications and uses. At the same time, the effectiveness and use of evaluation is seldom demonstrated. This evaluation paradox is due to the fact that evaluation is constrained and shaped in relation to, among others, a political context. In this dissertation, the political context is examined from the assumption that governance shapes evaluation. The aim is to analyze the relationship between governance and evaluation, by studying the translation (i.e. inter­pretation) of the European Union evaluation approach ongoing evaluation in Sweden, in the context of Cohesion policy 2007-2013, which in Sweden aims at reinforcing competitiveness and employment. The relation­ship is examined through documents and interviews on a European union and a Swedish level, and in the translation process in between. With key concepts such as steering logics, participatory evaluation and translation through framing, the formation of evaluation in relation to governance has been mapped. This is particularly interesting in Sweden where the approach puts forth ideals of learning and interaction that seem to depart from ongoing evaluation. Results show that governance cannot fully explain the shape of evaluation. Instead, Swedish agencies and other implementing actors have promoted their evaluation norms while at the same time fulfilling the Swedish ministries' learning frame. It is an actor perspective comple­menting the relation­­ship between gover­nance and evaluation previously presented. The evaluation approach in Sweden has been translated to a practical participatory evaluation approach within a larger group of collabora­tive inquiry. In conclusion, evaluation on both levels has functioned as a relatively un­critical supportive resource for decision making within predetermined boundaries, more connected to the object of evaluation than to a larger gover­nance context. Evaluation in Sweden is being separated from questions of accounta­bility, and participation in evaluation is for goal fulfillment rather than for critical examination of basic assumptions underpinning projects and programs. Results made possible through the lens of trans­lation show that the Swedish approach was made possible by the vague borders of the field of evaluation, the rhetorical use of evaluation terminology in translation, skilled institutional entrepreneurs using legitimizing strategies, and the framing by the Commission and state ministries that opens up for national variation.

The European Union (EU) is committed to conserving biodiversity, both in terms of natural and cultural legacies, and also to limiting biodiversity loss. Relevant policies have underlined the importance of considering ecological and social issues, as well as the complex relations between the two spheres in conservation of biodiversity. These policies have clear implications for all sectors responsible for planning for biodiversity conservation. In order to be consistent with international legislation, it is necessary to move beyond protected areas and include biodiversity conservation considerations in planning activities of various sectors, and also to involve relevant stakeholders in the planning process. This is in line with the landscape approach to planning that has recently been advocated in research and practical planning. The landscape approach has a holistic perspective that encompasses both ecological and social considerations. This thesis focuses on the implementation of policies regarding biodiversity conservation and public participation; that is, the ecological and social dimensions of spatial planning in landscapes. In particular, I examine the role of people, such as planners implementing policies and other stakeholders who might influence biodiversity conservation. The studies within this thesis concern Poland and Sweden, and three sectors: regional, road and forestry planning. The thesis is comprised of four papers. Paper I deals with planners working to implement biodiversity and public participation policies. Paper II concentrates on the issues of stakeholder involvement in the Environmental Impact Assessment of road planning. Paper III investigates a specific conflict that influenced the conservation of biodiversity in an important biodiversity hotspot. Paper IV is a conceptual paper that discusses the tools used to integrate ecological and social dimensions when implementing the European Landscape Convention. The studies included in this thesis reveal that successfully implementing biodiversity conservation and public participation policies may require more than just ecological knowledge about how biodiversity should be maintained, and more than just formal guidelines regarding how the public should be treated in the planning process. In addition, the role of people who may influence the planning and decision making processes is crucial. Accordingly, there is a need for two key developments. Firstly, planners and the general public should be properly educated about conservation-related issues. Secondly, various incentives should be introduced that influence the behaviour and, in the longer term, the attitudes of the people who may affect biodiversity.

The relationship between politicians and civil servants is ambiguous and potentially problematic in democratic terms. The aim of the thesis is to examine this relationship in the Swedish core executive, Regeringskansliet. More specifically, the analysis emphasises the respective role expectations of the two groups when interacting with each other. The thesis is based on two extensive qualitative interview studies with politicians and senior civil servants, one carried out in the early 1980's and one undertaken more recently. Hence it also offers an opportunity to analyse whether these expectations have changed or remained stable during the last decades. The findings reveal that the role expectations of politicians and civil servants to a high extent correspond, and have remained relatively stable over time. The relationship between politicians and civil servants is based on norms such as (conditional) trust, delegation and yet relatively close interaction. If so, politicians are unloaded by the civil service in order to handle their external responsibilities. Although relatively informal, a passive hierarchy of roles ensures the superiority of politicians and more specifically of the minister. Civil servants adapt to roles taken by politicians, although providing guidance to the politicians on how to behave in office. The division of labour is not based on the different tasks performed in the policy-making process. Instead, politicians assume responsibility for all actions and decisions – also those undertaken by the civil servants – within the ministries, while civil servants offer politicians protection and security. Taken together these results indicate that the institutionalised norms that surround the relationship between politicians and civil servants are highly powerful. Nevertheless, the thesis also reveals tendencies towards a departure from these norms, suggesting that this relationship is to some extent fragile and exposed to various attempts at reform.

