This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and po... more This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and policy on 'development' and 'security' have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent decades. The well-known merger of development and security into a 'development-security nexus' is now shifting towards an increasingly institutionalized securitization. Security is everywhere, and development is security. A new discourse and practice is arising as the meaning of these concepts shift and the referents and objects of development and security are changing. Gradually we are moving beyond the development-security nexus into the reign of continuous global disaster management. These new articulations of the development-security nexus and global disaster management have served to legitimize a more radical interventionist agenda – first and foremost carried out by the West in the Global South. With thought-provoking contributions by leading authorities in this burgeoning field, this volume makes sense of the aforementioned paradigmatic shift. The articles in this issue explore the rationale and forces behind the institutionalization of interventionism and intrusive disaster management as well as the consequences thereof in a number of policy domains and cases.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2022
Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 year... more Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden’s population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, we try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities—or the responsible politicians—with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions. In 2014, the Public Health Agency, after 5 years of rearrangement, merged with the Institute for Infectious Disease Control, with six professors leaving between 2010 ...
This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and po... more This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and policy on 'development' and 'security' have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent decades. The well-known merger of development and security into a 'development-security nexus' is now shifting towards an increasingly institutionalized securitization. Security is everywhere, and development is security. A new discourse and practice is arising as the meaning of these concepts shift and the referents and objects of development and security are changing. Gradually we are moving beyond the development-security nexus into the reign of continuous global disaster management. These new articulations of the development-security nexus and global disaster management have served to legitimize a more radical interventionist agenda – first and foremost carried out by the West in the Global South. With thought-provoking contributions by leading authorities in this burgeoning field, this volume makes sense of the aforementioned paradigmatic shift. The articles in this issue explore the rationale and forces behind the institutionalization of interventionism and intrusive disaster management as well as the consequences thereof in a number of policy domains and cases.
Thinking and policy on ‘development’ and ‘security’ have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent ... more Thinking and policy on ‘development’ and ‘security’ have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent decades. The well-known merger of development and security into a ‘development-security nexus’ is now shifting towards an increasingly institutionalised securitisation. Security is everywhere, and development is security. A new discourse and practice is arising as the meaning of these concepts shift and the referents and objects of development and security are changing. Gradually we are moving beyond the development-security nexus into the reign of continuous global disaster management. These new articulations of the development-security nexus and global disaster management have served to legitimise a more radical interventionist agenda – first and foremost carried out by the West in the Global South. With thought-provoking contributions by leading authorities in this burgeoning field, this volume makes sense of the aforementioned paradigmatic shift. The articles explore the rationale an...
We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector eff... more We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector effectively erode the core (liberal) democratic values of the rule of law and transparency. The tension between public law and managerially-influenced governmental policy is in practice resolved by the emergence of what we call “shadow management” in public administration, whereby managerial decisions that clash with constitutional and administrative law are dealt with in internal memos or consultancy reports and hidden from public view. The consequence is a duality in the public sector, which potentially reduces public trust in institutions and undermines their democratic legitimacy. Finally, we argue that when governmental neoliberal policy clashes with legal requirements, the likely effect is that the popular institution of the (governmental or parliamentary) ombudsman, originally introduced for legal supervision over civil servants, takes on the new deceptive role of providing pseudo-le...
This article is focused on gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities in the period from 2016–2... more This article is focused on gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities in the period from 2016–2019. Our research questions are: (a) In what form was gender mainstreaming introduced and did the form itself affect scholar’s academic rights? (b) Was the process in question compatible with international standards of institutional autonomy? (c) What effect did gender mainstreaming have on scholars’ ability to exercise their academic rights in accordance with international standards? Using the UNESCO Recommendations Concerning the Status of Higher-education Teaching Personnel (1997) as our international standard, we conclude that gender mainstreaming was introduced as a form of identity politics though government action and de facto supervision; that the latter was problematic from the perspective of institutional autonomy; that the choice of gender studies as a preferred scientific framework for university policy had a chilling effect on inquiry and free speech in other areas of resear...
This article presents a framework, applied on the case of former Yugoslavia, which should be cons... more This article presents a framework, applied on the case of former Yugoslavia, which should be considered in the design and analysis of negotiated agreements dealing with 'ethnic conflict' and civil wars. Such agreements implemented from above must include an analysis of how they affect: i) the local rationality structure (both intra-and inter-ethnic relations); ii) structural conditions; iii) institutional conditions and relations; and iv) the space for contestation of implementation. Basd on document analysis, this study demonstrates that if left unattended these dimensions may recreate tensions for years to come, block implementation and generate risk of relapse into violent conflict.
We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector eff... more We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector effectively erode the core (liberal) democratic values of the rule of law and transparency. The tension between public law and managerially-influenced governmental policy is in practice resolved by the emergence of what we call "shadow management" in public administration, whereby managerial decisions that clash with constitutional and administrative law are dealt with in internal memos or consultancy reports and hidden from public view. The consequence is a duality in the public sector, which potentially reduces public trust in institutions and undermines their democratic legitimacy. Finally, we argue that when governmental neoliberal policy clashes with legal requirements, the likely effect is that the popular institution of the (governmental or parliamentary) ombudsman, originally introduced for legal supervision over civil servants, takes on the new deceptive role of providing pseudo-legal justification for neoliberal reform, making neoliberalism and ombudsmen a particularly problematic combination from a democratic and legal perspective. We support our contentions by a case study of Swedish higher education and hypothesize that the mechanisms we highlight are general in nature.
