The New Black on the Development Catwalk: Incorporating Rule of Law into the Sustainable Development Goals

As the post-2015 Development Agenda is set to replace the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”), one of the most controversial new elements of the new agenda is the rule of law. While all of the official fora for discussing and producing recommendations have concluded that the rule of law (or some variation) should be included, there are still significant challenges to its incorporation in the final Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”). The interrelated points of contention have included whether rule of law applies at the national government level, whether it encompasses domestic governance, and how the concept should be defined and measured. Going forward, there are a few key factors influencing whether and how the rule of law will be incorporated into the next round of development goals: 1) the compelling force of traditional views on development in determining member states’ positions in the debate; 2) the continued importance of the United Nations General Assembly (“UNGA”) Rule of Law Declaration; 3) the centrality of the General Assembly’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (“OWG”); and 4) the ease of measurement and implementation of proposed indicators. If incorporated into the new agenda, a rule of law goal will likely include indicators that are easily evaluated and generate little political friction, such as legal identity

‘Whether you are gay or straight, I don’t like to see effeminate dancing’: effeminophobia in performance-level ballroom dance

This article discusses recent responses to performances of same-sex male ballroom dancing in order to consider the subtle difference which can exist between homophobia and effeminophobia. Given that the world of performance-level ballroom dancing is a gay-friendly environment, in which many participants are openly gay identified, this article will argue that a discourse of effeminophobia, rather than homophobia, underpins the world of performance-level ballroom dance. Performance-level ballroom dance is often read as camp not only because it represents exaggerated gender roles but because its official technique requires that the male dancer synthesise codes of masculinity and femininity in his dancing. What protects the gender-dissident male ballroom dancer from being read as effeminate is that he is paired with a female body performing excessive femininity. Without the foil of the hyper-feminine female partner, the same-sex couple draws attention to the fact that the male ballroom dancer is not dancing as a man but in accordance with ballroom’s queer construction of masculinity. Given that performance-level dance has struggled for so many years to be viewed as masculine sport, practitioners may, quite understandably, be anxious about any representation which suggests that ballroom dance may be an effeminate activity

The RSPO–LGR4/5–ZNRF3/RNF43 module controls liver zonation and size

LGR4/5 receptors and their cognate RSPO ligands potentiate Wnt/β-catenin signalling and promote proliferation and tissue homeostasis in epithelial stem cell compartments. In the liver, metabolic zonation requires a Wnt/β-catenin signalling gradient, but the instructive mechanism controlling its spatiotemporal regulation is not known. We have now identified the RSPO-LGR4/5-ZNRF3/RNF43 module as a master regulator of Wnt/β-catenin-mediated metabolic liver zonation. Liver-specific LGR4/5 loss of function (LOF) or RSPO blockade disrupted hepatic Wnt/β-catenin signalling and zonation. Conversely, pathway activation in ZNRF3/RNF43 LOF mice or with recombinant RSPO1 protein expanded the hepatic Wnt/β-catenin signalling gradient in a reversible and LGR4/5-dependent manner. Recombinant RSPO1 protein increased liver size and improved liver regeneration, whereas LGR4/5 LOF caused the opposite effects, resulting in hypoplastic livers. Furthermore, we show that LGR4(+) hepatocytes throughout the lobule contribute to liver homeostasis without zonal dominance. Taken together, our results indicate that the RSPO-LGR4/5-ZNRF3/RNF43 module controls metabolic liver zonation and is a hepatic growth/size rheostat during development, homeostasis and regeneration

Värdet av att arbeta med Assessment Center - en kvalitativ studie om hur verksamma organisationer upplever Assessment Center

I följande studie kommer rekryterings- och utvecklingsmetoden Assessment Center (AC) att studeras. Syftet med studien är att utifrån verksamma organisationers erfarenhet av AC skapa en ökad förståelse för; metodens innebörd, vilka argument som ligger till grund för organisationers användande av metoden samt dess värde för organisationer. Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och fokus fästs vid tolkning och förståelse av AC baserat på respondenternas subjektiva uppfattningar och upplevelser. Studiens teoretiska referensram behandlar; Human Resource Management, rekrytering, personalekonomi, Talent Management och Assessment Center. Empiri har samlats från sex verksamma organisationer, varav fem organisationer vilka arbetar med AC samt en organisation som har påvisat ett eventuellt intresse av att utveckla ett AC. Studien har kunnat visa på att det å ena sidan råder en överensstämmande definition av AC, som en kombination av tester och övningar, samtidigt som metodens utformning å andra sidan skiljer sig åt organisationerna mellan. Argumenten för att använda AC är, baserat på respondenternas utsagor, många, dels med bakgrund i att metoden är rättvis, noggrann och dessutom träffsäker i fråga att finna rätt person till rätt position. Nackdelar som nämns är metodens tidsåtgång, vilken i sin tur skapar kostnader. Några av de värdeskapande aspekterna som AC för med sig är att metoden skapar värde för organisationer genom undvikandet av felrekryteringar, att metoden ses som varumärkesstärkande och att metoden har en gynnsam och utvecklande inverkan på såväl kandidaten som organisationen. Studiens slutsatser bottnar i den funna definitionsförvirringen, vilket följs av ett ifrågasättande av hur en metod som beskrivs och används så varierat kan stärka organisationers varumärke. Vidare visar AC på att vara en träffsäker och rättvis metod, då samtliga av studiens respondenter påvisar att den främjar undvikandet av felrekryteringar och därmed stora kostnader för organisationer. Slutligen finner vi det vara av största vikt att en allmänt vedertagen definition av AC skapas för att metoden ska kunna utgöra den kvalitetsstämpel som, enligt studien, AC idag fungerar som

