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Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has emerged as a promising climate change mitigation mechanism in developing countries. This article examines the national political context in 13 REDD+ countries in order to identify the enabling conditions for achieving progress with the implementation of countries' REDD+ policies and measures. The analysis builds on a qualitative comparative analysis of various countries' progress with REDD+ conducted in 12 REDD+ countries in 2012, which highlighted the importance of factors such as already initiated policy change, and the presence of coalitions calling for broader policy change. A follow-up survey in 2014 was considered timely because the REDD+ policy arena, at the international and country levels, is highly dynamic and undergoes constant evolution, which affects progress with REDD+ policy-making and implementation. Furthermore, we will now examine whether the 'promise' of performance-based funds has played a role in enabling the establishment of REDD+. The results show a set of enabling conditions and characteristics of the policy process under which REDD+ policies can be established. The study finds that the existence of broader policy change, and availability of performance-based funding in combination with strong national ownership of the REDD+ policy process, may help guide other countries seeking to formulate REDD+ policies that are likely to deliver efficient, effective and equitable outcomes.Policy relevance Tropical forest countries struggle with the design and implementation of coherent policies and measures to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Evidence on which factors and configurations are crucial to make progress towards these challenging policy objectives will be helpful for decision makers and practitioners at all levels involved in REDD+. Key findings highlight the importance of already initiated policy change, and the availability of performance-based funding in combination with strong national ownership of the REDD+ process. These findings provide guidance to REDD+ countries as to which enabling conditions need to be strengthened to facilitate effective, efficient and equitable REDD+ policy formulation and implementation.

The current situation in the field of education demands teachers who are capable of functioning in new learning scenarios where the possibilities offered by ICT for information acquisition and communication processes are enormous. In this sense, it is necessary to have postgraduate programs that contribute to the development of digital skills in teachers. The main purpose of this work is to propose the curricular design for a Master's program in Education, Mention in Management of Learning Mediated by ICT, offered by Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo in Ecuador. For this, a qualitative research was undertaken in order to characterize and determine the most important features of each module of the curriculum. A documentary research design was applied through the PICOC method (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Context). The result of this work was a curricular mesh that consists of 12 study modules wherein aspects such as: digital literacy for the new society were addressed; didactics in new digital environments; the design and development of content and digital resources for learning; new ways of learning and innovating in education; as well as research in educational technology.

The first decade of the 21st century has brought with it two important breakthroughs in the study of comparative politics. The first one concerns the availability of data. Nowadays, access to a wide range of information sources for a large number of countries in the world can be gained without too much effort. The second one concerns the methodological achievements made in recent years. Today, sophisticated multi-level analyses can be conducted fairly easily. Among qualitatively oriented researchers, Charles Ragin has made a significant contribution by introducing the fs/QCA-technique into the field of political science. However, the growing amount of data & the new methods not only open up new possibilities for the researcher. The present article explicitly deals with the problems related to the use of multi-level analyses & fs/QCA in comparative political research. In addition, attention is drawn to the drawbacks of using survey data from heterogeneous settings. Adapted from the source document.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a widely debated concept among academics, practitioners and non-practitioners. By definition, CSR concerns the economic, legal, political, environmental and social responsibilities of a business to its stakeholders and society at large. The conventional view of the role of business in society is to act as a market place and make a profit, in a space where demand meets supply. However, extending the role of CSR to include ethical responsibilities often raises questions of why and how? In this thesis, a qualitative research design was used to examine how businesses, more specifically Swedish food retailers, approach their extended responsibilities in society. The analysis focused in particular on collaborations between retail food businesses and other actors. Food retailers hold a key position in forming a link between producers and consumers in the value chain. They are socially and economically tied to a number of problems facing consumers on local level and in the wider global community, such as climate change, food security and public health. Such problems are often complex and based on value conflicts among various stakeholders, and therefore cannot be resolved in isolation. In conditions of social connectedness, responsibility lies with all actors, with businesses considered to have a privileged position in terms of their negotiating power and ability for collective action. The food retail sector is therefore an interesting empirical setting for studying CSR. In four empirical studies, different CSR activities in Swedish food retailers' approaches to taking responsibility for social, environmental or political issues linked directly or indirectly linked to their operations were scrutinised. These activities included different forms of stakeholder engagement, such as partnership, dialogue or multi-stakeholder initiatives. The results indicated that through CSR, food retailers in collaboration with other actors can co-create value and proactively engage in driving (social) change. Responsibility can thus be viewed as the shared objective of collaborations between businesses, organisations and society at large, rather than being attributable to a single actor.

