The aim of this thesis is to problematize how and under what conditions organizational performance is constituted in the practices of performance auditing and accounting. Organizational performance disclosure is a world-wide phenomenon for enabling accountability relationships in large organizations regardless of the societal sector they operate in. In constitutive accounting literature, there is a well-established notion that accounting and performance auditing enable “government at a distance” by representing organizational actions and results of those actions, i.e. by constituting performance.  Accounting and performance auditing have been regarded as “technologies of government” that make government from spatial and temporal distances possible by linking political and programmatic ambitions, i.e., the will of a superior, to everyday organizational conduct. However, whereas many previous studies of accounting and performance auditing as technologies of government focus on the discourses over the technologies of accounting and performance auditing, this thesis focuses its analysis on the operationalization of these technologies in local organizational settings. By studying the constitution of performance in the practices of accounting and performance auditing this thesis contributes by problematizing that which supposedly makes government at a distance possible. The thesis is based on two case studies of performance audit and two case studies of performance reporting. On the basis of these papers, the thesis studies the constitution of performance in performance auditing and accounting. Whereas the constitution of performance may seem stable and unproblematic at the level of discourse, this thesis suggests that constituting performance is a complex process of social construction that requires significant organizational efforts and that the ability of accounting and performance auditing to connect political and programmatic ambitions to daily organizational conduct cannot be taken for granted. The thesis suggest that once we acknowledge that performance is a socially constructed representation of organizational actions and begin to pay attention to how performance is constituted in local organizational settings, we can find new ways of addressing the ongoing challenge of constituting performance in accounting and performance auditing and increase our understanding about the ability of these practices to enable government at a distance. / <p>At the time of doctoral defence the following papers were unoublished and had a status as follows: Paper nr. 2: Manuscript; Paper nr. 3: Manuscript; Paper nr. 4: Manuscript</p>

Bakgrund: I konkurrens om morgondagens konsument kommer sannolikt materiella värden inte räcka till. Företag måste också kunna erbjuda immateriella värden genom upplevelser. Ett sätt att göra detta är via produktens design. Den företagsekonomiska relevansen understyrks ytterligare av det faktum att lite forskning finns kring immateriellt värdeskapande och design. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att bidra med förståelse för hur design kan tillföra immateriella värden till en produkt. Genomförande: Initialt konstruerades en begreppsapparat, ur teori från vitt skilda discipliner, som sedan genom tolkning av en rad intervjuer med relevanta aktörer utvecklades. Resultat: De immateriella värden som tillförs en möbel genom design kan förstås med hjälp av två huvudkategorier: estetiskt och socialt värde. Dessa värdens tillblivelse kan i huvudsak förstås som en social konstruktion uppburen av en rad aktörer i en värdekonfiguration. En historia konstrueras och ger möbeln ett värde. Kunskap har central betydelse för konsumentens/nyttjarens värdeupplevelse. Resultatet torde ha stor generalitet i form av dess språkbildande karaktär. / Background: In the competition for the consumer of tomorrow it is not likely going to be enough to deliver material value. Companies will have to offer immaterial values through experiences. One way of doing this is by the design of the product. The relevance is emphasised further as there is little research available regarding immaterial value creation and design. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to contribute with understanding for how design can add immaterial value to a product. Research method: Initially a number of concepts were constructed out of theories originating in widely different theoretical fields. These concept were then evolved by interpretation of a number of interviews with relevant actors. Result: The immaterial values that are added to a piece of furniture by design can be understood with the help of main categories: aesthetic and social value. The creationof these values can to a large extent be understood in the terms of a social construction carried by a number of actors in a value configuration. A story is constructed which give the piece of furniture value. Knowledge is of great importance for the value appreciation of the consumer/user. The result should have great generality as it is of a concept creation quality.

