Struggles over resources and representations in territorial conflicts in the Northern Autonomous Atlantic Region (RAAN), Nicaragua

Territoriality is a central issue in indigenous peoples struggles. The territorial struggles involve struggles over the control of natural resources and over political participation and representation, but also over the perception of territorial rights and the symbolic representation of the territory. These struggles are carried through both in material and symbolic ways through recurring to different discourses and representations that provide legitimation for the territorial claims of the group. The study is located in the Northern Autonomous Atlantic Region of Nicaragua. The study concerns the territorial strategies, conceptions and practices of the indigenous people and other actors. Territorial conflicts exist between the autonomous region and the central government of Nicaragua, between mestizo settlers and indigenous people, between different indigenous groups, and between these and development agents such as conservation projects. The study focuses on how territorial discourses and representations are used to legitimate territorial control. Environmental, historical and cartographical discourses are the most important discourses recurred to. The influence of discourses and representations on the territorial practices and policies of the different actors, the links between the local struggles and global processes, and the broader structural factors impacting on the territorial struggles are also analysed. Among the structural factors are the problems related to land tenure and management and the use of natural resources, the advance of the agricultural frontier, the institutional weaknesses of the central and regional governments and the legislative processes. The territorial discourses are both recurred to in a strategic way and also grounded in local ideals and practices. The discourses have produced real effects for example in legislation, land tenure systems, political representation and environmental practices. Although the use of discourses and representations are an important power tool in territorial struggles, territorial control cannot be effectively accomplished merely through representing territorial claims in a legitimate way or through reforming legislation, as the conflicts are also largely a result of structural factors affecting the region. The fieldwork was carried out during a total of twelve months between 2000 and 2002. The research methods used were semi-structured interviews, participant observation and participatory research methods. A broad range of literary sources were also used to collect data. The study is located within the field of critical political geography with a discursive political ecology approach. It can be called a critical realist approach to the discursive analysis of indigenous territoriality.

Kin selection, social polymorphism, and reproductive allocation in ants

Social groups are common across animal species. The reasons for grouping are straightforward when all individuals gain directly from cooperating. However, the situation becomes more complex when helping entails costs to the personal reproduction of individuals. Kin selection theory has offered a fruitful framework to explain such cooperation by stating that individuals may spread their genes not only through their own reproduction, but also by helping related individuals reproduce. However, kin selection theory also implicitly predicts conflicts when groups consist of non-clonal individuals, i.e. relatedness is less than one. Then, individual interests are not perfectly aligned, and each individual is predicted to favour the propagation of their own genome over others. Social insects provide a solid study system to study the interplay between cooperation and conflict. Breeding systems in social insects range from solitary breeding to eusocial colonies displaying complete division of reproduction between the fertile queen and the sterile worker caste. Within colonies, additional variation is provided by the presence of several reproductive individuals. In many species, the queen mates multiply, which causes the colony to consist of half-sib instead of full-sib offspring. Furthermore, in many species colonies contain multiple breeding queens, which further dilutes relatedness between colony members. Evolutionary biology is thus faced with the challenge to answer why such variation in social structure exists, and what the consequences are on the individual and population level. The main part of this thesis takes on this challenge by investing the dynamics of socially polymorphic ant colonies. The first four chapters investigate the causes and consequences of different social structures, using a combination of field studies, genetic analyses and laboratory experiments. The thesis ends with a theoretical chapter focusing on different social interactions (altruism and spite), and the evolution of harming traits. The main results of the thesis show that social polymorphism has the potential to affect the behaviour and traits of both individuals and colonies. For example, we found that genetic polymorphism may increase the phenotypic variation between individuals in colonies, and that socially polymorphic colonies may show different life history patterns. We also show that colony cohesion may be enhanced even in multiple-queen colonies through patterns of unequal reproduction between queens. However, the thesis also demonstrates that spatial and temporal variation between both populations and environments may affect individual and colony traits, to the degree that results obtained in one place or at one time may not be applicable in other situations. This opens up potential further areas of research to explain these differences.