Smallholder farmers are defined as key actors in the implementation of Agenda 2030, based on their importance for food security and poverty reduction, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is also true for South Africa, where smallholder farming has attracted considerable policy attention in an attempt to break the trend of rural poverty and the legacy of the apartheid era. One issue of concern is the long-term decline in arable production in fields, reflecting a wider trend of de-agrarianisation among peasantries and smallholders all over the world. In South Africa this withdrawal from field cultivation is compensated to an extent by intensification in garden cultivation. This thesis explores how smallholders perceive the role of these two different crop cultivation practices in their daily lives. The empirical data were collected during an ethnographic field study in rural South Africa in early 2020 using a variety of qualitative research methods. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of lifeworld and system world together with perspectives of livelihoods, the study shows that household agricultural production is being downscaled, with most households prioritising the continuation of garden cultivation. Garden cultivation draws upon capabilities that most households can access and is viewed as a taken-for-granted activity within the lifeworld of smallholders. Field cultivation emerges as a deliberate choice made by households who are able to access sufficient family labour and financial capital. Furthermore, arable production in fields is based on long-term experience of government involvement, resulting in a commonly shared view that a government presence in field farming is something to be expected even today. It would appear that this commonly shared view enables agricultural projects and certified seeds to be introduced that are disembedded from smallholders' local conditions, mirroring a policy belief in a New Green Revolution for Africa. This finding suggests that garden cultivation can serve as an example of crop cultivation that is attuned to local conditions, indicating the direction smallholders could take if they are to fulfil their role as promoters of sustainable development in line with Agenda 2030.

Policymakers and natural resource managers are increasingly recognizing the importance of broader geographic and gender participation in assessing climate vulnerability and developing effective adaptation policies. When such participation is limited, climate mitigation and adaptation polices may miss key opportunities to support vulnerable communities, and thus inadvertently reinforce the vulnerability of marginalized groups. This paper reports rich qualitative data from women leaders in conservation, development and climate adaptation projects to support local communities across seven Pacific Island nations. The results indicate the following priorities to support climate adaptation policies in the Pacific: (1) increased recognition for the importance of traditional knowledge; (2) greater support for local women's groups, including strategic planning and training to access climate finance mechanisms; and (3) climate policies that consider alternative metrics for women's empowerment and inclusion, formalize women's land rights, and provide land for climate refugees. Existing evidence is discussed which supports the importance of these priorities in the Pacific. Their input identifies research gaps in climate adaptation and provides important guidance for governments, non-governmental organizations, and development agencies leading climate adaptation efforts.

