Normalizing the Natural : A study of menstrual product destigmatization

In this thesis, I develop our understanding of the destigmatization process to include product destigmatization. Previous research on destigmatization has primarily focused on that of individuals, groups, organizations, and industries. However, there is an abundance of empirical evidence showing that a product stigma has a significant bearing on market logics, including legal classification of products, marketing challenges, as well as a lack of innovation and entrepreneurship. Around 300 million people menstruate on any given day around the world, yet the market for menstrual products consists predominantly of homogeneous products that have been around since the late 1800s or early 1900s. Simultaneously, there is a surprising lack of regulations and standards, in particular on a global level, ensuring a widespread safety for so many users around the world. Other products used on or intimately with the body are generally heavily regulated and/or standardized. In a pilot study investigating these seemingly contradicting notions, I found that one of the most fundamental reasons for the status quo is grounded in the stigma on menstruation and menstrual products. Through a multi-method approach, combining aspects of case research, action research, and document studies, I examined the menstrual product field from a synthesis of theory including stigma, destigmatization, and neo-institutional. I developed a framework through which product destigmatization can be understood. Therein, I emphasize three primary mechanisms driving product destigmatization, and how they act on all three levels of society. The mechanisms comprise reclassifying, framing, and claiming agency. My main contributions are threefold. First, I deliver a comprehensive study on destigmatization that includes different dynamics and levels, which has not been done previously, in particular regarding menstrual products. Secondly, I find that in contrast to what previous research demonstrates, destigmatization processes do not only occur from the top-down, but also through bottom-up initiatives. Finally, I advance our understanding of the role of organizations, including entrepreneurs, and their innovative capacities to affect institutional change

The complementary use of IS technologies to support flexibility and integration needs in budgeting

In business controllers’ work on budgeting, considered as a classic decision-making process in organisations, it is consistently indicated that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, business intelligence (BI) and spreadsheets are commonly applied to assist the process. An academic research contribution on this topic is few. Most available research concentrates on ERP systems but it mentions neither BI nor spreadsheets. A further review of budgeting literature designates that budgeting characterises both flexibility and integration needs to accomplish decision-making. Given the limited understanding as to how IS technologies are used in budgeting, this dissertation aims to describe and explain how business controllers can complementarily use IS technologies to support the flexibility and integration needs in a budgeting process. Two research questions addressed are: RQ1- how do business controllers perceive IS technologies in relation to the need for both flexibility and integration in budgeting? And RQ2 - why do business controllers use IS technologies to support the need for both flexibility and integration in budgeting? The analysis employs conceptual ideas pertaining to structuration theory. Empirical data was collected through interviews, observations and documentations with twenty-six business controllers in sixteen companies in Thailand. It is concluded that business controllers perceive IS technologies to enable and constrain their flexibility and integration needs in budgeting. Spreadsheets are the main IS technology used in budgeting despite an existent of ERP systems and BI because of the flexibility that spreadsheets offer. Business controllers use spreadsheets to support both the flexibility and integration domains but they use ERP systems and BI to support the integration function alone. It is necessary for business controllers to rethink their IS technology use practice because spreadsheets cause errors and frauds. The insights generated create a framework to describe how the three IS technologies should be complementarily used to support specific budgeting activities in respect of the flexibility and integration needs

Nordic Design Cultures in Transformation, 1960–1980

Covering the 1960s and 1970s, this volume explores new ways of investigating, comparing and interpreting the different domains of design culture across the Nordic countries. Challenging the traditional narrative, this volume argues that the roots of the most prominent features of Nordic design’s contemporary significance are not to be found amongst the objects for the home collectively branded as ‘Scandinavian Design’ to great acclaim in the 1950s, but in the discourses, institutions and practices formed in the aftermath of that oft-told success story, during the turbulent period between 1960 and 1980. This is achieved by employing multidisciplinary approaches to connect the domains of industrial production, marketing, consumption, public institutions, design educations, trade journals as well as public debates and civic initiatives forming a design culture. This book makes a significant contribution to current, international agendas of historiographical critique focusing on transnational relations and the deconstruction of national design histories. This book will be of interest to scholars in design, design history and Scandinavian studies

The impact of principal party strategies on the radical right: In search of a silver bullet?

Since the 1980s, many Western European countries have witnessed the rise of the radical right. Much has been written on the ideology of these parties, the tactics they adopt, the sorts of people that vote for them, and the reasons behind their electoral success. The growing electoral success of these parties represents a serious electoral challenge to major political parties or ‘principalparties’ and yet comparatively little has been written on how principal parties respond to the radical right and even less so on the impact that this has on the electoral success of radical right parties. Indeed, what has been written tends to focus on either a small number of parties or a particular party family. What is thus far lacking is a comprehensive comparative account of how principal parties have responded to the radical right and to what extent these strategic responses have been successful. This thesis seeks to address this gap by adopting a multi-method approach that combines cross-case comparative analysis with qualitative case studies in order to identify the various strategies that principal parties employ and the degree of success, if any, they have. By building on the existing literature, it develops an enhanced model of party competition which is subsequently tested in an mvQCA analysis and two in-depth, qualitative case studies: France and Sweden. In doing so, this thesis will identify what strategies principal parties adopt, how successful they are, and whether or not a ‘silver bullet’ exists that can be employed against the radical right

Adaption of Girlhood : Norm-Confirming and Norm-Breaking in Girls’ Books Translated from English to Swedish and Finnish between 1945–1965