Personporträttet som tidningsgenre : En närläsningsstudie med fokus på innehållsliga teman, berättarkonventioner och kön

The thesis The portrait interview as a newspaper genre. A qualitative close reading focussing on topical motifs, conventions of narration, and gender defines the portrait interview as a newspaper genre and analyses how the personalities in the portraits are constructed textually. The main body of material consists of 107 portrait interviews in two morning newspapers, Dagens Nyheter (published in Stockholm, Sweden) and Hufvudstadsbladet (published in Swedish in Helsinki, Finland), during two one-week periods (week 46/1999 and week 38/2002). There is also complementary material of 59 portraits from four magazines. The study is carried out within the research traditions of journalistic genre studies, gender and journalism, and critical text analysis. It is comprised of a qualitative close reading focussing on content (topical motifs or themes), conventions of narration, and gender. The methods used to carry out the study are qualitative close reading and quantitative content analysis. The analysis identifies the stylistic elements that differentiate the portrait genre from other journalistic genres, as well as from the autobiographical genre, and explores what opportunities and limitations these elements present for the inclusion of even more women protagonists in the portrait genre. The portrait interview is an exception from the critical mission of journalism in general, with its position as a genre of politeness. Since a typical characteristic of the portrait interview genre is that it pays tribute to the protagonist, the genre reveals the kind of personalities and lives that are seen as admirable in society. Four levels of portrait interview are defined: the prototype portrait, the pure portrait, the hybrid portrait and the marginal portrait. The prototype is a raw version of a portrait that fulfils the criteria but may be lacking in content and stylistics. The pure portrait does not lack these qualities and resembles an ideal portrait. The hybrid is a borderline case which relates to another genre or is a mixture between the portrait and some other genre, most commonly the news genre. The marginal portrait does not fulfil the criteria, and can therefore be seen as an inadequate portrait. For example, obituaries and caricatures are excluded if the protagonist s voice is never quoted. The analysis resulted in three factors that in part help to explain why the portrait interview genre has somewhat more female protagonists than journalistic news texts do in general. The four main reasons why women are presented somewhat more in the portrait genre than in other journalistic genres are: (i) women are shown as exceptions to the female norm when, for example, taking a typical male job or managing in positions where there are few women; (ii) women are shown as representing female themes ; (iii) use of the double bind as a story-generating factor; and (iv) the intimisation of journalism. The double bind usually builds up the narration on female ambiguity in the contradiction between private and public life, for example family and career, personal desire and work. The intimisation of journalism and the double bind give women protagonists somewhat more publicity also because of the tendency of portrait interviews to create conflicts within the protagonist, as an exception to journalism in general where conflicts are created or seen as existing between, for example, persons, groupings or parties. Women protagonists and their lives create an optimal narration of inner conflicts originating in the double bind as men are usually not seen as suffering from these conflicts. The analysis also resulted in gendered portrait norms: The feminine portrait norm and the masculine portrait norm or more concretely, professional life and family life as expectation and exception. Women are expected to be responsible parents and mediocre professionals, while men are expected to be professionals and in their free time engaging fathers. Key words: journalism, genre, portrait interview, gender, interview, newspaper, women s magazine.

Demokrati eller byråkrati? En politologisk-organisatorisk undersökning av samhällets styrning