One third of all food produced for human consumption globally is lost or wasted, making food waste a major problem from both an economic, social and environmental perspective. One way of preventing food waste is through legislation. In Sweden, food inspectors have been recommended to work according to the general rules of consideration (GRC) in the Swedish Environmental Code to reduce food waste. However, there is a lack of published information on whether the GRC are applied to reduce food waste at present, and, if so, how this works in practice. Moreover, the lack of a common standard for food waste quantification is a problem recognized by researchers. Thus, the present study aimed to examine whether and how the GRC are or can be applied to prevent food waste. More specifically, the goal was to investigate the attitude of municipal supervisory authorities and other relevant actors towards applying the GRC in food control, and to identify opportunities and / or obstacles to this. This is expected to contribute with knowledge that in the long term can generate supervisory approaches for reduced food waste. A qualitative research method was used including self-administered questionnaires. Answers were obtained from 11 municipalities and six additional actors including courts, national authorities and a private law firm. After a thematic analysis of the data, this was sorted to describe 1) The current situation in municipal supervision / the current application of the GRC according to other actors 2) The attitude towards applying the GRC in supervision for food waste reduction 3) The attitude towards suggested supervisory practices for reducing food wastage. The results showed that most of the actors surveyed did not apply the GRC to food waste currently, and none of them had issued injunctions to prevent food waste. Nevertheless, it was found that applying the GRC to food control could be possible, according to some practical experience in the field and the majority of the respondents' attitudes. No apparent unsolvable obstacles were identified. How the application of the GRC to food waste would work in practice remains to be solved, though. Consequently, the link between the current situation, the attitudes towards applying the GRC in food control as well as the attitudes towards suggested supervisory practices, was found to be ambiguous. Legal contradictions justify the need for further research, which could pursue the development of a supervisory approach for food waste prevention. ; En tredjedel av all mat som produceras globalt går förlorad eller slösas bort, vilket gör matsvinn till ett omfattande problem ur både ett ekonomiskt, socialt och miljömässigt perspektiv. Ett sätt att förebygga matsvinn är genom lagstiftning. I Sverige har livsmedelsinspektörer rekommenderats att arbeta enligt de allmänna hänsynsreglerna i miljöbalken för att minska matsvinnet. Det saknas emellertid publicerad information om huruvida hänsynsreglerna används för att minska matsvinn för närvarande, och hur detta i så fall fungerar i praktiken. Dessutom är avsaknaden av en gemensam standard för kvantifiering av matsvinn ett problem enligt forskare. Den aktuella studien syftade således till att undersöka om och hur miljöbalkens hänsynsregler tillämpas eller kan tillämpas för att förebygga matsvinn. Mer specifikt var målet att undersöka de kommunala tillsynsmyndigheternas och andra relevanta aktörers inställning till att tillämpa hänsynsreglerna i livsmedelskontroll och att identifiera möjligheter och / eller hinder för detta. Detta förväntas bidra med kunskap som på lång sikt kan generera tillsynsstrategier för minskat matsvinn. En kvalitativ forskningsmetod användes med självadministrerade frågeformulär. Svar erhölls från 11 kommuner och sex ytterligare aktörer, såsom domstolar, nationella myndigheter samt en privat juristbyrå. Efter en tematisk analys av den insamlade datan sorterades denna för att beskriva 1) Den aktuella situationen i kommunal tillsyn / den aktuella tillämpningen av hänsynsreglerna enligt andra aktörer 2) Inställningen till att tillämpa miljöbalkens hänsynsregler i tillsyn för att förebygga matsvinn 3) Attityden gentemot föreslagna tillsynspraxis för att förebygga matsvinn. Resultaten visade att majoriteten av de undersökta aktörerna inte tillämpade hänsynsreglerna på matsvinn för närvarande, och att ingen hade skrivit förelägganden för att förebygga matsvinn. Praktiska erfarenheter inom området samt majoriteten av respondenternas attityder avslöjade dock att det skulle kunna vara möjligt att tillämpa hänsynsreglerna mot matsvinn inom livsmedelskontroll. Inga uppenbart olösliga hinder identifierades. Hur tillämpningen av hänsynsreglerna på matsvinn skulle gå till i praktiken återstår dock att lösa. Följaktligen kunde det konstateras att kopplingen mellan den nuvarande situationen, respondenternas inställning till att tillämpa hänsynsreglerna i livsmedelskontrollen samt attityderna gentemot föreslagna tillsynspraxis var tvetydig. Juridiska motsättningar motiverar behovet av ytterligare forskning, som kan driva utvecklingen av en tillsynsstrategi för förebyggande av matsvinn.

The Canadian federal government has introduced policy to phase out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030, as part of its climate change mitigation commitments under the Paris Agreement. The policy plan, positioned as a just transition, includes funding and measures to help workers and communities manage economic difficulties arising from the coal phaseout. Sustainability transitions, however, are rarely a purely economic process, as changes in demographics, values, norms and meanings may also ensue. Understanding this process as one of symbolic coping, wherein coal communities must socially come to terms with the phaseout and the resulting threat to their identities, adds another dimension to the just transition concept. This study aimed to better understand the social-psychological processes of sense-making in sustainability transitions, by investigating how coal communities are understanding and coping with the coal phaseout, and how social representations of the coal industry are transforming as a result. Social representations theory (SRT) was the main conceptual framework used, as it explores group-level common-sense understandings, which can be useful in analyzing processes of disruption or transition. Through qualitative case study research in two coal producing communities in Saskatchewan, one of four Canadian provinces affected by the coal phaseout, I explored the dynamics of the social representation of the local coal industry. Using the central core approach to SRT, I identified a core element based in shared history, stability and prosperity, which seemed to provide a foundation for making sense of the coal phaseout policy. From this foundation, I found two models of social representation transformation, resisting and progressive, implicating a split in the social representation of community life after coal. With this theoretical application, I explored social implications of the Canadian coal phaseout, illustrated a model of social representation transformation, and demonstrated a framework that can be applied to transition research in other contexts. I also discussed potential governance implications for designing just transition policies.