This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and po... more This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and policy on 'development' and 'security' have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent decades. The well-known merger of development and security into a 'development-security nexus' is now shifting towards an increasingly institutionalized securitization. Security is everywhere, and development is security. A new discourse and practice is arising as the meaning of these concepts shift and the referents and objects of development and security are changing. Gradually we are moving beyond the development-security nexus into the reign of continuous global disaster management. These new articulations of the development-security nexus and global disaster management have served to legitimize a more radical interventionist agenda – first and foremost carried out by the West in the Global South. With thought-provoking contributions by leading authorities in this burgeoning field, this volume makes sense of the aforementioned paradigmatic shift. The articles in this issue explore the rationale and forces behind the institutionalization of interventionism and intrusive disaster management as well as the consequences thereof in a number of policy domains and cases.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2022
Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 year... more Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden’s population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, we try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities—or the responsible politicians—with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions. In 2014, the Public Health Agency, after 5 years of rearrangement, merged with the Institute for Infectious Disease Control, with six professors leaving between 2010 ...
This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and po... more This article introduces Development Dialogue 58, which departs from the fact that thinking and policy on 'development' and 'security' have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent decades. The well-known merger of development and security into a 'development-security nexus' is now shifting towards an increasingly institutionalized securitization. Security is everywhere, and development is security. A new discourse and practice is arising as the meaning of these concepts shift and the referents and objects of development and security are changing. Gradually we are moving beyond the development-security nexus into the reign of continuous global disaster management. These new articulations of the development-security nexus and global disaster management have served to legitimize a more radical interventionist agenda – first and foremost carried out by the West in the Global South. With thought-provoking contributions by leading authorities in this burgeoning field, this volume makes sense of the aforementioned paradigmatic shift. The articles in this issue explore the rationale and forces behind the institutionalization of interventionism and intrusive disaster management as well as the consequences thereof in a number of policy domains and cases.
Thinking and policy on ‘development’ and ‘security’ have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent ... more Thinking and policy on ‘development’ and ‘security’ have undergone paradigmatic shifts in recent decades. The well-known merger of development and security into a ‘development-security nexus’ is now shifting towards an increasingly institutionalised securitisation. Security is everywhere, and development is security. A new discourse and practice is arising as the meaning of these concepts shift and the referents and objects of development and security are changing. Gradually we are moving beyond the development-security nexus into the reign of continuous global disaster management. These new articulations of the development-security nexus and global disaster management have served to legitimise a more radical interventionist agenda – first and foremost carried out by the West in the Global South. With thought-provoking contributions by leading authorities in this burgeoning field, this volume makes sense of the aforementioned paradigmatic shift. The articles explore the rationale an...
We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector eff... more We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector effectively erode the core (liberal) democratic values of the rule of law and transparency. The tension between public law and managerially-influenced governmental policy is in practice resolved by the emergence of what we call “shadow management” in public administration, whereby managerial decisions that clash with constitutional and administrative law are dealt with in internal memos or consultancy reports and hidden from public view. The consequence is a duality in the public sector, which potentially reduces public trust in institutions and undermines their democratic legitimacy. Finally, we argue that when governmental neoliberal policy clashes with legal requirements, the likely effect is that the popular institution of the (governmental or parliamentary) ombudsman, originally introduced for legal supervision over civil servants, takes on the new deceptive role of providing pseudo-le...
This article is focused on gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities in the period from 2016–2... more This article is focused on gender mainstreaming at Swedish universities in the period from 2016–2019. Our research questions are: (a) In what form was gender mainstreaming introduced and did the form itself affect scholar’s academic rights? (b) Was the process in question compatible with international standards of institutional autonomy? (c) What effect did gender mainstreaming have on scholars’ ability to exercise their academic rights in accordance with international standards? Using the UNESCO Recommendations Concerning the Status of Higher-education Teaching Personnel (1997) as our international standard, we conclude that gender mainstreaming was introduced as a form of identity politics though government action and de facto supervision; that the latter was problematic from the perspective of institutional autonomy; that the choice of gender studies as a preferred scientific framework for university policy had a chilling effect on inquiry and free speech in other areas of resear...
This article presents a framework, applied on the case of former Yugoslavia, which should be cons... more This article presents a framework, applied on the case of former Yugoslavia, which should be considered in the design and analysis of negotiated agreements dealing with 'ethnic conflict' and civil wars. Such agreements implemented from above must include an analysis of how they affect: i) the local rationality structure (both intra-and inter-ethnic relations); ii) structural conditions; iii) institutional conditions and relations; and iv) the space for contestation of implementation. Basd on document analysis, this study demonstrates that if left unattended these dimensions may recreate tensions for years to come, block implementation and generate risk of relapse into violent conflict.
We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector eff... more We argue that the neoliberal tradition and new public management reforms of the public sector effectively erode the core (liberal) democratic values of the rule of law and transparency. The tension between public law and managerially-influenced governmental policy is in practice resolved by the emergence of what we call "shadow management" in public administration, whereby managerial decisions that clash with constitutional and administrative law are dealt with in internal memos or consultancy reports and hidden from public view. The consequence is a duality in the public sector, which potentially reduces public trust in institutions and undermines their democratic legitimacy. Finally, we argue that when governmental neoliberal policy clashes with legal requirements, the likely effect is that the popular institution of the (governmental or parliamentary) ombudsman, originally introduced for legal supervision over civil servants, takes on the new deceptive role of providing pseudo-legal justification for neoliberal reform, making neoliberalism and ombudsmen a particularly problematic combination from a democratic and legal perspective. We support our contentions by a case study of Swedish higher education and hypothesize that the mechanisms we highlight are general in nature.
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