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Today we are all photographers. Self-portraits are everywhere and snapshots of our lives are circulated and shared frenetically on various social media networks. Distinctions are blurred, not only between the private and public spheres but also between professional and amateur photographic practices. This calls for increased knowledge about the performative characteristics of digitised and networked visual communication. What are the limits of automation and what is the potential of virtuality? 'Auto' investigates how the everyday digital photography of our times challenges notions of autobiography, interactivity, and democracy.0

The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women's political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women's political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation. The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world's parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women's political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women's political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002. The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.

[The problem of representation and bureaucracy. Minority administrators' practices of advocacy in public organizations]The issue of (un)equal representation and the politics of presence in political organizations is central to democratic legitimacy. The theory of representative bureaucracy suggests that the diversity in public organizations reinsures that the interests of different groups are represented in decision-making and implementation processes. The purpose of Nazem Tahvilzadeh's article is to enhance the understanding of if and how senior-level public administrators with ethnic minority background advocate groups whom they identify with. Advocacy is defined as the intention to benefit a certain group in order to improve their living conditions. The empirical material consists of 52 qualitative interviews in five Swedish municipalities, public documents and other written sources. The focus is on the narratives of 12 public administrators about their work and the issue of advocacy. The results show that advocacy does occur in public organizations and that it can be categorized in seven different practices targeting individuals or policy issues. The study actualizes the importance of representative public administration as a central quality of representative government.Publication history: Published original.(Published 2 December 2015)Citation: Tahvilzadeh, Nazem (2015) "Till frågan om representation och byråkratin. Minoritetsadministratörers företrädarpraktiker i offentliga organisationer", in Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, issue 4, pp. 121–149. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.4.4 ; Frågan om (o)jämlik representation och närvarons politik i politiska organisationer är central för demokratins legitimitet. Teorin om en representativ byråkrati föreslår att mångfalden i den offentliga förvaltningen tillser att olika gruppers intressen representeras i respektive organisationers beslut och verksamhet. Syftet med Nazem Tahvilzadehs artikel är att öka förståelsen för om och i så fall hur tjänstepersoner med minoritetsetnisk bakgrund i ledande befattningar företräder grupper som de identifierar sig med. Företrädarskap definieras som ett medvetet handlande att gynna en viss grupps levnadsvillkor. Det empiriska materialet består av 52 kvalitativa intervjuer i fem svenska kommuner, offentliga dokument och andra textkällor. I fokus står 12 offentliga tjänstepersoners berättelser om deras arbete och företrädarskap. Resultaten visar att företrädarskap förekommer i offentliga organisationer och att detta kan kategoriseras i sju olika praktiker inriktat gentemot enskilda individer eller gentemot policynivå. Studien aktualiserar betydelsen av representativitet i offentlig förvaltning för representativa styrelseskicks kvalitet.Publiceringshistorik: Originalpublicering.(Publicerad 2 december 2015)Förslag på källangivelse: Tahvilzadeh, Nazem (2015) "Till frågan om representation och byråkratin. Minoritetsadministratörers företrädarpraktiker i offentliga organisationer", i Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, nr 4, s. 121–149. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.4.4