Ecological challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss lead to a need for change, but the radical changes that are required seem not to come about. One hot issue debated is who has the power and responsibility to change. This discussion has many different dimensions (e.g., between countries, or technological fixes vs radical system change) but here I base my study on the discussion of agency or structure. To put it simply, do we need to focus on structural political changes or rather on the level of the individuals and their consumerist lifestyles. This thesis aims to contribute to this debate by providing a better understanding of the (im)possibilities of individual lifestyle changes in a society that is largely organized to accommodate consumerist lifestyles. It does so by focusing on the example of Voluntary Simplicity, a lifestyle movement that advocates for a post-consumerist lifestyle. With the help of practice theory, which is especially fit to analyze everyday practices and change, and a qualitative interview study with seven voluntary simplifiers living in Sweden, I answer the following research questions: What are the motivations and drivers for having a voluntary simplicity lifestyle?, what are the challenges and obstacles that voluntary simplifiers need to overcome?, and does life, in consequence, get more complicated by striving for a "simpler" life because it is against the grain of society? The analysis demonstrates a motivation among the simplifiers to live sustainably and to reduce material possessions, working hours and stress. Impediments include the struggle of wanting to be part of a community but at the same time being different from the mainstream society, inflexible work structures and time and labor-intensive activities such as self-sufficiency. The question if life got simpler could not satisfactorily be answered and is connected to considerations on what life is about. In the discussion, I argue to consider social norms and values because they seem to exacerbate change both for politics and individuals. Future avenues for study could be based on participatory observation, autoethnography or doing research in non-capitalist-consumerist societies. This study is relevant because it opened up and contributed to the debate about change by acknowledging the entanglement of social structures and individuals.

Roses and other cut flowers from Kenya can be found in innumerable European and Asian supermarkets, floristry shops and online mail-order firms. The importance of the floricultural sector is fundamental for the Kenyan economy. However, during the last two decades, international media and scientific reports have pointed out the problematic working conditions and negative environmental impacts of the industry. In response, at the beginning of the 21st century, the international Fairtrade initiative came into the picture to improve the problematic production impacts of the sector. The Fairtrade initiative has a broadly positive reputation and quantitative data show an improvement in production manners. Nevertheless, it remains unclear if and how Fairtrade is perceived and experienced by ordinary workers on a subjective level. This study examines whether Fairtrade initiatives are an attainment for general workers or if they are considered as more of a top-down development approach. Through a qualitative, phenomenological inspired research design, a comparison of working conditions on a Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade cut flower farm is done on a local micro level. Results show that the Fairtrade initiative on the examined farm is perceived and experienced as rather negative and inhuman while, on the contrary, workers on the non-Fairtrade farm reported their conditions as positive in comparison. Also, the empirical data shows that this specific Fairtrade farm might not be an individual case in Kenya. Due to weak compliance with international Fairtrade standards and national legislation, workers and worker's unions point out lacks in the Fairtrade system in the cut flower business in general. Therefore, starting from this study's results on worker's subjective negative experience of their working conditions, a broader, mixed method study on a meta level is required. Meanwhile, the Fairtrade initiative should re-evaluate its standards and inspection systems to prevent the dilution of its own standards and reputation.

This thesis studies political elites' beliefs about the ideal party leader. This ideal, like other human ideals, is characterized by ambivalence. The thesis explores the ambivalence expressed in party elites' leadership ideal and how it can be understood. The study draws primarily on qualitative interviews with members of the party elites in the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in Sweden. Specifically, it analyzes the "life world" of the party leaders, party secretaries, group leaders in the Swedish Parliament, and election committee chairmen. Building on classical and modern research on leadership and political parties, the thesis derives an analytical tool to guide the interviews which covers six aspects of party leadership: Characteristics, Leadership style, Tasks, Freedom of action, Representation, and Status. The empirical analysis shows that the elites' party leadership ideal is ambivalent and different across the two parties. The ambiguities can be summarized as dichotomies, where the ideal leader should encompass both sides of the dichotomy. The Social Democratic Party elites' ideal is represented by two dichotomies: the leader versus the team and the party versus the government. To bridge the ambiguities, the elite resort to the idea of "anchoring". This notion resolves conflicts between the leader and the surrounding team and the party and the government. The ideal of the Liberal Party's elites includes four dichotomies: dogmatism versus pragmatism; idea versus person; appearance (outward-looking) versus action (inward-looking); and free versus constrained. Unlike the case of the Social Democratic Party, it is less evident how the Liberal Party's elites accommodate the ambiguities. However, an emphasis on accountability and maintaining a balance between existing conflicts, partially remedies the dilemma. Also, the idea of leadership within the Liberal Party is less problematic compared to the Social Democratic Party. In sum, while the Social Democrats' ideal resembles the "friendly father figure", the Liberals' ideal is portrayed by the "superficial intellectual". The findings also indicate that the way in which the parties were established, their experience of being in government, size, ideology, and position within the party system affect their beliefs about leadership ideals.