The aim with this study was to examine how social service statement in 3 § social-judgements LVU (Swedish care of young persons act) produce ideas about gender. We have taken an interest in the production of both boys and girls and their mothers and fathers because there are clear differences in the description of these. From a historical perspective, the differences between gender in social assessments occurred despite the fact that discrimination is prohibited by law and despite the fact that social service shall work on the basis of an gender equality perspective. In the analysis and interpretation of the rulings we have been inspired by a critical discourse analysis. 30 social-judgements have been analyzed where of 15 concerns girls and 15 involve boys.  In our study obvious differences between the sexes appear. Gender stereotypical patterns emerged in several cases, for example social service only mentioned sexuality and adolescent self-harm of girls but in non of the boys cases. As regards the mothers are often criticised and clearly described in the judgments while fathers rarely occur. / Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka om socialtjänstens yttranden i 3 § LVU-domar (Lagen om vård av unga) producerar föreställningar om kön. Vi har intresserat oss för framställningen av både pojkar, flickor, deras mödrar samt fäder eftersom det förekommer tydliga skillnader i beskrivningen av dessa. Ur ett historiskt perspektiv har skillnader mellan könen i sociala bedömningar alltid förekommit trots att diskriminering är förbjuden enligt lag och trots att socialtjänsten skall arbeta utifrån ett jämställdhetsperspektiv. I tolkningsarbetet av domarna har vi i hög grad inspirerats av kritisk diskursanalys. Domarna var 30 till antalet och berörde 15 flickor och 15 pojkar. I vår undersökning kan tydliga skillnader ses mellan könen. Könsstereotypiska mönster framkommer i flera fall, exempelvis nämner socialtjänsten enbart sexualitet och självskadebeteende hos flickor men inte i något fall hos pojkarna. Vad gäller mödrarna är de ofta kritiserade och tydligt beskrivna i domarna medan fäderna sällan förekommer.

The aim of this study was to describe how the best interest of the child can be constructed in investigations concerning permission for international adopt, where adequate parenthood is investigated. Qualitative research interviews were used as method. Seven investigators from six different sections of the city of Stockholm were interviewed. The information was analysed on the basis of a sociological approach to law and social constructionism. The result showed that adequate parenthood is a condition in the interest of the child. Adequate parenthood is specified as the parent’s qualities and possibility to care for an adopted child. It does not depend on material qualifications, it is principally a matter of personal conditions, which can be defined as self-consciousness and the ability to reflect, feel empathy and manage a crisis. An adequate adoptive parent shall also realize the significance of an adoption. Adequate adoptive parents have a stable and lasting relationship and are surrounded by a stable social network. The best interest of the child shall mainly be fulfilled by the qualities of the parents, in other words the adequate parenthood. The adoption has to be in the best interest of the child and thereby fulfil the child’s needs. In a family, children need to develop in their own pace and receive support whenever it is needed. In the investigation undertaken by the authorities, the interests of the child can best be looked after with an investigator that possesses adequate knowledge about children, that investigates thoroughly and feel a responsibility towards the child.

This essay focuses on making a comparative gender analysis between Eugene O´Neill´s play “Long Day´s Journey into Night” and Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire”. It emphases the portraying of socially constructed gender and how the authors present their characters in relation to emotional response as well as power and acting space.

La tesi analizza la costruzione sociale di bulli e vittime nei quotidiani italiani (La Repubblica e il Corriere della Sera) e inglesi (The Guardian and The Times) attraverso il metodo della classical content analysis. La prima parte riguarda la rewiew dei principali contributi teorici e analitici in merito a: costruzionismo sociale, costruzione sociale dei mass media della criminalità, devianza giovanile e fenomeno del bullismo. La seconda parte, interessa l’analisi dei profili di bulli e vittime nei quotidiani italiani e inglesi. L’ultima parte è relativa alla comparazione dei profili emersi sia nelle due fonti di informazione, sia con i profili contenuti nella letteratura scientifica sul bullismo. I risultati evidenziano come i quotidiani sia italiani, sia inglesi seguano modalità stereotipate di rappresentazione in linea con i contributi scientifici relativi alla costruzione sociale della devianza giovanile e della violenza nelle scuole. / The thesis analyses the social construction of bullies and victims in a sample of Italian (La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera) and English newspapers (The Guardian and the Times) applying a classical content analysis methodology. The main scientific literature on social constructionism, mass media and social construction of crime and youth crime is reviewed as well as the theoretical and research contributions on bullying. The images of bullies and victims delivered by Italian and English newspaper are further assessed and compared to the extant literature on the topic. Differences emerge both between newspapers and in regard to the theoretical and research contributions on bullies and victims, underlying specific stereotyped ways of newspapers to depict bullies and victims. Findings are consistent with previous research investigating the way mass media have depicted youth crime and in particular school violence.

