Medborgare, brukare av välfärd eller klient? : en jämförande studie om brukarens inflytande mellan en kommun, ett assistansbolag och ett brukarkooperativ som utför personlig assistans

The focus of this licentiate dissertation is to produce a better understanding of how we may give citi-zen as users a stronger influence over their welfare services and in the long run help to democratize the welfare state. The aim of this project is to analyze what kind of influence a user with a functional dis-order may have in different organizational contexts over his or her personal assistance. This study focuses on the influence a user may have over his or her welfare service, personal assis-tance. A municipality, an assistance firm and a user cooperative are compared with the thesis that the organization that surrounds the users shapes the possibilities the user have to influence his or her per-sonal assistance. The major thesis is thus: Participatory democracy as a model or approach may function differently when the services are delivered in a different way by different organizations – varying organizational forms. There are questions that try to answer if there are outspoken social goals within each organization. Questions regarding influence of the user when she or he is choosing the assistance provider and the users possibility to influence and his or her power to decide who and when anyone works as an assis-tant are asked. The results indicate that there are different sets of internal logic within the organizations that affect their goals and level of user influence. Within the user cooperative the user is considered a citizen and as a user expected to handle the role as work leader for his or her personal assistants. However the user is also a citizen and is expected within the usercooperative to act as a member and citizen to have po-litical influence. The usercooperative aims at influencing the political policy process regarding ques-tions concerning the rights of persons with disabilities. This gives the user a part in collective action as a member of the usercooperative. The other producers of personal assistance, the municipality and the assistance firm gives in this study a similar result as they give the user of personal assistance quite similar models for user influence within the respective organization. Within these organizations the user have chosen to let the organiza-tions handle the role of work leader in the written agreements with the producer and thereby the influ-ence they may have in practice is not so much a case of self-determination as a case of co-influence. The user can be seen as a user within a municipality, a client or consumer within the assistance firm and a citizen within the usercooperative. The results indicate the need for future research where co-production, institutional logic and development of democratic theory through democratic innovations are central aspects of future research.

Kokutai no hongi och Senjinkun – en analys av handböcker för civila och soldater : shintoismens, buddhismens och konfucianismens roll i Japan under andra världskriget

Under andra världskriget rådde en starkt nationalistisk anda i Japan. Bland det mest centrala var att visa lojalitet och vördnad för den japanska kejsaren och staten. Olika handböcker publicerades för att sprida lärorna om statens ideologi och utveckla andan bland japanska soldater och civila. Principer från olika religiösa traditioner blandades samman och inlemmades i lärorna som ingick i handböckerna. I avhandlingen undersöker jag på vilket sätt religiösa doktriner, mer specifikt shintoistiska, buddhistiska och konfucianska, sammanblandades och syntes i ideologin. Mitt fokus ligger på två skrifter, Kokutai no hongi och Senjinkun, som publicerades i Japan under 1930– och 1940–talen för att utveckla den rätta andan inför kriget. Jag gör en tolkande studie av handböckerna för att få en uppfattning av hur de tre religionerna ingick i lärorna inom ideologin. Jag använder mig här av engelska översättningar av skrifterna och stöder mig på tidigare forskning av dem. Förutom det jämför jag de två handböckerna för att se ifall det finns likheter mellan lärorna i dem. Utgående från min studie konstaterar jag att det finns vissa likheter mellan lärorna i de två skrifterna. De tre religionerna hade en viktig roll inom den rådande ideologin. Shintoismen utgjorde grunden för lärorna och de konfucianska och buddhistiska principerna var strukturerade kring de shintoistiska lärorna. Vilken av religionerna som var viktigare än den andra inom ideologin är svårt att avgöra. Alla religionerna var väsentliga beståndsdelar av ideologin.