Undersökningens problem gäller underordning. Syftet med undersökningen är att på basen av teori skapa en helhetssyn som man kan stödja sig på när val mellan underordning och icke-underordning görs i planering av organisationsregler. Problemställningen grundar sig på forskarens vardagserfarenheter av beslutsfattande i grupp. Om en av gruppens medlemmar kan underordna de andra har han en möjlighet att styra kommunikationen och på det sättet påverka den kunskap, som gruppen förfogar över då gemensamma beslut fattas. Bristfällig kunskap kan möjligen leda till, att man inte finner den lösning, som skulle vara bäst ur helhetens synvinkel. Underordning tillskrivs varierande betydelse i olika organisationer beroende på grupperingsprinciperna. I organisationer där medlemskapet i princip är ärvt, är en minimering av subordinationsförhållandena ett värde i sig medlemmarna emellan. Dylika organisationer är familjen och territoriellt bildade samhälleliga organisationer. Samhällets organisationsregler, sådana som de kan läsas och tolkas i statsförfattningsteori och i författningen, är föremål för granskning. Granskningen sker med hjälp av två idealtyper, som avbildar två ytterligheter, den ena ett samhälle, där underordningen är minimal, den andra ett samhälle, där underordningen är maximal. Den förstnämnda idealtypen benämns demokrati. Egenskaper som givits den är symmetriska relationer aktörerna emellan, dvs. kommunikationen är dubbelriktad och rollutbytet fritt. Den andra idealtypen benämns byråkrati. Den karakteriseras av osymmetriska relationer aktörerna emellan, dvs. kommunikationen är enkelriktad och mellan samhällsmedlemmarna finns en rollfördelning. Idealtypernas egenskaper vidareutvecklas genom deduktion. Som hjälpmedel i en sociologisk konstruktion används två- och treaktörsmodeller. Enhällighet och lösning av konflikter genom lottdragning är demokratiska beslutsregler. En byråkratisk regel är majoritetsbeslut. Enligt politologisk granskning är grundmodellen för reglerna i ett demokratiskt samhälle en överenskommelse om ett monogamt äktenskap. Grundmodellen för byråkrati är promiskuitet, ur vilken man inte kan härleda någon annan organisationsprincip för styrning av samhället än styrning genom maktgrupper. Den organisationsteoretiska utvecklingen sker genom en konstruktion av motsatta regler för en byråkratisk förvaltningsorganisation, nämligen regler för en debyråkratisk förvaltningsorganisation. I den systemteoretiska granskningen konstateras att författningen måste utarbetas med utgångspunkt i att samhället är ett slutet system i förhållande till omgivande samhällen. Utvecklandet av samhällelig organisationsteori sker med hjälp av deduktion, där man som hjälpmedel använder en fyraktörsmodell. Modellen avbildar att möte vid vilket två ordföranden, som kontrollerar varandra, och två medlemmar deltar. Med hjälp av modellen klassificeras de samhälleliga relationerna i tre olika dimensioner. Den vertikala dimensionen avbildar relationerna medborgare och statsorgan emellan. Av de horisontala dimensionerna avbildar den ena relationerna statsorganen emellan och den andra avbildar relationerna medborgare emellan. Med hjälp av teori analyseras antikens, liberalismens och socialismens samhällsstyre med tanke på symmetrin i styrningsprinciperna. Teorin kompletteras genom en definition av hierarkiska idealtyper: i den symmetriska idealtypen är medborgarnas deltagande i beslutsfattandet maximalt och i den osymmetriska minimalt. På basen av detta bildas idealtyper för en symmetrisk resp. osymmetrisk författning. Med hjälp av teori utförs en granskning av Finlands författning. I en analys av den historiska utveckling som Finlands författningsteori har genomgått konstateras att stamsamhällets styrning, som grundade sig på gemenskap, har övergått i en individualistisk, mekanisk styrning inom nationalstatens ramar där mat tyr sig till omröstningar och till representationsprincipen. Relationerna statsorganen emellan har utvecklats genom experimentering i många olika faser. Den territoriella organisationen har ägnats mindre uppmärksamhet. Som slutsats av analysen utvecklas en organisationsprincip för reglerad osymmetri. En analys av grundlagen pekar på möjligheter till dess demokratisering eller byråkratisering. På basen av en analys av grundlagsändringarna åren 1972 och 1981 kommer man enligt den metod som har använts i undersökningen till en slutsats om att dessa lagändringar innebär en byråkratisering. Möjligheter till demokratisering belyses med ett exempel.