Public libraries are mainly employing women and have female managers. According to theories based upon so-cial construction we create our roles together in our society. The role of a manager has for a long time been viewed as the role of a man. The objective of my thesis is to gain knowledge on how a few women that work as managers in public libraries perceive and describe their roles. A parallel aim is to let a few future librarians de-scribe their managers and their own views on leadership, with a focus on gender issues. My questions are the following, how do the women construct their roles as managers of public libraries?, how do the female students describe the role as a female manager of a public library, and their own managers?, can stereotype views and attributes be distinguished in my informants tales on leadership and gender?The starting point of this thesis is theories of social construction of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, the thought that we shape our world through social interaction, mainly through our language. The theories of Yvonne Hirdman, regarding gender power structure, offers the political backdrop for my thesis. Alice Eagly has re-searched around leader stereotypes, leadership styles and gender. From her and her peers I take with me theories that claim that the leader stereotype is gendered male.The material I have used to answer my questions are interviews with ten informants, all of them women working at public libraries, five of them managers and five students. I have conducted structured interviews with open questions that I have then looked at by means of a method where different factors are intertwined, mainly language, social situations, political factors and theory. All these then used to interpret the empirical evidence. The basis of the method is interpretation and reflection.I found that my informants construe an image of the role as a woman and a manager of a public library as a complex role that does not fall into one unambiguous gender stereotype. They describe their one manager roles and their managers with attributes and characteristics that in recent research has been assigned to both genders. I could nevertheless identify the use of strategies that according to Eagly et al is used by women in manager roles to prevent them from suffering negative criticism or other consequences solely because of the combination of their gender and position.