Legal reform and private enterprise : the Vietnamese experience

Decades after the rise and fall of the Law and Development movement, crude theories about the relationship of law to economic development have reappeared in the wake of "transition". Having observed the process of creating laws governing ownership and contracts in Vietnam, the author of this thesis seeks to determine whether the perceived problems exist in reality and whether the "standard legal prescription" for solving them actually works. The official aspect of the legal reforms, i.a. goals and drafting, has been discussed with legislators, officials and other informed people. The response of those meant to benefit from the laws, the actors in the marketplace, has been explored in interviews with businessmen in and around Hanoi. Vietnam's reliance on foreign legal models is pardy a consequence of the absence of effective means for developing viable organic solutions and partly of a reluctant recognition that overseas trade and intercourse necessitate international compatibility. A favoured technique is to single out individual elements of foreign laws that are considered acceptable and appropriate, while rejecting others. Thus, while much of the new legislation appears to be fairly "modern" and "conventional", certain underlying fundamentals have been rejected for fear that they should be carriers of "dangerous" ideas and practices. Most businessmen nevertheless feel safe in the sense that they are not afraid of expropriation or other immediate threats to their existence. The objective factors of law are intertwined with political "moods" and other subjective factors, and those who believe in their ability to correctly interpret these subtle signals have confidence in the future. That many successful businessmen still rely on kinship ties and moral concepts for day-for-day transactions is another reason to doubt the urgency of the need for "Western-style" laws. However, in this case, changes in the expanding marketplace, e.g. more diverse moral concepts, in the wake of expanding trade, alter the relative costs of formality and informality and promote the new Civil Code and Commercial Law as providers of model terms for impersonal transactions. That Vietnamese businessmen consider these laws basically good, but at the same time describe the legal system as a whole as "unattractive", indicates a need for judicial reform incorporating traditional concepts of rule of law. The leadership however is ambivalent. It regards the presence of discretion and corruption as a threat to its authority and appreciates that uniformity is important for state-building purposes, but is not willing to compromise with the Party's leading role in society. The resulting policy, a refined version of "socialist legality" or rule by law, meaning that state organs are bound by legislation and that citizens are assured that their economic rights will be upheld as long as they follow the rules, is inherently untenable and incapable of providing the kind of protection associated with conventional rule of law.digitalisering@um

Utmattade läkare? : En kvantitativ studie om utmattning bland läkare på ett universitetssjukhus i Sverige.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka psykosocial ohälsa med utmattning i fokus utifrån arbetsrelaterade faktorer, konflikt mellan arbete och familj och kön hos läkare på ett universitetssjukhus i Sverige. Studien grundar sig på tvärsnittsdata från projektet Health and Organisation among University hospital Physicians in Europe (HOUPE), där arbetsrelaterad ohälsa bland läkare på ett universitetssjukhus studerats. Undersökningen genomfördes genom enkät där 2589 läkare deltog. Utifrån tidigare forskning formulerades tre frågeställningar kring sambandet mellan utmattning och 1) arbetsrelaterade faktorer, 2) konflikten mellan arbete och familj samt 3) kön. Resultatet visade att ansträngningsbaserad konflikt mellan arbete och familj förklarade den största variansen i utmattning hos läkarna. Resultatet visade även att det fanns könsskillnad gällande utmattning, där de kvinnliga läkarna var signifikant mer utmattade än de manliga. Kontroll över arbetet var skyddande mot utmattning där de manliga läkarna upplevde en större grad av kontroll. Socialt stöd skyddade mot utmattning för de manliga läkarna. För de kvinnliga läkarna var socialt stöd skyddande mot utmattning tills de familjerelaterade variablerna adderades, då visade socialt stöd inget signifikant samband.