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The civil society versus the state? A socio-legal study of discourses of human trafficking within four Swedish NGOs, the Swedish police and The EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings

Hesselgard, Amanda LU (2014) RÄSM02 20141
Department of Sociology of Law
Abstract
This study is based on discourse analysis establishing the discursive setting of four Swedish NGO participants of the EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings, the Swedish Police and the EU Platform itself. By analysing the discursive setting through a social constructivist social theory I discuss what impact discourses have on the normative portrayal of the trafficking phenomena, on the cooperation between NGOs and the police, and on the politics being developed in relation to human trafficking in Sweden. The study was performed by semi-structured interviews with key persons and text material collected in relation to each discursive setting. Discourses does impact on all tree investigated factors. The portrayal of the... (More)
This study is based on discourse analysis establishing the discursive setting of four Swedish NGO participants of the EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings, the Swedish Police and the EU Platform itself. By analysing the discursive setting through a social constructivist social theory I discuss what impact discourses have on the normative portrayal of the trafficking phenomena, on the cooperation between NGOs and the police, and on the politics being developed in relation to human trafficking in Sweden. The study was performed by semi-structured interviews with key persons and text material collected in relation to each discursive setting. Discourses does impact on all tree investigated factors. The portrayal of the phenomena having a discursive framework based on victimization with a gender-specific direction has a consequence of creating strategies and demands on national governments consistent with this setting, thus also impacting on the Swedish politics. It creates a dominant picture of what human trafficking is, and how to approach this phenomenon. The cooperation between NGOs and the police are dependent on how well it fits in the discursive setting. NGOs with a victims-first perspective will for example not encourage potential victims of trafficking to contact authorities if it is not in the best interest of the victim. The civil society gains a new role, by participatory politics, reaching constitutive and value consensus. This alters the power balance between authorities and the civil society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hesselgard, Amanda LU
supervisor
organization
course
RÄSM02 20141
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
the police, governance, NGO, European Union, discourse analysis, human trafficking
language
English
id
4498734
date added to LUP
2014-06-30 10:52:44
date last changed
2014-06-30 10:52:44
@misc{4498734,
  abstract     = {{This study is based on discourse analysis establishing the discursive setting of four Swedish NGO participants of the EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings, the Swedish Police and the EU Platform itself. By analysing the discursive setting through a social constructivist social theory I discuss what impact discourses have on the normative portrayal of the trafficking phenomena, on the cooperation between NGOs and the police, and on the politics being developed in relation to human trafficking in Sweden. The study was performed by semi-structured interviews with key persons and text material collected in relation to each discursive setting. Discourses does impact on all tree investigated factors. The portrayal of the phenomena having a discursive framework based on victimization with a gender-specific direction has a consequence of creating strategies and demands on national governments consistent with this setting, thus also impacting on the Swedish politics. It creates a dominant picture of what human trafficking is, and how to approach this phenomenon. The cooperation between NGOs and the police are dependent on how well it fits in the discursive setting. NGOs with a victims-first perspective will for example not encourage potential victims of trafficking to contact authorities if it is not in the best interest of the victim. The civil society gains a new role, by participatory politics, reaching constitutive and value consensus. This alters the power balance between authorities and the civil society.}},
  author       = {{Hesselgard, Amanda}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The civil society versus the state? A socio-legal study of discourses of human trafficking within four Swedish NGOs, the Swedish police and The EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}