Publikationer från Södertörns Högskola
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Normalizing Government Social Media Communication : A Swedish Case Analysis
No full textSocial media is transforming how political power is exercised through communication, functioning both as a critical resource and as a catalyst for institutional adaptation in executive government. This article examines how social media is integrated into government communication, distinguishing between two dimensions: structure and process. Drawing on a literature review and a case study of Sweden—based on interviews with government press secretaries/media advisers and analysis of official documents—we develop a theoretical logic in which resources act as a causal mechanism driving the normalization of social media. We conceptualize this process as operating through two pathways: adaptation to new communicative requirements and the combination of different media, here termed strategic complementarity. The findings show that social media has become an embedded element of government communication, steadily reshaping routines, professional roles, and the balance between traditional and digital channels. This study contributes to understanding how governments manage hybrid media environments and highlights the underexplored role of social media as a potential driver of power redistribution
A nickel for your land: Discourse, power and politics of the green transition in Sweden : A case study of the Rönnbäcken nickel mine project
No full textRecent years have seen growing policy emphasis on raw materials as a cornerstone of Europe’s climate-neutral ambitions. In Sweden, this dynamic is exemplified by the planned Rönnbäcken nickel mine in Storuman municipality, promoted as one of Europe’s largest untapped nickel deposits. Initially framed as a socioeconomic opportunity, the project has been rearticulated as central to Sweden’s green transition, especially as demand for battery metals intensifies. This reframing, however, has intensified contestation from Sámi communities, local resistance groups, and non-governmental organizations. They argue that extractive projects threaten ecological values and Indigenous rights and livelihoods, reproducing what is described as (green) colonialism. In this thesis, a discourse-theoretical approach drawing on the theories of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe is applied to investigate how the Rönnbäcken project is discursively constructed and contested as a part of the green transition. Particular attention is given to how “green transition” functions as a floating signifier. Findings show, on one hand, narratives that link mining to climate policy and European strategic autonomy, framing extraction as necessary, essential, and green. On the other hand, counter-narratives by Sámi groups and local/environmentalist resistance movements challenge this discourse. They frame the mining project as incompatible with Indigenous self-determination and ecological limits, thus challenging the very notion of the mine contributing to a green transition.
Energy Prices and Unemployment : Evidence from Sweden (2014-2024)
No full textIn recent years, European energy markets have seen dramatic price surges which raise concerns over their macroeconomic implications. This thesis investigates the relationship between energy prices and unemployment in Sweden between 2014 and 2024. Using monthly time series data collected from the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics and the Riksbank, this study estimates the effect of energy prices on unemployment using a standard OLS regression framework while controlling for underlying inflation, GDP and policy rate (by which we are referring to the interest rate set by the Swedish Riksbank). To ensure reliability, diagnostic tests in the form of ADF, Durbin-Watson, VIF, and Granger Causality tests are conducted. In order to address serial correlation, we employ Newey-West standard errors in our regression. The results reveal a statistically significant and positive relationship between energy prices and unemployment. The study also reveals a statistically significant relationship between underlying inflation, policy rates and unemployment. Overall, these findings suggest that supply-side price shocks may have a quantifiable effect on unemployment.