The aim of the study is twofold. First, to provide a picture of what happens when groups of citizens cooperate with municipalities and administrations to produce services essential to the community, i.e., elderly care or road maintenance. Second, to compare this picture with the picture of citizens' involvement that the civil society theories describe. This is done by comparing four different cooperation projects. The empirical material has been gathered through four qualitative case studies – two elderly care cases and two road maintenance cases – and the analytical frame has been drawn mostly from organization theory, especially the resource dependence and the institutional perspectives. In the dissertation it is shown that in the projects with less complications the processes developed in a way that balanced, to some extent, the asymmetry in the dependence relation, i.e., the resources controlled by the groups became more interesting for the administrations and municipalities. These processes did also develop in a way that made it possible for the actors to come to an agreement of what problem the project was supposed to solve. These findings covariates with how interested the municipalities and the Road Administration organizations were to participate in the cooperation projects. It also covariates with the use of institutionalized cooperation forms. The short cut of an already defined and legitimated cooperation form implied that less transaction resources had to be invested in the cooperation itself – but as a result the actors did not communicate sufficiently and therefore did not develop a mutual understanding and trust. Another finding is that both the groups and the municipalities and administrations had pragmatic motives for their involvement in the cooperation projects, which led to an organizational form that was effective for the purpose of solving the identified problem with the elderly care/road maintenance, but not for the unintended consequences described by the civil society theories. As the group of citizens really involved was small, the consequences – greater solidarity and responsibility, and a decentralized democratic process, only comprised a few, mostly resourceful, citizens. Finally, the study shows that the groups' contributions to the democratic process were limited by their involvement in actually solving the problem in question, i.e., to build and run an elderly home or to work with the improvement of the roads. The findings suggests that the picture of citizens' involvement often put forward in the political debate in Sweden – as both a complement to the service provided by the public sector and a way to improve the democratic process – ought to be the subject of further research.

High hopes for democracy and sustainability are placed on participatory planning. Policy makers and scholars argue that broad participation can revitalise democracy and tackle sustainability challenges. Yet, critics claim that power asymmetries stand in the way of realising the potential of participatory planning. In the everyday practices of planning, this controversy comes to a head. Here, planners interact with citizens, politicians and developers around making choices about places and societies. Planners' practices are contested and they are challenged by the complexity of power relations. They need conceptual tools to critically reflect on what power is and when it is legitimate. Reflective practice is a prerequisite for making situated judgements under conditions of contestation. Yet, the planning theories, which are most influential in practice, have not been developed with the intention of conceptualising power. Rational planning theory, which still is influential in practice, largely reduces planning into a technical power-free activity. Communicative planning theory, which underpins participatory practices, instead suggests that expert power ought to be complemented by inclusive dialogue. This theory criticises hierarchical power relations as domination, without providing elaborated understanding of other facets of power. Hence, the conceptual support for reflective practice is too reductive. The aim of this thesis is to rethink power in participatory planning by developing concepts that can enable reflective practice. I draw on power theory and explore the utility of treating power as a family resemblance concept in participatory planning. Applying this plural view, I develop a family of power concepts, which signifies different ideas of what power is. The usefulness of this "power family" is tested through frame analysis of communicative planning theory and Swedish participatory planning policy and practice. The result of the research is a family of power concepts that can enable reflective practice. 'Power to' signifies a dispositional ability to act, which planning actors derive from social order. This ability can be exercised as consensual 'power with' or as conflictual 'power over'. The latter is conceptualised as an empirical process which, on a basic level, can be normatively appraised as illegitimate or legitimate. This thesis contributes to planning theory and environmental communication by problematising reductive notions of power and, as an alternative, rethinking power as a family resemblance concept. This theoretical contribution matters to planning practice as it can enable planners to develop their ability to be sensitive to what a situation requires, i.e. to acquire practical wisdom (phronesis).

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.

This book highlights the diverse roles of the humanities in the history of the Swedish welfare society. This society has often been seen as dominated by an instrumental view of knowledge that rewarded the social sciences, natural sciences and technology, but the contributions in this book show the significant role that the humanities played in the Swedish welfare state. Various forms of humanistic knowledge and knowledge actors were part of large networks and left a clear mark on the public sphere and society at large. A narrative of the marginalization and crisis of the humanities in the postwar period must therefore be problematized. This edited volume brings together some twenty scholars from a number of humanities disciplines (history, history of ideas, media history, literary studies, archaeology, education, etc.). Much of the current research on the history of the humanities conducted in Sweden today is brought together here and put in relation to international discussions in fields such as history of humanities, history of knowledge, etc. The book is a sibling to the monograph Humanister i offentligheten, which was published in 2022.

