Doctoral dissertations

Crisis-induced learning in public sector organizationsEdward Deverell

Dissertation at Utrecht University in 2010

This dissertation calls for practical models to help us understand what factors affect the crisis management (CM) and learning process in public organizations. Deverell brings together literature on CM, learning, public management and organization theory. He examines CM and learning processes during and after crises as an interconnected process by studying six cases of organizational CM. From the case studies he extracts a framework of CM and learning processes in public organizations.

Crisis and Policy Reformcraft: Advocacy Coalitions and Crisis-induced Change in Swedish Nuclear Energy Policy

Daniel Nohrstedt

Dissertation at Uppsala University in 2007

This dissertation consists of three interrelated essays examining the role of crisis events in Swedish nuclear energy policymaking. The study takes stock of the idea of ‘crisis exceptionalism’ raised in the literature, which postulates that crisis events provide openings for major policy change.

Crisis and Perspectives on Policy Change: Swedish Counter-terrorism Policymaking

Dan Hansén

Disputation vid Utrecht University 2007

This thesis delves into the policymaking effects of three Swedish crises: the 1972 Bulltofta skyjacking, the 1975 seizure of the West-German Stockholm Embassy and the 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. The thesis argues that Swedish policy makers have been heavily influenced by cognitive biases when interpreting crises, which has had a moderating effect on policy change initiatives. Major policy changes or innovations have occurred, although these have been in keeping with dominant policy core beliefs, if such have prevailed. The changes however needed entrepreneurial exertion to come about. Government and administrative turnovers have had little impact on changing the constituencies for certain belief structures.

The Rise and Fall of the Submarine Threat: Threat Politics and Submarine Intrusions in Sweden 1980-2002 

Fredrik Bynander

Dissertation at Uppsala University in 2003

In a time when threats inherent to the Cold War have been largely forgotten, and replaced with fears of terrorist attacks and epidemics, this book returns to the not so distant past in search for knowledge on how threats grow and decline in a societal context.

Eric Stern

Dissertation at Stockholm University in 1999

This dissertation probes the plausibility of integrating convergent elements of cognitive and neo-institutional theory to develop systematic research strategies suitable for use in dissecting, analyzing, and comparing historical cases of crisis decisionmaking. Particular emphasis is placed on the structure and dynamics of the small groups which figure prominently in crisis decisionmaking in a wide variety of cultures and institutional settings.