Taxing Conditions: The Fiscal interest of the State and the Rise of the Modern Corporation in America

At the end of the nineteenth century, American corporate law changed into its modern, permissive form. Emerging first in \NJ[,] the new laws allowed corporations to own each other, and using them capitalists solved their collective action problem of ruinous competition, reorganizing American industry in a great merger wave. The most famous explanation for why the law changed, the efficiency argument, has been refuted by economic sociologists and political scientists who instead argue that the law changed because of the combination of powerful actors pursuing their interests and contingent conditions such as state fiscal crises. From this critical juncture, the law developed path-dependently. But these conditions did not occur in \NJ[,] and the actual development of the law there, with several anti-incumbent changes in a relatively short period, do not fit with a path-dependent model. Neither does the simultaneous adoption of both permissive corporate laws modeled on \NJ[\u27]s, and their reaction, restrictive antitrust laws, across the United States. To address these problems, this dissertation develops a theoretical framework in which institutional change is determined by how the institution serves the interests of incumbents in adjoining fields. In its first part, this dissertation applies this framework to the development of corporate law in \NJ over time, comparing 28 failed and successful attempts to change the law, 1830-1913. In its second part, it tests this framework on the adoption of permissive and restrictive corporate laws across the United States, 1889-1915. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods on new datasets of bills, votes, laws, politicians, corporations, and taxes, this dissertation finds that how existing law served political and economic incumbents\u27 interests, by limiting competition and providing tax revenues, explain its change and persistence. The power and interest relationships among classes are reflected back into the state through taxation, mediated by state capacity. Politicians sit like both spider and fly in a web of dependencies among actors and policies. When the web is tight, institutions persist, when it loosens, change is possible

Sanitation and Hygiene Behaviour Change at Scale: Understanding Slippage

As sanitation and hygiene programmes mature, the challenge shifts from bringing communities to ODF status to sustaining this status. In this context, many programmes are confronted with the issue of slippage. This concept refers to a return to previous unhygienic behaviours, or the inability of some or all community members to continue to meet all ODF criteria. This paper explores how to discern slippage nuances and patterns, strategies to address, pre-empt and mitigate it as well as alternative monitoring systems that capture the complexity of slippage more fully. The analysis and reflections are based on direct field experience, primarily from the GSF-supported programme in Madagascar. Moreover, the underpinning principle of the paper is that slippage is an expected aspect of behaviour change-oriented sanitation and hygiene interventions, especially those at scale, and not a sign of failure thereof

Pluralism in Search of Sustainability: Ethics, Knowledge and Methdology in Sustainability Science

Sustainability Science is an emerging, transdisciplinary academic field that aims to help build a sustainable global society by drawing on and integrating research from the humanities and the social, natural, medical and engineering sciences. Academic knowledge is combined with that from relevant actors from outside academia, such as policy-makers, businesses, social organizations and citizens. The field is focused on examining the interactions between human, environmental, and engineered systems to understand and contribute to solutions for complex challenges that threaten the future of humanity and the integrity of the life support systems of the planet, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and land and water degradation. Since its inception in around the year 2000, and as expressed by a range of proponents in the field, sustainability science has become an established international platform for interdisciplinary research on complex social problems [1]. This has been done by exploring ways to promote ‘greater integration and cooperation in fulfilling the sustainability science mandate’ [2]. Sustainability science has thereby become an extremely diverse academic field, yet one with an explicit normative mission. After nearly two decades of sustainability research, it is important to reflect on a major question: what critical knowledge can we gain from sustainability science research on persistent socio-ecological problems and new sustainability challenges

Living without buffers—illustrating climate vulnerability in the Lake Victoria basin

Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity are essential, albeit theoretically vague, components of climate vulnerability. This has triggered debate surrounding how these factors can be translated into, and understood in, an empirical context subject to present and future harm. In this article, which draws on extensive fieldwork in the Lake Victoria Basin of Kenya and Tanzania, we illustrate how exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity play out in the context of climate vulnerability and discuss how they interact in situ. Using a mixed methods approach including survey data, rainfall data and a suite of participatory methods, such as focus groups and interactive mapping of seasonal calendars, we identify how climate-induced stressors affect smallholder farmers' well-being and natural resources. Drawing on the seasonal calendar as a heuristic, and climate vulnerability terminology, we illustrate when, where and how these climate-induced stressors converge to constrain farmers' livelihoods. Our analysis indicates that farmers in the basin face a highly uncertain future with discernible, but differentiated, adaptation deficits due to recurring, and potentially worsening, patterns of hardship