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe and analyze how the Soviet Union attempted to win the sympathies of the Swedish population during the period 1945-1958 through the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS) and the Sweden-Soviet Union Societies. The dissertation includes the central Soviet decision-making apparatus' general formulation of strategy and what means were to be used to win the sympathies of populations in other countries. Concerning VOKS's work targeting Sweden, this dissertation examines the general strategies and means used in practice. This dissertation links these activities with realism which serves as an analytical framework. Realism focuses states seeking their security in the international system. Security is considered achievable through strategies for using different means of force, in this case, diplomacy and its sub-instruments in the form of soft power and public diplomacy. Immediately after World War II, VOKS was seen by the Soviets as a tool for countering American and British propaganda. VOKS's reorganization in the early 1950s led to more country-specific activities. Increasingly in the 1950s VOKS sought out partners from outside organizations associated with national communist parties. This strategy aimed to optimally convey the message and to popularize the Soviet Union. This also led to a decline in VOKS's importance. VOKS during the period 1945-1958 can be viewed as a collaborative project between the state and the party. The Soviet Union, through VOKS, used the Sweden-USSR Society to popularize the country among the Swedish public. VOKS took increasingly greater control over the societies' activities, which were reviewed and approved by the Soviet Embassy in Stockholm and VOKS in Moscow. To develop these societies, VOKS increased its efforts to influence the Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) to take part in the societies' activities. At the suggestion of VOKS in Moscow, the local Sweden-USSR societies formed a national organization in the autumn of 1950 called the Sweden-Soviet Union Federation. After 1953, VOKS's interest intensified in implementing and developing cultural collaborations with other actors in addition to the societies. Near the end of VOKS's existence, representatives from the Soviet Embassy and VOKS tried to establish an intergovernmental cultural agreement with Sweden. However, no such agreement was ever signed. The Soviet Union continued to channel most of its public diplomacy toward Sweden through the societies.

In this volume of studies, Animal: Moments of Affect, Moments of Pain, eight ethnologists apply a cultural perspective to people's varied and complex relationships with other species. The contributions focus on wild animals, that is, those that are rarely found in the authors' immediate vicinity. Based on ongoing research, the articles discuss themes such as conflicts and joys in the birdwatching world, charismatic animals in various exhibition contexts, children's fears, morbid animal jokes and the ritual transformation of living animals into edible meat. The texts range from the tender, comical and cute to death and existential vulnerability. The book begins with the editors presenting an overview of how animals have been produced, noticed and studied in a mostly Nordic humanistic research context. Then the articles follow. Based on the idea of affective logic, Elin Lundquist follows the on-site monitoring of the bird hunting that takes place annually in Malta. Mattias Frihammar uses observations at a wilderness gallery with taxidermied animals to reflect on local identity. Lars Kaijser examines the ambivalent and conflicted portrayal of sharks in public aquariums. Sverker Hyltén-Cavallius writes about the death of extinct animals and how this is displayed in natural history museums. Susanne Nylund Skog examines birdwatchers' stories as an expression of collecting and as a way of manifesting status. With lobster cartoons as a starting point, Simon Ekström shows how these depict both animal rights issues and human anxiety. Helena Hörnfeldt investigates animal fear and the diffuse boundary between humans and animals. Proceeding from different depictions of slaughter and the preparation of meat, Michelle Zethson problematizes how some animals are made edible. The volume ends with an epilogue by the editors commenting on the findings.

The question under investigation in this dissertation is whether the management- and market-oriented reforms of public institutions in Sweden of the 1980s and 1990s have affected municipal politics in the direction of more or less conflict. The analysis takes its point of departure from Arend Lijphart's model of majoritarian versus consensus democracy. Majoritarian democracy refers to a form of democracy in which the central role of electing decision-makers and holding them accountable is emphasized. Majoritarian democracy therefore underlines the importance of conflict in politics. Consensus democracy refers to a form of democracy in which the importance of representing the preferences of political minorities, not only those of the majority, is emphasized. Consensus democracy therefore underlines the concern for consensus between political actors. In this study, four municipalities with different political majorities and reform ambitions within the county of Stockholm were chosen for comparative analysis . The study shows that the reforms in all likelihood have affected the political work in a more majoritarian direction. This applies in particular to the efforts of introducing new forms of management. The political relations have become more conflict-oriented and more coordinated or centralized within each political party and between the parties of a leftist and rightist orientation respectively. The political relations within the municipal committees have also become more conflict oriented, primarily by a more public and pronounced expression of divergent views. These results clearly strengthens the argument in Swedish debate that municipal politics is increasingly becoming more similar to national politics, where it is only the political parties in parliamentary majority that governs public administration. The results of this investigation therefore have implications on the organization of municipal politics in Sweden, as it is currently based on a more consensual form of democracy.