Autocracy and Immortality : Vladimir Putin and the Problem of Time
No full textThis article offers a new perspective on autocracy. We analyze how the autocrat iscompelled to confront time—and ultimately mortality—as a political problem. As aregime type, autocracy revisits one of the oldest questions in political life: the ques-tion of what makes the polity persist and stay identical with itself over time, in spiteof inevitable changes in its makeup with the passing of time. Since autocracy entailsa blurring of the distinction between the natural person of the ruler and the legal-political person of the state, the autocrat faces the challenge of embodying both con-tinuity and change in political life directly, physically, in a way reminiscent of theEuropean Middle Ages and early modernity. Considering the case of Vladimir Putin,we discuss the implications that follow for our understanding of autocracy. Mostnotably, this aspect of autocracy makes the mere prospect of the death of the rulerseem not only personally but also politically unacceptable. Autocracy, we argue,should therefore be understood as an essentially unfinished regime type, indefinitely suspended between the ruler’s claim to personally embody the body politic and the eventual, inevitable, demonstration of the unsustainability of that claim. We con-clude by discussing what it would take to actually bring autocracy to completion,which is nothing less than the immortality of the ruler
Inuti regelefterlevnadsgåtan : Finanstillsynsmyndigheters dilemman i arbetet mot penningtvätt
No full textThis thesis unpacks the empirical puzzle that banks suspected of involvement in money laundering may nevertheless be deemed compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations by supervisory agencies. To analyse this contradiction, I draw on legal endogeneity scholarship, which extends neo-institutional organization theory into the legal domain. Research in this vein holds that law becomes endogenous within organizations in a regulated field as actors interpret legal rules and embed those interpretations in organizational activities. Previous studies have focused on how interpretations managerially defined by regulated organizations become accepted as evidence of compliance. This thesis adds to that research by exploring the role of supervisory agencies in legal endogeneity. Understanding endogenous law as co-constructed by organizations within a socio-legal field, I ask: How do supervisory agencies co-construct AML regulation? To answer this question, I study the development of AML supervision of financial supervisory authorities (FSAs) in Denmark, Estonia, and Sweden. During the studied 1991–2021 period, these contexts were in a double sense marked by “Baltic money laundering cases”: first as immediate realities and later as mediatized scandals. Based on a thematic analysis of archival material and qualitative interviews, three distinct phases of AML supervision are identified, characterized by reactive, vulnerable, and proactive modes of organizing respectively. I show how these modes reflected the positioning of supervisory agencies within the socio-legal field. When AML was constructed as a peripheral regulatory concern, large banks were influential in shaping the meaning of compliance. As the scandals escalated, AML evolved into a high-stakes issue demanding legal authority and normative alignment from the FSAs, fostering a more traditional regulator–regulatee relationship. Meanwhile, AML regulation grew increasingly transnational, culminating in centralized supranational oversight that once again recast the role of the supervisory agencies as legal actors. Analysing this shifting institutional environment, this thesis offers three theoretical contributions: (1) legal endogeneity is not only a social order, but also a temporal process; (2) it is not merely a local concept, but also entails the transnationalization of regulation and the redistribution of legal authority; and (3) not only law, but also actors, become endogenously co-constructed within the socio-legal field. Denna avhandling belyser det empiriska mysteriet att banker misstänkta för inblandning i penningtvätt ändå kan bedömas följa reglerna mot penningtvätt (ett regelverk förkortat AML) vid inspektion av finanstillsynsmyndigheter. För att analysera denna motsägelse tillämpar jag begreppet juridisk endogenitet, som utvidgar nyinstitutionell organisationsteori till den juridiska domänen. Begreppet beskriver hur lagars innebörd formas inom organisationer genom att aktörer verksamma i ett reglerat fält tolkar regler och införlivar dessa tolkningar i den organisatoriska praktiken. Tidigare studier har främst fokuserat på hur de tolkningar som görs inom reglerade organisationer, ofta präglade av ledningens perspektiv, accepteras av rättssystemets aktörer som bevis på regelefterlevnad. Avhandlingen bidrar till denna forskning genom att undersöka tillsynsmyndigheters roll i juridisk endogenitet. Utifrån en förståelse av endogen reglering som konstruerad gemensamt av organisationer inom ett socio-rättsligt fält lyder forskningsfrågan: hur samkonstruerar tillsynsmyndigheter AML-reglering? För att besvara denna fråga studerar jag utvecklingen av finanstillsynsmyndigheters AML-tillsyn i Danmark, Estland och Sverige. Under den studerade perioden, 1991–2021, präglades dessa kontexter på två sätt av den så kallade baltiska penningtvätthärvan: först som praktisk realitet och senare som en serie mediala skandaler. Baserat på en tematisk analys av