Browsing by Author "Jansson, Fredrik"

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Dans och framtid. 1890 års Ghost Dance-rörelse och de nordamerikanska ursprungsfolkens religiösa praktiker i svensk-amerikanska tidningar, 1857-1891
(2020-09-01) Jansson, Fredrik; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion
This thesis examines how Swedish-American newspapers portrayed the Ghost Dance movement of 1890 and the aftermaths following the associated Wounded Knee massacre on December 29th the corresponding year. The period of the investigated aftermaths has been delimited to the subsequent year of 1891. Furthermore, general newspaper portrayals of the religious practices of Native North Americans – between 1857–1891 – are explored for contextual purposes. Historical changes in the newspaper portrayals are also traced and thematic similarities and differences are examined and discussed. A structuralist perspective is formatted and applied as a mainly inductive theoretical and methodological framework. It centres on the notion of dual oppositions and the human tendency to classify and categorise her surroundings. The structuralist approach brings forth oppositional themes, manifested in the binary schematics of civilisation – wilderness and civilised religion – fanatic religion. Additionally, two subthemes – dance and future – are found to be emanating from the main set of oppositional themes. Although not oppositional as such they are nonetheless contrasting, related, and deeply embedded within the aforementioned schematics. Historical changes in the newspaper portrayals are primarily discernible in the emergence of the Ghost Dance movement, although similar attitudinal tendencies and variations are found across all investigated historical periods. Variations in attitudes are discussed as being related to the genre in which they were written, with negative attitudes primarily correlating with event-driven statements.
Inga vanliga turister. En komparativ studie av tre nyreligiösa bloggare och deras skildringar av Machu Picchu
(2019-01-28) Jansson, Fredrik; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion; University of Gothenburg/Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion
This thesis examines and compares three blogs depicting visits at the Peruvian Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. The authors of the blogs are identified and categorized as operating within the - often vague and multifaceted - new religious scene. This categorization is argued as appropriate due to either individual self-descriptions and/or the specific parlance used in the blogs when depicting the individual travel experiences. The purpose of the study is to examine how these individuals describe their encounter with Machu Picchu, what role the site is considered to hold in their depictions and whether thematic similarities and/or differences can be found. Drawing inspiration from the phenomenological tradition and using a comparative research design it is shown, through a thematic analysis, that the encounter with Machu Picchu and what role the site plays in these depictions varies between the individual bloggers. Further, when comparing the given blogs and considering the tension between tourists and pilgrims, thematic similarities are identified and discussed within the theoretical framework of the thesis. These include arduousness and merit, emic distinction and sacral bumps – concepts mainly derived from the late Ninian Smart. It is also shown how these themes can be regarded as interrelated phenomena.
Investigating Sequences in Ordinal Data: A New Approach with Adapted Evolutionary Models
(2015) Lindenfors, Patrik; Jansson, Fredrik; Wang, Yi-ting; Lindberg, Staffan I.; V-Dem Institute
This paper presents a new approach for studying sequences across combinations of binary and ordinal variables. The approach involves three novel methodologies (frequency analysis, graphical mapping of changes between “events”, and dependency analysis), as well as an established adaptation based on Bayesian dynamical systems. The frequency analysis and graphical approach work by counting and mapping changes in two variables and then determining which variable, if any, more often has a higher value than the other during transitions. The general reasoning is that when transitioning from low values to high, if one variable commonly assumes higher values before the other, this variable is interpreted to be generally preceding the other while moving upwards. A similar reasoning is applied for decreasing variable values. These approaches assume that the two variables are correlated and change along a comparable scale. The dependency analysis investigates what values of one variable are prerequisites for values in another. We also include an established Bayesian approach that models changes from one event combination to another. We illustrate the proposed methodological bundle by analyzing changes driving electoral democracy using the new V-Dem dataset (Coppedge et al. 2015a, b). Our results indicate that changes in electoral democracy are preceded by changes in freedom of expression and access to alternative sources of information.
No Democratic Transition Without Women’s Rights: A Global Sequence Analysis 1900-2012
(2015-09) Wang, Yi-ting; Lindenfors, Patrik; Sundström, Aksel; Jansson, Fredrik; Lindberg, Staffan I.; V-Dem Institute
What determines countries’ successful transition to democracy? Research has focused on socioeconomic and institutional factors, yet the assumption that political liberalization has to precede democratization has not been systematically examined. We explore the impacts of granting civil rights in authoritarian regimes and especially the gendered aspect of this process. We argue that both men’s and women’s liberal rights are essential conditions for democratization to take place: giving both men and women rights reduce an inequality that affects half of the population, thus increasing the costs of repression for authoritarian rulers, and enabling the formation of women’s movements – historically important as a spark of protests in initial phases of democratization. We test this argument empirically using data that cover 160 countries over the years 1900–2012 and contain more nuanced measures than commonly used. Through sequence analysis we obtain results suggesting that liberal rights for both men and women enhance civil society organizations, and then lead to electoral democracy. The results suggest that influential modernization writings – stressing the role of economic development in democratization processes – may partly have been misinformed in their blindness for gender. The reported pattern may be at least part of the explanation of the ‘Arab spring’ failures.