Linnaeus University
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Democratic Consolidation and Political Instability in West Africa: : A comparative case study between Ghana and Nigeria
No full textThe study examines the democratic divergent trajectories of two West African countries, Ghana and Nigeria, since the third wave of democratization to identify the political and institutional factors behind the divergent democratic consolidation and instability. This study aims to comprehend how variations in leadership, political parties, and civil society can explain why Ghana has achieved democratic stability while Nigeria remains in political instability by drawing on Daniel Silande’s theory of regime typology with a focus on the three dimensions of leadership, political parties, and civil society. The study applied a qualitative comparative case study using Most Similar System Design (MSSD) and process tracing to analyze the democratic development of the two countries over time since the Fourth Republic. The findings reveal that Ghana’s success is rooted in the strong leadership’s commitment to the constitutional norms, with a stable two-party system and an independent civil society, which has led to their democratic consolidation. In contrast, Nigeria's democratic instability is driven by neopatrimonial leadership with the influence of ‘godfathers,’ a fragile political party structure with state repression of civil society, and public dissatisfaction. The study concludes that democratic consolidation requires more than just an election; it requires respect for democratic institutions with a strong constitutional commitment among all political actors.
When the river disappears : emotional attachments and heritage-making in a changing landscape
No full textThis study offers a better understanding of how post-mining communities emotionally connect to local places they lost and how emotions guide everyday heritage making related to those places' past, present, and future. Our empirical case focuses on the disappearance of the Szto & lstrok;a, a small river in Bukowno, located in the Ma & lstrok;opolska region of Poland. Using place attachment theory, everyday heritage and solastalgia as an integrated analytical lens, we draw on interviews and analysis of social media. We find that grief, nostalgia, and hope are central to how people experience and narrate place loss. Nostalgia for childhood memories and riverside leisure reinforces attachments, while grief over the river's loss materializes in collective mourning rituals that sustain its presence in local memory. At the same time, hope and uncertainty animate future imaginaries, revealing heritage as not only preservation of the past but also emotional investment in what might emerge. Our findings advance the understanding of emotional engagements as active forces in heritage-making, particularly within disrupted landscapes. We argue that environmental policies must move beyond material preservation to recognize emotional attachments as critical for navigating environmental change. Incorporating these dimensions into participatory landscape planning can support more inclusive, future-oriented responses to environmental change
Exploring Vocabulary Learning in EFL Textbooks : A comparative content analysis of exercises in EFL textbooks used in Sweden and Germany
No full textVocabulary is a fundamental component of language learning and plays a crucial role in learners’ ability to communicate effectively. In EFL classrooms, vocabulary is commonly introduced through teacher instruction and textbook-based activities. However, research suggests that vocabulary can be acquired in different ways, and there is ongoing uncertainty regarding which instructional approaches are most effective. This study investigates which aspects of vocabulary learning are emphasized in exercises found in four EFL textbooks used in Sweden and Germany. By using a deductive content analysis, the study applied an analytical framework consisting of learning strands, word-knowledge aspects, and the distinction between incidental and intentional vocabulary learning to one unit from each textbook. The results showed that meaning-focused output was the most dominant learning strand in all four textbooks, and that word meaning was the most common targeted word-knowledge aspect. Incidental learning opportunities were more common than intentional ones in three of the four textbooks. Exercises targeting word form were limited overall, though more prominent in the German materials. These findings can be explained by the communicative approach visible in the syllabi from both countries, while also suggesting a lack of sufficient vocabulary instruction in textbooks, highlighting the need for supplemental intentional vocabulary instruction.
How Parenting Styles Shape Children’s Lifetime Outcomes
No full textThis study examines how parenting styles predict children’s lifetime outcomes. Using a Swedish dataset which combines rich survey information on parenting styles with administrative records tracking children over five decades, we find that authoritarian parenting is negatively associated with children’s long-term success, especially regarding their educational attainment. The results for other parenting styles are more mixed. Authoritarian parenting remains a robust predictor of adverse outcomes even when accounting for ability and family background. We identify children’s knowledge accumulation and parental educational expectations as key mechanisms explaining these results
Political participation under poor health : Evidence from Nordic Welfare States
No full textThe aim of this study is to explore a relatively underexamined dimension of political inequality: health. Drawing on the civic voluntarism model as a theoretical framework, the thesis examines how self- reported health relates to different forms of political participation, both electoral and non-electoral, within the context of Nordic welfare states. By analyzing several Nordic countries, the study investigates whether poor health functions as a constraint on political participation even in welfare state contexts, or whether comprehensive welfare systems might mitigate such effects. To address this research's aim, the thesis applies a quantitative approach and uses data from the European Social Survey, round 11 (2024), to conduct a series of binary logistic regression analyses. The results indicate that self-reported health is significantly associated with all forms of political participation examined in the study: voting in national elections, petition signing, and online political participation. Poorer health is associated with a lower likelihood of voting in national elections, while the opposite pattern is observed for petition signing and online participation. This finding highlights that health can shape political participation through different and sometimes contrasting mechanisms. Rather than exerting a consistent effect, health appears to function differently across participation forms, emphasizing the importance of analyzing multiple types of political engagement when studying political inequality. Although health is significantly related to the different forms of political participation, it explains only a limited part of the overall variation and should therefore be understood as one of several factors influencing participation rather than a dominant determinant. The findings suggest that welfare-state institutions may mitigate some of the political inequalities associated with poor health, while also pointing to the need for further research on the role of health in shaping political participation.