Personlighet och Alexitymi hos unga kvinnor med samlagssmärta – en pilotstudie

Aim. To investigate personality, alexithymia and personal relations in a cohort of seven women with superficial dyspareunia based on either LPV (localized provoced vestibulodynia) or painful vaginism. The purpose was to find background personality variables to address later in psychotherapy. Methods. Personality measurements were performed using Cloninger`s Temperament and Character Inventory – revised (TCI-R). Alexithymia was assessed by using the Swedish version of Toronto Alexithymia Scale – TAS-20. A semi-structured scale that focused on sexual problems and relations was constructed by the author. Results. Most women showed a personality profile with specific temperament and character traits. They can be described as cautious, careful, insecure, orderly, pessimistic, reflective, reserved, slow-tempered, solitary, stoical, systematic, and can be categorised as rigid, scrupulous and/or passive-dependent and they are close to fall out as alienated, obsessional and passive-avoidant. Conclusions. These women with LPV differ in personality, report difficulties in relations, have a tight bond to their mothers and are missing their absent fathers. More research needs to be done to point out the etiology of the psycho-somatic explanations to dyspareunia. The results show how important it is to consider the psychological aspects in the care of women with dyspareunia and to allow them to be offered psychological assessment and treatment

Våld, brott, ritual och stratifiering : Om skillnader i polisens konstruktion och hantering av våldsbrottslighet

Denna uppsats behandlar skillnader i polisens konstruktion och behandling av våldsbrottslighet beroende på om denna sker på allmän plats eller i hemmet. Skillnaderna förklaras med Randall Collins teori om bestraffning av brottslighet som ritualer som upprätthåller stratifierade samhällen, där det svenska samhället betraktas som ett samhälle bland annat stratifierat enligt kön. Undersökningen har ett konstruktivistiskt perspektiv och det analytiska kunskapsobjektet är strukturer, såsom de definierats av William Sewell som bestående av scheman och resurser. En jämförande metod i kombination med växelvis parantessättning av det substantiella respektive konstruerande tillämpas på en hierarkisk kedja av styrdokument samt ett antal intervjuer genomförda med poliser i olika befattningar inom ett närpolisområde. Skillnader i såväl konstruktion som hanterande av våld på allmän plats respektive i hemmet blottläggs. Skillnaderna är av en sådan art att mål och åtgärder relaterade till våld i hemmet är mindre specifika och konkreta, vilket innebär att sådan brottslighet bestraffas i mindre utsträckning. Rituella drag i bestraffandet av våld och ordningstörning på allmän plats påvisas också. Dessa slutsatser diskuteras i relation till Collins bredare teori om stratifiering. Annan kriminologisk forskning behandlas översiktligt och relateras till slutsatserna och Collins teori

Why resilience is unappealing to social science : Theoretical and empirical investigations of the scientific use of resilience

Resilience is often promoted as a boundary concept to integrate the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. However, it is a troubled dialogue from which social scientists may feel detached. To explain this, we first scrutinize the meanings, attributes, and uses of resilience in ecology and elsewhere to construct a typology of definitions. Second, we analyze core concepts and principles in resilience theory that cause disciplinary tensions between the social and natural sciences (system ontology, system boundary, equilibria and thresholds, feedback mechanisms, self-organization, and function). Third, we provide empirical evidence of the asymmetry in the use of resilience theory in ecology and environmental sciences compared to five relevant social science disciplines. Fourth, we contrast the unification ambition in resilience theory with methodological pluralism. Throughout, we develop the argument that incommensurability and unification constrain the interdisciplinary dialogue, whereas pluralism drawing on core social scientific concepts would better facilitate integrated sustainability research.Peer reviewe

Interdisciplinary pedagogy in higher education : Proceedings from Lund University's Teaching and Learning Conference 2019

This is the proceedings volume from the 7th biannual Teaching and Learning Conference at Lund University. The conference theme, Interdisciplinary pedagogy in higher education, is very timely as we see a steady increase, not only in interdisciplinary research and full teaching programmes, but also in new interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary courses and components in more traditional disciplinary education at Lund University. The conference highlighted some of the many challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary education where educators meet students with different disciplinary, cultural and geographical profiles. In this volume, the authors share the thoughts, experiences and learning they presented at the conference