Uppsatsen handlar om tolv unga högstadietjejers syn på sig själva som varandes tjejer och hur detta påverkar deras skolsituation. De övergripande frågorna har rört sig kring vilka könsmarkörer tjejerna använder för att definiera sig som tjejer men också hur dessa används normativt samt vilken betydelse de får i relation till andra tjejer. Det är tjejernas röst kring frågor om att vara tjej idag som ska få träda fram i denna uppsats. Studien är en kvalitativ studie, baserad på frivilligt medverkande informanter i en förortsskola i Stockholm under läsåret 2007/2008. Intervjuerna genomförda enskilt och i par, de är inspelade på band och efter transkriberade till text för att skydda informanternas anonymitet.  Informanterna talar om en norm som är svårgripbar för dem att beskriva men den unga tjej som bryter mot denna norm ber om kommentarer och betraktas kanske inte som ens som tjej. Normen skapas genom ett samspel mellan tjejerna där alla inblandade vet vad som gäller och vilket pris man betalar om man bryter mot normen. Normen skapas i det homosociala rummet, mellan tjejerna i deras vardag och är ständigt rådande. Studien utgår från intervjuer och den genomgående tanken är att studera det socialt konstruerade könet, hur det ser ut i denna grupp av unga tjejer och hur det sedan påverkar tjejernas beteenden gentemot varandra, den sociala interaktionen. Utifrån intervjuerna har svaren sedan analyserats och jämförts mot nyare forskning och olika genus teorier. Under intervjuerna användes frågor som rörde flera olika områden och arbetet är upplagt på så sätt att varje frågeområde redovisas för sig. Efter varje frågeområde följer en analys av svaren som också anknyter till den forskning som i dagsläget finns inom området. Varje delområde redovisas med en analysdel som kopplas till den forskning jag har funnit på området samt till de aktuella genusteorier som finns. Sist i arbetet ligger en sammanfattande analys av alla de delområden som analyserats under varje avsnitt. / Slapper, geek, bimbo or just a regular girl –identity  construction for young Swedish females. The aim of this dissertation is to study twelve young schoolgirls, to see how they view themselves as girls, and how this affects their situation at school. The main aim is to let the girls themselves voice how they perceive what it is to be a young girl today; what defines a girl, what are the specific gender markers, underlying norm system, and how does this in turn affect behaviour within the group with regards to responsibility, fashion, sub groups and role models. The emphasis of the study is to observe and analyse socially constructed gender norms, do they exist among this group, and if so, how does this affect the girls’ behaviour and social interaction? The study is a qualitative study, based on a selected group of volunteers from a secondary school in a Stockholm suburb during the academic year of 2007-2008. The students were interviewed separately and in groups, and the transcribed interviews have then been compared to other resent studies of similar demographic groups, and viewed and analysed in the light of resent research theories about gender and gender construction. Every cluster of questions regarding each specific research area is dealt with separately, with an analysis of the answers and comparisons to other theories and findings finishing off each section. The main claims from analysing the material, would be that it is important to live up to the socially created and culturally perceived norm, to adhere to the gender markers and not break the invisible mould. All the interviewed girls were very aware of the norm system surrounding them, and they also know that if you break the rules of what is expected of a girl, you can expect negative consequences, and might not even be perceived as a “real” girl. The norms are created and sustained in a social interaction, between the girls but also in interaction with the opposite sex. Some of the rules can appear arbitrary to the detached observer, but for the group of girls the rules are self evident and unquestionable. The norms are mostly created in the homo-social sphere, between the girls in their everyday lives, and can be hard to describe in detail, even for the informants themselves, although they can describe it clear enough when they perceive that the rules brought on by the norm has been broken. The thesis ends with a summary and analysis of all the previous sections, and with suggestions for possible further areas of research.

This PhD project by publication begins to explore how Scottish adult support and protection (ASP) policy and practice carves out its role and remit. It examines the ways that concepts like “abuse”, “vulnerability” and “protection” have been constructed, both by individual practitioners and at a policy level. The submission comprises five papers published in peer-reviewed journals and this contextualising document, which knits together the work and draws out overall conclusions and implications. The papers themselves report on a literature review, a further analysis of case study research into ASP practice and a critical policy comparison. The case study research was conducted immediately prior to legislative changes in Scotland with respect to ASP, and the policy comparison was conducted subsequently to these changes. Overall, the findings highlight the ways that a social constructionist approach can usefully deepen our understandings of ASP. That is, they show how understanding concepts like “protection”, “vulnerability” and “abuse” to be actively constructed in unique and complex contexts can promote criticality in policy-making, practice and research.

Societies are surrounded by unaware attitudes and views about what is masculine and what is feminine and this can contribute to people being raced differently. Boys and girls are shaped to think and act in different ways from an early age because of their gender. According to the curriculum in the Swedish school system, the school has an important task to prevent such perceptions young people have about sex and gender. Reading books are still a central source where students gather information in the Swedish school. Therefore, I find it interesting to examine how gender is produced in three Swedish reading books from three different periods (1950s, 1970s and 2000s) to see what similarities and differences there are between the texts and the study has been based on three questions: How are men/boys and women/girls described in the reading books based on their characteristics, interests and pursuits? How much space in the texts are represented by men/boys and by women/girls? What masculinities and femininities can be found in the texts and which ones are the most desirable? I have used a text analysis in my research to analyse the three reading books and based my theory on that gender is a social construction. My results show that the three reading books produce male and female structures based on the fact that men and women, boys and girls are opposites and are kept apart by qualities, pursuits and interests. Notions of what is masculine and feminine are also reflected in the texts by constructions of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity. Further constructions concerning gender in the reading books are that men and boys have more space than women and girls and also that the personalities of men and boys grow at the expense of women and girls.