Public administration eats municipalities for breakfast : An analysis of how administrative expansion is presented in the bill for the new Social Services Act
No full textAdministrative expansion in the public sector is a recurring theme in the public administration policy debate, but administrative expansion is a hard term to define. This study is going to analyze how administrative expansion, and its consequences for municipal resources and public officials’ scope for action, is presented in the government's bill on a new Social Services Act. The study is a qualitative text analysis of Chapter 45 of the bill, which deals with the consequences of the legislative proposals. The analysis is inspired by the WPR method (What’s the Problem Represented to be?) and focuses on how administration is formulated as a problem, motivated and legitimized in the policy text. To interpret the government's motivations, New Public Management and Trust-based governance and management are used as theoretical frameworks. The results show that administrative expansion is rarely presented as a problem initself. Administration is constructed as a need or a solution, linked to goals of the bill which is preventive work, quality and a knowledge-based social service. When administrative measures are recognized as resource-intensive, these consequencesare mainly presented as temporary and manageable through long-term gains, state subsidies or through references to existing municipal responsibilities. The analysis further shows that the government's justifications are dominated by a New Public Management-inspired view, but that this is complemented by elements that can be understood in line with trust-based governance and management. Overall, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how administrative expansion is motivated in state governance of municipal social services
Parents' Perspectives of Child-Centred Care : A Qualitative Study With Parents After Paediatric Intensive Care Units Discharge
No full textBackground: Paediatric intensive care units (PICU) need to take measures to include the child and the parents in their care regarding the child's cognitive ability. Partnerships must be based on respect and understanding, starting from the child's perspective and collaborating with the child and parents towards a common care plan. Aim: This study aimed to explore parents' experience of partnership with the child and the healthcare team in a paediatric intensive care unit to develop child-centred care further. Study Design: A qualitative explorative design was adopted as the study aimed to explore parents' own experiences. Ten mothers and ten fathers participated. Data was collected via narrative interviews. Data was analysed using inductive content analysis. Findings: The Findings of this study uncovered one main category: Safety as a key component of partnership, three categories: Information transfer, Collaboration in the team, Challenges for partnerships. The main Finding of this study uncovers how the context and the child-centred approach are connected and intertwined. Safety is the foundation of partnership and trust; without it, true collaboration thus, partnership or child-centred care cannot exist. The data analysis resulted in eight subcategories, three categories and one main category. Conclusions: It is when the context enables parents to be safe and trust their relations to the care team that they dare to have their child as the focus of the family context, dare to be involved in their child's care and develop a reciprocal relationship between carers, children and parents. Relevance to Clinical Practise: The findings highlight the need to promote collaborative partnerships by inviting parents to engage in care activities, providing clear explanations of procedures, encouraging questions, and validating parental observations regarding the child
Between Fragility and Survival: The Mandaean Indigenous People and the Failure of Minority Protection in Iraq : A case study about a forgotten ancient minority
No full textThe Mandaean indigenous community of ancient Mesopotamia constitutes one of the world’s oldest surviving ethno-religious groups. In contemporary Iraq, however, the Mandaeans have become a scarcely visible minority within the territory that historically formed the core of their religious and cultural life. This thesis examines how the human rights and security of the Mandaean community have been affected since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and how these developments can be understood through the theoretical lens of Human Security. The study adopts a qualitative case study approach and draws on the Human Security framework, focusing on three interconnected dimensions: personal security, community security, and political security. This enables an analysis of insecurity not only in terms of direct violence, but also through institutional failure, social marginalisation, and threats to collective identity. The findings show that the Mandaean community has experienced severe and sustained insecurity since 2003. While the immediate post-invasion period was characterised by widespread violence, later years have seen a transformation rather than an end to insecurity. Ongoing threats, discrimination, and lack of effective state protection continue to undermine both individual safety and the community’s long-term survival. The analysis further demonstrates that political and institutional failures play a central role in enabling personal and community-level insecurity. By applying a Human Security perspective, this thesis contributes to a limited body of research on the Mandaean community and offers analytically transferable insights into the vulnerability of small, pacifist, and politically marginalised minorities in post-conflict societies
Institutional Paralysis in the UN Security Council : A Historical Institutional Analysis of US and Russian Veto Power
No full textThe Impact of Populism on Development Aid Policies in the European Union, with Focus on Hungary and Poland
No full textDespite extensive research on populism and foreign policy, limited attention has been paid to how right-wing populist governments reshape development cooperation within the institutional constraints of the European Union. Existing studies have focused mainly on aid volumes and allocation patterns, while less attention has been given to how development policy is framed, justified, and politically interpreted under populist rule. This thesis examines how right-wing populist governments in Hungary and Poland reinterpret development cooperation between 2015-2023. Using a qualitative comparative case study design, the thesis applies an interpretive policy analysis (IPA) approach. Narrative analysis serves as the main analytical tool, supported by discourse analysis, to examine policy documents, official statements, and development strategies. The findings show that in both countries development cooperation is increasingly framed as a policy instrument serving national priorities related to sovereignty, identity, and security, while remaining formally aligned with EU and OECD development frameworks. Hungary emphasizes civilizational and religious narratives, whereas Poland prioritizes regional security and historically grounded solidarity with Eastern Partnership countries. The analysis demonstrates that EU membership constrains open breaks with development norms, yet still allows substantial reinterpretation in practice. By comparing two populist governments operating within the same supranational framework, the thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of how populism in power reshapes development cooperation in the European Union.