This study deals with the issue of democratization in Latin America during the 20th century, and in particular the role of the left in this process. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the role of the left as a political actor in the process of democratization toward the deepening of the democratic rule in Latin America. The research questions are: what role did the left have in the transitions to electoral democracies during the 20th century in Latin America? Why did the left have the role it had in the transitions? How does the left's view of democracy affect the transition to electoral democracy, and the further democratization to deepen democratic rule? What structural constraints affect the left's ability to deepen democratic rule? A comparative qualitative method and different theoretical concepts of democracy, democratization, elite perspective, mobilization and organizations have been used, and examples from different Latin American cases are given. One empirical conclusion is that the role of the left in the transitions to electoral democracies varies from participation with active left leaders, collective left actions, to not have any significant role at all. A second empirical conclusion is that in cases where left wing governments have tried to enforce a model of participatory democracy, the result has been " coup d'état" or rebellions conducted by military forces and supported by the economic elite and the United States of America. In other cases when left parties in government instead have remained within the framework of an elite democracy, the result has rather been stabilization of the liberal democratic rule. The main theoretical conclusions are as follows: the theoretical discussion about democratic consolidation and the deepening of democracy have to consider that different actors' (in this study the left) preferences for various models of democracy differ; the actors' view of democracy matter in the game of democratic development and democratic consolidation; and the relations between the elite actors' preferences for different models of democracy determine the outcome of a specific form of democratic model (in this study electoral democracy, liberal democracy or participatory democracy).

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.

A current challenge that Sweden is handling is the amount of food loss and food waste. One way to reuse food waste efficiently is to convert it to feed for insects. Studies have shown that insects such as black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) and yellow mealworms (Tenebrio militor) are the most promising insects to be used as feed, since they can be provided food waste. Furthermore, these insects have a high protein and amino acid content, which can compete with conventional feed. However, one challenge is the legislation, which does not allow food waste to be given to production animals, including insects. This study aimed to identify factors that affect the development of using insects as feed in poultry and pig production in Sweden. A flexible research design was used in this study, where both qualitative and quantitative data were used. An exploratory case study as a method with an abductive approach was furthermore the method choice of this study. The data gathering consisted essentially of semi-structured interviews and, secondarily, a survey. The survey was carried to collect hints of attitudes and opinions about insects as feed among potential consumers. The results showed that most of the respondents from the interviews were optimistic about transforming insects into a feed. It can possibly reduce the environmental impact connected to soy and fishmeal. The insects, black soldier fly and yellow mealworm were considered to take waste managers' role. Still, caution should be taken as to which substrate to use as feed for the insects. There were also split opinions between researchers about whether the black soldier fly or yellow mealworm is the best option for being transformed into a feed. There are concerns about using black soldier fly because it is not a domestic species. Furthermore, yellow mealworms might not be viewed as waste managers depending on how food waste is defined. Other concerns are that it will be challenging to identify and eliminate virus outbreaks from a circular system. Therefore, an essential characteristic of insects is that they function as a species barrier. The results made it clear that feed is rarely discussed in politics. Interest is required from politicians for this to end up on the political agenda. Furthermore, a large-scale production with an automated system is needed to lower the cost. The conclusions from this study are that stakeholders are optimistic about insects as feed. Environmental and social benefits, such as reduced food waste and insects' being a species barrier. Previous studies and our study show that it is mainly preferred to provide insects as feed for fish and poultry as they are part of their natural diet. Since population growth and increased prosperity are on the horizon, and poultry is prospected to be highly demanded, it can be beneficial to invest in poultry production to release pressure on future generations.