arkivmaterial och kvalitativa intervjuer identifieras tre distinkta faser av AML-tillsyn, kännetecknade av reaktiva, ”utsatta” respektive proaktiva organiseringsformer. Jag visar hur dessa former återspeglade tillsynsmyndigheternas positionering inom det socio-rättsliga fältet. När AML konstruerades som en perifer regleringsfråga kom storbankerna att påverka innebörden av regelefterlevnad. I samband med skandalernas offentliggörande utvecklades AML till ett högaktuellt problem som krävde rättslig auktoritet och normativ anpassning från de finansiella tillsynsmyndigheterna och därigenom främjade en mer traditionell relation mellan tillsynsmyndighet och tillsynsmottagare. Samtidigt blev det socio-rättsliga fältet för AML-reglering alltmer transnationellt, vilket kulminerade i en centraliserad överstatlig tillsyn som återigen omformade tillsynsmyndigheternas roll som rättsaktörer. Avhandlingen analyserar denna skiftande institutionella miljö och erbjuder tre teoretiska bidrag: 1) juridisk endogenitet är inte bara en social ordning utan också en process över tid; 2) begreppet är inte enbart lokalt förankrat utan inbegriper även transnationalisering av regelverk och en omfördelning av rättslig auktoritet; och 3) inte bara lagen, utan även aktörer, blir endogent samkonstruerade inom det socio-rättsliga fältet
Människosyn och berättarteknik i svenska socialreportage : Fem 1900-talsreportrar och deras kontext
No full textSociala reportage skrivs av reportrar med ett personligt engagemang.De är hängivna det självpåtagna uppdraget att berätta om sintids stora frågor. Så ser mytbildningen ut. Men vad avgör hur reportagenutformas? Baserat på journalistikhistorisk forskning och narratoligiskanärläsningar av reportage av Ester Blenda Nordström,Gustaf Hellström, Stig Dagerman, Ivar Lo-Johansson och BarbroAlving, fem särskilt hyllade svenska 1900-talsreportrar, pekar denhär artikeln ut hur det finns ett direkt samband mellan den förmedlademänniskosynen och textens berättarteknik. Artikeln visar vidareatt tidsandan präglat vissa texter, inte minst när det gäller idéerom reporterrollen: hur bör en reporter framstå i sin text? Samtidigtvisar den i ännu högre grad hur profilerade reportrar kan välja enegen väg
Natiolektens betydelse för valet av konstruktion vid bitransitiva verb : Verben erbjuda och skänka i sverigesvensk och finlandssvensk tidningstext
No full textThe changing temporal narratives of loss in late modernity through the lens of science fiction : A narrative study on the depiction of loss in modern and late modern science fiction
No full textThis thesis explores how science fiction films depict different themes of loss through their temporal narrative structure and how these representations reflected Andres Reckwitz’s concepts of late modern society’s changed relationship with loss. Four films spanning nearly an entire century of cinema are analysed: Metropolis (1927), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Interstellar (2014) and Don’t Look Up (2021). The study applies Gerard Genette’s and Mieke Bal’s temporal narratological framework – sequential order, rhythm and frequency – to identify how narrative devices make loss visible.In the first part of the analysis, the main losses are defined for each of the films, the main themes of Metropolis was the Loss of Social Order, for 2001: A Space Odyssey, the main themes of loss were found to be the Cultural Loss and Loss of Control and for both Interstellar and Don’t Look Up, the main themes of loss were Total Loss and Loss of Social Stability. This reflects the new quality of loss found in late modernity with both newer films depicting an existential crisis in an apocalyptic setting.The findings of the second part of the analysis highlight shifts between early modernist and late modernist portrayals of loss: from collective, structural catastrophes toward existential, and temporally complex depictions. The study concludes that narrative structures in science fiction do not merely tell stories about loss—they embody loss, structurally mirroring the contradictions and fragility of modernity itself
Från NFRD till CSRD : En studie om hur intressentdialog och väsentlighetsanalys förändrats i hållbarhetsrapporteringen
No full textPurpose: This study examines how large Swedish companies have changed their approaches to stakeholder dialogue and materiality analysis during the transition from the EU’s Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) to the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). It also explores differences across industries in implementing these processes. Method: A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted, including content analysis of 61 sustainability reports from 16 companies before and after CSRD implementation and semi-structured interviews with sustainability managers across four sectors (banking, manufacturing/industrial, construction and audit). The document analysis was coded for the presence and characteristics of stakeholder engagement, double materiality, and related disclosures, while interviews provided deeper insight into how companies organize these processes internally. Stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory provided the analytical lens for interpreting findings. Findings: The transition to CSRD has led to significant changes. Under NFRD, companies typically disclosed a basic list of material sustainability topics with little explanation of how stakeholders were engaged or how those topics were selected. The concept of double