This interdisciplinary thesis is the first more comprehensive study of girls’ book translations in Sweden and Finland. The study examines adaptation of the image of girlhood in girls’ books translated from English to Swedish and Finnish between 1945–1965. Girls’ literature and girls’ books are children’s literary genres about girlhood, about girls’ lives and what it means to be a girl in a certain historical context. Girlhood is depicted in relation to norms for how girls are expected to behave, which means that the girl protagonists often both confirm norms by adapting to the expectations of society and rebelliously challenge these norms. Translations of girls’ books are influenced by norms of girlhood, narrative norms, and translations norms. These result in adaptation, a translations practice where translations are adapted to the norms of the target context (the target culture and the publisher) and to the target audience, in this case young girls. The frame of reference is the polysystem theory, according to which all genres and literary works belong to the literary polysystem, a network of partly overlapping systems in which tensions arise between the center with higher prestige and the periphery with lower prestige. The objective of this study has been to analyze how the peripheral position of girls’ literature within the general literary polysystem and the internal relations between the center (Bildungsromane with higher status) and the periphery (series books with lower status) within the girls’ literary polysystem influences the amount and type of adaptation in girls’ books. The ways in which this peripheral position impacts the image of girlhood in the books is also examined. A further aim has been to analyze whether the Finnish girls’ book system has been influenced by the Swedish system due to Finland’s peripheral position in the Nordic translation system. The qualitative material consists of three Bildungsromane by L. M. Montgomery, Jean Webster, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and three series books by Helen D. Boylston, Carolyn Keene (a pseudonym), and Helen Wells, as well as their Swedish and Finnish translations. These books represent the series that, according to my initial quantitative survey, were the most prominent among the girls’ books published in both Swedish and Finnish in 1945–1965 (52 books). To contextualize the material, a paratextual analysis of publisher correspondence and the covers and cover texts of the translations has been conducted. The analysis shows that the Nordic countries were a uniform system with Sweden and Norway at its center, as books and series came to Finland via these countries, and Swedish and Norwegian translations were used as source texts for three of the Finnish translations in my study. This interdisciplinary study has three methodological starting points for the analysis of the effects of adaptation on the image of girlhood. The primary descriptive translation studies method consists of a comparative and categorizing adaptation analysis, my linguistic method involves an analysis of semantic-pragmatic features and pragmatic language functions, and my literature studies method is a narrative analysis of character indictors in relation to gender stereotype schemata for masculine and feminine narration, which represent norm-confirming and norm-breaking narration. The results demonstrate that both target-oriented abridged translations and source-oriented faithful translations appear in both the Bildungsromane and series book material. Thus, the amount of adaptation does not correlate with the polysystemic position of the translation. This indicates that the polysystem hypothesis that translations with a peripheral status are likely to be target-oriented is not supported within the girls’ book genre. Instead, adaptation occurs according to commercial, didactic, and pedagogical norms regardless of the polysytemic position. In the adapted translations, the image of girlhood is influenced by downplaying of character traits associated with norm-breaking girlhood, and by an increase of plot-oriented narration, which is the norm within children’s literature.Denna avhandling är den första mer omfattande undersökningen av flickboksöversättningar i Sverige och Finland. Flicklitteraturen och flickboken är en barnlitterär genre som handlar om och förhåller sig till att vara flicka, att göra flickskap i en viss tid och på en viss plats. Flickskap är både anpassning till och uppror mot samhällets normer eller förväntningar. Därför uttrycker gestaltningen av flickskap ofta både normbekräftande och normbrytande. Översättningar av flickböcker påverkas av normer för flickskap, normer för berättande och översättningsnormer. Dessa leder till adaption, som innebär att översättningar anpassas till målkulturens och det utgivande förlagets normer och översättningens målgrupp, som består av unga flickor. Adapterades eller anpassades gestaltningen av flickskap när flickböcker översattes från engelska till svenska och finska under perioden 1945–1965 och i så fall hur? Var översättningarna källtrogna eller målanpassade? Framhävdes normbekräftande eller normbrytande drag? Var praktikerna enhetliga i Sverige och Finland? Denna tvärvetenskapliga studie söker svar på dessa frågor genom en kombination av översättningsvetenskapens, litteraturvetenskapens, språkvetenskapens och arkivforskningens metoder. Studiens material består av tre bildningsromaner av L.M. Montgomery, Jean Webster och Laura Ingalls Wilder med högre status och tre långserieböcker av Helen D. Boylston, pseudonymen Carolyn Keene och Helen Wells med lägre status samt deras svenska och finska översättningar. Dessa böcker representerar de serier som enligt en inledande kvantitativa analys var mest framträdande bland de flickböcker som utgavs på både svenska och finska under perioden 1945–1965 (52 böcker). För att kontextualisera materialet har även dels förlagskorrespondens, dels översättningarnas omslag och omslagstexter analyserats. Analysen av förlagskorrespondensen och översättningarna visar att Norden under perioden utgjorde ett enhetligt fält med Sverige och Norge som centrum. Författarskapen kom till Finland via dessa länder, och svenska och norska översättningar användes som källtexter för tre av de finska översättningarna i materialet. Resultaten av analysen av adaptioner i materialet visar att både målkontextanpassade förkortade översättningar och källtrogna översättningar förekommer i såväl bildningsroman- som långseriematerialet. Därmed står mängden adaption inte i relation till översättningens status. I de anpassade översättningarna sker anpassningen enligt kommersiella, didaktiska och pedagogiska översättningsnormer oberoende av översättningens status. Framställningen av flickskap påverkas dels genom att karaktärsdrag som förknippas med normbrytande flickskap nedtonas, dels genom att berättandet blir mer handlingsorienterat, vilket är normen inom barnlitteratur.Helsinki: Unigrafia, 202