materiality, considering both the company’s impact on the world and external sustainability factors’ impact on the company was effectively absent in practice. Following the introduction of CSRD, sustainability reporting exhibits a far higher degree of structure and transparency. Companies now carry out explicit double materiality analyses and document their methodologies in detail. Stakeholder dialogue has become more formalized: many firms now routinely employ surveys, workshops, and interviews to gather input from both internal and external stakeholders. We also observed that companies explicitly link their assessments to CSRD and the ESRS standards, improving comparability. Differences between industries were evident: industrial companies place greater emphasis on environmental and supply chain issues, whereas banks focus more on social and governance issues, reflecting the varying impact areas of their operations. The construction sector faces particular challenges in data collection across extensive supplier networks. Despite these differences, all examined sectors are moving towards more resource-intensive yet informative sustainability processes under CSRD. Conclusion: The shift from NFRD to CSRD has professionalized corporate sustainability reporting. Stakeholders now play a more influential role, their input is systematically 5integrated and double materiality analysis has evolved from an overlooked concept to a core activity. This change is driven partly by compliance and legitimacy motives, and partly by a growing recognition that sustainability issues must be managed holistically. The study provides insight into how regulation can accelerate the adoption of best practices, while also highlighting the need for ongoing development of methods and expertise to ensure that these new processes truly create value for both companies and stakeholders
Hur är det egentligen? : En kvalitativ studie om att undersöka hur pedagoger stöttar barn till en förståelse av stödanpassningar till barn i behov av särskilt stöd samt hur pedagoger implementerar värdegrundsarbetet.
No full textSyftet med vår studie är att få svar på hur interaktionen mellan barn och pedagog ser ut och pedagogernas kunskap om likabehandlingsplanen. Studien kommer belysa hur pedagogerna bemöter barnens funderingar och känslor berörande rutiner och regler som inte gäller för alla. Vi är också nyfikna på om värdegrundsarbetet underlättar för en förståelse hos barnen om att alla människor är olika och därför har olika behov. Vår undersökning är baserad på följande frågeställningar: Hur motiverar och förklarar förskollärare för barngruppen att barn i behov av särskilt stöd behöver särskilda stödanpassningar på ett sätt som uppmuntrar till förståelse och empati. Hur kan en pedagog påverka ett barns förståelse för andra barns behov? Som metod använde vi oss av intervjuer av pedagoger med frågor som lutar sig på dessa frågeställningar. Det visade sig bland annat att pedagogerna var medvetna om att de ska arbeta med ett inkluderande arbetssätt, och gjorde det i största möjligaste mån. Vi gjorde observationer i barngrupp för att få en förståelse för de interaktioner som sker, och barnen visade stor empati för barn som behöver stödanpassningar. Analysen av våra resultat gjordes utifrån det socialkonstruktivistiska perspektivet, normmedvetenhet och utifrån inkluderande principer. Med hjälp av det socialkonstruktivistiska perspektivet upptäckte vi att barnens interaktioner med varandra hade en stor påverkan av hur pedagogerna agerade i olika sammanhang. Vi fick även en inblick av barngruppens verklighet och vilka normer som fanns. Genom att vara normmedvetna såg vi i vilken utsträckning barns missnöje fick komma till uttryck och vad som kunde trigga dem.The purpose of our study is to find out how the interaction between children and educators takes place, as well as the educators’ knowledge of the plan against discrimination and inequality. The study will highlight how educators respond to children’s thoughts and feelings concerning routines and rules that do not apply to everyone. We are also curious to see whether the work with core values helps children develop an understanding that all people are different and therefore have different needs. Our research is based on the following questions: How do educators motivate and explain to the group that children in need of special support require specific adaptations in a way that encourages understanding and empathy? How can an educator influence a child’s understanding of other children’s needs? As a method, we conducted interviews with educators using questions based on the above research topics. It turned out that the educators were aware of the importance of working inclusively and did so to the greatest extent possible. We also did observations in the child group to gain an understanding of the interactions taking place, and the children showed great empathy toward those who required additional support. The analysis of our results was carried out from a social constructivist perspective, with attention to norm awareness, and inclusive principles. Through the social constructivist perspective, we discovered that the children’s interactions with one another were greatly influenced by how the educators acted in different situations. We also gained insight into the children’s reality and the norms that existed within the group. By applying a norm-conscious approach, we could see the extent to which children’s dissatisfaction was expressed and what could trigger them